Heat Wave

We've finally gotten a break from the heat. Yesterday was just marvelous, with air that was actually cool. I even considered having my boys wear jeans instead of shorts. We spent yesterday evening and this afternoon outside. The windows are open and the air conditioning is off!

This might be a good point to admit that I am a heat wimp. I begin the summer season with good intentions, which are to leave the air conditioning off as much as possible and just suffer through the heat. Just think of the great savings that would give us in the electricity bill department! But I always wimp out. The first day the temperature inside the house hits about 78 or 79, the windows go up and the air is turned on. And it stays on. Forever. Until a day like yesterday when it would literally be a SIN to have air conditioning on. Today, the air is still off, and the temperature inside is right around 76 or 77. I'm in the beginning "wilt" stage. Another degree or two warmer, and the gig is up. And so are the windows.

I do much better in the winter. I've met people who think that you might as well be living in an igloo if you keep your thermostat below 69. Yet our house rarely gets warmer than 67 or 68. And we seem to get along just fine.

And I'm sure you're wondering right now what my point is, and I guess I'm starting to wonder the same thing. I think there was originally some vaguely defined point in my brain that I wanted to get across when I started this post, but give me a break. It's too warm in here.

Reading Material

With all of the Harry Potter hysteria in the culture at large, I just thought I would share a link to this excellent article by Doug Phillips at Vision Forum. I thought it was very logical, well-thought-out reasoning as to why Christians should steer clear of such reading. In my view, when there are so many other great books to read, why read something that is unarguably of a debateable value at best, and possibly evil at the worst?

My latest read: Adam and His Kin, by Ruth Beechik. I am having trouble putting this book down. It is very interesting. It's similar to an historical novel, yet almost everything in the book is from the Bible and/or inferred from the Bible. The author admits that we don't know for sure some of the things that she puts in her story (dialogue and such), but they are very intelligent guesses. I'm only about 1/3 of the way through, but already I would highly recommend it.

My New Secret (Homemaker's) Weapon

I guess it's not so secret now. It's my kitchen timer. (What were you expecting, something explosive?) Now that I'm using my timer every day, I get more done. For example, this morning I did not feel like doing anything. Without my timer I would have DONE NOTHING today (hopefully I would have at least fed my kids). But with my timer, I promised myself 30 minutes of free time IF I worked for 30 minutes first. Then I just alternated 30 minutes on and 30 minutes off all the way up until quiet time. Even in my 30 minutes off, I tried to do something constructive, that was still enjoyable to me, such as: reading to my kids, tickling my kids, playing with my kids,and changing dirty diapers (well, almost all enjoyable...what kind of a nut would let their children play in a dirty diaper for 30 minutes until the timer went off?). With this schedule, I was able to keep the kitchen clean (no small task), do 2 loads of laundry, put the clean laundry away, and do some (admittedly only a little) decluttering. All on a day I normally would have done nothing.

Why does this work for me? I've been trying to figure it out. I have come to the conclusion that somehow, the timer stirs up some kind of raw, beat-'em-up, competitive spirit in me (stop laughing). I HAVE to get done as much as I can before that timer goes off. Now I'll let you in on another secret: I hate to lose. I so much prefer winning.

Think of my poor dad. Right now, he's probably oblivious to the fact that with vacation coming up soon, it's possible we'll be having a "friendly" putt-putt golf game together. He's not even thinking about whether or not he'll beat me at putt-putt golf. But I'M thinking about it...

It's About Time

After about a month of waiting, we finally received (on the SAME day, within an hour of each other) our new toaster oven and our grass-fed beef. Exciting!

The toaster oven is about the size of our old microwave, so it fits just right in the same spot. It's very nice-looking, is quite large, and has settings for broil, keep warm, defrost, rotisserie, and dehydrate. We haven't tried it out yet (a number of pieces to wash first). My husband (the engineer) examined it closely, and only found one problem: the door doesn't close quite as closely as we had hoped. One of the ideas behind the toaster oven is to have something that won't heat up the kitchen in the summer like the big oven does. We'll see.

We tried out some hamburgers (on the grill) from our new beef last night. My husband noticed right away that the fat was different - it didn't cause the grill to flame up like the corn-fed beef does. We thought that the meat tasted the same, but there is no fat "gritty" aftertaste like you get sometimes with corn-fed beef. Also, the hamburgers were slightly less tender. It will be interesting to see what the other cuts are like. We'll have plenty of chances to find out. We have a freezer full (and even a little more than that)! What is best is that we know it is so much better for us - we're getting even more of those essential omega-3's. Now if we can just get our young chickens to start laying eggs! Maybe it won't be long...

How Should We Then Live?

This is a "deep" post, so I apologize to anyone looking for some light reading. This is not light, so proceed at your own risk. :-)

I finished the book, How Should We Then Live? by Francis Schaeffer a few days ago. This is a difficult book to summarize, but I'll try.

The subtitle of the book is "The rise and decline of western thought and culture", and that is the book in a nutshell. But that encompasses so much! The author writes about art, music, philosophy, literature, and theology, and how each became "religion externalized" during each age, from the Romans to the present (I guess that would actually be 1976, when this book was published). What a huge task! On the surface, you might think it would be a dull and dry book to read, but it was excellent as far as causing you to think more carefully about history and what impact each era in general had on future times.

What I found most interesting was the way Schaeffer compared the Reformation (based on the Bible) with the Enlightenment (based on humanism). The two time periods took place at virtually the same time, but the Reformation was concentrated in the northern European countries, while the Enlightenment was more in southern Europe. I never realized that the great scientific advancements of this time were more the consequence of the Reformation than the Enlightenment, and the great scientists of the Enlightenment actually made scientific advancements as a result of the trailblazing of the Reformation-related scientists.

Schaeffer also asserts that the current legal systems of Britain and the U.S. were born of the Reformation. I recently read an article in which the author stated that the U.S. came out of the Enlightenment, not the Reformation, so I suppose some might disagree with that statement. Schaeffer points out, however, that this is the reason that the U.S. government has remained stable over its first two-hundred years. It is now becoming less and less stable, though, because the general consensus does not support a morality based on the Bible. Most people have taken on humanism as their "religion", with no basis on which to call anything right or wrong. This philosophy's highest aim is personal peace and prosperity.

As our society drifts more deeply into humanism, the results likely to come about at some point are either anarchy or a manipulative, authoritarian government.

Key quotes:

Let us hasten to say that freedom of the individual is not magic in the countries with a Reformation background either. As the memory of the Christian base grows ever dimmer, freedom will disintegrate in these countries as well. The system will not simply go on, divorced from its founding roots. And the drift will tend to be the same, no matter what political party is voted in. When the principles are gone, there remains only expediency at any price.

The danger in regard to the rise of authoritarian government is that Christians will be still as long as their own religous activities, evangelism, and life-styles are not disturbed....But let us be realistic....If we as Christians do not speak out as authoritarian governments grow from within or come from outside, eventually we or our children will be the enemy of society and the state. No truly authoritarian government can tolerate those who have a real absolute by which to judge its arbitrary absolutes and who speak out and act upon that absolute....To make no decision in regard to the growth of authoritarian government is already a decision for it.

Let me just say that this book is not easy reading, especially at the beginning, but it gets more and more engrossing as you go along. At the end you can so easily see how each part of history relates to each other. It should be a core reading for any upper-level world history course. If history interests you, you might like to read it too! What a classic! And congratulations if you read all the way to the end of this post (I'm not sure how many will). :-)

Cacophony

I just love that word: cacophony. You know EXACTLY what's coming, all because of that one word.

But perhaps the setting for the cacophony will surprise you.
Time: around 7:30
Place: Dining room table
Event: Mealtime prayer

Picture two young children praying LOUDLY at the same time, one glaring at the other for praying out of turn, determined to win the "prayer war" (the other would like us to think she was completely innocent, but we all know better). Not sure who won that one...

Q & A

Question:
Dear Amey,
What crazy new health trend is underway at your house THIS week?

So glad you asked, dear reader. Here's the latest: organic fruits and vegetables (and other items as well), and LOTS of cooking with garlic. When we happen to be in a location (that would be not anywhere close to our house out in the sticks) where good-looking organic produce is sold, we buy. The more I read about the chemicals they use to treat plants, the more I want to go organic. Right now we have in our home organic bananas, kiwi, milk, carrots, bread, handsoap(!), and garlic. We're also going garlic crazy around here. Chunks of garlic have been discovered in numerous foods lately, aside from Italian meals: chicken pot pie, meatloaf, Mexican meals, etc. Gotta love that garlic! :-)

Dear Amey,
I hate food that tastes bad. Can you give me some healthful treat ideas that actually taste good and that my kids might actually eat?

What a good question! You know, I'd rather eat good food than bad food any old day of the week. Here are some great treats we've tried lately:
-Honey Oatmeal Granola (contains butter, honey, oatmeal, vanilla, pecans, and salt)
-Coconut Date Rolls (ingredients: dates, coconut, and almonds)
-The Switch (soda made of 100% juice, carbonated)
-Fresh fruit, plain

How are your ducks?

Don't ask.

I'm Torn

What should I read first? I'm about 2/3 of the way through How Should We Then Live?, by Francis Schaeffer, genius. I've also just received into my possession the awesome-looking book Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, by Sally Fallon. Should I finish the Schaeffer book first, or dig right in to the (borrowed) Fallon book? My thoughts are that these are two of the best first-time-through reads that I have had in a long time. I actually read about 20 pages of the Fallon book in the van yesterday, so you know it must be good (I get carsick when I read in a moving vehicle).

I will try to review them both here in my blog. I was slow to really "get into" the Francis Schaeffer book, but I'm humming along now. It was first published almost 30 years ago, but WOW! What a socially and politically relevant book for 2005. I also have a new Douglas Wilson book on the docket, but that will have to wait until I read these two. One thing about Douglas Wilson: you either hate him or you love him, but you can't possibly be ambivalent toward him. I especially like his Future Men and Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning.

Libertarian?

According to this quiz, I'm a conservative-leaning libertarian. I would be more libertarian if it weren't for the whole "legalize marijuana" issue they seem to overemphasize. Actually, I'd love to vote for some candidates in the Constitution Party if I could find some.

Please Don't Have a Heart Attack...

I am posting a link from an article in Rolling Stone, written by a member of The Kennedy Family. It concerns the dangers of certain vaccines, including the infamous flu vaccine, as well as the usual childhood vaccines. No, I do not read Rolling Stone magazine as a general rule (did you guess that?). I got this link from Dr. Mercola's blog.

Supreme Court Vacancy

My dad dared me to blog about the Supreme Court vacancy left by Sandra Day O'Connor. Here it is.

I'm skeptical. I just don't think the president will come through on this one. There are so many ways he can get it wrong. Nor do I think the Congress will approve of a justice that will interpret the Constitution strictly even if the president did nominate one. We can thank one of our own great state's senators for that (not naming any NAMES there).

I have a lot of respect for Judge Roy Moore (laugh at me if you will). He wrote
this great piece for the Wall Street Journal this week. He says, "May God save the United States from this honorable court." Quite the poignant sentiment. Amen.

Feminine Appeal

I just finished reading this book by Carolyn Mahaney. It's subtitled "Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife and Mother". The author grounds the book in the passage from Titus 2 about how women are to conduct themselves. Here are the seven virtues that she goes into detail about:
1. The Delight of Loving My Husband
2. The Blessings of Loving My Children
3. The Safety of Self-Control
4. The Pleasure of Purity
5. The Honor of Working at Home
6. The Rewards of Kindness
7. The Beauty of Submission

There wasn't much "earth-shattering" about this book. Nothing I didn't already know. Just helpful encouragement in the areas that women need the most encouragement in. What wife doesn't need to hear over and over again how important it is to truly help and submit to her husband? The times we live in make it even more difficult. I remember being newly married, and my husband asking me to do something to help him that he could have easily done himself. I remember wondering if he thought I was just there to do his bidding, dropping whatever I was working on at the time to help him. Boy, did I need an attitude adjustment! I don't claim to always have the perfect attitude now, but by God's grace I have definitely come a long way.

Our culture has given us this idea that being a helper and submitting to another person is degrading and relegates us to second-class citizens. The author points out that this is not something that men made up for their own benefit - God uses the husband and wife relationship to illustrate the relationship between Christ and the church.

Another issue in today's culture is respect. Wives are to respect their husbands. You never see this modeled on any of the sitcoms on tv! The author quotes from a Douglas Wilson book: "Women are fully capable of loving a man, and sacrificing for him, while believing the entire time that he is a true and unvarnished jerk. Women are good at this kind of love." Ouch! Doesn't the truth hurt? Here is what Mahaney says to that: "...Scripture's mandate to love our husbands involves far more than merely doing household chores. We are required to love them with nothing less than a passionate, tender, affectionate kind of love."

All good reminders and good encouragement on some very relevant topics.

Our Recent Culinary Adventures

We've had lamb for several meals now. Our verdict on the taste of lamb:
Lamburgers: ok
Roast: Pretty good (not quite as good as beef roast)
Lamb chops: Delicious, better than pork chops

We had lamb chops for dinner tonight, and they were just as good as I remembered them. They are small, so you have to cook a lot to satisfy a whole family (we did 8 for 5 people, one of whom is a 2-year-old girl). I marinated them in a homemade sauce, and then my husband grilled them. The lamb we have was not grass-fed. We are interested in seeing the difference in taste between grain-fed and grass-fed. Grass-fed meat is much higher in Omega-3's, which is what we want.

I'm also starting to get used to using cast-iron skillets. We started using them about a week ago (we have one huge one, and one smaller round griddle). They are less bother than I thought they would be (my husband took care of "seasoning" them). We had fajitas last night - the skillet worked great!

And my last culinary adventure: pitting cherries. I used them to make one pie (sugar-free, of course) and froze enough for another pie. I may get enough next week to freeze some more. The pie turned out pretty good, in my humble opinion. :-)

My Baby's Growing Up

She played with play-doh yesterday and didn't put ANY in her mouth. I have mixed feelings about that... :-)