bekahcubed

Categories Books, Flashback Friday

Flashback: Bookworm Reminisces

7 Comments by

I’m a reader and I’ve always been, which makes Linda’s book-related Flashback prompt this week kinda fun for me!

Flashback Friday buttonPrompt: Did you like to read when you were a child? What were your favorite genres, books or series? Did you read books because of the author or because of the title/plot? Did you own many books?…

I learned to read at my mama’s knee, and once I had completed the final reader in the “Little Patriots Read” series (I think it was the purple covered Sounds of Joy), I was allowed to get a library card. From then on, I was an avid reader and library patron.

I’m a binge reader–always have been.

The Little House books, the Chronicles of Narnia, and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess were some of my earliest favorites. (I own several copies of each of these today.)

Then I had times of serial mystery binges: Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and the rare Trixie Belden I could find at a garage sale or used store. (A couple years ago, I finished re-reading all the Nancy Drew mysteries–now I’m working on both the Boxcar Children and the Hardy Boys from my local library.)

By my pre-teen years, I was avidly reading Christian romances: Janette Oke, Lori Wick, Gilbert Morris, Michael Phillips. (Lori Wick was one of the first authors I “closed out” on my “read every book” goal–and I’m currently working my way through Oke.)

In fifth or sixth grade, I became addicted to popular pablum. My sister and I collected way too many Babysitter’s Club and Sweet Valley Twins and Friends books. (We threw them all away under conviction in our seventh?, ninth?–sometime during Junior High or High School.)

Then I started reading Harlequins. First, the “Love Inspired” Christian twaddle–and then clean Regency romances that my mom had pre-screened. Then I moved to the not-so-clean Regencies. While I still love certain aspects of the genre, I deeply regret the thoughts and images I allowed into my mind during this period.

In ninth grade, we started a co-op literature class taught by my aunt–and my reading grew up a bit. I started reading Hawthorne and Austen and Beowulf and Hemingway.

I’d read non-fiction throughout my life, but I became a real fan in my late teenage years. Educational theory, medical innovation, grammar, history, memoirs… I loved it.

And most recently, I’ve been binging on…theology.

With regular snacks of all my old favorites, that is!

Visit Linda and follow the links to read some more stories about books!

Categories Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: Settling into two towns

Leave a comment by

I’m starting to settle into my double-lives, I think. At least, bits and pieces are coming together to make this wild season of working two jobs in two different towns a bit more workable.

Thankful Thursday banner

Today I’m thankful…

…for the sweet, singing voices of the residents who’ve already become dear to me

…for the lab coat that covers the fact that I can rarely find shirts with long enough sleeves

…for the umbrella that I remembered to bring home from work–allowing me to use it this morning in the rain

…for the blanket under my fitted sheet that keeps the airbed from freezing me to death in the night!

…for the book club that has resumed, giving me something (one thing) other than work that I force myself to take a break for

…for the Bible study that has welcomed me as a half-dweller and sympathizes with my mixed emotions about becoming a full-dweller.

…for the God who graciously grants me each breath, each day, each person, each place.

I have been blessed beyond measure to have such a rich and full life.

Categories Everyday Life

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

3 Comments by

Five Man Electrical Band had a song:

Sign, Sign
Everywhere a sign
Blocking out the scenery
Breaking my mind
Do this, don’t do that
Can’t you read the sign?

The lyricist dislikes the signs he sees all about.

I agree–sometimes.

But then there are the signs like the ones I’ve seen at various times at my parents’ house:

SignSign

Or the ones at my grandparent’s house:

SignSign

Good-natured signs put up by good-natured people in order to inform or instruct on the basic mechanisms of how a house works.

Do you have any signs in your house?

Categories Following Christ

God Provides

2 Comments by

A week and a half ago, at the last minute, I was asked to teach the elementary-aged Sunday school at my church. As the kids are currently between curricula, I had to come up with the material for myself.

I chose the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac as my lesson–mostly for the sake of convenience. You see, I’m a true believer in gospel-centered teaching–and that story doesn’t require any work to get to the gospel-center.

Isaac was going to die. God provided a substitute. It’s as easy as that.

Even Abraham’s obedience can’t be simply taken as a moral to-do: “You should obey.” The point of Abraham’s obedience was faith displaying itself in action. Abraham believed that God would be faithful to His promise, therefore Abraham was able to trust God and be obedient to His direction.

So the story of Abraham and Isaac makes a nice text for a gospel-centered teacher.

Then, I was asked to teach for the next week.

I figured I’d just follow the chronology of Scripture. Isaac and Rebekah. Another story of God’s provision–this time of a wife for Isaac.

Abraham had a predicament. His family was all alone in the land of Canaan–and the only women around were godless Canaanites. His son Isaac is single, but he needs a wife if God’s promise that Abraham would be the father of a great nation was to be fulfilled. And Abraham can’t well send his son back to his homeland. He can’t risk Isaac not returning. After all, God had promised to give Abraham’s descendants this land–the land of Canaan.

Abraham sends his servant back to the land of his origin. The servant prays for provision–and God provides a wife for Isaac.

Abraham and his son Isaac had a need. God provided for their need in Rebekah.

The import of this story smacks me upside the head.

God provides.

Last week, we saw Him provide a lamb. This week He provides a spouse in a land without godly women. If I’d gone back a few stories, I’d have seen that God provided water for Hagar and Ishmael when they were in a waterless desert; God provided a son to the barren Sarah; God provided an escape for Lot from the doomed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

And here I am worrying about my career, about my future, distressed over the personal barrenness I (and even those around me) see in the city I’ll soon be relocating to. It looks to be a good move for me professionally. Personally, it feels like death to my dreams.

I’m Abraham saying “How can I have a son? I’m old.” I’m Sarah laughing that there might be room for the promise in my barren body. I’m Hagar laying down to die because I have no water. I’m Isaac asking where the sacrifice is, then staring in terror as my father restrains me and places me on the altar. I’m Abraham’s servant asking “But what if no woman is willing to come back with me to marry your son?”

And amidst my need, amidst my lack of faith, God provides.

Not one of His good promises will fail. My needs will never go unmet. God sees my every need and provides. First, He provides me with Himself–my ultimate, deepest need. But then He also provides me with every temporal thing He deems necessary to accomplish His good purposes through my life.

I intended to teach the gospel to some children through a couple of Old Testament stories. I ended preaching the gospel to myself through the same stories. For one truth permeates the pages of Scripture: I, we, all of humanity are desperately needy–and God provides for our needs in Christ Jesus.

Categories Family & Friends, Homemaking

Eating RED meat

1 Comment by

Many in my family are of the mistaken notion that I only consume “fully dead” meat products.

They complain that I like my steak so dead that it has no flavor left.

I tell them that it’s not that I like my meat overcooked–it’s that I like to make sure that my meat is safe. Then I urge them to buy a instant-read food thermometer.

Why?

Because with an instant-read food thermometer, you can tell within moments that your meat is safe to eat and don’t have to rely on remarkably unreliable data about doneness–data like how pink a piece of meat is.

Last night, after my dad purchased an instant-read food thermometer, I ate a delicious steak that was cooked to an appropriate internal temperature of 150 degrees Fahrenheit (Whole cuts of beef and pork are considered safe if they reach an internal temperature of 145 degrees for at least 15 seconds.)

Steak cooked to 150

See that?

Note the blood pooling on my plate?

That’s a safely cooked steak. I know because I temped it personally.

I also know that my dad pulled another steak off the grill, even though my internal temperature readings were only 140 degrees. He was sure the steak was done, that the thermometer was wrong.

Once he got inside and cut that steak open, he decided differently. The thermometer was right, the steak wasn’t fully cooked.

His options now? Eat it in its potentially dangerous present state or nuke the life out of it.

He chose to eat it as it was. I would have nuked the life out of it.

But that decision could have been avoided if he’d just trusted his thermometer.

Food thermometers–making RED meat safe for everyone!

For those who are interested in how to use an instant-read food thermometer, you’ll want to insert the probe at least an inch into the side of your piece of meat at the thickest point. Wait until the temperature on the dial stops increasing.

While many thermometers have temperature recommendations listed on them, these recommendations are not safety recommendations but preference-based recommendations. Often, the temperature listed on the thermometer is higher than the safe temperature. Instead of going with these recommendations, I prefer to know the safe numbers and to cook my meats to my own preferred level of doneness once I know they’ve reached a safe temperature.

So, without further ado, I offer you a handy table of safe meat temperatures.

Beef or pork steaks or chops 145 for 15 seconds
Beef or pork roasts 145 for 3 minutes
Ground beef or pork 155 for 15 seconds
Poultry, whether whole or ground 165 for 15 seconds
Leftovers or other reheated foods 165 for 15 seconds
Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “The Homeschool Liberation League”

2 Comments by

Have I ever told you about the time I decided to drop out of school?

I haven’t?

Well, let’s correct that now.

I was sixteen years old and had just finished reading Grace Llewellyn’s The Teenage Liberation Handbook (subtitled “How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education”). Llewellyn suggested an unschooling approach to education and I thought it sounded amazing. That was it. I was dropping out.

I was reminded of my teenage dropout days when I started reading Lucy Frank’s The Homeschool Liberation League, in which Katya gets fed up with school and with the person she is at school and takes a radical step: she turns around and leaves.

In camp that summer, she’d learned how much she COULD learn when she was interested in the topic she was studying–and now the mind-numbing, sleep inducing dreariness of teachers who don’t care and fellow students who only care about popularity has become too much for her. She wants to learn like she did at camp–and she thinks she has the solution.

Homeschooling.

One of the girls at camp did it, and it sounded fantastic.

So Katya’s returned home from the first day of school, determined to drop out and be homeschooled.

Now to convince her parents.

Lucy Frank says that this novel is her “tribute to the range of learning possibilities available to kids today”–and I’ll say it makes a pretty good tribute. It plays with some of the concepts many a homeschooling mom has explored–from unschooling to “school-at-home” to an “eclectic” approach to homeschooling. It shows students alternately having difficulties with and thriving under some of the many options available to kids–from public schools to charter schools to private schools to homeschool co-ops.

I didn’t get the impression that Frank is a sold-out believer in any one system of education (public/private/homeschooling/etc.)–she portrays each setting as having its own challenges and advantages, as I think she ought. Frank also does a good job of showing how different learning environments can be ideal for different students.

That being said, this isn’t a didactic book, all about different methods of learning. Really, it’s just a story–a story about a girl who wants to learn but finds that school just isn’t cutting it for her. It’s a story many of us can probably identify with.

I know I can.

After all, I was sixteen year old homeschooler who read a book about unschooling and decided to drop out of school. :-)

Katya and her parents tried a number of different approaches as they tried to figure out what was right for her–and the ultimate solution turned out to not be what any of them expected.

My dropout days didn’t quite end like I expected, either. I had goals, you see. College, a career. I wanted to be a scientist. I wanted to be a dietitian. I could drop out of “school”–but I’d still need to take chemistry at the public school like I was already doing. I’d still need to finish my trigonometry (that I was doing at home.) I still wanted to do our co-op literature class.

Basically, I could “officially” drop out of school–but it wouldn’t really change anything. Because even if I wished I could just have fun learning about this and that whenever the yen struck me, I had goals–and the program my parents and I had already come up with was designed to achieve those goals.

Maybe I’m just an idealist–but I get the idea that a student reading The Homeschool Liberation League might take it almost like I took The Teenage Liberation Handbook. They might realize that maybe school should be interesting–that maybe even they could enjoy learning. They might start to explore and to discuss with their parents the many options that are available to them as students.

And I think that’s probably a good thing.

Rating: 4 stars
Category: Young Adult Fiction
Synopsis: Katya leaves school to be homeschooled–if she can convince her parents to let her be homeschooled, that is.
Recommendation: A fun read, an interesting exploration of the many schooling options available to students nowadays. Both young adults and older adults will likely enjoy this title.

Visit my books page for more reviews and notes.

Categories Book Notes

Menter’s Hierarchy of Needs

1 Comment by

If you’re a student of psychology (or a student in any field that applies the behavioral sciences), you’ve likely heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow suggested that humans have a collection of fundamental needs, and that these needs are “hierarchical”. That is to say, some needs must be met in order to go on to seek after the “higher” needs.

As per the diagram below, Maslow suggests that physical needs are the base, followed by the need for safety, and then for love/belonging, and then for esteem. At the pinnacle, Maslow has placed “self-actualization”–a vague term for a number of feel-goods ultimately summed up in “reaching one’s potential”.

Maslows Hierarchy of Needs
Image from the Wikimedia Commons, licensed under a CC 3.0 license

Maslow’s theory has been critiqued for its insistence that the “lower” needs be met before the higher needs are sought. Experience teaches us that even a hungry child still seeks love and acceptance (to fulfill a “higher” need). Additionally, while Maslow’s hierarchy may have utility in explaining Western patterns of behavior, it breaks down when applied to Eastern cultures where community is regarded more highly than individuality.

I don’t really care to discuss Maslow’s hierarchy–I’d much rather propose my own.

Enter Menter’s Hierarchy of Needs Induced by the Fall of Mankind:

I propose that the fall of mankind followed a progression–and that the redemption of mankind requires a reversal of that progression.

When Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent, their first step towards sin was to turn their eyes from God to self.

“…the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise…”
~Genesis 3:6a

Having turned their eyes from God, they chose to obey the tempter rather than God.

“…she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”
~Genesis 3:6b

And once they ate, they experienced the consequences of sin.

“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked…”
~Genesis 3:7

The fall induced three vital needs in the spirit and soul of every man.

He needs to be saved from self-centeredness, he needs to be saved from the mastery of sin, and he needs to saved from the consequences of sin.

I propose that, at least for most people, the awareness of each of these needs follows the reverse progression.

First, man becomes aware of the consequences of sin–and seeks to escape them. He experiences guilt or shame. He sees broken relationships, physical and emotional suffering. He fears death. And he needs a Savior to free him from these consequences.

He receives Jesus as Savior. “Free me from hell,” he cries.

Get-out-of-hell-free card safely in hand, he discovers his second great need. He becomes aware of his bondage to sin. He wants to do what is right, but he finds himself unable to do so. Even recognizing that he IS freed from sin through Jesus Christ, he still finds himself inclined towards sin. He needs a new master.

He receives Jesus as Lord. “I will submit my life to Your mastery,” he affirms.

Watching his steps carefully, anxious to be obedient to his new master, the man discovers his final need. He is discontent with this. Somehow, this falls short. Is this all there is? he wonders. He might even wonder if it’s worth it. What has he gained by submitting to Christ’s mastery? He needs a new treasure.

And at some point, by the grace of God, he receives Jesus as Treasure. “You are worth everything,” he proclaims.

There, as he is lost in the greatness of the Treasure, his needs disappear. Christ has met them, He has fulfilled them. For really, all of our needs are simply metaphors for our truest need–God Himself.

(This is a reflection on John Piper’s concept of receiving Christ as Treasure, as articulated in the second chapter of Desiring God. For more reflections on Desiring God, see my notes here.)

Categories B3RD, Everyday Life

Teaching Food

1 Comment by

I teach a couple of “Scientific Principles of Food Preparation” labs at our local university–and I absolutely love what I do.

What I don’t love is trying to explain what I do.

The easiest explanation, although not the most accurate, is that I teach college nutrition students how to cook.

The truth is…a bit more complicated.

Over the course of any given lab, I might be showing someone how to separate an egg, explaining how one ingredient can be substituted for another, defining “simmering” or “rolling boil”, encouraging students to get out of their comfort zones and eat a new food, describing some cultural ritual associated with a food, and discussing the functional properties of certain ingredients.

And then there’s the part I’m actually hired to teach. :-)

You see, ultimately, my job is to help students understand not how to cook, but why we cook the way we do and what happens when we cook certain ways.

My job is to teach the science behind cooking.

For instance, last week I showed the students why recipes that include purple/red vegetables often include an acid of some sort (vinegar, lemon juice, fruit, etc.)

I boiled some red cabbage in three separate pans. Each pan contained water and cabbage, but two contained extra ingredients. To one pan, I added baking soda (a base). To another, I added cream of tartar (an acid).

I drained the cabbage and reserved the liquid to show the students what each looked like.

Red Cabbage at different acidity levels

I explained how the purple/red pigments, called anthocyanins, found in these fruits change their color based on pH. As the concentration of hydrogen ions increase (the acidity increases), the color becomes more of a red/pink color. As the alkalinity increases, the color changes to blue-green color.

I encouraged the students to take a close look at the texture of each wedge of cabbage. The one that was cooked in a basic solution was incredibly mushy, because the hemicellulose, one of the fibers that gives structure to vegetables, becomes soluble in water under basic conditions, causing structure to be lost.

I talked about the sensory implications of cooking style–how different methods of cooking vegetables influence their color, flavor, and texture. I talked about the nutrient implications of cooking style–how different methods of cooking vegetables influences nutrient availability, nutrient loss, and ease of eating.

I talked about “phytochemicals” and how many of these “food dyes” that give color to our vegetables have been identified as having beneficial health properties. I mentioned lycopene, the bright red pigment found in tomatoes. I explained to my students that lycopene is a carotenoid that can not be used by the body to synthesize Vitamin A–but that is still useful as a phytochemical that appears to be active in prostate cancer prevention.

I teach “pure science”–things like osmosis and acidity and chemical structures. I teach “food science”–things like the functional properties of gluten and the interactions of glutenin and gliadin to create an elastic dough. I teach “nutrition science”–things like what nutrients can be found where and how different cooking techniques influence the nutritional properties of a food.

But mostly, I just teach food.

Which suits me just fine.

‘Cause I love teaching–and I love FOOD!

Categories The Week in Words

WiW: Look to Jesus

4 Comments by

The Week in Words

My eyes turn inward, at the convolutions of my soul. They look outward at my circumstances, at the many questions the next few months will bring. My eyes turned downward, overwhelmed.

Eyes to the earth, tears beginning to overflow.

How shall I ever get through this? How can there be purpose, how can there be good in this painful struggle I am living?

The voice speaks, not audibly, but through my computer screen:

“For every look at self—take ten looks at Christ! Live near to Jesus—and all things will appear little to you in comparison with eternal realities.”

~Robert Murray McCheyne, quoted by Vitamin Z

Ten at Christ for every one at self? Why there aren’t enough hours in the day to do such a thing!

You must look at yourself less.

So I’m to ignore my circumstances? I’m to ignore the intellectual, the emotional, the physical, the spiritual struggles I’m experiencing? Is that what You’re saying?

No, I’m urging you to look beyond.

“Anyone can look; a child can look. But this is what the text says. Then it says, “Look unto Me.” ‘Ay,’ said he, in broad Essex, ‘many of ye are looking to yourselves. No use looking there. You’ll never find comfort in yourselves.’ Then the good man followed up his text in this way: ‘Look unto Me: I am sweating great drops of blood. Look unto Me; I am hanging on the Cross. Look: I am dead and buried. Look unto Me; I rise again. Look unto Me; I ascend; I am sitting at the Father’s right hand. O, look to Me! Look to Me!‘”

“Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. He then said, ‘Young man, you look very miserable.‘ Well, I did; but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made on my personal appearance from the pulpit before. However, it was a good blow struck. He continued: ‘And you will always be miserable — miserable in life and miserable in death — if you do not obey my text. But if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.’

“Then he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist can, ‘Young man, look to Jesus Christ.‘ There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that moment and sung with the most enthusiastic of them of the Precious Blood of Christ.”

~C.H. Spurgeon describing his conversion, found at Wholesome Words

My soul has a dread disease. Discouragement. Discontent with God’s provision. Despair for God’s supply. Disgruntlement at God’s direction.

The serpent has bit me, I am ready to die.

“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.’ So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.”

~Numbers 21:8-9

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

~John 3:14-15

“Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.”

~Hebrews 12:2-3

Collect more quotes from throughout the week with Barbara H’s meme “The Week in Words”.

Categories Everyday Life

Sunday Snapshot: A Storm

4 Comments by

Last Monday, Lincoln enjoyed a massive windstorm.

No actual tornadoes were spotted, but the wind was gusting to at least 90 miles per hour. It knocked over three semis on the interstate between Lincoln and Omaha, put out power in many Lincoln and Omaha neighborhoods, and completely ripped off the roof of at least one large building.

I happened to be walking to my car from a lab I’d been teaching when the storm blew up. I snapped some pictures before the wind started in earnest.

Below you can see a picture taken facing northeast as the storm advanced from the west. This was before the storm had truly blown in.

Storm coming in

This next picture was taken facing due north, where you can clearly see the black clouds of the advancing storm.

Storm coming in

Less than a minute after I had taken these photos, the temperature dropped by five to ten degrees and the wind (which had been brisk but manageable) suddenly began pelting me with debris from the road and the neighborhoods west of campus. I was thankful that the bulk of the rain held off until I had reached my car–there was no way I could have held my umbrella against the wind.