Tuesday, February 3, 2015
The Next Chapter
As this chapter of my life ends and the next one begins, I decided to start a new blog, one which will follow Isaac's and my journey to find a farm and raise our young family. Hope to see you there!
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
What in the World Do Babies Have to Do With It?
Babies.
This topic has been a heated one in social circles lately. Have a lot, have a few, have none, have as many as you can like you're in a competition. Wait a year after getting married to start having kids, wait five years, or heck have that honeymoon baby.
God wants us to have a lot of kids, God doesn't care, God wants us to be responsible and only have as many as we have the finances for.
Kids are a blessing to us, we are supposed to bless our kids, have a lot of kids to care for you when you are old. Kids take away our freedoms, freedom isn't necessary - we need to be unselfish, (like that's any better, "*groan* kids, my life is misery because of you, but I'm okay with it, it's just God sanctifying me through trying circumstances", or it is selfish to have a lot of kids you end up parceling around to your older daughters who basically become modern day slaves. The list of opinions goes on and on.
My job isn't to convince anyone differently, that's putting myself in a role that doesn't belong to me, and likely wouldn't work anyway. Even my own outlook on having kids has changed since having one... No duh, real life experience tends to do that sort of thing.
I just want to share my thought and ask you to really, really think about history, the nature and words of our God, search your own heart and convictions.
HISTORY
I look back at the progression of our nation and put myself in satan's shoes for a sec. Yuck.
If I were Satan, and had heard God at creation saying "look at these humans that I have made, they are VERY GOOD!". Watching my plans for the fall of mankind thwarted again and again as God unwinds through the ages his plan for their salvation, His INCREDIBLE, unfathomable, overwhelming love for each beautiful, amazing, miraculous human being that He gave breath to throughout every age of the world...
If I were Satan, I would loath these usurpers of God's love and joy with every breath. And he does, Satan wants us dead, defeated, in hell for all eternity. But aha! What if he could see to it that many, many little humans never see the light of day? That would be even better!
...And so we witnessed that abortion became heard, then accepted, then embraced as 'a woman's right to choose'... all the while not realizing they were puppets in a master scheme. What a horrible, horrible legacy for our nation.
Satan, as he continued to make more disciples among men, then began to increasingly target that particular group in the secular world of career women to have less and less children, even no children. Sterilizing our ability to produce even enough children to replace the current population. We were no longer following that command to 'fill the earth and subdue it'... Instead environmentalism breathed life into the thought that animals, forests and grass have become the highest order of the earth. Babies? They will just grow up to become tree slayers and ocean polluters.
Sex throughout history ceased to be seen as God's gift to married people for joy, pleasure and bringing new life that God loves into this world. Instead, we have made it bring disease, exploitation, and we have become experts at methods that make sure babies are not conceived or allowed to live past a few days. We have whole stores dedicated to the worship of pleasure and thwarting the very design for which sex was created.
As a Christian young woman, I have been advised to do things which the secular world embraces. By Christians. I can understand the dramatic shift in homeschoolers of my generation, though. Satan always mixes a little truth with his big, ugly lies.
Many young adults witnessed too much hypocrisy, had such a bad experience being raised as servants to their parents' baby-making industry, and were told to live up to extra-Biblical standards. The 'ultra-conservative homeschool' circle, if you will.
For Satan had another "aha!" moment. If he could get these young people to direct their outrage at hypocrisy in their parents' generation towards the idea that large families must have been the problem, he could kill two birds with one stone! Turn their thoughts away from fixing the root sin issues that were at fault AND even get Christianity to embrace contraception as being the only way to leave behind antiquated hang-ups and get in step with contemporary culture. How attractive is that?!
If only we could see that Satan hates us. He HATES us. He hates you and me and my three month old precious baby boy as surely as he hates that little three week old baby in the womb.
And why? Because God LOVES us. He wants to destroy everything that God holds dear to His heart. If Satan cant destroy us, he spends every minute trying to make sure we are destined for hell.
I know I'm using some pretty strong language here. I also know this hardly even touches the issue. There are no rules in scripture that tell you how many kids to have, or how long to wait, or what you should do about birth control. That is between you, your husband and your God. I'm just describing the pattern I am seeing versus what God's word DOES say about babies.
But it is true that my heart's desire is for my fellow Christians, and eventually the whole world to see again that babies are LOVED. They are supposed to be WANTED. They are becoming harder and harder for some people to have, due to increasing sterility - and I don't think that is a coincidence. I think the decline of healthy food and habits are another side angle of satan's master plan against babies, but that's a topic for another time.
But even knowing all this, for some reason it has become a 'higher calling' to adopt than to simply have babies as married men and women. Or force your body to have so many babies it gives out so we as parents will receive more 'blessing'. As though something we do or don't do can make us more worthy to God. That is not the point, and I've seen way too many examples of either extreme.
My reason for having babies and establishing our marriage on the premise that I don't really need years of 'freedom' before entering the family stage is that God loves kids so I do too. Period. End of story.
Even though I don't understand it, we humans have captured God's special attention and grace, and I want to see more people - especially my babies, created in His image, knit together miraculously in my very own womb - come to know their great God as Savior.
What a high calling. I feel privileged beyond belief.
Now go hug your mother and thank her for having a baby...
...you.
This topic has been a heated one in social circles lately. Have a lot, have a few, have none, have as many as you can like you're in a competition. Wait a year after getting married to start having kids, wait five years, or heck have that honeymoon baby.
God wants us to have a lot of kids, God doesn't care, God wants us to be responsible and only have as many as we have the finances for.
Kids are a blessing to us, we are supposed to bless our kids, have a lot of kids to care for you when you are old. Kids take away our freedoms, freedom isn't necessary - we need to be unselfish, (like that's any better, "*groan* kids, my life is misery because of you, but I'm okay with it, it's just God sanctifying me through trying circumstances", or it is selfish to have a lot of kids you end up parceling around to your older daughters who basically become modern day slaves. The list of opinions goes on and on.
My job isn't to convince anyone differently, that's putting myself in a role that doesn't belong to me, and likely wouldn't work anyway. Even my own outlook on having kids has changed since having one... No duh, real life experience tends to do that sort of thing.
I just want to share my thought and ask you to really, really think about history, the nature and words of our God, search your own heart and convictions.
HISTORY
I look back at the progression of our nation and put myself in satan's shoes for a sec. Yuck.
If I were Satan, and had heard God at creation saying "look at these humans that I have made, they are VERY GOOD!". Watching my plans for the fall of mankind thwarted again and again as God unwinds through the ages his plan for their salvation, His INCREDIBLE, unfathomable, overwhelming love for each beautiful, amazing, miraculous human being that He gave breath to throughout every age of the world...
If I were Satan, I would loath these usurpers of God's love and joy with every breath. And he does, Satan wants us dead, defeated, in hell for all eternity. But aha! What if he could see to it that many, many little humans never see the light of day? That would be even better!
...And so we witnessed that abortion became heard, then accepted, then embraced as 'a woman's right to choose'... all the while not realizing they were puppets in a master scheme. What a horrible, horrible legacy for our nation.
Satan, as he continued to make more disciples among men, then began to increasingly target that particular group in the secular world of career women to have less and less children, even no children. Sterilizing our ability to produce even enough children to replace the current population. We were no longer following that command to 'fill the earth and subdue it'... Instead environmentalism breathed life into the thought that animals, forests and grass have become the highest order of the earth. Babies? They will just grow up to become tree slayers and ocean polluters.
Sex throughout history ceased to be seen as God's gift to married people for joy, pleasure and bringing new life that God loves into this world. Instead, we have made it bring disease, exploitation, and we have become experts at methods that make sure babies are not conceived or allowed to live past a few days. We have whole stores dedicated to the worship of pleasure and thwarting the very design for which sex was created.
As a Christian young woman, I have been advised to do things which the secular world embraces. By Christians. I can understand the dramatic shift in homeschoolers of my generation, though. Satan always mixes a little truth with his big, ugly lies.
Many young adults witnessed too much hypocrisy, had such a bad experience being raised as servants to their parents' baby-making industry, and were told to live up to extra-Biblical standards. The 'ultra-conservative homeschool' circle, if you will.
For Satan had another "aha!" moment. If he could get these young people to direct their outrage at hypocrisy in their parents' generation towards the idea that large families must have been the problem, he could kill two birds with one stone! Turn their thoughts away from fixing the root sin issues that were at fault AND even get Christianity to embrace contraception as being the only way to leave behind antiquated hang-ups and get in step with contemporary culture. How attractive is that?!
If only we could see that Satan hates us. He HATES us. He hates you and me and my three month old precious baby boy as surely as he hates that little three week old baby in the womb.
And why? Because God LOVES us. He wants to destroy everything that God holds dear to His heart. If Satan cant destroy us, he spends every minute trying to make sure we are destined for hell.
I know I'm using some pretty strong language here. I also know this hardly even touches the issue. There are no rules in scripture that tell you how many kids to have, or how long to wait, or what you should do about birth control. That is between you, your husband and your God. I'm just describing the pattern I am seeing versus what God's word DOES say about babies.
But it is true that my heart's desire is for my fellow Christians, and eventually the whole world to see again that babies are LOVED. They are supposed to be WANTED. They are becoming harder and harder for some people to have, due to increasing sterility - and I don't think that is a coincidence. I think the decline of healthy food and habits are another side angle of satan's master plan against babies, but that's a topic for another time.
But even knowing all this, for some reason it has become a 'higher calling' to adopt than to simply have babies as married men and women. Or force your body to have so many babies it gives out so we as parents will receive more 'blessing'. As though something we do or don't do can make us more worthy to God. That is not the point, and I've seen way too many examples of either extreme.
My reason for having babies and establishing our marriage on the premise that I don't really need years of 'freedom' before entering the family stage is that God loves kids so I do too. Period. End of story.
Even though I don't understand it, we humans have captured God's special attention and grace, and I want to see more people - especially my babies, created in His image, knit together miraculously in my very own womb - come to know their great God as Savior.
What a high calling. I feel privileged beyond belief.
Now go hug your mother and thank her for having a baby...
...you.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
The Belly
I always wondered why pregnant women get so psyched about The Belly...
...you know the type - takes pictures of her bare belly and posts them all over the internet with little cutesy hearts everywhere...
...every other woman who has ever been pregnant or had any contact with babies in the past 2 centuries wants to touch the 'sacred belly'...
... now I most definitely know what's up with The Belly.
You could just be sitting enjoying some R & R, when suddenly a 4 pound, 16 inch Ninja in your stomach decides he needs to spice up Mommy's boring life with a little action... namely rolling, kicking and punching relentlessly while you interject an occasional 'oomph', and your tightly stretched tummy skin seethes like an ocean hurricane. Sometimes you wake up in the morning to a hard bump making your belly jut out in strange fashion, while your little Ninja meditates with a foot or knee locked motionlessly in place. No amount of poking or prodding can convince him that he should move.
And heaven forbid you should encroach on baby's personal space. Seatbelts, waistbands, table edge, laptop, you name it... it goin' down with one karate chop after another until Mom decides to back down and lose the fight.
Then there's the crying... oh how the pregnant belly can turn the most even-tempered woman into a helpless, sobbing, irrational creature whose world ends about once every 3 hours. Feel one little kick at the wrong moment, and suddenly she's a rotten mother with no chance of making it through this pregnancy let alone 18+ years of motherhood to the helpless little angel who has no idea what awaits it out in the hard, cruel world.
Husbands, I am truly sorry for what you have to endure at times because of The Belly. Suddenly your wife seems to cease caring much about anything that is not directly related to 'baby', 'breastfeeding', or 'birthing supplies'. Every other minute during a conversation she is either lovingly rubbing and looking down at The Belly or in sugary tones exclaiming, "aww... Baby kicking!".
Most of the time this is all pretty awesome, but at all times it is turn-your-world-upside-down crazy.
Yep, all thanks to The Belly.
...you know the type - takes pictures of her bare belly and posts them all over the internet with little cutesy hearts everywhere...
...every other woman who has ever been pregnant or had any contact with babies in the past 2 centuries wants to touch the 'sacred belly'...
... now I most definitely know what's up with The Belly.
You could just be sitting enjoying some R & R, when suddenly a 4 pound, 16 inch Ninja in your stomach decides he needs to spice up Mommy's boring life with a little action... namely rolling, kicking and punching relentlessly while you interject an occasional 'oomph', and your tightly stretched tummy skin seethes like an ocean hurricane. Sometimes you wake up in the morning to a hard bump making your belly jut out in strange fashion, while your little Ninja meditates with a foot or knee locked motionlessly in place. No amount of poking or prodding can convince him that he should move.
And heaven forbid you should encroach on baby's personal space. Seatbelts, waistbands, table edge, laptop, you name it... it goin' down with one karate chop after another until Mom decides to back down and lose the fight.
Then there's the crying... oh how the pregnant belly can turn the most even-tempered woman into a helpless, sobbing, irrational creature whose world ends about once every 3 hours. Feel one little kick at the wrong moment, and suddenly she's a rotten mother with no chance of making it through this pregnancy let alone 18+ years of motherhood to the helpless little angel who has no idea what awaits it out in the hard, cruel world.
Husbands, I am truly sorry for what you have to endure at times because of The Belly. Suddenly your wife seems to cease caring much about anything that is not directly related to 'baby', 'breastfeeding', or 'birthing supplies'. Every other minute during a conversation she is either lovingly rubbing and looking down at The Belly or in sugary tones exclaiming, "aww... Baby kicking!".
Most of the time this is all pretty awesome, but at all times it is turn-your-world-upside-down crazy.
Yep, all thanks to The Belly.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Baby News!
It has been so long since I last posted! I'm loving not having internet at home, I like to think it gives me more opportunity to do household chores, reflect, and read up on childbirth (oh yes, and be BORED and REST... hard to get used to that feeling, lol) ;) But it's nice to grab a computer a couple times a week before teaching :)
Life is full... full of love and laughter, full of learning about God through our marriage relationship and the completely new adventures He sends us... even the hard times that seem like they may overturn my small faith bring a deeper relationship with Him.
Marriage to an amazing and intricate man. The good gets better with time, friends :)
Four more months until I can hold our beautiful baby Jedediah in my arms! He's surrounded by music every day, tends to kick me when he hears a chord he doesn't particularly like ;) Moves around especially while I'm riding in the car (thought motion was supposed to lull babies to sleep!)
I imagine him as a stocky little boy with dark hair and lashes, busy playing ball with his daddy.
I'm excited to think about our future as a new family with a husband who loves God, loves me and loves our baby. Praying for God to protect His chosen among a fallen nation until He returns.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Wedding Daze
Yes, I'm back to let y'all know what's happening around here :)
God has been so good, teaching Isaac and I many things over the past 8 1/2 months. Only 39 days to go before the wedding, I honestly couldn't be happier... I'm marrying the man of my dreams :) Wow, God is good.
Shiloh our Jersey heifer is bred, and she and Opal (due to calve on Easter) will be coming with us to our new home. Looking for a home for Jani come summer, and then having to decide whether to keep all three current calves or sell one or two.
Isaac and I are getting two dozen Rhodie chicks in a couple weeks, he's so excited to get to raise chickens... and me too, I've never actually had my *own* flock before.
Still amazed that I'm getting married...
...and spending my life with the most amazing man I know.
Our life will be an adventure, if these past few months are any indicator, lol... lots of stories, laughter, we probably will be a bit impulsive, and have a blast no matter where we live :)
...I think I like marrying a visionary :D
Wedding planning is going very well, just enough snags thrown in to occasionally raise the blood pressure of everyone involved... can't get too boring now, can it ;) It's really amazing how much effort and detail go into weddings. It was really helpful to use 'The Knot' checklist and planner to give me an overview of what all needed to be done. Pray the next few weeks are a fun blur... fast and... yeah, just fast ;)
God has been so good, teaching Isaac and I many things over the past 8 1/2 months. Only 39 days to go before the wedding, I honestly couldn't be happier... I'm marrying the man of my dreams :) Wow, God is good.
Shiloh our Jersey heifer is bred, and she and Opal (due to calve on Easter) will be coming with us to our new home. Looking for a home for Jani come summer, and then having to decide whether to keep all three current calves or sell one or two.
Isaac and I are getting two dozen Rhodie chicks in a couple weeks, he's so excited to get to raise chickens... and me too, I've never actually had my *own* flock before.
Still amazed that I'm getting married...
...and spending my life with the most amazing man I know.
Our life will be an adventure, if these past few months are any indicator, lol... lots of stories, laughter, we probably will be a bit impulsive, and have a blast no matter where we live :)
...I think I like marrying a visionary :D
Wedding planning is going very well, just enough snags thrown in to occasionally raise the blood pressure of everyone involved... can't get too boring now, can it ;) It's really amazing how much effort and detail go into weddings. It was really helpful to use 'The Knot' checklist and planner to give me an overview of what all needed to be done. Pray the next few weeks are a fun blur... fast and... yeah, just fast ;)
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
One day...
One day...
You're born, and your parent's world is turned upside down...
One day...
You're figuring out the world, finding your place in it...
One day...
You realize life is somehow lacking unless you can spend it with someone else... and you begin waiting for your man...
One day...
He kneels down, pulls out a ring, and tells you for the first time those matchless words, "I love you"...
One day...
You reach the bend in the road... and realize it is so much better than you dreamed possible... because you are going to spend the rest of your life with your best friend.
You're born, and your parent's world is turned upside down...
One day...
You're figuring out the world, finding your place in it...
One day...
You realize life is somehow lacking unless you can spend it with someone else... and you begin waiting for your man...
One day...
He kneels down, pulls out a ring, and tells you for the first time those matchless words, "I love you"...
One day...
You reach the bend in the road... and realize it is so much better than you dreamed possible... because you are going to spend the rest of your life with your best friend.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Vaccine Information
Quick!
2 days left to view this video for free on Mercola's website...
http://www.mercola.com/
Good information to help you be more aware of the controversy surrounding vaccines.
Some key points:
1. The decrease in childhood illnesses (measles, polio, diptheria) happened BEFORE vaccines became widely used... not after. This means vaccinations cannot be credited as the sole reason these illnesses are no longer epidemic.
2. Ingested heavy metals (mercury, aluminum) are taken fairly quickly and entirely out of the body. Heavy metals in shots are taken into the bloodstream and circulate for a very long time, that's the reason they are included in vaccines, to make the effect last longer. Damage to neurons is a known effect of heavy metal toxicity.
3. Autistic children seem to have a genetic inability to get rid of mercury accumulation in the body like other children... giving vaccines to two different children may have entirely different results due to predispositions in their genetic makeup.
2 days left to view this video for free on Mercola's website...
http://www.mercola.com/
Good information to help you be more aware of the controversy surrounding vaccines.
Some key points:
1. The decrease in childhood illnesses (measles, polio, diptheria) happened BEFORE vaccines became widely used... not after. This means vaccinations cannot be credited as the sole reason these illnesses are no longer epidemic.
2. Ingested heavy metals (mercury, aluminum) are taken fairly quickly and entirely out of the body. Heavy metals in shots are taken into the bloodstream and circulate for a very long time, that's the reason they are included in vaccines, to make the effect last longer. Damage to neurons is a known effect of heavy metal toxicity.
3. Autistic children seem to have a genetic inability to get rid of mercury accumulation in the body like other children... giving vaccines to two different children may have entirely different results due to predispositions in their genetic makeup.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Another Year
What happened? I can't be 22... last year I was 18, I think...
It is kind of scary how fast time flies. The past four years I've been milking cows and learning about farming, teaching piano, learning about nutrition and using herbal medicine. Preparing the best I could for an unknown future... marriage, a home and family of my own, but being open to the possibility I would continue working from my parents' home for a very long time.
So much I don't know. It's humbling. If the Lord tarries, here's to another year of discovery! Possibly a lot of changes, too.
I've posted this quote before, but I love it. So you get to see it again ;)
If there were a choice between... on the one hand, the heights and the depths and, on the other hand, some sort of safe, cautious middle way, he, for one, here and now chose the heights and the depths. ~ Sheldon Vanauken
I, for one, chose the heights and the depths.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
True and Sad
Someone sent out an e-mail with these great quotes and I just had to post them...
Enjoy :)
1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress.
- John Adams
2. If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.
- Mark Twain
3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself.
- Mark Twain
4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
- Winston Churchill
5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
- George Bernard Shaw
6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.
- G. Gordon Liddy
7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
- James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)
8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
- Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University
9. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian
10. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
- Frederic Bastiat, French economist(1801-1850)
11. Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
- Ronald Reagan (1986)
12. I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
- Will Rogers
13. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!
- P.J. O'Rourke
14. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
- Voltaire (1764)
16. No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.
- Mark Twain (1866)
17. Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it.
- Anonymous
18. The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
- Ronald Reagan
19. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.
- Winston Churchill
20. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
- Mark Twain
21. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
22. There is no distinctly Native American criminal class...save Congress.
- Mark Twain
23. What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
- Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995)
24. A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.
- Thomas Jefferson
25. We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
- Aesop
FIVE BEST SENTENCES
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the wealth out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for...another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they worked for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation!
Enjoy :)
1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress.
- John Adams
2. If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.
- Mark Twain
3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself.
- Mark Twain
4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
- Winston Churchill
5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
- George Bernard Shaw
6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.
- G. Gordon Liddy
7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
- James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)
8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
- Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University
9. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian
10. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
- Frederic Bastiat, French economist(1801-1850)
11. Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
- Ronald Reagan (1986)
12. I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
- Will Rogers
13. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!
- P.J. O'Rourke
14. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
- Voltaire (1764)
16. No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.
- Mark Twain (1866)
17. Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it.
- Anonymous
18. The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
- Ronald Reagan
19. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.
- Winston Churchill
20. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
- Mark Twain
21. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
22. There is no distinctly Native American criminal class...save Congress.
- Mark Twain
23. What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
- Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995)
24. A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.
- Thomas Jefferson
25. We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
- Aesop
FIVE BEST SENTENCES
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the wealth out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for...another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they worked for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation!
Monday, October 24, 2011
Patch
Praise God for allowing Christi and I to be there to help with the birth... got to finally help pull a calf... God is so good.
(All pictures credit to Christi Davis Photography)
Friday, October 14, 2011
Beautiful Friendship... and all the rough spots too ;)
How often I hated watching friends drift away as I was growing up... early on, it was when they went off to public school, or different churches, then college, and recently it is falling in love with :gasp: a BOY and getting married.
I have difficulty being vulnerable with people, so when I form a close friendship, it hurts terribly if anything happens to tear them away... it feels nasty, awful, depressing... you name it, that's a broken friendship.
That's why I started this courtship wanting to remain in touch with my dear friends. Have I succeeded?
It's hard to gauge... by e-mail, yes, in person not so much.
Priorities for married folks ought to be...
1. God.
2. Spouse.
3. Children.
4. Work (you could argue with the order on this one, but providing for #2-3 is kinda important).
5. Friends.
So us in-betweens have a dilemma... we have someone who is somewhere between #2 and #5... but definitely closer to #2 than #5... yet because they are not yet the significant other, it doesn't seem quite right to other friends who are left out.
I still feel guilty that I am not there for my friends as much as I used to be... and that I'm not spending a lot of time culturing our friendships and helping them to grow.
But if you think about it, how would the person you're in a relationship with feel if you told them that your friends are equally important to you and thus you spend more time with them instead... this other person who is already sacrificing their own time and wanting to spend the rest of their life with you in the closest possible human relationship... what are they supposed to think by that statement?
Whose fault is it? The one 'lost in love' or the 'dejected rejected'?
Change is always hard, but maybe we're looking at this the wrong way.
It's the difficult seasons that shape us... for better or worse, depending on what we do with them. I want my friendships to deepen - not stay the same. Maybe I disappear off the map for a while... maybe in a year I come back, "Why, hullo stranger!", for a time of renewing and deepening friendship. And since I firmly believe everyone should get married :insert big wink: ;), hopefully by that time we'll both be married and have a lot of new common concerns/interests... but if not, we can still have the cool and unique opportunity of learning and encouraging each other by what God is doing in our life, single and married alike.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Turkey butchering on the fly...
We've been getting drenched here in the Willamette valley over the past couple days... cool and wet fall weather is my favorite time of year... as long as there are no broilers or turkeys being raised at the time. Then it's nothing but misery and worry. Birds do not have a will to live.
That is why I randomly decided to hand process our turkeys yesterday so they would be safe in our freezer. Isaac, Sarah G. and I (the other two had no choice - I'm such a slavemaster XD jk) hung the birds from the clothesline post, slit the throats, hand plucked, gutted, and froze the birds. We didn't have a pot big enough to scald any but the smallest female, but plucking was surprisingly easy except for the wings.
Pigs ate the entrails, chickens pecked at the scraps and feathers on the ground, and there are 120 lbs of turkey meat sitting in our freezer. Now I can relax and enjoy fall.
Good times :)
That is why I randomly decided to hand process our turkeys yesterday so they would be safe in our freezer. Isaac, Sarah G. and I (the other two had no choice - I'm such a slavemaster XD jk) hung the birds from the clothesline post, slit the throats, hand plucked, gutted, and froze the birds. We didn't have a pot big enough to scald any but the smallest female, but plucking was surprisingly easy except for the wings.
Pigs ate the entrails, chickens pecked at the scraps and feathers on the ground, and there are 120 lbs of turkey meat sitting in our freezer. Now I can relax and enjoy fall.
Good times :)
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
These Folks Need Facts
Things like this drive me nuts.
I read an article http://www.healthy.net/scr/Article.aspx?Id=777 . Great, other than this quote:
No, when calves drink milk, it completely bypasses two of the stomach compartments: the rumen and reticulum, by means of the esophageal groove. It is digested in the omasum and abomasum by enzymes... much like human children digest breast milk.
It is an error to say that all milk is not a good food for humans, simply because pasteurized milk is a known contributor of many health issues. In a non-compromised/lactose sensitive individual, raw dairy products provide their own enzymes for proper digestion and are a great food for children and adults, when used to supplement a natural whole foods diet.
Lol. Peoples. :P
I read an article http://www.healthy.net/scr/Article.aspx?Id=777 . Great, other than this quote:
"Cows have four stomach with which to digest their own milk. Cow's milk is just not fit for human consumption, especially not when it's full of bovine growth hormone and antibiotics. Don't feed your children cow's milk. They just don't need it; in fact it's bad for us all unless you are dying of starvation and its the only available source of protein. The only "healthy" dairy product for homo sapiens (that's us) is yogurt, which is already partially digested with enzymes."
No, when calves drink milk, it completely bypasses two of the stomach compartments: the rumen and reticulum, by means of the esophageal groove. It is digested in the omasum and abomasum by enzymes... much like human children digest breast milk.
It is an error to say that all milk is not a good food for humans, simply because pasteurized milk is a known contributor of many health issues. In a non-compromised/lactose sensitive individual, raw dairy products provide their own enzymes for proper digestion and are a great food for children and adults, when used to supplement a natural whole foods diet.
Lol. Peoples. :P
Sunday, August 21, 2011
One Sad Necessity
Little Dorrit lost her voice this morning...
I can't imagine anything more sad than a calf going hoarse from mooing after being separated from it's mom...
...except maybe a mama cow who looks like she's crying while she moos back.
Sad necessity... baby was tearing up mama's teats with her sharp teeth and was growing far too tall to reach the low udder to drink. She'll be happier on the bottle until we wean her in a few months.
I can't imagine anything more sad than a calf going hoarse from mooing after being separated from it's mom...
...except maybe a mama cow who looks like she's crying while she moos back.
Sad necessity... baby was tearing up mama's teats with her sharp teeth and was growing far too tall to reach the low udder to drink. She'll be happier on the bottle until we wean her in a few months.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Farm Updates
Last week I found a buyer for Chestnut, one of our Angus/Jersey cross heifers. We still have Cocoa for beef, so business-wise I think it was a good decision to sell one animal before winter and high hay prices hit.
Baby Dorrit is a testimony to the benefits of leaving the calf on its mother, she's huge and very healthy. We're just struggling to put weight back on her mama, Mattie, who is giving at least 7 gallons of milk per day - right off her back, of course. :bangs head on desk: I love Opal, my fat wonderful cow... she's a brick, still giving almost 4 gallons a day, steady as you please. Jani will be dried off in a week, getting big with baby due mid-October.
Both Mattie and Jani tested as A2/A2, which is a praise, and I may get our 14 month old Jersey heifer Shiloh tested just for kicks. She's a gorgeous animal, I'm impressed that she has performed so well on just grass.
I wish it was all roses, though... Mattie came down with the first case of mastitis on our farm. Hopefully it is improving, and only one teat is affected.
I caved in... and bought two piglets... lol, I'm nuts. They escaped their pen the first day, and luckily we got them back in before the cows trampled them to death. It has since been quiet for the past few weeks. Then Sunday night someone opened their pen door and they escaped again. Isaac and all the kiddoes enjoyed the wild pig chase... the pigs' owner, not so much enjoyment :P
We bought 10 ton of premium eastern OR orchard grass hay to fill the barn. Very spendy, but good for the animals. Grain will need to be purchased next month, and then we should be set through December.
Baby Dorrit is a testimony to the benefits of leaving the calf on its mother, she's huge and very healthy. We're just struggling to put weight back on her mama, Mattie, who is giving at least 7 gallons of milk per day - right off her back, of course. :bangs head on desk: I love Opal, my fat wonderful cow... she's a brick, still giving almost 4 gallons a day, steady as you please. Jani will be dried off in a week, getting big with baby due mid-October.
Both Mattie and Jani tested as A2/A2, which is a praise, and I may get our 14 month old Jersey heifer Shiloh tested just for kicks. She's a gorgeous animal, I'm impressed that she has performed so well on just grass.
I wish it was all roses, though... Mattie came down with the first case of mastitis on our farm. Hopefully it is improving, and only one teat is affected.
I caved in... and bought two piglets... lol, I'm nuts. They escaped their pen the first day, and luckily we got them back in before the cows trampled them to death. It has since been quiet for the past few weeks. Then Sunday night someone opened their pen door and they escaped again. Isaac and all the kiddoes enjoyed the wild pig chase... the pigs' owner, not so much enjoyment :P
We bought 10 ton of premium eastern OR orchard grass hay to fill the barn. Very spendy, but good for the animals. Grain will need to be purchased next month, and then we should be set through December.
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