TV?

I'm struggling again with TV....We went 3 years without watching TV. When I look back on my articles on Serious Moms during that time, I feel convicted by my own writing! Yikes! We had more time to do stuff! I don't know why we got into the habit again. Please understand that I'm not saying all TV is bad or wrong to watch, and I'm not judging any of you. This is my own personal struggle, k? :)

So we started watching TV again about 4 years ago.  At first some of the stuff was shocking to us! Crazy shocking! Like, this is what people are watching?  The funny thing is, recently, the same kinds of things haven't bothered us.....And that started to bother us.  Both of us, around the same time. Which is a good thing.

We've also gotten into this habit of laying the kids down & seeing what was on our dvr...every night.  We got into a lot of shows: Heroes, 24, Lost, The Office, House, Smallville, The Sarah Conner Chronicles, American Idol, 18 Kids & Counting, etc....So we'd stay up, because we would want to watch just one more show....And we'd be exhausted the next day!  And things weren't getting done around here.

We both felt like we were watching too much TV and we didn't want our life to be set up around TV (like "we have to get the kids to bed so that we can watch ____!").  So we've determined to watch less.  Which is a GOOD THING, in my opinion. :)

We both decided that Heroes is getting really dumb & there's nothing great about it. We both decided we're not that crazy about House anymore.  We both determined that the Office has been having some pretty bad humor on it recently, and we don't want to have any part of that....We're not watching American Idol this year.  We don't have a desire to watch 24.

At the same time we're convicted that we shouldn't watch too much, conveniently, we're feeling like it's all same 'ol, same 'ol...nothing new under the sun!  House is always the same--they think they have it figured out, but wait, no they caused more problems--oh, whew! They figured it out!....24 is always the same. Jack Bauer does more in 24 hours than 20 people could realistically do, and he's never hungry and never goes to the bathroom. :)  Heroes is just dumb--everything with Matt Parkman & Syler was driving us crazy, it's just dumb, dumb, dumb!  The Office--there will be witty lines that continue, I'm sure...but there's nothing we have to see....American Idol. Same 'ol, same 'ol, and the singing is getting worse every year, I think. ;)  See, we're getting bored!  This is good!

Did you all listen to that sermon that was on my blog the other day, by Paul Washer? I keep thinking about some of the things he said.  I think we (Karry and I) have watched TV shows without any regard to what our Lord would think about them.  Oh, we haven't watched the really bad shows....But are we comparing the shows we watch to the other shows out there, or are we holding them up to Scripture?

Again, I'm not judging any of you! This is our own conviction as of late!

I know there is a thought out there (and I think I've been guilty of it), that because we're saved, there's a whole ton of freedom, and we can really live however we want (mostly, anyways)....Since our actions have nothing to do with our salvation, heck, why not watch whatever we want?  

I was just reading in 2 Peter today:

"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen."

(emphasis mine)

Yes, there is freedom....but my concern is, how should we live?  I think it's too easy to take that freedom and run with it. And then take parts of the Bible and say they don't apply to today, and it was a "cultural" thing.  Just like the Scripture says: "His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction."  I believe this is happening today, and I want to be careful to not be one of the people who distorts Scripture to fit the way I want to live.

Anyways--these are my own convictions....take them or leave them, I just wanted to share. :)

Making use of Google Maps

Isaac asked about the house we lived in before this (the duplex we rented for 6 months), and where that was. He thought it was closer to Bob's Red Mill than the house we live in now. It's not, it's about equal--or a little further, maybe. So I mapped it!  We keep a Google Map going with all of the destinations we study.  We've got the Great Lakes marked on there from when we read Paddle to the Sea. We've got Milk Street in Boston labeled (that's where Benjamin Franklin was born). We add to it as we study new places, and it's pretty fun for the kids to see it!  

So tonight, I mapped out our house, and then the duplex we lived in for 6 months, and then Bob's Red Mill, and showed Isaac.  And I showed him where Grandma & Grandpa live, and where their cousins live.  We have family in Sisters, OR, and Isaac said "woah, that would take a long time to get there, I bet by the time we would get there it would be LUNCH TIME! Wow, that would be funny!" :) :)  He's a cutie! :) 

Anyways, check it out! Go play with Google Maps with your kids! It's FUN! :)

Makeup

I just got an e-mail from Nordstrom. Clinique is having another one of their free gifts with a $25 purchase. That's how I used to get makeup. Every 6 months or so I would buy my $18 foundation and 1 other item, and get the free gift. This particular free gift includes mascara, lipstick, eye shadow, eye cream, facial soap, and brushes.  So let's say I bought a $10 blush with my $18 foundation...And spent $28...Twice a year...And got all of my makeup for the year.  That's what I did.  Not bad, really. Considering, before that, I'd buy a lipstick at the grocery store for $6, would hate it, and throw it away, wasting $6....I'd buy 3 or 4 creamy foundations at $10 or more a piece, until I found one that actually worked. It was annoying. So I stuck with the Clinique plan.

This gift was temping. It includes everything I "need," and I'm in "need" of some foundation right now.  

There's a site I use to check out the safety of cosmetics, and I went there. I highly recommend using this site: Skin Deep.

Nope, I won't be getting the Clinique products, based on the Skin Deep ratings....

I know some people think makeup isn't a big deal if it has chemicals in it, because we don't eat it. I think that it is a big deal, because our skin on our face soaks things in so quickly (much quicker than other areas of skin).  Our skin is our largest organ....so how are we going to treat it? :)

Dried Fruit

Re: Sickness, I'm still not myself as of this moment, but no cough or sore throat, and that's a good thing! I am sick of being sick ad I'm going to pretend I'm not today. ;)

I've been looking at grocery prices lately, and I wanted to share something I learned.

I bought some Bare Fruit organic dried apples at Whole Foods the other day. They were on sale for $1.50, for a 4.4 oz package, and I thought that sounded cheap...

Here is the run down:

I can't do this scientifically because I don't know how many cups are in a pound of dried apples. Anyone? So I'm dealing with cups vs. pounds & ounces...But my guess is that the 4.4 oz package contained about 1.5 cups.

So 1.5 cups, $1.50

The cheapest apples I can find right now (organic) are through Azure Standard, for .99 per lb. (Elsewhere, organic apples are $1.99/lb!).  I wouldn't want to use conventional apples for drying. The chemicals on a fresh apple are bad enough, but who knows what kinds of chemical changes go on in the drying process??

Drying apples myself would take using a dehydrator (which I had, but couldn't stand the sound of it, so I sold it on Craigslist), or an oven, or a hot car or other hot contraption (I've heard of people making them out of old window panes).  I would have to buy 5 lbs of apples to get 2 cups of fruit.  Yes.  So $4.95 for 2 cups of fruit.

So 1.5 cups of homemade dried apples = $3.71

after all of the slicing, and the energy used in the oven or dehydrator, they cost $3.71...

Compared to $1.50 store bought....I'd say it's not worth it to make my own...

Unless I picked the apples, I thought.  I'm pretty sure I've picked them for .50 per lb before....So $2.50 would yield 2 cups.  $1.88 for 1.5 cups.

$1.88, after picking, washing, slicing, and using the energy of the deyhdrator or oven, and then packaging myself.....

v.s. $1.50 store bought.

Hmmmm......Any questions? :)

Compare this to FRESH fruit, however.

The Bare Fruit package = $5.45 per lb

The fresh apples through Azure = .99 per lb

The fresh picked apples = .50/lb

Even the $1.99/lb apples are cheaper per pound...

My conclusion?  I think dried fruit is great for an emergency food...I was going to say, or for a trip--but you can bring fresh apples pretty much anywhere...I think eating a fresh apple is healthier, because of all of the intact fiber. Eating dried fruit, one would  probably would eat more than a full apple and still wouldn't be full (and think of all of that sugar). Fresh fruit is best. Dried fruit when you have to, but it's 5x the cost of fresh fruit or more! : )

homeschooling from the couch

This is the most annoying kind of illness, whatever it is!  I am perfectly coherant and alert right now (fell asleep before 8 last night, I think, and slept until just before 6 this morning), but my body is totally achey!!  So I am alert enough to think about what I want to do--but it hurts to do much at all!

The boys are upstairs getting their workbooks for homeschool...We just read about India, and Hinduism, and prayed for people in India.  Did you know that they used to (and maybe still do?) sacrifice children, and that they would burn a widow alive with her dead husband?  Yes--f.r.e.a.k.y.!

So, I'm homeschooling from the couch. Still 99 degrees, which would be like 101 in a normal 98.6 person...I don't know if this is swine flu or something else just totally annoying (no cough, etc....just aches all over--legs, arms, shoulders, neck, back, head, feet, and a higher temp than usual...)...

Crazy! Ok, time to supervise math!!

swine flu?

I feel terrible if this is swine flu...We went to homeschool co-op today!!  But I didn't have any reason to think we shouldn't go today...

Everyone's been healthy. 

We haven't been around anyone w/swine flu or any kind of flu (to our knowledge...we have gone to the grocery store, and I went on a retreat this last weekend).

Last night my legs & feet felt stiff. No big deal. That used to happen all the time when I ate gluten, so it was familiar. 

This morning my legs were still hurting. I told Karry, maybe it was the vinegar in my coleslaw dressing (sometimes people w/gluten allergies can't have vinegar), and maybe I'd try going off of vinegar completely to see...

I felt a little cold this morning. I thought the backdoor or the garage door must surely be open. It felt like there was a breeze going on in here....

All day at co-op, I still felt stiff (but not worse). And I kept feeling cold. Someone else mentioned it was cold there--no big deal.

Late this afternoon, my legs started hurting way worse--like painful to walk worse.  I started feeling colder.  My face got flushed.  My head & neck started hurting. My right eye (the droopy/blinky one) felt especially droopy and heavy....I checked my temp and it was 98.6--no big deal--except that my normal temp is like 96.3!  Tonight my temp is 99....I just generally don't feel good....The fireplace is on, I have wool socks on, and 2 blankets on me, and I'm cold...

Just in case, I've taken a few zillion things:

Children's Multi-Vitamins (since I don't have any adult ones)...

2 of them. That's 400 IU's of Vitamin D and 120 mg of Vitamin C, plus other stuff (it's a whole food vitamin)

4x Buffered Vitamin C

That's 2000 mg

Norwegian Cod Liver Oil

2000 mg. That's 400 IU's of Vitamin D

Zinc

50 Mg

Boiron Belladonna, 30 c.

for fever & flushed face, etc.

1 capful (so far) of Oscillococcinum

1 family praying over me, Kaleb twice.

My friend Angie's family just had Swine Flu & handled it naturally. She wrote about it on her blog.

I'm going to go lay down...

yummy pumpkin milkshake

I roasted a whole pumpkin yesterday and I'm looking for things to do with it. Karry made these milkshakes tonight:

4 c. vanilla ice cream (about 8 scoops)

2 c. pumpkin puree

6 tsp pure maple syrup

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 c. milk (if the above mixture is too thick for your liking)

Blend in blender. This was just barely enough for our family of 6 (using 1/2 pint jars as cups).  

Mmmmm....

Awesome Sermon

I wrote down just about every resource that people mentioned this weekend! My friends Joy and Kristi both mentioned this one, and I watched it this morning. It is awesome! It's an hour--but you can have it playing while you do something else (you don't have to keep your eyes on it, just listen). :)

Whew!

I just sat down for the first time in HOURS! ;)  This morning I noticed all of the produce (left from our last csa week) that I needed to do something with. Sadly, some of it had rotted in our fridge. :( Bye, bye green beans (again...we never use all of the green beans!). Bye, bye kholrabi...But! There was still much left to do!  

So--I stood on my feet all day....And I'm not even done.....!

Homeschool was different today. We didn't go into our school room upstairs, instead, the boys got their penmanship and math books and brought them downstairs. They worked while I worked, and I helped them when they needed help. Then they colored pictures while they listened to the whole story of Beauty & the Beast and some Aesop's Fables (from Libravox, free!).  I played classical music during the other moments (during math & penmanship).

What did I do when I was on my feet today???

1. Made sour cream (started it--It'll be ready tonight).

2. Made yogurt (it'll be ready tonight, too)...I had too much for my yogurt maker, so I put some warm mixture in a bowl inside my dutch oven with the lid on....we'll see....I know someone who makes yogurt by just leaving it out on the counter all day. Hmm...We'll see!

3. Cut up, roasted and pureed a BIG pumpkin. That took a long time.

4. Roasted and then cut up & pureed some small squash.

5. Roasted and pulled apart a spaghetti squash for tomorrow night's dinner.

6. Blanched and froze 5 ears of corn.

7. Made grilled cheese sandwiches out of the leftover gluten free cast iron pot bread I made yesterday...Sliced up apples to go with the sandwiches....

8. Made a cabbage salad. 

9. Made some homemade hamburger patties & put them in the fridge, ready to pan fry tonight.

10. Washed a whole ton of dishes.

11. Made pumpkin bars.

12. Put pumpkin puree in 8 pint sized jars.....and I still have a huge bowl of it left....

This afternoon, the boys were in charge of building the longest train track they could, as a team (no separate tracks made by each kid). That went pretty well!

Tomorrow's dinner will include:

Pumpkin soup, and something made with spaghetti squash...

The next night's will include:

Something that uses 6 tomatillos and some peppers....

I need to make some desserts with:

More pumpkin puree, and a bunch of ground cherries....

I still need to chop up and freeze:

A bunch of onions, and a bunch of garlic....(I like to freeze these in ice cube trays and then I have nice amounts of garlic or onion ready for recipes).

Tonight's dinner:

Low Carb/GF (no bun) Cheeseburgers....or maybe Mushroom Burgers since we have some mushrooms! 

Oven Fries

Cabbage Salad

Dessert @ our Cub Scout Meeting (here):

Gluten free pumpkin bars made w/honey & agave nectar (no sugar!) and coconut oil (no bad oils!), and no milk or butter (we have a dairy free kid in the group). They're YUMMY! 

I tried Michelle Duggar's technique today: whispering when I was frustrated with the kids....The kids really did take me more seriously then. Interesting!!

The Retreat

This is a (cell phone) picture of my friends & I with Nancy Campbell, the speaker from the retreat. On the left top row, my friend Joy, and then Kristi on the right, and my friend Yanah on the left bottom (who I just got to know this weekend--she goes to our church, but I didn't know she would be there :), and Nancy Campbell in the middle, and then me. My friend Angie got sick and couldn't come. :(

Nancy Campbell is a SWEET, SWEET lady!  She has "smiley eyes" and she'll be proclaiming truth--even raising her voice, and then she'll stop and smile.  It was really a delight to learn from her this weekend.  

The retreat was small, and Nancy stayed at the same retreat center and ate all of the meals with us. Twice, I was able to sit at the same table as her and be a part of conversation with her. I've never been to a conference where a speaker was so involved with the people. That was cool!

I felt incredibly encouraged as a mother and a wife, leaving that place.  One of the awesome things I took away:

I am a dangerous woman. :)

She talked about how Satan doesn't like mothers staying in their home with their children & teaching them about God. Satan doesn't like Christians raising up arrows for God.  That is what I am doing! I am dangerous to Satan! :) If you're doing the same thing, YOU are dangerous to Satan! :) 

I enjoyed how Nancy quoted SO much Scripture. And, she taught the Greek & Hebrew words, which I LOVE, and then showed us where those words were used in other places & what they meant. I was soaking it up! I took a bunch of notes!  

As with every speaker out there in the world, I take some, I leave some--and it was the same here. But mostly it was all good...which is good. ;) There's a retreat in March in Washington, and then they'll do this one again next year, probably on the same weekend.  I encourage people to go, I think it was a great, encouraging weekend!

I'm done

writing about the Emergent church, that is. I mentioned it hasn't been sitting well with me.  Here's my thought:

Satan is doing a good enough job on his own causing dissension among brothers and sisters right now.  Many, if not all of churches are struggling in some way right now.  I don't want to be a part of any kind of divisions.  I have brothers and sisters who are apart of Emergent churches, and more than anything I want to focus on what unifies us.

Do I think it's wrong to call it out when the church--the body--isn't following Scripture? No. There is a time and a season for rebuke, and I believe God calls us to it.

For such a time as this, however, I am convicted that I need to be focusing on truth in a positive light rather than a "this is how I see people doing things wrong....."

I'm encouraged by this conviction & excited to see what God would have me write instead. :)

go hug your children!

I woke up in the middle of the night from a terrible dream. A horrible dream! I dreamed that one of my sweet babies got hurt and died. I woke up feeling like I was going to throw up, shaking, and I had to go check to make sure it wasn’t really true, and then I had a hard time falling asleep after that (I almost blogged this then--but I knew sleep would be best for me at that moment!).

My dream made me think about a show we watched the other day. I told Karry that I wanted to watch 60 Minutes (I grew up watching that show, and we never watch it). I like investigative journalism type shows. I, however, cannot stand Unsolved Mysteries, or any CSI type shows. We’ve watched 2 CSI shows and I remember them vividly--I really don’t like those kinds of things in my brain. Ick!  Well, this particular 60 Minutes show was too much like an Unsolved Mysteries type of show, and I wish I hadn’t watched it.  It was about, first, a crazy father who shot all of his children, and second, the well-known Andrea Yates, who drowned all of her children in the bathtub. Freaky!!! Really!!! HOW? WHY? Ugh! It makes me want to throw up just thinking about it all!!!  

In this interview, her husband talked about her having mental illness, and that he didn’t blame her at all (though oddly, he’s divorced her and remarried...even though he forgives her).  I have a hard time, with something so horrible, excusing someone because of mental illness.  But then when I think about it, that could be the only reason--no NORMAL person would do that.

It was strange to watch the show. She was a homeschooling mom. Her home videos revealed that her life was much like mine. Lots of little kids (she had 5--I think spaced pretty close together), and she spent a lot of time with them...she did skits with them (and even made costumes) to learn about ancient history.  She seemed “normal.”  

I remember times when my boys were littler when I felt so incredibly overwhelmed and wiped out. I never wanted to hurt them, ever--that never even crossed my mind.  I remember feeling like it was never going to end--I was never going to stop being needed.  It has gotten easier as they’ve become more independent.  I remember crashing at night, exhausted from long days with 3 demanding little ones (they were 3, 2 and 1!).  I remember feeling like I didn’t have any friends--and didn’t have any time for friendships (how could I ever even talk to anyone with 3 busy boys at my feet--or climbing on something??).  I remember even thinking I had postpartum depression, after I had Kaleb. I didn’t want to be a stay-at-home mom anymore. (I didn’t have a right view of children at that time)  I was so tired....Karry asked if I wanted to get a job....I didn’t.  Inside I knew I was doing what was best--being home with them. But it was *hard*....I went to a counselor at our church, and she said it wasn’t postpartum depression, just stress, and she helped me come up with some coping methods and I was on my way...I can understand incredible stress in parenting--exhaustion--fatigue--being overwhelmed---but not hurting, or killing your own sweet babies....That is sick.

Besides the 60 Minutes show, I’d also recently came across the Andrea Yates story online, when I was doing a little research....

I was wondering if Wikipedia had a religious or political bent (or if it was neutral), so I started looking up various Christian leaders.  Look up Brian McLaren, Donald Miller, Rob Bell, and you’ll see a lot of info. On the conservative side of things, look up RC Sproul Jr., Doug Phillips, Voddie Baucham, Michael & Debbi Pearl, Reb Bradley, James & Stacy McDonald and you find little or nothing (the only one with a page at all is RC Sproul Jr.).  I can find a tiny page about Vision Forum ministries.  And Doug Phillips, founder of Vision Forum, is mentioned on an interesting Wikipedia page about the Quiverfull Movement.

What is the Quiverfull Movement?  A belief that children are blessings from God (unlike what most of America believes). A belief that God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply” (it was written like a command--not a suggestion) still holds today, and that we really should be filling the earth with little blessings. Therefore, most in the Quiverfull Movement do not use any kind of birth control, they leave it up to God.  My thoughts? I’ll share them in a minute. :)

Why did Andrea Yates come up in this article?  Because it is claimed that she was a “victim” of this movement.  That her postpartum depression wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t had so many children.  I have a huge problem with Andrea Yates being tied in to the Quiverfull movement, and such a huge section of the Wikipedia article about the movement being about her.

Here are my thoughts. Honestly, if I *could* have had more babies, I would have.  I think children ARE incredible blessings and I think most Americans are missing out by spending time and money to avoid being blessed.  I stopped taking birth control on my honeymoon (I know, funny) because it made me have terrible stomach aches and Karry and I didn’t want to prevent pregnancy anyways.  It would take us more than a year and a half to conceive & keep a pregnancy after that.  I believe God is perfectly capable of opening and closing the womb. I have seen it time and time again (with us--stopping birth control--and still not being able to have a baby, and with various people in my life who get pregnant post-vasectomy or while on birth control).  I believe that birth control is terrible for a woman’s body--every form of it.  I also believe that birth control can cause abortions (look up what Randy Alcorn has to say about this).  

So in all of these senses, I believe, yes, I’m Quiverfull.....But my tubes are tied.  Why?  I couldn’t safely carry babies in my womb.  I had Isaac 6 months early and had an emergency c-section where they cut my uterus in a “t”....Thus, every time I had contractions with Kaleb (multiple times a week, starting at 20 weeks), I was at risk of rupturing (killing Kaleb and possibly me).  A pregnancy for me means 2 surgeries--a cerclage and a c-section. As well as 4 months on bed rest (thus requiring others to help take care of my children, make meals & clean house) and lots of trips to the hospital to be injected with drugs (or to take a pill) to stop labor....It just wasn’t safe. Both of my home-grown babies were miracles to say the least! We prayerfully decided that if we were to be blessed with more children, God would provide them through adoption. And He has. And maybe He will again, in His good timing!

It appears that Andrea Yates couldn’t safely have babies either, but in a different way. Her doctor advised her not to--because pregnancy kicked her into mental illness.  In that case--I believe, the Yates family should have seen that as God telling them to stop.  Yes, God opens and closes the womb. But He also provides us with really big signs sometimes, to tell us to stop....

That said--I will never be one of the people who leave a negative comment on an article or blog about the Duggar Family and their 19 children (there are sooo many people against them!). I think they’re a wonderful family, probably the *richest* in America, and not because of material wealth. I have learned a lot from that family--their attitudes--their frugality--their faith. They are a blessing to watch and read about.  

Nancy Campbell is mentioned on the Wikipedia page as one of the first people to write about the Quiverfull Movement (Mary Pride being the first to publish a book about it). I’m going to an Above Rubies retreat this weekend where Nancy Campbell is speaking. I’m excited about this retreat. Maybe I’ll have more on the topic of Quiverfull to share after this weekend. ;)

Go hug your children, they are *blessings*!!