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Show and Tell Friday: Gifts from other countries

Posted on June 13, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home hosts “Show and Tell Friday” asking “Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find. Your show and tell can be old or new. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there’s a story behind your special something, that’s even better! If you would like to join in, all you have to do is post your “Show and Tell” on your blog, copy the post link, come over here and add it to Mr. Linky. Guidelines are here.

My husband and oldest son were in Brazil last week: my husband had a business conference and invited our oldest to go along. Jim doesn’t usually bring souvenirs home from trips — he travels too much for that to be feasible. But since this was a foreign country he thought it would be nice to get something for everyone.

The trouble was finding something distinctly Brazilian. He was in Sao Paulo, and most of the markets and street vendors had things that looked like they came from America or China. But he did find a few nice things. He got everyone else t-shirts, but I got these:

This is a hair clip, but I want to try to either remove the clip part or somehow add a pin onto it so I can wear it like a pin rather than in my hair. I think it’s cute!

This was from a street vendor.

This is a cute little box. He knows my tastes well, doesn’t he?

While I was showing international gifts, I thought I would show these, too. I’ve shown before things my middle son brought home from Africa and my Venezuelan basket, a gift from a missionary friend.

This little windmill was from my husband’s one other international trip: he had gone to Austria but I think he may have gotten this during a layover in Holland.

This is from another mission trip my middle son took with his youth group to Mexico. It’s supposed to hold tortillas to keep them warm, but I haven’t used it for that purpose: the tortillas we get are larger plus I don’t want to mess it up.

My middle son’s girlfriend is an American of Indian descent, and her mother took a trip to India last fall and sent this back for me. I think these kinds of elephants are a big deal over there: she also sent a couple of keychains for the boys with elephants like this on them.

I think this came from one of my husband’s coworkers who was from the Philippines or had taken a trip there. It has some pretty detailed carving but was ridiculously inexpensive. I smudged out our last name. 🙂

And I think that’s just about everything I have from other countries.

You can click on the button above to find more Show And Tells or to join in.

I confess: I don’t really like to cook

Posted on June 12, 2008 by Barbara Harper

That may sound strange coming from a SAHM who strongly believes the Bible teaches that married women are to be “keepers at home.” But many times I have chafed against this part of my job description.

Oh, I love to eat and I like good food prepared well. I just don’t particularly enjoy the process of doing it myself. There are any number of things I enjoy more, and I sometimes resent that I have to lay aside those things in order to go make dinner.

Yet, even if we were in a situation where I could hire a cook, I can’t foresee that I ever would, unless I wasn’t physically able to cook. It just wouldn’t seem right, and I don’t know if I could ever show someone else how to make things the way I like them (and I am particular about how my food tastes!) It would be easier and less stressful to do it myself.

On one Christian message board I was on, one of my most-commented on posts was something along the lines of “What do you cook when you don’t feel like cooking?” A lot of ladies said something like, “I am so glad to know someone else shares these feelings!”

Yet, cooking is part of my job and one my family probably appreciates and depends on the most. (By the way, I do know that in the Bible men cooked sometimes, but in our household division of duties, cooking is my lot. My husband works 50+ hours a week and I wouldn’t ask him to take this on, too [though he does grill the main dish on Sundays frequently.] I would rather stay home and make dinner than have to work outside the home.)

It does help if I remember everyone has to do things they don’t feel like doing. My husband probably doesn’t feel like going to work every weekday or having to cut the grass and make repairs on weekends.

It also helps if I actually do plan ahead for it: though I enjoy planning and shopping probably even less than cooking, if I do have some basic menu plans in mind it makes meal preparation much smoother and therefore less frustrating and time-consuming.

It also helps if I “get into it” more. When I am thumbing through recipe magazines I can get excited about trying new things.

But it helps most of all to remember that it is an act of service. There are many examples of preparing and serving food in the Bible. The virtuous woman of Proverbs 31 “riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens” (verse 15). Sarah prepared food for Abraham’s unusual visitors (Gen. 18). Even the Lord Jesus prepared food for some of His disciples (at least, fish were being cooked when they came to Him in John 22:9). There is a larger sense in which He prepares and provides for us spiritually, calling Himself the bread of life (John 6:35, 48). Food provides strength; it is part of hospitality, which we’re commanded to; serving in His name brings promise of reward; giving food and drink to His brethren is as serving Him.

Lord of all pots and pans and things
Since I’ve no time to be
A saint by doing lovely things
Or watching late with Thee
Or dreaming in the sweet dawn light
Or storming Heaven’s gates,
Make me a saint by getting meals
And washing up the plates.

Although I must have Martha’s hands,
I have a Mary mind,
And when I black the boots and shoes,
Thy sandals, Lord, I find.
I think of how they trod the earth,
What time I scrub the floor:
Accept this meditation, Lord.
I haven’t time for more.

Warm all the kitchen with Thy love
And light it with Thy peace;
Forgive me all my worrying,
And make all grumbling cease.
Thou who didst love to give men food,
In room or by the sea,
Accept this service that I do–
I do it unto Thee.

~ Author unknown

(Graphic from Creative Ladies Ministries)

Thursday Thirteen: Dad’s Famous Sayings

Posted on June 12, 2008 by Barbara Harper

In honor of Father’s Day this Sunday, I thought I’d salute dads and post lines that seem common to dads everywhere. Did your dad say these? Can you think of any others?

1. Do you think I am made of money? (or Do you think money grows on trees?)

2. This is going to hurt me a lot worse than it will hurt you.

3. You’re not leaving my house dressed like that!

4. Close the door. Were you born in a barn?

5. As long as you live under my roof, you will live by my rules.

6. Don’t make me stop this car!

7. “Hey” is for horses.

8. When I was your age , I….

9. You didn’t beat me. I let you win.

10. Who said life was supposed to be fair? Life is not fair.

11. I’ll tell you why. Because I said so. That’s why.

12. What are your intentions with my daughter?

13. You’ve got a headache? Here, let me step on your toe, and you’ll forget your head hurts.

More Thursday Thirteens are here.

(Graphic courtesy of Snapshots of Joy)

Like…you know…

Posted on June 10, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I saw this at Joyful Days, and wow, does it ever hit home! Hilarious but apt.

If you came to my house…

Posted on June 10, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I saw this fun meme at My 3 Boys and I

If you came to my house…

You would see:

If you came to the front door, a very small porch area and an outer door in need of paint, and the inner door with this…

However, if you came to the side door you’d see roses and hydrangea in bloom just now.

We’d probably feed you:

a chicken and potatoes and carrots crock pot recipe that I often make for company and something with chocolate for dessert.

And offer you this to drink:

oh, we have a wide assortment of juices, tea, colas, and, of course, water. Which would you prefer?

We’d undoubtedly ask if you’d read:

Amy Carmichael, Isobel Kuhn, or Elisabeth Elliot, the Bible.

We’d want to play this music for you:

Possibly Jesse’s latest recital piece if we are talking about an instrument; if recorded music, if I have any on while company is here, it is without words so as not to compete with conversation. My two favorite instrumental recordings are guitar CDs Hear My Prayer by Matthew Burtner and Sun of My Soul by Brian Pinner and David Chapman. Or maybe any of the Eine Kleine Kaffeemusik CDs

We’d want to tell you the latest about:

Jim and Jeremy’s trip to Brazil.

We’d probably suggest a game of:

Apples to Apples or Ticket to Ride or Wii bowling.

We might show off:

I don’t like to think of it as showing off, but often people ask to see the house.

We might get on the computer and show you:

Pictures! 🙂

If it was a long enough visit, we might watch:

A DVD, though we don’t own too many — a few Austen-esque chick flicks, most of the Pixar films, the LOTR series.

What would a visit to your house be like?

I hope it would be relaxed and enjoyable.

Let me know if you do this one, too — I’d love to come visit. 🙂

Comings and goings

Posted on June 9, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I mentioned a while back that various ones of us were going to be traveling throughout the summer.

Jim and Jeremy just got back from Brazil, and Jason left Friday to spend the summer in CA counseling at a Christian camp. Jesse and I were alone most of the weekend — it felt so strange! I didn’t mention it while they were gone — didn’t want any cyberstalkers to know!

Jim and Jeremy left Monday and just got back Sunday. Jim’s company had a conference, and Jim invited Jeremy to go along: if Jeremy could pay his own airfare, everything else was pretty much covered. Jim has traveled internationally once before but this was Jeremy’s first time.

Jim’s passport got pickpocketed at one point, but thankfully just a short time later someone came along with it. Whether the pickpocket was after his wallet and dropped the passport when he realized that’s what he had, or whether someone actually took the passport hoping to get a reward for bringing it back. we don’t know, but I am thankful his wallet wasn’t taken and that the passport was returned before they had the headache of dealing with the logistics of that.

Jim’s cell phone was supposed to have an international plan, but his cell phone wouldn’t work there. However, we were able to talk through Skype — somehow he used it on his computer to call the house for just a few cents a minute whereas the phone call would have been $2 a minute. Once he called through Jason’s Internet tablet and we actually got to see each other while talking (and I am glad I don’t have to understand these devices to use them). So we pretty much got to talk every day.

This is Jason’s fourth summer going to CA, and you’d think we’d be used to it by now. With all the discussion and preparation for going, it didn’t really hit me until I walked him out to his car, then I got teary but held off crying til after he left.

He was flying out of Charlotte way early Sat. morning, so we decided, instead of getting up at 3 in the morning and having that drive with little leeway if something happened with the car or whatever on the way and being groggy behind the wheel, he should drive there Fri. night and stay in a hotel using Jim’s points (something like frequent flyer miles, but for hotel usage). Jim and Jeremy were flying into the same airport, so the car would stay at the airport for a little more than a day til they got there.

All of the gadgets we have access to (and we are a gadget family) like GPS devices and cell phones and directions from the computer do help a lot in sending a child off, but it is still not easy. My mind was tumbling with last minute reminders and instructions as Jason was leaving and I finally had to tell myself to just stop. We had already talked about everything, and going over it all again would just add to the nervousness. Part of letting them grow up is letting them take responsibilities and deal with the ups and downs of everything involved.

I am happy to say everyone’s travel plans went well and everyone arrived at their destinations with relative ease. Traveling is draining even as quickly and relatively easily as it is these days compared to what it used to be.

Everything went well at home, too — no broken appliances or cars or anything else that a wife can dread happening while a husband is away. Laundry, dishes, recycling, and getting ready for church are all a lot easier with just two! Meals aren’t — I tend to just go with simple stuff when there are just two or three of us at home. But with the empty nest looming in the next several years, I need to brush up on that. I do get Cooking For Two magazine — I should probably put those recipes in a separate file for quick reference.

And it’s odd to discover that one can enjoy quiet and solitude and still be lonely at the same time. Nights are the hardest — aside from safety issues, Mother Hen likes to know everyone is safely tucked in at night and there is an unsettled feeling when everyone’s not there. I supposed I’ll have to get used to that in the coming years. But I won’t think about that now. 🙂

“I Remember Laura” blogathon, week 2: Buttons

Posted on June 9, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Miss Sandy of Quill Cottage is hosting an “I Remember Laura” blogathon on Mondays through the month of June in memory of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author if the “Little House” series of books. There will also be an art swap going on each week in connection with the theme: Click on the picture for more information.

Also throughout the month (I believe on Wednesdays) she will be sharing parts of an interview with Laura Ingalls Gunn of Decor to Adore, a descendant of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Part I of that very interesting interview is here.

This week we will be sharing button collections, button identification and care, as well as button stories. Did you have a favorite dress with special buttons? Did you play in your grandmothers button box? There are many descriptions of the buttons used on clothing in the Little House books, from the plain and serviceable ones for the work shirts Laura made button holes for, the bright and beautiful like the ones that looked like berries on Ma’s dress that she wore to the sugaring off party, to the fabric covered ones for Laura’s best brown dress. Tell us about your button tales!

I don’t remember for sure if my grandmother had a button box: she may have. Somewhere and somehow I developed a love for beauitful and unique buttons, and I seem to have a vague memory of sifting through a collection of them. Though I haven’t sewn clothes in a while, one of my favorite parts of the planning process was shopping for buttons.

Long time readers will probably be getting tired of this picture, but this is my all-time favorite craft I have ever done with buttons, inspired by this one and this one.

I love the vintage look, even though the buttons aren’t vintage: Michael’s sells packets of vintage-looking buttons as well as other kinds. To make it, I googled “heart shape” to find a pattern, cut the pattern out of a lightweight cardboard (which I think was white: if it hadn’t been, I would have painted it white). Then I glued the flat and plain buttons on the base and added the more decorative ones on top. I didn’t make the plaque below it: I just wanted to show the area where the wreath hung. But it is an idea that could be used to showcase special buttons.

Here is another little button craft: a Christmas ornament, made the same way.

Here are some soft trees for which I used buttons, inspired by this one and this one (pattern is at this one as well):

This was a tray I used as a decoration around Valentine’s Day which includes many heart-shaped buttons.

Here are parts of my button collection.

Some in that one are more like charms or jewelry pieces, but they work well in crafting.

In addition, a while back I had a post about various button crafts here: I would add to that this button board I just recently saw here. There is also a Flickr group of Button Wreaths and Button Wreaths, Trees, Balls and Flowers as well as Soft Trees. They are all feasts for the eyes, imagination, and creative juices!

He who would valiant be

Posted on June 7, 2008 by Barbara Harper

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Hebrews 11:13

He who would valiant be ’gainst all disaster,
Let him in constancy follow the Master.
There’s no discouragement shall make him once relent
His first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.

Who so beset him round with dismal stories
Do but themselves confound—his strength the more is.
No foes shall stay his might; though he with giants fight,
He will make good his right to be a pilgrim.

Since, Lord, Thou dost defend us with Thy Spirit,
We know we at the end, shall life inherit.
Then fancies flee away! I’ll fear not what men say,
I’ll labor night and day to be a pilgrim.

~ John Bunyan

Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. I Peter 2:11-12.

Book Review: Sisterchicks Go Brit!

Posted on June 6, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Sisterchicks Go Brit! is the seventh in the Sisterchicks series by Robin Jones Gunn. A “sisterchick” is defined as “A friend who shares the deepest wonders of your heart, loves you like a sister, and provides a reality check when you’re being a brat.”

This series is a lot of fun and very easy to get into, yet it is hard to call it a “light” read because of the lessons, spiritual and otherwise, that the friends learn. Each book has a different pair of friends in different stages of life going off on an adventure, deepening their friendship, learning about themselves, each other, another country, and their relationship with the Lord.

The friends/sisterchicks in this book are mid-life moms Liz and Kellie who end up in England, where Liz has been wanting to visit since she was a teen-ager. In one sense the landmarks and customs were a little more familiar to me: I have never been in England, but of course I have heard and read more about it than other countries.

In a sense this book didn’t seem quite as “fun” to me as compared to the others, but it has been a long time since I read the last one, so I am not sure whether my memory is faulty. But perhaps it is just that I struggle with some of the same things Liz does and would have had a much harder time when things didn’t go according to plan or when glitches came up than she did. I “know” on one level that God is in control and in charge of all such things, but when I seek Him in the planning stages I tend to think that everything will go according to plan…and, of course, it doesn’t, then I get tense and nervous. I appreciated the reminder and the example to learn to just entrust the Lord with the schedule and the events and everything that happens in connection with them, knowing that He is in control and can handle everything that comes up — and that He might have an interesting detour I never would have thought of.

I appreciated the emphasis, too, that “midlife” doesn’t mean your dreams and your work are ready for the shelf, but it can be a time of exploring and expanding on them.

I do recommend the Sisterchicks series. Let me know if you have read this one or any of them and what you think.