"What Have You Done Today?"

There is a little poem that I read to my children, entitled, "What Have You Done Today?"
In this poem, the writer lists all of the good intentions that people have, like "giving" and "healing broken hearts", "comforting those in need" and "Sharing truth", but after each asks the question, "...but what have you done today?" 

Someday.  That has often been my mantra.  Someday I hope to (or plan to) do this or that, or even that other thing...someday.


A friend of mine and I have been talking for years about taking action FOR LIFE, yet with our busy lives and the daunting task of changing the world before us, we were both stricken paralyzed.  But with recent events and God's moving in our spirits, we both agreed that enough is enough.  Enough thinking, enough planning, enough wishing that things would just somehow change.  

We thought long and hard about what exactly we could do.  What could two concerned moms do to really, truly influence this country, to change the course, to put an end to abortion in America?  It has been so easy to just sigh and say "it's impossible"... but we realized that we don't have to change the world, or our country, or even our communities.  Government is too big to change, the laws are too established, BUT we CAN influence the hearts and minds of people.

What people?  That was the question.  We are certainly not going to change the hearts and minds of ardent pro-choicers, only God can accomplish that...but those who have not fully formed their own thoughts and positions on the subject could certainly be influenced.  The question "HOW" remained.  

How are we going to change the hearts of America's youth when all around them they hear, and so readily believe, the lies that babies within the womb are merely "tissue", and that they have no rights of their own.  While thousands of innocent lives are lost daily simply because they are considered an inconvenience instead of a wonderful, miraculous blessing.   Well, naturally the FACTS that convinced the two of us that the lies are just lies are the most reasonable tools to start with.  

Last year I watched the movie "October Baby" for my birthday.  I cried through the majority of the movie, and felt that it was so powerful that I said to my husband, "somehow, every teenager in America needs to see this movie."  But of course the thought was fleeting, because how on earth could I make that happen, especially when the public school system seems hell bent on pushing only messages of choice, and anything that could be viewed as "Christian" in nature is strictly forbidden.

During that conversation with my friend, that idea came back to me.  We couldn't force the school to show the movie to its students, but we could certainly offer it.  We may not be able to offer it to every student in America, but we could  offer it to students in our area.  So began the brainstorm session that finally led to action!  

As much as I love church, I realized that many kids refuse to step foot in a church, these kids would be the most vital to reach!  So, showing the movie at a church was out...
The school?  Well, I'm guessing that 98% of students would rather subject themselves to the plague than to extra hours at the school, even for a free movie!  
But a MOVIE THEATER...with concessions...and FREE.  Now that was an idea!  What kind of teen would turn down a free movie and popcorn?  Exactly!

It took such a small amount of leg-work and phone calls to recognize that the goal was an attainable one.  To reserve the theater for a special showing would cost $4.50 per person, and that included concessions!  With 150 seats in the theater, that brought the price for a showing up to $675, that is if we filled the theater, which of course is what we hoped to do!  So, again the question remained, How can we raise $675?  

My friend had experience fundraising for a college pro-life organization and brought to the table many great ideas, the best:  a Mothers Day rose sale. The only problem with it was that others Day was just a few weeks away! A little bit of research revealed that we could buy bulk roses at a cost of $.76 per stem, a great price!  And cards could be designed and made to order on Vistaprint at a cost of $.08/card.  So, we began beseeching our facebook friends to help out and donate some money, we sent out an email to some home school groups in our area who we were certain would see the cause as a good one...

And a few donations rolled in.  By a few, I mean ONE.  :P  Crunch time came quickly and I had to act if I was going to purchase roses and go forward with the sale.  Now let me explain that I am not fond of asking for a handout, and that a fundraiser seemed the best way to go about raising the money we'd need.  With this rose sale, if successful, we could sell the roses with cards for $3 each and potentially profit over $1,000!  That would be enough for TWO showings, enough for 300 teens to watch a movie that could change their lives and potentially save the lives of babies!  I've heard the statistic that 1 out of 4 pregnancies ends in abortion.  If that statistic is legitimate, that would mean that a number of teen girls watching that movie could feasibly consider an abortion at some point...this movie could literally convince them to choose LIFE.  Now how powerful is that?  The fact that we didn't have help to buy the roses couldn't stop what God wanted to do.  Although we are pretty strapped for cash at this point in our lives, I took the last of my savings and bought the flowers and cards.  I had the chance to put my money where my mouth is.  

A few days later, a heard from a friend who wanted to donate.  $300.  I was dumbfounded.  I actually cried.  With that donation, the other donation, and what my mom said she'd donate, the flowers could be paid for!  I could wipe the sweat off my brown and breath a sigh of relief...

But..that money could also INSURE that 80 kids could see the movie.  Even if the roses didn't sell.

So choice number two came before me.  Pay myself back and rely on what we make from the sale, or put the donations straight into a savings for the movie.  The choice couldn't have been easier.  These people donated their own money because they thought that it was important to spread the message of LIFE via this movie, and by golly, that's what their money will do!  If the roses don't sell then that's that...money is just money.   God will provide!

Today I recieved another check in the mail for $50, from a friend way up north!  and another friend has asked to purchase a half dozen roses.  My heart is literally about to explode!  with gratefulness, with anticipation, with hope!  There is nothing more exciting than anticipating what God will do.
My friend and I would love more than anything for two things to happen:

1) That the students who attend the movie would be changed.  That the Gospel message in the movie would speak to their hearts, and that the message of life would impassion them to share it with their circles of friends now and throughout their lives.  We want to ignite a flame, a passion for life, that will spread!  My generation may not stand a chance of changing laws, but we can help change the minds of the generation that could.

2) That some folks out there in other counties, other states, would hear about this idea and realize that they too could run with it!  That somehow, throughout the country, more and more youth would see this movie that has such power to open eyes and change hearts.  

My friend and I would love to go forward with further plans for the future, to stay involved in practical ways to support and encourage the kids in our area in anyway that we can.  To spread the message of LIFE, to ignite fires and fan the flames.  I even thought of a name for the two of us:

Moms for LIFE!

A Simple Question

Watching "Waiting for Superman" and it makes me think...

Why would anyone who sees that a house is falling apart let their kids live there with the hope that it will someday get fixed? 

On Diet

Diet.  

As a noun, this is a subject of utmost importance, and one which is way too often overlooked.  As a verb, I consider it a dirty word, one which is far too often overused.  

While diet is important, dieting is a ridiculous idea that does more harm than good—even more ridiculous than New Year’s resolutions, if you ask me.  Why would I say that?  Because I believe in making good choices ALL the time, I don’t believe in waiting until you’re overweight to lose weight, just as I don’t believe in waiting ‘til New Years to make positive changes to one’s life.  The moment you realize that something should change, you should begin to accommodate the necessary changes in your life--no, I don’t think anyone can change overnight and that’s exactly why diets do not work.

Let me explain my theory about the body and weight gain.  I view my body like a balloon—one of those really itty bitty ones, you know, those little suckers that are ridiculously hard to inflate?   You can blow and blow until your ears ache and get little expansion.  You give yourself a little break then go back to it and notice that it inflated fairly easily to the level you’d already achieved, but beyond that takes some more doing.  Again, you take a break.  Noticing that the previously stretched balloon fills out more easily each time to the point already reached and a then stretches just a little more.  Once it’s been blown to its max, it’s no longer a problem to blow it up again and again, but by then it’s definitely lost its original shape and there’s little hope of it looking new again. 

Yep.  

I see evidence of this in people who regularly diet.  They gain and lose repeatedly, year after year, and they always seem to find that each time they gain their weight back they gain just a little bit more and always more quickly than expected.  It’s just like those darn balloons.  

That is why my practice from adolescence has been NEVER to expand that darn balloon.  I focus on diet not dieting.  The key is a healthy diet and exercise.  I believe that exercise is should happen naturally in the context of living…however, our culture is such that we hardly exert any energy to live any more.  Cars get us from A to B regardless of proximity.  We don’t need to work for our food, or draw water from a well, heck, even cooking is easy compared to the days when bread was kneaded by hand daily, pasta rolled by hand, and grains milled without the use of handy dandy electric mills like I have.  Very few of us split wood during the cold winter days to heat our houses or even shovel snow for a decent path during the winter months.  Convenience has made us lazy.  And now to get exercise we need to set aside time and buy expensive equipment like treadmills and ellipticals. 

Getting back to the point, the key to not inflating that balloon is balance.  Food and exercise. 

As a busy mom who loves good food, I will admit that I do not habitually hop on the treadmill and I do indulge epicurean fancies.  But what I do hop on daily is the scale.  I’m not obsessed or anything, but this is key.  My body, as everyone else’s, has a comfort weight.  It likes to be at a certain number and it likes being there a lot.  It takes some doing to get below that magic number and it takes some doing to get above it.  Sadly it’s easier to go up than down, especially when you like baked goods as much as I do…but nonetheless, the scale keep me on track.  My goal is always to be five pounds below my ‘comfort weight’ and NEVER, EVER more than two pounds above it—with, of course, the exception of pregnancy and a few months postpartum.  Essentially, I eat what I want and exercise when I can, but when I see that I’m encroaching upon that magic number, I practice a little more self-control—which means that if I have a treat I make sure that I get on the treadmill.  Or if I know that I will be too busy to find time for exercise, I do without the extra calories.  Balance.  

Now to address “what I want to eat”.  You may be shocked when I say that I eat whatever I want, but let me explain. What we put in our bodies is so incredibly important, and too many people understand too little about the food that they are eating.  Admittedly, I LOVE good food and I probably eat plenty more than I need to, but I don’t settle for junk.  For instance, I can easily refuse a typical cookie, made with processed white flour and far too much sugar, but don’t set a plate full of my homemade cookies in front of me and expect there to be survivors.  Anything I make is made with freshly ground organic whole wheat flour and I cut the sugar by at least half, in every recipe.  Sometimes I even sneak veggies like carrots, pumpkin, or zucchini and fruits like dried blueberries and dates into them!   Thus my cookies end up being nutrient rich, with the nutty flavor of fresh flour, and just sweet enough. 

That is my kind of food.  But for years my diet (and appetite) has been evolving.  As a kid I hated food.  I hated eating.  I distinctly remember seeing a commercial once, clearly for some weight loss product, and it posed the question, “Do you love to eat?” my immediate response as a seven year old was “Ew, no!”    Thank goodness.  Because the diet I grew up on consisted mostly of meat and highly processed grain products like cereal and white bread, and the vegetables that we did have consisted of canned green beans cooked with bacon and onion, corn, and potatoes!  I hated milk and wasn’t a huge fan of cheese or greasy, overly sweet or salty food, so in essence, being picky saved me!

In high school, I began taking control of my own diet simply by asking my mom to trade out my PBJs for salads.  Now, let me express the fact that I didn’t exactly enjoy salad, but I knew that it would be good for me, so I chose to eat them, and I learned that one’s taste buds can, in fact, be trained to enjoy foods that are good for you!

When I got married and began cooking for myself I did a lot of what my mom did, but I experimented quite a bit too and found that I really enjoyed cooking.  Trying to save money as most young newlyweds must do, I reluctantly purchased boxed foods like hamburger helper, assuming that the only reason anyone would eat the junk is because it is economical.  Woops.  Curious, I priced out what it would cost to make my own version of these familiar foods using real products (instead of the mystery powders from a box!) and, of course, learned quickly that it was much cheaper to make my own everything, not to mention healthier.  Puzzled as I was about how things like Kraft mac and cheese and hamburger helper sold if not because they’re cheap, I began making everything that I conceivably could.  Out went Hamburger Helper with cheering and shouts of joy, out went Rice-a-Roni, out went Bisquick, canned biscuits, and crescent shaped rolls.  Later, out went store bought bread and every other baked good, including croissant!  Out went store bought pasta.  Eventually, out went all store bought canned fruits and veggies with the exception of tomatoes (because my garden still doesn’t yield enough for canning  L) and in came the chest freezers to store frozen fruits and veggies.  Out went the store bought flour and in came the organic wheat berries, oats, and other grains.  Out went the store bought boxes of cereal in exchange for delicious, homemade granola, oatmeal, and farina.  Most recently, out has gone the yogurt and ricotta cheese, replaced with ridiculously simple-to-make homemade versions!   (Mozzarella is the next item to be crossed off my grocery list).  

Years ago, I became convinced that milk is a detriment to health and so I strictly limited our intake of dairy products, much to the dismay of our milk drinking families.  I’m sure everyone has heard all the points that I could make about hormones and antibiotics being fed to cows, and how potentially dangerous both can be, so I will simply mention the topic for now with the purpose of shining light on why it has been our goal to raise our own dairy goats.  I could explain the reasoning behind raising goats in lieu of cows, but that would require a lot of scientific talk about molecular structure, proteins, blah blah blah…so I won’t   ;)

As I have learned more and more about the way animals and plants are raised for food in this country, how they’re treated and processed, the more disgusted I have become, and again our goals evolved to include raising our own cows for beef and chickens for eggs and meat.  Have you ever seen the conditions that these animals are raised in?  or read about the diseases that they need to be inoculated against because of those horrible conditions?    ::shudder::   Have you ever heard that the produce grown by “industrial farmers” (i.e. what you buy at the grocery store) is 40% LESS rich in nutrients now than it was 50 years ago?  That means that we would have to eat 40% more veggies than our grandparents ate just to get the same amount of nutrients!     This begs the question: how has the overall health of our populace changed over the last 50 years?  My bet is on a very strong link to nutritional deficiencies and…well…everything.

So, over the years I have done a little gardening, some seasons more successfully than others, but I have long dreamed of setting up a heated green house in which to grow our favorite veggies throughout the year.  Yes, I suppose we could just buy local organic and stock up for the winter, however, self-sufficiency is something that we always strive for!  And wouldn’t it be fun to “shop” in your own yard all year long?

You might be wondering why am I writing about all of this right now.  

and WELL…

I’m writing this because all of those goals are in the process of becoming reality for us this year, at long last, and I am beyond excited! 

Out front, at this very moment, is a small barn, which hubz built with wood he cut on our property (quaint, no?), housing two pygmy goats!  By the end of this month our field will be ranged by Rhode Island Reds and Plymouth Barred Rock layin’ hens, and a dozen Cornish Crosses that will be raised for meat!  We’re wavering back and forth, at present, as to whether we want to invest in yearling calves, bottle feeders, or a bred cow, and whether or not we’ll give in to our daughter’s pleas for a piggy that she wants to name Pork Chop. 

Soon, you will be reading posts about me, the Lazy Farmer   :)

 

Quantity Time

My last post has me thinking about time.  Now, I don't know what your priorities are and it's not my business, but frankly I am horrified by how little time  families actually spend together.  Especially when it's our job as parents to train and teach our children.   We are responsible for their lives, and for the people they will one day become, and whether we like it or not we will reap what we sow.  Do not be ignorant or deceived, something is always being sown, whether your kids are with you or somewhere else, whether by commission or omission on your part as the parent. 

Pretty much everyone who's anyone agrees that the very best way to teach our kids is during "teachable moments".  You can set your two year old down and talk to her about how important sharing is (and she'll forget everything you said the minute she walks away!), or you can be there for, and pay attention to, the times she has to play with other children, watch how she behaves, and address the behavior!  If she shares, praise her, when she rips the toy from another child's hand or screams because someone else has something she wants, then use that teachable moment to teach the character you want to see!  But you actually have to be there...
...

I don't know about you, but I do not like what I see in children today.  Bad attitudes and disrespect seem to be accepted as normal among older children, particularly towards parents.  Somewhere, kids seem to be getting this idea that their parents aren't to be believed or trusted, that they themselves are the ultimate authority and the parents merely providers of basic needs and, depending on how spoiled a kid is, every want and whim!   Young parents, is this the child that you see yourself raising?  Make no mistake, these seeds are being sown everywhere except in the home where you are in control of the seed!  "One bad apple, indeed, spoils the bunch", do not believe that your good apple can come out of a bunch of bad apples unscathed...

Today there is a clear drift from absolutes.  Right and wrong depends on whatever an individual feels in the moment.  This is so evident when young teens can justify killing fellow classmates.  Sexuality among children is...there really are no words...Sickening.  Horrifying.  Disgusting.  Shameful.  What was once uncommon and unacceptable is now not only acceptable and common, but encouraged in schools by peers and even by the schools in their sex ed. classes, and where birth control is offered freely to children without parental consent.  Fourth graders are doing things that I blushed to learn about as a teenager (and I wasn't exactly an angel). 

If your children are in a public school, they are right smack dab in the midst of this.  Even if your school is a "good one", most of the children who attend are not being taught at home the character you likely want to see in your kids, regardless of what your standards and philosophy are.  Just think about it.

Most kids spend 35 hours or more in school every week, depending on how many extra-curricular activities they are signed up for, they get home with at least an hour of homework to complete which tags on another five hours per week, if they're lucky; the average kid is involved in at least one extra activity which requires daily practice be it sports or music, so, we'll say, that is another five hours taken of their time each week...concluding that the average student commits at least 45 hours every week to school and activities.

Sure, that doesn't seem like a great deal of time when you know that there are 168 hours in a full week.  But any responsible parent is going to insist that their child get10 hours of sleep nightly, which eats up 70 of those hours.  Considering that, they're left with 98 hours for family time, each week.

Parents are also scheduled to the max more often than not, working at least 40 hours every week, cooking, cleaning, maintenance, projects, running kids around to various games and concerts...with very little time for individual hobbies or relaxation.  And I don't know any parent who doesn't need some of that. 

So let's take a look at any given day.  Everyone gets up and ready to go, say, by 7 o'clock, breakfast is made and eaten quickly enough to avoid missing the bus.  Mom and dad commute while their children ride said bus for at least 15 minutes with all sorts of miscreants...sorry, but it's true! 

Once at school, they're stuck within the confines of the school and it's schedule from 8:30-3:30, practice of some sort until 4:30 or 5 o'clock.  Home by 5:30 dinner is finished by 6 or 6:30 just in time to do chores and homework.  By the time that is finished it is 7:30 or 8 o'clock and only an hour of free time left before bed! Now the decision is whether to spend that time independently, enjoying some veg time in front of the TV, on a project, or having what we call "family time" where we actually talk and interact with one another.  As children get older, it seems the latter is the least popular option when there are games to play, TV to watch, and friends to talk to...

Then, of course, there are weekends.  I can't say what the "typical" American family weekend looks like, but insert yours here.  Take stock of how much of your "free days" you spend together, enjoying the company of your family, paying attention to 'teachable moments'.  And ask yourself how much of you are your children really getting?    Are you satisfied with the investment that you are making in the training up of your children?  Or are your priorities set in such a way that they're getting your dregs? 

 

Quality time

There's always been this debate over quantity verses quality, especially as it pertains to family time.

In my opinion and experience, it takes quantity time to have the truly quality times with family.  Quality doesn't happen on a schedule.  Quality time can't be manufactured like some consumable good.  The most quality of times are spontaneous and often arise in the midst of the mundane or the chaos of the everyday.


...like the moment when you're typing a blog post while thoughts are fresh and your seven year old daughter is talking at you incessantly, as always, and you look at her and realize just how precious she is...so you take her in your arms, pull her close, and hold her, smelling her snow fresh hair, feeling her warm little body that is growing all to quickly, and knowing how much it means to her to be the center of your attention for that short moment in time.   :)

It strikes me as insane that people work long hours to be able to afford beautiful homes with every imaginable comfort, but little time to enjoy it, or work overtime to be able to afford a vacation, for a week of "family time", all the while missing out on the precious, everyday moments. 


As a homeschooling, stay-at-home mom, I no doubt have an award winning quantity of time with my kids, and recently my husband began working from home, so we really have an upper hand when it comes down to "family time". But, I'll be honest, not all of that time is what I call "quality".  At least not in the sense of enjoyment.  Disciplining and training children is tough stuff, emotionally and physically! Spiritually, if you want to do it right...and being with them every waking hour, though very beneficial to training, means that there is a lot more to deal with!  Let's not forget the never ending tasks of running a house like cleaning and cooking, when surrounded by four crazy, starving children all day is literally like sweeping sand from a beach and throwing food into a black hole.  Training children to be responsible and tidy seems an impossible task!   Therefore, much of the time is not the kind of "quality" alluded to in this ceaseless debate.  Certainly there is little more important that some of these difficult tasks, but "fun" or "precious" are the last adjectives I have in mind to describe them. But it is out of these times when those quality moments arise simply by being there. When the light bulb illuminates and a child learns something new on their own, when you see an unexpected act of selfless kindness from one child to another, or when you suddenly find yourself in their world and for a moment you remember what it was like to be a child because they've inspired you, or simply when you let yourself let go and enjoy the moment with them!

Last night was a perfect example.

All day I looked forward to going to bed early and losing myself in my latest novel--time to read is a very precious commodity when you have five young children, you know--and on high-pressure days, time to unwind is most welcome.  Bed time came strictly at 8 o'clock, and I made my way to the kids' room to supervise the end of the day "clean up"...I had already fought with them for an hour over it and two had missed out on their dessert because they hadn't finished picking up when they were supposed to, so the night could have easily been defined by "frustration"!  Sitting on the floor, my littlest girl came and plopped into my lap and I brushed her hair while two of the older children finished their jobs.  With the toys and clothes put away at last, my middle little girl came and took her place next to me, wanting to show me some of her "favorite things" she had stored in her treasure box and letting me braid her hair as she did so.  Meanwhile, my littlest girl had found some books to look at.

My oldest daughter and husband came in with the camera to take a picture of the girls' braids, so they could see them, and naturally it became her turn to have her hair braided.  My son, the oldest, flipped through the radio stations to find appropriate music for the dance that my little girls were now doing.   I watched my little beauties dance to Mozart as I braided the long locks of my nearly eight year old daughter, amazed by how quickly her hair had grown since she took the scissors to it at age five, listening to my husband talk to my son as he laid on the bottom bunk behind me. 

Just as soon as I finished braiding her hair, my daughter hopped up and said, "daddy's turn!" and my two oldest girls proceeded to make little tiny pony tails all over his military regulation hair...while I read through an ABC book with my two year old daughter.  We sang the alphabet, traced the letters with our fingers, looked at pictures, giggled, and snuggled.  My nearly 10 year old son couldn't resist and soon sat on the bed behind me and began to practice making pony tails in my hair.  

After everyone, especially daddy, was newly beautified, the kids showed off their moves, the two oldest gals drawing upon their memories of ballet, my son being just as goofy as possible, my darling two year old insisting on dancing with her daddy, spiked up, pony-tailed hair and all. 

Two hours past bed time, every ounce of energy spent, baby boy awake and ready to eat, we performed the nightly ritual of cleaning teeth and saying prayers, so thankful for time like the hours we had just spent together.  Not one remembering the difficulties of the day, or thinking about what we had missed or how we were sabotaging a perfectly good schedule...

It's times like those that make the world go round, when I look around me and feel so blessed, when my cup runneth over!  and I'm so glad that I'm there for them.

Smoothies

Yes.  This post is actually about smoothies, it is not just a clever title meant to evoke thoughts and feelings that hint at some deeper point that I will somehow relate to smoothies.  :P Remember, I did warn that this blog will be about anything and everything!  

Indeed, I've been on a serious smoothie binge lately and I can't help myself, I must talk about it.  Briefly, I considered posting about my latest obsession on FB but I thought, "Who on earth cares?" so naturally, I have decided to write about it here.   :)

I have been finding, since I am in need of a few extra calories due to a nursing infant and constant cravings for  quick snacks, that smoothies are just the ticket.  Not only are they quick and easy, they are delicious, and through much experimentation I am finding that they are an extremely effective means of sneaking in TONS of nutrients into our diet.  While we are a very healthy-eating family, it is hard to get as many veggies and fruits as I would like without eating six plus meals, and frankly, I don't have time for that!   I already feel as though all I do is cook, eat, and clean, with only three meals a day and a snack here or there, and admittedly, carrots and celery are not what I tend to reach for when craving a snack...

A friend of mine had tried to convince me to try making "green smoothies" a while ago, but I believed she was full of bologna when she told me that they tasted good.  So...I began by throwing a handful of spinach into our traditional yogurt/fruit smoothies.   Finding that the spinach was tasteless, the next time I braved up and filled the blender with spinach.  It was still delicious! albeit a little "pukey" looking, according to my kids.  It initially reminded me of something else...    :-|

The next step I took on this snack adventure was to incorporate carrots.   Do I steam them?  or add them raw?  I wondered.  Naturally, I tried them raw first, who wants to dirty a dish if they don't really have to?  And it worked!  Of course, I had to blend it for a ridiculous amount of time to truly liquify them, but after taking that necessary step I found that the carrots added a wonderful sweetness.  For years, I have been adding carrots to my homemade spaghetti sauce to add a hint of sweetness, but hadn't thought about how delicious they could be in any other, truly sweet, application.  A hidden treasure they are.  

A while back I had experimented with a variety of milks in an effort to avoid dairy to see if my baby boy's tummy trouble were a result of a dairy sensitivity.  While I couldn't stand any of them for making cappuccino (which is really all that I use milk for), I found that they all make excellent additions to smoothies as well.  The almond milk and coconut milk are my favorite, adding a luxurious flavor and texture to any smoothie, and more nutritive than yogurt.  

Almond milk is said to be one of the most nutritionally valuable milk substitutes available. It is high in many vitamins and minerals, including vitamin E, manganese, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, selenium, iron, fiber, zinc and calcium. Almond milk is low in calories, at only 40 calories per eight ounce serving, and low in fat. It contains only three grams of fat per eight ounce serving.  Almond milk also contains high levels of antioxidants, so it may help prevent many types of cancer and slow the signs of aging.   
Coconut milk is similarly lower in calories and boasts of healthy fatty acids that are not found in dairy milk. Fifty percent of the fatty acids in coconut milk is lauric acid, which turns into monolaurin in your body. Monolaurin has antiviral, antibacterial and antiprotozoal activity against strains of staphylococcus and listeria, according to a study by Dr. Mary G. Enig entitled, "Coconut: In Support of Good Health in the 21st Century."

Still trying to consider new ways to add more veg without going too far (like adding broccoli  or arugla, yuck), and also trying to figure out how to make smoothies with spinach and red berries look a little more appetizing, I decided to try beets.  As much as I love healthy produce, I have never been able to enjoy beets...the flavor and texture just don't do it for me; but perhaps, I mused, they would be just the solution I needed.

And by jove!  I learned after the first attempt that I would need to be a little heavier handed with the citrus and berries if I were to truly enjoy it, but once I found the right ratio, I found it delightful.  Not only were the smoothies nutrient rich, sweet (with no added sugar or honey), and delicious, they were gorgeous!  The color, even with a pound of spinach, was beautiful.  Beyond appetizing, photographable, even   ;)

Needless to say (so why am I saying it?) I'm enamored with fruit and veggie smoothies.  And I HIGHLY recommend that everyone hops on this bandwagon.  In an effort to convince anyone who happens to read this to try, here are some of my favorite blends that I have tried thus far.   I may just add more and more as time goes on. I feel a bit of the "mad scientist" within coming out!

note: all of these recipes make a blender FULL, enough for six servings.  So make adjustments accordingly.

Ruby Red 

3 handfuls of baby spinach
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
1beet, peeled and chopped
2oranges, peeled
1cup frozen strawberries, raspberries, or both!
1banana
1-2 C. coconut or almond milk

BLEND BLEND BLEND

Verdant

4 handfuls of spinach
1 celery stem, chopped
2 oranges peeled
1 banana
1-2 cups almond milk 

BLEND BLEND BLEND 

Cucumberita  ;)
(Inspired by a summer fav: cucumber margaritas)

1 large cucumber, sliced
4 oranges, peeled
1/2 lime peeled
1 handful of spinach
1 cup almond or coconut milk (almond is best)
1-2 cups ice
drizzle of honey (if sweeter flavor is desired)     

Orange sherbet

3 large carrots, peeled and sliced
2 oranges, peeled
8 slices of frozen peach
1-2 cups coconut milk

BLEND BLEND BLEND

(this tasted exactly like orange sherbet!)



 
Blueberry

1 large orange
1 carrot
2 handfuls of spinach
1 c. frozen blueberries (organic or wild, of course!)
1 c. coconut milk

BLEND BLEND BLEND!




Zucchini 'bread' 
(This recipe was born of necessity.  I went to make a cucumberita smoothie and realized that the hubz bought zucchini instead of cucumbers...so I experimented and it turned out great!  The kids said that it smelled like cookies and didn't hesitate to drink it all up!)

1 handful of spinach
1 orange
1/2 medium sized zucchini
1 tsp. cinnamon
drizzle of honey
1/2 c. almond milk

BLEND BLEND BLEND
 



 




 

Word of Encouragement to Homeschoolers (and wannabes)

After having a baby and spending most of my time feeding and cuddling him, I found that I was putting "school" on a back burner...way back--Ok, well maybe it wasn't even on the stove for a while--and I had been feeling guilty about how little time I've been spending on the three R's with my youngest student. We had gotten way behind on the curriculum and I was getting worried that she would be "behind" her peers (which means nothing really, but I tend to forget that sometimes). But then we sat down with a book and she blew me away with what she could read! a little later, she decided to write a letter to her cousin and she did great, only needing help with special sounds we've not yet introduced...and the little booger printed it, which I've NEVER taught (we only practice cursive)!

It has taken me a while to figure it out, but we adults seriously underestimate what our children can learn on their own when they want to. For the most part we get in the way of their 'education' by making them learn things when, where, and how WE want them to learn! The juxtaposition of this child now and my first at her age, when I structured our school time much like public school, is remarkable. There's been no stress, frustration (for either of us), no fighting, or coercing into doing "seat work"... and very little time spent on instruction, and here she is reading and writing like a little pro :)

Our kids learn to walk and talk without guided instruction from us, why? because they want to! Why do we doubt their ability to learn everything else without being spoon fed?  


I have found that the biggest cause of frustration (for both me and the kids) is my own expectation. They really are capable of learning so much in their own timing and when they have the FREEDOM to learn at their pace and in their own way. I have struggled a lot before understanding this (and I still have to remind myself constantly)!         Putting kids in a box and expecting them to learn a certain way at a certain time will only frustrate everyone involved and discourage them. 

There is a huge difference between trying to force learning on children and letting them learn. There's nothing more exciting for them than when that light bulb goes off in their little minds because they've figured something out!!! and nothing quite as discouraging as disappointing themselves and others when they don't quite get something when they are told they should. 

A Diagnosis

As soon as I learned that I was expecting a child I knew that I would home school. 

There were many reasons for making this decision.  At the time, the foremost reason was essentially that God had made me a mother, so there was no doubt that He wanted ME to raise my children.  As I saw it, there was no way that I could do that if I willingly sent my children away for six to eight hours a day, five days a week.  

My own experience with public school was the secondary reason, at that time, for making this choice.  As an intelligent young girl, I found myself quite bored with school, except for when I was playing and talking with other children who didn’t exactly share my parents’ moral values, or flirting with all the boys (yes, I was that girl).  By the time I was in high school, I had read all the required literature for my high school English classes on my own time outside of school, which essentially negated those classes for me and I was allowed to spend those hours in the library after completing all of the tests related to the reading material prior to class.  By the time I was a Jr. I had earned the credits required for graduating, so my Jr. year of school, with the exception of a science and English composition class, were spent in study hall or independent online advanced placement and college credit courses, which, in case you have trouble with the math, were only two real high school classes for the entire year.   Yet, when I requested early graduation, I was met with fierce opposition because they “didn’t want to set a precedent”.  Wow.  In fact, they refused me completely, but through meetings with the school board and asides with the Superintendent, I finally managed to convince them to let me go to college for my senior year as a “special student”.   Still enrolled in my high school, I attended college two states away, only returning to my school for graduation the following spring.  Naively, I had assumed that in college I would actually learn something instead of being "taught" a bunch of useless information and directed towards a preset thoughtline.

Admittedly, I was a geek.  I loved learning and deeply yearned to learn more about the things I was interested in knowing, I wanted to learn more about things I wanted to do and accomplish in life…but school gave me no time to learn!  In fact, the only thing that I clearly remember from my 11 years of public education is arguing with my teachers about why I had to learn things that I would never use, like imaginary numbers, and why our “social studies” classes were so ridiculously bent on bashing our Nation’s history and government (my teacher actually suggested that I read the book, “Lies My Teacher Told Me” because he thought I would appreciate it—at least he was honest.  I remember arguing with my science teachers about why they shouldn’t be teaching evolution as fact and that the best answer I ever got was “because the curriculum says so”.  How telling.  I was fortunate to have two distinct experiences with science teachers, one who sent me to the principal’s office for making her look like an idiot on multiple occasions, and the other who only graded my tests based on the questions that I answered, as I refused to answer questions to which the “correct” answer conceded to evolutionary theory.  I also remember being told more than once to put away books that I was reading in class because they weren’t part of the course content (I was reading Hemingway or Steinbeck and finished with my work for the day every time this happened…).  In fact, most of the learning I did that stuck with me was what I learned outside of school, from reading things like the college textbooks that I would purchase at garage sales or used book stores here and there, or simply by observing life, or having real conversations with adults about life.

 

I did NOT want for my kids to experience any of that.  I wanted them to love learning as I did without the constant discouragement from the school system.  I didn’t want my kids to be spoon fed information their whole lives and never learn how to learn or think for themselves.  I didn’t want my kids to be taught lies that directly contradict my own firmly held beliefs.  I didn’t want for them to be influenced by kids who have been influenced by things that I would recommend all people avoid, regardless of their age…

As my children grew closer to school age, my priorities began to change and “sheltering” them became much higher on the list.  In the years since I was in school, our culture has become so much more degraded.  Values and philosophies that were once radical have become so pervasive  that they are now the common thought.  Homosexuality, feminism, broken families are all accepted and taught as “normal”, even glorified in books and on television and in the schools.  We don’t want to make Sally feel bad about her parents’ divorce, so let’s tell everyone that divorce is not only normal, but good.  Let’s have them read books about how happy mixed families can be, just never mind all that emotional pain and baggage that will potentially destroy Sally’s spirit and future.  I could go on forever about homosexuality and sex ed…but I won’t.  Back on point, kids today are just not the kind of kids I want influencing my children…as a result of their schooling, family life, the entertainment industry, little parental control and involvement, etc.  The world has become a scary place for children.

I also began to place more importance on the spiritual influences that I wanted my kids subjected to.  Their souls, I recognized, are so much more important than academics, and time spent on developing their relationships with God and others would never be time wasted, regardless of what their futures hold. 

But somehow, with all of the issues that I had with public schools and everything that I knew from my own experience, you’d think that when I began teaching my own children I would have created a “home school” that looked dramatically different than public school.  You’d think.  Yet the day my son turned five, I started ramping up for school, ordering a boxed curriculum that covered all the bases, complete with hours and hours worth of seat work, a great set of instructions for what and how to teach, when, where, and why…and when we began, my little boy was so excited! months later, he was miserable and I was stressed.  He began to dread “school” just like I did.  His energy level frustrated me, he was distracted on every side, in fact, I could see what looked like a little circus going on in his mind as he stared blankly at me while I lectured him on phonics and arithmetic, and I became the mean teacher hovering over him with threats of skipping recess if he didn’t complete his 90 problem speed drill in the next two minutes…all the while, missing the fact that while not in school, that little boy was reading books and absorbing every bit of information in them like a sponge.  Missing also the fact that he understood what he was taught the first time I taught it and didn’t NEED to do the same things over and over and over and over again!

I began to realize that I was giving my kid exactly what I wanted to avoid.  Somehow I had been infused with this philosophy of education that I hated!  How could this be?  Slowly, I began to experiment with new ideas, but the thought of doing something different was terrifying!  I’m not kidding…the anxiety that came with the idea of freedom from that boxed curriculum, and hours of seatwork, was ridiculous. 

I knew that I didn’t want that kind of bondage for my kids; I knew I wanted them to learn independently and to learn what they wanted to learn how they wanted to learn it…but something about that freedom was so difficult and scary for me.  

Now, almost five years later, and with three students instead of one, I still find myself drifting back to that box every once in a while, looking at it longingly as though there is comfort there—even though my memory and common sense tells me that it’s nothing but trouble!  I’m just like a kidnapped child, raised by her captor, who goes on to find freedom as an adult…the years of captivity were horrible, the kidnappers stripped me of what I should have experienced during my childhood, crippling my growth and potential, but now that’s all I know and somehow there is comfort in that!  

This is me shaking my head. 

Because I have what is known by psychologists as Stockholm syndrome.