Yesterday, to my horror, I found 3 dead chickens in their pen. This morning hubby found 6. We have thought and thought and looked and checked over the chicken yard high and low. No signs of entry whatsoever. The only clue is that hubby says he's smelled the faintest hint of a skunk late at night and early in the morning for a few days. So we started looking at how a skunk might could get in. There was a small space around the top between the roof and the top of the coop wall that we boarded up. The only chickens that have been killed are the little bitty bantam Mille Fleurs. We only have 3 hens and 2 roosters left. Only 1 of those is from the new batch we hatched last spring. I'm sad and so mad I could cry and then cuss. 11 chickens total dead within a few days. I don't think a dinner out on the town is gonna make me feel any better.
We could all certainly use far more of this in our churches today and a lot less of the 'Christian play' that goes on.
• DON’T IDEALIZE the church – it’s glorious, not because it’s perfect (after all, you’re in it!), but because it’s being redeemed.
• DON’T CRITICIZE your fellow-believers anytime or the pastor (especially never ever before or after a Sunday service: the Devil’s already doing that; don’t you help him).
• DON’T POLARIZE in church meetings or committees. ‘I don’t agree’ is very negative: try ‘Is there perhaps another way of looking at this?’
• DON’T OSTRACIZE people whose psychological ‘chemistry’ is different to yours, or who do not see things your way. Be Christian, and greet them warmly, and pray with them anyway.
• DON’T IDOLIZE the pastor or any other leader: we are all fellow- strugglers and we all have feet of clay.
• DON’T MONOPOLIZE conversations: be that kind of rare person who is an empathetic listener.
• DON’T ORGANIZE anything ‘off your own bat’. Initiative is good: initiative plus collaboration plus accountability is better.
• DON’T HOMOGENIZE. Talk to people who are not your cronies (even tax-collectors and sinners do that). Accept people who are not like you theologically. After all, God’s truth may include both your and their understandings!
• Above all, DON’T VERBALIZE your frustration or negativity about the church to others: it is sure to discourage them. Do it with the Lord, a spiritual director or counselor, and possibly, after much prayer, to a responsible leader. The devil is very clever: he puts words into our mouth like: ‘Would you (my friend) pray with me about the problem I have with...’
• Instead REALIZE that the Church is loved by Christ, so be patient with each other: the Lord hasn’t finished with any of us yet!
I know I've shared before how I feel about The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. It's my favorite homeschool magazine. I've had subscriptions to two other homeschool magazines, and have received trial issues from even more. But The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is the only one I've renewed repeatedly. I enjoy reading each issue that arrives, as do my older children.
I look forward to the different themes for each issue, the free unit study included in each issue, as well as the view into the lives of other homeschool families. I am always encouraged by at least one article in the magazine. Many times it has arrived in my mailbox at just the right moment, when I needed encouragement or inspiration to continue homeschooling with joy and confidence. What a joy to sit down in my favorite chair with a drink, a treat, and The Old Schoolhouse's latest issue.
I also appreciate that The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is not limited to only one style, method, or denomination. It makes the effort to write about varied homeschooling methods and curriculum styles, homeschoolers of different denominations and in many areas of the world. It gives a very full and well-rounded view of homeschooling, and all its facets.
I wanted to tell you all about The Old Schoolhouse Magazine's Fall Special. You can get two years of the magazine, 6 fabulous physical gifts (no downloads!) worth over $120, plus the current issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine that is full of ideas for the new school year, so you start receiving your magazine in a flash!
It really is one of their best deals ever and you don't want to miss out. In fact, they've got a really cute Homeschooling with Heart tote bag (valued at $13.95) for the first 1000 to subscribe. About half of them are gone, but you should still be able to get one if you hurry! (They will remove the info from the subscription page when the bags are all gone.) The total value is over $212, but you receive it all for only $39 - 50% off of cover price! Plus subscribers get their online monthly Teacher's Toolbox which focuses on a different topic each month, giving you words of encouragement, hands-on teaching ideas, book recommendations, field trip ideas, and a bonus download item.
I love this handbag, and can't wait until I receive my own, to use for library trips and homeschool group meetings. I'm sure it will be a conversation starter, that will let us share about homeschooling with others.
Hurry to get your subscription and your free gifts (including this great tote bag) today!
I am so very sorry I have not been a very dedicated blogger and I apologize. My Dad was in the hospital with a very bad kidney infection but he is out now and seems to be doing better my sister came over last weekend with my neices and nephews and we had to take my 3 year old nephew Jayden to the ER he had a very high temperature and they diagnoised him with some kind of throat infection and gave him Tylenol w/ Codeine I have been real busy with College and worth actually while I am typing i am doing overtime.. we are backlogged so we are trying to catch up on everything.... well you all have a wonderful blessed day.. I know what I will be doing when I get gome... LAUNDRY....
When my 3yo was born we had problems with colic and after removing soy, we finally got some peace. We also noticed that candies and cereals with food colorings really bothered her as well. She tends to get ummmm... hard to deal with, more negative, etc. with food colorings. Chocolate gave her a rash, and I had trouble determining whether it was the dairy, the chocolate itself, or the soy that is in the chocolate candies. The past 3.5 years have been a struggle from day to day to figure out what is causing the troubles.
When my 3yo was 2.5, she was potty trained. But in the last half year or so, she began wetting during the day and during naps and at night. She had been dry at night for almost a year, so I was wondering what was up. What NOW? was more my question... During the days, she would wet herself, then go potty, then wet herself 5 minutes later again, and again 15 minutes later. We suspected a bladder infection, but it was not that. This has continued since around February. I would try to eliminate a food, but didn't ever have a team effort with the trial, so it often got interrupted and we never could see what happens when a possible offending food is removed.
Dh wants an answer NOW, and he doesn't go for the elimination diets. He doesn't like that allergy tests are not 100% correct. He doesn't like that symptoms come and go and can change as the child matures. He doesn't like that allergies are not set in stone, meaning if you wet... it's milk... or if you have itchy skin, it is chocolate... that sort of thing. Allergies aren't like that and are hard to diagnose. This has caused resistance in his desire to do the elimination diets.
Well, I have Dh's support to go Dairy Free for a trial. We are on week two, and I am struggling with menus. But we are seeing a difference. The bladder spasms my daughter has during the day are almost completely gone and the wetting at night is less frequent. It is so nice to take off a DRY diaper! It appears that dairy is our main culprit. She has had small amounts of soy and on those days, I notice her face is more ruddy, or rash like. So, I am guessing the soy does still bother her as well.
To see a honest difference in all symptoms, removal is suggested for 6 to 8 months. Dh didn't like that at all. He thinks it is cruel to say no to letting her not have chocolate or milk or hot cocoa, or cheese... I think this would be far less cruel to all of us if I could find a diet that has no soy, no dairy, low in food colors and is appetizing to all. However, our trial is proving to the other side of the family (Dh and older girls) that there is nothing good to eat. (Angela and Amy, I haven't tried your recipes, yet... didn't have all the ingredients). I have two more weeks to "make a difference" in the menus to have continued support.
To give my older girls credit, they do not mind me using Rice milk in recipes. They don't notice a difference at all. (Probably because I've used it in mashed potatoes for a couple years, now... when they weren't looking! LOL). And they are trying to help me find some recipes. I believe they do not like the wetting and the fussy days just like me. My oldest says when she is pregnant some day, she will not eat any junk... just fruits and vegetables and whole grains. I just smiled, knowing it isn't that easy. I told her that it would be wise to start NOW so that when the day comes she can stay strong with that determination. I laugh because I think I ate the most healthy with my last one. With her I craved big macs and ate them all the time. With my second... I ate snicker bars like they were a food group. With my third... macaroni and cheese was my downfall. My last one, I just tried to eat a balanced vegetarian diet until I got to my 8th month and I got sick and I had no appetite and I got swelling in my ankles and the midwife said I needed more protein, so I downed cottage cheese (the most appealing to me at the time) and reintroduced meat. I felt no better and my blood pressure never did go up, so my midwife wasn't sure what was going on. I just wonder if it was a dairy reaction and the baby was big enough for me to feel the uckies that the baby was dealing with. ??? I don't know.
I've also gone dairy free just to see if it would help me, as I have eczema and some other symptoms of milk allergy and I have been off for two weeks as well. Today, I ate two of those chocolate chip cookies. I was angry at the moment, my oldest having troubles in one of her classes and her teacher is NOT willing to help her at all. She HAS to schedule a visit in the next two school days and his first day was full, his second day, she has a different class during his "scheduled visits". She tells him her dilemna and he says, you have a problem, hope you figure it out and shuts his appointment book and turns to a different student. He knows she is homeschooled and he has incessantely picked on her since class started 6 weeks ago and makes a point to pick on her in class and make her uncomfortable. He calls her "doll". (The guy is nearly 80+ years old and still teaching) All of it added up today... and I was thinking back over the years to why we homeschooled in the first place... to get her out of an environment where she wasn't getting any help... the teacher said she was behind in math, yet refused to help her. She was punished by removing recess and other important group activities in the classroom to make a point that she needed to improve her math, but the teacher didn't stay to help her... instead just walked away... like this teacher is doing. I grabbed the cookies and just ate them without thinking. And guess what I found... I got a stomach ache within about 15 minutes of eating the cookies. I thought, that's odd. I haven't had a stomach ache like that for about ... hmmmmm..... two weeks! DUH!!! Oh to live without those occasional tummy aches would be wonderful and to realize that the dairy that I ingested likely caused the belly ache... LIGHT BULB moment! So even though I wasn't too happy that Dh fudged the plan by hiding chocolate cookies in the cupboard (to which he let Paige snitch last night ... Paige tattled on Daddy later, LOL). But we had immediate consequences... I had a stomach ache and Paige had trouble going to sleep. Now I know some would think that isn't awful... that happens occasionally, but when she has been asking to go to bed at a regular hour for about a week now and for 3.5 years we have never accomplished this because of irritabilities in Paige. This is BIG for me! Dh isn't quite there, yet in accepting it, but I'm hoping that I will find some recipes, and menus that are appealing to him that he can be willing to work with it enough that when the fudging happens, it either really opens his eyes to what is going on or it lessens the impact and we have maybe a bad evening instead of a bad life.
Please pray for us. I honestly was hoping it wasn't the dairy, because that was my alternative to soy... so if one can't have soy and can't have dairy... there's no sour cream, no cheese (I know Angela... I like cheesy sauce, but it's not going over as a substitute in our house, yet *grin*). I had wanted to go cheese free. But didn't want to go so far as dairy free. Life is just so much easier when I know what to cook on a moments notice, instead of grabbing recipes only to find out I needed to have started HOURS before. Perhaps this is a change I need as well... to get my menu plans under order, to be more assertive in my life (it takes assertiveness to always alert people that we can't eat something), or maybe my family needs this to be so, to rid ourselves of some selfishness that we harbor within ourselves over our appetite (and more).
As for my oldest and her teacher... she is upset, but can't do anything about it until Monday and then she will have to ask her Chemistry teacher if she can ditch class in the middle of it for a 6 minute conference for her Writing Class. I wish I could help her, but she is strong and is prepared to drop the class if the teacher is trying to make an example out of homeschoolers. Praise God for scholarships which makes that alternative less painful to the pocketbook. It is too bad, however, because the time cannot be replaced, but she is hoping that there is a reason for this experience. She hasn't determined it as of yet. Whether God is working on her and her own feelings towards this man/teacher or whether she is there to influence someone else. Some days she makes me so proud. (She said that after eating two cookies herself! LOL.) What a bunch we are!
I am now 20 weeks pregnant! Halfway there! We had an ultrasound this past week and decided not to see what it was. Long story short...I was going to a midwife but now I will be seeing a CNM and delivering at a hospital, as with all the others in the past. We were going to try a homebirth but both of us didn't feel completely at peace with the decision so we went back to a doctors office. Now, things are looking up and brighter for our peace.
I am really feeling close to 40 with this pregnancy! I am tired most of the time. Good news is, I haven't gained much weight! So far, 13 pounds! That is pretty good for me. I have not been exercising like I should though. That is always tough.
When I figure out how to post a scanned picture on here, I will show you our little baby in utero.
All I will say to this is Amen. If you can't see our society totally wrapped up in this, you need to pull off the blinders and take a really good look around you. We don't have many MEN in our society today. We don't have many LEADERS in our society. And, sadly, we aren't working to change that in our up and coming young men and boys either.
THE ATTACK ON MEN:
Every television show depicts men as idiots, buffoons, or evil monsters. Satan wants to reach women because they are more easily deceived. The only obstacle to his subversion of women is men. His attack on men is primarily to remove any credibility or influence they have over women. The effectiveness of this campaign is shown in the TV program “The Red Green Show”. In this show there is a motto for men that is repeated with a resigned shrug, “I am a man...I can change...If I have to...I guess.”
Young men today may not even know that the pattern of male submission that is prevalent today is an aberration. It has never existed before in the history of the world. Men were created to take care of families. Women were created to be taken care of. “Women’s liberation” is a communist term for the destruction of families. Liberation implies a struggle against oppression. The communist “liberation” movements have all been armed rebellion against governments that oppose their revolution.
It is important to recognize that revolutionary and political terms are used to demonize traditional families and family practice. The “liberation” that is implied is not against men, but against the God created order of life. Women are to be liberated from families and made worker bees in the corporate hive. In the communist model, women are not mothers or wives, but workers. Workers exist to serve the state.
Men today do not have wives or mothers, just fellow workers. Men are told that this is the natural order of things and any suggestion of the “old way” is an insult to women and must not be tolerated. Men are told to accept the new status of women. Men are bullied into acquiescence with this rape of our culture and exploitation of women. It is sad that Satan has gotten women to be the loudest defenders of the attack upon women.
It can be helpful to examine some of the specific ways men have been reduced to silent and sometimes willing partners in the exploitation of women.
1. Higher education. Men were told that only smart people in universities were educated enough to have any authority to speak to issues concerning their families. Fields such as anthropology, sociology, psychology, social work, and other phony “science” have been used to stifle objection.
2. Liberal religion. Most churches have been completely subverted to worldly perspectives in advance of the more direct attack on men. When men turned to their churches to help fight the direct attack, they only found that the churches had already “gone over to the enemy”.
3. Media. Men are portrayed as crazed killers, bullies, irresponsible, unreliable, drunken violent abusers. Satan does not allow a picture of quiet kindness and strength. Satan will never allow real men who lead their families with love to be seen. The imprint of media is a stain on all of us. More pervasive than the worst Korean War brainwashing, we are saturated to our core with Satanic images, frames of reference, and modes of thinking.
4. Elementary education. The educational system has been one of the greatest tools Satan has used to homogenize men into a submissive mold so that they will not object to the changes being brought forth in our society. As boys they are continuously told to be quiet and sit down, they are learning to stifle their natural inclinations. A primary purpose of the elementary classroom is to break the spirit of young men.
5. Elevation of sport. Boys are told that if they have to be restless then they can play sports. There is nothing so sad as to see someone whose whole life is reduced to this narrow mode of expression. Some men become so occupied with sports, it becomes the only vehicle they have to communicate with others, like the POWs who would communicate by tapping out a code.
6. Withdrawal. Satan is familiar with the most common response of men to situations of discomfort, they withdraw. By making life increasingly alien to men, he forces them out of areas he wants to control. The percentage of women in universities is increasing dramatically. Most men cannot feel comfortable in the radically political, and fervently hostile climate of campus life. Even for men who want to lead their families, they do not know how to meet the frustrating resistance from family members already held captive by the world. These men often seek divorce when they should be seeking knowledge and wisdom.
7. Self-indulgence. For centuries Satan had to rely on alcohol and adultery as his main tools to subvert morality. However, by careful planning and timing he was able to introduce abortion, the drug culture, birth control, and the sexual revolution all within a few years. We now have a climate where this is an accepted way of life. However, while some are dragged down to complete degradation, others (by God’s grace) resist the pull of consuming sensual pleasure and see the emptiness and waste of such a life. Many Christian pioneers come out of the depths of sin to the light of truth and joy of knowing real love.
There is a way to fight back or at least resist these pervasive Satanic influences.
1. Become a Christian. There is a supernatural war going on all around us. Satan is allowed for a little while longer to rule over the earth. The Bible says that those who are not Christians are “held captive to do his will”. Being a Christian connects you to the winning side in this war and provides the means of being pulled out of a spiral of destruction.
2. Grow in truth. Satan achieves most of his success through our failures. If we draw close to God and gain wisdom and understanding, we are able to reduce the number of times we are deceived. The Bible says, “Greater is He who is in you, than he who is in the world”.
3. Acknowledge humility. Most men do not like the feeling that they do not have the answers or need to get advice or help from another person. The Christian life cannot be lived without humility. Men need to learn that courage is undertaking difficult or unpleasant action because of necessity.
4. Find a mentor. God provides those with wisdom who can give advice and provide encouragement. An ally in the fight against worldly corruption can be an essential part of a successful resistance to these corrupting influences. There are many poor and false teachers, so one should be careful.
5. Abandon error. Satan loves to isolate people in a shell of pride. A woman can raise a clenched fist demanding the “right” to be sexually exploited, killed her babies, and be left alone in her old age. No one will be able to convince her she has been duped because she has been inoculated against any suggestion of error. In a similar way men become encased in destructive prisons of error and humility is the key to escape.
6. Withdraw from diversion. Many children grow up in homes where they learn quickly that the father’s desire to watch television is more important than anything the child might have to say. Our recreations, entertainments, hobbies, and pleasures all act to turn us from our responsibilities. We need to understand the damage that we cause others by our selfishness.
7. Character is more important than performance. Men often focus on what they can do and how well they can do it. They tend to see their worth in terms of their value to “get things done”. This reinforces a materialistic and utilitarian view of the world. The Christian pioneer is understanding that all that we do is of God and there is no room for boasting. As we grow closer to God and value what He values, we learn that a humble and loving heart is infinitely more valuable that job proficiency.
We need to turn our vision from the world. The images we get from the world only enslave us. We need to turn towards Christ. From Him we gain truth, wisdom, and understanding. With the truth, we can build strong families free from the degradation and corruption of the world.
The stress this week has brung has been a bit overwhelming. It has been a realization of how unstable everything really is right now. Praise God for the fact my husband still has a job, but for how long? He said he's still not sure how everything will turn out.
In the meantime, we are watching our budget, cutting back where we can and stocking up with whatever extra we have left. Yesterday was errand day and the kids and I got out, went to the library, to the local park, and to the grocery store. It was a fun day. At the store, I managed to get several extras and still stay well within our budget of 100 dollars for the week.
At the library I picked up several books on gardening, composting, and getting organized. I'm hoping that in addition to preparing the yard for spring planting, we can also learn as much as we can about what we're going to grow.
We started Wednesday working on the backyard. We started with the hill out in the middle of the backyard. Apparently the previous owners had an above ground pool, and when they dug up the ground to level the pool area, they just left it in a big pile, so we're working on leveling it out.
For today, we are busy cleaning up from the week, and getting ready to leave. I'm going on a lady's retreat with the women from my church today, and my children are spending the night with my folks. I'm so excited! Not to get away from the kids, but to have the oppurtunity to learn and fellowship with other women without interruption, and a chance to renew my spirit a bit. I will be coming home tomorrow late afternoon. Well, there is lots to do, and little time to do it in. I want to make the house nice for my husband so he can relax while he's home alone tonight and tomorrow. Have a blessed day!
Our Journey Into The Country - A Faith Walk