Thursday, November 30, 2006

Healthy Eating Update

The other day I went to the local health food grocery store. I picked up four pounds of brown rice, because it was on sale, a jar of cocounut oil, a bottle of olive oil, a box of sea salt, a bag of whole wheat pastry flour, a jar of local honey and a box of stevia. At Walmart yesterday I bought two boxes of whole wheat spaghetti, two boxes of whole wheat lasagna noodles, and two boxes of whole wheat rotini noodles. I picked up a few bags of beans and two more boxes of brown rice. I also picked up some Florida Cane Juice sugar crystals. We cant afford organice meat right now, but I figure every change counts. I picked up a some ground beef and three bags of chicken breasts, I also picked up about 5 pounds of turkey sausage and 5 pounds of ground turkey. There was other stuff too, but this was the bulk of my purchase.
Last night we had brown rice, yellow squash, and zuchinni. I cooked the squash and zuchinni in some olive oil and garlic. I mixed it all together and put some mozzerella cheese on top of each bowl. The kids were not impressed because they dont like squash and zuchinni, but I loved it! Hubby thought it was ok, but he likes meat so when I serve dishes like this he eats them, but I darn skippy sure better have some meat for the next meal! :) Actually he is not that bad because he knows he needs a meatless dish every now and then, just not too often!
Tonight the kids and I will be having spaghetti, what they dont know is Im going to sneak some zuchinni into the sauce I also plan on shredding some carrots and putting them in the sauce as well. Hubby has a dinner meeting tonight so he wont be home. Too bad because I plan on putting meat in the spaghetti sauce! LOL.
Im loving our whole foods co-op. I got about 12 pounds of squash and zuchinni from them right before Thanksgiving and we are just now finishing it up. We have another order coming in next week. We also just finished up the raw milk. We did decide that while hubby and I are drinking the raw milk we will switch the kids to organic milk. It just seems the right thing to do the more we read about milk. I noticed a little girl the other day almost the same age as my oldest daughter and she was developing RAPIDLY. Now, I know some of this is just the way she is made, but come on where do we think the growth hormones they inject in cows go???? I will just feel better about it.
Ok I need to go our break is up and I have to get busy with some schooling we have missed this week.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Ridiculous

My children have not had their names changed on their social security cards. We finally got corrected birth certificates and hubby decided since he was home today he would head down to the office and get names changed. It should not be this hard. We have an adoption decree and birth certificates. Of course now they need another form of identification that has the full name and birthday of the child. What other form of identification do they think we have? This is ridiculous!

Saturday, November 25, 2006

My baby...

If you want to see some cute pics of my littlest one hop over to A House Full of Kids. This is a blog I try to post pics on for family and friends. As you can see I updated it like annually. :) Im trying to do better though...really!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We sure did!

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Im in tears....

This was so funny! I got it off of the MIH site. Dont know who wrote it or were it came from, but man is this funny...




To All Our Family and Friends.
Just a note to let you know we are hoping to see you Thanksgiving Day

But.... Martha Stewart will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving.

I'm telling you in advance, so don't act surprised. Since Ms. Stewart
won't be coming, I've made a few small changes: Our sidewalk will not be
lined with homemade, paper bag luminaries. After a trial run, it was decided
that no matter how cleverly done, rows of flaming lunch sacks do not have
the desired welcoming effect.

Once inside, our guests will note that the entry hall is not decorate
with the swags of Indian corn and fall foliage I had planned to make.
Instead, I've gotten the kids involved in the decorating by having them track in
colorful autumn leaves from the front yard. The mud was their idea.

The dining table will not be covered with expensive linens, fancy
china,or crystal goblets. If possible, we will use dishes that match and
everyone will get a fork. Since this IS Thanksgiving, we will refrain from using
the plastic Peter Rabbit plate and the Santa napkins from last Christmas.

Our centerpiece will not be the tower of fresh fruit and flowers that I
promised. Instead we will be displaying a hedgehog-like decoration
hand-crafted from the finest construction paper. The artist assures me
it is a turkey.

We will be dining fashionably late. The children will entertain you
while you wait. I'm sure they will be happy to share every choice comment I
have made regarding Thanksgiving, pilgrims and the turkey hotline. Please
remember that most of these comments were made at 5:00 a.m. upon
discovering that the turkey was still hard enough to cut diamonds.

As accompaniment to the children's recital, I will play a recording of
tribal drumming. If the children should mention that I don't own a
recording of tribal drumming, or that tribal drumming sounds suspiciously like a
frozen turkey in a clothes dryer, ignore them. They are lying.

We toyed with the idea of ringing a dainty silver bell to announce the
start of our feast. In the end, we chose to keep our traditional method.
We've also decided against a formal seating arrangement. When the smoke alarm
sounds, please gather around the table and sit where you like. In the
spirit of harmony, we will ask the children to sit at a separate table. In a
separate room. Next door.

Now, I know you have all seen pictures of one person carving a turkey
in front of a crowd of appreciative onlookers. This will not be happening
at our dinner. For safety reasons, the turkey will be carved in a private
ceremony. I stress "private" meaning: Do not, under any circumstances,
enter the kitchen to laugh at me. Do not send small, unsuspecting children to
check on my progress. I have an electric knife. The turkey is unarmed.
It stands to reason that I will eventually win. When I do, we will eat.

I would like to take this opportunity to remind my young diners that
"passing the rolls" is not a football play. Nor is it a request to bean
your sister in the head with warm tasty bread.

Oh, and one reminder for the adults: For the duration of the meal, and
especially while in the presence of young diners, we will refer to the
giblet gravy by its lesser-known name: Cheese Sauce. If a young diner
questions you regarding the origins or type of Cheese Sauce, plead
ignorance. Cheese Sauce stains everything.

Before I forget, there is one last change. Instead of offering a choice
between 12 different scrumptious desserts, we will be serving the
traditional pumpkin pie, garnished with whipped cream and small
fingerprints. You will still have a choice; take it or leave it.

I hope you aren't too disappointed that Martha Stewart will not be
dining with us this Thanksgiving and... She probably won't come next year
either

Thursday, November 16, 2006

A zero tolerance policy

Today I was on the way to meet some friends when I started thinking about sin. God hates sin...shouldn't we hate sin? Its a thin line because we need to be reaching out to sinners and loving on them and showing them Jesus, but on the other hand I think we need to make sure our own hearts have a zero tolerance policy on sin. I am teaching my children truths from the Bible that will one day have them labeled as freaks and bigots. The way our country is going it might even be illegal for them to call sin sin. Wouldn't that be sick? I have to tell you when these thoughts entered my head I was passing by a building that is utilized by a religious group that God despises. I know He despises them because they are blasphemors and liars and murderers. They use HIS name thinking that He wants them to take over the world. Yet He also wants these people to come to know Him personally as the TRUE God. He is not willing that any should perish... but a lot of them will. There will be people in hell who thought they were serving the TRUE God. Mainly because they never sought the TRUE God. OR no one ever shared with them the TRUE God. I have been trying to make it a point to smile and talk to people who "offend" me. People who I in NO WAY agree with. People who are trying to corrupt the world my babies are growing up in. I am a very literal person. I see EVERYTHING in black and white, Im right, your wrong vision. Im trying to overcome that. I refuse to look at sin as anything other than a disease and YES for those of you who will come on here to call me a hypocrite I am disease riddled! :) I sin..everyday. I need to see the sin in my life as a disease as well. One I want to fight aggressivly to be rid of. A cancer even. I will call sin, sin. I will stand for what is right. I will teach my children to HATE sin. I will reach out to people I dont agree with. I will share Jesus with strangers. I will love my GOD with ALL my heart, soul and mind.
At lot of this is just ramblings, but it is heavy on my heart and I wanted to share.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Babies in church

Its getting harder and harder to take the baby into church with us.
1. He loves to hear himself. He is at that age where he babbles constantly and sometimes screeches.
2. We are meeting in a home going through a video series which is not like being in an auditorium and there are not a whole lot of places to creep off to when he gets very whiny.
3. Although everyone is super duper supportive of our decision to keep our children with us, it is against the norm in our group. I always feel as if people are irritated with us for not sending ours upstairs with the others.

Dont get me wrong. Hubby and I agree that we will not be sending our children away during church. We just dont agree with it and find nothing in the Bible to support it.
So my dilema is: Is there any way to keep baby relatively quiet during church? We have come along way training him to sit fairly still. Im wondering if there is a way to train for quietness? He is 10 months old. Im impressed with how much he has learned already. I would have never thought you could teach a baby to behave as well as he does. Thank God for the mentors he has given us.
So any ideas would be appreciated.

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Ponderings about children...

So here is something I have been thinking about lately. As I have stated before I am a follower of the Well Trained Mind method of education. In this method basically you have three stages of life.
Elementary which is the grammer stage. In this stage you memorize the facts.
Middle which is the Logic stage. Here you begin asking, "why and how?" You begin learning, "why and how?"
Highschool which is the Rhetoric stage. Here you learn how to express the "How and the why."
Im thinking this is the way it is throughout childhood.
For instance from birth to about 10 we are teaching our children about God and the Bible. We are filling their heads with "facts" from the Bible. "We do this this way because the Bible tells us so." We are constantly repeating Bible stories to them. We give them the basics of God and the Bible. We tell them about faith and try to model it for them.
At about 10 to about 14 we begin to explain more to them. More of the whys of the Bible. They begin to understand more and question more. We go in depth on what the Bible says about things and why God says things He says. We really start to discuss and study the Bible with them. We help them to have faith and to deepen their faith.
At about 14-adulthood we teach them how to answer for their belief. We teach them to always have an answer for why they believe what they believe and how to express their belief. We teach them to believe in their faith. To know God. To believe God.
Im often accused of sheltering my children. You have to let them grow up and learn. I believe that, but I also believe they are too young to answer for their faith. I think we should teach them what their faith is first. Teach them how to reason through the scriptures so that they can form their faith through God's word. Should my 6 year old who tells God how much she loves Him and believes He can do anything be called into question on the playground when someone steals her soul? Should my 9 year old, a new believer be expected to share why she believes aborition and homosexuality are wrong? Should she not at this age be ok knowing they are wrong because the Bible says so? Should my five year old who when she prays blesses every room and object in our home be asked about demons and spiritual warfare? No! Right now they should know these things exist. They should know that we believe what the Bible says about everything. They should know we are pretty literal when we read the Bible. They need to be hiding God's word in their hearts right now so that as they get older they can learn how to use God's word. The Bible is our sword in this battle. Before a soldier is sent off to war with a gun he is given training in how to use that gun. Before we send out children off to battle in this spiritual warfare we must teach them how to use the Bible and prayer! We are raising soldiers for the Lord's army, but we must train them.


Be Blessed!

An oldie...

I wrote this post in June of 2005. All day I have been thinking about women in the home. I know I mentioned that I wanted to discuss this a little more, but then I thought of this old post and thought...well that about sums it up. So here ya go!

Defining Roles

Today was nice. I went out with some ladies from church to breakfast and we had a great time. SO guess what subject came up?? Come on guess? S-U-M-B-I-S-S-I-O-N. My favorite subject. :) I was able to share some really neat things I have learned from Debi Pearl's book Created To Be His Helpmeet. Hubby and I had a long talk when I got home about what society says is right versus the Bible. I think we have strayed so far from the Bible and its core truth that we dont know right or wrong anymore. We find ourselves looking around church and saying oh well everyone else is doing it so it must be ok. But what does the Bible say?Ok example we spend so much time on God's love and mercy that sometimes we forget there are other sides to God. The other day in my Sunday School class (3-5 grade) one of the girls found a verse that talks about fearing God. Well that cant be right this sweet girl declared. God does not want us to fear Him. I explained that it was a healthy fear. When we sin we should be fearful. We should drop right to our knees and ask forgiveness. Dare we tempt God and think oh He wont care this time or this time. God does care. I explained to the girl that as a parent when my child does something wrong I expect them to be afraid of consequences. You see God forgives but we still have to pay the consequences. When my children do wrong they are still my children and I still love them dearly BUT there are consequences. We MUST MUST MUST respect God. We must fear him, reverence Him, stand in awe of Him. Without this healthy dose of fear in our lives we will live however we want.
2 Corinthians 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
This brings me to another point. I believe that God has His plan for your life mapped out in the Bible. If you dont follow the map you may not reap punishment BUT you will miss out on the full blessing for your life. For instance, I think that men's roles and women's roles in the family are established. We as society have tried to redefine these roles to the point where its the "norm" for women to leave thier children and go out and have a career instead of being "keepers at home "Titus 2:5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed and "guiding the house"
1 Timothy 5:14 I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. Are there instances where the wife has to go to work? Absolutly. I grew up in that house. My dad was severly disabled and my mom had to work full time. But women dont need to "define" themselves through career. They need to look and see how the Bible defines them. Daughter, Wife, Mother, Grandmother. Both of my little girls want to be mommy's when they grow up.. oh yeah and marry daddy's. :) I encourage them in this. When someone tries to tell them they can be a mommy but what else do they want to be I gently cut the person off. Why do they need to be more? The Bible says that children are a heritage from God, children are a blessing, Psalm 127:3-5 3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate he maketh the barren woman to have children Psalms 113:9 He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD. Nowhere does it say earn your law degree and turn your children over to someone else. Of course Im going to take it a step further. I think married women in general should be home. We as women are designed to be nurturers and caregivers. Ok young wife you say oh but my work is done by 10am what do I do the rest of the day? Learn a new homemaking skill, volunteer at a nursing home, help a young mother with many children, help at the church, extend hospitality to neighbors and people from church, have a Bible study... oh the choices are endless. Dont spend all day away from home of course but if you dont have children yet and your house is in order and your husband approves find something BIBLICAL to do. I feel so strongly about this that I cant seem to not write about it. I think we as women are being decieved and losing out on such a wonderful blessing by not following God's plan for our lives.

My opinion

I know Im going to get blasted for this, but frankly I do not care. This is my blog and therefore I can put my opinions out there. So to put this as maturely as possible...
A WOMAN speaker of the house... YUCK!!
I just dont agree with the idea of a woman in leadership AT ALL!! I am a woman so I get to say that and the worst things you can throw at me are rotten tomatoes.
I am in the business right now of training my girls to be future wives, mothers and keepers at home. To be honest they are young enough they wont really know that we now have the first woman Speaker of the House. But I will say this, its getting harder and harder to fight society on this. I pray every day, quietly and out loud so the children can hear me, that my girls will follow the role of Biblical womanhood and my boys the role of Biblical manhood.
I want my girls to: to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed as out lined in Titus 2:4-5.
I have said it before and will say it again. Why do women have to go looking for their purpose when God has already given it to them? We dont have to search for what God wants us to do with our life...its right there in the Bible.
Im in a hurry, but I am not done here.
Ladies, its soapbox time! :)

Let the tomato throwing commence.

PS I really am busy right now so this might be just a jumble of words. Im busy helping hubby get ready for work and the kids up and ready for the day. I should have some extra time tonight and would like to discuss this a little bit more. So stay tuned. Until then all comments are welcome. IF you are leaving "constructive" criticism however please be courteous enough to sign your name...or make one up. And understand it is my blog and I can delete comments that are rude or offensive. :)

Friday, November 3, 2006

More Time in The Day...

I just read this article over at Ladies Against Feminism and I was just awed by it. This is what I need to do. I just wanted to stop in and let you all see it.

The Maker's Diet

I am reading this book now. I read that it is a good book to follow when you are taking Yeast Assasin and trying to rid your body of harmful yeast buildup and candida. I am also awaiting some books from the library that deal with yeast build up. Funny thing about The Maker's Diet. My mom bought it a year or two ago. She read it and thought it was not for her but maybe I would be willing to give it a go. I read through it and thought, "Huh, this guy is crazy!" Now reading through it with my eyes opened to the health crisis around me Im amazed. This guy is right on target. Why are we so quick to dismiss God's dietary laws to the Jews? I know in the New Testament he made all animals fit to be eaten, but if we look at the Jews history we can see the health benefits they saw as a result of following God's dietary laws. I dont have a lot of time right now. Hubby is home from work today and we are heading out for some fun. I will be posting some interesting stuff I am reading in the Maker's Diet. I plan to start the Yeast Assasin in the next few weeks. As soon as I can come up with a meal plan to follow for the first few weeks. I will tell about my journey there as well.
I am so thankful that God has led me down this new road. I am finding that Im not as "dependent" on food as I once was. I have also implemented a new rule for myself. I do not eat until I have had my time with the Lord. Some days because of pure laziness or lack of planning I dont eat until after noon. Its ok. God is molding me everyday into a new person.
Wait until I share with you some stuff that has been revealed to me about my children. WOW!
Ok gotta go.
Be blessed!