Oh, my, my.  The place I would love to visit with my daughter.  The Bluegrass State.  In the spring, the green grass has blue buds that gives the meadows that flowing blue look.  Blue, blue, blue.  I love blue. Kentucky contains plenty of southern hospitality and in the language of local Native American people, kentake meant “prairie” for the open grassy spaces among its hardwood forests.  Kentucky has more than a thousand miles of navigable waterways, including the Tennessee, Cumberland, Green, Kentucky, and Licking rivers, which all flow into the Ohio.  This broad and deep river, which forms the state’s northern border, joins the Mississippi at Kentucky’s southwestern tip.  High ridges and deep narrow valleys of the Appalachians and adjoining Cumberland Plateau make up most of eastern Kentucky.  Rushing rivers carve twisting gorges called gaps through the mountains. 

Through these passages pioneers reached central and western Kentucky.  The legendary but real Daniel Boone travelled through the Cumberland Gap when the Cherokee opened the region to settlers.  A booming tobacco based economy produced a slavery split dividing plantation owners and small-scale farmers and crafts people.  Kentucky officially joined the Union in the Civil War, even though one-third of its soldiers fought for the Confederacy.

Kentucky has enormous deposits of soft bituminous coal in the east, providing wealth but also dangerous to mine.  The eastern region of Kentucky is still the state’s poorest region, but it is culturally rich.  its Scotch-Irish heritage is preserved in its distinctive crafts and music.  Its forests makes the state a leader among hardwood production. 

In central Kentucky, a long warm growing season and calcium-rich soils here yield excellent tobacco and winning horses.  Each year the Kentucky Derby horse race is run in Louisville and is considered the “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports.”  I think it is the most exciting from the viewpoint of hats.  The women wear the largest and most elaborate hats!  We have two equestrian fans in our household who follow horses from many perspectives, one being the racing of horses.  Although we would like to abolish the gambling industry that runs concurrently with racing, we have found the training and breeding of horses a fantastic topic as a science.  We also happen to live on a street named after a Triple Crown winner.  Here is Church Hill Downs.  

For our Kentucky dinner, we had several Triple Crown winners show up for the occasion.  And there is the bed of roses.  The Kentucky Derby is also called the “Run for the Roses” because each year a blanket of 554 roses is placed upon the winning horse.  Imagine the smell!

From Appalachia we obtained a very old recipe for corn casserole.  It is still served in some of the finest restaurants in Kentucky.  We found it similar to the Pennsylvania Dutch corn that I make, but a bit more like pudding.

The Hot Brown was created at the Brown Hotel in Lexington in 1926.  Easy to make and good.

Karen spent a good part of the afternoon making the official “Run for the Roses” pie that is served at the Kentucky Derby.  This pie was rich in butter, pecans, and chocolate chips.  We also gave her the unusual privilage of making it a real Derby pie by providing her with a few tablespoons of authentic Kentucky bourbon that the recipe calls for.  The result?  A very rich pie. 

Other food facts: 

Colonel Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, began cooking for hungry travelers at his service station in Corbin, Kentucky.  Bibb lettuce was first cultivated in Kentucky by Jack Bibb in the late 1800s.  The Jif plant in Lexington is reportedly the largest peanut butter factory in the world.

Music facts:

A long tradition of folk music is alive and well in Kentucky.  Bluegrass music has roots in the tunes of Scotch-Irish immigrants as well as in the music of African-American slaves.  The name came from Kentuckian Bill Monroe, who called his 1939 band the Blue Grass Boys, after his home state.  There is some authentic bluegrass music that is creative and written according to good principles of music.  Recent years in bluegrass have blended it with other forms, polluting it and violating good music writing.  I have often been asked if bluegrass is good music or bad music.  The answer is: it depends.  It takes some skill in evaluation and a discerning ear to part the good from the bad.  Because of this, I discourage those who give a blanket nay to Bluegrass, Celtic, Appalachia, or Ozark music.  That is too simple and drastic a ban on the stuff!

“Beyond the Pale” is a musical group that visited our local library and due to the generosity of local sponsors, we attended their concert for free.  Their music is Celtic in nature, and they do many original Irish folk songs, but our interest in them had to do with American music.  As noted in the Kentucky post, the Appalachian region was settled by Irish-Scottish immigrants who brought their music with them.  A combination of their heritage, along with American influences, produced Appalachia which we enjoyed hearing in several selections by “Beyond the Pale.”

The musicians were versatile and played a variety of instruments, the enthusiasm was wonderful for a concert.  I noted, however, that the vast majority were grey headed in the audience.  What a shame that younger people aren’t interested in our musical roots, neither do they desire to reproduce themselves what our heritage has handed to us. 

This group has been a standard at the annual Irish Festival in Dallas, held near St. Pat’s Day each year.  This year several Canadian groups were just leaving their performance halls at the Olympics to come to Dallas to join in the festival.  We had too many things going on to go down and check out the festival, but the Irish in me says that some year we will.   (I am Scotch-Irish-British.)

Mandolin and guitar along with some great singing from this gentleman.

The enthusiastic one in the group.  Loves to sing.  She can also, play, sing, and jig at the same time!

The accordian in Celtic and Appalachia is NOT used like in German folk music.  No polkas here.  I found it interesting that she could keep up with the woodwind on the melodies with her right hand.  Or she would immitate the bag pipes in right hand chordal progressions.  But the left hand?  I only noted one song where it was used, and that is when a section of the song was Tex-Mex.  She obviously had no problem with the left hand technique; it’s just that there is no oom-pah in the Celtic genre. 

This guy plays all the flutes and whistles and bass flutes and what-not.  He’s been playing at the Irish Festival since the 80s.  Very talented.  He also played other instruments that were new to me.  But not to Karen.  She basically explained the whole concert to me.  What a joy to have a daughter who has learned farther than myself.  I find this a delight almost daily as she explains centuries of music to me from a larger perspective than just classical music.

Here is a video of the band playing since we are not able to post our own videos at this time.

Feel free to hop on over to Karen’s blog to see the costume party we attended last week.  Our hosts, the Wahlquist family, have been dear friends of ours for a long time and have been an encouragement to us as we have watched them follow Christ in earnest faith.

Although the characters portrayed at the party were ones to admire from history which you will note as you read Karen’s blog, I found that the families that attended this party are also to be admired.  Throughout the evening as we broke into fellowship groups to talk, the commitment to Christ that these families demonstrated was clearly evident.  Many are suffering from physical diseases and injuries.  Some are being challenged financially or educationally.  Some are in days of mourning following the death of a loved one.  Some are lacking a biblical church to attend and are facing discouragement.  Yet through all these trials, such a sweet spirit of peace was common to these Christians.  I noted again and again the evidence of a regenerated heart:  turning from sin, desiring holiness and leaving worldliness behind, committing to serve Christ, and keeping an eye on heaven just up ahead.

I received a note in my mailbox today from one of the young ladies I met at the party who is going through a lenghthy physical trial.  I loved her closing sentence… May your trials and your joys help bring you closer to our Lord who loves us so!   She then copied Romans 8:38-39 which reminds me that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  I hope that there are thousands of young people like her that are maturing in Christ quickly as they walk through tough personal times while living in a pagan culture that denies God.  I count my blessings when I meet a girl like this one.  I can say the same for the other young folks at the party.

A sidenote/update:  Yes, James is missing from the party pictures.  He has been working six day weeks.  If I put down how many hours a day no one would believe me.  For those praying for the neuralgia, please continue to pray.  Also, Karen is now in a comprehensive therapy program that I can not even begin to describe, which is addressing what was incorrectly diagnosed as an abdominal pull.  It is more extensive than that.  So we appreciate prayer for her also.  Both Karen and Kathy have been heroines to me in the last four months in how one has handled physical pain that may be life-long and yet accepted as God’s Will and how the other one has responded in taking up her sister’s responsibilities and taking backseat most of the time.  Emily has also stepped up to the plate.  As for James, well, what an amazing man to work so hard while feeling so poorly.  This family is so blessed to have him.

If Lassie had been a sheltie, Timmy never would have fallen in the well to begin with. 

Waking my personal photographer just as the sun came up, she was able to capture the snow while it was yet blue.

Blue is my favorite color.  And I love snow.  We skipped breakfast and played in it until 9:30 am.  Then hot chocolate and toast.   A few loads of wet laundry to wash and dry so we can to out in it again this afternoon.

I may get the Mother of the Year award.  They played outside, very bundled up, with chicken pox all over their faces.  It is something I will never forget.  A precious memory of sledding, snowmen, sculptures, angels, and one good snowball fight.  But all with marks all over their faces.  I also handed out two pizza pans to Matthew and Emily, who took them way down the road and into the retirement center golf course for some good slides down the hills.

We love birds.  It always surprises me to see robins in the winter.  In my Pennsylvania growing up day we only saw robins in the summer.

Our neighbor’s driveway.

Emily’s snowman. 

Abigail’s snow fort.

A thank you to Karen for climbing out of a warm bed into a snowy yard to take the blue pictures and the rest too!  It started snowing at 5 am and now five hours later the white fluffy stuff is still falling.

I have discovered how to get children out of bed early. 

It’s a tie.  Kathy looked the worst and felt the worst with the chicken pox.  Her face was so distorted that we thought she should model for the witch in Hansel and Gretel.  (Not an endorsement of fairy tales.)  However, Matthew ties with her.  He had a severe case and had two lymph glands on the skull swell up to the point that we had to measure them hourly to determine if he would need medical/hospital intervention.  So Kathy and Matthew can fight it out as to who was the worst. 

As to the winning comment… Matthew came to me in the middle of one particularly bad night and said, “There are snakes crawling inside my body.”  I thought that took the cake as far as comments go.

We are still in the recovery mode as yesterday the last of the blisters broke.  And we are still in the recovery as far as resting.  It seems that this family, which normally rises at 5:30 am, can not think of getting out of bed until 8 am.  They are all just very tired.

The January classroom travels into the February classroom as we have new challenges just up ahead.  I have been quite worried over further medical needs that have developed and this morning I was reminded in my devotions of where to place my trust and my hope.

Psalm 119:114  Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word.

Abigail at age seven consistently prays for the salvation of Mr. President Obama (as she calls him) each evening in family worship.  I wonder how many of us adults have this kind of diligence and child like faith to pray for our president in this way.  I asked her about it and she thinks it is normal, natural, and imperative that his salvation be prayed for every day.  Do any of the rest of us feel a little guilty?

“Don’t get caught doing well that which should not be done at all.”

Something I am learning in this season of life that my contemporaries and I seem to forget too easily.

Yes, my dear children, you are all excused from school this week due to this pesky pox you have.  But, next week…

Sick by Shel Silverstein

"I cannot go to school today,"
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
"I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteen chicken pox
And there's one more--that's seventeen,
And don't you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut--my eyes are blue--
It might be instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I'm sure that my left leg is broke--
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button's caving in,
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My 'pendix pains each time it rains.
My nose is cold, my toes are numb.
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There is a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is--what?
What's that? What's that you say?
You say today is. . .Saturday?
G'bye, I'm going out to play!"

Family Status:  All seven children with chicken pox.  One husband making minute steps toward recovery which we hope will be three to six months from now.  The older girls have the pox in their eyes and we have learned a lot about chicken pox in the eye from a skilled opthamologist.  The eye has a mind of its own and the disease progresses and heals at a much slower rate than the rest of the body.  Today we came down with the suspicion that although I am mostly recovered from the pox, that it has also gone into my eyes.  Now, before everyone sends me emails about being scrupulous about hand washing and laundering, please let me mention that the tops of my hands are raw from handwashing, and that my washing machine has been going constantly since New Year’s Week when illness first visited our home.  Pox is both airborn and skin to skin contact.  I just am not keeping up with all the teeny germs.

My little caboose (at the very new age of six years old since she just had her birthday) is the most recovered and is giving her siblings plenty of advice.  We have had a polka dot competition and so far the tally is … Karen 400 plus, Kathy 500 plus and the most ill, Matthew zero as he just came down with it today, Emily 300 and rising, Annie 6 since she is new to the game and in waiting, Abigail 300 and rising by morning to a suspected 400, and Kimberly 200.  Kathy had the high so far, but I had the low … 40.  I believe this was God’s mercy on me that an adult case would be moderate enough for me to stay on my feet for the most part.

So, the January classroom … lots of math.  How many dots were sent to our house altogether?  What is the ratio of adult spots to children spots?  Can we make a bar graph of spots delegated to each family member?  History.  Do you know that chicken pox is an ancient disease and was prevalent in Rome?  Don’t forget foreign language.  Varicella is Latin for chicken pox.   As for science, medically the disease was suspected but not proven to be connected to shingles until the 1900s because no lab animal can be given the virus.  Only humans can get it.  (Boy, have our pets been glad.)  So what they did was take the shingles virus and inject it into human children to see what would happen.  Yep.  They came down with CP.  CP is our abbreviation for the disease, hence, English spelling.  CP also stands for descriptions of the disease.  Crummy prickles or creepy porcupine.  And shingles has nothing to do with our roof, but is the French word for belt, since most shingles cases go halfway around the abdomen in an area similar to a wide belt. 

This CP disease is worse than what I had thought.  Over the years mothers have said to me rather lightly, “Oh, my child had the pox and it was not so bad.”  Maybe I see it not as lightly since I have seven children that are going through the disease in a 17 day period as of tonight.  (Yes, it is 2:00 am and I’m up with a little person who can no longer sleep through the headache and itch.)  The first part of the illness, as in high fever-headache-neck ache-altered perception seems to be just as bad as the second phase of continued fever and itchy rash that I’ve learned is more than a topical thing.  It is actually the nervous system going haywire.  Kinda like putting one’s finger in an electrical socket for a couple of days.  Or pins and needles on the scalp.  Well, enough of description.  It’s worse than I thought.

The January Classroom has taught me much prayer for ample financial resources to cover the illness, for patience and energy for one very sleepy mother, and for insight into how to comfort the sick.  I am grateful to the Lord that our second frig, now 23 years old, that quit the other day is back on.  With all the nutritional juicing needed for James it is needed for all those extra fruits and veggies.   I can not say that the toaster oven is doing too well but I’m praying about it too.

Amazingly enough, throughout five weeks of illness where things have gone a bit topsy-turvy, each child independently completed a full unit in math and read a rather large stack of library books in addition to computer projects and music.  Crocheting, beading, robotics, weaving, and spinning have been tucked into little spaces of time.  Somehow I have done all the laundry and meals and have accomplished 30 minutes organizational projects all over the house.  Organizing is rather therapeutic to me when everything is going haywire.  That kind of therapy has been interrupted however by two bouts of labyrinthritis.  The vertigo has halted me in my tracks too frequently where being organized anywhere is a total joke.  I’d just be thankful if my perception of the floor would organize itself into one stable and solid surface.

I think I’ll sign off now at 5:00 a.m.  The bathtub has been drained and cleaned from an oatmeal bath, an unhappy son wrapped in many blankets to warm the chills of fever, Emily is tucked into a recliner with a frozen smoothie for her pox throat, and Abigail is calling from the sofa if Mommy could watch a DVD with her.  This illness has been further practical proof to me that mothers belong at home taking care of their families.  It takes time and attention to the home in order to nurse a family.

I look forward to the sunrise when His faithfulness is new every morning.  And, I look forward to sleeping in my bed some night.  I’ve missed it over the past five weeks but do not think that I will visit it anytime soon.  James needs a quiet, very warm, and undisturbed room.  Post herpetic neuralgia is a highly painful condition and he sleeps little each night.  We are hopeful that he can get enough rest to continue working several jobs.

We are popping the “Winged Migration” DVD in.  It is a beautiful documentary with no words, only music, about birds all over the world.  The sights of God’s creation all over the world, the beautiful music, and the variety of bird sounds make it a pleasant and soothing film.