Food

I've been reading a lot lately about how it's better to avoid fruits and vegetables that are grown out of season.  They cost more out of season because of the extra effort it takes to grow them out of season, among other reasons that my feeble, pregnant brain cannot remember.  I grew up shopping in grocery stores and not really working a garden, so I had no clue about what was really in and out of season at any given time of year.  I was sure about most of the standards like watermelon, apples, oranges, strawberries among others, but wasn't sure about everything.  So I did a Google search and came up with this page that has pictures and everything!  LoL Good thing, since I have never heard of some of the things on their list.

Go here for a Produce Guide to Season Fruit and Vegetables.

Also, if you haven't had a chance to subcribe to the online mag, Seasonal Delights, you must check it out.  Our family has greatly enjoyed the new recipes and craft ideas that we have received.  The recipes.......YUM!

Our Ways and His Ways

I was recently listening to a radio program where a father was discussing the suicide of his son.  I can't imagine the pain that the death of this man's son brought.  I NEVER want to go through that.  What struck me as I was listening, was that everyone on the show kept repeating that the son had been such an intelligent boy.  He could have been anything.  Why did he kill himself?

I think it's a big mistake to 1) tell our kids they can be ANYTHING they want to be and 2) that they are so smart and can achieve or overcome anything in life because of that.

1) We all have limits to our capabilities.  We can certainly do all things through Christ, but Christ has specific plans for us.  How many times have we talked with someone and shared how God "closed the door" on this or that ambition because He had a different purpose for our lives?  "A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." Proverbs 16:9. 

2) We can credit all our success on our brain power all day if we want, but God sees it differently.  "Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; though they join forces, none shall go unpunished." Proverbs 16:5

I think that we set our kids up for what they believe is a deep failure on their parts when we focus their attention on their abilities, their intelligence, their interests, rather than on what God's plan for their lives is.  Kids who are raised to rely on their own smarts in making their way through life will be self-centered.  They will most likely forget that God made them for a purpose in their grief over their failures - never understanding that God may have just closed the ol' proverbial door FOR them. 

I can't say for sure how this man raised his son to think about himself or God.  He may have done and said all the right things to his son, but maybe his son was tuned into the world's way of thinking more than his father's?  We'll never know.  But we do know how we are raising our own children.  It's difficult. Even as homeschooling parents, we can get caught up in the "they sent their homeschooled kids to Harvard" stories (these days, who WANTS their kids to go there anyway?) and focus on academic and social successes.  Psalm 127:1 can serve as a great reminder of what our priorities with our children should be:
"Unless the Lord builds the house (or kid;-), they labor in vain who build it..."

I'm Not Writing About a Pencil

A while ago, I think I was visiting the HSB Front Porch.  Someone wrote about what to do when we just can't think of anything to write about on our blogs.  One of the suggestions was to "write about a pencil."  I kind of chuckled at that.  I did not want to write a blog entry about a pencil.

But today we started back to school after a five day break.  We school for 6 weeks (or 30 days) and then take a five day break.  It was a nice break, but it felt good to be back on track until I was reminded of our biggest school stressor ever.  Pencils.  I cannot tell you how I have come to resent pencils.  And pencil sharpeners. 

It all started when our less-than-a-year-old electric pencil sharpener died.  I thought there might be something stuck in it, but First and Only Husband checked it out and it was just dead.  No way around it.  But that was okay.  We used the pencil sharpener on our paper shredder.  How nice of the paper shredder people to think of including a pencil sharpener on the shredder?????  I thought it was a weird place for a pencil sharpener, but was thankful anyway.  But it didn't sharpen pencils very well.  It was downright dull.  So I bought a plastic, handheld, purple pencil sharper.  The kids loved it.  They sharpened every pencil they could find.  We were lovin' every minute of it until it became dull and wouldn't sharpen anything.  So then I bought mechanical pencils.  No sharpener needed!  But I had gone the cheap route and one by one, the pencils broke.  So I bought more expensive mechanical pencils, and a new handheld pencil sharper for back-up.  Good thing, because my kids have lost the mechanical pencils, so we have fallen back on the stubby pencils we have left in our pencil box.  Not one of those pencils has an eraser on it.  Third Son (19 months old) has bitten every one of them off.  We do have those big pink erasers.  They look a little weary since Third Son has also taken a turn chewing/sucking on those. 

If all this pencil trauma isn't enough, my oldest three who are schooling, constantly lose the pencil they are writing with during school.  They put it down and forget where, only to look over and see their bro/sis with it in their hands.  Then we have to work through the stolen pencil business, encouraging someone to be the peacemaker in the dispute, which brings on such strong emotions in my children as there are no real decent pencils in the pencil box to choose from and when chosen, have been carefully selected.  Who wants to give up the best, stubbiest pencil in the box?

On, and on and on......God bless you if you have read this far.  I am really working and thinking hard about what can be done about our pencil situation.  I thought today that I would like for the kids to have some way to wear their pencils on a necklace chain around their necks, but I don't think such a solution exists?  Maybe we could super glue them to their hands?  Maybe I could just ask Third Son to quit chewing off the erasers and he would say, "Sure, Mom!"  LoL  Maybe one day during schooltime, I'll retreat to the bathroom with a box of Calgon and let it "take me away."  Do you think it would work?

Here's what I'll do.  I'll go jump on my jet, take a soothing bath and come back loving the skin I'm in.  ;-)

 

The Death of an Iraqi Church

So much goes on in the world that we never see or hear about.  As I watched the video below, I imagined things I might have been doing during the trouble that these Iraqi Christians went though, and are still going through.  As I think about those things, I feel thankful to God that we aren't facing hard times like these in our own country, ashamed that I don't pray for persecuted Christians around the world enough, and humbled.  Humbled because the small irritations that I deal with during a normal week around here are NOTHING compared to the struggle and humiliation that so many others go through.

 William J. Murray, Chairman of the Religious Freedom Coaltion made this video while in Iraq:
THE DEATH OF AN IRAQI CHURCH - During our fact finding mission to the Middle East , I interviewed Iraqi Christians at the Chaldean Catholic Church in Beirut, Lebanon. In the basement of the church a display had been placed on the walls of photos from the church in Iraq. The display started with average middle class family photos taken before Islamic oppression escalated with our invasion, and they show what the conditions are now.

Blanket Head

Did you ever see the movie Parenthood?  As new parents, my husband and I loved that movie.  Watching it now, after not seeing it for several years, we were shocked at the language and other themes in the movie that didn't bother us "back then."  God sure can do a work in us, eh?  (No, I'm not Canandian,  just raised 45 minutes from the Canandian border, so I can't resist an occasional "eh."  ;-)

Anyway.....

There is one part of that movie that I have been reminded of lately.  Remember Steve Martin's youngest son?  The kid was always doing something weird.  The funniest part was when he was walking around the house with a bucket on his head, banging his head into anything he came into contact with. 

First and Only Husband and I have a kid just like that.  It's so bizarre.  Third Son, who is 19 months old now, puts his trusty "blankET" (he places a huge emphasis on the "et") over his head and walks around banging his head onto whatever he runs into. 

It never occurred to us that there were little boys who actually did that for entertainment.  How could we NOT keep having children until God says we're done?  Experiencing all these different kids from the same two people is just too much fun.  Of course it's all a done deal with our new baby girl.  I am determined that this baby will be extremely obedient, giving, kind and would just faint if a single unkind word towards her brothers or sister ever came out of her mouth.  Now that's something worth experiencing!  I've actually heard that kids like this exist....or is that only in the movies????

Vision Forum Giveaway, Part 2

So I didn't win the Vision Forum Giveaway.  Waaaah. 

But enough of that. 

There is ANOTHER Vision Forum Giveaway!  This time there will be three winners who will receive $250 in free product!  I can handle that, no problem.  ;-)  Go to Life In a Shoe to see details on how to enter.

Here's my wishlist if I win the $250 shopping spree!

*Strength & Dignity for Daughters
*Passionate Housewives: Desperate for God
*To Have & to Hold
*Providential Battles I
*Providential Battles II
*A Providential History of Warfare Technology
*The Centrality of the Home in Evangelism and Discipleship
*Thoughts for Young Men
*The Influence of Older Children on Younger Children
*Southern Lady Doll Dress
*Elsie's Motherhood
*6,000 Years of Earth History 
*The Anti-Historical Revisionism Homeschool Kit

Be the Pen

I've prayed for issues in foreign countries before and always figured I would never, this side of Heaven, know how or even if my prayer was answered. 

Back in 2004, my Husband went on a mission trip to Kyrgyzstan.  He's a web/graphics guy.  He and a partner were going over there for two weeks to teach graphics design classes.  Those that took the classes were going to use their knowledge to create Christian materials for distribution in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and other countries in Central Asia.  This was way out of his comfort zone and a friend of ours encouraged him by telling him this story:

There was a man who had been arrested and was in prison for his faith in Christ.  The man received a visit from his daughter.  She gave him a pen.  The man took that pen and wrote scripture on any stray piece of paper that came his way and then gave the scripture away to others.  Many of them became Christians from reading the scripture on those bits of  paper. 

Our friend encouraged my Husband by telling him, "Be the pen!  Be the tool that helps others draw others to Christ." 

So he went, and it was a wonderful, life-changing event for him.  He came back feeling as if he had been able to "be the pen." 

In 2005, we began studying the Eastern Hemisphere, using Sonlight.  One of the books included was titled Praying Through the 100 Gateway Cities of the 10/40 Window.  Such a great book!  It includes prayer requests for 100 of the major cities in the 10/40 window.  On page 91 of our copy is Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where my Husband went.  And guess what prayer request #5 is??????

"Pray for the distribution of the Kyrgyz New Testament and other Christian media and literature."

This book was first published in 1990.  The man who sponsored Darin and his partner in their trip runs a print shop in Kyrgyzstan.  He uses his business to support the printing and free distribution of Christian literature.  One of his proudest moments was when he was able to print a little booklet of Proverbs to be distributed and used in Kyrgyz schools.  He set up his shop around the mid-90's.  Then in 2004, my Husband and his partner traveled to Kyrgyzstan to teach the graphics classes - there is no school in Kyrgyzstan that teaches graphics design.  So now there are more people in Kyrgyzstan and the surrounding countries who can make an impact for God through printed materials. 

It has been such a blessing to be able to look back and see how my husband, his partner, the print shop owner, and the others who work with him, are direct answers to prayer.  I think about all the people who prayed this prayer for Bishkek, and I wonder how many of them know that the prayer has been, and continues to be answered in so many different ways, through different people from all over the world.  It's just so NEAT! 

So if you ever get to the point where you feel your prayers for a foreign country are ineffective, think again, and say another prayer!  :-)

If you would like to read my Husband's journal of his trip, go HERE.