Falling off the face of the earth.....

Contrary to popular belief, I really am still alive. lol. It has been a busy time since I last posted. We did go on our trip to Gleanings For The Hungry, which I will write more about later. We had a fantastic time and highly recommend it as a family friendly mission experience during the spring. (summer time requires participants to be 13+ in age, but the spring work is easy enough for 3-4 year olds to help with!) I think our group had the most children of any group they have ever had: 26 kids and 9 adults!

The day after we got back from that trip (and we spent a few extra days on the way home to visit one of my sisters and her family who were only 4 hours away from Gleanings) our oldest sons girlfriend/fiance' came for a 12 day visit. She lives in Canada and this was our first time to meet her in person. She and my son met at Gleanings where she and her parents served for 6 months.

Just a few days after she left I left for 4 days with my sisters. Between the four of us sisters we live in 3 different and far apart states, so we flew to a more central location, stayed in a Residence Inn hotel (very nice!), scrapbooked, watched movies, talked, went out to dinner each night, and had a fabulous time together!

So, now I am home again, with no immediate plans for anymore travel or house guests on the horizon. lol. Trying to get back to routine (what's that?), back to low carb eating (traveling is a sure kill for that!),have surgery on my jaw (again, but not the same as the huge jaw surgery I had a year ago), finishing up the school year, have a few birthdays to plan and celebrate and graduate our third oldest. And that is just the next 5 weeks!LOL!

I really hope to get back here soon and share more about out time at Gleanings and to share some very exciting things God is doing in our lives that directly relates to Gleanings. Pray for us as we seek to know God's will clearly.

Judge to Parents: "Your rights end at the door."

Reading this article from Faith and Freedom Network today started to make my blood boil, then I realized a better response was to be thankful, and yes, even grateful (something that has been difficult for me the last month or so due to health challenges I have had) that we homeschool.

Parental rights are being blatantly attacked and I think it may well be a foretaste of what is to come here.

Ralph Waldo Emerson described the moment in 1776 when the Minutemen fired their opening shots of the American Revolution on the village green in Lexington Massachusetts as, “The shot heard ‘round the world.”

That’s also how parental-rights advocates describe what happened recently when a federal judge in Boston shot down a lawsuit by some parents who objected to what Lexington schools were teaching their children about homosexuality.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge, Mark Wolf told David Parker and Rob and Robin Wirthlin that they had no right to challenge the schools – none at all.

Brian Camenker, executive director of the Boston based group MassResistance, was so shocked by the judge’s response that he said, “It’s so absurd, you can hardly even discuss it.”

But we must both be aware of it and discuss it, because a similar situation may well be coming to your public schools.

The Judge said, “The schools have a right and obligation to teach about same-sex relationships, even in elementary schools – and the parents’ rights end at the school house door.” (emphasis mine)

The parental objections centered around a Kindergarten book on “diversity” called “Who’s In a Family,” which portrays same-sex couples as just a different type of family. The other concerned a second grade book called "King & King," in which one prince kisses another prince.

As Washington State legislators move toward passing Domestic Partnerships as well as the anti-parent SB 5297 sex-ed bill, they are setting the stage for, as Senator Swecker called it, “Catastrophic unintended consequences.”

For those of you feeling discouraged or needing new energy to keep on homeschooling, let this information give you new vigor to continue the good fight! Pray to our Lord to give you the manna you need for today and not to "worry" about tomorrow. He promises to give us the strength we need to do what He has asked us to do. Cling to that. It also doesn't hurt to realize what is going on in the world around us in public education, as a bit of a motivator, eh?

Low carb "way of eating" (WOE) or What do you eat?

In response to questions on our family blog about our weight loss and switching to a low carb lifestyle I have decided to bring some of that discussion over to my homemaking blog because cooking and recipes are better suited here. I also am hoping by sharing what we are doing and the recipes I have found to work for us, will not only inspire some of you, but also inspire/motivate me to keep working on finding new recipes and sticking with low carb for the long haul.

Breakfast:
This is the easiest low carb meal of the day for us . We eat 2 eggs and bacon (2-4 pieces) every day. Eggs can be made different ways; scrambled, with cheese, with the bacon mixed in, with some peppers, with garlic, with a touch of Da Vinci sugar free syrups (like their pancake syrup), add cream to your eggs and some flavoring (my friend Karen adds the sugar free DV Toasted Marshmallow syrup) and make a thin batter and cook them up like crepes. When I get a chance I make low carb muffins to go with our breakfast. At first I made these mostly from ground flax seed (I grind my own - more on that in the next post). Flax seed does make a nice muffin, really. My problem is either my taste buds got burned out on them or I'm just burned out on eating muffins every morning. I have been playing around with using Almond Meal, Hazelnut Meal and psyllium with the flax seed. Then, there is figuring out adding flavor to the muffins. Mostly I use extracts (vanilla, almond, maple, etc.) and the DV syrup flavors. We really like making a blueberry muffin with the DV blueberry syrup, and add just a few blueberry's to each muffin.

The other part of breakfast is the morning beverage. Tea is easy, just add some cream (milk and half and half have milk sugar/carbs in them and cream, i.e. heavy whipping cream, is almost all fat/no carbs, but be sure to read the label) and I use just a couple of drops of Sweetzfree. Hubby likes just plain black coffee, but I'm a "foo-foo/Starbucks" type coffee person. I have found that the Torani White Chocolate Sugar Free Sauce makes a pretty decent White Chocolate Mocha. Just add two tablespoons of the sauce, two drops of Sweetzfree and cream to your liking. Yum.

One thing to remember anytime you have any carbs is that you have to have protein with them. So, my faux white chocolate mocha is at breakfast, with all the protein in the eggs and bacon. Why? Protein raises blood sugar levels much more slowly than carbs or even low carbs alone do.

Next posts:
Muffin recipes
Fast and easy way to make great tasting bacon for two, twelve or twenty!

Works For Me Wednesday - Homeschooling Prep During Summer

Every summer I don't exactly look forward to doing lesson planning for the forthcoming school year. Afterall, we just finished school! Don't I get a break? Well, yes and no. Because homeschooling eight school age children does require quite a bit of planning I make a reward system for myself each summer. It goes like this: I don't indulge in any of my hobbies (mostly scrapbooking and some sewing) until school is set up and at least the first month of lesson plans are done. The sooner I get it done in the summer the more time I have to indulge in my hobbies. If I don't get lesson planning done until the day before school starts, well, at least it got done. I do not want to fall into the trap of having the summer "off" and blissfully scrapbooking the summer away just to find Sept. 5th arrives and I am unprepared.

And that is what works for me!


note to self: Get lesson planning done before you go away to the coast in August for a scrapbooking get-away! You have 24 days, better get cracking!

note back to self: Hey, give me a break! I've had a slow start this summer because we remodeled the school room. It is just about done now and I can start my lesson plans and school prep with renewed gusto!


Go visit Rocks in My Dryer for a list of more great tips!