bright eyes + blue eyes

tiny little birdies

May 2010

We have some rose bushes (rosebushes? don't know if that's one word or two...) in the back yard.

One day, the children found a bird's nest in the lower branches of one of the bushes.

They would check on the nest daily--careful not to touch the nest, or the delicate little eggs.

Superboy did a sketch of the nest and brought it to school to share with his teacher/classmates.

One day...

when we went out to check on the nest....

there were no more eggs.

Only birds.

I've never actually seen baby birds this tiny.

They must've just hatched.

Suddenly I wished I knew an ornithologist.

Suddenly I had so many questions about baby birds. 

But then I remembered that I do, in fact, have a library card. And that's almost as good as knowing an ornithologist.

The coolest thing about these tiny birds is how they would respond to a little movement.

If we gently tapped the branch (therefore, causing a *tiny* bit of movement to the nest), they would pop up like little jack-in-the-boxes.

They would hold their necks up as high as they could...but then their necks would start swaying back and forth, straining with the weight of holding up that cute little birdie head. 

On a related note: I posted last year about the time that we actually got to witness some grown-up-baby-birds leave the nest.

 
 
 

amy krouse rosenthal + nodcast podcast

This was originally posted on my old blog back in 2007. We just listened (again) to this particular Nodcast Podcast in the car earlier today...so I thought I would re-post these thoughts on AKR and her books. She's published a few new ones since then which we also love.

* * * *

A little while back, I learned that the Land of Nod catalog produces a pretty nifly podcast, niftily named The Nodcast Podcast. 

On each episode of this podcast, a different children's author or musician takes a turn entertaining the audience by singing or reading. There is no continuity from one episode to the next; even the intro and exit music for each episode is chosen by that particular artist.

Amy Krouse Rosenthal's podcast is very entertaining & makes for great in-the-car listening. She reads two of her children's books, introduces a few songs based on the books, and reads a few of her poems.

Little Pea and Cookies (two of Rosenthal's books) were so much fun to listen to that we were compelled to request them both from our library. Little Pea is the story of a little pea who has to eat his dinner before getting desert--but there is a creative twist, and it's one that will make any child giggle.

Cookies is a very unique children's book: each page very clearly explains one of many difficult-to-define qualities (patient, generous, compassionate, respectful, etc.) All of the qualities are defined as they relate to a cookie. For example, here are my personal favorite lines from the book:

Pessimistic means, "How awful, how absolutely dreadful--I have only half my cookie left.

Optimistic means, "This is great--I still have half my cookie left.

Even Pumpkin, as young as she is, can understand these words so much better when they are explained as they operate in the world of cookies. The statements are all very catchy....both of the children can literally recite the book as I turn the pages, simply because they have heard it on the podcast a handful of times (or maybe two handfuls....) The funny thing is, they speak with exactly the same inflection as Rosenthal does on the podcast. Children are little sponges, I tell 'ya.

As I researched AKR online, I noticed she writes for adults as well. I requested Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life from the library as well. The synopsis on the front cover of the book really captured my interest: "I have not survived against all odds. I have not lived to tell. I have not witnessed the extraordinary. This is my story." How could I resist?

As it turns out, I thought this book was a fun read. It is creative and entertaining, and full of useless, yet somehow fascinating, information. It is arranged like an encyclopedia, with various terms arranged alphabetically. Here is one of my favorites. This is in the "T" section of the encyclopedia. The title of the entry is, "Thanking a Stranger for Taking Your Picture".....

Thanking a Stranger for Taking Your Picture

You’re with a group of friends and one of you asks a stranger, Would you mind taking a picture of us? The stranger obliges. Afterward, everyone shouts thanks! As the thank-yous die down and the stranger starts to walk away, you turn to him, look him in the eye, and say, in a real enunciated and sincere way, thank you, like you and the stranger have an understanding, and that everyone else’s thank-yous were cute and flippy, but yours was the one that counts.

 

Here is another good one:

 

Comfort in the Expected

Comfort in the expected manifests itself in less overt ways, too. Like let’s say you have a mixed tape (now we make compilation CDs; back in the day, it was mixed tapes), and you come to know not just the order of the songs but the exact pausing in between, and then when you happen to hear one of those songs on their original album, it really throws you.

See also: Improvisation at Concerts

America, Here I Come!

Next week, I get to return to America after 25 months of being away. Hooray! I can’t wait to be back home!

...and just in time for the 4th of July. I'm gonna be one patriotic mama this year....

The very best part about being in America will be spending time with FAMILY. Whew, I’ll start getting tears in my eyes if I reflect on this point too long. Two years is a long time to go without being with my family. It was an absolute treat to see my mom and dad last year. Nonetheless, I am so overripe for a few hours of sitting in the living room with everyone laughing and teasing each other, while vaguely trying to play a board game somewhere in the background.

I am also so excited about: going to church, seeing friends, taking warm baths, listening to NPR, and eating American food (of course)!

Things I Will Miss From My Life in TZ

 

----- One of the best things about Tanzania was that we had no choice but to adjust to the pace of life there. Everybody was pretty laid back, so we became more relaxed about the “when, where, and how” of taking care of things. You really couldn’t plan on much, so you just got your stuff accomplished as you could and had to be happy with that. As I am rushing around from classes, to work, to home, to shops, etc., I am sure that I’ll miss the slow and steady pace of life in Masasi.

----- On a related note, I am sure that I’ll miss being able to spend so much time with my husband. We ate almost all of our meals together, ran errands together, went for tons of walks together, spent a lot of time just being in the same room with each of us reading a book, and talked about everything under the sun. We’ve definitely filled in any gaps that might have resulted from our transatlantic dating years. Without a doubt, living in Masasi was good for our marriage. I am full of anticipation for the years we still have to spend together, yet I am so glad that we could be challenged and grow together as we experienced Africa as a couple.

----- In some ways, I’ll kind of miss getting so much attention. It was really nice to go to the market or the post office and be greeted by name.  Everywhere I went, I sort of felt like a mascot of the Mzungu team. With a big plush head and everything. Children were awed by me and afraid of me at the same time, just like they react to Aubie. It seemed like everyone wanted to say something to me or shake my hand. I think I’ll miss that when I’m standing at a grocery checkout line with a silent, focused cashier indifferently going about her work.

----- I will miss certain people tremendously. I got to know some very kind people in Masasi. I developed such an admiration of their perspective on life, their creativity and resourcefulness in problem solving, their friendly smiles and fascinating stories. I’ll also miss our dogs.

----- I am sad to leave behind such a rich and interesting place to learn. It seemed that I saw something new practically every day. Whether it was a social custom, a critter, a plant, roles within family life… there was just so much to absorb. I’m pretty committed to being a lifelong learner, but in Tanzania it was really effortless to learn something new each day.

----- It’s cliché, I know, but I will miss the morning and evening light, where everything simply glows. And the mist on our cliff in the mornings. And the big skies. There’s a lot of beauty in Tanzania.

Tanzania: Things I Will Not Miss

Tomorrow I’m going to tell you a few things from my life in Tanzania that I am sad to leave behind. Today, though, I’ve got a list of things that I will remember as being particularly difficult.

• I will not miss sense of worry, responsibility, and hyper-preparedness that was an undercurrent to everyday life. There was just no back-up system in Masasi. If something went wrong, we were the ones that had to deal with it. As we imagined and tried to be prepared for potential injury, illness, accident, or breakdown, we simply felt that we were on our own. There was no expert on call, who would come with his lights flashing when we needed help. Thankfully, our two years were virtually incident-free. I’m sure if something serious had happened, we could have gotten help somehow, some way, but it would have taken plenty of precious time. I hope I don’t have to call 9-1-1 many times in my life, but if I do have an emergency, I will be very grateful that there are trained professionals who can step in and take charge of the situation.

• One thing that bothered me consistently was the big, looming gap that often became apparent in my interactions with people. There was a distinct chasm between my upbringing / education / access to resources / future outlook and others’ backgrounds and present situations. That made for some awkward conversations as I struggled to find topics in common, even when interacting with people that I genuinely enjoyed and found to be pleasant company.

• I won’t be sad to leave behind the dirt and chaos of the big cities, like Dar. Sometimes when I was walking around Dar, I felt like I was navigating myself through a video game, with obstacles coming at me from all angles. Everyone must fend for himself to make it through the jumble. It will be nice to make my way through places where all the elements of city life have their own lanes and rules to govern their movement. Sometimes I explained to taxi drivers in Dar that there are distinct areas on European/American roads for pedestrians, cars, bikes, and buses. They got a kick out of hearing that.

         

• In general, I found the culture among the expat / development worker community to be uncomfortable. I had a fair share of really fun, pleasant times with other Europeans and Americans, and I am thankful for the new friends I made. However, there were too many meetings of expats that degenerated into either griping and complaining or one-ups-manship. There was too much comparison and competition within groups of expats. A lot of stories emphasized how “bad” everyone had it. Sort of a rural Africa version of having to walk to school uphill, both ways, in the snow, with no shoes. I became convinced that people have all sorts of tolerances and preferences, and I think it's perfectly reasonable that families will make different choices, based on their personal strengths and limits, as they arrange their lives in another country. Sadly, it was all too common for groups of expats to pass judgment about what others were doing. I’m not going to miss that.

• Finally, I am not going to miss the rotten food products. I learned to check every piece of produce thoroughly for worms before I used it. Eggplants, carrots, tomatoes, mangoes… those worms could get into anything. Eventually, I had to accept that there was no way to keep bugs out of the flour bins, and I began sifting the bugs out of the flour every time I made bread. Yuk. I was always so grossed out when I left a cooking spoon on the counter and returned three minutes later to find it covered by 10,000 ants. It will be a very welcome change to have clean, undefiled food to put in my body.

Another Thing I Learned: How to Cook Everything

Just kidding, I didn’t learn how to cook everything… only breads, vegetables, and beans. .

I carefully selected two new cookbooks to bring with me to Tanzania, and I was overwhelmingly happy with one.

After careful consideration, I selected Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. I spent a lot of time browsing through the Deborah Madison book, and there’s a lot that I am looking forward to making but there were only a few recipes in that gigantic book that I could use in Tanzania. For a number of reasons, Deborah Madison’s book just wasn’t very practical for life in Africa.

Mark Bittman, on the other hand, taught me how to take whatever was at hand and make a meal I could be happy with. I was limited by access to and variety of ingredients. Plus, meat and poultry were very poor quality, and it wasn’t a very good idea to eat raw foods (uncooked veg for example). That meant that there several sections of the cookbook that I wasn’t able to try out, but I hope I’ll be able to fill those gaps in the coming years. The cookbook has so many good recipes. Almost everything I’ve made from How to Cook Everything has exceeded my expectations, taste wise.

I really do think I learned to cook while I was in Tanzania, even though I had followed a lot of recipes before moving to rural Africa. For one thing, I had to cook. With no takeout and practically no prepared foods available, I really had to commit to making a lot of meals from scratch. That meant looking after three meals a day – making granola or omelets for breakfast; baking bread and making spreads to eat at lunch; and some combination of beans and/or vegetables for dinner.

I also had to find a way to make good meals out of the things that were available to me. I couldn’t rely on inspiration from magazine spreads or thinking back to what dishes my mother combined for our meals growing up. I couldn't get ahead of myself and make a fancier meal than was actually necessary, because I didn't have access to pine nuts or goat cheese or fresh cilantro. I've got my whole home-cooking career ahead of me and can certainly gussy up a meal anytime I so choose. Yet there's something to be said for being able to cook a pot of perfectly-tender beans, or make a good tomato sauce out of just oil, onions, & tomatoes, or to make a simple but delicious batch of roasted vegetables. Basically, I had to become more flexible, creative and fundamental in the kitchen, because I had to see what was at the market then figure out from there what I could make.

So thanks, Mark Bittman, for coming to Tanzania with me to teach me to cook!

A Few Things I Learned in Tanzania

Our time in Tanzania has drawn to a close. There were definitely sad things about leaving, but at the same time, we both felt very distinctly that the time was right for us to say goodbye to life in Masasi. I’m sure that it will take quite a long time to process all the experiences that we had over the span of two years. Here’s a start to a running catalogue of things that I learned in Africa.

how to kill mosquitoes

It’s trivial but true.

I am the reigning champion of the Masasi Mosquito Hunters Association. I can kill three at a time with my bare hands, blindfolded, in the dark. I just know how they think.

And I am proud of it – sort of like how I always want to show off the orange rinds that I peel in one piece. Killing mosquitoes and peeling oranges… just two of my various and sundry gifts to the world

how to be a better boss

I was reluctant and nervous about having household staff, but the experience really taught me something about working with people. It doesn’t really pay off to be lenient. Instead, what I found works best is to be very kind yet have clear expectations of what I want done. Then I have to express those wishes in a way that someone else can understand (the more specific the better, in most cases). I have a tendency to be open-ended and vague and say, ‘Just do it however you want’ even when I actually have preferences about how a task is accomplished. In many situations, I found it to be most productive to walk through something together one or two times.

I doubt that we’ll be employing any household personnel in the next few years, but I think the things that I learned about managing people will be applicable in a range of situations.

I am also now 100% convinced of the benefit of employing someone to do a job for me if: 1) they’re better at it than I am and 2) I can afford to pay them. Like Matthias driving me to Dar, for example.

 

how poverty affects everything

I gained so much insight into how pervasive and persistent poverty affects a family’s lifestyle and dreams for the future. A lot of times when Masasi’s power went out, I thought about the double meaning of the word powerless. It is bad for productivity and planning to be without power (electricity). I also thought a lot about how Masasians were powerless (without sway or influence) to change so many of the things that kept them poor.

how to ration and estimate a lot of things

From water usage for a pile of laundry to the number of megabytes used to watch a video online, I now have a much better sense for how I consume.

…to be continued…

diners, drive-ins, and dives: our experience

While my in-laws were here for a visit recently, we decided to go check out one of the places featured on Guy Fieri's show. Gram and Papa like his show.

The place we chose is an old-fashioned grocery store, with a little grill sandwich counter on the side. There are two tables for guests. Lucky for us, we were the only ones eating lunch there on that particular day. (i.e., we were able to get a table.)

There were interesting books strewn about on the lunch counter.

There were specialty food items for sale. Hunter & his dad enjoyed browsing.

They even had an vintage "Tom's" snack machine.  

The cool thing about that red machine is that Papa, when he was a college student, had a part-time job involving vending machines exactly like this one. Papa's dad had a "Tom's" franchise, so Papa's job was to travel around his hometown, re-stocking the vending machines.

Here he is inspecting the machine. He hadn't seen one for years! What an unexpected trip down memory lane.

After a bit of browsing, our lunch was ready. 

What wonderful food. Gram, Papa, and Hunter each chose the grass-fed cheeseburger, which was delicious. (served with the trademark pimento cheese) I chose the Vietnamese sandwich, which was so tasty. I'd like to re-create it here at home. Yum.

Then, to top off our meal, we had homemade ice cream. They had tons of flavors...I decided on "Brown Sugar Vanilla."

Oh my.

It was reeeally good.

Hunter had "Pandan" ice cream, which is a sort of light, fresh, Asian flavor. (hard for me to describe....but it was good.)

They even had Bacon ice cream, but since Allison wasn't with us, we decided not to go for that one. (ha ha, Allison...)

{Seriously, they did have bacon ice cream, though....frankly that doesn't sound very good to me.}

Lastly, we talked to the fine gentleman who makes the ice cream & got his perspective on the art of ice cream production. He was very kind. We're inspired to try to make a few new homemade flavors ourselves. {Although I don't know if anything can ever really compete with Lotus Cream.}

All in all, we had a lovely lunch with Gram and Papa, and we were all very pleased with Guy Fieri's recommendation!

 
 

brother love

I love my baby brother so much. He was born when I was 15 years old. I remember rushing home from school each day (9th grade)--eager to get to hold my tiny little bitty brother.

Last month, we got to travel back home to see him graduate from high school. What a fun weekend! We had such a ball. Lots of family. Lots of happiness. Lots of yummy food. Lots of laughter. (It doesn't get much better than that combo...)

My parents, whose first baby bird (me) arrived on the scene in 1976, actually have an empty nest now. 1976-2010...they should win an award. They've faithfully loved on their little birds all these years--so well, and for so long!

There was a brief moment of sadness when, during the graduation ceremony, Pumpkin started quietly crying. I whispered with her to find out what was wrong (which is tough to do discreetly, because she hasn't quite mastered "the art of the whisper" if you know what I mean...)....as it turned out, she had started to get the idea (I think it was due to all the talk during the ceremony about "leaving home" and "moving on"...) that we would never see Uncle Joe again because he wasn't going to live with Gingi & GPoppa anymore.

I was happy to explain to her that Uncle Joe would actually be living CLOSER to us than ever, given his college choice.

So, she perked up.

And I've let Joe know that I will be delighted to do his laundry and feed him home-cooked meals if he will please come visit us every once in a while!

Also on our trip home for graduation, we got to meet our precious new little cousin. (see yesterday's post)

To me, experiencing the joy of both graduation and new baby on the same weekend was really thought-provoking. It was a beautiful picture of how the Lord is at work from generation to generation--and how He gives us the privilege of pouring into the lives of our children (and brothers, and nieces, etc) from their very first days in this big, bright world that He made.

Someday in 18 years, we'll all gather in ____ (city to be determined!) to celebrate my niece's high school graduation...and to maybe, again, hold a new baby from another one of the branches of the family tree.

I'm feeling thankful for the past--thankful for the present--thankful for the future!

(Makes me think of that wonderful song from the 2009 Christmas performance...God of the Ages, History's Maker....)

* * * *

I will extol you, my God and King,
   and bless your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless you
   and praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised,
   and his greatness is unsearchable.

One generation shall commend your works to another,
   and shall declare your mighty acts.
On the glorious splendor of your majesty,
   and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds,
   and I will declare your greatness.
They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness
   and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

Psalm 145: 1-7

baby love