If you’ve been around my blog any time at all, you know that the 30 Day Wife and 30 Day Husband Encouragement Challenges have been important to me this year.
I see marriages in crisis all around me, and this is my effort to help strengthen those marriages that haven’t gotten to the “Where do we go from here” stage, but need a little something to revive the romance, the respect, and the love in a marriage.
What if … you tried just one day of the 30 Day Challenge - and then another - and then another?
Just try one, pick one, any one, and see how it goes. You don’t have to commit to the entire 30 days or even do them in 30 consecutive days. Pick on you like and work on it.
You’ll be glad you did.
Yours for the celebration of marriage,
Claudia
Typical Alaskan Day Driving across the base the other day we came across this moose munching on the trees. We drove around for a closer look. He was maybe 6 feet from our van and decided to run. Right about then I began to wonder.....would a moose charge at a van as large as ours?? No matter how often you see them; you still leave amazed at how large they really are, especially if it is a male with a large rack!!
I just finished reading an interesting entry over at Home Education Magazine that I’m still trying to process. It touches on a lot of things I have been thinking on recently, and contains some themes I shall likely come back to.
With the 2008 elections, there has been a rearranging of the political landscape in this country, and a shift of power is in the offing, as suggested in the article by Kathleen Parker. The challenge for us as homeschooling families and advocates has always been how to keep homeschooling from being aligned with a specific ideology, and understanding why that is important, and what effect it will have on our ability to continue to protect, defend, and expand our homeschooling freedoms, and those of our children and grandchildren.
And I agree with that to an extent. But there is a serious problem with this view as well: Education is inherently political. So-called fundamentalists may be seeking to “raise up a generation,” “take back America,” or “reclaim the culture,” and view homeschooling as part of the salvation of America. But the modern homeschool movement also finds its beginnings with equally zealous adherents to a particular worldview with goals of social transformation and it wasn’t Christian. And the public schools? I may disagree with the goals of Paulo Freire, but he, too, recognized the political significance of education.
Since education is by nature social, historical and political, there is no way we can talk about some universal, unchanging role for the teacher…It is my basic conviction that a teacher must be fully cognizant of the political nature of his/her practice and assume responsibility for this rather than denying it. Quoted in Advocacy Research in Education, p. 30-31
In fact, many of those for whom HEM expresses the most concern are responding directly to the politics of education present in the public schools when they choose to homeschool, going so far as to call on fellow Christians to “Rescue [our] children from Caesar.”
And while I empathize with her concern for Esquire’s view of homeschooling, I think she gives far too much power to HSLDA, and ignores Esquire’s obviously biased and rather emotionally charged language which is rarely the result of serious contemplation.
Salted throughout the vast bureaucracy are dozens of little homeschooled land mines, the products of a dozen cheapjack diploma mills selling patent-medicine history to the spiritually gullible.Esquire (emphasis mine)
The fact is, many on the left and right cannot fathom that any intelligent person could, on their own, come to any conclusion about what is best for the world and for America that disagrees with their own view. The right blames our failures on the public school system and the media, claiming continually that America has been led astray through indoctrination. The left views us the same way, but it is our supposed patriarchic family structure, our churches and our homeschooling that they focus on, hence the focus on liberating our children through public education. Very few truly respect differing opinions, honest debate, and varying worldviews. If you don’t agree with me, it is because you have been indoctrinated by x,y,z.
The picture of homeschooled minions is just one addition to the rather tired meme begun by Thomas Frank in his “What’s the Matter with Kansas.” Too many people out there just disagree with the noble and obviously superior liberal ideology, so something must be wrong with us. Must be the homeschoolers.
And unfortunately, I think Helen may be a little guilty of this as well. However, she doesn’t blame homeschoolers, but HSLDA.
Homeschooling families were turned into pawns in a political chess game; how often did we hear chest-thumping claims from HSLDA about how many homeschoolers they could call into action?
But are these families really “pawns in a political chess game?” The vast majority of Christian homeschooling families I talk to who forward me the HSLDA e-lerts and repost them to their blogs are far from pawns in the political process. They are intelligent, passionate and engaged. They know what they believe and why they believe it. They have strong convictions, and by and large those convictions line up with HSLDA’s overall agenda.
I do not think the discussion is adequately furthered by viewing the thousands of families thus organized as “indoctrinated” or as “pawns” in a “game.”
As much as I respect HEM and Helen, and as often as I have disagreed with HSLDA, I am always suspicious of anyone’s claim that their rights are somehow endangered by the free expression of the rights of others. The solution is not to be found in silencing those homeschoolers with whom we disagree, in distancing ourselves and “the homeschool movement” from particular factions within it, nor in positioning every point of disagreement as somehow endangering our freedoms to homeschool.
Somewhere in the debate, we have to realize that how people view us has more to do with them than it does with us. We need to accept the fact that we are a poorly understood social phenomenon. That our numbers are now large enough that we are going to gain national attention regardless of what we say or how we say it. That people tend to deal with new and unfamiliar information by categorizing and hence stereotyping.
Or to be more direct, does this picture have more to say about blacks or the whites who furthered the stereotypes?
A Charity Flowing Life In the Bible, time and time again, we are admonished to give to others from the blessings God has loaned to us. If we earn money, if we grow food or are blessed with a harvest, if we have a way to teach a man to fish, these blessings came not from our own power, but were given to us by God. They are not ours to hold with greedy, closed hands, to give with a begrudging heart, or to protect for self-centered reasons, but they are God's gifts to us, to satisfy our needs and to then pass on to others, so they too can simply live.
The many commandments about giving to those in need makes it clear that God takes these commands very seriously. Proverbs 21:13 even goes as far to warn us that should we let a cry from the poor fall on deaf ears, so too will our cries!! If God takes acts of charity so very seriously, why don't we? If charity begins at home, why aren't we imparting a rich legacy of giving, compassion, and care to our children? Why do we complain about the government stepping in when we--as a group--have never done anything to prevent this? Why aren't we stepping up in great numbers to stop the increasing need for food programs and the like right now? When we complain about taxation of money that is not rightfully "ours" per God's economy are we doing so because we are truly grieved we can't give this money to a good cause or because we want to obtain more material possessions & luxuries to hoard here on earth? All of these questions are very important to consider, to earnestly and honestly search for the answers for, deep within our hearts.
The Jewish faith has provided us with a beautiful example of charity gone right, giving that is part of the flow of life, and not something special, reserved for one season of the year or for when we feel like giving. One of my favorite ideals when it comes to giving, and a tool that has taught me a lot on this subject is the Jewish idea of tzedakah, including the levels of charity, which are as follows:
The levels of charity, from the least meritorious to the most meritorious, are:
1. Giving begrudgingly 2. Giving less that you should, but giving it cheerfully. 3. Giving after being asked 4. Giving before being asked 5. Giving when you do not know the recipient's identity, but the recipient knows your identity 6. Giving when you know the recipient's identity, but the recipient doesn't know your identity 7. Giving when neither party knows the other's identity 8. Enabling the recipient to become self-reliant Taken from here.
As Sean and I have pondered thoughts on Jewish charity over several years, we have went over our life with a fine tooth comb, hoping & praying to weed out the selfish little attitudes that are hiding, here and there. So many times it would be much easier to look away from the hungry person in the park, rather than handing them the snack in my backpack. Saying no to the person asking if I could spare the bus fare for the bus we are both to be boarding right then, is sometimes so tempting--maybe I would rather buy a cookie with that $1.50 instead?! But then reality slaps me on the face again, and I remember with tears in my eyes and humility in my heart, how many times I myself was on the receiving end of generosity, truly by the grace of God, and the sinfulness of my thinking stings and shames me as it absolutely should.
Giving charity, in any form, is a very humbling experience, that is for sure, and also one that preserves the dignity of the one being given to. I can't help but wonder if that is why these acts are so important to God. For in giving bits of ourselves, we not only help those in need, but we help ourselves. We come to realize that "Wow! That was me just a few years ago!" or "This could happen to me." Our paths cross with those we may have never spoken with otherwise, when we volunteer at a soup kitchen or food bank. We wind up hand in hand with people who we might think to be "lesser" than us and suddenly have opportunity to realize that none of us are all that different, we really are the same. Maybe this is why giving charity is so difficult to so many of us? Maybe it's not the letting go of possessions that scares us, though greed might be nicer to admit to than such a deep down fear of confronting the ugly side of life. Perhaps it is being knocked off our pedestals, facing harsh facts of life, and suddenly seeing the less fortunate as what we all are: God's beloved children, worthy of basic human dignity, even if some of us are lost or wandering.
As we venture through the season of Toys-4-Tots drop boxes and Salvation Army ringers, let us learn to give freely, with joyful & humble hearts, and the knowledge that whatever we give--be it time, money, food, or material goods--our gifts are about far more than what seem, for us and the recipients. They are about being part of God's economic design for this world, which is a beautiful thing like no other.
I know it’s not Monday, and I had every intention of participating in this month’s Marriage Monday, but Thanksgiving threw me for a loop.
This excerpt is from Andrea at Embracing Him. She did an excellent job of summing up how marriage should be a shelter, a safe-haven, a sanctuary for both husband and wife.
A marital sanctuary is created when we let go of selfishness and anger and instead offer kindness and forgiveness. When marriage is a place of safety, couples can freely express their opinions and desires without judgment and rejection. When marriage is a save haven, both husband and wife can reveal their fears and flaws without ridicule and repercussion. When marriage is a true refuge, husbands and wives have no need to put up walls or be on guard. Each person is free to be themselves and is loved exactly as they are. A couple finds a shelter from life’s storms and their deepest needs are recognized, valued, and nurtured within the sanctuary of Christian marriage.
Take a few minutes to check out other contributors to this month’s Marriage Monday theme: The Sanctuary of Marriage at Embracing Him.
Yours for the celebration of marriage,
Claudia
Feeding the "Burts" I have not had much progress to share on the "no-spend" front as the need to hire an attorney, move everything we own across the country, and find a new place to live in has been much more "how to spend every little penny you worked so hard to save for several years" than "no spend." haha. Even still, I have thankfully not had to spend hardly a penny on anything else, thanks to the generosity I shared with y'all before and also due to a purchase of craft supplies and some other goodies for Peapod, from the Bank of Mom & Dad, ever so eager to spoil their first grandbaby. ;o)
One activity she and I have been enjoying is feeding the "burts" (as Peapod calls them) every afternoon, after naptime. We began this little venture with simple bird seed, but then came across a fun little activity in a favorite book, Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert, borrowed from the library. These birdfeeders area really simple to make and most of the items you likely already have. A huge bag of birdseed can be purchased for a dollar or two at the grocery store and can then be enjoyed for weeks to come, feeding our feathery friends on this chilly days. Brrr.
To make a simple toddler friendly birdfeeder, you will need:
several slices of bread (any kind will do) some yarn or string an eggwhite bird seed cookie cutters
1.Using the cookie cutter of your choice, make a cut out from the bread slices. Punch out a little hole for the string to be thread through when the project is complete.
2. Next, brush each bread cutout with enough eggwhite to cover the entire surface.
3. Sprinkle birdseed onto bread.
4. For the patient, you can set aside the bird feeder for several days until it has dried. But as this project needs to be toddler friendly and we all know patience isn't their virtue ;o), place your birdfeeder on a parchment lined baking sheet and baked for 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees, or until dried.
5. Add your string and head outside to find a good place to hang your birdfeeder and get ready to watch the "burts" enjoy their treat.
December 1, Venus, Jupiter and the crescent moon converged for a one time display of cosmic dissatisfaction as the evening sky appeared to be frowning down upon us. The light here is obscuring the frown a bit, but it was pretty clear while I was taking the picture.
Things looked a little different down under where the scene was inverted and Australia got an evening smiley face. Europe got a more Picasso-esque effect as the moon was shoved between the “eyes.”
So why do you think the heavens would be frowning down upon us here in the United States? Is News.com.au, an Australian news source, right when it says,
And perhaps it should tell Americans being frowned upon to have a long, hard look at themselves…?
Feel free to share your thoughts or your captions. Did you get to see the event? (And a bit more information for those more scientifically inclined.)
This morning we had “Blender Waffles” made with uncooked long grain brown rice. How neat is that? If you’re like me, you didn’t know you could do such a thing without grinding your brown rice into rice flour first. Don’t have a grain mill? Got a tough blender? Read on.
One of my homeschool mom friends gave me an early Christmas present: Sue Gregg’s Breakfasts…with Blender Batter Baking Allergy Alternatives cookbook. Now I’ve always known that baking bread with whole grains that you’ve milled into flour yourself was best for my family, but this cookbook explains why in detail. Ever wonder why your typical white flour at the store is “enriched”? Because white flour doesn’t have all the life-sustaining nutrients that whole wheat flour has. So they’ve enriched it with iron and three synthetic B-vitamins, but that doesn’t nearly replace the more than 30 nutrients nor the fiber that’s been lost. The calcium content of whole grains, for instance, is four times that of white flour.
This cookbook doesn’t stop at explaining the various kinds of grains and which ones are more easily digested by allergy sufferers…Spelt, Kamut, Hard Red Winter and Spring Wheats, Hard White Wheat, Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, Corn, Oats, Brown Rice, Barley, Rye, Millet, Triticale, Buckwheat, Sorghum, Quinoa, Amaranth, Teff, and Wild Rice…it also goes into how to make homemade yogurt, your own cereals, blender batters, how to store your grains, where to find these grains, shopping lists, plus nutritional info on fruits, eggs, milks, nuts, etc. And a ton of nutritious tasty-sounding breakfast recipes.
This is a cooking textbook! A must have for any serious homemaker.
I devoured this book in two late night reading sessions–it’s that eye-opening! But the light really went on when I came to the section on “Whole Grain Blender Magic!”. Wow. You don’t need a grain mill if you have a good quality blender! To test your blender, throw some ice cubes in it and see if it will crush them. I didn’t think my blender was that great–after all, it’s 15 years old and smells hot every time I use it, but my good ole Osterizer came through for me for these waffles! Worked great.
Sue Gregg not only gives specific blender recipes, she tells you how to adapt the process to your favorite recipes. Now you can’t make yeast breads, cookie doughs or biscuits in your blender, because blender recipes rely on more liquids than you need for those things. But for waffles, pancakes, muffins, coffee cakes, crepes, and corn breads, you’ve got it made!
Now I’m assuming you agree with me that using whole grains is 100% better nutritionally. But get this. The author explains how soaking your grains (which is what you do when you use the blender recipes) for 7 hours or overnight allows the enzymes to break up the phytates in the fibers, allowing your body to get the maximum absorption of all the goodies in your whole grain foods. And talk about convenient. It took me less than five minutes last night to throw some buttermilk, vanilla, olive oil and long grain brown rice in the blender. After blending those for three minutes on high, I followed Sue’s directions on letting it sit in the belnder all night at room temperature. Then this morning we simply added the remaining ingredients, and poured the batter onto my steaming waffle iron…and the waffles were out-of-this-world!!! We all loved them.
P.S. Brown Rice is gluten-free, so these pancakes/waffles are gluten-free! At the above link, Sue gives the recipe, but she recommends different combinations of grains. To use her recipe with brown rice only, substitute 1 cup raw brown rice…
SANCTIFY YOUR MARRIAGE WITH PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING.
None of us are exempt from trials. We all face hard times in our marriages. What do you do? Grumble and groan? Complain and criticize? Talk negatively and nastily. Oh it is so easy to do this, because this is how we feel. But here’s the secret. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Thank Him. Trust Him. All your groaning and blaming one another will not solve the problem. God is your Deliverer! You can trust Him. Learn to hang on to God and look to Him as your source. Don’t trust in your husband’s ability alone, but in the Lord.
Make it your habit to pray and praise the Lord together daily. If you pray daily together, you’ll keep free from “the little foxes that spoil the vines” that eat away at your marriage. Make your home a house of prayer and thanksgiving. Matthew 18:19 is a wonderful promise for married couples. “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” Notice these words – “If two of you…” The two of you together can claim great power and miracles in your relationship and in your home as you faithfully pray together.
And never forget the exhortation in Ephesians 4:26, “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” If you have an argument or get upset with one another, don’t act like a baby and put on the silent treatment. Sort it out. Say “I’m sorry.” Forgive one another. Never go to sleep until you have restored the relationship. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.
~Nancy Campbell~
Weekend Kindness Contributors
