An early Mother’s Day celebration

I got an e-mail from Joe last week with the subject line: “Plans for May 5.” In perusing Positively Cleveland he’d found a World Culture Festival at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Knowing something like that would be right up my alley, Joe made a hotel reservation downtown and planned the overnight getaway as my early Mother’s Day gift. We had so much fun on our little family vacation!

We ate dinner at an authentic Chinese restaurant on Friday night. (My husband used to love Chinese buffets, but he is now trading them for sit-down-and-order-off-the-menu Chinese restaurants. I am so grateful.) I ate beef with snow peas. YUM!

G continued with her finger food addiction with some broccoli florets

and sticky rice!

G loves drinking water – especially my water. Especially from a straw.

Back at the hotel, G took a ride on Daddy’s shoulders.

We had an awesome suite, which definitely makes traveling (and sleeping) with a baby a little easier than a traditional room. But check out this crazy jacuzzi:

Yeah, that’s the view from our “living room” into the tub…and on into the bathroom. Let’s just say, you wouldn’t want to share this suite with anyone you weren’t already very close to.

After breakfast Saturday morning, we gave G a little sink bath (banana and Cheerio dust smeared into those curly locks!). She tried to eat the faucet, the soap, and everything else in reach.

At the museum, we got our “passport” photos made in a photo booth.

 

The Museum of Natural History has a neat little outdoor animal exhibit. The animals are not exotic, but Gianna still found them interesting. Here she is observing the deer.

We watched some cultural performances. G was pretty chill because she was overdue for a nap, but she did get into the Japanese drummers. (Joe took some cute video of her excited arm-waving.)

Poor kid finally crashed!

Now for a little flashback. Last summer, Joe and I spent a “babymoon” weekend in Cleveland. Here we are about 9 months ago:

After our visit to the museum today, we realized we were outside the same park where we’d wandered on our babymoon. I insisted on a family picture in the same spot.

We ate another DE-LI-CIOUS meal at lunch, this time in Little Italy (another of our favorite spots from our babymoon).

After some gelato (it wouldn’t have been [Little] Italy without it!), we waved goodbye to Cleveland.

All-in-all, I’d say it was the perfect first Mother’s Day! (Thanks, babe!)

Have you taken any weekend road trips lately?

Book review: Tea with Hezbollah

In this travelogue, thriller fiction author Ted Dekker and Carl Medearis, an international expert in the field of Muslim-Christian and Middle East-U.S. relations, undertake a daunting task: Traveling through the Middle East, they pose the question, “What do you think about Jesus’ teaching to love your neighbor – and, by extension, your enemy?”

The catch? Dekker and Medearis met with key Muslim religious leaders and some of the top leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas – organizations whose members most in the U.S. consider terrorists. In fact, some of the men they sat down to tea with are literally on U.S. Most Wanted lists.

Dekker and Medearis used the parable of the Good Samaritan, stating that they hoped to find the modern-day equivalent: the perceived enemy, who turns out to be the unlikely hero. Knowing that many Westerners consider Muslims to be a feared enemy, they hoped to paint a different portrait; they wanted to meet the enemy who crosses lines and goes out of his way to aid the one who fears and hates him. This is the essence of the Good Samaritan story that Jesus told.

Rather than interpreting their interviews through their own lens, Dekker and Medearis published the exact transcripts for the reader. They asked questions like, “What’s a joke that makes you laugh?” and “When was the last time you cried?” The interviewees’ answers make them more human and less fearsome. It also messes with your worldview. How am I to hate someone who cries because his three-year-old daughter has cancer?

The number-two man in Hezbollah, Sheik Nabil Qaouk, when asked what he would like to say to all Jews and Christians, responded:

Please, know the truth. If you know the truth, then you will know who is holding the truth. Don’t follow the person who claims to know the truth, because there is no person who has that truth. Find the truth yourself and it will set you free. For example, don’t only follow the U.S. Administration, because they are not always right. You have to know what is the truth, then decide what is the truth (Tea with Hezbollah page 128).

Dekker does a good job of outlining some of the history of conflicts in the Middle  East for the readers’ understanding. The interesting thing was, when I read my Bible after reading Tea with Hezbollah, I felt like I better understood some of the conflicts that are recorded there. Dekker had the same impression:

I couldn’t shake the similarities between the various factions [...] nor the near freakish parallels between the conflicts in the region today and the conflicts that had badgered the land two thousand years earlier. Jew, Samaritans, Romans. Muslims, Druze, Christian, Jews (Tea with Hezbollah page 166).

The book was an interesting and easy read. In some chapters, Dekker’s in-depth description of a historic site became somewhat tedious. However, there is a story laced into every other chapter that kept me turning the pages in anticipation. The story of Nicole*, an American who traveled to Lebanon in search of her roots, actually ended up being more fascinating to me than the travels that Dekker and Medearis catalogued.

I would strongly recommend this book for anyone who:

• wants an insider’s perspective on the humanity of those who are so often feared and hated as enemies;
• is interested in the Middle East, Islam, or Christian-Muslim relations;
• wonders if the command of Jesus to “love your neighbor” can truly be obeyed, even to the extreme of loving those who commit evil against you.

*Update (and SPOILER ALERT): A word to the wise: Do not publish a book review until you have actually finished the book. I was so excited about Tea with Hezbollah that I wrote and published this review when I still had one chapter left to read. This chapter held key information about the story of Nicole. It was a fictional tale, although Dekker presented it as fact. I apologize for misleading you. As a reader, I feel somewhat disillusioned to learn that the story that really drew me into the book was not true. It is still powerful, but it lost some of its impact for me.

There’s a reason we’re not friends anymore

Facebook “friends,” that is. And the reason is that we weren’t really friends to begin with.

I’ve recently whittled my list of Facebook friends down to 252. It started off with the realization that there were actually several people I did not know on my list of Facebook friends. I was a little freaked out by that. These people, who I might not recognize if we passed on the street, were privy to personal information like my e-mail address, my hometown and the fact that I’m training to run a 5K.

As I scanned my friends list, I also saw a plethora of people who weren’t real-life friends. They were high school or college classmates, most of whom I hadn’t spoken with since graduation, and many I didn’t actually speak to before graduation. They are friends of friends or people I only met once. Honestly, they were people whose photo albums I “stalked.”

So I deleted dozens of them. I also tightened my privacy controls, so that if you’re not my Facebook friend, you can only see my current profile picture. You won’t know where I live or what my favorite book is.

I feel good after this purge. Beyond just exercising my right to some privacy, I’m also cutting back on the time I spend updating myself on my [non]-”friends’” lives. (Similar to when I spent some time fasting from blogging and blog reading.)

Is anyone else feeling disillusioned with Facebook and the virtual friendships it provides? Or are you learning to hone the art of networking via Facebook and other social networking mediums?

“Avatar” is a cultural commentary

I’ve read a negative review by a popular Christian movie review website. I’ve heard it’s a political commentary on Iraq/Afghanistan. I didn’t really want to see it because I was not interested in seeing weird blue aliens on the big screen. But, thinking I was being a generous wife, I agree to see “Avatar” when Joe and I went to the movies a while back. And I liked it.

I don’t care if it’s a political commentary. I don’t care that I don’t really like aliens. This movie struck me as a cultural commentary that students of missions should watch and analyze. Seriously, if I were teaching a missions course or coordinating a Perspectives class right now, I’d be showing clips of this movie for my students to analyze. As I watched it, I thought of all kinds of essay questions I could write.

Granted, the movie is not about missionaries approaching a culture, but rather government intervention takeover of a people. But there are some great parallels that made me a little antsy to dip my toes in the missions thinking-dreaming-envisioning pool again.

New Year’s resolutions: Yea or nay?

I don’t remember the last time I made a New Year’s resolution. I certainly don’t remember ever keeping one. I’ve shied away from New Year’s resolutions in the last decade or so because it seems to be setting myself up for failure.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m in favor of people (myself included) making choices to create healthier, more fulfilling lifestyles. Would I like to exercise more? Sure. Wouldn’t it be great to read through the entire Bible in a year? Oh, definitely. Should I make it my goal to clean the house more often? Well, um….

I’m just not really into making resolutions simply because I’m hanging a new calendar on the wall. To be perfectly honest, the start of a new year isn’t enough motivation for me to make big changes.

So, are you a resolution-maker? Are you a resolution-keeper? Have you set any goals for 2010?

How does your family celebrate the holidays?

I feel a little embarassed to admit that one of my favorite Christmas traditions is when my family goes to see a movie every year on Christmas Day. (It feels really commercialized, but I love it.)

What traditions – popular or unique to your clan – do you have to observe every year?

Creating Christmas traditions

As we decorated for Christmas this year, I wanted to create some of our own Christmas traditions. Thanks to the generosity of one of Joe’s cousins, we have a nativity scene, which I love! I set it up in front of the fireplace, hoping the dogs wouldn’t bother it (they haven’t).

I’d heard the tradition to keep the manger empty until Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, so that’s what we’re doing – you’ll notice no baby Jesus in our nativity!

What are some of your family’s traditions?

Cross-cultural Christmas celebrations…welcome to China, folks

My dear friend Caitlin is studying abroad in China right now – for the second time! She is one of my favorite bloggers ever. She is a talented writer and is able to capture daily life in China in hilarious anecdotes. Her post about celebrating Christmas in China is no different.

Take a few minutes to read Caitlin’s blog and I guarantee you’ll be laughing about experiences that are commonplace in her daily life!

Merry Christmas decorating

I have loved, loved, loved decorating our house for Christmas! My favorite thing to decorate is the mantle, which is the two-tiered centerpiece of our living room. If I could do this for a living, I think I would. (If anyone wants some decorating help or company, let me know. I’ll help for free if you buy the decorations!)

Our happy little Christmas tree, which we bought at Lowe's and named Herman

The mantle (note the bookshelves that my dad built!)

The mantle, all aglow

Glass hurricanes with Christmas tree ornaments inside!

Joy! One of our stocking holders

Making an attractive and festive mantle was not difficult. I used boughs cut off the lower part of our tree for greenery. With white lights underneath them, it casts pretty, feathery shadows on the wall. I used pinecones leftover from my fall mantle. I used some wired ribbon from Hobby Lobby and spent some time getting the curls to fall the right way on either side and behind some of the pieces. We bought inexpensive Christmas tree ornaments at Dollar General to fill the hurricanes (as well as the empty spots on our tree!).

Most of the nicer things on the mantle – the stocking hangers, the hurricanes and the wreath with the candle in the middle – were wedding gifts. (What a great gift idea for a newlywed couple – Christmas decorations!)

The hurricanes are one of my favorite wedding gifts, simply because I can use them year-round and fill them with seasonal items – leaves in fall, ornaments at Christmas, evergreen and berries in the winter, potpourri in the spring, etc.

Two fun Christmas cookie ideas

Cooking-baking extravaganza

1. Get together with a few friends.
2. Everyone bring their favorite cookie recipe, lots of ingredients and plenty of hardware (baking sheets, mixer, cookie cutters, etc.).
3. Get busy baking, then split up the goodies!

Take note: A rockin' apron & bright green cookie dough!

Cookie abundance

The bakers

Cookie exchange

1. Get together with a few friends. (Hot drinks are highly recommended!)
2. Everyone bring 4 dozen cookies and an empty container.
3. Split up the cookies. Everyone leaves with 4 dozen different cookies!

Both the cookie-baking extravaganza and the cookie exchange allow for a) great time with friends and lots of conversation and catching up; and b) a minimal amount of work (bake only 4 dozen cookies from one recipe) for an abundant variety of cookies. Extras can always be frozen and saved for later in the season. Or, if you do your extravaganze early, you can freeze cookies to save for your exchange.