Adventures in Miscommunication

In our area of ministry, we use 4 different languages. I'm only fluent in English. Two of the others, I can converse in fairly well. The fourth, well, let's just say that I'll get to it eventually.

But speaking in a foreign language can be tricky. For instance, I once tried to tell my former language teacher that I don't eat goat. Instead I said that I don't eat towels.

One day when we were first in this country, I gave my little speech. You know, the "I have X# of kids. I live in an apartment. I am from America" that sort of thing. Well, I said, "I AM X# of kids" and "I AM an apartment". No one corrected me and acted like they understood me. It took me 5 minutes to realize what I had said. I unterrupted conversation with a laugh and tried my speech again. Of course, my mistake would have to be in front of our senior missionary. EEK! But he applauded me on catching the mistake myself, so it's all good.

Fast forward to last night. We were at meeting and my Love was saying something funny. I piped up and told him how funny he was. His reply was the funniest blunder. Tapping his noggin, he was trying to say that he was very smart. Instead he pointed at his head and said he was very dead. That was side splitting funny!

But the funniest time of miscommunication was when we were speaking English---which makes it even funnier. You'll understand when you reach the end...

One day a cement step was being poured in front of our indoor bathroom. Well, our kids at that time had a habit of making Zorro "Z"s in any wet cement. We didn't want any "Z"s, so my Love lectured the kids not to do it. Then he left for his chuch meetings and asked me to keep an eye on the wet cement.

One minute when I checked it, it was fine. The next, it had a dog print and a "2" drawn in it. I went around to the kids, asking who drew the "2" in the cement. As you probably already guessed, no one did it.

I called my Love to talk to him about how to smooth it out. Here is how the conversation went:

Me: Hi, Babe. Well, the kids are at it again. Somebody, though no one will confess, did a number 2 in the wet cement.

Him: (loudly) WHAT? What are these kids thinking? Why on earth would they do a thing like that?

Me: (a little shocked by his tone) Yeah, I know what you mean. They just can't behave.

Him: (a little less loudly) Seriously? Someone put a number 2 right there? How on earth are we going to fix that?

Me: (not sure why it was that upsetting) Well, I can just smooth it out, right?

Him: Smooth it out?! What?! That's disgusting!

Me: (still not understanding. DUH) Babe, it's not that big a deal. I can just smooth it out.

Him: No. We have to think of something else. I mean, what possessed one of the kids to do such a thing? Could they not make it IN to the bathroom to do their number 2?

Me: (Loud laughter. VERY loud. Took a long time to gain my composure) Babe....

Him: (laughing because it was contagious) What? What's so funny?

I finally gained my composure and explained that no one "did" a number 2 on the cement----they drew the number "2". We laughed for what seemed like an hour. We still laugh about it when we think about it.

Ah, adventures. Adventures in miscommunication.

I Quit!

You know, I'm such a quitter. I quit something nearly everyday (probably everyday).

Day #1---Depressed. Easily frustrated. Tired. I sit down at the computer and a headline says something about excessive sugar consumption being linked to mood swings. Huh. If I want to get better, I'll have to quit that.

Day #2---Talked to my Grandma on the phone. She, at eighty years old, encouraged me to enjoy life. To eat chocolate. To not take myself so seriously. Hmmm. She's probably right. I really ought to quit that.

Day #3---Walked the goat. She ran away. I chased her around the village while folks laughed at my predicament. "Forget it!" I yelled in mind. "I quit!"

Day #4---A fellow missionary's daughter threw a fit, screaming and yelling at everyone in sight. She even hit her brother with a toy. I got a fiendish delight from the exchange because her older girls are angels. Then I felt badly for thinking those things in my heart and decided that I really ought to quit that.

Day #5---Didn't sleep well. Drank too much water before bed. I really ought to quit that.

Day #6---Kids were crazy. I barked. I felt bad. Decided I really ought to quit that.

Day #7---Overloaded the washing machine in my haste. The machine walked all over the floor and my Love reminded me why we shouldn't overload the machine. I pledged to quit that.

Sitting here now, I see that my quitting never works. I say I will and I never do---or I do for a minute and go right back to it. So I'm thinkin' I really ought to quit that. ;)

Free Stuff!!!

No, I'm not giving away free stuff. That would be cool. But I'm not all that cool. :)

Here is a list of free stuff from the internet that I thought y'all might enjoy

-Free Exercise Program

-Free Comic Book Page Printables---great for your little artist!

-Free Recipes!

-Free E-zine Subscription (Great for missionary wives!)

And, OH MY GOSH! There are a whole bunch of websites out there devoted to tons and tons of free stuff! Check out this one---Totally Free Stuff

And finally, free to a good home, one pot of leftover sarmale ;) I guess our kids aren't as into pickled cabbage as we are. Huh. Who knew?!

Sarmale Recipe

Sarmale is quite famous in Romania. So famous, in fact, that it is eaten at nearly every wedding and holiday (and there are MANY). When we lived in Romania, my language teacher made this for me. So goooood!!! My variation is not authentic, as it is not loaded with meat. But it's still yummy. Give it a try, if ya ain't a skeered.

What you will need:
5 days
3 heads of cabbage
Vinegar
Dill. Lots of dill.
Rice
1 carrot
5 mushrooms
2 green peppers
oil
2 lbs ground pork
3 eggs
Tomato paste
Tomato juice
Salt
Pepper
Parsley

Step One. Pickling the cabbage
Pour 1 liter of vinegar, 2 liters of water, 1/4 cup salt, and dill (to taste) in a large pot. Boil.

Cut hearts out of 2 heads of cabbage. Add the heartless heads, one at a time, to the boiling brine. Put a lid on the pot. The cabbage will slowly fall apart without damaging any of the leaves. When the first head has fallen, add the second head. Put the lid on, remove from heat, and let cool at room temperature.

Put pot in a cool place (in my case, the basement) for a few days.

It will come out lookin' like this:



Step Two
The day before you want to serve the sarmale, do the following:

Cook this rice:
Rice/water, as per the directions. Or do like I do and guess. :)
Salt
Pepper
Oil (couple glugs)
1 grated carrot
1 cup tomato paste

Cook the meat with a bit of salt

Slice the third cabbage like this:


Dice the green peppers and mushrooms

Beat the eggs

LASTLY: Mix all of the above from step 2 along with parsley and dill in one big bowl (after the rice and meat has cooled). It should look like this:


Step Three

The rolls!!!

Take a cabbage leaf in your left hand (if you're right handed). With your right hand, scoop up a spoon of rice filling and put it on the cabbage leaf



Roll them carefully. This can be tricky.



Step Four

Layering

In a large pot, layer like this:

Sliced fresh cabbage (enough to cover the bottom)
one layer of rolls
more cabbage
more rolls

and on and on until you run out or reach the top. Top it with cabbage. You can also use the small pickled leaves in the layers, since you were probably unable to use them for the rolls.

Now cover with salted tomato juice. You can add a glug or two of vinegar, if your heart desires.

Step Five

Cook!

Uncovered, heat on high until boiling.



Reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for FOUR HOURS

Refrigerate for the overnight. Warm and serve the next day (you could serve it immediately, but they taste better the next day)

Finished product!



Pofta Buna!

Midnight plumbing

Picture this...

It's 1:30 a.m. I'm standing in my new bathroom, leaning against a wall, eyes drooping, face to, um, face with my Love's derriere, feet holding the stool he was standing on to keep it from falling, cradling an electric drill like a baby, holding my pee, sorry I had just purchased these new bathroom accessories, wishing he wasn't a bit of a handyman, wishing he was a quicker handyman, wondering how long I could stand like that, wavering between love/thankfulness and impatience/frustration, and just wanting to go to bed already.

Phew, that was long.

Now for his side of the story

2:30 a.m. He's cleaning up, making sure every tool is in the right place, eyes drooping, back hurting, legs hurting, proud of his work while silently cursing the cheap goods, hungry, wishing I hadn't just purchased the new bathroom accessories and added the chore to his "honey-do" list, glad to get this project behind him, wavering between love/desire to please and impatience/frustration, and just wanting to go to bed already.

The difference between him and me----I would have quit. That's the way I roll. But he stuck with it (both of us climbing into bed a little past 2:30 and getting back up a little before 6). He started at 6 p.m. and ended at 2:30 a.m. That's devotion! Though he was sore and exhausted, he finished the job and it's beautiful.

Thanks, Babe!

Now I'm going to take a nap.

Coat Drive Update...

"Coats for Kids 2009" has been a great success. At this moment, enough money has come in to put coats on at least 250 children. Praise the Lord!

Thank you all for praying about this coat drive. I'll post pictures when I can.

UPDATE (11/5/09): 150 more children will receive a coat. 400 children as of this moment! PTL!

Testimony Tuesdays! Meet my friend Dulce!

{Dulce might have been my very first online friend. She has a gift of encouragement and I adore her. Check out her blog---you'll be glad you did!}

His Banner Over Me is Love

Last night my one year old’s erupting teeth and my own recently extracted wisdom teeth combined to keep me awake most of the night. I won't lie--I was really grouchy about it. Eventually, though, I quieted my mental grumblings to listen. Usually I savor my night-wakings as my special, secret time with God. I tend to be pathetically distractable , and during the day so many things seem to conspire to keep me from just sitting at His feet.

Once I stopped mentally screaming and begging for more sleep, and after I watched the new episode of Top Chef on our DVR, I got a song stuck in my head. It was one I hadn’t heard since I was a little girl, and it was based off of the verse from the Song of Songs that says, "He brought me to his banquet table; his banner over me is love." It planted itself firmly in my mind with all the persistence of an obnoxious commercial, though with far more soothing effect.

I'm not sure that I ever fully went back to sleep, but throughout the day, that verse has reverberated in my heart. Now I know that believers debate how much of the Song og Songs has a spiritual interpretation and how much is just love poetry. I don't really care, although some of the more, um, unusual and creative similes remind me of the sense of humor of the Lover of our Souls who chose to heal a blind man by mixing spit and dirt and smearing it in the guy's eyes. Regardless, I know that He claims us as His bride, and I have no doubt that the verse applies to us. His banner over us is love.

One of the first was mentioned in the account of theI started looking through other Biblical references to banners. Israelites battling the Amalekites. When Moses lifted his hands, they would prevail; when he was too tired and put them down, they began to lose. So he got the support of friends who held his hands for him. After they won the battle, he built an altar and declared that the Lord was their banner.

Another passage is in one of my favorite Psalms: "We will shout for joy when you are victorious and lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests." (20:5)

Isaiah 11:1-22 continues with a beautiful promise to draw all the nations of the earth to Himself, standing "as a banner for the peoples" and says that "the place of His rest will be glorious." He promises to gather together the outcasts and the people who don’t have a place where they belong.

Isaiah also spoke of banners in chapter 49. The servant of the Lord was discouraged and felt that all his work had been a waste of time. He was worn out and didn’t believe he was accomplishing anything. God gave him a radiant promise of the restoration of Israel, of captives finding freedom, abundance and fulfillment, and declares that those who hope in Him will not be disappointed. In chapter 59, He says that when the enemy comes in like a flood, He would raise up a banner.

As I read these words, a few things stood out to me. First, so many of these talked about weariness and discouragement. Whether we can see it now or not, Our efforts have value and purpose, and ultimately, victory will be ours. Furthermore, this victory is the result of love--our acts of love for others, the love of people around us who hold our hands when we need extra strength, and the power of an open, accepting love that will draw all nations.

Most of all, though, it is about His love for us. His banner over us is love. The most persistent struggle in my walk with God has been trying to grasp what is the height, the depth and full measure of His love toward us. There is a stubborn, sneaky part of me that keeps wanting to make it about my worthiness or lack thereof, and reduce God's amazing passion into a resigned tolerance. Some duty that He has just because He is God and He “has to” love me.

But banners don’t convey that image at all. Banners are about public proclamations. About belonging. About confidence. They shout out our true identity to everyone present: We are His Beloved! He isn't ashamed of loving us! In fact, He is a joy-filled, delighted lover who is boldly announcing to the whole world that we belong to each other. I am my Beloved’s, and He is mine. His banner over me is love

I pray that despite any weariness that you may be feeling right now, and even if you are in the presence of your enemies, that you will enjoy the feast that He has prepared for you, the guest of honor at His banquet table. His banner over us is love.


{Thank you, dear Dulce, for sharing a lesson with us that the Lord has been teaching you.}