An Abbreviated Daybook

Outside my window: Gray skies and chilly days. Sunday, though, the weather after church was so warm and sunny that we packed up the kids, stopped to pick up a sack of BBQ and hushpuppies, and headed to a nearby state park for a riverside picnic and hiking. Getting out the door with two babies is just a bit more work, but always worth it.

I am listening to artillery. It’s been a noisy “war zone” week with helicopters barreling back and forth just above the treetops all day and the Marines in town for training. Artillery is normal here, with occasional loud days and disrupted nights. However, the Marines living over by the coast don’t have ranges long enough for their biggest guns and rockets, so they haul them inland every Spring and then cram a year’s worth of training into two weeks, firing all day and all night and shaking our house like a baby’s rattle. Imagine a bus careening off the road and ramming your house every two minutes; it’s a close approximate.

In the kitchen we’ve been experimenting with vegetable soups for Lent. I’m working alphabetically through the single-vegetable soups section of James Peterson’s wonderful Splendid Soups. Artichoke, asparagus, and avocado all made delicious soups. We’re skipping beets (not a favorite) and cardoons (car-what? car-where? no specialty Italian veggies in rural nowheresville) and moving on to carrots.

I am reading An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler. A fantastic read if you’re looking for motivation in the kitchen. It is delightful and inspiring. It is neither a cookbook nor a series of essays, but something in between, full of ideas on how to use every part of everything, and use it well. It’s an invitation to play in the kitchen, starting from the ground up rather than from a recipe down. The tone is sometimes a bit annoying (affected casual, if that’s possible?), and every so often there’s something that sounds good but doesn’t really bear up scientifically. This book assumes some basic cooking knowledge and is not really for beginners even though it’s presented that way. Those small caveats aside, I’m reading and re-reading, making mental lists, playing in the kitchen, and planning on buying it for keeps after returning the library copy.

I am creating something out of nothing. Or at least, meals out of scraps I normally overlook or throw away, thanks to An Everlasting Meal. Last night I brewed up a savory vegetable broth with the greens from leeks, tough broccoli steams, onion skins and ends, celery leaves, a couple of carrots, and other odds and ends. It will be the base for carrot soup on Friday. Meanwhile, parmesan risotto for dinner with bacon-wrapped asparagus.

I am thankful for my husband. The twins received another round of immunizations on Friday. Fussy fevers x 2 are much more manageable when Dad is home to baby juggle.

I am wearing jeans, a sage green t-shirt, and a charcoal gray Old Navy cardigan.

Around the house Taxes, plus advance preparations for many things: Easter (the neighbors are coming for Easter dinner), a road trip (our first nights away from home with the babies. Tips for traveling with babies, anyone?), and house guests, in addition to the usual chores and cooking. We started into Spring yard work over the weekend as well.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Walking with a friend and her young baby, hosting dinner for a house-hunting Army doctor moving to our post this summer, and a Palm Sunday potluck at church.

A peek into my day…

Our daughter is always done at bedtime, no matter how early we start her feeding. At the start of her evening bottle she is wide awake, squealing and smiling. By halfway through, she’s rubbing her eyes and burrowing into our shoulders. At the end, it’s always a race to coax a burp out of her before she flops over into a warm limp puddle of sleeping baby. Her brother is exactly the opposite. With eight delicious ounces in his belly he thinks it’s party time and always flails, chats, and coos as we put him down and give him a goodnight kiss. He’s always asleep within a few minutes, though.

Quick Takes

Yesterday afternoon I took a break from work to start French Dip sandwiches for dinner. Midway through preparing the ingredients I realized the recipe called for a bottle of beer. We rarely buy alcohol (I know, I know, what kind of military household are we?) so I texted my neighbor asking if she had a spare bottle.

A few minutes later the doorbell rang and her three-year old handed me a cold Dos Equis. Train them to perform crucial chores young, I say.

*****************

He also likes to pick up his father’s empty beer bottles, take a fake swig, then walk around rubbing his belly and saying “Yum, beeeerrrrr.”

*****************

(Meanwhile, my eldest brother and his fellow seminarians must vow to abstain from alcoholic drinks for the duration of their training. In substitution, he’s discovering more alcohol-spiked foods than I knew existed, which follows the letter if not the spirit of the law. The chocolate-bourbon sauce is particularly delicious.)

*****************

The beer went into the slow cooker with a hunk of beef, some broth, and a few odd seasonings. This recipe had great reviews, and the savory au jus was delicious, but the meat came out dry and stringy. I’m not normally a fan of meat cooked in crockpots because it essentially boils rather than roasting. Also, I guess you can’t substitute the “three hours on high equals 8 hours on low” slow cooker formula for roasts? Since that was a semi-fail, does anybody out there have any slow cooker hints, tips, or favorite recipes? I still prefer the oven but would love to figure out one or two good slow-cooker meals for days when we’re out and about and arrive home tired.

*****************

Later that night when I brought bread, shredded beef, and broth in to the hospital, Carl didn’t care that the meat was dry. He just cared that food had magically appeared. Males are wonderfully easy that way. Especially starving on-call males with tired faces and sticking-out-in-all-directions hair.

*****************

He finally arrived home after 9:00 pm, then spent the whole night up researching and talking with his residents on the phone as they struggled with a very ill patient. When he finally staggered to bed at 7:00 in the morning they’d saved the life of a 92-year-old woman but lost a lot of sleep. Just as he faceplanted on the mattress, the sun rose, the birds kicked up a ruckus, and the heavy artillery on post began. Poor man. He came down for bacon and eggs at 10:00, which covereth over a multitude of miseries. 

*****************

We marked our anniversary this week, also on an ICU day so the nice dinner will wait until the weekend. We’re very grateful for our marriage, though. Thankfully our wedding went better than this one.

 

Say what!?…Sir

Captain Benjamin Tupper’s Greetings from Afghanistan, Send More Ammo is a fast read but not a light one. Do not read it if your loved one is currently deployed or about to head over. I’m all for facts and mental preparation, but this one gives way too much scope for a spouse’s imagination to run wild. Carl leafed through it and several other Afghanistan-related books in preparation for deployment. I didn’t touch it until his return.

It does have some entertaining-in-an-utterly-horrifying-way passages.

When an IED is discovered, U.S. Army policy is to leave it alone, secure the site, and notify EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal). However, Afghan National Army standards are less strict and one day an ANA soldier walked up to CPT Tupper and dumped a burlap sack full of armed antitank mines, claymores, and detonator packs at his feet. Tupper called the officer at his Tactical Operations Center.

“When apprised of the situation regarding our pile of armed IEDs, his original plan was sound. Call EOD and wait in place until they arrive to take the IEDs. But when the EOD unit failed to show up at our position, he then ordered the IEDs to be delivered by us to the nearest EOD unit, which was along our route home to our FOB. No problem. Then he ordered us to place the sack inside the Humvee and transport the items to EOD. My alarm bells went off, and Corporal Polanski’s eyes opened in horror as he heard this order over the radio.

Knowing that the ride back to the EOD unit was a bone-jarring, bouncing one rivaling that of any roller coaster, I politely questioned his order. ‘Sir, do you think it’s a good idea to put those armed devices inside the Humvee, given that they will be tossed around like juggling balls?’

‘Yeah, the Humvee is armored, so you will be okay,’ was his response. More shock on Ski’s face.

‘But, sir, the explosives will be inside the armor, not outside of it,’ I replied. ‘If the IEDs explode, all the blast will be contained inside the armor, turning us to Swiss cheese.’

‘Just put them in there, you will be fine…’ “

It sounds insane, but you’ve probably run into equally incompetent leadership. Automatic promotion can be scary.

Daybook Prompts

I haven’t been able to take photos or complete any new projects this week, so I’m cheating by borrowing another set of prompts to make a post:

Outside My Window A sunny day with fall hints and summer remnants. Our maple trees have begun to turn in the cool nights but the garden plants still droop heavy with tomatoes in the afternoon heat.

I am Listening to Telemann and his contemporaries on pandora. As the saying goes, “If it ain’t Baroque, don’t fix it.”

I am Wearing Jeans, a red and white pin-striped collared shirt, brown leather belt, and a necklace from Carl’s mother. After a summer trying to stay cool in shorts and t-shirts it’s a new dressy-casual routine.

I am Grateful for the beautiful state we live in thanks to the Army. There are amazing places in every direction, something we don’t take for granted after life in hot, barren south Texas. Despite eight months deployment and training, in our year here we’ve explored together through 14 state parks and wilderness areas, six town or county trails, and four national wilderness areas. We’ve barely scratched the surface on beautiful places to hike, camp, swim, walk, and picnic (not to mention the historic sites and interesting towns deserving a post all their own).

I’m Pondering “…the first minutes on the pulpit are the most favorable, so do not waste them with generalities but confront the congregation straight off with the core of the matter.” Many pastors and priests begin sermons with an anecdote or generic introduction, but Dietrich Bonhoeffer had a point. Sometimes that warm-up merely wastes the few initial moments of a sermon when most listeners’ attention is focused. If a teacher waits to reach real substance until well into the lesson, a significant percentage of those in the pews may already have drifted into their own daydreams. This applies to conversations, not just sermons. Do we waste time on gossip when there’s real substance to be discussed or real needs to be met?

I am Reading Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas. An excellent, thorough biography of a courageous and faithful man. German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer ran several illegal underground seminaries in Nazi Germany, helped smuggle Jews out of the country, passed intelligence to Britain, participated in the conspiracy to overthrow Hitler, and faithfully ministered to fellow prisoners in jails and concentration camps until his martyrdom by hanging shortly before the war’s end, all while writing numerous influential theological works still widely read today. The writing in this biography sometimes feels a bit unfinished or choppy, but Metaxas’s depth of research and thorough look at Bonhoeffer’s life and writings are well worth a read.

I am Thinking about ecumenism, and the fine line we must walk between faithful orthodoxy and self-righteous snobbery. Particularly when discussing areas where Scripture whispers softly rather than shouting, we sometimes ignore the fact that someone is our brother or sister in Christ in our pride over having the “right doctrine” and proving it. Patronizing or sharp comments do little for church unity. Neither does mulling over thoughtless or barbed statements from strangers and sharing them just to hear others’ commiseration or indignation. All concepts and temptations Carl and I frequently discuss and think through together thanks to our (much-blessed and joyful!) catholic-protestant marriage.

I am Creating plans for a front hall coat rack. Something like this (the rack, not the bench). It should be a quick project once I pick up some hooks from Lowes. Right now the jackets live inconveniently in our bedroom closet upstairs.

To live the liturgy or, more generally interpreted, “to build a Christ-centered home.” One of the best parts of our routine since Carl returned from Afghanistan is consistent daily scripture reading together. We lost our habit in the pre-deployment craziness and it’s so nice to have it back.  Right now we’re halfway through Ezra. We read a book at a time, but in no particular order…whatever we’re in the mood for. Whoever is ready for bed first scans the next section and any helpful references or notes, then reads it out loud. Good discussions result.

Towards Rhythm and Beauty

“Towards rhythm”: We’ve settled into a new early-morning routine for chores. It lets Carl help around the house on all but the busiest days. Between the two of us it keeps our home respectably tidy and frees up more hours together in the evenings and weekend.

“Towards beauty”: This week we received three packages from my Aunt, all full of my great-grandmother’s old dishes. What a treat! I’ve been washing and sorting them this week – some for eating, and a few with old hairline cracks to hang on the wall so we can preserve them without further damage. I love heirloom items, things that are not only old and beautiful, but also meaningful and useful. Pretty new dishes make me want to cook, much like an empty notebook begs to be filled.

I am learning Just how much library fines can add up to.

Around the House Around the outside of the house: wood chip hauling and spreading. We live in a region with very sandy soil. While I seeded a lot of grass this year, some sections stayed hopelessly bare. If I ever find a miracle plant that cheerfully grows in 100% sand in 100% shade I may re-plant. For now those areas are getting a layer of wood chips for a less patchy look and fewer dust storms when the lawn mower passes by.

From the Kitchen Biscuits and breaded pork chops with broccoli-avocado salad. Half pork loins go on sale at a great price every couple of months  and I like to stock the freezer. Some get cut into one pound chunks for recipes, some are sliced ~ 3/4 inch thick for pork chops, and one gets left whole for a roast. I sent the leftover gingerbread cake from Sunday night in to work with Carl this morning - the ICU residents are always hungry.

On my iPod Can’t answer this since I’m the last person in the western world who doesn’t own one. I work from my computer most of the day so pandora meets my needs.

One of My Favorite Things Game nights. About once a week we spend an evening playing games while sipping cocoa, cider, or tea. We’ve been on a Bananagrams kick since my brother sent it for my birthday this summer. Sunday night we played Pillars of Plato (like 3-D, four-across tic-tac-toe – surprisingly mind-boggling) and CatchPhrase (another birthday gift).

On the Calendar for the Week  ICU call, which usually means late nights and less sleep. Dinner with friends back after a deployment and leave overseas. Work deadlines for me.

Worth a Thousand Words

Less than a week old and already giving the paparazzi dirty looks. Show some respect for your Grandma young man (Photo credit to my mother).

Natural disasters that go pffffffftt

It took several minutes to realize this week’s earthquake was an earthquake. It felt exactly like the artillery that routinely shakes our home, minus the usual explosions.

Shortly after the earthquake, our town began frenzied preparation for Hurricane Irene. Preparedness information gushed from the Fort, from our local military newspaper, from the town newspaper, from the Red Cross, from the National Weather Service, from marquee signs… We’re inland, but hurricanes have seriously damaged this town in the past. Like everyone else, we dutifully made sure the cars had full gas tanks, filled the tub with water, checked flashlights and candles, evaluated food stores, and filled up water jugs.

The breeze picked up Friday evening. Say what you will about hurricanes, they certainly make for gorgeous sunsets as the rays reflect off fast-blowing clouds. And then the hurricane hit. That is…I guess it did. Sort of. Ish. Or at least, we got some rain and blustery wind that peacefully lulled me to sleep. It was a real hurricane, okay? We’re survivors. I know because it left behind this horrendous damage:

….do you see it?

What? You don’t? Look closer.

Now do you see it? The wind tossed up the tip of the tablecloth I left on the porch!

The horror!

But somehow we shall rebuild from this crippling catastrophe.

Which was almost as terrifying as a picnic in the park.

Alright, enough sarcasm. The hurricane’s net result was a few twigs down in the yard and a much happier garden thanks to a thorough soaking.

Did you have any natural disasters this week? Were they as exciting as ours? *yaaawwwnnn*

*************

Vaguely related: This year has been a consistent lesson in “good things come to those who wait.” Those blue diamond-patterned outdoor pillows caught my eye at the hardware store in April. They weren’t even a bad price at $9 apiece, but more than I felt like spending. Then last week I found them, plus a few matching blue and tan vine-covered pillows in the 50% off clearance rack. Throw in the thrift store table and chairs, an old blue and white tablecloth from Walmart, and a lantern we’ve had since my childhood and there’s a cheerful space in progress.

Gates of Fire

Steven Pressfield’s novel Gates of Fire centers on the Battle of Thermopylae. In 480 BC three hundred Spartan warriors and their allies held back the colossal Persian army for seven days at the narrow gates, dying to the last man. The story’s narrator, a badly wounded Spartan servant and the only survivor, tells his tale at the command of Xerxes, the Persian king. As his recitation draws to a close, the wounded man explains how the Spartan king Leonidas led his men:

“Of what does the nature of kingship consist? What are its qualities in itself; what the qualities it inspires in those who attend it? These, if one may presume to divine the meditations of His Majesty’s heart, are the questions which most preoccupy his own reason and reflection…

I will tell His Majesty what a king is. A king does not abide within his tent while his men bleed and die upon the field. A king does not dine while his men go hungry, nor sleep when they stand at watch upon the wall. A king does not command his men’s loyalty through fear nor purchase it with gold; he earns their love by the sweat of his own back and the pains he endures for their sake. That which comprises the harshest burden, a king lifts first and sets down last. A king does not require service of those he leads but provides it to them. He serves them, not they him…

That is a king, Your Majesty. A king does not expend his substance to enslave men, but by his conduct and example makes them free…I and every [Spartan at Thermopylae] were never more free than when we gave freely obedience to those harsh laws which take life and give it back again.”

This describes not just human or Spartan leadership, but our own King’s leadership. Christ did not sit and watch sin and death from a distance, but became man and spent sleepless nights, endured hunger, conquered sin and death, and fights our battles with and for us:

“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage…Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make expiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.” – Hebrews 2:14,15,17,18

Several Adult Bible Fellowship teachers at our church are Army chaplains. One, a West Point grad and Green Beret for many years, decided mid-career to go to seminary then returned to the Special Forces as a chaplain. He’s currently gone on yet another deployment in yet another war zone. Before leaving, he recommended Gates of Fire as the most accurate portrayal of mens’ thoughts and actions in battle he’d ever encountered. I sent this book to Carl during his deployment, and he loved it. I just finished it myself. We both highly recommend this novel, while suggesting each reader use their own discretion. It’s a story about soldiers, Special Forces essentially, and has a full complement of brutal scenes and soldiers’ foul language.

As an interesting side note, the King Xerxes in this story is traditionally believed to be the same Xerxes (Ahasuerus in the Hebrew Bible) who made Esther his Queen in the Old Testament. For all we know, she may have been present in her husband’s battle train and tent during his campaign and the Battle of Thermopylae.

Curse of the Acronym

My favorite military acronym to date: USAJFKSWCSDRSE. Any guesses? You can find the answer in the comments.

Pretty sure the Army names things by punching a keyboard first, and coming up with words to match later.

Irony

Our fort just announced that the Eternal Flame Memorial for the fallen will be shut down for maintenance and re-lit next week. 

Would that make it the “Eternal-except-not-eternal Flame”?

“Eternal-but-on-vacation” Flame?

“Semi-eternal Flame”?

“The Not-Eternal Flame Memorial”?

 

Breakfast Brainstorming

What do you feed your family when you want a quick, stick-to-your-ribs breakfast? Over deployment, we decided to prioritize eating breakfast together each morning. We also decided we’d like those to be “real” breakfasts: no wandering into the kitchen alone to drowsily gulp cereal and browse the internet. That might sound silly (and I have nothing against cereal), but understand that Carl can easily work 80 hours a week as an Army doctor. He sometimes works three weeks at a stretch without a day off. I also work full time. We don’t take time at home together for granted, and we try to milk any extra minute for all it’s worth. If you won’t see your spouse again until a midnight hug at the door, those few intentional moments at a candle-lit breakfast table can carry you through.

Our mornings already run with military precision to fit in exercise, showering, dressing, breakfast, chores, and a walk before Carl leaves for work and I sit down at my desk. We get up at 5:15 (unless it’s an ICU week, when that shifts back to 4:00ish) and the Man usually arrives at work around 6:30 or 7:00 (unless it’s an ICU week, when that shifts back to “good grief, it’s the middle of the night, why are we up?”). That means we have, no joke, three minutes to prepare breakfasts on most days. I’ve been brainstorming a list of breakfasts that can be prepared in moments, or prepared in advance and reheated quickly. Do you have any suggestions or favorites of your own? The rules are:

• Must be filling and contain protein. Carl sometimes doesn’t have two minutes for lunch, let alone snacks. The food needs to carry him through the day if a patient decides to crash.
• Carl only eats sugary items on Sundays (I do the same, with few exceptions). That means syrup, jam, honey, sweetened quick breads, etc. are usually out.
• Healthy – no pop-tarts, etc.
• We eat fruit with every breakfast (even if it isn’t listed)
• We brew coffee the night before and ice it overnight.
• Usually we don’t have time to heat a frying pan (let alone the oven), unless it’s a slightly slower morning

Here’s the list so far:

• Sausage bagel, biscuit, or muffin sandwiches, with sausage patties cooked in advance. Meat reheated and bagel toasted in the morning.
• Smoothies – frozen berries & bananas, plain unsweetened yogurt, splash of milk, packet of Sweet & Low. Carl loves these.
• Cottage cheese with fruit
• Baked sausage and apples, prepared in advance and reheated.
• Crockpot Oatmeal, started the night before, plus nuts & dried fruit
• Fried oatmeal, made with leftover oatmeal (frying pan – extra three minutes)
• Waffles with peanut butter (waffles prepped in advance, then toasted)
• Bean and cheese or hard-boiled egg tortillas (eggs boiled in advance). With scrambled eggs on slower mornings.
• Muffins (e.g. bran) baked in advance.
• Breakfast casserole (baked in advance and reheated)
• Parfaits (yogurt, fruit, and granola or oats)
• Bagels with cream cheese or peanut butter
• Ham and cheese biscuits, bagels, or english muffins. With a fried egg on slightly slower mornings.

Meals taking an extra five minutes:

• Eggs and toast or bacon
• Cheese quesadillas
• French toast topped with fruit

Breakfasts that contain sugar or require more time like pancakes, omelettes, waffles, coffee cake, or Eggs Benedict are reserved as weekend treats.

The Holy City

We visited Charleston, SC last week for some post-deployment quality time in one of the oldest and most beautiful cities in the nation. The hotel kindly upgraded us to a luxurious suite for free. We walked, took a boat out on the harbor, watched movies on the laptop, enjoyed good southern food, and had a generally lovely weekend. Lovely, that is, until Carl developed a horrific case of food poisoning on the third day and landed in the Emergency Room in the wee hours. He’s recovered now, and the pictures prove we still managed to enjoy ourselves.