On the power of fine words and fine literature~

"Best to say we weren't a true literary society at first. Aside from Elizabeth, Mrs. Maugery, and perhaps Booker, most of us hadn't had much to do with books since our school years. We took them from Mrs. Maugery's shelves fearful we'd spoil the fine papers. I had no zest for such matters in those days. It was only by fixing my mind on the Commandant and jail that I could make myself to left of the covers of the book and begin.

It was Selections from Shakespeare. Later, I came to see that Mr. Dickens and Mr. Wordsworth were thinking of men like me when they wrote their words. But most of all, I believe that William Shakespeare was. Mind you, I cannot always make sense of what he says, but it will come.

It seems to me the less he said, the more beauty he made. Do you know what sentence of his I admire most? it is 'The bright day is done, and we are for the dark.'

I wish I'd known those words on the day I watched those German troops land, plane-load after plane-load of them--and come off ships down in the harbor! All I could think of was damn them, damn them, over and over. If I could have thought the words "the bright day is done and we are for the dark," I'd have been consoled somehow and ready to go out and contend with circumstance--instead of my heart sinking to my shoes."

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Sunflowers

Gathering Up a Few Book Notes

I have a tantalizing stack of books I'd like to read this summer and I recently gave myself permission dive into it, however, I made myself wait until I finished the last book of our Great Books/Ancients class: Virgil's Aeneid.

The Aeneid



This was my second time through the Aeneid, and while I'm sure I yet have much to gain from this Latin masterpiece (read by me in translation!) a second reading brought greater understanding and appreciation of Virgil's epic poem. Particularly, I learned to appreciate the 'Virgilian Solution', a sort of Virgilian "Back to the Future" in which Virgil sets his narrative in the Homeric past while making illusions to future events surround the founding of Rome and the rise of the Empire under the Emperor Augustus. Brilliant!

And, the boys and I enjoyed discussing the themes of furor, irresistible fury and unquenchable passion, as personified in Dido and pietas, or duty, as exemplified in the life Aeneas. Are the two qualities mutually exclusive, or can there be any furor in pietas? The two books below served to heighten our understanding, and this appreciation of this great poem.

From Achilles to Christ



Heroes of the City of Man



In George McDonald's fairytale, The Princess and the Goblin, Princess Irene becomes distraught to the point of tears when her good friend, Curdie, can not see, and thus, not believe in the princess's magical grandmother. As she comforts the Princess Irene, her wise grandmother also advises her:

..."'But in the meantime you must be content, I say, to be misunderstood for a while. We are all very anxious to be understood, and it is very hard not to be. But there is one thing much more necessary.'

'What is that, grandmother?'

'To understand other people.'

It is this humble position which the Randy Newman, the author of Questioning Evangelism, takes in his practical and loving apologetic. Says D.A. Carson: "This book reflects a deep grasp of bilical theology and a penetrating compassion for people. How very much like the Master himself!"

Chapters 1-3 answer "Why ask questions?, chapters 4-10, address "What questions are people asking?", and chapters 11-13 explain why "Why are questions and answers enough?" Newman demonstrates his winsome and way of answering such questions as "why does a God allow suffering?" or "why are Christians so Homophobic?" or "what is so good about marriage?" by asking further questions of his interlocutors, revealing presuppositions while at the same time engaging their hearts and minds. Highly recommended for all audiences and especially high school for college students.

Questioning Evangelism



The next book, a memoir written in the form of letters home by an graduate student studying Arabic in Jordan, was a light read I picked up just before our friends from Boise arrived for a first-time visit in Jordan. Since we've lived here for nearly 21 years I thought it might be good to get a fresh perspective of what is like to view life in Jordan from a new arrival. And while it might not be the first or only book I'd recommend to someone interested in Jordan, the author gave an accurate and readable account of life in Jordan just before the war in Iraq, and he insightfully summed up the concerns of the Jordanians he knew and talked with: the Palestinian Issue, marriage, and nationality.

Live from Jordan



The White Tiger was loaned to me by a friend who read it after watching the movie Slumdog Millionare. I haven't yet seen that movie, but I read this book, a first novel by Indian(raised in Australia) author, Aravind Adiga, which made it to the short list for the Man Booker Prize in 2008.

The White Tiger



I read this quickly--on a five hour flight from Amman to London. Exploring the social and class distinctions and inequalities of present day India by way of letters (hmm, I seem to be reading lots of books written in letter form. I'm reading another one at present) from a aspiring Indian entrepenuer to the prime minister of China, Adiga reveals more than a triumphant rags to riches story; he explores the darker side of Indian upward mobility as his protaganist ultimately justifies murdering his 'weak' employer in order to escape a life in which humans are not treated as such. This was an intriguing look at human nature in light of the changing social and economic landscape of contemporary India. Caution: some crude language and unsavory allusions. I wouldn't recommend this for my high school children.

Culture Shock Redux

This letter, from a dear friend who has lived and worked in the Middle East for about 17 years, is a (hilarious) answer to the question of whether or not one experiences culture shock even after living abroad for a number of years:

Haji on a Bike

If any of you suspected that I am close to cracking, this account may prove it. This Saturday afternoon, Raymond and I decided to do a bike run in prep for the triathlon two weeks away. Since we live on the side of a mountain with potholed roads we go over to the Jewish side to ride our bikes. On the way out of the Arab neighborhood, we pass an intersection that usually has a couple of professional begger boys who are more or less annoying. Anyway, today, the sight of a two foreigners on bikes was just too unusual for them. (Actually, in 17 years here, I’ve never seen a woman on a bike. I asked why and the answer was that it is considered a shame because maybe she is riding somewhere to have s*x. But since I was white haired, modestly dressed, and with my graying husband, I thought I could get by with it.)

Still, the younger of the urchins, probably about age ten, started chasing us and waving his plastic pipe. He didn’t catch Raymond in front but when I came by, he hit me with his pipe. This is terribly disrespectful here because of my gender, age, and guest status. I wasn’t hurt but I was mad. (Did I mention that we’d have a terrible week in our neighborhood). Also, while I may look like a white haired granny outside but inside there is this cowgirl from western Nebraska on her white horse raring to get out.

I told Raymond what had happened and decided to go back and confront the obnoxious kid. At first, when he saw me waiting for the light to change, he just laughed at me but when I started biking towards him, he started to run, still taunting me, dodging between the on coming cars. I just kept coming, dodging the same cars. Once we cleared the intersection, I had a clear path and started gaining on him. Now, I may be a granny but a 190 lb. old lady on a 30 year old metal Schwinn bike is a force to be dealt with. Going downhill, Raymond can’t even catch me on his light racing bike and lucky for me downhill is the way the kid decided to run.

The kid is not longer laughing and running as fast as he can. I’m getting closer and closer so he dodged into a side street but luckily it was still paved so I was almost on top of him by the end of another block when he darted to a side parking lot. Now while in my mind I was back on my white horse, the old bike didn’t take the sharp corner at high speed into gravel as well as my horse would have. I slid, skidded, and crashed. If the kid would have kept going across the field, he would have been free but in his panic, he jumped into a car waiting in the parking lot.

All of a sudden, this distinguished elderly gentleman dressed in suit and tie sitting quietly in his car has a screaming urchin in his back seat, a foreign woman on a bike crashing to the ground, jumping up, and jerking on his car handles. I politely asked if this was his son but he said that he had never seen the kid before. I explained that he had hit me. Meanwhile the kid is going into all the Muslim gestures for begging but I told him that he was a shame to Mohammed so he stopped and went back to begging the old man to save him from this wild lady with the flying white hair, the skewed bike helmet, the smoke coming out of her ears, the blood running out of her palms.

By now a crowd is starting to form. A car that had seen what had happened drove down and verified that the boy had hit me. (Raymond said later that they were Jewish security men and asked him “What are you doing letting her be here by herself?” Raymond joked that he was more worried for the kid.) Neighbors or passers by stopped. The kid’s big brother came. Raymond caught up with me and whispered in my ear, ‘Don’t take out on him what happened to Katrina’. That did sound reasonable but the school marm in me still wanted this kid to face the music for his actions so we wouldn’t have trouble from him every time we went through our intersection. I decided that I wanted to give him one whack on the backside like he had hit me. I am still very mad and teased him, “You afraid from haji (old lady)?” and “You shame your entire family.”

Finally his brother and the elderly man whose backseat was this kid’s fort forced his hands away from the lock and I opened the door, dragged him out, they held him and I whacked his bottom with the plastic pipe and then shook his hand. This was probably not the culturally appropriate way to handle this but needless to say, I had had enough. He was still calling me names but he was also shamed in front of the whole crowd. Later, we saw one of the self appointed negotiators and he said that the kid’s father had hit him which is much more culturally appropriate.

So I got back on my bike and with plenty of adrenalin left over, I put on a number of kilometers for the race which gave me plenty of time to think and ponder whether I am getting really too frayed from the stress here or whether this was just a symptom of being fifty and doing, saying, and dressing as I want. I’m still laughing at the kid who thought that he could outrun the white haired haji on a bike. Streaming down that hill I felt like the cavalry on my white horse coming to the rescue of right and justice with the William Tell Overture in the background. Raymond said that it could also be interpreted as the granny from hell on her Radial Flyer bike.

Whatever, this granny has a bent bike, bloody palm, sore shoulder, torn jeans and scabs on her knees now but it was worth it to catch that kid! I’ve made the street safe for old ladies on bikes. …even if I’m the only one.

Afterward: This "granny" is a true hero of mine. After raising three delightful children while running a bookstore with her dear husband in the occupied West Bank, she sensed God's calling to re-enter academia with a goal of becoming a university professor. She recently completed her MA at Jerusalem University College and is in the process of re-locating to Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband where she will be begin her Ph,D in medieval Middle Eastern studies. She is the recipient of The Maybelle Burton Graduate Fellowship, a three year grant offered to the most promising graduate student entering the Department of History's Ph,D. Program in any given year. I told her that this guy has nothing on her and that there is most definitely a book in this. Stay tuned.

Tottering in the Garden

My mid-winter vision of a pleasant summer garden in which I could work to create a small space of beauty, the kids could learn a bit about landscaping and gardening, and one could relax with a book or for a chat with friends, has been realized:

Seedlings were nurtured through cold winter months and as soon as the weather allowed, Active Son and Artist Son hauled in rocks from surrounding vacant lots to create a xeriscape flower garden in an area that was nothing but dirt and some fruit trees.

It blesses my heart to witness the inspiration Artist Son receives from the garden.

This year we have a garden cat. It is really very nice having a garden cat, and soon we'll have a few more as Kitty is expecting.

The Basil Garden provides enough basil for daily use--it's great on tomato, yogurt cheese, and olive sandwiches.

One of my favorite beds: salvia, petunias, bee balm, coreopsis, and lavender.

Tayta beautifully captured one of the many butterflies flitting around the Lantana.


Edit: A friend questioned my use of the word 'tottering' in the title as the word reminded her of toddlers or drunken people. Sure enough, an internet dictionary check yielded this definition:

a. To sway as if about to fall.

b. To appear about to collapse

I took the word from a favorite gardening memoir which I read years ago, soon after the gardening bug first bit:



Tottering in My Garden

The author, Midge Ellis Keeble, is Canadian so perhaps the Canadian use of the word denotes a meaning other than instability. Anyway, the her memoir is a delightful read as well as full of practical gardening advice. Highly recommended.

Classical Music~So much more than Arts and Entertainment

A couple of posts ago I mentioned our willingness to fore go a clothes dryer so that Oldest Daughter can take advantage of a great opportunity to work on her music with excellent teachers and musicians this summer. Last spring I sold my gold necklace to help finance The Violin; this was not really a sacrifice as I am not much for gold. It was my token Every-Woman- in-Jordan-Must-Have-A-Substantial-Gold-Necklace, given to me by my Dear Husband years ago, but the the times have changed and when he told me what he could get for it in the Gold Souk it took me about two seconds to say, "Sell!"

Through the years God has generously provided for our family, but as is true of most families, there are financial choices to be made, and we have made as many as possible in favor of music and art. I recently read this address to the parents and students of the 2004 freshman class of Boston Conservatory, delivered by Dr. Karl Paulnack, Director of the Music Division, was bolstered in all our past choices, and encouraged to press on in our support of the musicians and other artists in our home and beyond. I hope you will read the entire address.

Though I don't ultimately agree with Dr. Paulnack's conclusion that musicians can save the planet, I do think that music is a unique gift from the Creator God to humanity which can enrich our lives and give us greater understanding about God, His relationship to us, and to the world He has created for us.

Below I've linked to the two music works Dr. Paulnack mentions in his inspirational address. The final link, if you are still listening, is the beautiful third movement of five that Violin Daughter will be playing at her Strings Master Class later this summer. Enjoy!

Active Life = Inactive Blog

At least for me. At least for now. After finishing the marathon race of spring activities, and the end of school, Dear Husband and I headed to England for a week of training and upgrading in our overseeing roles; valuable and encouraging sessions and we even managed an afternoon trip to the British Museum. Upon our return home (the kids did great while we were away, enjoying fun time together) we welcomed our dear friends from Boise and four of their five children for a long awaited visit. We are having a great time together as we tour the sites of Jordan and Jerusalem: today we head out to the traditional baptismal site of Jesus, the Dead Sea for a short float and mud bath, and Mt. Nebo, the traditional resting place of Moses. Whew! I look forward to contemplative summer days of reading and writing someday soon...

Muffins for Music, Part V~Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

~Lemon Poppyseed Muffins~

Cream together:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
Add:
2 large eggs
1 Tablespoon grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon vanilla or lemon extract
1 cup sour cream
Mix together and add to creamed mixture:
2 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Mix well and add:
2-3 Tablespoons poppyseeds

Fill muffin cups and bake at 400 F. Makes 10-12 muffins depending on the size of your muffin cups.

Tayta's tip: watch carefully and rotate muffin tins if necessary.

After they cool, glaze muffins with Lemon Glaze:

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
(adjust if necessary)

Of course, you can double or even triple this recipe, which is what Tatya did when she made these each week for her bake sale.

Muffins for Music, Part IV: Finally, the Muffin Recipes

~Pumpkin Chai Muffins~

Well, I hope that no one will think we were trying to be deceitful, but the truth of the matter is that since we always substitute mashed sweet potatoes for pumpkin pack in all our baking recipes, these were actually sweet potato chai muffins; from a marketing standpoint we just weren't sure that would fly. But, you could reverse substitute pumpkin pack for our sweet potato substitution and then they would truly be pumpkin chai muffins. And, no, there is no chai tea in the muffins (people asked); the chai refers to the spiced glaze. These muffins were the moistest, the all around best sellers, and a particular favorite of the moms and dads. To make about 32 or so muffins Tayta used this recipe.

For perfectly formed muffins, fill muffin cups nearly to the top and bake in a 400 F oven.

After the muffins cool, glaze them with this:

Chai Spice Glaze
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutbeg
pinch of ginger
pinch of ground cloves
pinch of ground cardamon if you'd like and if you have some.

Tayta says you may have to add just a wee bit more milk if your glaze is too stiff.

(I'm off on a trip in the early morning so I'll have to post the Lemon Poppyseed Muffin recipe when I return.)

Muffins for Music, Part III: More Recipes

~Monster Cookies~

Tayta used my mom's beloved Oatmeal Cookie Recipe for these and we added colorful M&Ms.

Beat/Cream together:
2 cups butter (4 small cubes)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1-2 tsp. vanilla
Add:
4 eggs and beat until well mixed
Add Dry Indredients:
6 cups oats
3 cups flour
2 tsp each, salt, cinnamon, baking soda
Mix Well

Tatya used our trusty Pampered Chef cookie scoop, making each giant cookie from two scoops of dough. She added the M&Ms purposefully and decoratively after pressing down the cookie dough a bit into a round form. Bake about 10 minutes in a medium(350 F) oven but follow Tayta's baking tip: "Keep an eye on them until they are done the way you like them."

Variations: This is the same basic recipe I use for the giant cookies I make for my guys when they run the Dead to Red marathon relay. They can be made more healthful by and substantial by additions such as flax seed, walnuts, wheat germ, millet, raw sunflower seeds, raisins, dried cranberries, etc. Be creative!

Muffins for Music, Part II: The Recipes

Seven Minute Frosting

For all the baking I've done through the years I am surprised that I never discovered Seven Minute Frosting until now. It was perfect for the chocolate cupcakes (thanks, Betty Crocker) and held firm even in warm weather. Making the frosting was my small weekly contribution to the bake sale effort.

Ingredients:
1 cup white sugar
1/3 cup water
1/4 tsp. cream of tarter

2 egg whites at room temperature (important)
1/4 vanilla extract (optional)

If you have a stand alone mixer you can make this frosting easily and quickly, beating the egg whites while the sugar/water mixture is cooking. If not, beat the egg whites first, until firm, almost stiff. Cook sugar, cream of tartar, and water in a heavy bottom pan over medium heat, stirring. When it comes to a boil and 'froths' up, cook, still stirring, for about another 30-60 seconds. Remove from heat. At this point I put the mixture into a spouted cup so that I can pour it into the egg whites slowly in a narrow, steady stream, as the mixer is going. After you have added the syrup, continue to beat the mixture for about seven minutes, though sometimes less ( I have a strong Bosch mixer and maybe that makes a difference.)

Tips: The first few times I made this recipe I had a couple of failures but now it works every time. Make sure your bowl and mixer is clean, clean and your egg whites are at room temperature. Once when my frosting didn't beat up firmly I added about a third of a cup of whipping cream and kept beating. The frosting tasted more like whipped cream but the syrup stabilized it and it didn't melt.

Variations: I have substituted lemon juice and orange juice for the water to make flavored frosting. For the lemon juice, I think I used half lemon juice (fresh) and half water. Subtle and very nice.

Muffins for Music

A few months ago Oldest/Violin daughter called from college to tell us that her new and beloved Czech violin teacher wanted her to attend a particular strings master class
in the Czech Republic for three weeks this summer. A wonderful opportunity, we all thought, for Oldest daughter to work on her music under world-class instructors. Wonderful yes, but costly. We've long since resigned ourselves to the fact that the pursuit of musical excellence is not an inexpensive endeavor, but helping Oldest Daughter finance her first year of college left very little in the budget for such classes no matter how wonderful they might be. As we have so many times before, we encouraged Oldest Daughter to pray and ask God to provide the funds needed if this class was something she should pursue.

And we prayed too. How might the money be raised, even bit by bit? Baseball season was approaching and I suggested to Tayta (youngest daughter) that she might try doing a bake sale to help her big sister raise some money. Tayta, with a large servant's heart, a great love for her big sister, and a passion for baking thought it a great idea. I helped her the first week develop her product line, organize, and shop for ingredients, but after the first week she baked, glazed, and frosted almost single handedly (with very minor help from me, Artist Son, who artistically frosted the chocolate cupcakes, and Active Son, who loaded the van each Friday morning.) Each week Tayta baked about 200 items: a mix of giant cookies, chocolate cupcakes with seven- minute-frosting and sprinkles (oh so tantalizing--the little T-ball players really went for these!), Pumpkin Muffins with Chai Spice Glaze, Lemon Poppyseed Muffins with Lemon Glaze and Strawberry Muffins with Strawberry Glaze. Cookies were baked and frozen early in the week, extra schoolwork was done (well, sometimes) on Wednesday, and on each Thursday afternoon for 10 weeks the baking began in earnest.

We had no idea how well Tayta's fine baked goods would sell! By the end of the season she had a faithful following, some people waiting for her to arrive at the ball field so that they could buy their breakfast muffin. Tayta learned so much about marketing/human nature as well as honing her baking skills; she decided to let customers choose their own muffin and reported that everyone, even the adults, chose the biggest, best-looking muffin. And when business slowed down in the club-house, she loaded up a tray of her wares and with the help of some friends, took them to the stands. This sales suggestion, from a friend of ours, helped her to sell nearly every item, every week.


A couple weeks into the season, people began to ask Tayta how much money she was making: Tayta's profit was an average of $100 a week, for a net total of $1000 for the season~a third of cost of Oldest Daughter's class, including international airfare! This effort definitely qualifies Tayta for a place in the Little Sister Hall of Fame. Another third/plus was raised through a small garage sale--though we don't have a garage--, a little photography by mom, a gig or two, and an outside scholarship. The last bit, well, we don't really need to replace the dryer as it is always sunny in Jordan until October or November : ) We are thanking God for his perfect provisions~ never too little, never too much. And many thanks to all Tayta's faithful and encouraging customers; requested bake sale recipes to follow soon...

My Jewels

This fair Mother's Day I am reminded of a favorite story from Roman history, the story of Cornelia and her sons, Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. Cornelia was the daughter of Scipio Africanus the Elder, defeater of Hannibal in the second Punic War, and thus, the memory of Scipio was formative in the shaping of his grandsons' goals of civic service and duty.

The Gracchi occupy their own significant place in Roman history, however it is the anecdote told of their mother, Cornelia, which has the most correspondence to my own life:

A rich noble women once visited Cornelia and ostentatiously displayed her jewels. After doing so, she asked Cornelia to show her own; Cornelia called her boys into the room and said,

"These are my jewels!"

My Jewels

Plutarch on Facebook, Video Games, and Television

Not really, but sort of:

"Caesar, we hear, on seeing one day some wealthy foreigners at Rome carry puppies and young monkeys around in their arms and petting them, asked if in the country they came from women did not bear children. By that royal reprimand he showed his disapproval of persons who lavish on brute beasts the natural love and tenderness we ought to bestow on human beings. In like fashion, we may reasonably criticize those who waste the instinct for learning and the love of seeing, which nature has implanted in our souls, by spending them on worthless sounds and sights instead of on things beautiful and useful. It is, probably, unavoidable that every external object we meet, whether good or bad, should by its mere impact, produce some effect on our senses; but we can all of us, if we choose, concentrate our minds on, or turn away from any object and shift easily to something we like better. We should, therefore, look for the best, not merely to contemplate it, but to be benefited by the contemplation. Just as those colors are healthful whose fresh and pleasant hues strengthen and stimulate our eyes; so with our mental vision we should fix our sight on things which by the joy they give it attract it to its own proper good. Such things are acts of virtue, which create in the minds of those who study them a strong desire and eagerness to imitate them." From the Life of Pericles

Plutarch, biographer and moral philosopher of the ancient world noted that he wrote not histories, but rather, lives. He likens himself to a portrait painter who works to reveal character by paying close attention to the face and particularly, the look of the eyes. So Plutarch chooses to dwell on the seemingly small, yet significant things in the lives of his subjects, things which he feels reveal the souls of these men, leaving their mighty deeds for others to chronicle. Through the ancient lives of Plutarch I am reminded that somethings never change, particularly human nature. And, as I dream of 'mighty deeds' that I or my children may accomplish I am reminded of the importance of small yet very significant choices that we make moment by moment, to set our hearts and minds on contemplating those virtuous things which will form our souls.

A Most Happy Birthday

Spring birthdays are best. I am biased, of course, but I've always enjoyed having an April birthday and now that I am older, I mean more mature, a spring birthday fits in nicely with my love of the outdoors, natural beauty, and wildflower spotting. And Sunday, my 46th birthday, was a perfect example of this convergence.

We didn't have many special plans for Sunday(church is on Saturday night and for us, Easter is celebrated next week, according to the Eastern church calendar.) : we headed to Hussein park in the morning for our regular run. The boys were already there, playing soccer with some other youth from church. After our run, one of the youth announced my birthday ("like" facebook!) and they all sang Happy Birthday to me. Very sweet.

Just before noon we poured tea into the thermos, picked up falafel sandwiches, and headed for the countryside, amazingly, just about 20 minutes from the edge of the city. It's hard to believe, as one drives through the dirty, gray, concrete and metal industrial area, that there are rolling green hillsides studded with rocks and wild oaks, and fields of green wheat intermingled with wildflowers of all colors just on the other side. Lizards sunned themselves on rocks, colorful jays swooped over the wheat fields and donkeys grazed along the side of the road.

We headed to the ruins of Iraq Al Amir to enjoy our modest picnic.

The ruins, located in the village, Iraq Al-Amir, were built during the Hellenistic period, circa 200 B.C. The most famous of the ruins (a small portion shown above) is the Qasr Al-Abid, or Palace of the Slave. Besides Qasar Al-Abid we visited some caves in the hills above and found the wall lined with small throne-like chairs, carved right into the side of the cave. We could imagine a council of dwarfs meeting in such a place!

The poppies and the henbane were looking particularly lovely.

Papaver Subpiriforme (Poppy)

Hyoscyamus aureus L. (Golden flowered Henbane)

So much beauty! But the serendipitous highlight of our little outing took place as we left the caves and headed back to Amman. We had just begun our journey back through the countryside when we rounded a small bend in the village. Directly to our left was a small rocky hillside dotted with Jordan's national flower, the rare and enigmatic Black Iris. In all my wildflower spotting adventures I had never been in the right place at the right time so as to see one and photograph it in its habitat. And here they were, right on the edge of the village!

I didn't even have to ask Dear Husband to pull over. There must have been a hundred or so irises, blooming in clumps on the rocky hillside. Their situation made it a little difficult to photograph them.

Iris Nigricans (Black Iris)

And, it just so happened that the elementary school across the road had just dismissed classes for the day so we soon had a group of friendly schoolgirls flocking around us, smiling, laughing, asking our names, and talking with Tayta.

They sang us a lovely little song about the small plants and when Dear Husband informed them that it was my birthday, they sang the Arabic version of Happy Birthday--same tune but the words translate: "A nice year to you, O beautiful one." Better than the English version, I think!

Later in the evening, friends came over, bringing pizza, cheesecake, and paper plates so that I wouldn't have any dishes to do on my birthday. A thoughtful touch, I thought. The icing on the cake was a nice long family chat, Oldest Daughter included, as we skyped with the web cam.

And as I look forward to my next year of life, it is the words of Moses, from Psalm 90, which comes to mind and heart:

So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Return, O Lord! How long?
Have pity on your servants!

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
and for as many years as we have seen evil.

Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,

and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!

Psalm 90: 12-17 ESV

Another view of things

Longing to enter the world of digital imagery, twelve year-old Tayta recently traded her savings for this little gem of a camera:



Canon Powershot SD1100IS 8MP Digital Camera

Recommended by a friend, this itsy-bitsy Canon is turning out to be a great first camera for Tayta. And judging by her first round of images, I'd say she shows some promise, particularly in her candid photographs of people.

Like a butterfly, she has been flitting from flower to flower in my early spring garden, practicing her flower shots. Hmm. I wonder where she got that idea? Pretty good, I'd say, for her first attempts.



Tomorrow we head for the hills of Ajloun in search of some wildflowers to photograph. Who knows, Tayta may be my first child who will actually want to learn the names of my flora friends!

Camping in Wadi Dana~just about my favorite place on earth

As a family, we don't do much camping, but there is one camping trip which is the perennial highlight of our year: Camping at the Rummana campsite in the Wadi Dana Nature Reserve with 75 of our closest friends. We started as a small group of families with small children about ten years ago and for the past four years we have reserved the entire camp (20 four-man tents) for this much anticipated March weekend. Food preparations begin in earnest about a week before we head to Wadi Dana as we attempt to simplify yet upgrade our meal repertoire every year. This year's favorites: Sesame Chicken Noodles for our arrival lunch and grilled lemon chicken and vegetables (Shish Taouk) and twice baked potatoes for our second dinner.

The Wadi Dana Nature Reserve covers an area of 320 square kilometers and is a series of wadis (valleys) and mountains which extend from the upper edge of the Rift Valley down to the desert lowlands of Wadi Araba. Since opening in 1993, the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature has done a wonderful job of highlighting this remarkable area, home to breathtaking landscapes, about 600 species of plants, 37 species of mammals, and 190 species of birds.

No cars are allowed in the reserve so we load all our gear into a large covered pick-up shuttle and rattle about ten minutes down the dirt road to the campsite. Sleeping tents (the teepees) are fitted with foam mattresses, sheets, pillows, and blankets.

But the large Bayt Sha'r (Bedouin tent) is where we spend most of our time hanging out, cooking, eating,

playing cards and "La De Da",

and catching a few zzzz's.

Early in the morning I have only to walk a couple hundred yards from the campsite to find a sunny rock on which to read and pray.

A Rock With a View

Though I usually stick to photographing flowers, I tried to do a little bird photography on this trip. Very little. Flowers are much, much easier. We were treated to the sight of a few different birds of prey majestically soaring over the valleys, enjoying the warm wind currents found there. I only managed to photography these two Bulbuls, though I saw and heard many other species, this being the time of year when many birds migrating from Africa to Europe for the summer months.

After enjoying some time alone and with God in the midst of his awesome creation, I rejoined family and friends on the patio for a Dana breakfast, prepared by the camp staff: fresh baked flat bread just delivered from the nearby Dana village, homemade yogurt cheese (the creamiest I've ever tasted), hummous, foul (broad-bean dip), sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, homemade apricot jam, and Dana tea--brewed with cardamon.


After breakfast and sunscreen, many head out on the various hiking trails, some gentle, some more challenging. The first morning, Dear Husband lead the way on a trail which took us scrambling around the edge of a valley.

There were caves to explore,

and from every vantage point, stunning landscapes to take in.



Even though the reserve was very dry this year, with very, very few of my flower friends in bloom, I was able to find a few spots of color along the way:

Helianthemum vesicarium (Sun Rose)

Ononis Natrix (Yellow Restharrow)

Afternoons are good for a rousing game of multi-generational ultimate football,

Climbing Fort B (not sure how this well-loved sandstone rock came by this name, but it has endured through our years visiting Dana. I remember when we first starting camping here, when the kids were little, it was a momentous occasion when one of the kids ascended Fort B for the first time),

Fort B

or just hanging out (or laying out) with friends. Plenty of rocks to go around.

Last year our camping weekend fell on Western Easter (we celebrate Eastern Easter in Jordan) and so begun the two year tradition of holding a Sunday morning service amongst the rocks behind the campsite. We sang, we prayed, we took communion, and the kids and youth performed a Resurrection play under the direction of Mr. H.

Soldiers guarding the tomb where Jesus' body is to be laid

Peter, John, and Mary outside the empty tomb.

Around lunch-time we pack our things, all of which smell of campfire smoke through and through. It would be hard to leave our favorite place on earth if we weren't so tired, dirty, and almost out of food!

Wadi Dana 2009

Some see weeds...

I think it's a matter of perspective.

J.A.Y.A. (Just Another Yellow Asteraceae)

Crupina crupinastrum (Crupina)

Adonis palaestina (Palestine Pheasant's Eye)

Tesiera glastifolia (Globe Mustard)

(I think--you really need the fruits to identify these, and they haven't matured yet.)

Trifolium resupinatum (Pink Clover)

The first three beauties were found on a field trip with my biology class of three high school guys; they're not completely past the "they're just weeds" perspective, but they're coming along and can now place some common wildflowers in their proper families. The mustard is growing in many a vacant lot and field around town, including the one across from our house, and the clover is a mostly unnoticed "weed" in our front yard.

They're Off and Running~Dead to Red, 2009

It's that time of year again--time for the Dead to Red, the 10-man, 244K relay from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea. This is Active Son and Artist Son's fifth Dead to Red (Artist Son first ran when he was just nine and received an honorary award for being the youngest runner) and it just seems to get more fun every year.

At the beginning of the week, Dead to Red Fever began to heat up; strategizing began in earnest, supplies were gathered and packed, and an official Dashing Dudes T-shirt was designed and produced:

By last night the Fever was really burning; Active Son was now entering the realm of hyper focus, on the race, and was losing focus on just about everything else. At 1pm this afternoon, the 10 Dashing Dudes and their drivers loaded into two vans and headed for the start-line, about 20K south of the Mujib Bridge. Beginning the race at 3:30pm this afternoon, the Dashing Dudes, along with 15 other teams will run through the night, hoping to reach Aqaba around 8am tomorrow morning.

Map of Jordan from Lonely Planet

Mr. Mag., this year's team captain, dedicated this year's run to Dear Husband who is missing his first Dead to Read race in five years due to -yawn-meetings abroad; DH entertained thoughts of playing hooky from his meetings but it couldn't be. This one's for you, DH. You've been a great coach and encouragement through the years and our boys couldn't have done it without you!

Update, 6:30pm: The Dudes are in fourth place with high hopes of catching the third place team, the student team from King's Academy, an upscale boarding school located outside of Amman. Active Son is encouraged by their pace--they are currently running one kilometer legs.

Update, 7:45pm: Active Son called to tell me that they are now in 3rd place! They overtook the King's Academy team on The Hill. King's put up one runner to take The Hill while Dashing Dudes took it by a few legs of sprints. The Dashing Dudes, however, are not resting on their laurels: Active son reports that the King's Team is strong, made up, he thinks, of members of their track and field and cross country teams. He's not sure if they'll be able to hold their lead, but it looks like the neck and neck competition will keep them running their fastest through the night. Go Dashing Dudes!

Update, 10:10pm: Another phone call from Active Son and he doesn't sound tired yet; I think he is energized by the fact that the Dashing Dudes are now in 2nd place! They passed the former 2nd place team a little bit ago and Active Son estimates they now have about a five minute lead on them. Dashing Dudes are averaging 3 min. 50 sec. kilometers now. In first place is the national team, as in really, really fast runners, so 2nd place is probably as good as it can get for the Dashing Dudes--and it is very good!

Update, 12:00am: This will be the last update before the finish because I'm going to bed! Dashing Dudes are still in 2nd place, now with an increased lead. They hope to finish in just seven more hours or so. Just. I'm predicting they'll set a Dashing Dudes record time this year. Makes me feel kind of guilty for going to bed.

Update, 8:00am: Active Son calls to report that the Dashing Dudes finished the race in rare form: not only did they maintain their 2nd place position, they pushed hard on first place team who finished only 22 minutes ahead of the Dashing Dudes and broke the race record. They said the Dashing Dudes were a little too close for comfort! There was lots of whooping and cheering going on in the backround of our phone call but I was able to get Dashing Dude's official time:
15 hours, 19 minutes, and 32 seconds.

Congratulations to all the Dashing Dudes!


Dashing Dudes Team, 2009

A Little More Spring...

Perspective

"Then the prophecies of the old songs have turned out to be true, after a fashion!" said Bilbo.

"Of course!" said Gandalf. "And why should not they prove true? Surely you don't disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!"

"Thank goodness!" said Bilbo laughing, and handed him the tabacco-jar.

~The End~

The Hobbit

Busy Days...

...but never too busy for me to stop and enjoy the first narcissus of spring, cheerfully blooming just outside the kitchen door.

Reading Ruminations

From this week's reading:

ESV Study Bible

"The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." Deuteronomy 29:29

The Hobbit

"Then the hobbit slipped on his ring, and warned by the echoes to take more than hobbit's care to make no sound, he crept noiselessly down, down, down into the dark. He was trembling with fear, but his little face was set and grim. Already he was a very different hobbit from the one that had run out without a pocket-handkerchief from Bag-End long ago."

"It was at this point that Bilbo stopped. Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened afterwards were as nothing compared to it. He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait."

Chapter XII, Inside Information

Escape from Reason

"This new way of thinking spread in three different ways...it spread by classes...What is left was a middle-class that was not touched by it and often is still not touched by it...They do not understand why the think in the old way--they are continuing to act out of habit and memory after they have forgotten why the old form was valid. Often they still think in the right way--to them truth is truth, right is right--but they no longer know why (italics, mine). So how could they understand their children who think in the new way, who no longer think that truth is truth nor that right is right.

Chapter 3, Section Kierkegaard and the Line of Despair

He is There and He is Not Silent

"The dilemma of modern man is simple: he does not know why man has any meaning. He is lost. Man remains a zero. This is the damnation of our generation, the heart of modern man's problem. But if we begin with a personal beginning and this is the origin of all else, then the personal does have meaning, and man and his aspirations of the reality of personality are in line with what was originally there and what has always intrinsically been."

Chapter 1, The Metaphysical Necessity

Swallowing the
Golden Stone, Stories and Essays

...But the naming of stark creation was only one of the languages which the Creator used. There are two kinds of divine talk remembered in Genesis, for what God had made, he also named. Light and its temporal period he called "day." Its dimming and the period of its absence he called "night"...

Now, it is of crucial importance to understand that this naming did more than associate a particular sound with a particular thing. God's naming did more than produce the "word" by which speakers could refer to the object represented by that name. For the Hebrews, language was always an action. To speak was to accomplish. And to name a thing was actually to affect the thing named: it finished its creation, as it were, in three distinct ways:

1. The thing which is, but isn't named, cannot be known. If you can't talk about it, neither can you think about it or consider it or meditate upon it--nor, in consequence, can you know it at all! For the Hebrews, language is the stuff of knowing. Only when the created thing takes its place in language does it fully enter the realm of human awareness.

To name a thing, therefore, is to clothe it in visibility. To name a thing is to make it knowable, to grant its place in the human conception of the world. It seems suddenly to appear, that which had in fact existed before its appearing... (p.49)

Institutes of the Christian Religion

"This knowledge (of God's Providence) is necessarily followed by gratitude in prosperity, patience in adversity, and incredible security for the time to come."

Book 1.17.7

That's Amore~The Recipes, Dessert

This tiramisu recipe, as grand as it is, is one of the reasons we had to bill our menu as a "mostly authentic" Italian dinner. Authentic tiramisu is usually made with liqueur and marscapone cheese, two ingredients that were cost or otherwise prohibitive for us to use. However, this mock tiramisu seemed to satisfy as I've already received a few requests for the recipe. This was very, very easy to make. And though, here in Amman, we are often hard pressed to find the right ingredients, I easily found authentic Italian Savoiardi, or lady fingers, in the local market.

Easy Tiramisu

Ingredients:
2 packages of Savoirardi/ladyfingers (my packages were 200g or 7 oz each)
3 Tablespoons instant coffee
1 1/2 Tablespoon
1 1/2 cups boiling water
2 packages (227 g. or 8 oz, each) of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup whipping cream, slightly sweetened with powdered sugar (should yield 2 cups, whipped)
unsweetened cocoa powder

Putting it together:
Arrange 1 package of the biscuits on the bottom of a 13X9 inch backing dish.

Dissolve the instant coffee and 1 tablespoon sugar in boiling water. Brush 1/2 of the coffee mixture over the biscuits in the dish.

Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth. Add sugar, mixing until blended.

In a separate bowl, beat the whipping cream, sweetening it lightly with a little powdered sugar.

Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.

Spread 1/2 of the cream cheese/whipped cream mixture over the biscuits. Top with the remaining biscuits and brush with the remaining coffee.

Spread the remaining cream cheese/whipped cream mixture over the biscuits. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

Dust with cocoa powder before serving. We also garnished each piece with and After Eight mint and a sprig of fresh mint.

Makes 12 servings.

That's Amore~The Recipes, Main Course

When I consulted my cooks-like-she's-Italian sister-in-law about our menu for an Italian meal, she informed me that lasagna would not be the main course, but would precede the meat course. Without recounting all our limitations, let me just say that we served lasagna for the main course. And in my opinion, this fantastic Tuscan lasagna is worthy of being a main course.

Though lasagna has long been a favorite dish at our house, I had never made a lasagna recipe like this one, and now that I have I doubt I will ever make any other kind. Taste-testing our pre-banquet prototype, my family LOVED this lasagna. Tayta went so far a to suggest that we alter our traditional Thanksgiving dinner menu to Italian, serving lasagna instead of turkey--it was that good!

This Tuscan lasagna is made with a Bolognese Ragu (meat sauce) and a Besciamella (white sauce). Following are the recipes for each and then, instructions on how to but the lasagna together.

Tuscan Lasagna

Bolognese Ragu ~ a traditional recipe from Bologna

1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 stalk of celery, finely chopped
These should be minced very fine.

1 Tbsp. butter

8 oz lean ground pork

8 oz lean ground beef (or,16 oz. ground lean beef and no pork, as I used)
3/4 cup dry red wine

100 grams pancetta (an Italian bacon, however this was delicious even omitting the pancetta)

13 oz. or 400 grams canned tomatoes, chopped
salt and pepper to taste (at least 1tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper)

Saute the minced vegetables in butter for 5-7 minutes, until very tender. Add the pork/beef/pancetta and saute for 2-3 minutes. Slowly add the wine to moisten and cook until it has evaporated. Stir in the tomatoes, salt and pepper. Cover and leave to simmer gently for at least one hour, stirring frequently. Do not allow the sauce to stick to the bottom of the pan. If sauce is too soupy after one hour, continue to cook longer. If too dry, add a little water 1/2 cup at a time, until the right consistency is reached. Best if cooked 4 hours.

(This sauce is pretty meaty, and not too tomato-y. I simmered mine on the smallest burner, on low, flame and checked it frequently; I had to add 1/2 cup water once or twice. I cooked my sauce for about an hour.)

Besciamella (White Sauce)

1 liter milk
a sprig of fresh parsley
a pinch of nutmeg
1/2 an onion, peeled and sliced
6 black peppercorns
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup plain flour
150 g freshly grated Parmesan or Grand Padano cheese
225 g. mozzarella cheese, grated
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the milk, parsley, nutmeg, onion and black peppercorns into a pan and bring gently to a boil. While the milk is heating, make a roux by melting the butter in a third pan, adding the flour, and cooking cooking it slightly until it bubbles. Back to the milk which has just scalded/boiled: strain the milk and add it a ladle full (I poured the milk in slowly with one hand, while whisking it with the roux with the other) at a time, stirring it in well until you have a thick smooth white sauce. Simmer for a couple of minutes while stirring then take off the heat, add the Parmesan and season lightly with salt and pepper.

Putting it all together:

In Italy, lasagna starts with sheets of fresh pasta*, topped first with meat ragu then white sauce (besciamella), then a sprinkling of Parmesan** and repeat until you run out of meat. Keep back enough white sauce for a final layer, then top with white sauce and mozzarella. Sprinkle on top chopped sage(or thyme) and drizzle with olive oil.
*I used dried and cooked them ahead of time.
**I only put the grated cheese in the sauce and didn't sprinkle between layers.

Big Picture: pasta, meat sauce, white sauce, pasta, meat sauce, white sauce, pasta, white sauce, mozzarella, sage

Baking: I baked the lasagna uncovered. When it is heated all the way through, I briefly turned on the broiler to brown the top, leaving the lasagna in the middle of the oven. Watch carefully as it will brown (and then burn!) quickly.

Testimonial: "We made the lasagna for our guests, and they said it was the best lasagna they'd ever had!! Thanks for giving us the recipe!! We loved it!

That's Amore~The Recipes, Starter Course

~Bruschetta~

Toast good quality white bread (ciabatta or other) under the oven broiler. I toasted both sides. Watch carefully! (Ask me how I know.) Rub toasted bread with a cut clove of garlic. Cut up some tomatoes (good quality cherry tomatoes work best), add some coarse sea salt (no, no table salt, please), olive oil, and chopped basil Let it sit to accumulate some juices and put it on the toasted bread right before serving. No quantities here. Just add a little, taste a little, and I'm sure it will turn out great. My kids love this and I think we'll be eating it a lot this summer.

~Basil Balsamic Vinaigrette~

Mix in blender, or in a jar if you don't have a blender:

1 clove garlic
2 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/2-1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon sugar
approximately 15 fresh basil leaves

In a jar, mix the balsamic/basil mixture with 3/4 cup olive oil

That's Amore

Have I mentioned recently that we really like teenagers around here? Overseeing the youth group at our international church in Amman has been one of the biggest joys for Dear Husband and me this past year and a half. Somehow, sometime, before we got involved, the tradition of holding a Valentine's banquet had developed. Last year, Dear Husband and his faithful leaders (I was on the audition trip) carried on the tradition, though Dear Husband did try to shift the focus to honoring marital love vs the twitterpated love we remembered experiencing in high school. This year we, with the support and help of our great youth leaders (young adults otherwise working in Amman), encouraged a bigger shift: We planned a Valentine's banquet in which the youth would serve their parents in an gesture to show gratitude to their parents and to honor their commitment of true love in marriage. We prayed, we planned, we organized, we worked hard, and on Thursday night, we served. What fun we had together!

Our theme, Italian. Our plan, divide and conquer: we had a cooking crew, a decorating crew, a sound and set-up crew, and an entertainment crew.

Active Son, head of Sound and Set Up, Ruth, one our indispensable leaders and the visionary for a parent's banquet, and "Luigi and Alfredo" our Masters of Ceremony who stayed in Italian character the entire evening, accents and all.

The decorating crew transformed the hall of a local school where we have our youth meetings into and warm, elegant, dinner show venue. Parents we greeted at the door by youth who politely (we've been told) seated them, taking coats and pulling out chairs for the ladies.


I oversaw the cooking crew, so you'll mostly hear about the wonders they achieved, serving a three course meal to 64 people without a kitchen. Now, I have to give partial credit to my dear sister-in-law who just happens to live in Florence, Italy and who just happens to be a gourmet Italian cook. She provided me with some good ideas and recipes. We obviously couldn't make a completely authentic Italian meal, but we tried to come as close as we could, given our money, ingredient, and facility constraints. Our menu:

As I mentioned, we didn't have a kitchen, but we did have tables, borrowed dishes and utensils, electrical outlets, hot water heaters for tea and coffee, and my microwave. Here's how we did it--in case you ever have to server 60+ people without a kitchen.

The salad greens, grated carrots and sliced bell peppers, along with the salad dressing had been completely prepared beforehand and were and transported in containers. We toasted the bread for bruschetta and chopped the tomatoes and basil (a home) right before the banquet.

Cooking crew preparing the bruschetta on platters.

After the starter course, servers collected the salad plates (which would be washed in a tub of hot, soapy water so as to become dessert plates) and we began serving the Tuscan Lasagna--almost completely authentic, minus the pork. Delicious! The lasagna was served with sauteed carrots, zucchini, and colored peppers. Our plan for serving a warm meal sans a kitchen: The lasagnas were baked right before the banquet by a few helpful moms and brought wrapped in towels, and the vegetables, all cut beforehand, were sauteed the day of the banquet and warmed in the microwave. It worked! All the food~ garnished with parsley~was hot when served.

Serving the lasagnas and sauteed vegetables

Encouraged by how well the food was working out, we breathed sighs of relief and prepared to serve the desert. Meanwhile, the parents, while enjoying their meal, were being entertained by other youth. A few samples:

A scene from Romeo and Juliet (by the way, that's Juliet) ala Reduced
Shakespeare

A Middle Eastern tabli duet by Artist Son and friend, so authentic it elicited an undulation from a Moroccan mom

A Golden Oldie love song performed by two of the youth songbirds

The final course, dessert, was served, a simple tiramisu (made the day before), garnished by Chef David (who also made most of the lasagnas) with an After Eight mint, a sprig of fresh mint...

...and served with a smile.

After desert, male youth regaled the parents with the 1952 hit made famous by Dean Martin, "That's Amore".

"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie
That's amore"

Praise God, the evening was a huge success: the parents expressed amazement at how well the youth had prepared and executed the evening for them. They felt loved and honored. And the hard work of preparing the banquet had brought out the best in the youth.

As we were falling asleep that night, Dear Husband commented, "I wonder if this is a little bit of what heaven will be like...we will all be serving each other, joyfully. " Amen.

(Recipes to follow soon...)

Children of Sudan Follow-Up

In November, some of the youth we are involved with organized and executed a clothes drive for some needy and orphaned children of Sudan. Knowing that some aid shipments do not reach their intended recipients due to pilferaging, custom snarls, etc., it was with great joy that I received an email this week, sent from the Sudani sister who received and distributed the clothes to the dear children she is serving. And, last night, to applause and cheering, we were able to share these pictures of the children receiving their new clothes with the youth who collected and sent them.



"Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!" ~Psalm 90: 16-17, a Psalm of Moses

Foxglove Fever

Often in spring I forget where I live (arid, high-desert climate), and dream of growing beds of this oh-so-beautifully elegant flower:

I call it Foxglove Fever. Unfortunately, this lovely flower is not easily grown in Amman, and even the few I've been able to purchase(rare and expensive) have been victims of theft and turpentine poisoning. This (growing) year the fever hit early when I found an innocent packet of foxglove seeds in my kitchen. They are the teeniest tiniest things and I never thought that I would actually get any seedlings started but, lo and behold, they germinated!

The fever heated up and I convinced my Dear Husband, bless his hands, to hang some fluorescent lights from the bottom bunk in our guest/project room. (One clever cyber-friend noted that I have a real flower bed.)

Surprisingly, to me, the foxglove seedlings are growing faster than my purple coneflower and poppy seedlings. I've gotten a little carried away and now have more seedlings than I have space for under the lights. Ever supportive, Dear Husband has agreed to two more lights and I have developed a rotation system for the larger plants.

Unfortunately, as I dream of 30+ foxglove plants in my garden, Jordan is facing a potential spring/summer drought; we've only received 5-10% of the our average annual rainfall and the rainy season will probably end next month. Next project: develop a plan to recycle the household gray water in the flower garden.

A New Kind of Atheist~0r~An Irony Observed

I found out about about this Atheist Bus Campaign presently underway in the UK while doing a little blog surfing yesterday. The following observation is from Rebekah at Femina. Wish I'd seen it first and said it first. She is spot on:

"Yes, I know this is old news. But now you can’t go two steps in Oxford without being greeted by this merry little message on the side of basically every bus that zooms past - and every time I see it I just get extensively cracked up!

I mean, seriously. “There probably is no God.” What kind of gung-ho message is that?! Honestly - they’re practically begging every resident of the UK to seriously consider Pascal’s Wager . . . which you know they never would have done in a million years otherwise.

What kind of atheism is this anyways? I think they need to get out more and read a bit more Nietzsche. Nietzsche would never have settled for a peppy little message in pink that contained the word “probably”. And that little word “probably” is no doubt unsettling numerous middle aged women across the nation who had never given it a thought up until now, and are suddenly wondering every five minutes if they’re willing to bet their soul on that very uncertain message.

They’re also selling t-shirts by the way. It’s quite hilarious that now there’s a category of atheist kitsch. It must mean that all those Christian billboards and John 3:16 shirts are working far more than I suspected they were. The atheists have finally had it up to here, and are now copying the pop evangelical methods of getting the message out there! It’s kinda fun to have it go that direction for once. It used to be that across from every music store in every mall there was the Christian answer to it - full of knock-offs and almost-as-good-as paraphernalia. But it’s quite hilarious to think of the atheists then having to put up their own little kiosk with their not-quite-as-powerful answer to the evangelicals . . . tacky little key chains with humanist slogans and “I’m pretty sure there’s no Hell” bookmarks and inspirational posters that say things like, “I don’t think that Final Judgments are very nice to think about.”

It’s quite heartening, really."

We've been tracking with Socrates this week, the boys and I, studying about the Dialogues, reading The Euthyphro, and enjoying Socrates brilliant use of irony. I just have to think that he would have a bit of fun with the authors of this campaign.

The Spinach Lady Cometh

...and cometh and cometh, ever since I encouraged her, a couple of months ago, by purchasing five 1 lb bags of fresh, chopped spinach. What was a I thinking? Well, I was thinking that I appreciated having fresh, chopped spinach delivered to my kitchen door and for a better price than I could find in the market. Since she made her first sale The Spinach Lady, as she has come to be known ("Mom, The Spinach Lady is at the door."), has returned a couple of times a week, always with kind but convincing words as to why I need to buy more spinach. I've been able to refuse a couple of times but for the most part, well, lets just say we've been eating lots of spinach. That is a good thing. Besides dusting off old recipes which call for spinach and searching for new ones, I've also added spinach to a favorite recipe which previously didn't call for spinach. We've had several batches of cream of spinach soup (very good and even the kids like this), spinach/beef/cheese/potato casserole (a favorite), and spinach quiche (another favorite, thankfully).

The past several Christmases I have given Herb Cheese Bread to friends and this year I added--you guessed it!--spinach to the recipe. I checked with Dear Husband before trying this as I realized it might seem like a wacky and unwelcome addition. He approved, I added, and the result was Spinach Herb Cheese Bread, which everyone loved.

Spinach Cheese Herb Bread
(and if you don't like spinach the recipe with out it is just as grand; a true family and friend favorite)

I always triple this recipe. No sense just making 1 loaf of bread when you can just as easily make three and if you can't eat it all, freeze it or give it away. It is not too hard to find someone who will appreciate a fresh baked loaf of bread!

Ingredients
1 cup milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup warm water
1 Tablespoon yeast (I reduce this to 2 1/2 T for a triple recipe)
1 Tablespoon grated onion
2-3 teaspoons herbs (I like thyme and or dill)
1 cup grated cheese (I like strong cheddar)
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
approximately 4 cups flour (I use half whole wheat and half white)
**spinach** I use 1 pound of fresh, chopped spinach steamed and drained/squeezed for a triple recipe.

Dissolve yeast in warm water (w/a pinch of sugar). Mix milk, sugar, salt, onion, herbs, cheeses, half of flour and bubbling yeast. Add spinach and the rest of the flour/enough so that the dough is the right consistency and knead until elastic. About five minutes in my Bosch, but longer by hand. Let rest for about 10-15 minutes, form into a round loaf (loaves) and let rise on a greased baking sheet for about an hour. Bake at 350 degrees about 40 minutes. Cool on a rack and baste with butter if you'd like a softer crust.

And if anyone has a great recipe that uses spinach, I'd love to have it--I still have two pounds of spinach in the fridge and The Spinach Lady will be coming soon...

Philosophy~What is it good for?

"If you should ever decide to study philosophy, someone is sure to ask you, "What can you do with it" The answer is "Nothing. But it can do something with me."

Philosophy 101 by Socrates, Peter Kreeft

It's a Wonderful Life

And it was a wonderful Christmas holiday!

We celebrated our first real family reunion, welcoming Oldest Daughter home after her first semester of college, as we celebrated TOGETHER the Advent of our Savior, Jesus.

Our traditional Christmas Eve supper of turkey and rice soup, cheeses, crackers, and all sorts of fun snack-y foods.

We also celebrated Tayta's 12th birthday with our traditional Christmas Eve morning brunch.















We slept...

Jet Lag

We played weird games with good friends





















Active Son and Artist Son submitting to the commands of Quelf.


We participated in a community service project with the youth...















Organizing donations for distribution to the poor

Post-project fellowship over good hummus, falafel, and mint tea at Hashem's

We enjoyed doing things we don't usually have time for...

Artist Son got started on his anticipated Christmas-break art project right after studies ended, and finished it the day before break ended.

Tiger, in colored pencil and acrylic

My fun-project wasn't quite so awe inspiring, at least not to most: I started coneflower, foxglove, and poppy seedlings.

On one beautiful sunny day we headed south to the ancient Nebatean city of Petra...

...and on another we had the joy of celebrating the baptism of three dear friends at the Jordan River, "Bethany on the other side of the Jordan".

(in case you're wondering, the water was really cold, but at least it was a sunny day.)


We enjoyed reading new books, individually:












And, together:



And the kids finally, finally got me to sit still and watch all of the Lord of the Rings trilogy--the extended version. All I can say is don't watch these on cold, dark nights--which is what we did--or the nights will seem colder and darker.



And now, the late nights and the late mornings must end as we return to 'real life' in the morning. I think I'll make some scones for breakfast, just to make the transition a little easier.