Category: Archives

“Did children die in the earthquake?” my seven-year-old daughter Tabitha asked gravely when I told my children the devastating news.

“Yes,” I said.

She hung her head.

“Will the earthquake come to Japan?” asked Aiden, age six, concerned.

“Not this one,” I replied.

“But there are earthquakes in Japan, right?” Aiden pressed.

“Yes. Sometimes there are,” I answered honestly. “Remember the one we had last summer?” He nodded. It was a small one in comparison, but it left us quite shaken.

Talking to my children about the January 12th earthquake in Haiti was an important but heart-wrenching conversation. With death toll estimates between 50,000 to 100,000, it is even hard for grown-ups to fathom the loss of life.

Why did it happen? Like most adults, my children wanted to know, “Why?” I asked them a question in return. “Why don’t we live in a perfect world?” The answer is one they can recite off the tops of their heads, but it’s easy to forget in situations like these. It bears repeating.

A long time ago, God did create a perfect world. When God was finished with creating the Earth, He was satisfied with His handiwork. He said it was very good. Delicious food was readily available. Adam and Eve were perfectly made for each other. Humans co-existed with wild animals. Childbirth didn’t hurt. There was no death. There was no shame. There was no suffering. There was only beauty and an intimate relationship with the Creator. Adam and Eve disobeyed the one rule that God gave to them. By their own hands, they picked and and ate fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Everything changed.

As humans, created in God’s image, we long in our hearts for perfection and purity. People, even those who do not consider themselves to be “religious”, see pain and suffering and know deep down that it is not how things are supposed to be.

When Jesus, the Great Physician, was on Earth, He performed many miracles. It was as if He was thumbing His nose at the fall and saying, “I am here to restore the Earth to how it was meant to be.” People with life-long deformities, illnesses and injuries were made whole. A blind man saw. A lame man walked. After twelve years of incurable hemorrhaging, a bleeding woman got her life back. Leprosy was cured. Peter’s severed ear was fixed, good as new. As I have said before, never once did Jesus partially heal someone who came to Him. They were always restored instantly. It was never “take two of these and call me in the morning” or “come back in a month to have your stitches removed.”

In a world of quick-fixes, where there is an easy-to-swallow pill for just about any ailment, we have distanced ourselves from the idea that pain and death are real. We think of the “fall of mankind” to be like an ancient fairytale. We forget that we are mankind. We kid ourselves to think that if we just recycle enough plastic, get enough anti-oxidants in our diet and make strong buildings that we can live forever. Natural disasters are especially jarring to us because they poke a hole in our comfort bubbles. They remind us that, as much as we’d like to think so, we are not really in control. That any of us are still alive and breathing after the fall is only by God’s grace and mercy.

We have a responsibility to help. As Christians, we need to help those in Haiti. We can do this by giving, by praying, and by offering our own time if we are able to go and help on the ground. Helping others, though, goes beyond doing something to create a rewarding warm feeling in the cockles of our hearts. Reaching out to those who are hurting and finding ways to gently restore them – not just in natural disasters, but disasters of the soul such as being caught in a sinful pattern – is a way to claim dominion over the fall. Bearing one another’s burdens is a way to show a glimpse of Jesus; of Eden; of Heaven.

It was simple example, but this point was driven home to by my friend Debi at All Saints, my home church. God said, “Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field.” Whenever Debi pulled up the bracken and weeds from her garden, she would call it “exercising dominion,” that is fulfilling one of our purposes as humans, to “fill the earth, and subdue it.”

We can prepare for disasters. While we cannot prevent natural disasters from happening, we can do our best to ready for them. We are not fatalists. If we feel the earth beginning to rumble, we can have our children move away from windows and crouch down under something to protect them. We can teach our children ahead of time tips for surviving an earthquake. We can build strong buildings – the wise man built his house upon the rock. We can keep a reserve of food and power supplies on hand in case there is an emergency. We can practice stewardship all the while remembering our fragility and that sometimes, even when we do everything right, bad things can and still do happen in this fallen world.

We can prepare our hearts. As my children and I read about Haiti’s earthquake, we came across the story of the rescue of 11-year-old Anaika Saint Louis, who later died from complications of her injuries.

One of the things that brought tears to my eyes and peace to my heart was something Anaika’s aunt, Etiana Jean-Baptiste, said during an interview, “[Anaika] said … ‘Bring me a Bible. There is a psalm I like a lot, which is Psalm 23. She spent all her time reading the psalm. She said, ‘My God, come help me.'”

Anaika trusted in God even while her body was being crushed down by the weight of the rubble. She did not give up hope. She lost her mortal life, and gained an eternal one. Even though she was a child, she thumbed her nose at the effects of the fall by putting her trust in Christ. Just as a flower dies and its seeds live on, Anaika’s soul can proclaim in its heavenly body, “O death, where is your victory? Where is your sting?”

The Bible says that God “causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” None of us know the day or the hour when our life will be required of us. We have a choice to live in fear of that moment, or live confidently knowing that our souls are secure.

As mankind, our bodies are not the only things that suffer the effects of the fall. So do our souls. Yet, God did not leave us stuck under the weight of this rubble. He sent his perfect son as a sacrifice for sins that we can again have the same kind of fellowship with Him that Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden.

When I read Anaika’s favorite Psalm, there was something particularly chilling about it that tied everything together for me. It is the message that was amplified in Anaika’s life and death. It is the message that lives on past the grave. We can honor Anaika by realizing what she held fast to even in her dying moments: Jesus restores souls.

Psalm 23

The LORD is my shepherd,
I shall not be in want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

Alton Brown’s beef jerky recipe is my all time favorite. I’ve been making it for a few years now. It takes a steady hand and lots of patience to slice up the meat evenly (I usually make 6lb batches), but it’s so worth the time it takes to prepare.

The most delicious batch I made was with venison. The meat was so deep-red and lean. It sliced beautifully. Veins of fat in the meat can cause jerky to go rancid at a quicker rate — so the leaner the meat, the better.

Instead of using air filters, I modify Alton’s drying contraption by using metal grid cookie cooling racks. I found that the four-knob square Duplo blocks fit perfectly in the holes of the racks, allowing me to stack the racks with a perfect amount of space in between. The knobs fit into the holes in the grid, stabilizing the racks.

I like putting an empty rack on the top to keep little fingers from touching the meat before it dries… because the spiced meat aroma is inebriating and, without the deterrent, the jerky gets sampled unwittingly.

Using plastic wrap, I enclose the sides of the racks and weigh the flyaway edges with butter knives. The cookie racks are slightly smaller than the box fan, so I cover the gap with kitchen towels. I tuck the ends of the towels slightly underneath the bottom rack. These barriers force the air to go up and out through the drying racks, making the most efficient use of the airflow.

Warning: The following recipe makes the most delicious, addictive beef jerky you will ever taste. Make it at your own risk.

Alton Brown’s Beef Jerky

Ingredients

* 1 1/2 to 2 pounds flank steak
* 2/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
* 2/3 cup soy sauce
* 1 tablespoon honey
* 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
* 2 teaspoons onion powder
* 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
* 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
* Special Equipment: 1 box fan, 4 paper air-conditioning filters, and 2 bungee cords

Directions

Trim the flank steak of any excess fat, place in a zip-top bag, and place it in the freezer for 1 to 2 hours in order to firm up.

Remove the steak from the freezer and thinly slice the meat with the grain, into long strips.

Place the strips of meat along with all of the remaining ingredients into a large, 1-gallon plastic zip-top bag and move around to evenly distribute all of the ingredients. Place the bag into the refrigerator for 3 to 6 hours.

Remove the meat from the brine and pat dry. Evenly distribute the strips of meat onto 3 of the air filters, laying them in the grooves and then stacking the filters on top of one another. Top these with 1 empty filter. Next, lay the box fan on its side and lay the filters on top of it. Strap the filters to the fan with 2 bungee cords. Stand the fan upright, plug in and set to medium. Allow the meat dry for 8 to 12 hours. If using a commercial dehydrator, follow the manufacturer’s directions.

Once dry, store in a cool dry place, in an airtight container for 2 to 3 months.

Some books from my home library you might enjoy:

I was so excited when I saw Christine’s name on the scrap of paper Thomas pulled out of our red, green and white pasta dish!

She is an online friend of mine who is also a fellow homeschooler, proponent of natural birth, and wife to a geek ;) She loves the Lord and her family very much, she has been an encouragement to me. When she writes, her posts and comments for others are always helpful, uplifting and thought provoking. There is comfort knowing that there are women like her, who are doing their best and being a light in their corner of the world!

Christine and her husband Stephen are parents to Lily, Stephen, Anastasia, and baby #4 who will be arriving soon!

Christine loves living in the balmy south, sipping sweet tea, where she calls North Carolina home. She shares her passions for natural birth, scrapbooking, healthy living, home education, and frugal living on her lovely blog, Lily of the Valley. You can follow her tweets @christinemary on Twitter.

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Here are the readers’ blogs that were linked in the comments to Winter Blues and Things To Do post. Please stop by for a visit and let my readers know how you heard about them:

Susan – Imagine Creative Name Here

Tamara – Brand of Wisdom

Tara – Considerable Grace

Laura – The Joyful Mom

This is the view from our front yard, a random mall amongst the rice fields. (You may recall the view from our back yard, Mt. Iwaki, from my post a few days ago. Quite a contrast, eh?)

Last night, another foot of snow fell onto our town. This photo was taken at 9am this morning. There were a bunch of snow plows in the mall parking lot (if you click on the photo to enlarge, you can see two plows, covering the front section of the lot), frantically trying to clear the snow before the 10am opening.

I am beginning to realize that last year’s winter was pretty mild. The first storm of winter hit the day we arrived. It snowed more here than back home, and it seemed like winter would not let up. Now, I cannot imagine what it would have been like for us if it had snowed as much last year as it has this year. I had no idea how bad it could be — and I have heard it can get even worse than this!

Even with more snow, we are better off this year.

Here are some reasons why:

This time around, we know where the laundromat is located. Last year, we had wet clothes for seven people drying in random places around the house.

We know the roads a little better. Last year, we drove around but everything was snow covered and difficult to visualize where we were. We had to re-learn the roads when everything thawed, as they looked much different.

We found a closer onsen for when we need to get clean AND warm. Last year, we drove to one about 30 minutes away as we were able. Our bathroom is not heated — you can see your breath in there! I realize that most of my friends back home cannot relate to going to a community bath, but during winter months here, onsens are a life-saver.

Last year, we did not know about local events until it was too late to book a hotel. This year, we have our accommodations booked for next month’s Sapporo Snow Festival. (I am looking forward to drinking warm sake and taking photos of all the ice and snow sculptures!)

Last year, I did not have a decent pair of boots. This year, I am sporting these tall Bogs waterproof boots. Mobilized, baby.

Last year, never having experienced the amazing spring and summer months, I felt pretty hopeless about our new location. This year, I know that this part of Japan does in fact warm up, and I am eagerly looking forward to spring.

I just took the weirdest bath with three of my girlfriends.

Our region is famous all over Japan for apples. Apples show up in the most interesting places here, paying homage to our agricultural heritage. Tonight’s special at our local onsen was an “apple bath”. One would think that it meant maybe apple scented bath salts were put into the water — but not so. There were just plain apples bobbing in the water. Sitting in the bath was like sitting in a giant bobbing-for-apples bucket, only with steaming hot water instead of cold.

The apples weren’t fresh, either. We closed the place, and, by 11:30pm, the apples had taken a beating from steeping all day. Some had bite marks from where children had bitten into them.

We sat for a while, serenely getting wrinkled, surrounded by apples.

Stealthily, I threw an apple under the water.

Score!

The apple right went right under my one of my friend’s legs, shot up, and hit her behind the knees.

“Oh!” she said, startled…. and then threw one back.

Apples were soon bouncing off bodies and shooting up out of the water.

Much to all the old ladies’ chagrin, we were splashing and laughing so hard.

Crazy night. Only in Japan.

Photo Credit: Bobbing by Bravo Whiskey via Flickr.

I have always been a night owl. Just ask my parents.

As mom, staying up late conflicts with my children’s natural waking time of around 8am.

Last year, I was doing well with keeping a schedule. Since I came home from vacation, the schedule bombed. I became very homesick and stayed up really late chatting online with friends and family back home (who were awake in a different time zone) and writing to fill the void. Writing and keeping in touch are admirable, but they were not what I was supposed to be doing during those hours — resting so I could be refreshed for my family.

In the morning, I was waking up when my children wake up, instead of waking up a little earlier to get the day started. In other words, there no prep time in the morning, only hitting the ground in panic mode — a problem that no amount of coffee can fix.

Changing one’s sleeping and waking schedule is not an easy thing to do. However, I knew it was best for my family and it was what needed to be done.

Last week, I made a point to change. I was not used to going to bed earlier. For the first few nights, I stared at the ceiling, not tired, thinking, “Why am I doing this??”

I realized, though, that I fell asleep around midnight, before I would have normally gone to bed between 1am and 3am. It was a rough start that resulted in a small victory. After two days, I felt tired around 11pm. During this transition, I tuned into my body and noted that I need about seven hours of sleep to feel rested.

I did not make this change by myself, though.

Primal Stride began a challenge last week to wake at 5am and run 5k. With many people participating and Seth Simonds at the helm to motivate the crew, we have formed a community of sorts of people who are committed to doing small things and seeing big changes as a result.

The idea is that when you rejoice in victory over small changes, you challenge yourself a little more. Before you know it, you are rejoicing in bigger victories. By focusing on a small goal on the path to the bigger goal, I am not as overwhelmed. I am realizing I can apply this idea to more than going to bed on time and waking earlier.

The snow is about three feet deep presently, with nowhere to run outdoors. To make it work for me, I modified last week’s Primal Stride challenge by running up and down my stairs, which are quite steep and tall. The steps probably total nowhere near 5k, but my heart rate is up and my legs are shaking by the time I am done! A small victory.

On Reddit, we have a saying, “Pic or it didn’t happen”. Part of Primal Stride’s interactive challenge is to take a photo of the sunrise. This photo was taken January 4th. I bundled up, walked the recycling to the bin down the street and kept walking. It was more of a slow shuffle with arms out to balance. The roads are ice-covered. There is a sidewalk about two blocks from my house. I made it to the sidewalk and walked to its end. Then, on my way back, I fell right as a snowplow was passing by. The driver laughed. So did I. (I also learned that the snow plows are out at sunrise and that you can get trapped by them, as there is no shoulder to escape to when they come down the street. Unintentionally, I was quite annoying. They had to stop and wait for me to get to the next street before they could do their job. Oops!)

Above is a photograph taken of Mt. Iwaki at sunrise from our back driveway. Seeing the mountain made me realize the beauty I had been missing out on each morning. It is like looking at a fresh clean sheet of paper; a day waiting to be written upon. (Yes, I was that kid, who could not wait to get her crisp notebooks at the beginning of the school year!) Is that some serious motivation or what?

I feeling more rested and calm when I wake. The result is that I can be more focused on my writing in the morning, rather than staring at the screen, late at night, slowly hashing out words, overshadowed by feeling guilty for staying up so late. I am also prepared for my kids, so that I can meet their needs when they wake up without beginning the day with a meltdown.

As far as running up and down the steps? I can now run up and down 11 times before I have to stop. I started at having to stop after nine times. Throughout the day, I run up and down as many sets as I can fit in.

Want to join me for challenge #2?

Primal Stride Challenge 2 – Double Crunch

Begins: 12:01am Friday, January 8th, 2010

Ends: 11:59pm Thursday, January 14th, 2010

THE CHALLENGE:

Exercise: 250 crunches per day. Split them up however you like. 250 crunches every 24hrs will do it.

Health: Eat a different green vegetable each day. Suggested modifications include eating a different fruit each day or preparing a green vegetable in a different way each day. It’s up to you! Be creative!

Remember: You can customize the food and amount of crunches to suit your needs. Just make sure to include the changes when you sign up by leaving a comment!

PS: If you are in a rut, no matter how deep or small, and need some literary motivation, I highly recommend these books from my library, which I have recently re-read :