Family Photos

One of the benefits of having a photographer brother are the free family photos.  Below are some of the pictures David took the other day.  Enjoy!

June Book Reviews

I mentioned in a previous post that one of my goals this summer is to read a book a week.  I may not stay that course completely, but here are the books that I read in June.

  1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus - This is one of the best books I have read in a very long time.  It is about the America's before Columbus, and if you liked Jerod Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel", you will love this book.  The author has three basic premises.  1) That the America's population was significantly larger than has typically been thought 2) that Native Americans manipulated their environment significantly and 3) People have been in the Americas for much longer than is typically thought.  He takes archaeological research, disputes among scientists and historical records (particularly from the first Europeans who arrived - and have some of the only written records about the American societies) and weaves it together in a very readable book.

 Did the Chinese discover America?  This author thinks so.  He's not an academic historian, and it certainly reflects in the work. Most of the evidence is circumstantial, and a lot of is along the lines of "there's this map that Columbus had that seems to be America, so the Chinese MUST have drawn it!" Regardless, it reads quickly and has a story narrative and was generally interesting.  I would recommend it if you don't have a whole lot better to read or if you like left-field history theories.

This is a short, interesting book.  The author's premise is to alert readers to how statistics and charts can be manipulated.  It's a field guide in a real sense.  For instance - a bird field guide will list various kinds of birds and have a page description of the bird.  Similarly, the author lists around 30 ways that statistics can be distorted and gives a one or two page description of the distortion and an example from the news of the media, politicians, scientists, activists (or whoever) used that particular distortion.  One thing I liked is that he does not pick on conservatives or liberals in particular.  In fact, I'm not sure which side of the spectrum he comes from, at least from this book.  We bought a hard copy of this book, and I may be able to use it in a class, but I'm not sure I'd recommend buying it unless you would use it often.  Borrow it from the library.

 Blink:  Malcolm Gladwell has become one of my favorite authors.  I have heard him described as the master of the anecdote.  He is able to take complex social or psychological theories and boil them down into digestible ideas.  The experiments and studies that he finds are always absolutely fascinating.  In this particular book, he addresses the brains ability to "thin slice", or to take in a vast amount of data, process it, and come out with a decision or evaluation - all in our subconscious.  He talks about how it works, how it can be misunderstood, misused and what happens when that ability breaks down.

 The Minister's Wooing:  Alison's all time favorite author is Harriet Beecher Stowe (sometime I'll write about how my knowledge of Stowe helped win Alison's heart).  As a result I sometimes am forced privileged to read one of Stowe's books (I'll be honest, I started this one well before June).  She's known for Uncle Tom's Cabin, but has written many others - and Alison has them all.  In this particular book, the heroine - a strong believer - is in love with a boy who is not a Christian, and she dutifully rejects his offers of marriage.  The boy goes out to make his way in life as a sailor and apparently dies.  In the mean time, the heroine becomes engaged to a Minister, only to have the boy return a strong Christian!  Oh no!

Though these types of books aren't my first choice, Stowe does always have a witty writing style.  I'm also impressed with the way she is able to dissect feelings, emotions and motives.  She is also a preacher at heart, and so the truths of scripture shine forth brightly.  Lastly, her characters are always a hoot.  I may not be full on interested in Stowe, but I would be more than happy if Eva were to get hooked on Stowe like her mother.

 At the Back of the North Wind: My favorite author is CS Lewis, and CS Lewis' favorite author is George MacDonald.  So I decided to read one of his children's books from our school library.   The story is of , a boy, and his various adventures with the North Wind and other friends.  To be honest, I was a little disappointed, mainly because the story was somewhat disjointed (this one was also started well before June).  I think I was hoping I would like it as much as Chronicles of Narnia.  But to be fair, it is a children's book, and part of my love of Narnia may be because I liked it so much as a kid.  MacDonald does have some great themes, and a lot of great individual quotes.  Here was one of my favorites:

I never knew of any interference on the part of a wicked fairy that did not turn out to be a good thing in the end. What a good thing, for instance, it was that one princess should sleep for a hundred years! Was she not saved from all the plague of young men who were not worthy of her? And did she not come awake exactly the right moment when the right prince kissed her? For my part, i cannot help wishing a good many girls would sleep till just the same fate overtook them. It would be happier for them, and more agreeable to their friends.

Happy Birthday Alison!

Today, June 25th (which also happens to be the half birthday of Jesus) is Alison's birthday!  She turns 28 today, and in honor of that, here are 28 reasons I love Alison:

1. She keeps me honest and doesn't let me get away with mischief (most recently during a settlers match). 
2. She is smart. 
3. She reads books and has great opinions about them. 
4. She has introduced me to Harriet Beecher Stowe (as much as I bemoan having to read the books, I secretly do like them). 
5. She is patient with our son Gabe who seems to be crying more and more these days. 
6. She tirelessly takes care of two children. 
7. She has a kind and tender heart towards those in need. 
8. She loves Jesus and wants to follow Him with all her heart. 
9. Her knowledge of scripture is impressive.  
10. She makes AMAZING cakes for my birthdays!
11. She watches science fiction shows with me (LOST, Battle Star Galactica, Fringe) 
12. She strives to be the best mother she can be with Gabe and Eva - even though Eva is being more and more trying these days.
13. She loves to learn - and is taking great care to make the most of her masters classes (despite having an energetic little girl and being pregnant during the last semester). 
14. She picks out all of my clothes and makes me look good. 
15. She makes me look good simply by standing next to me. 
16. She loves to eat healthy and makes sure our children do.  She makes sure I do, too, but sometimes I sneak a little KFC. 
17. She is patient with me, especially on my not-so-good days. 
18. She's willing to talk about economics and politics with me, even though I don't think she always wants to. 
19. She loves the Law of the Lord.  Literally - she loves Leviticus and Deuteronomy.  In fact, she seeks out sermons on those books of the Bible and listens to them. 
20. She loves me unconditionally. 
21. She agreed to marry me. 
22. She challenges me, even when I don't want to be challenged. 
23. She is beautiful!
24. She laughs at all of my jokes, even when she says they're not funny. 
25. She is willing to learn my favorite recipes that my mom made growing up - specifically the candy cane cookies. 
26. She likes adventures (of which we would have more if we hadn't created our own little adventures!). 
27. She manages our household wisely. 
28. She gives wise counsel and is my confidant.

Happy Birthday Alison!  Gabe, Eva and I love you!

Sheila the Dog

One of the (many) great things about our stay-cation this summer is the dog.  Eva loves animals, and if we lived in a flat where we could have a dog, I would get Eva a puppy.  So it is our delight to be able to take care of this dog for the summer.

Eva loves Sheila.  She follows her around, pets her, snuggles up close to her.  She giggles when Sheila hits her face with the tail, when Sheila sneezes or when Sheila licks whatever food/beverage Eva has in her hands.  She cuddles up to her when Sheila tries to sleep in her doggie bed and cries when Sheila goes outside.  Which is more and more these days.

Sheila is a fairly old dog, and is very gentle with Eva.  However, you can tell that Sheila is not as enthusiastic about this friendship as Eva is.  And it seems that Sheila has a new found appreciation for the Bahrain summers and often wants to go out when Eva is awake.

I did manage to get some video of Eva playing with Sheila.  Enjoy.

Our Staycation

Staycations - a name that became popular in the US in the last couple of years - are basically when people don't go on some expensive, extravagant trip during their vacation times.  Or, as I prefer to say - what people normally did during their time off for work or school until relatively recently.  All that to say, Alison, the kids, and I are on a stay-cation this summer!

Because Gabe was born in May, we were not able to get a passport in time to travel for the summer. Our plan is to stay here in Bahrain and let family visit us.  My brother, David, is here visiting for six weeks, and my parents arrive in two weeks.  The day after they leave, Alison's mom visits for two weeks.  All will get plenty of cuddles and pictures with the children.  Thankfully, a family in church has gone away for the summer and has graciously lent us their villa while they are away (provided we feed their dog and water their plants - a sweet deal if you ask me!)

Staying in their house has a couple of benefits:

• It's nice to get a chance of scenery for us.  We love our apartment, but the house is great. 
• Again, our apartment is great, but not big enough to comfortably house 5 adults and 2 children.  The house has enough room for us to spread our proverbial legs.
• Eva loves animals, and is in love with the dog.  I'm not sure the dog knows what to do with her, but does enjoy the occasional snack that Eva shares. 
• Eva is loving the space.  She walks alll around with her play stroller loaded up with various toys. 

We've never stayed in Bahrain for the whole summer before, and we keep hearing about how hot it gets.  I'm both eager to experience the 'real' heat of Bahrain, and dreading it at the same time.  Praise the Lord for air conditioning!  It also means that the summer will be a little slower.  We love going to the States to visit family and friends, but it always ends up being 8 weeks of running around like chickens with our heads cut off.  It'll be nice to have some time to relax. 

So what will we be doing the next two months with so much time on our hands (or, with extra time for me - Alison doesn't really experience a change).  Here's a couple of goals that I have:

1. Read.  My goal is a book a week.  I have a host of books that I haven't read, and have so far lived up to this goal (we're not done with school yet, but things have slowed down now that the students are in finals).  Alison thinks I should post a book review of some of those books.  I may yet do that. 
2. Modern Parables:  I don't remember what put this in my head, but I'm going to try and 'retell' some of the parables of Jesus as if He were in Bahrain telling them to us.  I may find that the stories are not that different.  Or I may find that they are.  We'll have to see. 
3. Playing with my children:  I get to do this already, but now we'll have more time to go to the pool, go to parks, build blocks, etc.  Eva is in a really fun stage right now and I'll be soaking that up. 
4. Preaching:  Unfortunately, our pastor and his family are returning to Australia for good.  Our church is looking for a new pastor, but until then, the preaching responsibilities are being spread around some of the men in the church.  
5. School Projects:  I've got a couple of school projects that I'll be meandering through (nothing heavy duty, of course).  I don't plan on spending a whole lot of time on them, but a little bit here and there would be good. 
6. Blogging:  I haven't done a whole lot of this lately - it's been a busy last couple of weeks for us.  But hopefully I'll have something interesting to say over the summer!