And no, it’s not Sidney Poitier.
We have unexpected house guests for dinner tomorrow (Wednesday night) and they’re staying the night too. Just for fun, try to guess and I’ll post the answer with pictures on Thursday!
Hint: I’m very excited to see these people! 
I don’t have it in me to find any poems for Poetry Thursday. It’s been a long, hard, too busy week. But if you’re searching for poems, then check out “Good Poems” by Garrison Keillor from the library. It’s a good one.
Welcome Anna Lindgren! 5 pounds 15.8 ounces, March 7, 2009. And boy does she have a lot of hair! We had the privilege of visiting Tim and Kristen at the hospital on Sunday. It is an thing of amazing wonder to hold a baby who is less than 24 hours old. Thanks be to God for his amazing gift of life.
Thank you for praying. My student is OK although after the end of this week, the student won’t be attending our school anymore. I think the student is going to be OK.
I understand why revenge killings happen. Because you know the problem with pure evil? You want to return it in kind. You want to hurt the person has hurt those who you love and care deeply about. It is only by the grace of God that we are not in a ever escalating round of violence. I am grateful for those in our world who are working for justice, those like Gary Haugen and International Justice Mission; like those who work in advocacy groups; like those who work for World Relief and other relief, development and aid organizations; and those working for reconciliation. Because we need God’s grace and justice in our world.
It’s spring and as I type, I hear and see signs of new life. The birds are so happy to be home and I’m happy to hear them! The snow has melted, the daffodils are surging skyward, and our windows are open. It’s warmer outside than in our house! My dear friend and former roommate is at the hospital and I’m anticipating the call in the next few hours telling me that it’s time to go meet their baby girl for the very first time. My heart is full of joy and anticipation, waiting to meet her.
And yet, I’m sad too. I can’t, in this public forum, tell any details but one of my students is hurting, in a very bad situation, and I can’t help. So I’m asking you to please pray, pray that this student is OK, pray that this student is in a safe and loving place, and pray that the right things are done.
In honor of the snow, which is now rapidly melting away (it is spring, after all):
by Emily Dickinson
It sifts from leaden sieves
It powders all the wood
It fills with alabaster wool
The wrinkles of the road
As in, “We’re all just family so the house doesn’t have to be perfect before you come over” house tour. My dear friend Lisa has been asking me for pictures of our house since we got married. And I’ve been waiting since that time for the house to be in tip-top shape in every room to take pictures. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that’s never going to happen. So here’s a tour of our house for Lisa, and for anyone else who wants to come along, in whatever shape it was in when I got home this afternoon at 4:30 pm. You’ll notice that it’s a gorgeous day, one day after our huge snowstorm which covered all my just emerging bulbs with about 4 inches of snow. Welcome to March in Baltimore!
And welcome to our house!
Please come in and enter our kitchen!
Walk through our kitchen and enter the hallway to the left.
The bathroom is on the left and the bedroom is straight ahead.
This is the icon that Tina gave us before we were married, in the special traditional Greek blessing of the bed ceremony that we had two days before the wedding.
Go back into the hallway and across from the bathroom is the door and stairway to the basement.
Walk to the bottom of the stairs, turn to the left and see lots of stuff that we need to sort, put away, and throw away:
Go back to the bottom of the stairs, turn right, and see lots more stuff, including our TV which just got banished to the basement, replaced by the piano!
Walk across the basement to the far door and enter the laundry room:
Turn around, and look down the other side of the basement to see lots more stuff, and discover that the basement is huge! (All the better to store junk in, my dear!) Notice that you can see Nik’s drum set in this picture and in the previous one too – it’s just one big rectangle.
Go back up the stairs, turn to the right, and go down the hallway into the office.
Then go back into the hallway, turn left, and continue walking around to the stairs to go upstairs. Notice the half-circle at the top of the door. Also notice the cool wood shelves that are on one side of the stairs. This is currently the location for “I don’t know what to do with these” things.
Walk to the top of the stairs and stop on the landing:
Then turn right to go into our guest room. Notice the door to the half-bath next to the bed:
Ooh and ahh at some of my favorite features in this house, the built-in bookcase and drawers.
Then walk across the landing into the second bedroom, which is my sewing/craft room:
More oohing and ahhing is now necessary as you admire our cedar closet and more built-in drawers:
Walk back down the stairs, and just for kicks, go out the front door (which we never use) See the half circle in the door? We’re on the opposite side of the house now from where we came in:
Now go back inside because it’s cold, and keep going past the stairs into the living room. See our new piano?! (It’s actually Nik’s piano that he played growing up. Tina gave it to us and the movers just brought it over on Saturday):
Notice that door to the outside. It goes out onto a porch that does not have a way to get to the ground. Here’s the porch from the outside. We’re now on the front of the house:
Back inside, we walk through the archway on the other side of the living room and enter the dining room:
I love the built-in hutches:
Walk through the doorway and we’re back in the kitchen again!
And there you have it! A tour of our house. Now everyone, please come visit to take the grand tour in person!
SNOW DAY!!!!
And this is my current view from my computer. Our biggest snow storm of the year came in March!
Part 5 (of 12)
Nik’s mother grew up in Nea Kallikratia, in northern Greece, near Thessaloniki, the 2nd largest city in Greece. Kallikratia is a beach town on the peninsula of Halkidiki on the Aegean Sea, and is a very popular vacation spot for residents of Thessaloniki. This summer, it appeared that the town had become a hot vacation spot for Russians, as evidenced by the large number of fur stores with Russian signs!
We spent almost two weeks in Kallikratia. In that time we took a couple day trips, and one longer trip. But we mostly just went to the beach every morning, went snorkeling, came home, enjoyed Thea Salomi’s incredible food, took a long nap, walked around town in the evening, and basically lived a charmed life. One can get used to sitting on the beach, snorkeling, and relaxing almost every day for two weeks! In that time, we also witnessed the drama of the doughnut salesman. Nik has told that story here and also has a great picture of the beach at Kallikratia.
One highlight of my time there was getting to hold Manoli, Nik’s nephew, who was born just a few weeks before we got there. (He was a few weeks premature, which explains why he is so tiny in these pictures.)
One day, Thea Salomi drove with us and we visited Nik’s grandfather’s land. (Siblings, remember how you were impressed that Nik was a Greek landowner? This is the land! Nik, his brother, and his cousins own the back half of this land together.)
About 15 or so years ago, Nik’s grandparents sold their land to a developer who tore down the house and built an apartment building in its place. Now Nik’s aunt and uncle live in the building and Nik’s mom has an apartment in it too. We stayed on the 4th floor of the same building in another apartment, and here’s the view we woke up to every day:
That’s the local church (Greek Orthodox, of course.)
Here’s one of a few beaches that we went to, just outside of Kallikratia. This little beach had a lot of little cool black fish:
Here we are with Nik’s family:
Thea Salomi and Theo Kyriakos (Nik’s mom’s brother)
Nik’s cousin Thora (“th” pronounced like the “th” in “the”) and nephew Manoli
(And for the record, that is probably the most tan I will ever be in my whole life!)
Baby Manoli, or “Manoli Cannoli” as I liked to call him. (I suppose that joke would have been funnier if we had been in Italy, not Greece!)
At night, we often went for a walk down to the beach, to enjoy the atmosphere, to contemplate the various tempting food offerings, and to watch the sun set.
And so, we don’t have so many pictures to show of our time in Kallikratia. We just lived life, enjoyed being with Nik’s family, and ate a lot of really great food. We especially enjoying meeting some of Nik’s mother’s friends, who were all so glad to see us. I felt very welcome there. Americans very rarely make it to northern Greece and I think I heard an American accent maybe once in the two weeks we were in Kallikratia. In that time, I picked up a little bit of Greek and gained a greater appreciation for my students who live in a world not of their own language every day.
In our time at Kallikratia we also went to the Sithonia Peninsula, Thessaloniki, Phillipi, Kavala, Xanthi, and the island of Thassos.
to be continued…
Salmon and Souvlaki 