Jenyfer Matthews

This year has been very episodic and strange. We were just settling in to a nice routine after last summer’s vacation when the school closures started for the 2009 Flu Freakout. Then there were holidays, more flu closures, and more holidays. I went on my trip to Thailand and just when it looked like things were settling down again, I had to go to the US on the medical mission with my son.

And still there’s no stopping in sight.

This weekend my son and I are taking a university organized trip to the Sinai peninsula. Part beach trip, part tour of St. Catherine’s Monastery it should be a lot of fun. Apparently the official name of St. Catherine’s Monastery is The Sacred and Imperial Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount of Sinai. It’s also home to the well where Moses met his wife and site of THE Burning Bush. My son has been having a hard time understanding that the Burning Bush is not still burning (no eternal flame!) and that there aren’t any charred leaves in evidence either (at least there weren’t when I last visited the site in 2004) If the bush will be underwhelming for him, perhaps a climb up Mt. Sinai at sunset and some beach play in the Red Sea will make up for it.

Expect pictures next week.

I booked this trip for my son and I well before I knew he and I would be spending so much quality time together in Cleveland. It was also meant as a special trip for him to make up for his disappointment over the fact that his sister is taking a week-long class trip to Cyprus next week. I’d kind of like to just relax this weekend, but I also like to take advantage of these sorts of opportunities when they come along. So I spent yesterday packing: for my weekend getaway with my son and also for my daughter’s class trip. I’ll get home on Sunday evening just in time to send my daughter on her way Monday afternoon.

And if all that wasn’t enough, I already booked my reservations for summer vacation (barring more volcanic activity!) I’m racking up the frequent flier miles like you wouldn’t believe!

I’m a wanderer, yeah the wanderer,
I roam around around around around…

Believe it or not, the orchid babies survived my absence while I was away in Cleveland. They don’t look much bigger but they are still alive.

There was, however, a fifty-percent reduction in my poinsettia population – two of my four plants died.

Since my plan is to be away for approximately six weeks this summer, I wonder how many of any of the remaining plants will still be here when I get back?

My daughter’s tennis coach (my tennis coach!) recently announced that he’d signed my daughter up to participate in a local tournament at a nearby neighborhood club. My daughter is a cautious creature by nature – she likes to take her time to warm up to a new situation and scope things out before she jumps in – and she absolutely refused to do it.

I was disappointed by her reaction and told my mother about it. My mother in turn cautioned me not to push her too hard. She’d apparently seen some talk show (Dr. Phil?) about pushy sports parents, including the children who were complaining about how much they were pushed. One girl was an Olympic medal winning gymnast.

I know that pushy, super-competitive sports parents exist, and I have no doubt that some children suffer for it. I also know that there are children out there who participate in activities their parents choose for them, only to please their parents. I’ve seen them for myself. I do, however, have a hard time believing that many parents have succeeded in pushing a child so hard that the child won an Olympic medal against their will. If there are parents out there who can achieve that, then clearly I’m doing something wrong because I can’t even get my own children to pick up their socks or make their beds.

I talked to my daughter and encouraged her to give the tournament a try just for fun and experience, and in the end when she still refused, I let it go. If she’s going to be a successful athlete of any sort, clearly it’s going to be on her own terms.

Until I succumbed to the lure of taking tennis lessons myself, that is.

I did hold out a long time, though – I’ve been watching my children play for ten hours a week for nearly two years. I’ve tossed around the idea of taking lessons for a while but always decided against it because of back problems, shoulder problems, time. But when a friend of mine recently asked me if I’d take lessons with her, I immediately agreed. That was Wednesday morning and we had so much fun that we decided to do them two mornings a week.

I’m taking the lessons from my children’s coach and my biggest worry in the whole thing was that I’d be awful. My children are both so physically gifted that it is inevitable that he would likely expect more of the same and that I’d disappoint him. All I really wanted was not to look like a total spaz – either missing all the balls or hitting them out of the court. Happily, I didn’t miss many and all of my shots stayed within the walls of the court, if not the lines!

My children were with me for the first lesson, watching avidly. My daughter’s assessment? “You don’t suck!”

I was using my daughter’s racquet and wearing my sport sandals for the first lesson. Since I’m going to stick with it, I bought proper tennis shoes yesterday. Buying a racquet is slightly more complicated so I’m going to take more time with that. If you see a blonde playing bad tennis in blindingly white tennis shoes using a racquet with purple strings and a Sponge Bob vibration dampener, that’s me. Keep your eye on the ball because it might just come flying out of control in your direction…

I started taking pottery classes with another tennis mom a little more than a year ago (with time off for summer and other assorted holidays) in exchange for a couple of quilts. I glazed the items that I’d produced thus far and she fired them while I was away in the US.

You know what they say about the best laid plans. I am not very experienced in making pottery, but I do know that try as you might, things don’t always come out as you might expect them to. There might be an air bubble in the clay that causes a pot to crack in the kiln or the glazes might mix in unexpected ways or the kiln might heat unevenly. There are also times when something really wonderful happens that you might like to reproduce and you’ll never know just how repeat it.

I picked up my things this week and it was a mixed bag. Some things were as I thought they would be…and some thing were not.

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This was one of the first items I did (shows, doesn’t it??) A pinch pot (made by pinching the clay) was supposed to be glossy green on top, black underneath. Hmmm… Good thing I wasn’t terribly concerned with how this one came out!

It’s prettier underneath – where the glaze stuck, that is!

I made this little pot on the wheel and when it got a bit wonky at the top after we transferred it to the table to dry, I whacked the sides to square it up. The glaze is a dull pewter (which shows fingerprints terribly!) and the inside was glazed black. It looks better inside than out!

I did this jug on the wheel too. Again, a bit wonky on top so rather than cut it off, I formed it into a lip and added a handle. Voila. More dull pewter with black inside. Again, prettier inside than out!

I made this mask based on a picture I took of a ceramic mask my friend has. I don’t mind the color of this one, but a crack developed across the front (near what would be her hairline) and the glaze blistered on her nose. However, I kind of like this one because it looks like something I might have excavated myself.

This is a slab bowl – pretty quick and easy to construct. Just roll out a piece of clay, cut it to shape, drape it over another object and let it dry.

I had what I thought was a great idea – I crushed up a green wine bottle and sprinkled it on a couple of pieces, hoping to get a high gloss glass coating. As you see, once again the green glaze failed, the black underneath vanished, and I have a bowl that looks as if it has a blob of green wax stuck to it.

It looks much better from the side!

A big lesson I took away from this experience is to always do a test tile when working with unfamiliar glazes / materials. However, since this wasn’t my kiln it wasn’t really up to me.

This lizard is hand built and I futzed around with it for weeks to get it right. So can you imagine my disappointment that the glass didn’t melt properly? I may try to “fix” this one with some ceramic paints that I can bake on in my own oven.

This is by far my favorite pot of the bunch and is the only one that pretty much came out as I planned it to. This one is also hand built, a coil pot. I had intended to mount a small antler or a piece of drift wood in the hole in the lid. The antler I have is the right size, but doesn’t the mount pieces don’t quite fit flush and the drift wood I have is a wee bit too small. I’ll be back in the land of antlers and driftwood soon enough so either I guess I’ll wait and see what I find.

So there it is, my first and last pottery exhibition. I won’t let it put me off pottery forever, but I’ll probably stick to quilting and writing for a while…

I bought four new books for my e-reader for my recent trip to the US. I only read three of them, but I did read one of them twice.

It didn’t occur to me until I started thinking about writing this post (in the dead of the night, thanks jet leg) that the three books I read were all by authors that I first discovered and read the year that my husband and I moved abroad. Picture it: I had no friends, no job, no children, no sewing machine, no TV, and I wasn’t writing. What I did have was an abundance of empty hours to fill each day while my husband was at work and I mostly did that by losing myself in the pages of a book.

Before I left the US, I visited a bookstore and bought myself a paperback – a rare treat because back then we were pretty poor and buying a book new and paying full price was a real luxury. That book was Lady Be Good by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I can’t tell you how many times I read that book. There are a lot of books that I find amusing but there are some scenes in this book that make me laugh so hard I cry every time I read them. I recently loaned this book to an older gentleman friend of mine after he reluctantly admitted to me that he enjoyed Nora Roberts. He loved it as much as I did. I still have the same copy and read it from time to time when I need a giggle.

I’ve read several other books by Susan Elizabeth Phillips since then, and have enjoyed them all. I read What I Did For Love on this trip. It had all the classic elements of a SEP book: the couple who hate each other but are thrown together for one reason or another; a hero who has hidden depths; the heroine who falls in love in spite of herself and then withdraws to protect her heart; the hero who realizes too late how he feels and then has to find a way to convince her that his love is for real; a variety of parallel story lines with the quirky family / friends of the main characters.

I liked What I Did For Love but somehow it just fell a little flat for me overall compared to her other books. I gave it the benefit of the doubt because I was trying to read it when I was exhausted and could only read a couple pages at a time so I read it again. It flowed better the second go round, but still felt just a tad off. I think it was Bram – his character never really developed as much as I would have liked. I didn’t get enough of the story from his perspective and when he had his big epiphany about how much he loved Georgie it felt too sudden and too fast. It was no wonder Georgie didn’t believe him in the story because neither did I. It was still a fun read and for once I enjoyed her epilogue, but Lady Be Good is still my favorite.

Another author I discovered the year I moved abroad was Jane Green. There were no public libraries in the small town where we lived in the United Arab Emirates and the only bookstores sold stationery items and Korans. There was a spinning rack in one of the stores downtown that mostly had Harlequin Presents but one day I spotted Mr. Maybe by Jane Green. It was my very first British chick-lit book and I’ve been hooked on them ever since. I read Mr. Maybe obsessively for a few months. Every time I’d finish, I’d start over again. The story was hilarious, but I think it was the first person voice that drew me in. I know some people don’t like books written in first person but when it’s done well, I love it. In the case of this book, it was like having a chat with a friend about her dating misadventures at a time when I didn’t have (many) real life friends to talk to. Since then I’ve read several other of Jane Green’s books, Jemina J being another favorite.

I bought Babyville for this trip and read it in one go on the nonstop flight from Cairo to NY, with only time out for short bouts of unconsciousness. Babyville is the story of three women and motherhood: one who desperately wants a child but can’t conceive, one who gets pregnant by accident (by the boyfriend of woman #1, whoops!), and one who has just had a baby and is finding her goal of being Super Mom just a bit more than she can handle. I enjoyed how Jane Green handled each story line and how the lives of the women intersected – and how each of them handled their individual challenges. It wasn’t as much of a favorite as the two I mentioned above, but I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt because I read it when I was so exhausted. I’ll definitely reread it at some point. I didn’t like Jemina J much the first time I read it either, but love it now.

I finished the last book, Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married by Marian Keyes, my first two nights home, after my son woke me up in the wee hours with his own jet lag issues – then he got back to sleep and I didn’t.

Once I’d read every book we brought with us – several times – that first year we lived abroad, I started to read just about anything else that I could find. Our first summer there, I was pet sitting for a neighbor upstairs and found a box of books in their living room that they had borrowed from someone else. I read several John Grisham books which have all blurred together in my memory since, but I also read Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes. How I loved that book. It was the story of Rachel, an Irish woman who had been forced into rehab by her (whacko) family. What I loved about it was how cleverly the story was presented – told in first person, Rachel is in total denial about her problems with drugs and alcohol and how badly out of control her life is. And because she presents her side of the story in such a rational and reasonable way, I was totally sucked in to believing that she was as misunderstood by her family as she said she was. (It’s a good thing I don’t have any real life addicts in my life – what a soft touch I would be!) The story was so vivid to me that I was totally sucked in before I figured out what what really going on. My own stories are totally character driven so it’s no wonder I like Marian Keyes so much – the characters and stories she creates make me laugh and cry and read until my eyes are bloodshot.

Of the three books I read in the last two weeks, Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married was by far my favorite. It had a similar flavor to it that Rachel’s Holiday did in that the main character Lucy is totally blind to the fact that she’s constantly drawn to drunk losers and that in fact she has the perfect man, her best friend, right in front of her. If there was anything I didn’t like about the book it was how patient and loyal Daniel was throughout – watching her date loser after loser, putting up with her all her “friendly” teasing / verbal abuse. Having read enough Marian Keyes to know how she builds a story, I wasn’t fooled by what fueled Lucy’s self-destructive dating patterns and I picked out Daniel as her eventual partner from the start, but it didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the book one bit. I’ll definitely read it again.

Maybe even this weekend if the jet lag continues…

You might remember my post from two Fridays ago, where I talked about the deficiencies of the medical system in Egypt. I can add to that list now and call it either incompetence or overzealousness, depending on my mood.

In short, the Egyptian doctors overreacted – my son is absolutely fine and healthy. To give them the benefit of the doubt, I suppose it was better to err on the side of caution in this case and I am certainly happy to get the news I did rather than the alternative, however I could have used a little less stress over the last few months with the worrying and the travel!

With the medical portion of our trip dealt with, I did what I could to make the most of my time in Cleveland. I shopped (including my first trip to Trader Joe’s – awesome!), we went to the zoo, we saw “How to Train Your Dragon” in 3-D (thin on plot but great special effects!), I indulged myself with a variety of beers and wine, I caught up with old friends, and I gorged myself on fish.

We also spent an afternoon at the Rock and Roll of Fame and Museum. That was probably more fun for me than it was for my little man, because though he knows many of the songs that were being played over the speakers, he doesn’t know who any of the bands or singers are! He was happier once I bought him a pair of drumsticks (what boy doesn’t like sticks??)

I got myself a present as well – a CD of 50 Motown classics. How could I resist a CD that had wonderful songs like “My Girl” (Temptations), “Heard It Through the Grapevine” (Marvin Gaye), “Stop! In the Name of Love” (The Supremes), “Sugar Pie Honey Bunch” (Four Tops) but also “Brick House” (Commodores) and “Super Freak” (Rick James)? Choosing between this disk and a cool graphic t-shirt was really no contest at all. Limiting myself to only this disk was harder because as you might imagine, the gift shop was bursting with wonderful music.

Now it is down to packing up to go back home. Happily, packing should be easier than usual – I brought an extra suitcase with me and I was more restrained than I often am

Have a great weekend and a happy Easter. Barring delay or disaster, I’ll be coming to you live from Cairo next week.

Saw this sign in a barber shop near where I am staying in Cleveland. I laugh every time I see it. Can’t you just imagine some big, hairy guy going in and requesting their service by name??

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A while back my husband decided to get us a 15″ cast iron skillet because he was suspicious of nonstick coatings – both fumes and also when they start to peel. I admit that I was somewhat reluctant to use the new pan for quite a while. I was used to the pans that I had been using and didn’t think we really needed such a large pan so it sat on a shelf collecting dust.

Since we moved to our new house, I’ve fallen totally in love with the pan. Why? It all started with French toast. I hadn’t had any French toast (eggy bread for my British/Aussie readers) in a very long time, mostly because I didn’t have a pan where it wouldn’t either stick terribly (aluminum skillet) or fail to brown properly (nonstick). The French toast did not stick to the cast iron pan, it browned perfectly, AND it’s large enough that I was able to make three pieces at a time. Hmmm…

Since then I’ve used it to make grilled cheese sandwiches, veggie burgers, quesadillas, fried potatoes, oven-baked sweet potato fries, sautee onions, and pancakes. Yes, it’s large and it’s heavy, but I know it’s not giving off any noxious fumes when I heat it up and you just have to love a pan that you are actively discouraged from washing! I just wipe out whatever bits are left behind, oil it up and it’s ready to go the next time. I’ve been using it so frequently that it now lives on my stovetop.

I used it the morning of my trip to make my new-to-me recipe for March: oat cakes. (Ha! I didn’t have to rely on the brownies after all!) I’ve tried making oat cakes before but they were always denser than I liked. I found this recipe on Mama Pea’s blog and since she used to run a restaurant I figured she ought to know what she’s doing. She does indeed – they were wonderful.

My next adventure with cast iron will involve seasoning the cast iron waffle maker I bought recently. I’ll be able to make waffles on my stovetop OR in the woods! An added bonus is that it is small enough to also serve as a weapon

8:30pm, Saturday March 27th is Earth Hour, sponsored by World Wildlife Fund.

Earth Hour 2010 takes place on Saturday 27 March at 8.30pm (local time) and is a global call to action to every individual, every business and every community throughout the world. It is a call to stand up, to take responsibility, to get involved and lead the way towards a sustainable future. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Europe to Asia to the Americas will stand in darkness. People across the world from all walks of life will turn off their lights and join together in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all have in common – our planet.

So grab a flashlight or a couple of candles and turn off the lights for one hour. Have a romantic dinner with your honey. Tell your children spooky stories. Or sit and look at the stars. Turning off the lights for an hour isn’t such a hardship, and small actions really do make a difference.