Friday, June 28, 2013

Russian Food Ideas?

Next week is "Russia Week", and it's been hot. I don't want to bake or make soups. What to feed my children that is Russian....

I am planning to make blinis with cream cheese and smoked salmon atop. (Knowing my children, I won't even waste money on caviar!) I've got apricot jam and pickled vegetable jars to crack open, although I know my children won't be too interested in the beets. I know they'll eat eggs, cucumbers, bread, cheese, tomatoes, potatoes, and pirogi, so I guess that's what we'll be eating for most of the next week. I hope I can find some berries on sale somewhere. For herbs, time to use up the cilantro in the fridge and find some dill weed instead. And for drinks, vodka is totally out, but I bet my children will enjoy some sweetened, iced herbal tea.

Any suggestions from readers as to what to eat that is typically Russian on a hot summer's day? (In a house with no AC running?)

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Yes, Virginia, there is a slippery slope.

In the wake of today's Supreme Court opinions, I am disheartened. Some Facebook friends rejoice in what they perceive as equality winning the day by among other things, posting an image of Bert and Ernie against the backdrop of a red equals sign. Thanks for turning an fun, innocent friendship (Bert and Ernie always had separate beds) from a children's show into a sexual relationship. Sigh. I understand where my friends are coming from--our jurisprudence for the past few decades as well as a massive cultural shift made these outcomes nearly inevitable--and there is some cruel behavior towards homosexuals which should be discouraged. I believe that we can genuinely love people while not condoning all their actions, but some critics of homosexuality clearly don't and have done horrid things (Westboro Baptist Church, for example).

Furthermore, I believe that we humans are more than our bodily impulses, especially our sexual ones, and that redefining the institution of marriage as is currently happening further loosens both reasonable and religious restraints on sexual intimacy. Despite the sexual revolution and modern medicine's advances, STDs remain dangerous and spread exactly as the name indicates. Those who study the Bible know that Jesus taught we should avoid even lustful thoughts and that both Jewish law and the early Christian apostles taught that we should not engage in homosexual acts. Why do we as a society place so much importance now on giving in to sexual urges? What happened to the ideals of self-control and platonic friendship? In current U.S. culture, two women can't live together as mutually supportive, dear friends without being "in love", while couples who can't be sexually intimate are justified in divorce, per Pat Robertson. What happens to children's legal rights to be with their parents (by definition, at least one of a child's biological parents is generally excluded from that child's day-to-day life in a same-sex family) when marriage includes homosexual couples? I guess my thoughts seem hopelessly outdated, but I will not give up my conviction that there is far more purpose and joy in seeking and following God's will rather than embracing hedonism.

One of the primary arguments against permitting the redefinition of marriage to include same-sex marriage has been that it would allow for the eventual legalization of polygamy. This "slippery slope" argument has been roundly mocked and treated as impossible and alarmist. But what seems "impossible" now can become reality surprisingly fast. When Congress passed DOMA, it seemed unnecessary to most because U.S. culture considered gay marriage "out there"; civil partnership laws were just beginning to gain acceptance back then, which really wasn't so long ago. The Supreme Court's holding today in U.S. v. Windsor upholds the nearly exclusive right of a state to pass its own laws relating to marriage and strikes down a federal law that did not even forbid same-sex marriage. DOMA "impose[d] a disability" on same-sex couples, and that was enough to invalidate it. In the wake of Windsor, there is literally no legal justification to uphold a law such as the federal Edmunds Act of 1882, which made polygamy a felony. The federal government may not make laws invalidating a state's laws on marriage absent an infringement by the state on a fundamental right.

Polygamists are going to push hard now for societal sanction of their relationships. They have even more to gain from legalization of their marriages then do gay marriage advocates because they have been risking imprisonment and the removal of their children by child welfare authorities. The same media entities that helped normalize homosexual relationships have already been doing the same thing for polygamy. Just in the past few years, we've had Big Love and Sister Wives. And let's not forget the immigrant communities in the USA that quietly continue their traditional polygamous practices. They will likely also fight for legal status now that it appears attainable.

I do not support legal recognition for plural marriage. First, once an arbitrary limitation on numbers to a marriage is taken away, marriage will cease to be indistinguishable legally from a business partnership and spousal benefits (like SSA, tax treatment, health insurance, etc.) will slowly disappear as they become financially problematic. Second, I think polygamy--polygyny to be specific--deprives a wife of her husband's companionship to an intolerable degree. Yes, I know, ironic stance for a Mormon, eh? But our doctrine does not require plural marriage. In fact, the Book of Mormon teaches that polygamy is an abomination except when the Lord commands it to "raise up seed" (see Jacob 2:23-30), which He did in Old Testament times and for about 50 years in the 1800s. Thanks to modern science and early feminism successes, we latter-day women do much more with our lives than serve as too-often-short-lived baby-making machines and pawns in property exchanges.

My non-support of an elastic definition of marriage is unlikely to make any difference in what actually happens. I believe in the rule of law and accept the will of the people and stare decisis, no matter my preferences. I point out, though, to Virginia and 49 other states that the slippery slope argument against same-sex marriage was a valid argument and we can now fully expect to go down that slope as a nation.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

China Week

Last week our topic of study was China. While it's impossible to cover such a large country fully in just a week, our children are pretty young, so we think the following activities gave them a decent overview of China:
  • Numerous library books and DVDs about China (both fiction and nonfiction)
  • Netflix resources: Wild China, Kung Fu Panda sequels, Jackie Chan Adventures (the last was set in the US, but still contains much related to Chinese culture)
  • Find all animals at our local zoo that live in China (there turned out to be only a few)
  • Food: Eat with chopsticks; shop at an Asian market (live fish!); cook dimsum, egg rolls, and noodles; and drink milk substitutes (almond, rice, and coconut milks)
  • Culture: Host two Chinese women for a day (one was a specialist in ancient Chinese calligraphy and taught our children a lot about Chinese characters)
  • Craft: Make a Chinese gong, make paper, and make (and try to fly) kites
  • Religion: Learn about Tibetan Buddhism from a family friend, who led us in a short guided meditation and helped me cook "Buddha's Delight"
  • Computer: Chinese fables on starfall.com
We had a great time and ate well. I have a lot of leftover Chinese food this week, but since we're studying the Philippines, which has a large Chinese population, it won't go to waste!

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Ecuador Week

In case you were wondering about the two most recent posts, we were just learning about Ecuador last week. Llamas hail from the Andes, part of which runs through Ecuador, and Panama hats are from Ecuador, despite the misleading name.

Here's a summary of what we did during our Ecuador Week:
  • Read/watch library books and DVDs about Ecuador
  • Find a llama (surprisingly easy to locate in Colorado nowadays)
  • Culture: Invite an Ecuadorian-American couple over for dinner (I made seco de pollo and cured my own red onions in salt and lime juice for the salad!)
  • Food: Cook empanadas de pina, arroz colorado, and arroz con leche (this website is a great resource for Ecuadorean cooking)
  • Craft: Braiding hair, learn about Panama hats, make little figures out of migajon clay (white bread and glue) and paint them
  • Sport: Soccer with cousins
  • Music: Sing anthems of Ecuador and Guayaquil, make and play an antara flute
  • Religion: Tour the interior of a Catholic church
  • Netflix: Man vs. Wild (2.05), Voices of the Andes

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Llama

I saw this handsome fellow today.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Homemade Panama Hat

Dd6 came up with this a few minutes ago. It does provide shade!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Canada Week

This summer we're doing little formal schoolwork. What we're doing instead is learning all about a different country or U.S. state each week. Last week we learned about Canada. Here is a list of what we did to learn about Canada:

  • Read/watch miscellaneous library books and DVDs about Canada
  • Read aloud of an easy adaptation of Anne of Green Gables
  • Go to the zoo and identify animals that live in Canada
  • Color the Canadian flag and a map of Canada (easy to find these on the internet)
  • Food: maple syrup, butter tarts, apple juice, currants, poutine 
  • Culture: Invite a Canadian-American friend over and have her share a little about Canada with us
  • Watch some shows that take place in Canada (Dudley Do Right, Red Green Show)
  • "Reverse curling" on the garage floor (freeze disk of ice with a pipe cleaner handle in it, and use chalk to draw the skip)
  • Go camping in the U.S. Rockies (they are fairly similar to Canadian Rockies as to vegetation, appearance, and wildlife)
  • Craft: Make cheese curds for poutine (I ended up doing this one alone, my kids having shown no interest in it)
  • Computer: free time to play on websites Poisson Rouge and UpToTen since they are bilingual French/English sites
  • Listen to Inuit music, Canadian folk music, and Great Big Sea (a Canadian folk-rock band know for sea shanties) (Grooveshark was a good resource for finding much of this music)

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Paper

Earlier today: "Mom, we need more white paper. There's none left in the drawer. Or in the printer tray."

Tonight from the three-year-old as I try to sort paper and throw away (after photographing!) my children's creations and recycle their used paper with blank sides into the printer tray: "Mommy, don't throw any of my artwork away!"

How did people raise children before the invention of inexpensive paper?

And why did the three-year-old take a nap? It's past ten o'clock and she insists she's not tired yet. I am.