K's Café: The 30 Second Blog

Gattikon Pond & Wood Flowers

From our long walk in the woods and by the pond a few weeks ago, on the edge of Gattikon, a neighbouring village. Foxglove flowers are so striking.

More from the Yard this week: Hydrangea, Snail, Raspberries

In our garden:

And from the garden at the Château de Chillon last weekend:

Finding Places Starting with a Particular Letter

(very useful for Scattergories)

Ever wanted to know whether there were any places in Switzerland starting with the letter X? There aren't, unfortunately. But there are two in Italy and two in Germany and over a score in France. You can find it all out at fallingrain.com (is that Falling Rain, or Fall in Grain? And Why? No idea).

This came up because we have a relief map of Switzerland hanging in our front hall (it's very bumpy, with those Alps taking up most of it). As we were saying goodbye to David this morning on his way to work, one of the kids suggested we find placenames on the map starting with every letter of the alphabet - but we were stumped by Q and X. So I looked it up...and found one Q large enough to figure on the map: Quinten, on the Walensee. Why, that's only an hour from here!

Without an X in CH (or Liechtenstein), I checked the surrounding countries whose edges are on our map, but the two Xs in DE and IT are too far off, and the several in F seem to be too small to appear on the map (even though they're all but one in the neighbouring region, Alsace).

And for your final trivia topic this morning, did you know that Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Bolivia and Chile have all been called the "Switzerland of South America?" If you follow the preceding link, you will also find out that ten different countries have been referred to as the "Switzerland of Africa" and

"we would be remiss in failing to note that Liechtenstein is sometimes called "the Switzerland of Switzerland."

There are some other very funny things at that Language Log page.

Cygnets on Lake Zürich

I don't think they're ugly at all. Just because they're gray? Let's think of it more as silver. I saw these on a stroll through Zürich with my cousin and our daughters. It was a wonderful week of seeing ducklings, a bear cub, wildcat kittens, and these sweet cygnets.

5-Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

The kids made two batches of 5-Minute Chocolate Mug Cake after dinner tonight. - the first in a mug, which overflowed onto the microwave platter (fun to see, but a bit of clean-up) - the second in a cereal bowl, which did not overflow but wasn't as fun to watch. Both delicious. Thanks to Kristin for the recipe, which I have edited a little (to use whole wheat flour and a cereal bowl).

5-MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
4 tablespoons whole wheat flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
a small splash of vanilla extract
1 large cereal bowl or huge coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to bowl/mug, and mix well.
Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.
Put your bowl/mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high).
The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

EAT! (this can serve 1-2).
Now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!


It took the kids more like 15 minutes, but they made two mugs of it, since it was for the four of us - I have yet to try cooking it myself. But it was delicious!

Crocosmia, Ferns, Tiger Lily

This first lovely red flower residing in our driveway was wonderfully identified for me by friends on Facebook as CROCOSMIA MASONIORUM. Ha! Interesting name. If you want to know how to pronounce that and other flower names, just hop over to Fine Gardening and they'll tell you. Hat tip to Oregon Coast Gardening, who were excited before I was about pronouncing "Crocosmia."

We have a lot of flourishing ferns on the shady side of our house.

And the tiger lilies are in full bloom at various spots in front and back.

One Year in Zurich!!!

Happy Anniversary to us! We've been living in Switzerland for exactly one year yesterday...and exactly one year in this house today! We stayed in a hotel one night, then all our furniture arrived and we moved into the house.

I forgot about the anniversary yesterday, but just remembered today (at 9pm!).

I've been consumed lately with building our family tree online at ancestry.com - such fun and so interesting! I find it a great user interface, very easy to use and helpful. If you're related to me and you want to see the family tree or help with it, just let me know and I'll invite you to join and you can find out all kind of interesting things (or add stuff I am missing and correct what I've got wrong).

How about in celebration of our relocation anniversary, someone (or several someones) "delurks" by leaving a comment for the first time (or first time in a long time)? That would be lovely. Thanks!

I love Switzerland.
I love learning new languages, even though it's hard and humbling and takes a long time.
I love mountains.
I love flowers.
I love rain and greenery in summer.
I love variable weather.
I love chocolate.

I love my family and especially my husband, who is so long-suffering and patient and generous and wise and self-controlled. And fun and smart. Did I mention handsome? (I just looked over at him and he doesn't know why). He has a special birthday coming up soon...we're planning to go up to the high ropes course on Pilatus mountain in honor of it. And make a Ben & Jerry's recipe Super Fudge Brownie Ice Cream Cake. It should be a good weekend!

Gladiola and unidentified white and yellow flora

From the garden this week:

I love the color and shape of this yellow/pinkish red gladiola. Yet another nice surprise in the garden.

Who can tell me what the other two flowers are? I don't know the white one or pure yellow one. Thanks for any identification. I am so happy to have several good flower-savvy people in my circle of acquaintance...

Two Full Weeks

Wow, I didn't post there for over two weeks...life has been most full, and Facebook has taken over the place of brief posts.

What's been taking up all my time:

- the last week of school for both kids, with different schedules due to exams and marking days, etc.

- Emily's summer choir concert: they sang a really beautiful medley from Pocahontas, and a challenging piece called the Rhythm of Life (not to be confused with the Circle of Life from another Disney movie).

- Celebrating Father's Day and making homemade ice cream with David's new ice cream machine (yum!). First two flavors we've made: David's choice, banana ice cream with spice cookie pieces; and Emily's concoction, cinnamon vanilla chocolate malt with chocolate chip cookie chunks, chocolate cookie chunks, and chocolate chips. Very popular, all gone in short order.

- a company party to which families were invited

- houseguests: my cousin and her daughter visited, and we played and talked and laughed and cooked and ate and walked and played some more (she actually looked through all my photo albums. The stamina of the woman! I don't think anyone has ever wanted to do that before (or managed)). Fun for me!

- Emily's 5th Grade Graduation Ceremony (for leaving elementary school and moving on to middle school next year)

- Emily's choir sang again at the 8th grade graduation ceremony

- a road trip to Geneva with our cousins, during which we had some good family reconnections and did some touristy stuff, and toured my old high school. Here you see the Jet d'Eau in Geneva, with the Salève mountain behind, and then the lake with sailboats:

- a visit to the Château de Chillon and Montreux on the drive home to Zürich

We found this castle to be most satisfying - we were castled out by the end of our visit.

Bears at the Wildpark in Langnau am Albis

Ten minutes' walk from our house is a lovely wild animal park, free to the public, open all the time, in which the animals can choose when to show themselves, because they have plenty of woods in which to hide. So it's a real treat when you happen to catch the bears playing in the water right at the viewing area...
The baby bear was so cute, but very shy - he skedaddled soon after we spotted the family.
The mom and dad bears played a lot together in the water. The dad later just looked straight at us. A little scary, so close up...

The week of appointments: Ten

I've been the chauffeur for ten health-type appointments in the past four days (only one was for myself; and actually I walked to that one).

Monday was big domestic day as usual (sheets, towels, laundry, meal-planning, grocery shopping, tidying, etc), plus unpacking from our weekend trip to Geneva with cousins.

Tuesday:
1. Jason to the dental hygienist for his first big clean after all braces being removed
2. Emily to the orthodontist for top braces on

Tuesday night David and Jason went to play soccer with the guys from church, and David hurt his foot quite acutely, so...

Wednesday:
3. David to a general doctor to look at his ankle, upon which he could not walk.
4. & 5. Jason and Katherine to the hair dresser's (10-15cm/4-6" off my hair, still long)
6. David to an orthopedic surgeon to be clear on the diagnosis - yep, no break, just an unhappy ligament. Prescription: put your feet up and drink beer. Seriously, that's what the doctor told him to do. Well, and ice it. Which we'd already been doing. So we were very happy for this excellent verdict, all things considered. No sports for 5 weeks, though. I guess David will have to join the spectator ranks at the church soccer nights for the rest of the summer. Bummer on that. But now he can concentrate on conditioning his ankle for skiing at Christmas in Colorado.

Thursday:
7. David to dermatologist early (we're a family full of sensitive skin on both sides). That appointment was made before we knew he wouldn't be able to walk or drive himself there and would be working from home that day...then off to work to pick up his work laptop so he could work from home better.
8. & 9. Jason and Emily to dermatologist (why not take care of all the problems in one day? This dr. is a wonderful, friendly, caring, fantastic English speaker, with his own pharmacy so he just gives you the products and you don't have to go to a separate place; which all means one generally has to make appointments far in advance)

Friday:
10. Emily back to the orthodontist for work towards the bottom braces being installed - which will not actually finalize until next month.

I am happy for this week of appointments to end. It has been the first week of summer vacation, but it hasn't really felt like it yet for me. I am really thankful David's foot is not in a more serious condition, and glad that it is getting better rapidly. He's off crutches already, but walking gingerly, and the ankle is still swollen.

Blueberry Cobbler

The last recorded Blueberry Cobbler in our household was about five years ago, in August 2004. Made by David, not me, on the day we were flying to Colorado for a summer holiday. I was busy packing.

The last recorded blueberry baked dish that I made myself was a blueberry pie with a lattice top, also made in summer 2004 in California (this time supported by photo at that link).

Well, today I made another Blueberry Cobbler (my first?), with a very easy recipe. The odd thing about it is that one melts butter in the baking dish, then pours the batter into the middle of that, without stirring, and then pours the blueberries into the center of the batter, without stirring, and puts it in the oven for 40 minutes. Here are photos of what it looks like as you put it into the oven, then 12 minutes later, then fully baked at 40 minutes:

This may very well be what one always does with cobblers, but for me it was an act of faith to leave all the blueberries on top huddled in the middle. My faith was well-rewarded when all the berries had migrated to the bottom and all the sides, and all the batter had risen to the top, with the butter well distributed all around.

I'll have to let you know how it tastes after my family gets home to share it with me. But how can you go wrong with plenty of berries, whole wheat flour, butter, and sugar?

Emily & James and the Giant Peach

On Friday and Saturday nights, Emily eloquently and animatedly played the Narrator for a local production of Roald Dahl's James and Giant Peach. The director of this small drama group hails from South Africa and is a gem. Emily loves attending the weekly theatre fun and worked hard memorizing her long monologues for this show. The director did an amazing job sewing costumes and painting an enormous peach capable of hiding an adult standing behind it to roll it across the stage and "crush" the evil aunts...it was such a lovely peachy color, just perfect.

David, Jason and I enjoyed our roles as spectators (and throwing streamers over the "ticker-tape parade" in the final scene). We also helped out in the kitchen selling homemade baked goods during the intermission, to help cover the costs of the production. Afterwards we got to use the industrial dishwasher and hand sprayer...have you ever seen those? The kind of dishwasher into which you place a heavy-duty plastic tray full of dishes, closing the lid with a lever, and then about 30 seconds later they are sterilised and steaming? The kind of hand sprayer that dangles handily from above the sink, and can be used to teasingly threaten your kitchen co-workers with a good dousing if they're not working hard enough, or just look too cute?

It was fun to see Jason eagerly run into the kitchen at intermission and after the show, raise the electric rolling window shades to reveal the kitchen counters, and begin hawking his wares. He was a good salesman, and savvy with counting out change while the ladies were cutting up pieces of apple tart, chocolate cake, and strawberry cream sponge.

Yesterday was hot, hot, hot; today is rain, rain, rain. This equates to happy, healthy garden plants. A gorgeous green extravaganza. Speaking of plants, the drama parents all chipped in and we bought the drama teacher a real live peach tree to plant in her garden. I was so impressed with the mother who thought of that. Such insight and creativity. I would never in a million years have come up with ever so appropriate a gift. Fantastic.

Next fall, onwards to Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island with the same drama group. Go, Emily!

10 Plagues Mnemonic

I'm sure you've never, ever, even once, wished you could remember the 10 plagues in Egypt in order. But JUST IN CASE, here's a way I just made up. Actually two. Take your pick. Can you tell I'm reading in Exodus at the moment? Now you'll be ready for that winning trivial pursuit question.

Blows	From	God	Flowed;	Liberty	Bought;	How	Lord	Delivered	Finally.
Blood	Frogs	Gnats	Flies	Livestock	Boils	Hail	Locusts	Darkness	Firstborn

Notice that where there are duplicate first letters (Bx2, Fx3, Lx2!), the second letter of the mnemonic word is the same as the second letter of the plague word, which helps a lot!

Before I noticed how many duplicate initials there were, I had come up with this other mnemonic, which I actually like better in general:

Before	Fleeing	Goshen,	Frightening	Lashes	Bombarded	Heavily;	Lord	Defeated	Foes.
Blood	Frogs	Gnats	Flies	Livestock	Boils	Hail	Locusts	Darkness	Firstborn

But it presents too many problems with the duplicate initials, unless you remember the order of the account already, in which case you don't need a mnemonic!

Let's have soft, thankful hearts towards God in the first place (there's no time like the present), such that we don't need any plagues to get our attention and get us to submit...

Deep Verbs of Jeremiah 31

I loved reading this week of some of the neat things God does. All in one single chapter (out of 1189 in the whole Bible), here are some of God's described actions/promises to His people:

God promises to:
- Be God (v. 1)
- Give rest (v. 2)
- Love with an everlasting love (v. 3)
- Build up (v. 4)
- Gather (v. 8)
- Lead (v. 9)
- Watch over (v. 10)
- Ransom (v. 11)
- Redeem (v. 11)
- Turn mourning into gladness (v.13)
- Give comfort and joy instead of sorrow (v. 13)
- Satisfy (v. 14)
- Fill (v. 14)
- Reward (v. 16)
- Discipline (v. 18)
- Restore (v. 18)
- Delight in His children (v. 20)
- Remember (v.20)
- Yearn (v. 20)
- Have great compassion (v. 20)
- Refresh (v. 25)
- Plant (v. 27)
- Write on our hearts (v. 33)
- Forgive (v. 34)

Our role:
- be rebuilt (v.4)
- go out to dance with the joyful (v.4)
- weep (v. 9)
- pray (v. 9)
- hear the Word of the Lord (v. 10)
- be His flock (v. 10)
- shout for joy (v. 12)
- rejoice in the bounty of the Lord (v. 12)
- dance and be glad (v. 13)
- be filled with His bounty (v. 14)
- repent (v. 19)
- understand (v. 19)
- be His people (v. 33)
- know Him (v. 34)

It's a deal, Lord! Your graciousness knows no end.

Of Kids and Marshmallows

I found this article from the New Yorker to be most interesting. It is a very long article, but here are some pertinent excerpts from which you'll get the gist of this longitudinal study starting with marshmallows and little kids, and following them into their adulthood...

Don’t!
The secret of self-control.

Children who are able to pass the marshmallow test enjoy greater success as adults.

Carolyn Weisz, a four-year-old with long brown hair, was [...] was asked to sit down in the chair and pick a treat from a tray of marshmallows, cookies, and pretzel sticks. Carolyn chose the marshmallow. [...]

A researcher then made Carolyn an offer: she could either eat one marshmallow right away or, if she was willing to wait while he stepped out for a few minutes, she could have two marshmallows when he returned. He said that if she rang a bell on the desk while he was away he would come running back, and she could eat one marshmallow but would forfeit the second. Then he left the room.

[...] Footage of these experiments, which were conducted over several years, is poignant, as the kids struggle to delay gratification for just a little bit longer. Some cover their eyes with their hands or turn around so that they can’t see the tray. Others start kicking the desk, or tug on their pigtails, or stroke the marshmallow as if it were a tiny stuffed animal. One child, a boy with neatly parted hair, looks carefully around the room to make sure that nobody can see him. Then he picks up an Oreo, delicately twists it apart, and licks off the white cream filling before returning the cookie to the tray, a satisfied look on his face.

[...] Most of the children [...] struggled to resist the treat and held out for an average of less than three minutes. “A few kids ate the marshmallow right away,” Walter Mischel, the Stanford professor of psychology in charge of the experiment, remembers. “They didn’t even bother ringing the bell. Other kids would stare directly at the marshmallow and then ring the bell thirty seconds later.” About thirty per cent of the children, however, were like Carolyn. They successfully delayed gratification until the researcher returned, some fifteen minutes later. These kids wrestled with temptation but found a way to resist.

[...] Once Mischel began analyzing the results, he noticed that low delayers, the children who rang the bell quickly, seemed more likely to have behavioral problems, both in school and at home. They got lower S.A.T. scores. They struggled in stressful situations, often had trouble paying attention, and found it difficult to maintain friendships. The child who could wait fifteen minutes had an S.A.T. score that was, on average, two hundred and ten points higher than that of the kid who could wait only thirty seconds.

[...] If Mischel and his team succeed, they will have outlined the neural circuitry of self-control. For decades, psychologists have focussed on raw intelligence as the most important variable when it comes to predicting success in life. Mischel argues that intelligence is largely at the mercy of self-control: even the smartest kids still need to do their homework. “What we’re really measuring with the marshmallows isn’t will power or self-control,” Mischel says. “It’s much more important than that. This task forces kids to find a way to make the situation work for them. They want the second marshmallow, but how can they get it? We can’t control the world, but we can control how we think about it.”

[...] Mischel [...] knows that it’s not enough just to teach kids mental tricks — the real challenge is turning those tricks into habits, and that requires years of diligent practice. “This is where your parents are important,” Mischel says. “Have they established rituals that force you to delay on a daily basis? Do they encourage you to wait? And do they make waiting worthwhile?” According to Mischel, even the most mundane routines of childhood — such as not snacking before dinner, or saving up your allowance, or holding out until Christmas morning — are really sly exercises in cognitive training: we’re teaching ourselves how to think so that we can outsmart our desires. But Mischel isn’t satisfied with such an informal approach. “We should give marshmallows to every kindergartner,” he says. “We should say, ‘You see this marshmallow? You don’t have to eat it. You can wait. Here’s how.’ ”

I also saw a link to self-control with sex. Teenagers and young adults need to hear more people say the same thing about that - "You don't have to do that now - you can wait. Really. It'll be more than twice as good later if you do, without all the emotional, medical, social and spiritual fallout of doing it now. Greater rewards of health, emotional safety, trust, unique intimacy and the practice of faithfulness and patience for your future spouse."

Compassionate Reality TV

Three kids from Mongolia are brought to the U.S. to get life-saving complicated heart surgery.

Watch this 25-minute joyful-tear-producing pilot episode of compassionate reality TV, hosted by the granddaughter of Billy Graham, as her internship with Samaritan's Purse. There's even a link in the story to being drafted into the NFL (how'd they manage that one?).

Pseudogamous Marriage

Anthony Esolen at Mere Comments, on the problem with many modern marriages:

We say aloud, "I give myself to you," but whisper to ourselves, "I retain myself for me." 

We say, to paraphrase Augustine, "Lord, marry me to this woman, but not quite." 

We engage in a convoluted and expensive pretense, complete with band and wedding cake and ring and honeymoon in Cancun, when all along we are saying, in part, "I am for myself, and for this person here only insofar as this person is for me," rather than, "I now belong to my spouse, and in my belonging to my spouse I will become myself, because it is only in giving that we receive, and only in binding ourselves to the gift that we are set free."

There's much more at that link.

Dancing, Illness, Joy

We had a very busy weekend:

Friday night - supposed to go to a school BBQ, but just delivered some whole wheat chocolate cake and left to conserve energy

Saturday morning - Jason had two hours of placement testing in French and German for his new high school for the autumn

Saturday afternoon - Jason received an award for academic excellence at his current school's graduation ceremony. David took Jason (David got to sit next to his boss, who also has kids at Jason's school), and I stayed home to rest, watching the program over live streaming video online (what a cool service the school's webmaster offered, wow! The world is more and more amazing). I was feeling low-energy and suspicious in the throat domain (Jason had been ill with sore throat and fatigue previously).

Saturday evening - our family led another 18th Century Dance Evening at our church, for 28 people. We all had a lot of fun. We danced the following dances:

• Gay Gordon • In Out & Across • Sheena's Saunter • Sellenger's Round • Patty Cake Polka • Virginia Reel • Gay Gordon as a jig • Soldier's Joy • French Girl • Final Waltz
(except the music file for the Patty Cake Polka somehow got corrupted and wouldn't play right, so we had to stop in the middle :-( )

Those are ALL the dances that I currently know the steps to! I am planning on learning some new ones with virtual help from the caller I learned these from, since our kids want to move on to some less familiar ones.

Due to generous prayers from several friends, and God's grace in answering, I didn't start to lose my voice until JUST AFTER the last dance of the evening! 10 guests from the general ex-pat community joined us, which was wonderful to see. They seemed to have fun and in fact sent some lovely emails afterwards confirming that.

Then, Sunday morning - we were all scheduled to help lead the worship at church (David on sound board, Jason on drums, Emily on keyboard, me singing). I croaked through the practice and completely lost any singing capacity by the time the service started. So I sat down and the pastor's 12-yr-old daughter did a great job holding up the ladies' part on her own.

Sunday afternoon - REST. Down time. "Flat on Bunk" as they used to say at the homeschool science camp we went to in Northern California. Much-needed recharging time. It was a great, busy, joyful, fun, full, social weekend. We can't survive too many of those in rapid succession. We're really a homebody, quiet, laid-back kind of family that takes restorative weekends seriously. :-)

Pink Pink Pink

Peony, rose and rosebud in our garden. I never cease to wonder at the variety of lush glory provided for us by the Floral Designer of the Universe. Thank You.