The Pizza Process

I have no wood-burning brick pizza oven.  I live quite a few thousand miles from Milan, Italy, where I have eaten the best pizza on earth.  This is my solution:

While Mommy was Riding the Exercise Bike and Talking on the Phone...

...there was mischief in the house. 

As I was looking through pics I took this evening of our pizza making process, all ready to illustrate a deliciously descriptive blog post about one of the deep passions of my life (the pursuit and perfection of pizza making), I discovered this photo:

Henry was off doing some yard work with Daddy, so there was no one left to defend the poor little Jude against the scheming of his big sisters. This appears to be evidence of lessons in curtseying.

There you have it.  As if I didn't have enough reasons to sway me from fitness into the elephantine abyss of a pear-shaped mom-body, now I have this hanging over my head.  Hmm....what should I pick today?  Being healthy or allowing my poor son's psyche to be damaged with glitter and nail polish?

 

Summer of the Birds

While I was snoozing and snuggling Jude in my bed this morning, there was a tap on my window.  Hank was holding this little bird.

The little bird had flown into our window and was stunned.  After a few minutes it seemed to regain its senses and started flapping its wings.  Before it flew away though, Hank spotted a different kind of bird in the yard.  Eva went over and picked it up (our first clue that something wasn't quite right--it didn't fly away from her). 

In other bird news, our friend Dinah has been raising abandoned swallows.  She has had them since they were featherless, presumably just a couple days old.  She cares for them like her babies, bringing them everywhere she goes.  They are about 2 1/2 weeks old here.

We also have friends who have been caring for and raising kestrel chicks.  Sorry, I don't have any pictures of those colorful raptors!  Perhaps I'll have to have part II of this post later.

Forgetting Self

One of the things I just read is Timothy Keller's very short book The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness.  The book seeks to discover the defining characteristics of a Christian life, and it asks what it is that makes a heart transformed by God different than it was before.  "It is not simply a matter of morally virtuous behaviour.  It is quite possible to do all sorts of morally virtuous things when our hearts are filled with fear, with pride or with a desire for power."  Keller uses a passage in 1 Corinthians as his foundation for this search. 

We all crave approval, don't we?  We go about getting it in so many different ways, but I really don't think thirty-somethings are any less pathetic than junior high kids when it comes to the longing to fit in.  "What Paul is looking for, what Madonna is looking for, what we are all looking for, is an ultimate verdict that we are important and valuable.  We look for that ultimate verdict every day in all the situations and people around us.  And that means that every single day, we are on trial."  Then when we realize that we are longing for approval, we learn from the world that it is because of our low self-esteem.  If only we didn't care so much what other people thought, right? 

Boosting our self-esteem by living up to our own standards or someone else's sounds like a great solution.  But it does not deliver.  It cannot deliver...I cannot live up to society's standards--and that makes me feel terrible.  I cannot live up to other societies' standards--that makes me feel terrible.  Perhaps the solution is to set my own standards?  But I cannot keep them either--and that makes me feel terrible, unless I set incredibly low standards.  Are low standards a solution?  Not at all.  That makes me feel terrible because I realize I am the type of person who has low standards.  Trying to boost our self-esteem by trying to live up to our own standards or someone else's is a trap.  It is not an answer.

So how do we get around it?  How do we escape the trap?  What if there was some way to guarantee the verdict regardless of my performance? You know, like pay off the judge and jury so that the evidence that comes to light makes no difference?

If there were some way to get there, to have that final verdict already spoken, wouldn't that change the way I operate?  I would no longer allow every decision to be colored by a desire to fit in or to succeed.  I would not spend my evenings looking back on my day in disappointment over how I failed again.  In this possibility, with my ego filled with something solid instead of puffed up with air or popped like a balloon, life has a completely different flavor.  "I can actually enjoy things for what they are.  They are not just for my resume...They are not just a way of filling up the emptiness.  Wouldn't you want that?  This is off our map...Not thinking more of myself as in modern cultures, or less of myself as in traditional cultures.  Simply thinking of myself less."

What about you?  Are you straining every day to hear the verdict from the court--your own judgement and the opinion of others? Or have you escaped that? 

Go download the book for 99c.  It will take you less than an hour to read.  Then let me know what you think. 

 

Heaven on Earth

As far as we are concerned, it doesn't get much better than life in North Idaho from July to September.  Sunday we had a perfect day on Perkins Lake with some friends.  The pictures say it all.  When we pray "on earth as it is in heaven," we imagine something along these lines, only infinitely better!

The water was perfect; the sun was perfect; the smiles on faces and friends all around us were like sublime top-quality chocolate for the spirit. 

 

 

One...two...three...CANNONBALL!!!

 

 

Showing off his catch

 

Kids having races

 

The paramount childhood experience

Tired, grubby bodies snuggle by the campfire at the end of the day

 

One Friday Morning

The kids are taking riding lessons this summer at Trinity Wilderness Ranch. They are learning so much, and they all really love it.  (Henry rides too, but I forgot to get the camera out until after his lesson was done).  I am thrilled that there is something all four kids can be involved in! 

 Eika learns to stop

 Henry impersonates a teenager

 Waiting is so hard to do!

 It's finally Eva's turn!

What's Ahead

Almost daily, and certainly weekly, we have interactions with people who are somehow involved in the development of the people of Burundi.  Remember the book Dangerously Alive I wrote about before? The author is Simon Guillebaud, and one of the couples that has been working with him this year is Ladd and Carley Serwat.  They just happen to be from the Coeur d'Alene area, which is just about 1 1/2 hours from where we live.  This week we got to meet Ladd and Carley, and we were so encouraged by who they are and what they are all about!

We continue to have conversations with others about what our part will be in all of this.  There is excitement as we think about some aspects of the adventure, but there is also a grim and intimidating reality of hardship that awaits us.  Rachel, one of the McCropder team doctors who have been studying French for the past 10 months, shares how hard it was suddenly being reduced to communicating like an 18-month-old.

I couldn't communicate with anyone on the street without extreme amounts of difficulty--from the bread store guy to Maggie's teacher to the nice lady who greeted me at the front door of the church every week...Every day I would have my feeble attempts at speech corrected.  Every paper, every test turned in would be returned bleeding red ink.  I am a smart person.  At least, I used to be.  Maybe I'm not any more.  Why can't I get this?  Why would God call me to do something that I can't do? 

And they haven't even gotten to Burundi yet!  This was still part of the preparation for their work there!  A British family teaching at one of the only English schools in Burundi writes, "...we deal with Cholera, corruption, extreme poverty, cockroaches, power cuts, water cuts, massive inefficiencies, food shortages, fuel shortages, a lack of healthcare, too many guns, nighttime shooting, deadly snakes, rats, malaria, etc..."  Somehow though, they are able to write "We love it here. The work is essential and rewarding. Our lifestyle is great."  How is that possible?  How can all the realities of the first sentence be true, and yet be followed up by the last three?

So how in the world can we look at these examples, among many others, and not run screaming from any mention of Burundi ever again?  (I'm not sure exactly why we haven't thrown out the whole idea, to be honest).  We have no shortage of people pointing out how wonderful and fabulous our life here is--and we agree with them!  We have a lovely home surrounded by a gorgeous view, supportive friends and church, family close to us, Hank's thriving dental practice, etc.  It is not something we want to leave.  How could we give that all up? Why would we give that all up?  

These are the questions in our minds these days.  We pray many times a day for wisdom, for perseverance and joy to live our life fully where we are now, and strength for what is to come.  Whether that is malaria and poverty or the cancer of complacency in the comfort of our castle.

"Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance...beyond the reach of change and decay...So be truly glad.  There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to enjoy many trials for a little while."  (1 Peter 1:3-6, NLT)

Photo by Jordan K. Photography

Hank Jumps off a Mountain

Photo journal of our first day in Europe (guaranteed free of philosophic ramblings)

We flew in and out of Geneva, Switzerland, and then we took a train to Albertville, France.

Immediately upon arrival to the city of Geneva, we located (sans Yelp!) a creperie close to the train station.  We navigated our questions, ordering, and minimal conversation with the proprietress all in French!  This was more due to her gracious patience than anything.

 

Traveling without kids was quite the experience. All we had was in our backpacks.  It felt so strange to have no stroller to push, fold up, and unload each step of the journey.  There were no little hands to hold when we crossed a street.  Things were so quiet at times, we even dozed to catch up on some of the sleep we lost skipping time zones.  It was freeing and a little sad at the same time, knowing that the kids would have loved the adventure of it all.  We consoled each other by reminding ourselves that the reality of jet lagged kids wouldn't be anything close to the idyllic appreciation of new experiences and sights. 

 

There was so much scenery to enjoy.  At one point I nearly ripped our phone charger cord from the wall when I jumped from my seat to get a picture of a castle high up on a hill.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a very good shot, but there are a few others that turned out okay (all these scenery pics were from the train window).

 We were greeted at the train station by Jason, Heather, Anna and Abi.  That evening we enjoyed a dinner of Raclette with the Fader family and Sarah, the elementary teacher for the McCropder team. 

                                
I'm so glad to have pictures of all these things!  It flew by so quickly that I know I would never remember all these details without the help of the camera.