Carey Jane Clark

The Talk

October 30, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

Well, it was inevitable, and it’s happened. Not necessarily on purpose, but by virtue of the fact that we had a somewhat nomadic lifestyle for a while, homeschooling, and the fact that our kids really don’t watch much TV (videos, yes, but TV hardly any at all), we are likely later than most with “the talk.” We have introduced correct terminology for body parts and matter-of-fact discussions about childbirth (two of our children were born at home) previously.

Ironically, the topic was raised during morning devotional time. Reading about controlling our anger, we discussed Cain and Abel. The New Living Translation we use reads like this in Genesis 4:1:

Now Adam had sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When she gave birth to Cain, she said, “With the Lord’s help, I have produced a man!”

Before we read any further, Pumpkin and Sweetpea said, “What does THAT mean?”

This was the last topic I expected to be raised during Bible study time!

But since it was, I asked them to wait until the next day and I would explain. Using as our foundation the concept that sex is a gift from God for marriage, I introduced four key concepts:

God created sex – Genesis 2:18-25
God sees sex as “very good” – Genesis 1:26,31
The union between man and wife makes them one – Matthew 19:4-6
A husband and a wife should reserve sex for their marriage alone – Exodus 20:14

And then, of course, it was necessary to explain the physical aspects. We looked at a diagram of flowers and talked about seeds and fertilization and how that was a principle established by God and that every living thing needs these two parts to join together in order to reproduce.

Our kids know enough about animal reproduction to have some excellent questions. For the rest of our talk, I borrowed from principles from Mary Flo Ridley’s “Simple Truths” CD (downloadable from iTunes) or available at Amazon. Everything was age appropriate, and explained with correct terminology. There were a few giggles and one “blech!” but then they started talking about something else.

Much less painful than I thought it might be. I highly recommend the two resources I drew from to arm myself for this important discussion:

Simple Truths – by Mary Flo Ridley
Teaching Your Children Healthy Sexuality – by Jim Burns

Furniture

October 25, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

Some months before we returned to China, JavaMan was in touch online with a friend of a friend who offered to help us procure furniture once we returned here. The idea was that we could find a much bigger apartment for less money if we weren’t seeking a furnished place.

This was a very good idea. Our home is much more than we could have imagined, and we are very happy and comfortable here. It feels more like living in a house than an apartment, and we have room for our son to have his own room separate from the girls, as well as a homeschool room. There is even storage. We are blessed.

But we are still waiting for our furniture. There has been one freakish delay after another, and now the container bearing our furniture is waiting here at the port, and we are waiting for its release. We could probably go and visit it–it’s just a quick trip downtown–but it’s nevertheless not here yet.

In the meantime, we’ve realized our need for some items of furniture that the other company couldn’t provide. For example, in our son’s room, there is a platform on one end meant for sleeping on with a tatami mat, Japanese style. But we wanted a bed for Pumpkin’s room because we intend to use it as a guest room when company visits. He’ll then vacate to the homeschool room, where we have a small sofa that pulls out to make a bed.

The platform in his room is only 147 centimeters (58 or so inches) wide and it sits under a sloped ceiling, as we’re on the top floor of the building, so not every bed would fit the space. But IKEA had just the thing–a low platform bed, 140 centimeters wide with under-the-bed storage drawers.

We received some Christmas money early, so on the weekend, we went to IKEA to purchase the bed.

With a little encouragement, Pumpkin’s already let his sister sleep in with him because she’s had only a thin mattress on the floor all these months. I’ve tried the bed out myself (because we are also sleeping on just a mattress-topper), and it’s comfy! He is very proud of the fact that he put the bed together all by himself with a few screws driven in by yours truly after he told me what to do.

We were also able to buy our new homeschool table. It’ll be great to use once our chairs arrive!

But a trip to IKEA here is always worth a smile or two. People sit around talking and even eating in the model living rooms or bedrooms like they’re in their own homes. They lounge on the beds or even stop and have a full-on nap!

I can’t say I blame them. Navigating the rat maze at IKEA with a bazillion other customers can be a bit daunting. It’s an experience worthy of a post-shopping nap. Or maybe, like us, they’re waiting on a shipping container full of furniture and they haven’t had a good sleep in a really long time. Yeah, that’s it.

- Carey Clark

Cover Unveil

October 12, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

It’s Friday, and often the day I post something fiction-related. Today is no exception, but you won’t find an author interview or even a book review today.

Today is a very special day for me. My novel, After the Snow Falls was published in ebook format last December. I’m proud and very excited to announce it will be in print very, very soon.

There are a few steps necessary before print-readiness, and one of them was giving the cover design a bit more polish. After all, instead of simply being viewed on a small ereader screen, it will be physically in the hands of readers. And, of course, it needed more than just a front cover!

While I did the original cover design myself (using a photo taken of snow in our neighborhood park by none other than JavaMan himself), I felt I needed some help with the print cover, so Webber Printing of Brandon, Manitoba stepped in to help. Here’s the very first sneak peek. There is a small amount of tweaking remaining to be done, but I’m extremely happy with how it looks. I’d love to hear what you think too.

[Before you ask, the white space at the bottom isn’t a mistake–it’s the space for the barcode.]

And if you want to be among the first to know when After the Snow Falls is in print, please
sign up to receive a publication update.

You may also be interested in checking out reviews. A new one posted today. Others are linked here. Or see reviews at Amazon.
- Carey Clark

Making Mooncakes

October 9, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

Last week here in China was Mid-Autumn Festival, also called Moon Festival or “Golden Week.” We spent the whole week visiting with friends. The weather was absolutely beautiful.

Moon Festival lands on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, so it moves around a bit in terms of where it lands in September/October.

A big part of the celebration of the festival is eating mooncakes. They are a traditional food, which we actually enjoy quite a bit, but we are told that they are kind of like the Chinese version of fruitcake. Not many people actually like to eat it, but everyone takes a bit to celebrate the season.

I thought it would be fun for the kids and I to try to make mooncakes. I spotted mooncake molds at the baking supply store we frequent (an essential stop for buying things like butter, cheese and cocoa at good prices). The store also sold the filling and two essential ingredients that I shopped all over for before I realized they were right back at the store where I bought the molds. Everywhere else, people looked at me strangely when I asked for them. (Not that this is an uncommon experience for me here!)

It’s actually rather rare for people to make their own mooncakes. Even my quintessential kid resource on Chinese cultural festivals, Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats, which usually offers a recipe to go along with each festival, simply said that most people buy their mooncakes. And in buying mooncakes, presentation is a big part of things. A good quality box of 12 or so mooncakes can run you up to $100 or so. Much of it is about the bling on the box:

I still thought it would be fun to make our own.

Mooncakes vary depending on region, but here in the north, the most popular type of mooncake contains nuts (and that’s our favorite) so that’s the kind of filling I bought. I dug up a recipe for the pastry from an expat forum, and we were in business. [This recipe has now been removed, and I have posted it here.]

The dough is really unusual. The recipe said to mix it in a “large bowl” but when I was only using 100 grams of flour I wondered. Indeed our lump of dough was pretty puny, and instead of making 12 standard mooncakes, it made only 6 small ones (I bought small molds).

If traditional mooncake molds aren’t a collector’s item, I think they should be. They’re so beautiful:

Ours is new-fangled, and spring-loaded, which definitely makes mooncake production easier!

The basic steps began with rolling out the dough, which is sleek and oily-looking, but in reality the oil content is very low (the sugar content, however, is pretty high!). According to Sweetpea, who ate the last leftover bit, it was yummy all on its own. I tried a few first to get the hang of things and then Sweetpea took over:

The recipe says to roll it between “plastic film” but I cut two sides of a ziplock bag, and used it. It stayed put and peeled back much more easily than plastic wrap would have.

The unidentified lump in the foreground of the picture above is the lump of filling. After rolling out the disc of dough, you form a ball of the filling and wrap the dough around it, then fit it gently into the mold. We pressed down gently on the cookie sheet to make the beautiful pattern on the top, then popped the mooncake out, ready for baking.

After this, all that’s left to do is bake them for 10-12 minutes. Halfway through the baking time, the mooncakes need to be brushed with an egg wash. (This makes them shiny when they’re all done. I was pretty generous with the egg wash, which was a good call.)

Like fruitcake, the mooncakes get better if they’re left a couple of days to allow the filling to soften up the dough. But we sampled them right away anyway.

Chinese friends who visited for Canadian Thanksgiving were impressed with my efforts–they’d never seen them homemade before–but upon tasting them, declared they could tell the filling was commercially produced and challenged me to make my own filling next year. They also said I should come up with unique fillings that aren’t as sweet as the traditional ones, because less sweetness is appreciated by the Chinese palate.

We found the process a lot of fun. I think I may be up to the challenge!

- Carey Clark

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