Wednesday's Post: Parenting

I've been a frustrated parent lately, mostly with my son. While his Arabic has improved greatly over the past six weeks, his behavior at school hasn't. We've had an entire (half) week of hitting, shoving, and flat out disrespect to the teacher. I'm kind of feeling helpless in this situation because, while my son will act up at home, he only does it occasionally. As long as he's occupied, he's fine. And I don't expect him to be perfect, I just don't like hearing every day all the naughty things he did. It makes me feel like a HORRIBLE parent, like I can't take care of my kid.

I also feel like parenting books actually make things worse. It can be so confusing, getting all these mixed messages, each author tearing apart other parenting methods and explaining why "they just don't work", and then, after a few of these kinds of books, I had a minor revelation: actually, all of these books are saying more or less the same thing. They all say don't major on the minors, treat children with respect (and expect them to reciprocate), and be consistent in your parenting. They place where they differ is the method that the philosophy is carried out. So, I'm giving up on parenting books entirely. All they do is stress me out and make me second-guess myself.

Tuesday's Post: Travel

Our family always went on long vacations growing up. It usually involved driving a day or two to visit family (in Oklahoma or California), spending a few days with them, and then driving home. However, one of my favorite memories growing up was taking a super-long drive from south Texas to southern California, up to Yosemite, then Las Vegas, and finally over to Oklahoma before returning to SA. I think the whole trip took about two weeks (correct me if I'm wrong, mom!), but despite the fights over who got to sit in the captain's chairs (instead of the bench in the backseat), it was a lot of fun. The only problem is that we ate out a lot (mostly at diners), and, to this day, I can't drive by Denny's without getting a little nauseous...

Anyway, my point is that I love road trips. Unfortunately, the farthest we can drive here is from Nazareth to Eilat, on the Red Sea. That trip takes about six hours, and mileage-wise, is shorter than the distance from San Antonio to Dallas. Not much for this well-seasoned traveler! But, I suppose we make up for it here by having some pretty cool tourist spots to visit. Jerusalem is only about a two hour drive south from here, so a couple of weeks ago, we packed up the kids and went down there to meet some friends who were visiting from across the river. I know I posted about a trip down there when we first moved to Israel, but this time we got to visit a few places I didn't see last time. Here are a few pictures from our time there:














This is the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed with his disciples on the night he was betrayed by Judas Iscariot. Some of the olive trees in the background are SEVERAL HUNDRED YEARS OLD. Yep, pretty amazing stuff!

Our children having a moment of prayer at a holy site. Wonder what they're praying about?















Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City. You can see in the top picture the fortress walls still surrounding the Old City.

Monday's "What's Cooking" Recipe: Refried Beans

I decided that having a theme each day would help me keep on track. So, Monday's going to be recipe day, mostly b/c I love cooking! This former Texan particularly misses her Tex-Mex cuisine more than anything (well more than any other food), so today I'm going to talk a bit about my personal favorite: Refried Beans.

I think the one reason I crave refried beans so much is because I can't find them ANYWHERE here. No cans, and definitely none in the restaurants. The Middle Eastern equivalent of refried beans is fuul mdammas, which is a very popular food in Egypt, and quite tasty for breakfast. However, despite its virtues, it is not a substitute for what this girl is craving! So, after a few attempts at creating my favorite beans at home, I think I have figured out a pretty easy recipe. It takes about 15 minutes to make, and results are FANTASTIC. I don't think I'll ever go back to canned refried beans again, even if I do manage to find them here! These are definitely worth the little bit of extra effort.

This recipe makes 2-3 servings, so you might want to double (or even triple) the quantities!
Ingredients:
1-2 Tbl. bacon grease or lard (I usually save my drippings in the freezer for occasions such as these!)
1/4 c. onion, finely diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 can pinto or black beans, partially drained

Method: Heat up the bacon grease in a skillet until it is hot but not smoking. Reduce heat to medium, and add the onion. Cook for a couple of minutes, then add garlic and spices. Cook for one to two minutes more, then add the beans. Give them a couple of minutes to heat up, then mash using a fork or potato masher. Continue mashing and cooking until mixture resembles a thick paste. Serve on top of tortillas with a bit of cheese, as a side to your favorite Tex-Mex main dish, or just eat it out the pan! :-)

November is...

NaBloPoMo! So, every day for the next 30 days, I will be trying to post once a day. I'll try to stick with "lifestyle abroad" topics, so for today, I'd like to talk about All Saint's Day.

Evangelical Christianity (in general) has completely thrown out the church calendar, except for celebrating Christmas and Easter. It's sad that we can't, or won't, celebrate holidays because of certain connotations associated with them. Yes, there have been pagan traditions mixed in with this traditionally Roman Catholic holiday, but the same can be said for Christmas and Easter. What started out as a remembrance for martyrs of the church developed into feasts, and later, and official holiday of the church. Do we have to pray to saints on this day? No. But I think we can celebrate the giving of their lives for the sake of the gospel.

All Saint's Day in the Eastern Church is not celebrated until the first Sunday of Pentacost, which, to me, makes more sense from a spiritual perspective. It's also more historically in line with the practices of the early church. But I suppose that, November being a time where most of the leaves have died on the trees, the harvests are in, and the grass has withered, this is the perfect time to reflect on death, and await the hope of "new birth" that comes in the spring -- our death to self and the birth of our new life in Christ, and, later on, the death of this body and our resurrection, and life eternal with our Lord.

What to sing when you don't know the words

My son is on a Mary Poppins kick. He's actually never seen the movie before, but one of his babysitters taught him "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" a couple of days ago. Since then, I, the consummate musical junkie, have been trying to teach him the words. Emphasis on the word trying.

If you recall, this song has some quite difficult words in it (precocious? I didn't know what that meant until high school, maybe early college), so I've been singing it rather slowly. Here's what we have so far, as sung by my son:

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
If you sing it loud enough you'll always sound atrocious
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

(Um-diddle-diddle-diddle-um-diddle-lai)

Beacuse I didn't speak and I was just a lad
My father would bonk me and tell me I was bad
But then I learned a word that saved me achin' nose
The biggest word you ever heard and this is how is goes!

Eh, it's getting there. My friend Gail burst into hysterics when she heard the "If you say it loud enough you'll always sound atrocious" line.

Filling in over at TMC

Hi all! For those of you who are not readers of The Mom Crowd (yeah, I know, all two of you), I've been filling in for a friend of mine over there. Feel free to take a look at my posts over at the site and put in your two cents! And guys, yes you ARE allowed to go over there and post comments. We like to hear dad's input too -- fathers often have unique (and helpful) insights to a particular subject.

Curbing the Over-Indulgent Habits of Grandparents

Healthy Teeth, Happy Mommy!

Five Ways to Encourage Second Language Development

Hope to see you over there! Also, check out Dawn's Abiding Monday posts, as well as great tips and heart-felt conversation from Amanda and Christy.

Virtual Makeover!

We're all looking for new ways to waste our time on the internet. First it was the vast world of "googling" items, then online games (Diner Dash, anyone?) Last week, I was toying with the idea of doing something different with my hair. Mary Kay has a virtual makeover on their website; all you have to do is upload a picture of yourself sans makeup (except for foundation and clear lip balm, if you want), do a bit of formatting, and voila! you have a version of yourself that you can go wild with! So, here are the fruits of my labors (keep in mind that these hairstyles look more like wigs than anything else, but I think you can get an idea of what it would look like):







Incredible, isn't it? ;-) The last one was picked out by my son. He was tickled to death that you could have electric blue highlights.