Article Link

For anyone who followed the Schiavo case:
Terri Schiavo's Final Hours: An Eyewitness Account, by Fr. Frank Pavone

Spring Shearing

Not only is it time for Spring Cleaning, but it is also time for the Spring SHEARING. Yes it is already that time of year - when our boys get their haircut. This is the big one. All other haircuts are just "maintenance". It will take me a while to re-learn to recognize them from a distance, but it will be worth it the first time we check them for ticks (Son #1 had a tick attached to his head the other day, and we didn't catch it at first because of ALL THAT HAIR!). But right now, those boys are just...a little cold.

Cleanliness is After Godliness

I decided we should take a week off from school so I can concentrate on doing some Spring Cleaning. So far I have done two days of cleaning. My dad has come over to keep my kids occupied while I get a few things done. He accomplishes this by letting them climb all over him and by taking them for "rides". Here is what I've done so far: cleaned both bathrooms, vacuumed all the floors (both things I should have been doing anyway), and filing.

Actually, I haven't finished the filing. It is a work in progress. It's one of those things I always intend to do once a month, but it just doesn't happen. Now here we are one-and-a-half years later, and I have a stack of filing to do which is at least 2 feet tall (I'm not kidding).

You would think that after cleaning for TWO DAYS that I would see more results. I take comfort by telling myself that when I die I won't wish I had spent more time cleaning. I hope that I will be happy with the balance I am trying to keep between a healthy amount of cleanliness in the home vs. time spent with my children. And while I'm "cleaning the soap" (?!?), I smile at hearing my boys reciting scripture as they color. :-)

More Nutrition Stuff (You Can Skip This Post If You Think I'm a Health Nut)

I've been reading a lot of health/nutrition-related information lately. It's strange how I find all of that stuff so interesting now, whereas just a few years ago it would have bored me to tears. My recent fascination has concerned meat produced by grass-fed animals. It's much healthier for you. Part of it has to do with the ratio between the omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids. The ratio for the average American's diet is something like 20:1, when it should be closer to 3:1 or even 1:1 for optimal health. One way to change the ratio is by eating grass fed beef and chicken. I've never eaten either before (I don't think), but I've read that they do taste a little different.

There are also high omega 3's in grass-fed chicken EGGS, which we do eat (I'm eating some now as I type!). They are great! The yolk is much darker, and you can tell a slight taste difference, but it's not a bad difference.

Unfortunately, getting grass-fed meat can be pretty expensive. Right now we get our chicken from an Amish family a couple of times a year and keep them in our freezer. That chicken is much better than store-bought chicken, but I think they still feed them mainly grains (cracked corn, probably). We buy our beef from a local farm family (living in the country has its advantages;-), but it is also not grazed. I think they use hay (which is good), but also feed from a feed store. Even dairy products are supposed to be better for you if the cows are grass-fed.

We're thinking about maybe someday growing our own beef and meat chickens. The hard part would be converting the animals from pasture to freezer. haha

Recipe

Amey's Sinus-Buster Salad
Lots of fresh greens (enough to fill your bowl)
1 clove of fresh garlic, chopped
1/3 of a red onion, sliced
Several pieces of raw broccoli
Brianna's Homestyle Chipotle Cheddar Dressing (made with smoked jalapeno peppers), I found this at Wal-Mart

Toss ingredients and enjoy!

Don't laugh. It works. Just don't plan on attending any kind of social event for the next few days. :-)

Family Update: What We're Up To

Me: I am either having allergy problems (tree pollen, I guess) or I've got one whopper of a cold. Maybe...both. Didn't get much sleep last night. Also, I'm starting to think about Son #1's birthday party, which is coming up soon (he's turning 6!). Reading: Teaching the Trivium: Christian Homeschooling in a Classical Style, by the Bluedorns. Just finished sewing an apron.

Husband: He's just as miserable as I am. Also didn't sleep well. So he went in to work extra early. He says if he's going to be miserable he might as well be getting paid for it. He's also in an extremely busy time with his work. Not getting much time off. The time he does get off, he's outside doing yardwork and planting trees.

Son #1: Eating like a horse. I gave him almost as much chicken stir-fry last night as I ate, and he was still bugging me after dinner for more food. Wants a SPACE birthday party.

Son #2: My own personal question-asker. Especially with dates and time. He always wants to know what day it is, and when is Grandpa's birthday, etc. (and I MEAN ETC.) Also learning how not to yell and scream in the house.

Daughter: Still specializing in preciousness and cuddling. She always wants to go outside and complains when she has to come in. She chimes in on key syllables when the rest of us sing the books of the Bible (she really nails the "-chi" in 'Malachi'). Getting ever closer to turning 2.

One More Thing...

about More-With-Less. I finished reading the commentary in the book, and skimmed through the recipes. The author's intent is admirable (wanting to do something about world hunger), but I'm not sure the method she suggests really does anything. And she misses one of the more important points that COULD have been made about those recipes: for the most part, they are broken down to the simplest possible ingredients. I think that there is value in simplicity beyond consuming few resources. It's also more healthful (when you substitute other things for the margarine and soybeans), and cheaper. You're also closer to eating food in its most natural form. You tend to appreciate your food more when it is all made from scratch. I'm sure there are other reasons as well - can you think of any?

Personally, I know I've never appreciated eggs as much as I have since we started gathering them from our own chickens. By way of confession, however, I should admit that I do use instant mashed potatoes about 3 times a month. Don't hold it against me, though. ;-)

An Interesting Interview

I thought I'd post this transcript of an interview Dennis Prager did with a young lady named Anna Montrose (not for younger people to read). This interview really gives a good picture for those of us out of the college "loop" exactly what our eldest adolescents are learning in a humanist (this one is also Canadian) college. There are those college students who have been well-taught in their growing-up years and won't be effected by this stuff, but I think this is a huge deal for anyone who hasn't necessarily been well-taught. Miss Montrose is clearly an intelligent, well-spoken person, yet she seems to be floundering when it comes to forming her adult values. Something to think about...

Here's the corresponding article Mr. Prager wrote on WorldNetDaily.

Which Book of the Bible Are You?

Yet another quiz ;-)

You are Proverbs.


Which book of the Bible are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Articles I Found Amusing

Go Ahead, Be Repressed, by Rich Lowry (on the sometimes negative effects of "therapy")

Out of the Mouths of Babes, by Timothy Terrell (a conversation with a 7-year-old about taxes)

An Update on School

Things are going well with our school. Since mid-February we've been doing 4 school days per week. Which is good because from about early December until mid-February we did next to NOTHING. Most of our school days our kindergartner spends playing.

But we also do a Bible story. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that I really like our Child's Bible Story Book, by Catherine Vos. We also do some Bible memorization. We accomplish this by simply reading what we want to memorize several times, and within a week it is usually memorized. We recite what we have previously memorized at least once a week. Right now we're memorizing the books of the Old Testament.

After Bible, we have a calendar time, which our 4-year-old is learning a lot from without even having to be taught! I figure this will be a great time-saver in the future. Calendar time leads into math.

By the time we are done doing some math, we've spent around one hour of solid school time, and we're pretty much done. Sometimes I read out loud to them in the afternoons, but I have been dreadfully neglectful about this. It's one area that I really need to improve in. Usually our kindergartner reads for a while on his own in the afternoons, and I ask him to read at least 3 books during quiet time. I don't really assign him particular books to read, but considering that the books allowed in our home are (generally) high quality to begin with, this isn't a problem in my opinion. He'll have enough time later to read something because he HAS to. Right now he just reads what he enjoys.

But first grade is a-comin', and I am excited (to say the least) about studying history with my son. That's one of the reasons I like the classical education model - because almost everything is tied in with history. We're going to use Susan Wise Bauer's The Story of the World. We'll (sing along!) start at the very beginning, a very good place to start... One of the activities suggested in the activity guide tells how you can embalm a chicken, Egyptian-fashion. I'll let you know if we try it. Check back next fall. :-)

You Know Gas Prices Are High When...

...you "fill" your gas tank with ten dollars worth of gas and the yellow gas light is STILL ON.

Trans Fats: Just Say No!

More on More-with-Less

I'm still reading More-with-Less. It is a little dated, even though I have the newer edition with some updated information. One thing that bothers me about the book is that it talks a lot about using soy. Soy is not good for you unless it is fermented (as in soy sauce). I also noticed that it mentions over-population a time or too, which tends to get my dander up. As far as I know, the command to be fruitful and multiply is still in effect.

I really appreciate the "pep talk" this book is giving me on Christian concern for world hunger and protecting the environment. I tend to dismiss any environmentalism as being evil simply because it is the realm of the New Agers and one world government advocates. But I think that you can value humans as more important than animals and trees and still be concerned about the environment. And you can be a stickler about wanting our nation to keep its sovereignty yet still realize that our health suffers because of all the chemicals being used for herbicides and pesticides in farming.

We (our family) have a long way to go as far as living as healthfully as possible. We're moving ahead one step at a time though. I remember a time when I thought the world would end if I had to stop using hydrogenated and partially-hydrogentated fats. What about pie crusts (I used to use Crisco, now I use butter)? What about Bisquick (I don't buy it any more - I make my own biscuit mix)? Now it's almost as if we'd never used the stuff to begin with. But there are plenty of other things that would also be good for us to do. Right now we don't recycle, and we probably use too much plastic to store our food and water in. I'm thinking that for as much bread as we eat (toast in the morning for breakfast and sandwiches a few times a week), it would be better for us if I made the bread and avoided the chemicals in the store-bought bread. We don't buy all organic fruits and vegetables. Of course we can't DO IT ALL, but we can always do a little more!

As far as world hunger is concerned, the author's opinion seems to be that it takes a lot of grain to feed the animals we eat as meat, and that if we got more of our protein from sources other than meat, that grain could be put to better use. But I'm not sure I agree. Does it necessarily follow that unused grain here in the U.S. makes it to third world countries that have need of it? I think it would be better to make a case for low-meat consumption by looking at the health and financial benefits.

I think that world hunger is more of a complex issue. Maybe you can cover it in your blog? I don't think I'm up to it. :-)

My New Books

More-with-Less, by Doris Janzen Longacre (a Mennonite cookbook)
The Encyclopedia of Country Living, by Carla Emery
Teaching the Trivium: Christian Homeschooling in a Classical Style, by Harvey & Laurie Bluedorn

For school:
It Couldn't Just Happen, by Lawrence O. Richards
First Language Lessons, by Jessie Wise
The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, by Susan Wise Bauer

I haven't read any of them all the way through yet, but I have skimmed through most of them. The Carla Emery book (it's huge!) is very interesting. It has about anything you might ever possibly need to know if you live in the country. The front cover says it includes "how to cultivate a garden, buy land, bake bread, raise farm animals, make sausage, can peaches, milk a goat, grow herbs, churn butter, build a chicken coop, catch a pig, cook on a wood stove, and much, much more." I can vouch for the "more" part. This book is comprehensive to say the least. It should help us learn more about raising chickens and ducks, which would be great since we know next to nothing about it and we're doing it anyway. :-)

I've read a good part of the More-with-Less cookbook (it has more than just recipes in it). The author is coming from an unique perspective, I think. She's a Christian, yet very concerned about world hunger, the environment, and sustainability. Not that I think Christians are unconcerned about world hunger, but I don't think we (in the U.S.) usually make a connection between what we eat and how that effects what someone on the other side of the world eats (or doesn't eat, as the case may be). The main point of the author seems to be that overeating protein from chicken and beef is an inefficient way of meeting our bodies' protein needs, and that more would be available for other people if we got more protein from other sources such as grains, beans, legumes, and eggs. I'm still considering what I'm reading, so maybe I'll post more later. I think I have some things to learn from this book. Not that I think that everything she says is valid (I don't), but I'm thinking about it all. More later in another post.

More spring news:
My husband found the first tick of the season! I had a dream a few weeks ago that I found the first one. I'm glad it didn't come true. Ticks must be in the competition for the creepiest bugs on the planet.

We also saw the first bats of the season this evening at twilight. Go bats! Eat those bugs!

My daffodils are blooming. Yay! Unfortunately, as I was spading in my flower bed I sliced into one of the hostas that was just beginning to bud and was still under the ground.

Can I just say: I LOVE SPRING!!!

See Ya!

Warm weather + Shipment of books from CBD + Laundry + Vacation planning + a snuggly almost-2-year-old girl = no blogs by Amey

See you in a few days. :-)

On Spring

It's great to have the windows open again! Just think, it's a good seven months until the weather turns terrible again. The cold and flu season is waning (I can't say it's over, because that would be the exact moment we'd be socked with something mean and viral). Spring! The great season of hope!

We heard birds singing yesterday, and my four-year-old son said, "That sounds like a red-winged blackbird." And more amazingly, HE WAS RIGHT! The points for that bit of knowledge go to a book called Bird Calls, published by Innovative Kids. It's one of those books I ordered for Christmas a few years ago thinking that it was quite possibly too expensive a book to be buying for a four-year-old (our oldest was four then). So I don't let them look at it without supervision, but I think that adds to the excitement of it.

I worked hard all last week to set our schedule ahead one hour so that the time change wouldn't send us into a tumult. Well, we did ok, but now after all that work we're back to the same LATE routine we had before. But on the bright side, we were able to spend an hour-and-a-half outside last night after dinner. The boys worked on transplanting a couple of trees, and the girls followed the chickens around and generally enjoyed the fresh air. When it got too dark to do much of anything, we all walked to the eastern edge of the pond and watched the reflection of twilight in the water and saw the stars come out. Right now, I'm feeling that life is great. :-)

Another Candidate...

for article of the week (along with the one I posted yesterday about euthanasia):this article, by Alan Keyes, is brilliant. I'm not sure what the collective state of Illinois was thinking when they voted for Barak Obama instead of Mr. Keyes. They're nuts! I voted for him in the 2000 Republican primary, and I'd vote Republican again if he ran again! (How about Keyes vs. Hillary in 2008?)

It's a bit long, but explains so well the reasons why it would have been fitting and proper for either Bush to intervene in the Schiavo case.

Euthanasia Report

I just read an eye-opening and deeply disturbing report from a Catholic nurse on euthanasia. She says that although euthanasia is not legal, it is widely practiced here in the U.S. I hadn't realized how prevalent it was until I read this tonight. Here's what she says (in part):

Did you know that many doctors and nurses whom we trust are speaking openly about their desire to practice euthanasia? In fact they are even speaking about ending their OWN lives when they reach the age of 65 or BEFORE if diagnosed with an illness. Some even admit to stealing the drugs for their own lethal injection. Think about it. These are the same people who will determine the value of YOUR life. If they do not value their own, how can you expect them to value yours?

I encourage everyone to read this article, especially if you have loved ones over age 65. One more reason to keep your eyes on those medical professionals.

My Opinion, For Whatever It's Worth

I'm having a similar reaction as the Amy of "Amy's Humble Musings" (March 31 entry) regarding the political implications of the Schiavo case. I had some major misgivings last November about voting Republican, but did anyway. It's a huge question with huge implications: as Christians, should we vote principle or pragmatics? The problem is that now with the judicial branch clearly "in charge" of the nation, pragmatics (in my view) is beginning to dictate voting by principle.

Sounds complicated, but it's not, really. I voted Republican before because if I didn't, it would give more power to the Democrats. Even though I didn't feel the Republican party was sufficiently pro-life or constitutionally-minded, more good would come from keeping the Democrats out of power than if I voted for a Constitution Party candidate based on principle. That's pragmatic. But now, keeping Democrats out of power doesn't seem like it carries as much benefit as it used to, with the courts dominating both of the other branches of government. It seems that the greater benefit will come from abandoning both parties in search of something closer to what the founding fathers of our nation had in mind, even if it means "wasting" my vote.

I'm not an expert in politics. I know it's something most people have very strong feelings about. But my cynicism regarding the whole process as it stands is deepening.