I am a poor representative for the Jesse Tree, but I’ll tell you what I know. The Jesse Tree is a way to count down to Christmas Day with your family, a method of accounting for the larger story that lead to the birth of God as a human baby. I’ve been reading New Way to Be Human by Charlie Peacock and, as result, have thought quite a bit about the larger Story that exists. In the author’s words:

It doesn’t matter whether I’m confused and unsure… a novice spiritual traveler, or someone with a heart full of certainties. If I’m serious about following Jesus as his student, I should know the Story he was sure of. Following means stepping into his controlling, explanatory Story.

Luke’s gospel tells the Story of Jesus and the two disciples on Emmaus Road. Luke 24:27 says, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he [Jesus] explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” Jesus told stories in the context of the larger Story he and his Jewish contemporaries already knew—The Book of Beginnings, the Law, the Prophets, the Wisdom Books, and Songs.

Jesus knew the Story he had stepped into. His follower Matthew knew too. Matthew started his gospel account with, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham” (1:1). It’s an account of the genesis of Messiah Jesus, his beginnings, his origins. Matthew 1:17 says, “Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from Christ to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to Christ.”

Why begin with genealogy? Matthew’s message is: “Get this first. You won’t fully understand what I’m about to tell you unless you have the right starting place. If you really want to understand Jesus, you have to know the Story in which he’s participating (and is in fact the climax of). If you know this, you will know better how to participate, and you’ll be less likely to find yourself inside the wrong story or in an insufficient one.”

Peacock’s book had made quite an impact on me so far. It’s encouraging me to learn more about this family I’ve been adopted into (Romans 11:17) and to relish the rich history of God’s people. I like the Jesse Tree because it acknowledges, to quote Sally Lloyd-Jones’s excellent Jesus Storybook Bible, that “every story whispers his name.”

Full disclosure is called for here. The holidays do not generate crafty feelings within me, which means there is no way I would’ve created a Jesse Tree this year on my own. The other members of the Mom-to-Mom leadership team graciously undertook the HUGE project of creating 30 Jesse Trees for Zion, Grace and Redeemer moms this year. So this cool Jesse Tree banner was a gift—and I am grateful! We’ve enjoyed reading verses that correspond to little ornaments each day, then hanging the small symbols on the felt tree. If you want more info on Jesse Trees, I recommend Googling it.

Me: And you were reading your Bible this morning because why?

Liv: I want Winnie to stop biting me.

Me: How was reading the Bible going to solve that issue?

Livia: God gonna speak to that dog.

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The conversation above came after Jeremy found Liv in bed reading her little pink Bible. She had gotten sick in the night and this morning I told her to stay in bed until I had brought her a drink. While I was downstairs, Liv was reading her Bible to figure out right and wrong. She said that the next time Winnie is sick, Livia will read the Bible to her—apparently to teach the wee dog that biting is wrong. My favorite line, though, is “God gonna speak to that dog.” Love. it.

I realize that I’ve been burning the candle at both ends recently, running back and forth between various responsibilities without much pause for reflection or rejuvenation. I was beginning to treat every activity as an obligation… not a great way to live and definitely not a way to enjoy life! On the heels of the realization comes some small stomach virus that has Liv laid up in bed and me kept at home on a sunny and cold Friday. And you know what? I’m thoroughly enjoying the day. My calendar is cleared, we’ve got groceries in the cupboards, and I have an excuse to go slow.

Most enjoyable of all was thirty minutes of reading Little House in the Big Woods to my daughter. Livia laughed at the story of Pa playing Mad Dog with his daughters, and urged me to keep reading the chapter on Christmas. I love connecting her to a series of books that has brought me so much pleasure over the years.

My parents’ apple tree is in full production mode and its limbs are heavy with fruit. Apparently, the tree needed a sturdy trimming last year in order to be this fruitful. We are glad to be recipients of baskets and bagfuls of these tart green apples—and Livia is thrilled to experience apple farm outings in her own Nana and Papa’s front yard!

I plan to make apple butter in the crockpot soon. I made some applesauce as well which didn’t turn out so great. That’s what I get for “winging it” and forgoing all recipes. Gloppy, sticky applesauce. It smelled great and tasted fine, but I can’t say I want to eat it a week later (texture is key!). I am thoroughly enjoying the new Zion Cookbook however and decided to cook up Karen Hunt’s apple muffins. This is the part where I have to eat my words. I’ve told many friends in the past that I DON’T LIKE muffins. (I think I wrote it on the blog, too.) Well, guess what. I made Karen’s apple muffins and they were delicious. Yum-o. Tasted great. So scratch my old prejudice against muffins. New days of muffin-y goodness awaits the Tredway household.

For the record, the new Zion Cookbook rocks. It has a lot more recipes than the old one and has breathed new life into my kitchen. If you’d like one but don’t attend Zion or Redeemer, you can send me an email (). Cookbooks are $15 and I imagine you’d need to include something extra for shipping and handling. Without further ado, I present the recipe for Apple Muffins.

Muffin

• 2 C flour
• 3 t baking powder
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1/2 t salt
• 3 T shortening
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3/4 C milk
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 C apples, peeled & chopped

Preheat oven to 400. Sift together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Cut in shortening; set aside. Combine eggs and milk. Add to flour mixture, mix until flour is just moistened. Fold in apples. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin tins half full.

Crunch topping

• 1/3 C brown sugar
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1/3 C nuts (opt)

Combine topping mixture. Sprinkle over muffin batter. Bake for 25 minutes.

I took a lot of photos at the Sunken Gardens, so I’ll continue to plug away at posting them. Our trip to the garden rounded out Flower Week and conveniently tucked into Bug Week. Speaking of bugs, one made his pictorial debut in this shot.

Aside from this brief moment of blogging, I’ve spent the entire evening reading Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Fascinating reading—my mind is bursting at the seams. I’m sure to have a few nightmares tonight, but in the waking moments between them I’ll try to remind myself of how grateful I am to live in the United States of America. Between watching HBO’s John Adams just prior to the Fourth of the July and reading this novel, I am finding that terms like liberty and equality mean much more than the lighthearted, cliched definitions I’ve ascribed to them over the years.

I just deleted the paragraph that preceded my book lists. Ugh. Don’t you hate it when you have to re-think, re-type, re-edit the same exact post?

I started out 2008 with the goal of reading three books per month, then sharing my reading list with the blogging world. (Though now I’m questioning the sanity of such a decision, particularly after reading McMurtry’s latest novel which was overtly sexual and not worthy of recommendation. Oh for the days of Lonesome Dove, one of my favorite books of all time.) The last time I posted was also the first time I posted: back on February 1st.

In the interest of following through on this project, here’s what I’ve been reading for the last few months. I’m including my GoodReads ratings here (5 is the highest score attainable) in lieu of writing summaries for books I read some time ago.

February
Atonement by Ian McEwen (4)
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (3)
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin (3)

March
Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka (5)
A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin (3)
A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin (2)

April
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (4)
The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory (3)

May
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (4)

June
When the Light Goes by Larry McMurtry (1)
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (3)
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (2)

Atonement by Ian Mcewan – Jeremy and I saw the movie, which we enjoyed, but I felt there was more to the story than the movie represented. A book can always go more in depth than a movie can, and this was no exception. Still, the screenwriters did an excellent job adapting the book to the big screen. When it comes to Atonement, it’s perfectly fine to watch the film and read the book later without any disappointment.

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin – Clearly the theme of February was escapism via fiction! A Game of Thrones had been recommended to us repeatedly by the Moreheads, so after Jeremy read the book, I picked up it. And I couldn’t stop reading…

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin – These books are high fantasy, though with a little less magic found in, say, Tolkien’s Middle Earth. The characters are compelling and their storylines are what keeps me glued to these thick novels. I’ll give fair warning for the one aspect of the books I don’t like: there is quite a bit of sexual content and I wish Martin would’ve toned it down. Despite that, I’m still reading and reading and reading in order to find out what will happen to my favorite characters. These books are better than movie-watching late at night. High praise indeed from a movie afficianado.

Franny & Zooey by JD Salinger – This book was a Christmas gift from my little brother Andrew. He reads more thoughtful literature like this all the time; I do so very rarely. It was a special treat to read Franny & Zooey, the equivalent of eating a steak dinner when I’m accustomed to a #2 on the McDonald’s menu.

You Can’t Make Me (But I Can Be Persuaded) by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias – A lot of my struggles in parenting since Livia turned three are related to the difference in personality types. I’m going to credit Tobias with something very important: she helped me see how my daughter operates. This is a valuable read for parents, teachers, friends… pretty much anyone who wants to intimately related to others!

The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman – A true story of a zookeeper’s family during World War II, this book will open your eyes to some fascinating and tragic events of the last century. Ackerman writes in such great detail of the Warsaw Zoo and the invasion of the German army that sometimes the reader has to press forward, with eyes a bit glazed over, to keep the story moving. Still, it’s a small price to pay for a book that’s highly worth your time.

I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids by Trisha Ashworth & Amy Nobile – I wanted this book because 1) I identified with the title, 2) I liked the cupcake cover, and 3) the back cover copy made me laugh. A quick and easy read, this is an exploration of modern motherhood and focuses on why moms today feel so frazzled. It basically comes down to expectations, really high and unrealistic ones that many of us shoulder on a daily basis. I’m already planning to share my copy with a few other women who feel the same way I do.

I’m cataloguing a box of books. Many are books for kids, picked up from various used book sales while I was earning my middle school education degree in St. Louis. The goal, as far as an English teacher is concerned, is to get your students reading. So I bought classics and contemporary works alike; mysteries, fantasies, biographies, plays, poetry, you name it. Whether these books find a home in my own classroom someday or in another project even sooner (neighborhood tutoring program perhaps?), I can’t wait to share them.

I’ve come across many old books I’ve read. What’s this, um, fabulous tale? Special Girl by Dorothy Francis? Glad I read this long before getting diagnosed with diabetes at 16 because Vonnie, the heroine, keeps her diabetes a secret and nearly loses her first crush. Gasp! The back cover reads:

THERE WAS SOMETHING SPECIAL BETWEEN THEM, Pete Karmer told Vonnie Morrison. And that made moving to a new town easier. She would make a new beginning… new friends. This time, she promised herself, she would be outgoing and friendly. But Vonnie’s determination to hide a part of her life caused misunderstandings, and worse yet, threatened to break up her first real romance.

Groan…

And then I found some of my absolute favorite books as a younger girl: The Grandma’s Attic series by Arleta Richardson. I almost pulled them to re-read as an adult and then thought better of it after realizing how many books I want to finish first. Did anyone else love Richardson’s stories?

I came across a Nancy Drew, claimed as MINE. (Note the freckles included in the smiley face.)

I found a book oh-so earnestly given to Jeremy by two LDS proselytizers, phone number covered for protection from crazed blog readers.

And finally I realized how much I love used books. This one, a book of Gerard Manley Hopkins poems, was given to Ann, from Rosemary, with love for Christmas in 1962. Now it’s mine, snuggled in “Cat 48 Box” (my identifying label for basement storage), a little less loved but no less treasured.

I love books.

Eric Carle
Margaret Wise Brown
Sandra Boynton
Dr. Suess

If you have a young niece, nephew, cousin, cousin’s grandchild from his fourth wife, or whatever, run (do not walk) to your favorite bookstore and buy the child a book by one of these authors.

**I’ve linked each author to one of his/her books we’ve enjoyed reading with Livia during her infant and toddler years.

Megan issued the invitation and I responded to it by checking out Hannah Coulter from a local library last week. The following is my review of the book.

In the beginning of the novel, when Hannah recalls that she knew little of husband Nathan as a boy—in the days before he crossed “the waters” for battle in Okinawa during World War II—I began to wonder what kind of story author Wendell Berry was going to tell. The reason for my confusion relates to the fact that Hannah was married, to someone other than Nathan Coulter, to a man who ended up dying in the war. At this very early point in the novel, I wasn’t sure where to place my interest: Was this a story of her second husband? Was it a tale of true love lost forever? Was Hannah Coulter now a bitter old woman? And for some odd reason, I never lost my tentative stance as a reader. Throughout the entire book I felt like I was trying to “figure out” the main point of the story. Now that I’ve read the entire thing, I surmise that there was no particular main point to grasp. The joy of Hannah Coulter is definitely in the telling, in the meandering paragraphs of her days on the farm, of the two loves of her life, and of relationships with friends and family.

Though the novel is endearing in many chapters, it isn’t the type of book I’d eagerly press into the hands of my friends. However, I found a few pieces of gold sprinkled throughout its pages and ended up scribbling quotes in my journal. On New Year’s Eve several friends and I toasted to “Hope without shame” in 2006. The following quote clarifies that sentiment:

Living without expectations is hard but, when you can do it, good. Living without hope is harder, and that is bad. You have got to have hope, and you musn’t shirk it. Love, after all, “hopeth all things.” But maybe you must learn, and it is hard learning, not to hope out loud, especially for other people. You must not let your hope turn into expectation. (p. 146)

Another section, this time related specifically to marriage, struck me as quite beautiful. I copied nearly an entire page because I like it so much:

It would be again like the coming of the rhymes in a song, a different song, this one, a long song, the rhymes sometimes wide apart, but the rhymes would come.

The rhymes came. But you may have a long journey to travel to meet somebody in the innermost inwardness and sweetness of that room. You can’t get here just by wanting to, or just because the night falls. The meeting is prepared in the long day, in the works of years, in the keeping of faith, in kindness.

The room of love is another world. You go there wearing no watch, watching no clock. It is the world without end, so small that two people can hold it in their arms, and yet it is bigger than worlds on worlds, for it contains the longing of all things to be together. You come together to the day’s end, weary and sore, troubled and afraid. You take it all into your arms, it goes away, and there you are where giving and taking are the same, and you live a little while entirely in a gift. The words have all been said, all permissions given, and you are free in the place that is two of you together. What could be more heavenly than to have desire and satisfaction in the same room? [emphasis mine]

If you want to now why ever in telling of trouble and sorrow I am giving thanks, this is why. (p. 110)

These quotes, for me, were the highlight of this book. Towards the end of the novel I began to lose interest in Hannah’s story. I found her thoughts on her children, who all moved away from home and completely lost interest in the family farm, tiresome and frustrating. It rang too closely to the “in my day things were so much better because…” complaint that frankly no one wants to hear. If Berry had perhaps been a little more concise in his storytelling, limiting the book to a central theme, it would’ve made for a simpler, more enjoyable read.