Church Camp

We have our church camp this week, and it's been a good week. Paul and I have been going back and forth, because of things we need to take care of--him, church stuff, me, garden, hens, and our freaked-out cat. Last night we got a date out of it--we went to the new restaurant that serves New Mexico cuisine on Lombard, Encanto. It was delicious! Paul had a very different chili relleno, and I had an enchilada dish that included grilled zucchini. Yum!

Anyway, back to camp. We had a very difficult time convincing Hibi that she should try church camp again. Last year was very difficult for her. She was the new kid, among kids that had been going to church camp for years together. She was (still is!) the priest's kid. She homeschools. And she's just a different kid. Plus she had counselors that were....well, just immature, not ready to deal with these issues. They were just young and didn't know any better. This year she got (at the camp director's direction) two *awesome* counselors, Christina and Margaret. They are crazy wild! And they are treating Hibi with rock star status! Plus she has started to connect with some of the girls. Perhaps also due to these great counselors? Anyway, they were going to have her play her guitar at campfire last night (we missed it)--her favorite, Country Roads. I also informed Hibi that there was someone else there at camp who didn't grow up here and might not be in a tight clique that she has prior experience with....though she didn't remember him very well. It was a boy whose family was at the seminary with us. The two of them were seminary brats together. Hibi always wanted to be his friend but he was a whole year and two months older than she and just was too old for her, in his opinion! That age difference is big when you're 4 and 5. They have been getting to know each other again, and are doing some chanting together. And man, he was the whiz kid then, and he's still the whiz kid. He chants very well.

It seems Zac is having a good time, too. I can tell because I haven't had much contact with him. :-)

Photos are being uploaded every day from camp, courtesy of Jacob Gorny. I found one of Hibi, in the drum circle the first night (for the oldest group only! Boy was that a shock to find she's in the oldest group). I was hoping for pics of me helping make prosphora (communion bread) yesterday with the kids, but it's not there yet, anyway. Maybe one will still be uploaded. Not that I noticed Jacob taking any pictures of it, but I didn't notice him taking other pictures of me that I saw.

Speaking of prosphora. On Saturday night we were at the camp with the counselors, and the kids were due to arrive on Sunday afternoon. Paul was to serve liturgy for the counselors on Sunday morning. He'd brought all his stuff he'd need for the liturgy. Except for one crucial element--prosphora! We all tried to think what to do about it: was someone coming out that could pick it up from the church? Not very practical as we'd have to get someone out there to open it up and turn off alarms....could we make it there? We could, but we didn't have a seal. The seal is a wooden item with carved out symbols on it, so it leaves markings from the symbols on the bread. Each symbol represents someone we commemorate during the liturgy--the different classes of saints, Mary, etc. and the whole of the church. What we finally came up with: I made the bread, and Martha, who is an artist, carved out the symbols in the dough with a knife. It actually came out beautiful! Maybe even better than with a seal. How's that for making do with what you've got? I wish I'd had my camera along to take a picture of that beautiful prosphora.

Zac's New 'Do!

Zac had another big moment today! He got half of his life of hair cut off. Well, almost--he's been growing out this hair for more than 4 years, and he's 10 now. We all think he looks super snazzy!

Here's the before, during and after pics! (No, he doesn't have smallpox or anything...those are mosquito bites that he just can't leave alone.)





Celebrating at Mississippi Pizza afterward!


Zac and I will send in both of our ponytails to Locks of Love together (no, I haven't gotten around to doing that yet!). And I realized that I still haven't posted a picture of me since I got my 19 inch ponytail cut off. (Yeah, I measured it after, and it was 19 inches! Maybe a big more than I would have had to have cut off.....)

So here's me, though I never wear my hair down. I hate hair in my face.

Hmm?

Okay, maybe I'm culturally illiterate, but could anyone give me the definition of the phrase, "ripping me a new one"? Does it mean ripping a new hole in your body? Or what? Anyone? Liz?

Zachary, the reader!

This morning at 1:40 am, a momentous moment occurred. No, I wasn't awake for it either. But Zachary was. He finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to himself!

Zac is what's known as a late reader. He wanted to learn to read at ages 5, 6, 7. But the skills just weren't there. He asked me to help him learn and I tried, I really did. When I'd be teaching him to read CAT, he'd forget what C said by the time he got to A. He just really wasn't ready. I understood that, and I was quite sure that reading would eventually come for Zac, but boy, did he feel like a failure. He once asked me how old each of the other members of his family were when they learned how to read. Hibi? 4. Me? 5. Dad? Um, 3 years old! I hadn't wanted to share that info with him when he was so frustrated with himself but he asked me directly, and it made him feel even worse.

So, over the years I've read books to him because he really loves reading, but couldn't unlock that wonderful world by himself. I read Harry Potter, books one through six, to him and we all enjoyed them together.

Zac became fluent in reading sometime during the year that he was nine (though I don't have a magical time that I could say "he's reading!" like I did with Hibi) and we all rejoiced. He still hadn't read too much by himself, though--just a couple of Magic Treehouse books and parts of the Crispin books, when Harry Potter 7 was slated to come out. Paul said then, that he thought Zachary could read it to himself. I have to admit, I was skeptical! Plus, I enjoyed our reading marathons! But it was decided that we would buy two copies and each of the kids could read their own copy, and then when Hibi was done Paul and I could have our turns. They read in the car on our vacation, and on the day we got the book there was *no bickering.* What a great thing!

And it took Zac a couple of weeks, but he kept plugging away, and I even offered to read part of it to him (because I do miss reading Harry Potter to him!) but he said no.

Recently I read in the newspaper about a classroom filled with at-risk kids who can't read yet (at the tender ages of 6 and 7!) and I was heartbroken at reading about how they drill those kids over and over, to the point where they are so frustrated with themselves and still they have to keep drilling. I thought, that's not teaching those kids the love of reading. That's teaching them they are deficient and need a skill, no more than that. How about cozying up on a couch and just reading together? And when the skills come, they come.

Zac, even though frustrated with himself at times, never lost that joy of reading, that wonder at opening a book and finding a new world inside.

And that's why the world became a little more joyful at 1:40 this morning.

A Good Vacation

I will stop, amid more and more laundry that continues to pile up to tell you about our good vacation!

We started our vacation in Bend, Oregon. We had two reasons for heading to Bend--first, that Paul's brother's kids are staying with family on their mom's side for a few weeks in Bend, and since they live in San Antonio, we wanted to take advantage of them being so close to see them. And the other reason is that we've been wanting to see the high desert museum in Bend ever since we moved to Portland. So, we took CJ, my nephew,along with us to the museum and had a great time! I was impressed by how the museum really seems to have worked hard at going lightly on the land, and not destroying a bunch of trees or natural landscape. But I thought I'd learn much more about the actual natural landscape than I did--we found it to be more about the people who have lived there--Native Americans and pioneers--than about the flora and fauna. Sure, there was that too, but not a whole lot of explanation of that side. All in all, a good time was had there, and I didn't feel it was too huge of a museum to see in one day.

So, after that we went and picked up Faith, CJ's sister, who has a summer job and couldn't come with us to the museum. We had dinner at Kebaba's, which had great middle eastern food. Faith and CJ have never had middle eastern food before. CJ didn't seem to be all that impressed with it, but Faith enjoyed it a lot. She told us there that she plans to attend culinary school. I said, oh! we should have had you cook for us instead of taking you out! Faith is 15 and CJ is 11, and we had a thoroughly enjoyable day and evening with the two of them.

And then we were off to Yellowstone! We had such a great time there. We camped, which is always fun. This was a different sort of camping trip for us though--we usually have lots of time to relax at the campsite. But at Yellowstone we were always wanting to go and see the sights. Our first day there we were driving along the road and saw people looking over an overhang, so we stopped to look. What I saw took my breath away. A whole herd of buffalo--probably 60 or 70! We were to learn that this was a small herd! As I looked down in that valley, tears came to my eyes as I saw what I never thought I'd see, and I thought, wow, we haven't destroyed *all* of the land. I thought bison herds in the wild went away back when we were doing that manifest destiny thing.

We soon learned in Yellowstone that as we drove along, if we saw cars pulled over at the side of the road, and people out of their cars, it meant there was wildlife to be seen. This sometimes happened at the rate of about 3 times per 10 miles! Elk, deer, bison, an elusive moose. Over and over! We never saw any bears, though. Perhaps because of the heat wave? One thing that was extremely disappointing to us: we were told that yes, you can see wildlife from the road, but the animals are not really in their own habitat there. Get out on trails and see them where they really live. So we did. Once we took a five mile hike. But we *never* saw wildlife while hiking, any bigger than a raven, that is.

I have permission to blog this.....one night we decided to get ambitious, even though we didn't have a whole lot of time sitting in the campsite. We decided to make a dutch oven stew. I learned how to do dutch oven cooking at Patrick's Point, where people have all the right implements for doing cooking over the campfire and we could borrow. All we have are the dutch ovens. But Paul found an old bent tent stake and was using that for lifting the lid of the dutch oven. Which you can do with a towel or pot holder, but if you have hot coals on the top you'd have to brush them off or they'll catch fire. So, we made a beautiful stew, and then I put dumplings on the top. Oh, it was looking good. And then it was ready. The stew was cooked to a beautiful carmelized yummyness, and the dumplings were cooked through. Paul lifted the pot with the tent stake, and was going to put it on the table when...it dumped upside down on the ground! My first thought was that we could skim what was on the top off and eat that....but there was no way. There was dirt throughout. He was *so upset!* I thought we should just go check out the lodge restaurant....but he really wanted that stew. No, I can't make more, I told him! Where would I get the vegetables? Heaven sake. So, what we did was to pick through and we picked up each piece of carrot, potato, and cauliflower. We rinsed each bit off. Then we cooked it again and I made more dumplings to go on top. Well, it was edible, though crunchy. And, as Paul said, probably better than anything we would have gotten in the restaurant.

In retrospect, I was thinking, thank God it didn't fall on Paul! That would have been truly disastrous.

One night there was a special program by Jack Gladstone, who is a Blackfeet Indian (he used the word Indian, so I'm going to use it here instead of Native American!) who is a singer/songwriter. We really had no idea what kind of a program we were going to, and I have to hand it to him--he was particularly brave for presenting these issues to a mixed crowd--people who are not necessarily there because they agree with his point of view, or who chose to go see him particularly. He addressed lots of progressive issues, such as consumerism and gas consumption, and of course how the white folks have treated the Native Americans. He reminded me of John McCutcheon, in that he really has a talent for railing on an issue without it seeming hostile! We bought a CD of his. If you have the opportunity to see him in concert, I'd highly recommend it! His website is here: http://jackgladstone.com/

Now, we were in Yellowstone camping the day that the Harry Potter book came out, the seventh and final book in the series. I had expected that the kids would absolutely *have to* have it right away. I found, online, a bookstore in Jackson, Wy that said "if you're passing through Yellowstone, this is where you can pick up the book", so I ordered it there. But the day before we left, I mapquested it and found that Jackson is a three hour drive from Yellowstone! We'd even planned on going to the midnight party. Can you imagine? Us getting back to our campsite at around 4 in the morning. Yeah, that didn't work for me. So I gingerly asked the kids if it'd be alright to wait until after we left Yellowstone to get the book. They said, fine! Phew! We picked it up in Gardiner (which would have been closer in the first place) on our way out on Monday. Zac is still reading it, but the rest of us are finished and we all liked it. It seemed pretty disjointed at the beginning, though. And like they went for months without really doing anything. But the end was satisfying. Although I thought the epilogue seemed somewhat contrived.

Hibi finished the book before we got to our next destination, which was near Bigfork, Montana. We wanted to be near Glacier, but this was the closest we could find that was what we wanted: a cabin. It was a 1 1/2 hour drive to Glacier, so we only went once. But here's the funny thing: I was expecting the crowds at Yellowstone, not Glacier. But it was the opposite. Or maybe Yellowstone has just been better at managing the crowds. The roads in Glacier were in disrepair, and everywhere there were huge crowds of people. We actually just drove right through on Going to the Sun road and went to visit the Blackfeet reservation on the other side. There is a museum in Browning which we thought was very interesting, and Paul bought a flute at the trading post, which has such a nice tone!

We went back to the visitors center at St. Mary for a presentation of Native American dance. That was really cool. All the dancers had on traditional, hand-made costumes and all danced spectacularly. Then we went back outside the park for dinner, to Park Cafe (http://www.parkcafe.us/aboutus.php) and I've gotta say: I didn't think we'd find vegetarian food in Montana. But this was the place! Not all vegetarian, but plenty of options for vegetarians and vegans, and quite tasty. The cafe reminded me of an old-fashioned country cafe, like the Whistlestop Cafe in the movie Fried Green Tomatoes.

On our way to the cabin, we found one of the coolest food co-ops I've seen. I think it even rivalled my very favorite, Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco....it may have even been better! Shh! Don't tell anyone I said so! It was in Bozeman, Montana. I think I want to drive through Montana again just so I can go back to that co-op. :-) http://www.bozo.coop/ So, that's two great places in Montana to find vegetarian and whole foods!

So, then we were on our way back home. We took it in two days, so we stopped in Spokane for the night. There, we made a discovery: our very favorite movie, Benny and Joon, was made in Spokane! So, we had to walk over to the riverside park to see where they shot those scenes. In the morning, we went to Ferguson's Cafe, where they shot the diner scenes. It was cool seeing it, and they had a wonderful stuffed french toast! Then we went looking for the auto clinic that Benny owned in the movie, but we never found it. Ah, maybe next time we'll become full-fledged Benny and Joon nerds.

Oh, and before we got to Spokane: we stopped in Missoula for lunch and went to Bridge Pizza (http://www.bridgepizza.com/index.html). Paul and I had eggplant parmesan pizza! It was delicious and I'd definitely go back on this theoretical road trip through Montana!

I have no pictures for you at this time, alas. I had "camera" on the list that I checked a zillion times before we left home. But the camera still stayed home. The kids had disposable cameras, though, so when we get those developed I'll let you have a peek.

Thanks for reading my disjointed review of our vacation, those who are still reading!

and the garden was beckoning...

We got home yesterday afternoon from vacation, and *of course* I'm going to tell you all about it! But first, what I've been doing today: harvesting and washing and bagging all this garden produce. It's kind of a crazy amount of food here!

A ton of tomatoes! Zac has been eating them like crazy, and I used them in eggplant parmesan last night. Not eggplant from our garden, alas; they are growing, but not there yet. These are the ones that are left over from all that!


Our first artichokes! Yay!


And the squash. Oh, the squash! Leaving squash to grow for two weeks (apparently our housesitter didn't feel like cooking) grows some awfully big squash! These are three zucchini (another the size of the bigger one is in the fridge) and two pattypan squash. Gosh! The fork is there for scale.


Tonight we have the Dorothy Day house anniversary to attend, so I'm still trying to decide among all the great produce we have here (also turnips and green beans and beets!) to cook for the potluck!

Weekend

What a weekend. And we're starting vacation tomorrow...

We went with some friends to their synagogue, because 3/5ths of the family was helping out with the service. Even though Hibi insisted when she was 2 years old, as we'd pass by all those synagogues in Boston that she wanted to be Jewish, I'd never been to a synagogue, and neither had she. Well, except for one of those faux-Jewish experiences, the Jews for Jesus type of church service, which was actually very interesting to us. It was right before we discovered the Orthodox Church, and perhaps the sense of ritual and liturgy helped us along that path? Who knows. Anyway, our experience was a good one, and I hope to go back sometime.

Ah, but blogger (or our new Mac, I don't know) isn't letting me put a link in the text. It was www.magpieima.blogspot.com 's synagogue that we attended.

Anyway, then in the evening said friend had a big birthday party for herself! I think I'm inspired. I think I'm going to throw myself a party next year. No more waiting around for someone else to do it for me. ;-)

This morning we had a very small choir at church, but we still managed to pull it off and I heard many compliments. After church, I walked into the hall for coffee hour and saw that a crowd of people was gathered off to the right, *not* where the coffee hour snacks are. Someone told me that a little old lady had fallen. Oh, that's too bad. But when this person mentioned there was blood on the floor, I ran back in the church to make sure Paul knew, as this sounded more serious than just a fall. He opened the door between the church and the hall, and I was startled to see huge puddles of blood everywhere! A man was cleaning it up and told me that she had hit her leg on the kneeling bench on her way out of the pew. That just didn't compute. That much blood? I went back in the church so I didn't have to step through the blood, and then saw a bunch more blood on the floor by the first pew. I don't know when I've seen so much blood.

(Susan, someone told me that you said it looked like someone had a miscarriage! Yeah, I can see that...)

So, it turns out that she had an ulcerated varicose vein, *and* she was on blood thinners. She was still at the hospital last I heard, about 8 pm this evening.

We're heading out on vacation tomorrow! We're going to Yellowstone and Glacier. Paul and I haven't been since we were first married, and the kids have never been. I'm looking forward to it! Doubtful there will be anyplace to blog from. (Yay! ;-)

But any would-be evil lurkers, don't even think about it, since we have a huge, mean, bald-headed guy house-sitting for us. Okay, not really. He's bald, but very sweet and a terrific guitar player. He just moved here from New Mexico to try to make it as a musician. Maybe he'll play his chicken song for you if you stop by. ;-)