Joy Violet, Violet Joy

What a full Calvin spring break week! We're used to Wooster's two weeks, which allowed for a bit more leisure: yard chores, taxes, geocaching, a visit to the Butterfly Garden, teaching ESL, game day one morning for the students with Karen in tow (she was great), choir practice (we got drafted into K's church choir for the Maundy Thursday service since we were at the practice anyhow), Friendship program practice (K had a solo with one of the songs), finding the perfect bridesmaid shoes in our own local Meijer. Whew! But two days were special, the trip to Chicago IL and a visit from the Longacres of Wooster OH. The purpose of the trip was to visit the American Girl Doll store, saved up money in hand and visions of dolls dancing in someone's head. Chuck was gracious enough to drive us there and he called, "Smile, Barb," as he drove off to find his movie theater. (Which he did--saw "Knowing.") Four hours is too long for this place, large as it is, but we did one circuit among the busy little shoppers (no sign of a recession at this store!). Then we took stock and did a cost/benefit analysis of Karen's money and her desires while we had lunch in the Water Tower Mall, home to the two-floor AG store. The money exceeded the desires, so after some more mall walking and window shopping for bridesmaid shoes, we went back in and got a Bitty Baby and three outfits. Had to wait for dad yet, but we had a happy shopper. On the way home we stopped and had pizza with Jenny for supper in Holland. Karen named her doll Joy Violet.

The next day we prepared a favorite soup, homemade applesauce and the Wooster brownies for the Longacres. What joy with an unhurried five hour visit with them. Jenny came over for this too despite the busyness of work catchup after being away for 4 days at the Am Chem Society meeting in Salt Lake City. Talk, talk, talk. Hug, hug, hug for Violet Joy. Some music (of course). Talk, talk, talk. Love, love, love. And Joy Violet, meet Violet Joy. The picture is the proof.

First Spring/Summer outing on the Last Day of Winter

Yesterday after ESL, another teacher and I took three of our young women students (along with the kindergarten daughter of one of them) to Meijer Botanical and Sculpture Garden (www.meijergardens.org) for lunch and exploring the butterfly exhibit. I had attended a dinner outing at Meijer Garden with my Calvin seminar class last summer and had been entranced by the place, so I used this visit to purchase a family/guest membership. The weather had retreated from the 70 degrees we had had on Tuesday to the upper thirties, but the spring flowers had taken over one of the greenhouse rooms and buds were poking up outside. It won't be long until flowers take over the place! In the meantime, we had to jockey for position with school classes in the butterfly sanctuary, hot and tropical and wildly colorful and fascinating. Next week is Calvin's spring break, so we can bring Karen to see the butterflies and soak our souls in all that loveliness. And if you come to visit--please do--with our guest pass, we can bring you to the Meijer Gardens too.

For the Record

For the record, the last bit of ice and snow has melted away in our yard today though the pond is still frozen. All week long we've had a yard-long snake of leftover ice, and our neighbor, whose yard had received what the plow dumped there from the whole circle of the cul de sac, still has a small humpback whale's worth. I've been watching the snake shrink all week long and gave the last ice some kicks today. But for now, long and hard this winter has been, we haven't even broken the record for the second-most snowiest with our 104 inches. March can still bring snow, however, as we well remember from last year when we got snow at the beginning of Wooster's spring break and had to have a farmer from our church come and plow out our driveway because we had just put the house on the market and the flood of buyers (don't we wish) needed a place to park and the illusion that the large driveway needed no upkeep. And then at the end of the break, which we spent in Holland with Jenny, west Michigan got a Good Friday storm of about 12 inches. We'll be glad to cede the records if we have no more snow. Surprisingly, we had seen no birds all winter but today a few fluttered through the back yard. Maybe spring is on the way.

February Reading List

Since we are well into March, I'd better post my February books. As I predicted, not as many as in January, but still a decent number. (OK, so it's not a race.)

1. The Translator by Leila Aboulela Recommended by Calvin College's head librarian, I liked this novel, set in Scotland and Sudan, very much. Sutble and (Muslim) faith-exploring. I could add this to my list of Muslim immigrant books (if I ever hear that Calvin will invite me to teach such a course) if I expand from just Muslim-American fiction.

2. Chicago by Alan al Aswany. I heard about this book on NPR and Jenny got it for me for Christmas. Alas, it is not subtle. It certainly wasn't the book I had expected. Glad I have read it but won't be adding it to my M-A list, I don't think.

3. Land of Marvels by Barry Unsworth. I saw this one on a table at Schulers (a great G.R. bookstore). Historical fiction set in 1914 Iraq. Archaeology vs Oil. Has the potential to be a thriller but fall short of that (perhaps Booker prize winners don't write thrillers??). OK.

4. Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth Bailey. Whatever Bailey writes gives new and deeper insights into Scripture, in this case, Jesus's birth story, his parables, his encounters with women, and some of the other narratives, with his "hermeneutical Christology" at work on the text. Wonderful!! Highly recommended.

That will do it until next month.

February Madness

Here we are the first week of March and we are reduced to watching college basketball on TV (until the Division III women's finals at Hope way....at the end of the month). We packed our basketball into February, last week watching five games. The first was a high school game between two Christian schools with Karen and the group home girls and guys. A very fine game, which surprised us, having been away from h.s. basketball for a very long time. I don't remember going to many games at Wooster High School. These two west side schools are feeders for Calvin (and probably Hope too). Then we went to four MIAA tournament games, one on Wednesday, two on Friday (with Karen) and one on Saturday (with Jenny). Alas, Calvin lost to Hope and so is not advancing to the regionals. All the while we were following Wooster's fortunes and tragedies long distance. On the Sunday that led into that week, the 3 year old son of the assistant coach was killed in a freak car accident during which his cousin/COW basketball player was driving. The whole city was in mourning, it seemed. Wooster won all of its games that week. We had hoped that Wooster would meet Calvin and that somehow, improbably, we'd get to that game wherever it might be. Improbable because of course Chuck has to teach and I teach ESL three mornings a week. Hope is going west and Wooster is staying in Ohio for the first round of regionals, but even if they had met, I doubt Hope would let double traitors--prof at arch-rival school, fan of opposing team, on to any fan bus....Calvin math dept. has a fun pool, so Chuck will participate that was as well.