War in Ukraine

Most of these blogs are about our own safe lives in our 2nd floor apartment in Princeton, New Jersey.  I have written about the world beyond our walls when I wrote about Covid and the presidential transition last year as well as the January 6 insurrection (called "legitimate political discourse" by the                                                                         Republican National Committee.)

As I post today about the conflict in Ukraine, I hope and pray that this can be the first and last post about it and that the Russian invasion does not escalate into a larger war.  Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, considers Ukraine a historic part of Russia.  It once was a part of the Soviet Union.  Ukraine wants to be free to be a part of NATO if it chooses.  That is anathema to Putin.

There has been a lot of posturing in the last few weeks with Russian troops on the border of Ukraine and in Belarus.  But in the last 24 hours, it appears that Russia has crossed the border and there is fighting and a loss of lives on both sides.  People are fleeing Kyiv, the capital city.  They are lining up to get money out of ATMs and to buy food and gas for their vehicles.  

Church of the Savior, our church in South Bend, has a connection with Ukraine because they sponsor George and Sarah DeVuyst as missionaries there.  Blessedly, they are in the USA right now on home service but they must be very anxious for their congregation and friends in Kyiv.  Our church also sponsors the Van Zanens who work in a Bible college in Lithuania.  They write that a large proportion of their students are from Ukraine and Belarus.  

President Biden has begun sanctions against Russia.  No one wants to send US troops to fight a war in Europe but there are troops being sent as support to neighboring countries and equipment is being sent as well.  There is the threat of more dire sanctions but they don't seem to be making Putin back down.  

I wonder what the Russian people think of all of this.  Those who are opposed to the war are not free to speak up without dire consequences--poisoning and prison in the case of Navalny, one opposition leader that we know of.  Surely the Russian people do not want their sons and daughters to have to fight for Putin's goals.  And how far will the US go to defend Ukraine's right to autonomy? 

It is a very dangerous time.  We are watching the news closely and we are praying for peace.

An excerpt of a prayer from George DeVuyst sent out today: 

Help us to take action to bring peace, to care for the victims of war, and to work for justice. Help us to live according to the principles of your Kingdom today, and to remain faithful until your Kingdom comes fully at your return. Grant courage to your church in Russia, in Ukraine, and here to speak truth to power and to prophetically proclaim the truths of your Kingdom as well as the day of grace that still remains for those who repent.  

Lord, we pray for Vladimir Putin. We pray that you would change his heart and work your miracle of salvation in his life. If he continues in his wicked ways, we pray that you would restrain his evil and have mercy on those who suffer because of it.

In all these things, we trust you, because you are our loving Father. We ask that you would keep us faithful by the power of your Spirit and that you would be with your church in Ukraine—that in times of war it would faithfully follow you and represent you before the nations. 

Heal the wounds, we pray, both physical and the wounds of the heart. Reconcile the nations with you and with each other by the power of the cross of our reigning Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Covid 19 Two Years Later

 

I looked back on blog entries to see when I first posted about Covid 19.  It was March 13, 2020.  It is amazing and really terrible to see how long this disease has been with us.

I am particularly thinking about it today because Dan and Alex were planning to spend the afternoon with us and have dinner here.  I bought another ice cream cake and planned to have the rest of the birthday lasagna we made earlier this week (and froze.)  They just called to say that Dan has had a positive Covid test.  He followed it up with another test which was negative and Alex's test was also negative.  But being cautious and considerate, they are not coming to see us.

I am disappointed but so much appreciate their thoughtfulness.  I was suddenly aware that we did not test ourselves last weekend before we went to see the Conways and the Princeton VKs.  It didn't even occur to us to do so.  We had no symptoms but neither did Dan.  We do have some tests available which I had ordered from Amazon a few weeks ago.  When we arrived at Jeff and Susan's, Susan told us that they had all had negative tests earlier in the week.

We wear our masks when we go to CVS for prescriptions or to McCaffrey's for groceries.  I wear my mask when I go into the library to get my requested books.  Otherwise we have gone nowhere in public.  We continue to worship using livestream from our church on Sunday mornings at 9:15 am.  We plan to join a Lenten small group which will meet at someone's home but that does make me a bit uneasy.  Maybe we will all wear masks.

Someone told Jim in a phone conversation this week that Covid was over and that masks don't do any good.  We wonder where this person is getting their news when we see news of hospitals still overwhelmed with patients and many new cases and deaths recorded daily.  It continues to be sadly political.  A friend who lives in Western Michigan told me that she was the only person she saw wearing a mask when she shopped for groceries this week.  I am thankful that is not true here in New Jersey.  

We are vaccinated and we are "boosted."  However, that doesn't mean we are in no danger because there are breakthough infections.  And even if they are mild, there is the danger of the so-called "long Covid" which has plagued many people with unpleasant or worse symptoms.  

So we will continue to be careful and pray for an end to this pandemic.  It would be good to be able to have the freedom to do more without worry.  However, we have come a long way since those earliest days of empty shelves, ventilator shortages, and portable morgues (and no sports on TV--not as big a crisis!). 

A Birthday Celebration (for three days!)

Jim's birthday is February 15.  We celebrated with pizza, cupcakes, and a Super Bowl party at Jeff and Susan's home on Sunday.  We celebrated with brunch at our friends, Jim and Cynthia Moorhead, on Monday.  And today we celebrated with just the two of us with lasagna and ice cream cake.  

Jim is getting used to being my sous chef with our Sunbasket Meals so he helped with putting together the lasagna.  He commented that it is a lot of work and he is right.  But we have two more meals as a result in the freezer. 

76 years old!  Jim said that he assumes he will not meet his goal of dunking a basketball this year.  I think he is right about that.  We can hope for more birthdays however and to enjoy them in good health with our friends and family again. 

Loneliness and Solitude

 

When I had children who needed me all day long and sometimes during the night, I wondered if the curse of my old age would be the solitude I so desperately wanted.  Now I am comfortably into that "old age" and except for Jim, there is plenty of solitude and I don't consider it a curse.  But I do recognize that there is loneliness at times.  

I anticipate and enjoy the regular internet contacts I have each day.   The email (a subscription) from Heather Cox Richardson which summarizes the news is the first thing I look at in the morning--often before I get out of bed.  It can be depressing but it is so informative.  I look at the New York Times app on my phone while eating breakfast and look forward to a new Spelling Bee challenge each day. Later Jim and I compare lists and try to get enough words to achieve  "genius."   I check out the 12Blog posts daily and appreciate the liberal Christian perspective I find there--often pretty courageous opinions coming from those who are living with many who disagree.  I bookmark and use Sacred Space, a guided meditation from Irish Jesuits based on the lectionary for the day.  Its prayers calm my anxious spirit. 

If someone comes into my thoughts, I take it as a sign that I could send that person an email.  I think folks like to know that they are thought of and I like to hear back from them.  Sometimes I text family, but email is easier for me to use.  I open my phone or laptop too often hoping to hear from someone across the miles. 

We signed up today for a Lenten small group from our church--mostly the same group from the last two years.  It will be good to have some contact with people we grew to care about--and maybe some new folks too. We might even meet in person, not on Zoom.

We hope to see Laura's family on Saturday at their new "old house" and Jeff's family on Sunday for the Super Bowl.  I am so thankful we can see them more often.  One of these days, Dan and Alex may make the trip south to Princeton.  Dan and Alex have been great about contacting us for Facetime or Google Meets chats.

I don't want to be as busy as I once was with a job and a family.  But it is hard to strike the right balance.  Solitude is good but loneliness is not.  

So I am very thankful that Jim will pour me a glass of wine soon and we can do a NYT crossword puzzle together.  May we both stay in good enough health to be able to keep each other company in the years we have left on this earth.

"Assisted Living"

 

I put the title of this post in quotation marks because we have no plans for moving into "continued care" just yet.  We had scheduled a visit to Stonebridge, a retirement community, just before Covid hit and that was cancelled.  Then, under the circumstances, living in a community did not seem like a good idea.

I have a new friend here at our apartment complex who is my walking buddy.  She refers to anything you do at our age to make life easier as "assisted living."  So take-out meals are thus "assisted living."  We have joked that pre-cut cheese at the supermarket is "assisted living."

And now, Sunbasket meals are our "assisted living."  I have complained about meal planning and preparation.  I don't enjoy cooking as much as several of my friends do.  But I enjoy eating and thus meals need to be planned and prepared.  Laura and Michael gave us a generous gift certificate to Sunbasket, the meal kits they use, and last night we made our first meal.

The box arrived at our door on Monday afternoon.  We had decided to go with "Chef's Choice" and take what was offered for two meals each week.  You can make changes up to the previous Wednesday at 3 pm.  Chicken yakitori was our first meal.  Jim agreed to be my sous chef and help in the preparation.  I assigned him to make the rice.  His first question was how do you rinse the rice?  Fair enough--not something he had done before and I never do when cooking.  I cut the chicken and scallions and put them on skewers.  They needed to be sauteed in oil and I was uneasy about getting the raw chicken cooked well enough so I covered the pan to let them steam a bit. Jim's next task was to cut the broccoli into one inch pieces.  We disagreed on what that meant because I knew that the pieces were too large to stir fry quickly.  I put the chicken in the oven at a low temperature to keep it warm until the rice and broccoli were done.   The rice seemed much too watery after cooking the 20 minutes they specified so we took the top off and let the water evaporate.  

The instructions were all laid out for us on a little card and in my phone app but I felt I still needed to improvise some and call on my cooking experience. 

We plated the rice, skewers, and broccoli and it did look quite lovely.  There was teriyaki sauce for dipping.  It was tasty enough.  

We agreed it was an eating adventure if nothing else.  Tomorrow we will try the sausage tacos and next week our two meals will be Korean BBQ meatballs and teriyaki beef burgers.  The side dish of baby bok choy is iffy for us and kale and orange salad may also be iffy.  But we will give it a try.  

There was still a fair amount of work in the preparation so we may try their Fresh and Ready meals which just need to be popped into the microwave.  I would think they would be better than frozen Lean Cuisine meals because they use fresh and organic ingredients.  There is also the Lean and Clean meals which avoid carbs and are lower in calories. We shall see.  More experimentation will be coming and there will be more eating adventures and more blogs to update!

February 3  update

Sausage tacos tonight.  I didn't think I was a fan of Italian sausage (Jim really is!) or green peppers but I have to admit it was pretty tasty.  And I think we made a better cooking team tonight too.  Stay tuned for next week!  If I convince anyone else to give it a try, email me so we can both get a deal.  Or you may want to wait until we try a few other meal plans--or maybe even another meal kit provider entirely.