It’s been a while since I wrote a real Knowles family letter!  But that’s OK because life happens at an awfully rapid pace in this house, and I’m awfully busy keeping up with it. 

 

As I write this on a Saturday afternoon, Melody is supposed to be settling down for her nap.  However, I’m sitting in my favorite reading chair next to her little bed, keeping her up by listening to Selah sing “Bless the Broken Road” while I load it from a CD onto my MP3 player via Thad’s laptop.  I think Melody loves music as much as I do, which certainly fits her name!  When my older girls were really little, I used to play a lullaby tape by Michael Card.  When I was pregnant with Rachel, I asked three year old Mary what she would want to name the baby if it was a boy. She immediately shouted, “MICHAEL CARD!”  He doesn’t just sing for babies – we have always loved his music for the poetic lyrics that communicate the heart of our faith.  A couple of weeks ago, I was on-line trying to download the lyrics to one of his songs that I would be playing for my English class.  I stumbled across a web page at www.MichaelCard.com about one of his books, Scribbling in the Sand: Christ and Creativity, and was able to check it out from the public library.  I love this book!  It says so much of what I have been trying to articulate over the past couple of years about the integration of imagination, beauty, and authentic faith.  Here’s a quote from the book that reminds me of how I wrote my poem "Over Utah in January" a few weeks ago: “We are driven to create at this deep wordless level of the soul because we are all fashioned in the image of a God who is an Artist… His image is woven into the fabric of everything we are.  His thumbprint on our lives affects us in ways we will never even begin to understand.  His divine beauty, which is part of our essence as well, demands a response.  We see a majestic sunset, and a line of poetry comes to mind, or an image to paint, or perhaps we merely give a sigh that can sound like a song.”  (Note later on in the evening: I thought of that quote when I peeked outside before dinner and glimpsed the sunset pinks-and-oranges playing with the wispy clouds in the sky.  I don't have time to write a poem or paint a picture, but I at least ran for the camera.  Glorious!)

 

 

Lydia just came in and snitched my MP3 player.  She had been assigned to write a report about a favorite country in her history class at co-op, and chose Italy, since Thad’s great grandparents emigrated from there about 100 years ago. Then she decided she didn’t want to settle for a paper report when she could create a multi-media presentation instead.  She has been using Windows Movie Maker, which she has promised to teach me.  She has been able to weave together a pretty impressive video using audio (from the MP3 voice recorder), music, pictures from the web, video clips, and beautifully designed fact pages.  Her most recent addition to it was a segment on the arts, which she recorded with a Vivaldi symphony playing in the background. So I guess Lydia is the featured Knowles child for this family letter.  For Rachel’s 17th birthday on Wednesday, Lydia’s present to her was a full gourmet, cooked-from-scratch dinner of stuffed shells, sourdough bread, rice pudding, and carrot cake.  Yum!  (I've put the recipe for rice pudding a little further down in this issue.)  I’m glad Lydia acts on her creative urges, because we all benefit!   I think she's planning to spread her wings beyond the family and teach cooking classes this summer, too.  This should be interesting!   (Note on February 27: Lydia showed me how to use Windows Movie Maker today.  It looks really simple and fun, and I wish I had time to play with it right now.  Another season of life, perhaps?) 

Now, if you will permit me a slight digression for a greater cause, something popped into my head while I was eating Lydia's latest batch of rice pudding and thinking about this letter.  One of the things I most appreciate about Michael Card is his untiring support for justice and mercy around the world.  His song "So Many Books" (the one I played for my English class recently) focuses on the plight of Christians in countries where Bible distribution is restricted, especially China. For as long as I can remember, Michael has used his music ministry to raise awareness and funds for the The Bible League and/or WorldServe World Serve.  It brings tears to my eyes when I remember how, many years ago, my daughter Julia mentioned a certain adoption agency to our next door neighbor, Donna, who was hoping to adopt a child from China.  Less than two years later, a precious little toddler named Deanna came home to Blossom Lane, and she is my Naomi's best friend.   

 

Deanna is at our house almost every day, and  spent the night for Naomi's 7th birthday last night.  Naomi asked me at dinner tonight, "Back then in China, could you be killed or sent to prison for being a Christian?"  I had to tell her, "Not just back then, but right now!  It's still that way, honey."  As heartbreaking as it is, I want my children to be aware of justice and mercy issues in the world. That has always been one of my goals in home schooling them.  With so many little ones still at home, I am not in a season of life where I can travel internationally (though I have often been asked to come to Malawi) or even spend much time away from the house locally, but I think if I can focus on instilling a "passion for compassion" in my children, I can multiply myself 10 times over.  So far it seems to be working.  I can't tell you how deeply it touches me when I see my kids actively seeking out opportunities to serve, whether it is painting or cleaning someone's house, going on a medical mission to Bolivia, babysitting kids so the young mommies at church can enjoy a brunch, being involved in pro-life ministry, giving to a charity, or even writing a short story to tell others about issues that are important to them.  There is honestly nothing that makes me happier in life.  If you would like to read more about how you can encourage your children to think and act globally, you can click here: Nations and Generations.  You may also wish to find a copy of the picture book The Rebellious Alphabet by Chilean author Jorge Diaz.   My Aunt Camille gave this to us many years ago, and it is one of my favorites on the social justice  issue (along with Lights on the River by Jane Resh Thomas on migrant workers). The Rebellious Alphabet is a not religious book, but so artfully addresses the issue of creativity, beauty, and freedom of the press under totalitarian regimes.  I pulled it out for Ryan last night, and he liked it too.  I knew he would!

 

Allow me to continue my digression -- this time back on the subjects of beauty and China, again from Michael Card's book:  "I had come to China on a cultural exhange visa, to perform at Beijing University on a Friday night.  On the night before, I was notified that the concert had been canceled...  Friday afternoon we received an invitation to come to the University anyway, to informally share with a few grad students.  We were able to slip past one of the persons who are stationed at the front door of every building, watching and recording the comings and goings of everyone on campus.  Once we were safely inside the basement we huddled together in a small circle.  I shared a couple of songs but soon sensed that the students were more eager to share their experiences with me.  A young, intelligent woman shared her testimony in near-perfect English.  She spoke of the spiritual struggle of growing up in the shadow of communism, where the official doctrine dictated against any belief in God.  She told us, however, that ever since she was a little girl she had found her heart resonated with beauty with the beauty in nature.  She described a series of epiphanies.  First there was a sunset that caused a deep stirring in her soul that she could not put into words.  Then there was a time when the simple beauty of the flowers in her mother's garden spoke to her of a simplicity for which her heart yearned.  Simply by observing the beauty in nature she had become convinced of the existence of not simply a benign God but a loving, caring Father.  "Imagine the joy I experienced when I learned that he had a name and that it was Jesus," she said with tender, moist eyes and a brilliant smile.  All at once almost everyone in the room began chiming in with nearly identical stories.  In fact, I heard this same testimony again and again in China.  What Calvin Seerveld refers to as the "hallelujahing of creation" is the whisper those Chinese students had all heard in their various encounters with the beauty of God's created order."

 

Finally, I thought you all might like to try making the rice pudding that we've been enjoying at our house.  Rachel found this recipe the Homeschool Swap discussion board a while back.   Lydia skips the lime zest and raisins.  

 

Rice Pudding

 

From Renna on the Homeschool Swap. 

2 cups water
2 strips of lime zest (about 3/4 by 2 inches each)
1 cup arborio rice
4 cups whole milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup golden raisins

1. In a medium saucepan, bring the water to a boil with the lime zest. Add the rice, cover and cook over low heat until the liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Stir in the milk, sugar, cinnamon and salt and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, over medium-low heat for an additional 20 minutes. Remove from the heat.

2. While the rice is still hot, lightly beat the egg yolks with the vanilla in a small bowl, then temper the mixture by whisking in a few spoonfuls of the rice. (This keeps the eggs from scrambling.) Stir the yolk mixture into the cooked rice.  

3. Remove the lime zest, stir the raisins into the rice pudding and transfer to a casserole dish or individual serving bowls.  Serve hot or cold.

I hope that you all have enjoyed this family letter.  I would be interested to hear your comments.

May you all be richly blessed by the beauty of the Lord.

Virginia Knowles

~~~

And now a few extra update notes on this family letter before I send this out to you, my Hope Chest readers.

Wedding plans are still rolling along.  We wish we could invite everyone to come and share our joy, but it is an outdoor wedding at the home of one of Ryan's family friends, and space is really limited.  I'm sure my head is going to be really spinning here in a few weeks when the details start flying fast and furious!  Do pray for us!  Scenes from the movie "Father of the Bride" are dashing through my head -- especially the one where the adolescent son is reparking all of the cars because the neighbors are complaining...  Oy!

(It seems like just yesterday that Mary was playing with her rubber duck and stuffed dog, snuggled up to the quilt that I made for her when she was born...  And now she's getting married!  Where does the time go?)

I bought a few strawberry plants a week or so ago but hadn't had the time to plant them yet.  We brought them in last night when there was a tornado watch, and I was going to plant them today, but there is a freeze warning for tonight.  (We live in Orlando.)  In the meantime, my little daughter Naomi drew a really pretty picture of me planting them, with the caption, "I love strawberries!"  She doesn't like strawberries at all, so I think she was putting some very true words in my mouth. And I was thinking of how kind the Lord is to give us beauty for our tastebuds.  We could all be eating grey tasteless cardboard, yet he gives us ripe red sweet juicy bliss!  Isn't he good?

I was writing a note to a relative a couple of weeks ago when I was interrupted with the unwelcome news that Melody had dunked my MP3 player in a cup of water.  It took a delicate dismemberment to dry it out and resuscitate it from its tramautic drowning experience, but my beloved little Rhapsody is singing again. Those who know me well know how attached I am to it!  I don't have to spend a lot of time with earphones on, though, because I can hook it through the speakers of our defunct CD player, or through an MP3 dock in my bedroom, or through our van's audio system.  And I don't have to bother with switching CDs in and out, because they always get lost or chewed on at our house anyway. 

I love worship music.  When I was at the most recent youth meeting at church with two of my teens, Rachel and Joanna, I reflected on the fact that all seven of the youth musicians who were leading worship were home schooled.  I am thankful that their parents considered music to be a vital part of their educations, because now they are turning right around and blessing others with the God-given gifts that they have nurtured in their homes.   Among others, we were singing some music by Matt Redman -- I love his Facedown CD, which is another favorite on my MP3. 

A couple of weeks ago, our home school co-op's middle school science teacher was sick, and the substitute teacher brought in the See the Morning DVD featuring Christian musician Chris Tomlin along with speaker Louie Giglio.  One segment of the presentation was about the majesty of God's creation in the universe and in the human body.  I was awestruck by it.  My friend Rowena said she had gotten it at Target -- the DVD was bundled free with the CD.  I highly recommend it!

On the subject of music and justice, I've been listening a lot ot stuff by Sara Groves from her All Right Here album that Thad gave me for my birthday several years ago.  I hadn't listened to it much recently until I put it on my MP3, and now it's getting constant airtime. She has this poignant song called "Maybe There's a Loving God" which reminds me so much of the theme of beauty and creation revealing the reality of a Creator.  I understand that some of Sara's other CDs and DVDs are focus on the topic of social justice, especially on the international scene.  On her web site, Sara recommends an organization called the International Justice Mission, which our friend Daniel also talks about as well.  Sara writes: "IJM is a team of lawyers and law enforcement officials who work around the globe to represent people who wouldn’t normally have access to that kind of intervention. In Southeast Asia they work mostly freeing young girls from brothels. Over a million women and children are trafficked every year, but IJM is leading the way in setting new precedents in the fight against human trafficking. In Africa, they represent the oppressed, and work to restore land to widows who have been robbed of their land. In South Asia they work to free families and groups of people from bonded slavery. Basically, they are public defenders for the least of these.”   You can read more about Sara Groves and her music at www.SaraGroves.com.  A couple of her CDs and DVDs are on deep discount right now at Christian Book Distributors, which you can enter through my site at: Virginia's CBD Affiliate Store.