Tonight I tried making Mazidra.  A lentil dish that is saute'ed before adding the water.  The effect is to create a more nutty texture, rather than the traditional mushy lentil texture.  However, I used red lentils, which already appear to be shelled and I still ended up with a mushy texture.  The flavor was good, but it was a bit to soupy for me.  It was supposed to be poured over rice or potatoes.  I made baked potatoes and the finished dish was similar to a rice soup, with a real watery broth.  In looking at the picture in the recipe book, that is not really how it is to turn out.  The flavor was good enough for me to try it again with some brown lentils.  The rest of the family hasn't tried it yet, as it wasn't done until a bit later than when the potatoes were done.  I did wait to eat it with my potato and found it ok, once I strained the water/broth a bit. 

As I look at the dish, however, it is not one that will appeal to the rest of the family, so I think I will continue my search with some more recipes.  I myself enjoyed the dish and may make it again for me, if I get to wanting a lentil dish.  It tasted similar to a recipe I have called Armenian Lentil Loaf. 

My Dad came to visit and he took us out to eat.  We went to a buffet and had a tired little one with us (we were eating later than normal) and saying no brought loud screams.  If it was just us, I would have left the restaurant, but beings my Dad was visiting and had a long day, I succombed to allowing cottage cheese.  I did limit it to one scoop, but I fear it was enough to bring on another tantrum at another date when she is told no.  She wanted cheese on her baked potato tonight and we ran out because dd number 2 ate what we had left.  This caused a small ruckus at home, but when she realized she wasn't the only one not having cheese, she calmed down.  I also ate some cheese when eating out and I am unsure if the stress of dealing with saying no to Paige is doing me in, or the dairy allergy is becoming more noticable since I was not eating it.  I have a good case of the hives.  Dh thinks it is silly that I'm trying to eat better and here I am appearing sicker.  He knows that something is up with Paige however and that we are on the right track.  Even though we are at square one again with the wetting, we know that going back to not eating dairy that it likely will go away again. 

Now to stay firm.  That is so hard.   Like last night, the restaurant just didn't have much for options.  The salad bar was slim to say the least... then there was the choice of pizza or chicken for the main meal.  We went with chicken to stay away from the cheese, but still ended up with little variety and I suppose I could have sat and ate a salad with unripe tomatoes and mushy peas... that was about my only choice as a vegetarian, non-dairy.  I realize now that I ate the mashed potatoes which likely had milk in them as well.  UGH!  So much thinking to do!  This restaurant just didn't have enough variety, even though Dh and my one daughter thought there was plenty of variety... once there they were like... bugging me about eating cheese and I wanted to say... my Dad just paid $8 for me to eat and you want me to pick at the food and eat a obviously poor salad choice and that's it?  I shouldn't feel sorry for myself, but it seems that I am the only one thinking about the big picture when it comes to eating out and in.  Somehow it is up to me to do it alone.  Which if it helps both my daughter and I to feel better, it will be so worth it.  I need to keep that in mind as I start feeling down about my "lot" in life right now. 

Tomorrow is a new day with NEW aspirations... Hopefully we will start anew and have new determination and vigor in this fight against allergies.  Oh how great to know that when we mess up... we can start fresh and new in our walk with God.  If I can smile with that thought, I will make myself smile with our battle of the food intolerances and allergies.  May they open my heart to God's mercies as we experience the ups and downs of this battle of appetite in our war against the foods that hurt us.   

Warmly, ~Melissa

A Battleground for the Minds of Our Children

            “Jesus said to His disciples:  ‘Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through which they come.  It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.  So watch yourselves.’”  (Luke 17:1-3) 

            John Dewey was a very out-spoken prophet for the anti-God public school system.  Not only did he not want God entering through the doors of our schools, but God’s absolutes, God’s morals and principles would put a wrench in his plans for our youth.  There is no room for the God or anything to do with His kingdom.  “Every teacher should realize the dignity of his calling; that he is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of proper social order and the securing of the right social growth…In this way the teacher is always the prophet of the true god and the usherer of the true kingdom of god.”[1] [emphasis mine]   And again, just in case you didn’t understand the first time, he added this for good measure: “Faith in the prayer-hearing God is an unproved and out-moded faith.  There is no God and there is no soul…There is no room for fixed, natural law or moral absolutes.”[2]   

            Oh, but there is more.  Horace Mann and John Dewey were certainly not the only ones to take this point of view.  They are merely standing at the head of the line of our modern school system.  More recently, Paul Blanshard, a writer for The Humanist magazine even hinted that even though America’s arithmetic, science and reading skills are sinking – even while billions of our tax dollars are being poured into the bottomless pit of educational “reform” – that only seems to be part of the plan for him.  “Our schools may not teach Johnny to read properly, but the fact that Johnny is in school until he is sixteen tends to lead toward the elimination of religious superstition.”[3]

            For anyone who doubts, Blanshard was not the first person to think this way.  Adolph Hitler once said, “Let me control the textbooks, and I will control Germany.”  And that is exactly what he did.  And to make sure, he made private school, parochial school and home education illegal.  “Recalcitrant parents were warned that their children would be taken away from them and put in orphanages or other homes unless they enrolled[4] [in the government schools].”  (Sound familiar?)  But Hitler was certainly ahead of his time.  In 1983, John Dunphy, yet again another writer for The Humanist magazine, reiterated that what the public schools are secretly fighting unaware parents for are the minds and immortal souls of their children:  “The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new – the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism.”[5]

            And let us not forget about this generation’s leader of the pack:  The National Education Association.  Dr. John Goodland wrote a report for the NEA in which he said, “Our goal is behavioral change.  The majority of our youth still hold to the values of their parents and if we do not resocialize them to accept change, our society may decay.”[6]  [emphasis mine] 

            Reading, writing and arithmetic have had to make way and be replaced by a new value system.  Values clarification seems to be the order of the day whether parents want it be or not.  (Remember the outcome of the Ninth Circuit Court’s decision.) 

            “Values Clarification.”  It has the sound of the educational system desiring nothing more than to help our youngsters get a handle on right and wrong, doesn’t it?  Mary Pride, in her book “The Way Home,” is not one known to beat around the bush.  She cuts right to the chase as she puts it this way:  “…as the public schools are demanding the right to indoctrinate children in values that may be directly contrary to the parents’.  Sex education courses are designed to brainwash children into accepting homosexuality and fornication as ‘valid forms of sexual expression.’ Values clarification classes systematically destroy the Biblical concepts of an absolute right and an absolute wrong.  One-world government programs in Social Studies are meant to destroy patriotism, while the study of ‘women’s role in today’s society’ is a front for indoctrination in feminism.  Economics courses teach socialism; English teachers assign pornography as required reading; even my high-school gym class featured instruction in occult Yoga techniques.”

            Even though I graduated from high school in 1977, I can personally verify nearly everything she listed.  In my own experience, my Psychology teacher required us to lay on mats hooked up to monitors that measured our bio rhythms.  All in the name of progressive learning.  Mann and Dewey would have been so proud.           

These pics are from a couple of weeks ago.  Our town has a Fall Color Festival.  I only took a couple of pictures.  There are three rivers that converge in our town.  This is a shot from the bridge right downtown.  It was beautiful.

Our son also took part in the tractor pull.  He placed third (out of three ), but he did his best:

My honey plowed up a few acres on our north 20.  I think we're putting in oats and alfalfa next spring, and somehow want to get some wheat in. 

Here's a picture of the plowed field.  Isn't it lovely? 

I guess I sound like I'm boasting.  I just love this land and all that the Lord has blessed us with.  I want to be a good steward and use it for His glory.

From Glory Farm

 What are you getting from your garden?  We have harvested cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, onions,sunflowers, kale, pumpkins, apples and plums this fall.  With this harvest there are a number of things I make.

*

Homemade spaghetti sauce-tomatoes, garlic, onions, basil, thyme, sage, oregano, majarom, cayenne, savory from the garden

Homemade salsa-tomatoes, onions, cayenne from the garden

Cream of carrot soup

Tomato soup

Kale soup

Meatball stew-using carrots, potatoes, onions and beans from the garden

Scalloped hotdish-carrots, onions, potatoes

Speedy boiled dinner-cabbage, potatoes and carrots

Cabbage rolls-cabbage, tomatoes

Runzas-Ask for the recipe on this one.  These are delicious,  cabbage and onions

French Fries

Onion Rings-love these

Coleslaw

Applesauce, apple pie, baked apples, fresh plums, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes

These are just a few ideas.  What do you make with your fresh harvest?

You know, even with stretching our grocery money, I'm still spending about $100 a week on groceries.  There are six of us, and I can't think of how to save any more than I am.  Any suggestions?

Today we're going to get around, do our schoolwork & then head out for some fun!  We're going to the local science museum & then over to an arts festival.  (Science museum for sure, the arts festival will depend on the rain, which it is doing right now)  We're meeting up with another homeschool family that we get along well with so we're looking forward to our day!

Hope everyone has a great one!

A few things before I post our weekly menu and plans...

Lilli and Lauren spent the entire weekend at my parent's house.  Lauren hasn't spent the night away since she was about 13 months old and we night-weaned.  My mom kept her overnight for me for a couple nights in a row to get us through the hardest part.  Well, she hadn't stayed anyplace since so I wasn't sure how she'd do. 

She did great.  I think she might have woke a couple times in the night for a drink but she does that at home too.  I am so glad that she did well, I am hoping she can stay overnight occasionally to give me a chance to get caught up on housework that is difficult to do while she's here with me.  We'll see.

Lilli spends the night at my parent's about once a week, so the whole weekend wasn't a big deal for her, but she was ready to come home on Sunday.

Alyssa (my niece) spent the entire weekend there too.  My brother had to work all weekend (and work really late), and my SIL was with me at the retreat.

The scrapbook retreat was great.  I did get quite a few pages done and I got a good start on my Disney album.  I tried 'stitching' on my pages for the first time this weekend and I am now addicted.  I really don't even sew very good, but it looks really cute on the paper.  LOL.  Who would have thought that I'd be stitching paper.  LOL.  It's all Vicki's fault, she wanted me to try it.  She is an enabler.  Ha.  Her pages are all awesome.  When I grow up, I want to be just like her ;)

The retreat is set up like a camp, with dorm-type rooms.  Our room had a set of bunkbeds, twin on top, full on bottom, and another twin bed.  Vicki slept up top, I slept on bottom, and a friend of ours slept in the other twin.

The retreat center was located in Bridgeman and was a great place.  We scrapped on the main floor and slept on the upper floor, so we didn't have to walk outside from our rooms to our scrap room.  We've had to do that before and it sucked (especially if it was raining or snowing).

The food was fantastic.  The best food I've had at a retreat.  Much of it was homemade and they were very 'open' about when you could eat.  It was laid out in a buffet style and they just left it there for an hour or so.  They even delayed breakfast on Sunday because there were only 3 of us awake at 8AM.  Saturday nights are usually the late night, with people still scrapping at 3 or 4AM.  (I'm not one of those people)

I am the early bird of the group and was the first one in bed on Friday night at 12:30AM.  Saturday I made it until 1:30AM and was the second one in bed.  I was the first one into the scraproom both mornings, Saturday at 6:30AM and Sunday at 7:30AM, Sunday I took my shower first and was still the first in there.  There were about 24-28 people there in all.

On Saturday night they made us a hot apple cider that was awesome.  It was called 'hot cinnamon-caramel apple cider.  They served it with fresh whipped cream.  It was fantastic.  They left it in a hot jug all night so that we could have it whenever we wanted.  Yum.

Lance spent the weekend at home resting.  He has gotten our cold and it's quite painful for him to cough, so he's been taking it easy.  Sneezing isn't so great either, so he's been pretty miserable for a few days now.  He did say he was feeling a bit better yesterday so hopefully he's on the mend.

Here is our tentative meal plan this week:

Monday:  Spaghetti and garlic toast (Lilli had parmesan noodles and garlic toast)

Tuesday:  Baked Chicken (BBQ?), mashed potatoes and gravy, broccolli (Lilli's request)

Wednesday:  Beef Stroganoff (crockpot) (the girls will eat in South Haven)

Thursday:  Roast, potatoes, carrots (crockpot)

Friday:  Fish Fry

Saturday:  Steak, hot dogs (grill), baked potatoes, peas

Sunday: leftovers (or leftovers on Sat and grill today)

Here are our plans for the week:

Monday:  Lance work 6-4, Lilli school 7:45-3:15.  Lauren and I picked up a few items at the Hartford Hardings after we dropped Lilli off at school, then came home for the day.  We were home for the evening as well, doing crafts and playing board games after Lilli's homework was done.

Tuesday:  Lance work, Lilli school.  Lauren and I are home for the day.  We'll pick Lilli up and then come home for the evening.  Games and crafts are on our agenda again, we had fun yesterday.

**my dad goes for his recheck with his back surgeon today, he's hoping to have some of his restrictions lifted...he has cabin fever.  :)

Wednesday:  Our busy day.  Lance work.  Lilli school.  Lauren playgroup 9:30-11AM in Lawrence.  Then I run Lauren to my parent's house and come back to volunteer at Lilli's school at noon.  The teacher has been keeping all afternoon, from noon until 3PM.  Then we'll head to my parent's after school to pick up Lauren and visit for a couple hours.

Thursday:  Lance work.  Lillli school.  Lilli dance from 6-8PM.  We plan for Lauren to stay home with Lance while we go to dance.

Friday:  Lilli school.  Lance might be off of work (he is on 4- 10 hour days), so we'll go cut wood (Lauren, Lance and I) during the day while Lilli is at school.  I guess if it's nice, we may go back after Lilli gets out of school too.  We'll see how the weather is, it's supposed to be nice according to the news this morning.

Saturday:  We'll work on getting wood and try to get Lilli to my parent's house sometime in the early afternoon.  She'll probably spend the night.

Sunday:  More wood gathering (our weekends will look like this for the next couple months) if it isn't raining.  Lilli has her horse lesson at 11.  We'll pick her up from her lesson and head to my parent's for a visit in the afternoon.

**A funny story.  I took Lauren to Hardings in Hartford yesterday morning after we dropped Lilli at school.  We were coming out with our things and the delivery guy from the Golden Brown Bakery stopped me and mentioned how beautiful she was and talked for a minute.  Then he asked if she could have chocolate.  I said sure, thinking he was going to send something home with her.  Nope.  He went to his truck and came back with two HUGE chocolate on chocolate donuts, freshly made at the bakery that morning, and HANDED THEM TO HER!  She was just thrilled as could be.  She said, "Thank-you, thank-you, thank- you, chocolate donuts chocolate donuts chocolate donuts".  She was so excited to have a huge donut in each hand that she didn't even take a bite for a minute.  It was very funny. 

Of course I couldn't take them from her, so she ate them all the way home (about 15 minutes).  You should have seen her face when we got home.  Oh, and her hair and clothes and car seat and shoes...LOL.  It was quite the mess, but she was so happy, it was very worth it.  I still can't believe that  he gave her those things.  LOL.   What a mess.  :)

The Get Out of Debt Sale will be Ending Soon!

Be sure to get over to theSimple Journey Bookstore and make your purchases, because these rock bottom prices and extra discounted Bundle Packs will be gone before you know it!

Everything in the store is marked down up to 60%

FREEBIES Galore!

When prices are going up everywhere else, our prices have gone down!

Click Here to get to the Sale TODAY!

Simple Journey Ministries Presents

Keep It Together Girl!

Organized Toys

Few things bug me as much as my kids asking me to play a game, opening the box and finding pieces missing. This is a true pet peeve of mine. The thing is, often times it isn’t that my children don’t put games away properly, but that the boxes are made so cheaply that they often break down quickly.

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