Passover Seder

Friday night, Kevin and I attended a Passover Seder hosted and conducted by Dr. Victor L Ludlow, BYU Professor of Ancient Scripture. I have been aware of this annual event for many years and finally had the opportunity to participate. Dr. Ludlow led the group through the 14 steps of the Seder Service, which included reviewing the story of the first Passover, eating, singing, recitation- all with wonderful explanations and commentary. It was a wonderful and enlightening evening. The one low point was the eating of 'bitter herbs', symbolizing the bitterness of slavery in Egypt. The 'herb' was a potent preparation of horseradish. I am not sure that I can adequately explain the initial shock to the senses upon eating it. That however was not the worst part. After I ate it, it burned in my stomach the rest of the evening, leaving me feeling like I might need to run for the restroom at any moment. Definitely a powerful symbol.
Dr. Ludlow was the President of the Frankfurt, Germany Mission when I was a teenager living in Germany- well, West Germany, at the time. I heard him speak several times- once at Youth Conference that I remember particularly. This was at the General Walker Hotel in Bavaria that has since been torn down. I have poignant memories of the beautiful scenery, the great fun, and the deep spiritual experiences I enjoyed there. I also studied the book of Isaiah with Dr. Ludlow at BYU. I was surprised after so long that I recognized his voice before I saw him.
I am uplifted by the intersection of past experience with new learning and understanding. Because of the many places and people from my youth that I will never see again, I treasure opportunities to reconnect with the past in my present circumstances.

Leith is in a phase where he avoids allowing anyone to hug or, especially, to kiss him. We are all suffering from his selfish refusal to allow affection, and my Dad was no exception during out visit. He resorted to trying to lure Leith into contact by asking him to demonstrate how tightly he could squeeze his hand and other such ploys. In these photos, Dad is capitalizing on Leith's interest in maps to facilitate a little interaction. What a little pill Leith is- I hope he grows out of this before he is too big to be cuddly.

Reviving the Spirit

In an effort to rehabilitate my Mother's spirits as her health improves, we went to the Dallas Museum of Art to see the 'largest and most comprehensive retrospective ever held in the US of the career of J.M.W. Turner(1775-1851).' It was a huge-140 works- amazing exhibit. I was most drawn to his seascapes and historical events. I could not resist buying a print of 'Keelman Heaving in Coals by Moonlight' exh 1835.

This image does not really do it justice, but it gives an idea of the painting. I became fascinated that in nearly all his seascapes, Turner included a bit of debris-an anchor, a broken mast, a barrel, etc, in the lower left hand corner. This feature does not detract from the paintings, but seen again and again, it became bizarre and fascinating for me.

The boys did a bit of painting themselves in Grandma's studio. They began painting a jug of sunflowers. Niall stayed with it, but Leith decided to paint spaceships after a while. Niall made a last minute addition of a corn dog in the foreground of his painting. We will see if this continues as a motif in all his paintings as the shipping debris does in Turner's work.

Happy Belated Birthday to Coral & Kevin

Coral and Kevin celebrated birthdays while I was gone- 17th & 42nd, respectively. We had their traditional shared Strawberry Torte the day after I returned. Here's a baby photo of Coral- where have the years- and the cheeks- gone?

Grandma's House

Serious illness seems to be no match for the magic of visiting Grandma & Grandpa. After a fun few days at Roselyn's house, the boys joined me at my parents home. My Mother, still weak, was almost immediately drawn into 'small boy fantasy fulfillment' mode.

In my ongoing attempt to become 'Mother of the Year', I have been letting the boys watch plenty of TV, where they have seen and become obsessed with a 'But wait, there's more' ad for a 'Pancake Puffs' cooking set. I was telling my Mom about this product which she instantly recognized as an Ebilskiver pan. Ebilskivers are a Danish pancake that a good friend of hers used to make many years ago. Unbelievably, my Mother had just recently acquired her own pan.

Within hours of arriving at Grandma's house, my boys were sitting at the bar eating the longed for 'pancake puffs'. It was priceless to watch. (That's 'Flat Mimi' between the boys-It's a long story)

I spent the last two weeks in TX with my ailing parents. It feels surreal to be one place, fully immersed in the busyness of life, and then to be in another, and then to be back again. I am not good at doing more than one demanding thing at a time. Driving while using a phone is about my limit! :) (That's for you, Clark) I wish for the perhaps idealized norm of the past, where extended families lived close and helped and supported one another through all phases of life. I have envied a bit the friends I have who live closer to that ideal than I ever have. I definitely wish I were closer to my parents at this time in their lives. My thoughts are there with them while I am back here now catching up on paperwork, teen drama, snow, etc. A HUGE Thank You to Kevin for seeing India through oral surgery, Coral through her trip- a HUGE NO THANKS to American Airlines and the FAA for screwing that up for her-, keeping the house spotless, not ruining any laundry, and for installing the shelving in the garage. I was skeptical about this, but am happy to have been wrong. I am actually thrilled that he and Shawn built the work bench to high for me-Kevin will have to build all future Siege Machines and other school projects!