Strawberry Houthi Season

In the spring of 1942 during WWII, the Jewish Holocaust crossed a threshold when the decision was made to transition from a policy of exploitation, expulsion, and/or extreme persecution to one of mass extermination of the Jews. This was genocide.

In October of 2023, a militant terrorist group, embedded within a marginalized people group, living within the borders of the sovereign nation of Israel, declared war on that nation and killed over 1200 people in a single day (in a country whose population is less than that of New York City) with the expressed intent of... the complete extermination of the Jews. This was genocide. 

Israel responded with force. One of its objectives has been to retrieve the 100+ hostages that were taken into Gaza and hidden among a Palestinian population that has been largely complicit in the war crimes committed against Israel, and to disable the infrastructure that enabled such an attack. A Gaza that hands over the hostages, and complies with requests to oust its terrorist elements, is a Gaza that will be free from Israeli aggression and will instead find sympathetic hands from around the world to help it rebuild. Who are these terrorists? Well that's the tricky thing about Gaza. Those who participated in the events of October 7th or who have been holding hostages include UN teachers, Al Jazeera reporters, hospital staff, 14 year old "children" with automatic rifles... in short, those who are considered protected classes under international rules of war. Deadly "innocents." (This is not to say that all 14 year olds are armed or that all Al Jazeera reporters are terrorists, of course, but rather that they number among those whose deaths are being claimed as war crimes.) Meanwhile, Israel is taking painstaking measures to show that its actions are strategic, based on reliable intelligence, and intended to cause the least amount of civilian deaths in the impossible landscape of urban warfare. Yet it seems the international community ignores Israel's appeals to consider these measures. It doesn't fit the oppressed/oppressor narrative. Nevermind how the Palestinians came to be behind walls in the first place... Those who accuse Israel of genocide either have redefined the word for their own offensive purposes or are in total ignorance of the way in which Israel has conducted itself on the battlefield. But isn't that the way God said it would go? Who protects Israel? Not the UN, not the US, not even Israel itself. The Lord controls the security of this people and the land that He claimed for His name's sake.

 

Israel is so unique among nations, comprised of one single, ancient family, spread across the planet, and re-converged on this territory that once beheld the wells of Jacob, the battlefields of Joshua, the palace of David, the temple of Solomon. One family. Whether they come from Ethiopia, Russia, or Argentina, all of them are related. Which is why the hostage situation hits so hard. Thoughts of the war are ever present here.

 

In winter, it rains and rains in Jerusalem. Many days, the clouds hang in a thick fog around us. It makes the world seem a more somber place. The skies are mourning too. 

One such morning the littles and I headed out on a field trip with some other local homeschooling families to visit the Bible Lands museum, an archaeological museum borne from a private collection whose exhibits showcase artifacts from people groups mentioned in the Bible such as the Canaanites, Philistines, Hittites, and Persians. 

The woman who organized the event had each family choose a wing of the museum on which to present after some time of exploration. We chose to study the gallery of the Hellenistic World since we had visited Greece and studied Pericles this year. After our time of studying the space and its contents, we joined the other families and our group went through the museum in chronological order. 

When it was our turn to present, I had Tovi and Gigi walk through a modified portion of the Classical Conversations timeline song with me to give context to our presentation. I would feed them the beginnings of the phrases and they would recite the endings: 

Israel falls to Assyria, then Assyria falls to Babylon... 

Judah then ends up falling to Babylon at which time the Temple was destroyed. 

Babylon falls to Persia, Jews return and rebuild the Temple with Ezra and Nehemiah. 

Then comes the Roman Republic 

and the Golden Age of Greece 

followed by the Peloponnesian War. 

Persia falls to Alexander the Great.

Then came the Punic Wars between Greece and Carthage which includes Hannibal's famous crossing of the Alps on elephant, which ultimately resulted in the acquisition of Carthaginian territory so that Greece now controlled Northern Africa.

Rome then conquered Greece.

We had the Roman dictator Julius Caesar, then Caesar Augustus and the Pax Romana. Which was the Hellenistic World, the World that Jesus was born into, under the Roman occupation of Judea (which the Romans renamed "Palestina" to spite the Jews, naming it for their historical enemy, the Greek seafaring Philistine people who had been wiped out 600 years earlier.)

After our recitation, Giannina illustrated the extent of the Roman Empire by referencing a map that was on the wall. Tovi drew everyone's attention to some coins that were discovered in Tunisia, the modern day state where Carthage once stood. The coins had the faces of Greek gods. He explained how this was cool because it showed the extent of the Hellenistic empire and the spread of their culture. I followed this up by explaining that the Hellenistic Empire was the basis for the rapid spread of the Gospel. God used Alexander the Great and his conquests to accomplish His purposes for the world.

 

 And where were Dominic and Noemie, you ask?

 

The high school at which they take some classes went on a hiking field trip to the Negev (desert). 

They crossed almost 30 kilometers over three days on foot, down to Eilat.

  The theme for the class trip this year was taken from the lyrics of a song: 

We asked for strawberries (tutim) and we got Yemeni terrorists (Houthim). 

(It kind of rhymes in Hebrew.)

 

 

This is the first time any of us have left Jerusalem since the war began in October. That's not to say we haven't had our own small enjoyments at home. Gigi has been blossoming in her violin study, Noemie has been thriving in her Russian studies, Danny found a new favorite breakfast food, and I'm still plugging away at the temperature blanket I started in September. Every Tuesday, I crochet a new row depending on the high temperature for the day. I wanted my blanket to reflect Israeli colors so I chose my colors accordingly: A temperature high of 16°Celsius (60°F) or lower means I will crochet using white yarn. Between 17°C - 22°C (61°F-70°F) I will use a light blue yarn, and between 22°C - 30° (71°F - 86°F) I will use a darker peacock blue. Were the temperature to rise above 30°C, which it has not yet done on a Tuesday since I started my blanket, I have a gold colored yarn set aside for that purpose. Most people choose more colors (smaller temperature ranges) which would result in thinner bands of color, but that wasn't the aesthetic I was going for. However, I will say that one row a week is a bit silly in retrospect. I ruin the scientific integrity of my weather log to change my approach now but seriously, after 6 months of labor, my blanket is not even 10 inches tall. At this rate, it will take me 3 years to get it to the size of a throw blanket. Who cares about scientific integrity? Me. Why? No idea. It's like a sort of random perfectionist compulsion. Random, because it doesn't extend to other parts of my life like proper dishwasher loading or responsible confiscation of my children's electronic devices. I revoked Gigi's iPod privileges a few weeks ago and within 24 hours couldn't remember where I hid her music player. I'm still looking for it.

 

Danny's new favorite breakfast food is overnight oats. Perhaps you are, like Danny's coworkers, baffled that we have never discovered this before. Call it a Third-Culture-Kid gap maybe, but thankfully Pinterest scrolling led me to this dietary breakthrough. Now, on Sunday evenings, I set up an overnight oats production line with mason jars lined up along the edge of the counter. I drop a half a cup of oats in each jar, then a tablespoon of chia seeds in each one. Then, depending on the flavors requested for the next week, I add sweeteners (honey/stevia/maple syrup), and fruit or chocolate or whatever else is required. In my fridge right now, there are 3 Strawberry Shortcakes, 1 Reeces, and 1 Almond Joy. Why is this such an exciting development in our lives? One, there's always something to eat for breakfast that can be grabbed on the run. No more "skipping" breakfasts, especially for those who are more dramatically affected by hormonal imbalances from dietary irregularities. Two, it's a pretty good source of fiber, something we have been struggling with here since most of our favorite vegetables are hard to find and my auto-immune disordered one can't have wheat. (Plus, we can make it dairy free with milk alternatives, which is also good for the aforementioned individual.) Three, depending on the mix-ins, it can give an extra boost of protein (Reeces, Almond Joy, Cookie Dough), antioxidants (Strawberry Shortcake), or even veggies (Carrot Cake). Yay!

It's the little things. I'm going to take my little things for a mini-vacation this weekend. We are finally leaving Jerusalem for a short stint a few hours away. No plans... just to breathe. 

But before I go, I wanted to share with you a little puzzle I made for my kids which they loved. I printed a chart that has 16 world leaders on it, the flags of their respective countries, the year each one became leader, and the policies they have espoused. I cut up the pieces and gave them to the kids (and Danny) to sort; a timed competition. The kids didn't know half the answers so Danny won. But. Immediately following the competition they sought to get it right. They practiced putting the puzzle together and improving their times.

Noemie can build the puzzle accurately now in less than 2 min. But more importantly, she can identify the representatives of the G7, BRICS, and the remaining countries currently identified as "great powers." This will come in handy as Ramadan approaches and every leader is going to put in their two cents about how Israel should or shouldn't handle the Muslim pilgrims that come to worship atop Haram al-Sharif, the Temple Mount. Four hundred thousand pilgrims. Per day. Things could get spicy.

I leave the link to the game here in case you too want to play. I mean, learn.

2024 World Leaders Puzzle