July reading

July was more about people than it was about books--and it flew by. I managed to finish

1) Justification by N.T. Wright. So much that could be quoted but I will just highlight one paragraph towards the end: "Nothing that the Reformation traditions at their best were anxious to stress has been lost. But they are held in place, and I suggest, even enhanced, by a cosmic vision, a high ecclesiology generated by Paul's high Christology and resulting in a high missiology of the renewal of all tings, and all framed by the highest doctrine of all, Paul's vision of the God who made promises and has been faithful to them, the God whose purposes are unsearchable but yet revealed in Jesus Christ and operative through the Holy Spirit, theGod of power and glory but above all love" (247).

and read

2) Sophia House by Michael O'Brien, the prequel to our favorite Father Elijah. The "thriller" part of this book is more cerebral and physical. Excellent. I hope to get to another of his yet this summer (but when??).

3) Cross-x by Joe Miller. This book is about a Kansas City inner city high school debating team. Not a feel-good story like, for example, Stand and Deliver, it probes the lives of some very bright but un-educated black high schoolers and their dysfunctional school. The central question is whether success at the ancient academic discipline of debate as it has evolved in recent years reinforces or subverts the "education" that the system provides for these kids. I swapped this book with my Russian education grad student mentee, Ksenia, for one on Muslim women that I finished in August....but August is going to be devoted, in its reading moments, to learning a bit more about the discipline of teaching ESL and preparing for my CALL course.

June Reading

A little more time for books this month--hooray.

1) Standing Alone in Mecca by Asra Nomani, an Pakistani-American journalist, whose thinking seems incoherent at times, as she tries to understand the inconsistencies of Islam and give her life to it all the while keeping her autonomy. The book could have used a good editor to cut out about half of it. Recommended by my friend, John, who may use it in a course.

2) Daisy Chain by Mary DeMuth. An inspirational novel. May be better than some, but quite overwritten. Ho-hum. Read about it on the internet.

3) In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Danijal Mueenuddin. An inter-related set of short stories set in Pakistan. Excellent though sad.

4) Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith. The latest in the #1 Ladies Detective Agency series. Never thick plots, but wonderfully gently observations about human nature. I'll read the next one when it comes out.

I wish I could have finished N.T. Wright's Justification, but I still have the Romans section to go. Because he is trying to show how the old perspective folk are misjudging his new perspective when they say he denies the soteriological aspects of justification, he writes incredibly long sentences trying to hold soteriology and eccesiology together. Before I begin a sentence, I have to take a deep breath, and I'm rather a fan of complex, convoluted sentences. I love the book though.

Ah, Michigan

Tonight's supper consisted of salmon that our neighbor had caught in Lake Michigan, covered in herbs from my garden and baked; some small new potatoes; fresh Michigan asparagus; and strawberries. Alas, it is still too early for local strawberries, but even these from CA were better than usual. It won't be long until they are available, and my fisherman neighbor has promised more salmon. Let me just say that supper was delicious. We shared it with my dad. Ah, Michigan.

The Reception

The day before all the cousins and friends, especially Nikki from Chapel Hill, decorated the church hall with the s-s-h theme in mind. The white tablecloths were provided by the church. We put a square of Amy Butler fabric on each of the six tables and a larger one on the cupcake table. I had planted herbs in tin buckets and they, plus votive candles and paper airplanes decorated the tables. Gay pennants made of similar fabric hung from the food table and the cupcake table and over each were paper lanterns. We made a bulletin board of pictures from the couple's parents and grandparents' weddings, which was quite a hit. Kelly had constructed a cupcake tower after learning that the cupcake shop's was rickety. They loved it so much, they bought it and asked for another one with the result that they made money by buying the delicious cupcakes! Flying above the tower is a model replica of Gracie Bird announcing "Just Married." The cutest cake topper I've ever seen! Kelly and Ellen also created a crossword puzzle for folk to do about them, and Kelly designed a kids' activity book as well. Ellen asked folk to fill out a card with their name and advice or recipe or joke or whatever that she will eventually turn into a guestbook/scrapbook. Kelly's mom's friends made much of the reception food though the hall decoration crew and I also covered strawberries in chocolate. Ummmm. Church friends manned the kitchen. Ellen was going to give her bouquet to the oldest married couple, neighbors of Kelly's parents, but he was not feeling well and she greeted folk and then went home to him, so that did not happen. She isn't fond of the throwing the bouquet tradition. Cutting the cupcakes--that was about the extent of "tradition" as this fun, relaxed reception. As one of the pictures will show, E's three previous roommates, Mindy from IVCF/Cleveland (#1), Elizabeth from Sarajevo/IFES (#2), and Nikki from Chapel Hill/IVCF Focus (#3) handed her off to # 4 Kelly/Waco!!

Pictures for Sacred, Simple and Homemade

"Sacred, Simple and Homemade"

"Sacred, Simple and Homemade" was Ellen's watchword through the whole wedding preparation process. The ceremony was the traditional Episcopal service; the flowers were picked (by their grower) the morning before at a local Christian commune nestled in a gorgeous valley near Waco and arranged by Ellen's cousin Sheri and her friends Nikki and Maggie. Ellen chose hymn tunes for the music, including "my" song for her, "Jesus I Am Resting, Resting" while the families were being seated. They asked Ellen's pastor/priest from Cleveland, now serving a church on the Mexican border, to "preach Jesus" with a theme of community and he did so, but he also began with references to the new Star Trek movie and to Princess Bride. Jesus was there for those with ears to hear but everyone enjoyed the sermon. The chalice for Kelly and Ellen's Eucharist is an heirloom from my mother's family and has been used by each of her married grandchildren.

Ellen's dress was made by an Etsy (crafting website) seamstress from a jauchard cotton and mine was tailored by a Bhutanese refugee who takes ESL classes at our church. Jenny and Karen's saucy yet demure sundresses, 50s style, were also made by an Etsy seamstress from flowered Amy Butler material. I'm sorry I don't have good pictures of them--will have to wait for the professional ones. In fact, the better pictures come from other amateur photographers, and the professional ones can be sampled at carissabyersphotography.com/blog (scroll down to Ellen and Kelly). The pictures for this post have Chuck and me with the newlyweds.

Rehearsal Day

Since I now send short updates on Facebook, I feel less inclined to use this blog. But it must have a record of Ellen's wedding, for sure, so here are three (I can only manage two pictures per post). These are of the rehearsal dinner at the hangar where Kelly's "learning-to-fly" plane, Gracie Bird, lives with the rest of the Wings for Christ folk. We gave Kelly's sons gifts with a flight theme from the Hampton family and one picture is of the younger one, Joey, giving Karen a thank you hug. The second is of the Tall Hamptons (minus Lyn who was not feeling well and so was unable to attend, much to the sorrow of us all) interspersed with the Short Hamptons (minus Karen, who was probably following around a kid or two), otherwise known as the Georgia Hamptons and the Ohio (or the Family Formerly Known as The Ohio) Hamptons. Kelly's family provided the northern style cookout, all out of town guests gathered, sang a traditional Baptist hymn and enjoyed the food and each other on a beautiful evening.

April and May reading

These last two months have flown by--guess we were busy with a wedding or something :) Only two books each month, a reality I hope to change now that it is summer--well, it would be if it ever warmed up here in Michigan. In April I read by far the best book of the year thus far, Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. I highly recommend this novel about a young Indian-Ethiopian who grows up in a medical mission compound in Ethiopia and confronts his family and identity in America. Many profound moments in this book. I also read a book of short stories set in various African countries called Say You're One of Them by Uwen Akpan. These are thought provoking as well but very very sad. Hope threads through Cutting for Stone.

In May, I skim read an IVP title by Mary Poplin called Finding Calcutta, some reflections on her time working with Mother Teresa. Ellen had a book on her shelf, a pre=print she got at an ALA conference, that she gave to me: a pretty good Muslim-American title, The Writing on my Forehead by Nafisa Haji. It's worth adding to a reading list I'll give my "students" when I teach a CALL (Calvin Academy of Lifelong Learning) course on fiction from the Muslim world this fall.

A Busy Weekend

When spring comes late to these northern climes, it seems to come with abandon. And why not? We've waited long enough. This last week the trees went from bare to lime-y to fully leaved, and the flowering bushes/trees were groaning with blossoms. We planned on going to the Tulip Time Festival Friday evening and Saturday, but the weather people were predicting another cold, rainy Saturday, so we scurried out of town Friday afternoon. That way Karen got to experience the Klompen dancing and the fair-like atmosphere in the sunny warmth late Friday, and Jenny and I got to work in her garden (and C to golf with an Ohio math buddy in Holland for the TT Festival) in the cold and rain Saturday. An observation: Klompen Dancers are primarily women, but while they are also primarily blonde Dutch folk, they come from many ethnicities.

We scurried back Saturday afternoon in time for a new friend from church and his son to cut down two dead trees in our backyard woods. How fascinating to watch skilled workmen doing what they do so well. In one astonishing move, when one of the dead trees got caught in another, Mark cut it further up and dropped it straight down, so it looked as though that's where it had been rooted. Chuck stacked the firewood that Mark and Jon cut and will give it away to any neighbors who have fireplaces. (And he planted my rhodendendron bushes the girls had gotten me for Mother's Day.)

This morning we joined Church of the Servant. The sermon text was I John 2: 1 - 11, about obedience and love as evidences that we know Jesus. Love, said our pastor, curtails autonomy, seeks to create a "we," is alert to the needs of others, and can only be exercised about and should enhance the particularity of others. The music was, as always, magnificent, including a hymn written by my new friend, Coni Huisman.

And now there's a week before I leave for Texas where I'll be mother of the bride for a week. It's going to be a full one, with an extra ESL session and some intake work for Karen's summer program in addition to the normal busyness.

Spring, including the spring edition of fall leaves

Well, it seems as though several days of warm weather followed by some serious rainstorms have allowed some trees to develop some tiny lime-green leaves, the pears and redbuds to blossom, and the tulips to begin to show their colors. At last! Here's a photo of what I planted last fall in my back yard's forest as proof. All this is just in time for us to go to Wooster tomorrow to take care of our yard there in hopes that some planting and mulching in the front will improve the sales potential of the house (we're not holding our breath). In Wooster, the pear trees have probably already bloomed and faded. But friendships are holding strong and we intend to enjoy them as much as possible as well.

A couple of weeks ago (I'm not blogging as much now that I'm on facebook....yes, I gave in), I called the city to ask when their spring leaf-recycling would take place since we had 13 bags of leaves left from the fall. The harried man on the other end said that in order to save money, they weren't having a spring session this year. So what to do with all these leaves that have waited patiently under their cover of snow all these months??? After investigating the options, we decided to have our private garbage pickup company pick up our yard waste as well. It costs some money but it saves a great deal of anxiety about leaves and branches. So far we've gotten rid of 11 of the 13 bags and then we can start on the pile of brush in the far back. (We'll need to rent a branch mulcher in addition.) Having gone through one whole seasonal cycle, we think we have a better idea of how to survive with our wits and bodies intact!