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Friday, May 30, 2008
Glacier National Park
If I could magically give you a gift today via the internet it would be this,
To sit you down on this bench in the Trail of the Cedars,
And to fill all your senses with Glacier National Park.
You would feel the mountain sun touch your face as it trickles through the trees.
The rushing rapids would drown out any other sounds, in the air or in your heart.
You would see with your own eyes trees, mountains, rivers, lakes, snow and spring in the same hour.
And most importantly, you would fill your senses with the intoxicating smell of this place.
And breathe deeply this combination of spring, cedar, pine, damp grass and sun.
If only I could bottle this aroma and take it with me
And send some your way, because I feel certain it would cure whatever ails you.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Apgar Village, Montana
Glacier National Park
I have tears in my eyes because they can hardly behold the beauty of this place! How could it possibly be that I have drunk in so much wonder today. Should you ever decide to come here, it is a long road up here to Glacier National Park, but the rewards are rich and plentiful for the trouble you take to get here.
After our wonderful lunch yesterday, we drove through Yellowstone National Park, making stops at various visitor centers and famous sites, but the kids were so tired from getting up early that they slept through most of it. Cole saw more than any of the others but he was begging to play the beloved DS Lite after it had been withheld since sometime before we hit Jackson. I felt it was sacrilegious somehow to let a child play a video game in a national park, so I said he couldn’t play until we got out of Yellowstone. This was of course a mistake because he then began to wait impatiently for our departure from the park. Finally, since he couldn’t play DS, he too fell asleep. They have taken in a lot, those four, so I let it pass. Only Taido and I saw the Yellowstone Canyon and its waterfall that inspired Thomas Moran and many others to paint gorgeous landscapes of the park. And only Taido and I saw the frozen Yellowstone Lake, surrounded by snow and ice. It is still winter in much of Wyoming. There were buds on the trees in Jackson and in the entire valley that led up to Yellowstone, but once we hit the park, winter truly prevailed. The trees looked perfectly dead. There were no flowers or fields of green. Snow was piled up along the park roads and the air chilled us to our bones when we did stop and get out. We spent several hours driving through the park, mostly just because it is on our route between Teton and Glacier. We were fully aware that we were missing most of the magic of Yellowstone by passing through without a hike or a night’s stay, and we may have done our children a great disservice by not helping them experience it better, because they all remarked that it was boring. Except for the northern entrance visitor center animal exhibits. So as we pulled out through the northern entrance and into Montana, Taido said, “Boys, start warming up your thumbs.” It was about 7pm and Taido was hoping to cover as many miles as we could between Yellowstone and Glacier before dark. The boys played DS nonstop, one watching and one playing. And Mary Polly and Simon watched Hello Dolly on my laptop. I swear at one point Simon was dancing in his seat like a waiter from The Harmonian Gardens. So great.
While the kids had media-fest, Taido and I took in our first breaths of Montana air. Lush green valleys and hills dotted with cattle filled the horizon as our rig made the descent from Yellowstone. We dropped in elevation so much that the snow disappeared and all of a sudden it was as though Aslan had come to Montana but not Wyoming. When we started checking weather in towns in Montana, I realized that apparently even though Montana is further north, it is much warmer here because of the drop in elevation. Night lows in the 40s instead of 20s and 30s were going to be a very welcome change.
Around 9:30pm, as the sun was getting low, we pulled through a Walmart Supercenter where I ran in and grabbed my staples, carrots, apples and edamame, as well as a loaf of French bread, a rotisserie chicken and grapes. We had our very late dinner in the van as we drove to the Missouri Headwaters State Park. The sun finally dropped on the horizon as we pulled off the highway, and it was good and dark as we pulled into a campsite a few miles later. We all fell into our bags and immediately went to sleep as soon as we got set up. Simon walked into the camper, threw his blanket on the floor and lied down face first on it. He was so tired that he hardly blinked when I lifted him into his sleeping bag, or when I lifted him with his sleeping bag still around him and handed him to Mary Polly to hold in the van at six this morning. After Taido told me to wake up the kids, he said, “I promise we’ll let them sleep as late as they want tomorrow.” Simon slept all the way to Butte where we stopped for a delicious breakfast at the Great Harvest Bread Company on a welcome tip from the Moon Guide to Montana, a book I picked up at the Valley Bookstore and read intermittently in the car as we drove today. This morning I read the sad history of Butte, Montana and its mining woes before we pulled in and drove its streets that have clearly seen better days. The Great Harvest Bread Company is still in its glory days though. We sampled scones, muffins and breakfast sandwiches, along with wonderful coffee that helped us pop our eyes open a little wider and enjoy the Big Sky Country for the rest of the morning.
We chose a less traveled route to Glacier National Park, because after recording our gas mileage all the way so far we have determined that the rig gets the best mileage at around 60-65 mph anyway, so it doesn’t hurt us on time to take smaller highways. We drove up Highway 83 through Seeley Lake which was gorgeous. I probably said about 100 times, Look at how pretty that is! or It’s just so beautiful! Finally I stopped pointing it out and just enjoyed it. We saw very few other vehicles and passed little civilization. It just amazes me how wide open and gorgeous this state is and that so much of its beauty is hardly even beheld by human eyes. For days I have been marveling at the different wonders God has made in this world, and today I thought a lot about how so much of what He has made is only for Him to see. The pleasure of laying eyes on every beast, every tree, every flower, every waterfall, every mountain crevice in all the miles of forest and hills we drove through today, or that we have driven through since leaving Little Rock, is His. And what’s more, if I am seeing His glory in the glimpses I am having as we drive along, how much more is He able to see the wonderful displays of His glory and power. And though I see now, one day how much more will I see when He is able to show it to me. To think that the wonder of what I have seen today is just a fraction of a glimpse of all that there is makes me excited. It is a lot to take in. And I’m pretty sure the children have missed it. The drive did not impress them nearly as it did us. It kills me to think that they are already beginning to take the incredible scenery for granted, but then again I don’t remember having any great revelations about my family’s great drives through the country when I was their age.
When we arrived at the park around lunchtime, we drove first to find our campsite in Apgar Campground. After much discussing and weighing of very small differences among the choices between all the children, we popped up in site A56. (Cole still holds stubbornly that site A36 is better.) All of the sites are charmingly set in this forest of imposingly tall hemlock, cedar and lodgepole pine trees and just a short walk from Lake McDonald which overlooks the mountains, though they have been shrouded in clouds since our arrival. Still, despite the clouds, the high was 73 degrees F today in Apgar. Downright balmy after where we’ve been, so we were just happy to shed our jackets and jump on our bikes to ride the cutest bike path EVER to Apgar Village, where the visitor center is located, as well as an ice cream shop and several gift shops, one of which is housed in the original one room schoolhouse from this little village’s days gone by. As I rode the path behind Cole and Mary Polly with glimpses of the lake and the mountains to our right and impressive pines on our left, I was so thrilled I started crying and laughing all at once. It is so beautiful that I became downright giddy. And on the way back from the village we had to stop to let six deer cross the trail in front of us, right in front of us. We stopped our bikes and silently watched them slowly walk in front of us as they grazed on the small spring shoots from the trees. This campground just opened a week ago, so we are perhaps the first people these deer have seen in a long time. Our squeals are breaking the long silence that this park has kept through the winter. Somewhere on the road as we came in, a hotel sign said, “Welcome back!” The few who make this place their home all year long seem ready to welcome the throng of visitors of whom we are some of the first.
We came back from our bike ride amazed and delighted, a spirit which, at least for me, penetrated Cole’s fits about collecting firewood and a rain shower falling on our dinner so that we had to crowd under our awning and gobble down our barely still warm quesadillas without guacamole because though I know there is an avacado buried in one of those dang tubs in the van, I couldn’t seem to find it when I collected the things for dinner. Never mind the avocado though. When the crisp air smells richly of pine and spring blooms, and you can ride your bike in the late evening sun through a forest that is just awakening from its winter slumber, so much else seems inconsequential.
posting from kalispell today. here’s what i wrote yesterday.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Driving from Grand Teton National Park
Ok, let’s just say I could definitely live here. What I mean is that I really hope to come back. Many times. If you don’t have your vacation planned for this summer, I am telling you this is it. If you come here and camp, call and reserve site #13 at Signal Mountain Campground in Grand Teton National Park. On your way here, stop in Jackson and get an almond raspberry scone and a perfect cup of coffee at the Jackson Whole Grocer, but bring your own cup and bags because this town is gloriously green. (Even the campgrounds and visitor centers have divided recycle bins!) Taido had to rush me on out of Jackson before I spent every dime of our money. I was as wide eyed as Ben in a Walmart Supercenter as I walked my allotted hour in the streets and shops of Jackson. Besides the Grocer, which though small, had everything I could ever need. Really. I wanted to go ahead and just get a job in there so I could stay close to it. But besides the Grocer, I loved Teton Mountaineering, Skinny Skis, The Hole Kid and Valley Bookstore. The bookstore rivaled our favorite in Taos as far as independents go, and it absolutely wins on addresses, “Gaslight Alley on the Town Square.” Really, I ask you, could that be a cuter address? They have been around for 50 years, which is about how long I could have gotten lost in there if my laundry hadn’t been calling me from the Snow King Resort before checkout time. After we checked out with clean bodies and clothes, we headed finally into the Grand Teton National Park.
We made stops at the visitor centers in Jackson and in Moose, Wyoming. The visitor centers alone are something to see. There is something for everyone. Simon thoroughly enjoyed the animal displays, which are impressive. Ben loved the gift shop; he has now acquired a rubber dagger, which is very necessary in life. Taido talked to rangers and collected information about hikes, campgrounds, snow closures, weather and other things he usually learns through internet access. Cole crawled through a cave display over and over again, trying to scare people by popping out of it growling. Mary Polly watched the movies playing on the floor. I read all the little captions throughout the exhibits. I really love museums, and all things historical. I have read several bits about this couple that spent years and years out here studying the Teton wildlife, Olaus and Mardy Murie. I would really like to get my hands on one of their books, but I wasn’t willing to pay $25 for it at the gift shop. I learned that Jenny of Jenny Lake (which we hiked near this morning) and her six children died of small pox when her adventurous husband drug them all out here to try to live back in the 1800s. Her situation makes mine look like a Hilton paradise. After watching a movie about the park and gathering more flyers and maps, we drove to our campground. We have been to several visitor centers on our trip now and I always ask the kids to try to learn three new things while they are in there that they can later tell me. It is fun to see what they come up with. Ben’s facts are usually the most random, like that elk can run at 35 miles per hour. When we left the Grand Teton National Park visitor center, I was surprised that none of the kids picked up that the three main peaks were originally named Les Trois Tetons by French-Canadian explorers, which translates to the three breasts. Which is just funny. But I suppose the name is an accurate description from some vantage points of what these three giant peaks look like as they seem to burst straight up from the valley. Here’s a quote I wrote down that one of the first leaders of an expedition to this area said about it in 1876,
there are no foothills to the Tetons.
they rise suddenly in rugged majesty from the rock strewn plain…
the soft light floods the great expanse of the valley,
the winding silvery river and the resplendent deeply carved mountain walls.
Our campsite at Signal Mountain was a short walk from a rock beach on Jackson Lake (campsite #13 is right on the beach, but it was taken). We spent a long time walking up and down the rocks just taking in the “rugged majesty” of the peaks. The kids all got muddy and wet throwing rocks into the ice cold lake, but after they changed out of wet socks and shoes and filled their tummies with spaghetti, we went back to the rock beach and watched the sunset behind the mountains. It was at this point that Taido won me back over to his mountain itinerary, which puts Glacier National Park back on our tour to Canada. And so we finished our walk on the rock beach, put away everything in the van (and I mean EVERYTHING) per the huge warnings everywhere about bears and citations for leaving anything out of your vehicle, bedded down in our zero degree sleeping bags (thank the Lord for those babies!) and slept a few hours before Taido woke us all up at 5:30 to go and view the wildlife in the park. No one wanted to get out of their sleeping bag, even with the temptation of the heat in the van as we drove, but like ripping off an old band-aid, you just have to jump out, throw on your freezing cold jeans and hurry into the van. The early start proved to be a great idea though. Cole spotted a moose almost immediately, which was followed by all kinds of elk and deer, many bison and their sweet little calves and two different black bears. After our drive through the park, we took an early morning hike to Taggart Lake. Parts of the trail were still covered in snow, but most of it was clear. The kids climbed on the boulders along the trail and spotted animal tracks in the mud. Simon fell asleep in his backpack, which is becoming a more usual nap than his bed or car seat. We sat by the lake for a while eating tootsie rolls (thank you Grandmother!) and just taking it all in before heading back to the trailhead parking lot which had been empty when we arrived, but was now beginning to fill up with cars.
As we drove back to our campground, Taido said he was ready to pack up and head on down the road, so we dropped our pop up (we are getting faster and faster at this!), hitched it back on the van (first try this time instead of the usual 5-10 times of Taido backing up the van with me directing), and headed north. We stopped for lunch at Leek’s Marina for some of the best pizza I have ever had. It was about 1pm by now so we were all hungry, but I had read about this pizzeria the day before and was anticipating it from the yummy pictures I had seen. And it met all expectations. Taido and I split a pizza with pesto, artichoke hearts and tomatoes. The kids had the usual boring fare. And we all split garlic cheese bread that was more like a brick oven cheese calzone. It was mmmm good I am telling you. Do stop in there and have some pizza and your last look at the Grand Tetons from the patio eating area. The peaks were working their mojo on Taido. Besides the extensive alpine climbing exhibit at the visitor center, the park film included a bit on climbing the Grand Teton, on how difficult and technical it is. It is a two day climb with lots of gear and ropes. I’m pretty sure you need an ice axe, which one gearhead I know just happens to already own. Leek’s Marina may have been our last stop in the Grand Tetons, but I feel certain we’ll be back, and it will probably be for a destination climb. Let’s just hope that I am parked in campsite #13 this time at Signal Mountain with my lawn chair and my wine glass, four kids graduated from high school and just in time for the Jackson Hole Film Festival.
ok…internet access and cell phone service has been scarce, as in not at all, so i am posting quickly everything i have written in parking lots and in the shotgun seat of the BMV while we are at a nasty taco place in rawlins, wyoming, which happens to have free wi-fi. hopefully i will become better at this (as in more coherent and succinct) as we go, but for the sake of time, here’s my first update of the chino house on the road.
Saturday May 24, 2008
REI Parking Lot
Denver, CO
Our last week at home was crazy but wonderful. I really had no idea the kind of response that our leaving for the summer would initiate in the folks with whom we normally do life. We were showered with all kinds of love and blessing as we said our goodbyes. Laden with treasures for the road, we headed home from saying goodbye while our babies spent their last night at their grandparents. I frantically finished packing and cleaning when we got home at nearly 10pm, and so it wasn’t until I sat down near 1am to read a couple of verses and breathe a thankful sigh to my Maker that I realized how incredibly honorably we had been treated over the last several days. All of a sudden it completely overwhelmed me. Not just the homemade cookies and energy bars. Not just the books, games, puzzles or even the “happy trails” banner to hang in our summer home. Or the money for gas or gift cards for the road. Or the details like Whitney showing up with a red bucket after she knew I had searched and searched for one for my own little wannabe member of the Mysterious Benedict Society. As I reflected on the “shower” we’d been given in our last days at home, it was how much we had been loved that hit me. That people actually care that we are going away. I guess I hadn’t thought about it that much. It’s not like we’re not coming back. The summers usually fly by so quickly that I have really thought that people would hardly notice we were gone. But I think God knew that somehow this outpouring of affection would be the wings we would fly out of town on and will carry us through our lonelier days. Through any doubts and darkness ahead.
I walked through our empty house one last time before I finally fell into bed. I could feel that lump in my throat swelling up as I put away the last of the clean clothes that weren’t going with us. I closed all the closets and turned off all the lights. But when I started to feel like I might sit down and cry, I drew from the lasting warmth of our evening and I just felt fuzzy instead of sad. I worried for a minute that our taking this big adventure and having so many blaring needs in light of that adventure (a need for a camper or for lots of watching Simon while preparing to leave came to mind) was putting us unnecessarily at the center of everyone’s attention. I never want anyone to feel obligated to make a big fuss over me. But I tried to let that go in the wake of how grateful I felt (and still feel) for whatever circumstances have allowed me to see how much we are loved by this community we call home. And in their eyes, a glimpse of the depth of the love that God has for me.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Riding shotgun from Rocky Mountain National Park to the Grand Tetons
Our first few days on the road have been nothing if not eventful. It is now amusing to me that I left Arkansas desperately in need of a good night’s sleep after the last couple of weeks of lying in bed at night and thinking of all the things I still needed to do or pack. (Why didn’t I get up right then and pack the whisk and the potato peeler?) I thought that I would just sleep and sleep when my head finally hit that pillow in our sweet rig. Well, let’s just say that we are in the phase of the journey that I would call “working out the kinks.” We knew our first night was going to be a crapshoot. Come on. We were driving all the way to Denver on our first day and then hoping to roll into a state park around 10pm on Friday of Memorial Weekend and find a place open to camp. Somewhere on the road in Kansas we started calling parks and realized that, ahem, they were all going to be full. It was going to be so late when we rolled into Denver that we decided we should just pull into a KOA on the outskirts since they actually had spots. After hearing that all the parks were full, I was grateful to find an open spot, never mind that it was RIGHT in between two other rigs like our own and very dark when we were pulling out the pop up for the first time, while many others watched from their cozy RVs and chuckled, “Hey, look at the rookies!” I kept chanting grateful phrases in my head as I listened to the semis roll by on the highway as I tried to fall asleep, freezing cold and with Simon bundled up between Taido and me. I thought about all the people praying for us. I thought about how we had found ourselves in Kansas in a rain and hailstorm so heavy that I began to pray out loud that Taido could see (instead of screaming at him to pull over). I was praying with my eyes closed (because the only thing worse than driving through a storm in which you can’t see out the front windshield is watching someone else do it) and Cole said, “Hey Mom! Dad can see!” I opened my eyes and it was truly as though God had parted the storms for us. There was darkness to our left and right, and ominous clouds behind us, but streaks of light poured down on the road just ahead of us. We had clear roads the rest of our way, dodging bad weather all around us. As we drove, I could almost hear my Grandmother’s prayers for good weather for traveling and for safety for our family. I knew that she was probably watching the weather even at that moment. When we stopped for dinner, the gas station attendants were warning people not to drive east for the next hour because of tornadoes. It was then that we realized the extent of the protection we had received. And so, somehow the cold and the loud noise of the highway, however annoying, seemed small in comparison to the fact that here we were in Colorado, all six Chinos together in our little provided shelter. I also chuckled as I remembered Ben getting out of the van and saying to me as Taido was putting up the camper in the dark in what is essentially a glorified parking lot, “Hey Mom, should we go hunting for some stuff for our scratchbook?” He has been very excited about this darling scrapbook that Jerusalem gave us that has little bags in it to put your treasures from the road. Ben has been dying to put something in the “scratchbook,” as he calls it, almost as much as he is dying to spend every dime of his money before we even get to Vancouver. I told him he could take only two dollars into a gas station in Kansas and that he didn’t have to spend it. He came out with a magnet of Oklahoma (because we did drive through Oklahoma) that was $1.99 and when I asked him how he paid for the tax with only two dollars he said, “Well, I’m a kid and sometimes people, you know, they just let little kids.” Little optimist.
The next day we rolled into Denver for some Einstein’s Bagels, a stop at Whole Foods, a stop at REI (of course!) to get Ben a new sleeping bag because his toddler bag is being passed down to Simon and a new rain shelter for our Kelty Carrier. Then we ate lunch at Tokyo Joe’s in Boulder before we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park. Strangely, in all our trips to Colorado, neither Taido nor I have ever been there. It is different from the other areas we camp in Colorado in its appeal to international tourists. It still has the majestic beauty of Colorado in full and because animals are protected from hunting and the park only just opened to campers this weekend, we saw lots of wildlife. The kids were shouting from their seats and pointing out the windows (even Simon) at all the elk and deer. Is there anything more beautiful than a deer? I will never tire of seeing them. We also saw mountain goats and wild turkeys, rolling down the windows to hear them gobble at one another. We hiked to Alberta Falls on a snow covered trail. Simon’s favorite thing might have been the Park Shuttle which runs through the park on the weekends and is free, so you don’t have to use your own gas driving the mountain roads. Also, you can be dropped off at a trailhead and then picked up from another one. Simon was just ecstatic to ride on someone’s lap instead of in a car seat.
Two of the three eastern campgrounds were full when we arrived, and the pass to the western campgrounds was still closed due to snow, so we were grateful to get one of the last available spots at Glacier Basin Campground, even if we had to move to a new spot the next day due to our own spot being reserved for someone else. We moved about 5 spots down, so we just sort of paraded everything down the road. Taido didn’t even put the camper all the way down. Our neighbors said we looked like homesteaders walking behind the popped up camper with our kitchen supplies. I told them their description was not entirely inaccurate.
It was cold our first night, so cold that it even snowed a little. I couldn’t bear to come out of my sleeping bag and when I did have to undo my drawstring a little to poke my head out and cover Simon back up, I had hopes that maybe our next destination would be at a slightly lower elevation. It seems like our current itinerary, drawn up by the gearhead, goes from one mountain range to another. I might have known I would be freezing cold in a campground called Glacier Basin, but I haven’t seen a bug yet. I did say many grateful prayers for our camper. Even though I think I was shaking down to my bones, I was so glad I could go inside, turn on a light switch and sit down on a little couch to read the next chapter of our book to the kids. Had I been crawling into a tent, I think I might have started crying. The second night was a tad warmer, but in exchange for its being not as cold, we got rain. Thankfully it had stopped when we packed the camper down at 6:30 this morning. We tried to tuck the wet outside edges in a way that the inside will not be wet when we open it around 10pm tonight in the Tetons. We’ll see.
Most oft repeated phrase at this point is Taido saying, “We’re living the dream honey. Living the dream.” It is usually said in response to a look I am giving him about something that is obviously less than dreamlike, like being up with Si in the middle of the night or a request for an item however small, that will send me crawling through the van digging through fifteen different plastic tubs I am not sure how many more times he is going to say it without getting a black eye.
in exactly 48 hours, we’ll be out on the open road. at least i think so, even if it does not seem possible that by that time i will have finished all those things i am meaning to do before i leave.
i will have packed up all the semi-organized piles that are currently scattered about the house. i will have chosen which books are going and which books are staying behind, as well as which kitchen treasures are truly necessary in life and are making the cut.
i will have attended one of my favorite events of the year at our church, senior night. students to whom we have grown quite attached will lead us in worship, show us pictures and video that encapsulate their distinct personalities and make us cry as they get ready to leave us. two of these students are ones for whom i have said prayers for a very long time, since they were babies, one even in the womb. (which makes me older than i feel most days) by the time we come back, they will have flown away. to make their dreams come true as they hold onto jesus. i hope.
i will have broken one more phone (oh yeah…i already did that yesterday) which makes three this year, which means no more phones for me for a while.
i will have returned all the library books, even if i haven’t written down that campground in wyoming yet. and i will have returned borrowed books, movies, tupperwares and cds.
i will not have quibbled with taido about any more details, i hope. i will have gone with the flow, as grandmother says.
i will have said goodbye too many times. to too many people.
in 48 hours, it will just be too bad if i didn’t get the floor swept (sorry, lora!) or didn’t make fresh energy bars. too bad if i didn’t get that last card written and mailed. too bad if i didn’t use that last bag of lettuce. it will all be behind me. finished or not. i will take a deep breath. and look straight ahead.
we leave in exactly 10 days on our summer adventure. the newest development in our road trip is that a couple in our church is being crazy generous to us by letting us borrow their very nice pop up camper for the summer. we set it up for a test run in our kids’ school parking lot last night and friends, it is NICE. we are getting super excited as the days narrow between our normal life and our alternative one. a friend sent me this great link today that made me smile about the stories our kids will tell in 10-20 years about their summer on the road.
this is a reminder to go to your local farmers’ market tomorrow. we now have markets north and south of the river, which makes for a full and glorious saturday morning of marketing. i brought home four different kinds of lettuce and greens last saturday, giving simple salads at our house new complexity and depth all week long. one day i would love to grow my own lettuces, but for now, thank goodness for sorrell, arugula, spinach and watercress at the farmers’ market!
cobb salad
3/4 pound thick-sliced bacon, cut into 2-inch pieces
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 medium clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 small head romaine, washed, spun dry, and torn into bite-size pieces (about 5 cups)
1 medium bunch watercress, leaves and 1-inch stem, washed and spun dry
1 pound roasted turkey breast, sliced 1/4-inch thick
1/4 pound Maytag blue cheese, roughly crumbled
2 large hard-boiled eggs, thinly sliced
1 medium tomato, cut into 1/4-inch wedges
8 ounces cherry tomatoes, sliced
1 medium Haas avocado, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch wedges
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped tarragon
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped chervil
1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley
1. In a large skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat until crisp,
about 15 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the mustard, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and vinegar. In a slow, steady stream, whisk in oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.
3. Arrange the romaine and watercress on a large serving platter. Arrange the turkey, blue cheese, eggs, tomatoes, avocado, and bacon in sections on top of the greens. Sprinkle with chopped herbs. Pour dressing over salad. Serve immediately.
for my unkind words and thoughts
for my meanness that put jesus on the cross
for those who are without family members or roof or clean water in myanmar
for being unable to convince you to come to bsf with me this year
i’m sorry for whatever has prevented you from being with me at bsf over the last several weeks, because i cannot express what it has been to study in such detail the last week, days and hours of jesus’ precious life. we’ve spent the past three weeks alone on the final 24 hours of his life, culminating today in his finally crying out his last words on the cross. last year i begged you to come and study matthew with me at bsf. and i am sorry that you didn’t because it has blessed me over and over again.
so you should know that next week, wherever you live, you can go to bsf. you can sign up to study moses with me (and simon) in the fall. you can sit through the last lecture of the year, which will be on the last chapter of matthew. i can hardly wait. because in light of the death and destruction that is heaped upon the earth today, the resurrection is the only true hope i have.
this quote near the end of the book may be the greatest encouragement i receive from reading irresistible revolution, since it speaks to where i am right now. we leave in 23 days for our summer adventure and there are a whole lot of details that we are continuing to just leave to God. at the moment, we will be pulling out in a big mongo van loaded with our camping gear, which means tents instead of an RV, which has the children whining and taido and i shaking our heads and saying (as much to ourselves as to our children), “just wait and see what the Lord is going to do for our family this summer!”
but if we weren’t headed to canada, i hope we would be headed to the festival hosted by the community in which the author of the above mentioned book, shane claiborne, lives. i hope lots of you will go and meet my sister and her family there. and tell me all about it and bring back little dreams to central arkansas (or wherever you happen to live) that are big enough for us all to share.
note: i almost titled this post, here come the quotes, b/c i have a tendency to type out long quotes from books i’m reading, but i will spare you because besides the fact that it’s a lame blog post title, i have set up a new blog for that purpose. mainly because the quotes are really for me to remember and access. but of course you can use it too. but just for fun, here’s part of the passage on the bit about God loving campouts!
In an age of million-dollar mansions for God, it’s hard to imagine that our God prefers tents. But God has always had a thing for camping. In the Hebrew Scriptures, such as in Exodus, God “tabernacles” with the Israelites, a word that essentially means “sets up camp.” God was with Rizpah as she set up camp on the rock next to her children’s massacred bodies, collateral damage of kings and their wars (2 Sam.21:1-14). In the baby refugee Jesus, God becomes Emmanuel (“God with us”), crashing in the manger. And it is in the life of Jesus that God puts skin on to show us what love looks like. John’s Gospel calls this incarnational act “pitching God’s tent among us.” And then God wanders the Galilean countryside with “no place to lay his head,” a stranger looking for a house of hospitality to welcome him.
And to think, the israelites and jesus didn’t even have therm-a-rests.
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