Summer Joy 12: Merry-go-round

Longing

This merry-go-round included Onward, Christian Soldiers and Jesus Loves the Little Children in its repertoire. Visions of Narnian animals going forth to battle danced in my head, during the first.

Summer Joy 11: Vacation

Father and son

". . . . the time cannot be long, . . . number. . . every moment, charging it with meaning. Love in ignorance squanders what love, informed, crowds and overfills with tokens of eternity."
--from Ellis Peters' An Excellent Mystery: The Eleventh Chronicle of Brother Cadfael, 1985

(Thanks to the Lean Librarian for recommending Cadfael, and to Sparrow, for passing along Circle of Quiet and Wittingshire's appreciation of him.)

Once more to the lake

For the past few months, I've read of your travels: to the sea, to Texas heat and tornadoes, to Disney World, Italy, Yosemite, a writing seminar in New Mexico, England's New Wine conference of caravans, the family farm in Iowa, the Florida sister, CBA in Denver, romance in New York City, the Norwegian fjords, historical and scenic sites of western Canada, the RWA conference in Reno. (Sorry if I missed anyone. :-)

(Here I sit in the flat Midwest, where we slowly grow wheat, corn, soybeans, beef, chickens, and dairy cows to feed you all.)

Tomorrow we take off for a few days.

I will take along "Learning the Ancient Rhythms of Prayer: Why charismatics and evangelicals, among others, are flocking to communities famous for set prayers and worshipping by the clock," an article originally published December 9, 2000. Paul Boers, the author, is pastor of Bloomingdale Mennonite church in Ontario. Christianity Today has linked it on their website as part of their observance of the passing of Brother Roger, the founder of Taize.

If you have time to surf, Barbara of Being Barbara, Being Mum, Being Me has a thoughtful post about letting go of one's children, a theme that has also recently surfaced on Circle of Quiet and Wittingshire. Barbara's post is especially interesting because she lives in Great Britain, and she reflects on changes in family life over several generations there.

Mel of Actual Unretouched Photo also has a beautiful post on taking her son to visit her aged grandmother, who is about to pass the century mark.

Enjoy.

The Cases of the Disappearing Dentist, the Lean Librarian, and the Man Who Saw Purple

There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid. Proverbs 30:18-19

1. Last week I inquired about the curious absence of the female dentist from the practice we have been frequenting for several years. I hadn't seen her for months; her name had disappeared from the sign outside the office door. "She took a year off to write a murder mystery, and now she's trying to market it."

What was she thinking, as she worked on our teeth?!

2. Librarians are scarce, since the advent of online catalogs and self-checkouts (scanners) at our local library. Last week, unexpectedly, one asked if she could help. I was perusing the classics, but told her I liked mysteries. I liked good writing, had read most of the old mysteries, and the new ones were either cutesy or had too much violence and psychological darkness. She nodded, referring to several writers who had started well, and gone off track. "That's what sells." She shook her head over Patricia Cornwell, Michael Connelly and Ruth Rendell.

Suddenly, the librarian became animated: she had liked Rendell's Judgement in Stone. The murder was because of illiteracy! The woman killed people because she couldn't read! That was a good one!*

3. Friday, my son and I toured a local mall (wheelchair-assisted) to search for school clothes. We ran into a friend in the domestics section of Kaufmans's. I bemoaned the difficulty of choosing paint colors. She said she and her husband find it difficult to agree on colors. He's colorblind in the blue/green part of the spectrum. They're having trouble leaving their white walls behind.

A royal blue couch she liked appeared to be Barney purple to him.

*The librarian recommended the historical mysteries of Lindsey Davis (particularly Silver Pigs) and Ellis Peters. I prefer to read historical fiction only if written at the time in which it is set. I once heard Niall Ferguson, a Harvard history professor, voice this preference during a C-span interview, and realized I shared it.
I did follow the librarian's recommendation and try Silver Pigs. I did not enjoy it enough to continue beyond the first 30 pages or so. I will give Ellis Peters another try. I think I read that Madeleine L'Engle enjoys her.
Note: If you follow the Ferguson link, you will find it is an off-topic, but fascinating, article (by an atheist): Heaven knows how we'll rekindle our religion, but I believe we must (HT: Mere Comments).

Summer Joy 10: Bulb catalogs

Burgundy Lace (actual color deeper than appears here) with muscari

This week we received the first bulb catalog of the year from Breck's, "direct to you from Holland since 1818."

At our previous house, knowing crocuses, tulips, daffodils, grape hyacinths, Dutch irises, and lilies were asleep beneath the snow gave me a sense of anticipation from New Year's Day through the month of March.

The previous owners had left large purple crocuses, yellow daffodils, orange Asiatic lilies, and a few stray tulips. Partly inspired by the glorious array of color put forth during Tulip Time in Holland, Michigan, I added a few more bulbs every year. By the time we moved, there were not yet the masses of color recommended in Mrs. Greenthumbs, but there was something new coming into bloom continually during spring and early summer.* I was sorry to leave it. (The subsequent owner has apparently torn out most of the landscaping and replaced it with the ubiquitous yew.)

Now we start anew, with a yard which, until now, has had no time for spring-flowering bulbs. Where to start.

Breck's has a good coupon included in its catalog. Bluestone Perennials, here in Ohio, is a trusted source of plants. I will also check out the bulbs at Free Trees and Plants, which employs workers with disabilities.**

I have learned from my sister-in-law in Florida, and our own experience living in Georgia, that gardeners in the south cannot grow most spring-flowering bulbs; the cold season down there is not long enough for their hibernation period. Tulip bulbs would need to be kept in the refrigerator several months, in Florida, for them to bloom.

Tulips and daffodils are one compensation for our long, cold winters.

*I see Bookish Gardener is able to keep this progression going during spring, summer, and probably fall.
**Thanks to Dawn at Frugal for Life, for adding them to her site.

Dutch iris

Facing reality: precursor to grace

Last month, I read J. Mark Bertrand's account of Andy Crouch's speech to the Christian Booksellers Association about the need for more realism in Christian fiction. Crouch speaks:

And this is the most basic test for quality in fiction, it seems to me: is it absolutely faithful to the real, and absolutely faithful to what is strange and extraordinary within the real? For the Christian this is another way of saying, is it about grace? Because grace is the interruption of the unexpected in the real. Cheap stories barely touch reality—they present a simplified simulacrum of reality, a version that is easier for the storyteller and for the reader alike.

This week, I read Catez Steven's review of the movie City of God, which depicts life in a slum in Rio de Janeiro. She realizes some Christians would have problems with the language and violence depicted in the film.

The film has an R rating, so I'm not giving a blanket recommendation to see it. I know some people will have a different criteria than mine. But it has me thinking too. So much of the popular visual Christian media is tailored to our Western comfort zone. To be frank, some of it seems to be about "bless me and don't portray the harder aspects of others lives".

I have to say that related questions arise in the minds of some parents of children with special needs. We sometimes limit sharing about our experience with those outside the disability community because we are afraid they couldn't handle the truth of how hard it is. They are too weak. Or they would condemn us as complaining or tell us to get a Prozac prescription. Or it would increase the prejudices they already have against those with disabilities. They may just not care. It takes time to listen.

1. When you are not open to hearing about the pain and struggle of a person's history, you are closing off an avenue to hear of the grace that accompanied it.

2. Accompanying someone along a difficult journey is a risk. Will grace happen?

Reading: Peanut's Story, Just Thinking
Cheap Hope (HT: Mere Comments)

Summer Joy 9: State fair

Yesterday at the State fair, my husband sent me off to the Arts and Crafts building to look at quilts. I detoured into an air conditioned auditorium and found the Ghirardelli Chocolate baking contest. No free samples, but we got baking tips from the moderator, who took questions while the judges tasted.*

She asserted that baking, unlike cooking, is a science. Exact measurements are much more important in baking. Is this arguable?

Parchment paper: She uses it for almost everything except cakes. Don't use it if you want a cookie to spread and flatten out.
Ganache: Use cream and chocolate. Cut chocolate into equal-sized small pieces. Heat the milk until steaming, then add to chocolate. Wait five minutes. Stir with whisk, starting in middle, moving toward outer edges. (The questioner asked how to avoid separation of particles in a ganache.)
Baking time: The moderator never times her baking. When you can smell a creation, it's almost ready to take out. Then you start using a toothpick to check for inner dryness. She said baking times vary greatly because of differences in ingredients and ovens. Most baking times given on cake mix boxes are too long.**
Fudge: The recipes using marshmallow creme are popular and no-fail.
Flour: Don't buy more than you will use in a month or so. (!) Store in airtight container rather than original package.
I have already forgotten how to obtain gritty sugar or crispier cookies. Overcook the first, adjust fat or flour on the second?

This year, Ruth Cahill became the first Arts and Crafts contestant ever to be inducted into the State Fair Hall of Fame. She has been exhibiting food at the fair since the late 1950's. This culture overuses the word "awesome," but I could almost attribute it to this woman.

*The moderator shared that there were many requests for this job.
**I once had a roommate whose boyfriend baked. He never used a timer. He claimed he waited to remove them from the oven until the Holy Spirit told him to take them out.

Wildflower: Queen Anne's Lace

Wildflower: Ironweed

Summer joy 8: surprises in the garden

This week Early Girl lived up to her name, as she pulled into second, behind the cherry tomatoes. Yesterday I found what I thought were sloooowly ripening red tomatoes (when I checked several days ago) had turned golden yellow, and I picked 20 in one day! Eleven red tomatoes were ready on the three other plants, which had yielded a grand total of four or five, so far.
If you are a gardener, you know these little surprises are among gardening's choice rewards.

"We are protecting our children from the wrong things!"

Last week our Beth Moore video covered goodness and kindness, in her series on fruit of the spirit. Goodness, not passive, does (acts).

She had recently spoken with a woman who was pregnant with a baby with Down syndrome. The mother had come to terms with the diagnosis, and believed the baby would be a blessing to their family. However, she was worried about the effect the baby would have on her other children, concerned about the sacrifices they would have to make. Beth exclaimed, "We are protecting our children from the wrong things!"

She shared about how much her daughters had learned about selflessness during the years they had had a child with special needs in their house.* The little boy had cost time and money, but she felt the blessings he brought were well worth the sacrifice.

She knew a family who had a child with Down syndrome. The siblings had to help with things like riding on the bus and finding the way into the school in the morning. Beth asserted that helping was good for those children. It taught them to think of others. The expectant mother need not worry about a child with special needs depriving her other children. "We are protecting our children from the wrong things."

*I'm not sure whether he was fostered or adopted. Eventually, after five to seven years (I think) he left.

Risk (?) 2

For it is a dreadful truth that the state of (as you say) "having to depend solely on God" is what we all dread most. And of course that just shows how very much, how almost exclusively, we have been depending on things. But trouble goes so far back in our lives and is now so deeply ingrained, we will not turn to Him as long as He leaves us anything else to turn to. I suppose all one can say is that it was bound to come. In the hour of death and the day of judgment, what else shall we have? Perhaps when those moments come, they will feel happiest who have been forced (however unwittingly) to begin practising it here on earth. It is good of Him to force us; but dear me, how hard to feel that it is good at the time.
C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady, 1967, p. 47.

When it comes to children, parents so often have to depend on God for help. We race against time to help our son develop skills that make him as independent as possible, to increase the probability that he will not be put into an institution when we are gone, but that a good family will welcome him into their home. We have to depend on God for his continuing development and his future home life.

(I have to add I am continually inspired by hearing stories of people, bloggers among them, who have adopted children with special needs into their homes. I know there is a similar program for adults in a nearby state, which I would like to look into, when I get time.)

*C. S. Lewis. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.