Preparing for Elise: Partie Deux (or, hosting a foreign exchange student)

Posted August 23rd, 2011 by Jen in education, family life, france/french
9 Comments »

Elise arrives next week from France! Her presence always creates a pleasant stir, a certain je ne sais quoi, an excitement of the exotic and faraway lands–and of course, a nervous energy on my part as I prepare for her once again.

The first time around, four years ago when Elise was fourteen, I worried about having her room just so, I squawked about in French trying to improve my language skills real quick like, I fretted over the menu, I positively wrecked myself over itinerary. I’ve since learned, after hosting several foreign students, and especially with Elise, that:

1) my home is a grotesque mansion, our cars are monstrosities, they are used to small and simple in the villages–do not worry about the room;

2) I needn’t worry about my French, their English is better than my French and they want to speak English, that’s why they’re here;

3) they will cook for you and show off their amazing culinary skills, nearly always, if it’s a girl in a home with a smart French mother, so do not worry about the menu and bring on the île flottante;

4) just living with an American family in la vie quotidienne is all they really want–everyday life. Special trips to the beach, museum, or the deepest lake in your state (and the whole U.S. for that matter) are just bonus. They may even want to work during their stay with you to earn some extra cash, and my experience with Europeans so far has been that they are quite industrious and hardworking.

And then there’s this. How to handle politics and religion? She is liberal atheist, I am conservative Christian. Our differences made for some interesting discussions last time. I love her so, and I love her country, and want for her to intimately know the love of God and the miracle of salvation in Christ, and surely the Lord’s merciful hand is upon her return here.

I will speak only as the Holy Spirit leads, and love a lot. I’m not backing down to avoid a conflict, I think I’ve just learned a lot about the French postmodern culture since she first came, and I need to be deeply prayerful about, and educate myself about, how to represent Jesus Christ to the postmodern.

The French hand towels Elise brought as a gift on that first visit are still used daily in my kitchen, and I pray as I dry my hands and a dish, Lord, how can she know objective truth? How to present one crucified and risen Savior, when the very thought of only one and utterly necessary is offensive?

And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:3-6

I’ll be driving to the airport in Portland a week from now, and would you pray for me if it comes to mind? And for Elise? We’ll all have so much fun, she’ll teach us new songs and folk dances and read French fairy tales to the children again, I’m sure. I’ll correct her English because she asks me to, and play chef in the kitchen with her and instruct her about American measures, and she’ll have many questions. And the things of eternity will swirl around, and oh that I will be always full of grace and seasoned with salt, knowing how to answer.

Technorati Tags: education, family life, France, God, hosting foreign exchange student, postmodern culture

Life in a picture frame

Posted August 18th, 2011 by Jen in family life
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I visited Jane yesterday, stepping carefully over oxygen tubes and scattered papers in response to her call to please come by, she had a painting to give me. She worked with oils 25 years ago, and her days closing in like her lungs, wanted me to have this Hopi Indian Woman canvas. Her only son didn’t want it.

“Promise me you’ll put it in a fancy frame.”

Of course I will, I assured her with all true grace mixed with deep knowing. It’s not all together attractive, but it’s like her very soul that she wants well remembered after she’s gone. “Don’t you love the deep purples and blues?” she wanted to know.

Don’t I want my life put up in a fancy frame, too, and hope my children would think it beautiful?

Beauty: Five Minute Friday

Posted August 12th, 2011 by Jen in family life, religion
4 Comments »

The deep burnt red coffee mug I sipped from just now, a swallow of hot, smooth brew, is my favorite. It’s beautiful; a thank-you gift from a friend, it held a bag of quality chocolates on the day it was given. A school year’s end, a child well taught, another chapter closed and a new one to begin. The beauty of life lived together.

This mug I reach for every morning, its gentle curve of a handle makes exactly half a heart; I hold a half, another holds the rest. Is this how it is? Yes, this makes life beautiful, this willingness to have half a heart, to be made complete in relationship with another; a spouse, a sister, a friend, a daughter, and ultimately, the One who created all hearts.

From Gypsy-Mama, a writing prompt:

Want to take five minutes with me and share what you found? Want to just write without worrying if it’s just right or not. Here’s how we do it:

1. Write for 5 minutes flat with no editing, tweaking or self critiquing.

2. Link back here and invite others to join in {you can grab the button code in her right side bar}

3. Go and tell the person who linked up before you what their words meant to you. Every writer longs to feel heard.

OK, are you ready? Give me your best five minutes for the prompt:

Beauty…

Technorati Tags: Five Minute Friday, beauty, God

Fair Time!

Posted August 9th, 2011 by Jen in family life, features, the ranch
7 Comments »

It was county fair time last week, and the kids and I quietly gathered a few items to exhibit in the open class…just for fun.

A few of my photographs…this first one, such a sweet little duckling, and such a sad story! My dear friend Linda, my country neighbor…her little son called me up several weeks ago, entreating us all to come and see! the baby ducks had been born! We all just oohed and ahed at the darlings, hiding there under the mama. It was hot, and a tray of water had been set out for them to wade in. Somehow, no one quite knows how, every one of the six ducklings drowned two days after this picture. I’ll frame this for Linda.

This old fence, like any other country fence, its splintered wood and barbed wire marking a boundary, just captured me. Who twisted those wires way back before rust took hold? What was this barrier keeping in or keeping out?

Did you grow up looking forward to the fair? For me it was the Cochise County Fair in Douglas, Arizona when I was very young. You must know about the cotton candy, cowboy hats and rodeo, happy music, dizzying rides, the earthy smell of livestock, colorful people? Oh, I loved it, and also that long, quiet ride home, all exhausted from that spun out endless day, sleepy eyes on the black sky with twinkling stars, one with my name, and if I turned my head back I could still see the fireworks exploding against that great dark canopy above.

My last year there, I brought my 4-H lamb. There under the bluest sky with those classic Arizona clouds, little white puffs that went on forever, I washed my lamb in the livestock pen, preparing for a final shear, adding to those little white puffs above. This was a market lamb, and this was time for goodbye, a goodbye to daily feedings, walkings, worrying about weight, wool, and bracing a lamb. I remembered when I chose this one, there at Diane’s place down the dusty road from me, and I had the last pick since I drew the shortest straw, but this was the best lamb for me, even though he escaped more than once to explore the tumbleweeds.

My kids didn’t have animals to show this year, but perhaps next time. We submitted photographs, carvings, crafts, paintings, and joined the community of people that have been gathering for a century to show the best of their harvest and hands.

Luke won a blue ribbon for his angry-browed, scar-faced, Victorian button-eyed bear.

Josie won a second-place ribbon for her watercolor of a glass bottle. I was glad the judges overlooked the potential awkwardness of an eight-year-old painting a wine bottle, but she just loved the design on the label.

Levi’s soap carving was fun, another second place. After learning how to do this at school, we spent a terrific summer day at the table slipping about in soap shavings, all the children armed with butter knives and Ivory, and Levi was the only one who could master this art. I remembered him telling his teacher, “I didn’t know I could do this.”

Then there were the “crazy critters”–those healthy creatures carved from our very food, the cucumber shark, the apple swan, and the potato porcupine.

Until next year, my fair friends.

Technorati Tags: Central Oregon, childhood, Cochise County Fair, country life, Deschutes County Fair, food art, photography

Stormy, Yellow Thoughts of Thunder and Puddles

Posted August 2nd, 2011 by Jen in family life, features, religion, the ranch
7 Comments »

The potbellied raindrops came thundering down, the cat hid under the bed, the dog barked at the booms, the kids danced all silly out there under umbrellas, and I was in awe. Don’t you love a good storm?

The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders. ~Psalm 29:3

It was rolling out there last night and I couldn’t take my eyes off the yellow hue of the sky, the light spectrum showing off a new reflection. Now, yellow can have a lowly meaning, as in a yellow-bellied coward. But did you know that a pure, bright yellow is the easiest color to see and that some people blind to other colors can usually still see yellow? And yellow can also symbolize wisdom, intelligence, joy, creativity, and of course energy, as in the powerful energy source of the sun. Have you seen yellow after a storm?

It’s His glory I hear in every rumble and His splendor I see in every strike of light. I do feel small at times like these, and wonder who am I that you are mindful of me?

And then, suddenly, the sun broke through! If only you could have seen through the new lens that flipped, creating vivid, high-contrast shadows thrown long from the junipers, you’d beam and be in awe, too. Thunder still pealed in the distance, echoing a reminder from a far corridor that God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways and he does great things beyond our understanding (Job 37:5).

Luke found a puddle in the midst of this, as all children do, his toes squishing the sticky earth as delighted as a rhino taking a mud bath, while rain pelted his enormous maroon and white umbrella, magnifying the sound of every drop to the decibel of a cannon. I did the same as a child, and would have wondered at any kid in my desert who didn’t like to jump puddles with face in the rain.

Why is this so, this irresistible draw to these pools in the mud? Maybe we’re born to love this, some wild sense of freedom and power, and weren’t we born of the dirt anyway? That day when God scooped up a handful of soil from the ground, it must have been wet and moist, for in those days before the rain the water came from the depths. We all desire to know where we come from, and this was the beginning.

And could it be there’s a sense in this small puddle of the child feeling so big it’s like walking on water? That’s what Jesus did in a storm–He walked on water, so I suppose it’s natural for us to long for the same.

Today, there’s no trace of the storm. It fled fast across mountains and plains for new encounters, and I’m left with the reverberations in my head, and continued pondering of His displays of power. As Psalm 29 ends, after a vivid description of God in the storms, we’re told that “the Lord blesses his people with peace.”

Peace to you~I love that it ends with peace.

{Counting One Thousand Gifts~41-50}:

::thunderstorms::best friends::visiting sisters::tennis with child and grandma::chess with a friend::wildflowers picked for me::great coaches::boys learning football::catching crawdads::river play::

Technorati Tags: Central Oregon, childhood, counting blessings, country life, faith, family life, God, Psalm 29, puddles, thunderstorms