Hope-Filled Fiction

Five Minute Friday: Light

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{Note: This week’s Chinese lesson for kids is now available at Hold the MSG.com}

Today I’m joining up with The Gypsy Mama again for Five Minute Friday. the idea is that you write, uninhibited by concerns for perfection, for five minutes flat. This is hard for me (the not-concerned-about-perfection part, not the writing). But we’re going to give it a whirl again. Today, the theme is “light.”

GO.

Tomorrow we will celebrate Seder. It’s a tradition that began in our home when Pumpkin was still a baby. It’s something that, by tradition–our family’s and the traditional Seder’s–JavaMan usually leads. But he isn’t home from Korea yet. (He’s there getting a visa complication addressed.) He won’t be home until Wednesday.

At first the thought of pulling the whole thing together on my own was daunting. But our children were genuinely disappointed when they realized we were going to miss it. They can’t remember a year we didn’t celebrate it–even with all our wandering about the planet. So I set about to figure out how we could keep our tradition untraditionally. And I think maybe I’ve done it.

Instead of the full lamb dinner I usually prepare, I’m serving lamb stew. I’m planning to prepare the charoseth and even some gluten-free matzoh with help from the kids. With just one adult and all that reading, the dinner itself could be a challenge, so I’ve enlisted professional help.

We’re going to watch a Seder online and participate along with it. The significance of all the elements will be explained and it will last only 30 minutes, which satisfies even the wiggliest of my children. We’ll have our tradition and be flexible doing it. Our version of the Seder begins with a blessing and thanksgiving for The Light of the World.

STOP.

{Note that for a complete ceremony, you’ll need a Hagaddah–a guide–available here.}

- Carey Clark

 

My Chinese Kitchen: The Crockpot

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{Note: Too much time in the Chinese kitchen this week, so Hold the MSG will post tomorrow instead.}

As I mentioned in another post earlier this week, life in China has some challenges. Things take a little longer to accomplish. We use public transit, there are crowds just about everywhere, and we’re just not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy–or Toronto, for that matter.

I’ve been experimenting with gluten-free baking here. I think I just about have a handle on it (victory report forthcoming). We also have a historical issue with oatmeal. In the supermarket, it’s possible to buy instant and quick-cook oats, but I’ve never been a fan. In the market, you can by large flake oats, but they’re thicker than we’re used to, and the texture is chewier–like eating quinoa–which would be fine if it were quinoa, but it’s not. It’s oats, and we don’t like our oats chewy.

When we first came to China back in 2008, I brought along my grain mill. At the time, we were already eating flours with less gluten, like spelt. I brought a significant quantity of spelt groats with me (so they’d stay fresher than pre-ground flour) and used the mill I had bought back home to grind them.

grinder

We discovered this week that buying oat groats and grinding them makes a lovely consistency of oatmeal that everyone’s happy with. They’re not like steel-cut or rolled, so I don’t know what to call them exactly, but we’re happy with them.

ground oats

But that’s just an example of something that takes a little bit longer here. There’s also the dishwasher. It takes a little longer here too.

My sink

All of that to say, I’m always looking for kitchen shortcuts, like my Deluxe Crockpot Oatmeal. I originally found this recipe at A Year of Slow Cooking. Stephanie O’Dea who blogged and cooked in her crockpot for an entire year AND cooked gluten-free was a source of inspiration, and I looked forward to her every post.

I can’t find this recipe on her site anymore, but I’ll include it below. I made some adjustments to the original because it called for the oats to be cooked overnight, but what I found was that they cooked in about half the time, so if you truly put them on when you went to bed and you went to bed at a decent hour, you’d have partially burnt oats the next morning. I remedied this situation by setting an alarm for the middle of the night and turning on the crockpot. But really. Who else but me is going to do such a crazy thing?

Since returning (and perfecting my oat-grinding), I found the perfect way to make them “just right.” (I feel like Goldilocks.) I cook them for an hour on the high setting prior to going to bed and turn them down to “keep warm” overnight. Perfection!

Except if you forget to turn them down.

Which is precisely what happened to me last week, and which is the real reason for this post. My poor crockpot was toast. Burnt toast. Layers and layers of it. There was a solid, stuck-on mass of charcoal in the bottom of the pot and I thought I’d NEVER get it out.

But then I discovered this amazing solution. I am huge believer in baking soda and vinegar. They clean anything. If vinegar won’t do it, baking soda will. Vinegar for mirrors, baking soda to scrub the scum out of bathtubs. You can even use baking soda for laundry detergent and vinegar as a softener. Really. Love the stuff. Perfectly natural, things smell and look clean afterwards, with no heavy smells of chemicals.

But now I’m even more impressed with the power of baking soda. I turned my poor crockpot on and added my faithful baking soda (which is good for a post all on its own, don’t you think? I brought this home from the store and was already using it before I discovered something was not quite right…)

Armandhatchet

I let the crockpot come to a boil then turned it down and let it simmer overnight. This is the result. Nothing short of amazing! All the burned-on charcoaly stuff just peeled off, leaving my lovely crockpot behind, just like new.

Clean Crock

And now I can make my oatmeal again:

Deluxe Crockpot Oatmeal

  • 1 cup oats
  • 2 cup milk
  • ¼ cup honey (or less, to taste)
  • 1 tablespoon butter – melted
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 cup finely chopped apple
  • ½ cup raisins and/or dates
  • ½ cup chopped walnuts or almonds (I omit these–not everyone in our family is a nut fan)

Grease the inside of Crockpot. Throw all ingredients inside Crockpot and mix well. Cook for one hour on high and turn to keep warm overnight. Stir before serving. Enjoy! (And don’t forget to turn it down overnight.)

- Carey Clark

 

Still Thankful

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Note: A moving and personal review of After the Snow Falls posted today at The Musings of a Book Addict. I’d be honored if you’d take a look.

Okay, so not everything is going perfectly. Never happens to you, right? But in the midst of it, I’m still thankful. Thankfulness, in fact, is really the only way out of a funk, because a tub of chocolate ice cream will only end in regret.

I’m blogging in the middle of the night because my littlest one has been up and down for the last three hours, unable to sleep. This post will hit North America Monday evening, in the afternoon, but it’s already the wee hours of Tuesday morning here.

Sprout seems to have this problem when JavaMan is away. But I reminded her to capture the bad thoughts that are bothering her and put them in jail (our version of 2 Corinthians 10:5) and fill her heart and mind with praises. I heard her saying it out loud a few moments ago, and I think, perhaps, she might finally be asleep.

We all have struggles with focusing on the positive, don’t we? With keeping the necessary perspective? With capturing those bad thoughts and putting them in jail to let our thoughts be taken captive by the One who loves us best?

So I will continue to be thankful. I have so much to be thankful for. I’m counting to 1000 gifts along with Multitudes on Mondays:

200. The duvet. I know I mentioned it already, but it snapped cold again here over the weekend, and I am freshly thankful, especially since JavaMan is not here to warm me up!
201. The heater for the kids’ bedroom. So thankful JavaMan had the foresight to bring it. Who could have known we’d need it this long? It’s usually much warmer by now.
202.  A return to homeschool! We began again today. We started small–just History, Math and Chinese–but it was wonderful to begin again. I moved the heater upstairs and we huddled in our not-quite-organized cozy little homeschool room.
203.  Our children’s love of homeschool. Everyone was glad to get back to things. I asked Sprout to do one page of lessons in her Math-U-See Primer and she did nine with absolutely no coaxing! On Sunday, our kids spent some time with some other children, one of whom was homeschooled, and two of whom attend school–one a Chinese school and the other an American school. When my son found out that two of the girls went to school, his response was, “Too bad. You’re missing out.” Moments that make a homeschool mama proud.

First Day Back to Homeschool
204. Our homeschool room. I’m completely aware how extremely blessed we are to have a room we can dedicate to homeschooling. It’s wonderful! Since we have the top floor of the building, there are these wonderful slanted ceilings and a great window above that lets in all kinds of natural light. It’s a wonderful place to spend the day.
205. My wonderful husband. I can’t think about our lovely homeschool room and not give kudos to JavaMan for finding the best apartment ever. People expressed concern that he was apartment-hunting alone, but I had every confidence he’d do an amazing job. I was not disappointed. 204. My wonderful children. I was fighting the sniffles today–probably a result of getting a little too cold running errands the other day–so my son tucked me in and rallied the troops. Everyone settled down well and went right to sleep, and I put in at least four hours of sleep before wakened by Sprout. I love them all.
206.   Pajama day. It was really cold out when we woke up this morning, and the apartment was really cold too. We declared it a pajama day and stayed cozy all day long. We went nowhere and did nothing but homeschool and eat–all in the cozy room upstairs with the heater. Some days are like that around here. It’s homeschool perk.
207.  The promise of sunshine. No matter how bad it looks, things can change. Though the wind has been howling around the house for a day with rain, and at one point sleet, fell from the sky all day long. The sun is supposed to be out in the morning and will warm the house up again.
208.  People’s prayers. In yesterday’s post I vented a little, and a reader promised to pray for me. I know there are others who remember our family daily–JavaMan’s grandmother for one (right, Nanny?). I am never alone or forgotten.
209.   The joys of language learning. How to characterize language learning? It’s elating when you communicate your meaning, it’s exhausting when you’re constantly reaching for words in the other language, it’s fulfilling to realize you’ve taken a step beyond where you once were, and it’s humbling when a moment after someone compliments your skill, their next sentence is incomprehensible. But on balance, it’s satisfying, and little by little, I know I’m getting there.
210.   A return to routine. We’ve started back with homeschool, and I spent time on Monday working on meal plans. I’m hoping after this week that life will resume its normal order.
211.  A week of adventure. I’d planned to get back to homeschool this week, and we are, but wouldn’t you know it? It’s a school holiday in China Monday Tuesday and Wednesday. And with JavaMan being away, I promised the kids some adventure. We plan to do a few special things this week–look up some old haunts, that kind of thing–so I could keep their minds off his absence. We stayed inside for the nasty weather on Monday, but starting Tuesday, the adventure begins.
212.   Memories. As we’ve unpacked the things that were left here, it’s been interesting to see the things the kids remember–especially Sprout. She remembers all her little possessions, all the things about our life together, but few of the places we’ve been. But it’s been fun to hear Pumpkin and Sweetpea relive some of our memories, and remind me of some we’d forgotten.
213.   Rediscovery. You know how some parents rotate their children’s toys? We packed all ours away for almost two years and have had the joy of watching them get everything out all over again and play with it. When we moved here originally, Sprout had just turned two, so some of the things we pulled out are clearly not age appropriate now, which is a little sad, but for the most part, their rediscovery has been a joyous one.
214.   The promise of things to come. I’m in touch with the publisher of After the Snow Falls about how to get my hands on the proof copy of the print version. I don’t have an exact date yet, but the process is beginning.
215.  Fulfillment. I’m excited to see the lessons evolve for Hold the MSG. This is something I dreamed up a long time ago, and it’s exciting to see it finally come to pass.
216.  Skype and Facetime. We’re a long way from friends and family back “home.” It’s wonderful to have a way to communicate with those we love. 217.  Togetherness. Long ago, I expressed to my husband the desire for a big family. I’d read a magazine article on families and family sizes and decided that big family culture was for me. I had no idea that our path to that family would involve three miscarriages and two intercontinental moves, but all the things I desired about big family culture–the togetherness and interdependence, the focus on the family and its values and not flying off to soccer practice with one child while the other one is across town at ballet class or gynmastics–we have all that with our wonderful, wacky life. I’m thankful for what we have.
218.  Healing. The question of my wholeness after those miscarriages came up in a conversation we had with someone in the past week. Although there are moments that loss still catches me off-guard, I am confident I will see those children someday, and I have healed from the loss.
219.  Sprout’s reading. I think in all of the busy-ness I have failed to announce this, but our little girl is growing up, and she’s reading. She’s still working her way through Headsprout, and she hasn’t quite finished 100 Easy Lessons, but she’s reading and she’s spelling, and a whole new world is opening for her. I’m excited for her. Hard to imagine that when we moved here originally, she was barely talking! Especially when out of nowhere she pulls words like “hypothermia!” (Thank you, Jonathan Park.)
220.   We have been so blessed. We went into the homeschool room Monday, and all three kids found a book or a game and began to play or read on their own. Thanks to the generosity of others who passed them on, we’ve ended up with so many books we literally have our own little library. Pumpkin has made a to-read list so long I’m sure he’ll never run out of things to read, just in that one small room!

Multitudes on Monday

- Carey Clark

March 3 in 30: Culture Shock?

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3 in 30 buttonI’m a bit frustrated at the moment. Bear with me. I guess I’ve forgotten just how much energy it takes to live here. Like crossing the street. When we lived here before, I had Sprout in a stroller, and each of the older two children firmly grasping a handle. Crossing the street here is an extreme sport, but clumping together and staying organized helps. You have to outwit the drivers. A green “go” signal for pedestrians means it might be safe to begin crossing, but be sure to be on the lookout for cars, nonetheless.

Gluten-free is a bit more challenging, and so is using the Internet. Things are slow and sometimes unavailable. And today, because they don’t trust my location (and don’t read their emails), Paypal has locked down my account for the second time in two weeks. Thanks so much.

It’s also become cold again.

I’ll be okay. I’m aware a lot of this is probably culture shock, and I just needed to vent. (Thanks for that.) It likely doesn’t help that JavaMan is gone for the week to Korea, squaring up an issue with his work visa.

Onward: March goals.

I’m doing all right. I’m actually psyching up for April’s goals because I’m craving things like routine, a return to homeschool and a menu plan. But first, let me report on March. My goals for the month were:

  1. Sleep well before and after the move. I did okay before the move. Since then, I’ve allowed Paypal and the complete disappearance of my new vlog site, HoldtheMSG.com to rob a few hours when it was daylight back in North America. I need to let it go. I live here, and things take longer. I had made that mental adjustment when we lived here before; I need to get back into that place again. It’s much more restful.
  2. Maintain a healthy exercise schedule on both sides of the move. I did okay before we left, and have been itching to get back since we arrived, but I need to buy a couple of things before I can make things happen–we’re using my exercise mats for a little extra padding right now. While JavaMan is away, I’m considering stealing the one from his side of the bed to begin my Pilates routine from Bodylastics. To get back to the other workout, I need to buy a pair of 5 lb. weights. I had planned to do that today, but readjusted my plan about five times because dragging three kids on multiple buses and train connections (standing room only) and walking around carrying heavy bags full of goods from the market in addition to said 5 lb. weights gives no joy. We decided to go to IKEA/Sports store (they’re side by side) later this week. IKEA because we need one of those thingies you can stack multiple toilet paper rolls on. Sprout can’t reach the wall-mounted one and keeps calling out for help with the TP every timeshe uses the bathroom. That can’t go on forever! On the plus side, as you can tell, I’m doing a lot of this running around on foot. In addition, the other day, we climbed “our” mountain, so the month hasn’t been without exercise, just not the kind I’d hoped to be doing.

    If you look real close, you can see our home from the mountain top.
  3. Packing/unpacking. My goal was to have the homeschool room in order by the end of March. I made this goal without seeing the volume of books JavaMan brought from the south. We had inherited bins of books from other homeschooling families who’d lived in that city previously. Two bins had my name on them (although I don’t recognize a lot of things in them) and JavaMan grabbed another one in a moment of madnessinspiration because it had a bunch of really great classic books in it. So can we be charitable and say that the homeschool room is a work in progress? Until the furniture arrives, we don’t have enough shelving to accommodate everything! Pumpkin helped today to get things organized enough that we can start slowly back to homeschool tomorrow with a skeleton schedule: Chinese lessons, Math and History. We’ve also resumed our nighttime routine of read-alouds/games (alternate evenings) and quiet reading.

    How are you doing with your goals this month? Don’t have any? Consider hooking up with Ashley Pichea’s 3 in 30 motivational program!

    - Carey Clark

 

 

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