Today I'm not ranting about msg or any of the other horrible food additives that are slowing killing and maiming so many of us. I'm just being thankful for the provisions that the Lord has made for us in nature to eat healthy foods that can also help to heal our bodies and thankful that He has also provided herbs and other things in nature that we can use freely as our medicine.
It seems like I have almost always used the things in nature as medicine, from blackberry leaf tea for "the scoots" like grandma taught me way way back when (it helps tremendously btw!) to homemade wild cherry cough syrup and elderberry syrup for colds and flu bugs.... making medicine from things that grew in the yard, garden and woods was just part of life for me for a long time. When my parents split up and we moved to town and away from grandma and the other people who lived by the "old ways" those things fell by the wayside in my life until I got older and had children of my own. A colicky baby brought me quickly back to the things that are free, natural and work well with just a little bit of effort.
Now that my kids are older and so curious about all of this "herbal healing" type stuff I've been trying to teach them and help them learn to be as responsible as possible for their own health but found that in order to be able to truly say I've educated them I have much to learn myself. My biggest struggles aren't with how to make the remedies that I know work and are harmless in use or which herbs or plants or even which parts of those plants to use when. My struggles are with the proper vocabulary and such that I probably should know but never learned. The way that I was taught was always in simple terms like "rip up some of those leaves" or "mash in a few of those berries" not by their proper names but their common names. I want the kids to know how to identify the plants by their proper names and such things as that ... those things I have to learn myself.
But anyway, my point in talking about all of this is not what I'm teaching the kids or even why. My point is that there is so much that everyone can do to be more responsible for their health. Instead of reaching for that chemical filled over the counter cold medicine every time a child is ill why not take the natural measures to strengthen their immune systems and try to do what you can to treat their illness without medication before you resort to chemicals?
For example, it's the season for kids to catch those viruses. At our house that means extra handwashing, extra vitamin C, elderberry syrup if they've been exposed to the yuckies, and at the first sign of sniffles the sinus lavage that they normally do one time a day is increased to two or three times, the olive leaf extract and garlic capsules are handed out along with cod liver oil capsules and the hot liquids in the diet are increased. If the sniffles last longer than a day we use GOOT to help boost the immune system as well as fight off whatever is attacking and a sinus steam with herbs like peppermint and thyme and essential oils of tea tree and eucalyptus to help with the congestion.
Yes, it's a little bit of effort and sometimes not so pleasant such as when your young one is sitting under a towel tent over a steaming pan coughing, snorting and spitting the yucky stuff out.... but I'll tell you that it works and it's well worth it. My kids are all extraordinarily healthy and I have only had to take any of them to a doctor's office 2 times in the past 5 years. I'll take that little unpleasantness and small amount of extra work any day over doctor bills and the unpleasantness of sitting in the waiting room being exposed to everyone else's yuckies.
I would encourage everyone to just start thinking about more natural ways in to improve your health and your families health this year. Learning a little bit about the basic things that you can do naturally with herbs to improve your health is really not hard and it's fascinating to study. Cheri has a great deal right now on a beginner herbal course for $15 and I think you should check it out. For $15 you don't have much to lose! The kids are going to be going through this course for the next few weeks and are really excited.
While it may sound really gross to some people one of the easiest and best ways to protect yourself and your family from allergies and viral infections and such is to learn to use a neti pot or other means of sinus lavage. My family uses a bottle instead of a neti pot now because it is so much easier for the kids and it's easier on the Hunk 'O Honey's back too. We all used to suffer terribly from allergies and sinus trouble, Caleb used to have nosebleeds several times a day but the sinus lavage has dramatically changed all of that. It's well worth trying, especially since we no longer take daily or even on any regular basis any kind of allergy medication or decongestant medication. For severe sinus infections we have on occasion added colloidal silver to the Hunk O Honey's bottle as he welds for a living and the mess that poor man breathes in is full of bad stuff that causes lots of problems and the silver is a natural antibiotic.
The sinus steam bath is also really helpful for congestion, headaches, tension, allergies and so on. The Deliberate Agrarian has a great post on his peppermint zing sinus sauna that EVERYONE should read. Around here we will often add tea tree oil and eucalyptus oil to the peppermint for the antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties as well as the extra soothing power, and lavender essential oil helps with headaches as well as being helpful with fighting off bacteria etc. We have often put a tablespoon or two of dried thyme in as well. The essential oil of thyme or thymol is used in products like Vap O Rub and such and has some very strong antibiotic properties. It is still used in many animal medications to treat serious respiratory infections, and it's even good for treating mites and the viral infections they carry in our beehives.... so it sure can't hurt you.
I hope to keep posting from time to time about simple things to do to improve your health. But the day is slipping by me now and I have things to do so that's all for now. Have a great day!
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Friday, January 04, 2008
The Shortage
I actually got almost all of my work done earlier today while the kids were finishing up with some school work so now while my sweet Hunk O Honey is out running a couple of errands I have a few minutes to blog something that has been on my mind a great deal for months and months now.
The young woman (or not so young as the case sometimes may be) who chooses to follow the Lord and turns away from the deceit of feminism and the lies that she was
I stumbled so long and fell so hard so many times (and occasionally still do, though not as much now) trying to figure out just what is this "godly woman" that I'm supposed to turn into... and if that wasn't daunting enough in itself, how in the world was I supposed to raise daughters up to be one! That overwhelming feeling of "NOW WHAT DO I DO! AND HOW DO I DO IT! AND WHO AM I...AND WHERE AM I GOING" overtook me more than once and I can clearly remember going to church and to prayer meetings and thinking that I had no business being there and there was no way on this planet or any other that I could possibly fit in or have any place in this kind of setting. I felt like a barn boot trying to find purpose for itself among a room full of strappy high heels.
I can remember so clearly seeing the women in the first church that I ever attended and thinking "there is NO WAY I can ever be like that!" as some of them would go about greeting visitors or helping the mommies of the little ones get their babies settled into the nursery or serving the meal and chatting about the goodness of the Lord with other young Christians after the service. I remember being totally stunned by the wide variety of attitudes and mannerisms, and multitudes of expressions of joy that I saw in all of those sweet ladies and feeling shocked that godly women were not the borg-like monotone, bland, repetitive robots I had always envisioned them to be.
I gradually lost interest in watching women I didn't know and though I learned a lot from simply reading scripture, there is still absolutely nothing in the world that teaches like a living example does. I still thank the Lord every day for every good example of a loving godly woman He ever allowed me to have in my life.... but most especially for the few and I mean FEW who were sweet enough and kind enough and concerned enough and selfless enough to take the time to pray with me and read scripture with me and LISTEN to me as I tried to become what I was desperately trying to learn to be. I'm still learning, and I'm still incredibly thankful for those women who are willing to be a help and share their experience and make that sacrifice of time for which I could never give an equal reward.
I could (and maybe will someday) write a book of all the things I wish so desperately to have been taught. From how to teach my children, to how to be a godly wife, to how to keep my home in order and grocery shop with a budget, to handling a disagreement with another lady and how to share my concerns for one of my sisters in the Lord appropriately.... I've needed to be taught. Not only those things but I needed to be taught from the very beginning how to live... just live the day to day life in such a way as to protect my testimony and reach out to those around me for Him.
I don't for one minute believe that the Lord intended for every woman who comes to Him to have to learn to live a godly life by the "skinned knees & broken heart method" like I have had to so many times. I don't believe either that the Lord intended for us to have no choice but to
I've been told
I'm not saying that a woman can't be saved without a good solid godly Titus 2 woman to learn from, and I'm not saying that a woman can't become a godly wife and mother and church member without a mentor or teacher or older lady to example Christian living. I AM saying that without women who were willing to study with me and pray with me and work along side of me showing me with their own lives how to live each day in dependence on the Lord.... I floundered and fell and stumbled along suffering many hurts needlessly.I AM saying that who in their right mind (or spirit) would wish that on a baby Christian? I AM saying that growing pains don't always have to hurt as bad as they sometimes do. I AM saying that life in Christ is full of joy, but that it also carries sorrow and we are to help bear one another's burdens.
And before I get bashed over the head too hard about the 'for personal gain' comments.... let me say that there is nothing wrong with making a living, pursuing a profit or making a buck where you can. I am saying PLEASE don't do it and then get puffed up about yourself and start going around talking about your 'method' or 'program' or 'plan' as though it is taken directly from the mouth of the Lord and is the only way for a person to live right for Christ. I have had my fill of seeing young Christians who just want to do right and live right spend themselves to death trying to find out how to do it!
There is such a shortage now of women who are willing to take any time away from
The results of the failure of women to do such simple things as visit new Christian ladies and pray with them, or form friendships with them and help them along are all around us today. You can see them in the jaded eyes of the young lady who says she "used to go to church but I don't have time now", or the woman who looks you level in the eye and says " I can study at home as well as I can at church", or the bitter snappy tone of "I don't need a church to know Jesus", and haven't we all met that lady who just looks so battle worn it tears your heart to bits as she says "I just don't have the time". If you really think about it it's heartbreaking so ladies... who can you call this week? Who can you go see on your way to the grocery store? Who can you invite, just one more time, to come to church this week? Who can you share just a tiny part of what the Lord has blessed you with this week?
One of my favorite "Titus 2" ladies that I've ever known never hesitated to take the opportunity to show me she loved me in some little way. It may have been a phone call as she was heading to town to see if she could pick up an item or two from the store for me, or just stopping by on her way down the road to see how my sick child was feeling. The phone call to ask how I was doing for no special reason, the well timed card in the mail just to remind me that she was there if I needed to talk, the invitation to come over and pray or study scripture... those things were like baby Christian vitamins! I can't tell you how much I learned from her in those brief bits of time here and there, week by week, and year by year! Her constant encouragement to "call if you need anything", her helpful advice (without judgment or criticism) when problems popped up, her sweet words of encouragement when she could tell I was having a hard time, her never failing to say "can I pray for you?" and then doing it RIGHT THEN AND THERE.... all of those things helped me grow and to hang in there when things were hard. There should never be a shortage of women willing to do those things, but there is and ladies... we are the only ones who can change that! Think about it, study about it and pray about it... then do as the Lord leads you.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Being quiet
It's a rare day when I sit down to blog twice in the same day. I guess it's a cheating sort of way to force myself to sit still for awhile and take a break of sorts. My mind doesn't seem to want to slow down but my body really HAS to, at least for a little while.
Like I said in an earlier post there are changes on the way around our house and in our lives. I guess this is the time of year for reflecting on the year that is now gone and evaluating it bit by (sometimes)painful bit. So much has changed in our family so quickly since Troy got saved that the last two and a half years or so have felt like a tilt a whirl at the county fair back home.... as soon as I think I've caught my balance and can make out the shapes in the distance they disappear in a blur again. I've literally spent nights sweating it out in prayer just seeking God for the grace to hang on, just waiting for that specific line to follow. Yet, knowing all along that He has shown me time and time again where to begin.... and time and time again I have failed miserably.
So here we are treading water so to speak (er type?) with our lives in a strange holding pattern that isn't the mountain top or the valley, but that shifting and uncertain in-between land where the only thing you can do is take each step in faith listening with all your heart so that you don't accidentally miss that still small voice that will always answer in the moment of quietness that seems most fleeting. Since late last summer I've been studying about quietness and stillness in the scriptures, for a lot of years quiet was the thing that my life lacked the most, so now that it makes the more than occasional appearance I can't help but notice the contrast and ask the Father to reveal Himself more to me during those times.
I used to fear those times of quiet because they almost always came before an enormous storm.... like the 'summer of sixteen' when me and the Hunk o' Honey were suddenly bombarded with extra children to care for. Within a week's time we went from being a household of 2 adults and 2 children 2 and under to a household of 2 adults with 16 children 13 and under, 4 of those being under 2. Right before that happened we were sitting on our porch late one evening in the quiet after having stripped and waxed the hardwood floors in our new-to-us home thinking and talking about how nice it was to have some quiet time with the babies in bed to enjoy the stars and the cool evening air. That storm of a summer gave us many blessings and many tears and trials, and even a few scars but I've never forgotten the quiet before the storm and in looking back I've often wondered what I could have done beforehand that would have made weathering the storm easier. But that's just one example of why I've always feared the quiet times.
I've also feared those times of quiet because they almost always seem to bring behind them big changes that may or may not be things I will be happy with. A few months before we moved out here there was a time of quiet. Things didn't seem too bad or too good, and there was just a steady rhythm to the days. Just when I feared that I was falling into a rut of sorts with the day to day routineness of things; in blew the storm.... and it raged on for months with the end result being a cross country move for my family and being separated from so many of the people and things we loved the most. But again, in looking back I wondered many times what could have been done to make weathering the storm easier and make the transitions it brings smoother.
I think that I've learned through all of those things, plus the many that I don't have time to type about that instead of fearing the quiet I need to use that time to listen. To put my head to the Savior's chest and just hear what His heart would speak to mine. I've learned that if I listen he will speak to me and tell me just what He needs me to know.... instead of what I think I need to know. Today the Lord reminded me of a time that I didn't know what to do and all I had to do was listen to hear him and let go of the things I was wrestling with. He reminded that during ALL of those storms He stood there with me and never let me suffer more than He was able to help me bear. I've learned to use the quiet to draw nearer to Him .... He is my strength and apart from Him I can withstand nothing at all.
So here I am, enjoying my quiet for today, and even being thankful that the Lord sees farther ahead than I am able to and that He gave me this time of quiet to prepare for whatever is ahead of me be it storm or blessing or more quiet.
Like I said in an earlier post there are changes on the way around our house and in our lives. I guess this is the time of year for reflecting on the year that is now gone and evaluating it bit by (sometimes)painful bit. So much has changed in our family so quickly since Troy got saved that the last two and a half years or so have felt like a tilt a whirl at the county fair back home.... as soon as I think I've caught my balance and can make out the shapes in the distance they disappear in a blur again. I've literally spent nights sweating it out in prayer just seeking God for the grace to hang on, just waiting for that specific line to follow. Yet, knowing all along that He has shown me time and time again where to begin.... and time and time again I have failed miserably.
So here we are treading water so to speak (er type?) with our lives in a strange holding pattern that isn't the mountain top or the valley, but that shifting and uncertain in-between land where the only thing you can do is take each step in faith listening with all your heart so that you don't accidentally miss that still small voice that will always answer in the moment of quietness that seems most fleeting. Since late last summer I've been studying about quietness and stillness in the scriptures, for a lot of years quiet was the thing that my life lacked the most, so now that it makes the more than occasional appearance I can't help but notice the contrast and ask the Father to reveal Himself more to me during those times.
I used to fear those times of quiet because they almost always came before an enormous storm.... like the 'summer of sixteen' when me and the Hunk o' Honey were suddenly bombarded with extra children to care for. Within a week's time we went from being a household of 2 adults and 2 children 2 and under to a household of 2 adults with 16 children 13 and under, 4 of those being under 2. Right before that happened we were sitting on our porch late one evening in the quiet after having stripped and waxed the hardwood floors in our new-to-us home thinking and talking about how nice it was to have some quiet time with the babies in bed to enjoy the stars and the cool evening air. That storm of a summer gave us many blessings and many tears and trials, and even a few scars but I've never forgotten the quiet before the storm and in looking back I've often wondered what I could have done beforehand that would have made weathering the storm easier. But that's just one example of why I've always feared the quiet times.
I've also feared those times of quiet because they almost always seem to bring behind them big changes that may or may not be things I will be happy with. A few months before we moved out here there was a time of quiet. Things didn't seem too bad or too good, and there was just a steady rhythm to the days. Just when I feared that I was falling into a rut of sorts with the day to day routineness of things; in blew the storm.... and it raged on for months with the end result being a cross country move for my family and being separated from so many of the people and things we loved the most. But again, in looking back I wondered many times what could have been done to make weathering the storm easier and make the transitions it brings smoother.
I think that I've learned through all of those things, plus the many that I don't have time to type about that instead of fearing the quiet I need to use that time to listen. To put my head to the Savior's chest and just hear what His heart would speak to mine. I've learned that if I listen he will speak to me and tell me just what He needs me to know.... instead of what I think I need to know. Today the Lord reminded me of a time that I didn't know what to do and all I had to do was listen to hear him and let go of the things I was wrestling with. He reminded that during ALL of those storms He stood there with me and never let me suffer more than He was able to help me bear. I've learned to use the quiet to draw nearer to Him .... He is my strength and apart from Him I can withstand nothing at all.
So here I am, enjoying my quiet for today, and even being thankful that the Lord sees farther ahead than I am able to and that He gave me this time of quiet to prepare for whatever is ahead of me be it storm or blessing or more quiet.
Where have I been?
A sweet friend emailed me to ask that question so I thought that even though it really hasn't been too terribly long I would post my whereabouts on here. We ended the year 2007 with a trip to the hospital emergency room for me on Sunday. Wouldn't you know it, as soon as I start talking about health again there goes mine acting up! It's nothing terribly serious I don't believe, my heart just took a spell of beating the wrong way again and we are really hoping that I'll be able to get some rest and that it will get back to normal on it's own.... at least that's what I am asking the Lord to do for me. If it doesn't resolve soon enough then I guess I will have to go back on all the medications that I've been blessed to be free of for the past few years and I would really rather not have to do that because of the side effects.
We did get to make it to the Watch night service for new years eve and it was wonderful as usual with plenty of great preaching. Bro. Hickman preached an especially convicting message on building walls and removing rubble that stirred me and the Hunk O' Honey in some big ways. Our home preachers did great too and our family is really charged up about getting reloaded for the Lord this year. My own little preacher boy (I have to learn to stop calling him little) preached about spiritual anemia....... it amazes me how the Lord has spoken to him about such simple things and given them such depth of meaning in the scriptures for him to share. I think we started this new year off the right way... convicted and praying that the Lord will make us vessels that He can use.
Now that all of the holiday hoopla is finally over and behind us we are really going to knuckle down and get the house in order (again) and get caught back up with our schooling. I spent all of yesterday cleaning out the fridge and making and canning soup and stock. The kids did lots of schoolwork yesterday and today will probably be a repeat of all of that... only with me taking a few more breaks than I did yesterday since I ended up feeling really awful by the end of the day.
We have turned off in a really horrible cold spell here and it seems that extreme temperatures in either direction automatically make it harder for my body to cooperate with my plans. The extra cold also means more work for us with the critters and trying to keep warm. The glass broke out of the fireplace insert late last night so me and the Hunk O' Honey were up late trying to get a piece of metal cut into place to keep it working temporarily since that is the only heat we have. We would really be miserable if the heat in the house was non existent like it is in the car! Thankfully today I don't have to go anywhere except outside a couple of times to thaw the critters water and to get more wood for the fire.
So, now that everyone knows that I haven't fallen off the planet and that things are sorta kinda almost nothing like normal around here.... I better go wake up the kids and get the rest of this day going. Y'all have a wonderful day!
We did get to make it to the Watch night service for new years eve and it was wonderful as usual with plenty of great preaching. Bro. Hickman preached an especially convicting message on building walls and removing rubble that stirred me and the Hunk O' Honey in some big ways. Our home preachers did great too and our family is really charged up about getting reloaded for the Lord this year. My own little preacher boy (I have to learn to stop calling him little) preached about spiritual anemia....... it amazes me how the Lord has spoken to him about such simple things and given them such depth of meaning in the scriptures for him to share. I think we started this new year off the right way... convicted and praying that the Lord will make us vessels that He can use.
Now that all of the holiday hoopla is finally over and behind us we are really going to knuckle down and get the house in order (again) and get caught back up with our schooling. I spent all of yesterday cleaning out the fridge and making and canning soup and stock. The kids did lots of schoolwork yesterday and today will probably be a repeat of all of that... only with me taking a few more breaks than I did yesterday since I ended up feeling really awful by the end of the day.
We have turned off in a really horrible cold spell here and it seems that extreme temperatures in either direction automatically make it harder for my body to cooperate with my plans. The extra cold also means more work for us with the critters and trying to keep warm. The glass broke out of the fireplace insert late last night so me and the Hunk O' Honey were up late trying to get a piece of metal cut into place to keep it working temporarily since that is the only heat we have. We would really be miserable if the heat in the house was non existent like it is in the car! Thankfully today I don't have to go anywhere except outside a couple of times to thaw the critters water and to get more wood for the fire.
So, now that everyone knows that I haven't fallen off the planet and that things are sorta kinda almost nothing like normal around here.... I better go wake up the kids and get the rest of this day going. Y'all have a wonderful day!
Friday, December 28, 2007
Forgive me for rambling, but
What is it about this time of year that causes us to look over the past 12 months and seriously ponder those things in our lives that need changing? Maybe it's tradition or maybe it's some sort of cyclical emotional response that we just fall into after the highs and lows of so many back to back celebrations, but whatever it is I guess if it causes us to look for ways to improve who and what we are then it's a good thing and maybe we should evaluate things like that more often than once a year. I usually tend to start looking over things toward the end of October and gradually try to figure out what the things in my life are that I am the least able to allow myself to continue doing or not doing that I ought to be and then try to come up with a reasonable solution. This year that list is a lot longer than I want to admit.
I have to say that me and my little family really have come such a long way in such a short period of time that a little part of me almost wants to just excuse all of those glaring shortcomings and go on about my life as is without guilt. Then the (somewhat) sensible side of me that knows that I have to set a better example for my kids every day says "shape up sister! let's get to work"..... so here I have been, perched not so contentedly on the corner of 'Falling short' and 'Walking upward'.... again.
I'm not kidding about coming along way in a short time. 3 years ago we were living in a shack that was literally falling down around us, eating nearly all junk food, telling time by what was on the tv, and for all intents and purposes slowly killing ourselves with the lazy laid back lifestyle that we thought at the time was "fun". We had no spiritual life to speak of other than the occasional memory of attending the sweet little country church a couple of years before that.... and it showed. Now we live in a comfortable home that meets our needs well, and we live here knowing that for now this is where the Lord wants us to be. We eat healthy (for the most part) meals and little junk food. Our tv is rarely even on and certainly not on the trash that used to be so welcomed in our home. We are outside everyday working and learning in fresh air, and our bodies are so much healthier now than what they have been in this decade!
As far as our spiritual lives.... well the difference is night and day. We love the Lord and every day make sure that we spend time with HIM, our church is pretty much our home away from home and we have no intention of making any kind of changes that are outside of what the Lord has for us in His plan.... but even with all of that being said, we could stand to be closer to Him and we could stand to spend more time with Him. So the first thing I plan to improve is how I approach my day to day walk with the Lord. We very faithfully have devotions and prayer time but I think where we really lack is that quiet alone time with the Lord to just have a private study or time to pray privately and I am determined to set that time aside no matter what else has to be pushed back or changed to get it. There are some other things in that vein that will be changing but I won't go any further into it here.
I'm also feeling really burdened about our physical health. I've talked about my health before but sometimes I just have to say it again... I deal with a chronic health disorder. It affects my heart and the way it functions and sometimes I faint, sometimes I feel so tired and grouchy that it's hard to care about anything. Sometimes it feels like my chest is about to cave in and that I may be taking my last breath at that particular moment in time. I get terrible headaches that cause me to be sick and unable to do anything but throw up for days at at a time.A lot of the time I feel like I am looking and hearing through a very long dark tube while being spun around by my feet and it makes me mad sometimes to be so helpless to change any of that. BUT----3 years ago I was fainting up to 6 times PER DAY! But now I faint maybe 3 times in 6 months.... if that much, and the rest of those symptoms are so much less now than before that for sometimes 2 week stretches of time I can convince myself that I'm perfectly normal....almost.
I said all of that to say this.... I intend to do everything I can to help continue to improve my health and my family's health. I am 100% convinced that our diet is a key to having a healthier life. Not just our food but the things that go in and out of our homes are keys too. (I have noticed that since we stopped using so many of those horrible toxic chemicals to "clean" our house we haven't been catching so many colds and such.) I know that even more changes are needed in our diets, and in our habits around our home to improve our health. I've been reading more and more about food lately and it's just scary what kind of "food" we are eating. The fastest, smartest thing you can do to improve your family's health through your diet start reading about MSG and aspartame. I double dare you........ just google it, type in' MSG + obesity ' or ' MSG addiction' and settle down for some interesting reading that should change the way you look at food forever. Here's one link on the truth about MSG to get you started.
My family's health is literally in my hands. I am the person who is responsible for choosing their food, preparing their food, and serving their food. In the last 2 years our diet is what has made the most dramatic change, and it's what changed most dramatically before things went downhill for us in the first place. We went from drinking fresh, whole milk straight from the farm and eating farm fresh produce and meat, doing all of our baking from scratch and using whole natural fats and being in top notch health all the time to almost the total opposite in the first few months of 2001. By the 3rd quarter of 2003 I had required a hysterectomy, Troy had required gallbladder surgery, all of us were catching frequent colds and viruses, I was fainting constantly and on nearly a dozen daily medications, the kids weren't sleeping well, we were all feeling exhausted all the time, and our overall health was definitely on the downward trend.
Now, I can't say that our diet is the sole cause of all the health problems we've had but I can say that when we were eating fresh whole foods and none of this processed stuff with a yard long list of chemicalized and processed to death compounds in the ingredient list we were extremely healthy, and I can say that now that we are working toward weeding out the processed junk again we are improving our health dramatically. High fructose corn syrup, soybean oil, and msg are all things that are slowly killing us and they are present in almost everything you buy at the grocery store or restaurant. It amazes me that people won't pay the price or take the time to prepare healthy foods for their families but they will gladly shell out hundreds of dollars (or more) each month for health care and dental bills and medications and time lost from work and spend so much time scheduling those appointments and going to them.
And that's all I have to say about that.... for now. I can tell you that there are changes on the way folks.... big ones and little ones but all have been soaked in prayer and I know that they are necessary. All that talk about food has made me hungry now, and my family is patiently waiting for me so I had better stop blogging for now.
I have to say that me and my little family really have come such a long way in such a short period of time that a little part of me almost wants to just excuse all of those glaring shortcomings and go on about my life as is without guilt. Then the (somewhat) sensible side of me that knows that I have to set a better example for my kids every day says "shape up sister! let's get to work"..... so here I have been, perched not so contentedly on the corner of 'Falling short' and 'Walking upward'.... again.
I'm not kidding about coming along way in a short time. 3 years ago we were living in a shack that was literally falling down around us, eating nearly all junk food, telling time by what was on the tv, and for all intents and purposes slowly killing ourselves with the lazy laid back lifestyle that we thought at the time was "fun". We had no spiritual life to speak of other than the occasional memory of attending the sweet little country church a couple of years before that.... and it showed. Now we live in a comfortable home that meets our needs well, and we live here knowing that for now this is where the Lord wants us to be. We eat healthy (for the most part) meals and little junk food. Our tv is rarely even on and certainly not on the trash that used to be so welcomed in our home. We are outside everyday working and learning in fresh air, and our bodies are so much healthier now than what they have been in this decade!
As far as our spiritual lives.... well the difference is night and day. We love the Lord and every day make sure that we spend time with HIM, our church is pretty much our home away from home and we have no intention of making any kind of changes that are outside of what the Lord has for us in His plan.... but even with all of that being said, we could stand to be closer to Him and we could stand to spend more time with Him. So the first thing I plan to improve is how I approach my day to day walk with the Lord. We very faithfully have devotions and prayer time but I think where we really lack is that quiet alone time with the Lord to just have a private study or time to pray privately and I am determined to set that time aside no matter what else has to be pushed back or changed to get it. There are some other things in that vein that will be changing but I won't go any further into it here.
I'm also feeling really burdened about our physical health. I've talked about my health before but sometimes I just have to say it again... I deal with a chronic health disorder. It affects my heart and the way it functions and sometimes I faint, sometimes I feel so tired and grouchy that it's hard to care about anything. Sometimes it feels like my chest is about to cave in and that I may be taking my last breath at that particular moment in time. I get terrible headaches that cause me to be sick and unable to do anything but throw up for days at at a time.A lot of the time I feel like I am looking and hearing through a very long dark tube while being spun around by my feet and it makes me mad sometimes to be so helpless to change any of that. BUT----3 years ago I was fainting up to 6 times PER DAY! But now I faint maybe 3 times in 6 months.... if that much, and the rest of those symptoms are so much less now than before that for sometimes 2 week stretches of time I can convince myself that I'm perfectly normal....almost.
I said all of that to say this.... I intend to do everything I can to help continue to improve my health and my family's health. I am 100% convinced that our diet is a key to having a healthier life. Not just our food but the things that go in and out of our homes are keys too. (I have noticed that since we stopped using so many of those horrible toxic chemicals to "clean" our house we haven't been catching so many colds and such.) I know that even more changes are needed in our diets, and in our habits around our home to improve our health. I've been reading more and more about food lately and it's just scary what kind of "food" we are eating. The fastest, smartest thing you can do to improve your family's health through your diet start reading about MSG and aspartame. I double dare you........ just google it, type in' MSG + obesity ' or ' MSG addiction' and settle down for some interesting reading that should change the way you look at food forever. Here's one link on the truth about MSG to get you started.
My family's health is literally in my hands. I am the person who is responsible for choosing their food, preparing their food, and serving their food. In the last 2 years our diet is what has made the most dramatic change, and it's what changed most dramatically before things went downhill for us in the first place. We went from drinking fresh, whole milk straight from the farm and eating farm fresh produce and meat, doing all of our baking from scratch and using whole natural fats and being in top notch health all the time to almost the total opposite in the first few months of 2001. By the 3rd quarter of 2003 I had required a hysterectomy, Troy had required gallbladder surgery, all of us were catching frequent colds and viruses, I was fainting constantly and on nearly a dozen daily medications, the kids weren't sleeping well, we were all feeling exhausted all the time, and our overall health was definitely on the downward trend.
Now, I can't say that our diet is the sole cause of all the health problems we've had but I can say that when we were eating fresh whole foods and none of this processed stuff with a yard long list of chemicalized and processed to death compounds in the ingredient list we were extremely healthy, and I can say that now that we are working toward weeding out the processed junk again we are improving our health dramatically. High fructose corn syrup, soybean oil, and msg are all things that are slowly killing us and they are present in almost everything you buy at the grocery store or restaurant. It amazes me that people won't pay the price or take the time to prepare healthy foods for their families but they will gladly shell out hundreds of dollars (or more) each month for health care and dental bills and medications and time lost from work and spend so much time scheduling those appointments and going to them.
And that's all I have to say about that.... for now. I can tell you that there are changes on the way folks.... big ones and little ones but all have been soaked in prayer and I know that they are necessary. All that talk about food has made me hungry now, and my family is patiently waiting for me so I had better stop blogging for now.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Count your blessings... Part 2
Thank you all so much for COUNTING YOUR BLESSINGS. I've gotten so many emails that I still haven't had time to read them all through! I'll post a couple of the emails that I got now and hopefully I will be able to find the time to put the rest of them up later on today (after I do all of my errands and chores). I'm so happy to read the blessings that the Lord has been pouring out on His people!!!
First, I'll copy and paste the email from my sweet friend Miss Willie. I was so glad to get the email from her, she is one of my oldest and dearest friends back home and clearly remembers living next door to me when our sweet little Fred child was in diapers! I wish I had time for editing but today is busy so here you go.
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Oh dearest Jeannie,
Reading today that you are counting your blessings is a blessing itself. So many times during the Christmastime season people get down and blue over what they can't do or can't have or can't receive and it's terrible but it makes me mad. Tell the children that Psalm 84 is one of my favorite places to read too and that it, just like the rest of God's Word Will Never Fail! I have plenty of pies to bake and am helping the rest of the ladies today with the packages for the shut ins here so I have to get busy and tell you my blessings.
I am blessed and so thankful that I lived long enough after my own salvation to see every member of my family with the exception of one sister who thinks I am crazy get saved themselves. To me it was better and even sweeter than seeing my grandchildren born to see the people I love so dearly come to the cross and claim the promise of salvation for themselves.
I am blessed and thankful that the Lord has given me a good husband and that we are both still healthy despite being in our old age. My man is 85 this year and thank the Lord he is still able to bail his own hay and tend the cattle at the farm.
I am blessed and thankful that I have so many people to love and care for in my life. I have a family that by today's standards is very large and now that my oldest is back in this state we are all , except one grandson who is serving the Lord in Africa, within a half days drive of one another. I also have so many friends to thank the Lord for who have been such wonderful blessings to me over the years. The ones I am closest to that you always called the little old lady brigade come to mind as we have all served the Lord together for so many years now, from the time our own children were young to now in hard times and times when the crops were big we made sure we came together as often as possible to do something for the Lord. That ability to serve hand in hand with family and friends is one of my greatest blessings.
I am blessed and thankful for my home and for my home town. It's been such joy over the years now to see the Lord continue to work in this little place but bittersweet to see how many continue to deny him. Please keep praying for our mayor, you know he still needs the Lord. But also I think of your husband's family here and how badly they need to get close to the Lord. I know how much you used to love this little place and how much it hurt you to leave here but please keep praying for our little town Jeannie.
I am blessed and thankful to know a good number of new Christians and what a blessing to ssee them growing in the Lord! I can think of few things in life that are finer than being a part of a new Christians life.
I am blessed and thankful that I have what I need and that I know that the Lord will continue to provide for my needs every day. Remember that what we need is not the same as what we always want, you know yourself that sometimes people really do need a swift kick in the seat the same way a rebellious child will need the occasional swat on the backside. Life can't always be chocolate and roses but like I've always told you, somtimes there is pie.
My time to sit still today is nearly goen. You know how busy we stay and I have so much baking to do so I can't write much more. I am really thankful that the ice has melted and it's a bit warmer now. I worry so about the old ones and the ill ones here with that horrible weather. I am thankful for you dear Jeannie and how I've seen you growing over the time I've known you and I'm thankful that you've continued to raise your children in the Lord. I'm thankful that our God is gracious and loveing and kind and will give us second chances when we need them too. I'm thankful that you and Troy have surrendered your family to the care of the Only One who can take care of you.
I have to go get my pies working and finish the candys. Much love to the children from us and be kind to yourself for a change.
Willie
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Here is another one from my friend back home ..... Mindy.
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hey jeannie
i don't know why but i'm always scared to leave comments on your blog. we are all doing good and the kids say hi. i wish you were here or i was there but i guess the Lord has us where we are for a reason.
i'm thankful for being saved and for the changes i see in my life now. our preacher says growing hurts sometimes and we should be thankful for it anyway. it hasn't all hurt though and i can honestly say i've never been happier than i am now. please pray that aaron will get saved soon.
i'm thankful that the kids are growing and healthy and smart. michelle and evan are both reading everything they can get to and dwayne is talking up a storm.
i'm thankful for my church and don't know how i could get by from day to day without a good place to worship the Lord and good fellowship.
i'm thankful for my mom getting saved. she says please send more tapes. she is going to church with me all the time now too and seems to be really happy for the first time since i was a kid.
i'm thankful for the Lord helping me when things are hard for me to do. it's awesome how when you don't think you can do something that you know you have to do how you just get the grace you need.
love you, tell everyone hi,
mindy
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That's all I will put up right now, but please don't forget to count your blessings too!!!! Have a wonderful day.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Count your blessings!
I've been having myself a really good time this morning counting my blessings. I truly do have much to be thankful for, and every day that list only grows and grows. I thought it might be fun to "share" our blessings a bit on my blog. I would love to "hear" your blessings too so if you would like to please either leave a comment to this post or email me and I'll post yours anonymously ...... nothing tickles me more than talking about the wonderful things the Lord does for HIS children.
Here are mine (this is NOT a complete list and in no particular order of importance):
- I have a nice sturdy home to live in that the Lord lowered the rent on so that we could live here. We are able to keep our house warm in a manner that we can afford . Our home is far enough out of town that we can keep our critters, have our garden and still only be a ten minute drive from our church!
- I am much healthier now than I have been in years and years and it is only because the Lord has blessed me. I still have some bad days from time to time but they are far fewer and farther between than in the past. The Lord has helped me in finding ways to improve my overall health and manage my disorder (neurological and involving my heart) without a bunch of nasty and expensive medicines and doctors visits. Not only has my health improved dramatically but our entire family is healthier now.
- Me and my sweet Hunk 'O Honey are happier and more in love now than we ever thought we could be. The Lord has healed our marriage and restored what we had nearly destroyed. If the Lord had not intervened in our lives we would certainly have gone our separate ways and farther out into sin and ultimately would have destroyed our family..... but God in His goodness touched our broken hearts and now half the time we are as bad as newlyweds! I'm so thankful that the Lord has worked in our marriage and I pray that it just keeps getting sweeter as the years pass.
- My kids are healthy and strong and they love the Lord. The times of fellowship that the kids and I have in studying our Bibles just gets sweeter and better as they grow. We've been studying Psalm 84 and have found the blessings there to be so rich that we've just stayed there all week long. The kids have even decided to commit that Psalm to memory and have worked on it all week.
- Though our budget is still tight our needs are always met..... sometimes in sudden and totally unexplainable ways! I needed to go to the doctor this week but knew that the cost of the office visit alone would mean not being able to pay one of the bills. After agonizing and nearly driving myself nutso I drove to the doctor's office and received my FREE visit! With no explanation there was NO CHARGE for the office visit!
- From the things like the doctor's visit which was fairly important to me to the smallest details of my day the Lord meets our needs. Just a couple of weeks ago we were running really low on groceries and I had run completely out of sugar and had just not been able to find the time to go to the store. The very same day that I had run out I was pouting because I knew I would have to get up the next morning and start my day with yucky black coffee instead of my mildly sweetened version that I love. That night someone left sacks of groceries on my steps and in them was a bag of sugar!
- The kid's business has done so well that they've sold out of most everything they had! (They will be restocking and moving to a different site soon) They were able to meet their goal of purchasing enough sugar to feed all 3 hives of bees through the winter months and enough of some supplies to get started in the spring with increasing their hives. They have learned A LOT about dealing with people and how to handle losses (some folks did rip them off) and they've learned more about business than I ever thought they would (conversations about "costs of goods sold" and "return on investment" and "product development" are common now).
- Our church and church family are a HUGE blessing to us and it's one of the things that we are most thankful for on a daily basis. I remember so well when we first came here how foreign it felt to us to be under this kind of preaching but now I am so thankful for the preaching of the truth and the fellowship that we have in our church! Church family truly describes our church and I pray that it always stays that way. In all the churches that I've ever been to or visited this is only the second one where the people there truly love and care for one another like a family..... it's sad but true that too many churches are too caught up in their programs and cluttered up busyness to really take the time to love each other the way they should. I'm so very thankful for our church, it's stand on the truth, the fellowship of the people there, and most of all the presence of the Lord there and I pray that all of those things get richer and deeper this coming year!
- I'm thankful that I can look back over the year that's almost over now and see so many answers to prayer and sometimes it seems as though I could just see the hand of the Lord touching my life the way my hands touch bread dough to knead it and shape the loaves or rolls.... just that kind of woven through full contact touching and I'm thankful for that.
I have so many more things that I'm thankful for like good friends and neighbors and Troy's job and other things but my blogging time is over (awhile ago). I'm thankful for having so many blessings that I can't count them all in writing for lack of time! Please do share your blessings too...... I love to hear how the Lord blesses other people too!
Monday, December 17, 2007
Just thought I would share this with y'all
I have read quite a few of this man's articles and always found them thought provoking and interesting reads. This one really stood out to me in light of the increase in senseless shootings and I thought I would share it here.
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Buy A Gun
by Chuck Baldwin
December 14, 2007
"He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." (Luke 22:36 KJV)
Most of us are aware that the heroic actions of a brave woman at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado a few days ago saved the lives of perhaps scores, or even hundreds, of people. However, her bravery would not have counted for much had she not been armed.
On that fateful December Sunday, a man by the name of Matthew Murray entered the church armed to the teeth. According to press reports, he was armed with a semi-automatic rifle, two handguns, some smoke grenades, and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition.
By the time Murray arrived in the Colorado Springs church, he had already killed four people: two at a missionary training center miles away, and two in the church parking lot. He had wounded several others. No one realized it at the time, but the man was a serial killer in the midst of a rampage. He doubtless planned to kill as many people as he could, as there were thousands of people inside the church. Had there not been an armed citizen in the church house, the death toll would have been massive.
According to church spokesmen, the congregation has over a dozen members who volunteered to serve as security personnel for the church. Jeanne Assam was one of those volunteers.
A former police officer, Assam said, "I saw him [Murray] coming through the doors, and I took cover, and I waited for him to get closer. I came out of cover, I identified myself and engaged him and took him down." Murray died in the exchange. Although Assam shot him several times with her 9mm pistol, the coroner's office said that Murray actually succumbed to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. After being incapacitated by Assam's gunfire, Murray apparently turned one of his weapons on himself.
Chalk one up for the good guys, or in this case, good gals.
Have you noticed how the media dropped the Colorado story as soon as it was discovered that a lawfully armed citizen ended the potential massacre by using her own handgun? Had the killer been successful in murdering scores of people, however, it would have been at the top of the news for weeks. As it is, the story is already buried in the dungeon section of the news, if it is in the news at all.
One thing the national news media will always ignore is the practice of lawful self-defense. For example, most people are probably not aware of the fact that American citizens use a firearm to defend themselves more than 2.4 million times EVERY YEAR. That is more than 6,500 times EVERY DAY. This means that, each year, firearms are used 60 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives. Furthermore, of the 2.4 million self-defense cases, more than 192,000 are by women defending themselves against sexual assault. And in less than eight percent of those occasions is a shot actually fired. The vast majority of the time (92%), the mere presence of a firearm helps to avert a major crime from occurring. That is what Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) concluded after extensive research. According to Rep. Bartlett, the number of defensive uses is four times the number of crimes reported committed with guns.
John Lott, senior research scientist at the University of Maryland, agrees with Bartlett. His book "More Guns, Less Crime" documents the fact that--instead of being a cause of crime--firearms in the hands of private citizens are actually a major deterrent to crime.
Another fact conveniently ignored by the major media is the connection between wanton killings and so-called "gun-free" zones. For an example of this, look no further than the Virginia Tech massacre. In spite of Virginia state laws that allow citizens to carry concealed weapons for self-defense, Virginia Tech forbade its students and faculty from carrying weapons for self-defense on campus. Had a student or faculty member been armed--as was Ms. Assam in the Colorado Springs attack--no doubt many, if not most, of the Virginia Tech victims would not have died. Obviously, bad guys do not pay any attention to "gun-free" zones, except to note that such zones create a free-killing environment.
Is it any wonder that those states and cities with the most restrictive gun control laws tend to also be home to the highest crime rates? The old saying is still true. "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns." There is another saying I like even better. "When guns are outlawed, I will be an outlaw."
Even our Lord understood and validated the right of every person to arm themselves for personal self-defense. He said, "He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." (Luke 22:36 KJV) The old Roman sword was the First Century equivalent of a modern handgun. It was the most practical and convenient form of self-defense available at that time. Also, please note that at least two of Jesus' disciples (one of whom was Simon Peter) were in the habit of carrying their own personal swords, and Jesus never rebuked them. (See Luke 22:38.)
Jesus also acknowledged, "When a strong man ARMED [emphasis added] keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace." (Luke 11:21)
Furthermore, the Apostle Paul said, emphatically, "But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." (I Tim. 5:8) Does "not providing for his own" include not providing protection? Of course it does.
The right and, yes, obligation of personal self-defense is entrenched in both Christian and American tradition. People who would deny citizens the right to arm themselves are either naïvely ignorant or deliberately duplicitous. As Robert Heinlein said, "An armed society is a polite society."
America's Founding Fathers agreed with Heinlein. Thomas Jefferson said, "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." He also said, "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
Samuel Adams said, "[T]he said Constitution [shall] be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms."
James Madison said, "To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms."
Thomas Paine said, "[A]rms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property . . . Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."
George Washington called the private collections of arms "the people's liberty's teeth."
America must always preserve the right to keep and bear arms. To do any less is to invite oppression and tyranny, not to mention acts of violence.
Some years back, Alan Rice of the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO) wrote, "Since 1900 at least seven major genocides have occurred resulting in the murder of 50-60 million people:
*Ottoman Turkey, 1915-17; 1-1.5 million Armenians murdered;
*Soviet Union, 1929-53; 20 million anti-Communists and anti-Stalinists murdered;
*Nazi Germany & Occupied Europe, 1933-45; 13 million Jews, Gypsies, and Anti-Nazi murdered;
*China, 1949-52, 1957-60 & 1966-1976; 20 million anti-Communists murdered;
*Guatemala, 1960-1981; 100,000 Mayan Indians murdered;
*Uganda, 1971-1979; 300,000 Christians and Political Rivals of Idi Amin murdered;
*Cambodia, 1975-1979; 1 million murdered."
Rice continued to say, "In all seven of the genocides summarized above, gun control laws were in force before the genocide occurred, in some cases decades before. In five of the seven genocides, the lethal law, the gun control law was in force before the genocide regime took power."
Rice also said, "Gun control laws are usually enacted during a crisis or a perceived crisis." He then said, "Government officials, not hate groups or common criminals, were responsible for these seven genocides. In most of these cases the murder victims outnumbered their murderers; yet they were powerless to defend themselves because they were disarmed."
Do the math yourself. Absent an armed citizen, 32 innocent people lost their lives at Virginia Tech, while the presence of 1 armed citizen resulted in 2 innocent deaths in Colorado Springs. Furthermore, the presence of over 200 million firearms in the possession of the American people has done more to keep America free than any other human element--bar none!
Therefore, to help keep your family safe and your country free, go buy a gun.
© Chuck Baldwin
This column is archived as http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2007/cbarchive_20071214.html
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Buy A Gun
by Chuck Baldwin
December 14, 2007
"He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." (Luke 22:36 KJV)
Most of us are aware that the heroic actions of a brave woman at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado a few days ago saved the lives of perhaps scores, or even hundreds, of people. However, her bravery would not have counted for much had she not been armed.
On that fateful December Sunday, a man by the name of Matthew Murray entered the church armed to the teeth. According to press reports, he was armed with a semi-automatic rifle, two handguns, some smoke grenades, and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition.
By the time Murray arrived in the Colorado Springs church, he had already killed four people: two at a missionary training center miles away, and two in the church parking lot. He had wounded several others. No one realized it at the time, but the man was a serial killer in the midst of a rampage. He doubtless planned to kill as many people as he could, as there were thousands of people inside the church. Had there not been an armed citizen in the church house, the death toll would have been massive.
According to church spokesmen, the congregation has over a dozen members who volunteered to serve as security personnel for the church. Jeanne Assam was one of those volunteers.
A former police officer, Assam said, "I saw him [Murray] coming through the doors, and I took cover, and I waited for him to get closer. I came out of cover, I identified myself and engaged him and took him down." Murray died in the exchange. Although Assam shot him several times with her 9mm pistol, the coroner's office said that Murray actually succumbed to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. After being incapacitated by Assam's gunfire, Murray apparently turned one of his weapons on himself.
Chalk one up for the good guys, or in this case, good gals.
Have you noticed how the media dropped the Colorado story as soon as it was discovered that a lawfully armed citizen ended the potential massacre by using her own handgun? Had the killer been successful in murdering scores of people, however, it would have been at the top of the news for weeks. As it is, the story is already buried in the dungeon section of the news, if it is in the news at all.
One thing the national news media will always ignore is the practice of lawful self-defense. For example, most people are probably not aware of the fact that American citizens use a firearm to defend themselves more than 2.4 million times EVERY YEAR. That is more than 6,500 times EVERY DAY. This means that, each year, firearms are used 60 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives. Furthermore, of the 2.4 million self-defense cases, more than 192,000 are by women defending themselves against sexual assault. And in less than eight percent of those occasions is a shot actually fired. The vast majority of the time (92%), the mere presence of a firearm helps to avert a major crime from occurring. That is what Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) concluded after extensive research. According to Rep. Bartlett, the number of defensive uses is four times the number of crimes reported committed with guns.
John Lott, senior research scientist at the University of Maryland, agrees with Bartlett. His book "More Guns, Less Crime" documents the fact that--instead of being a cause of crime--firearms in the hands of private citizens are actually a major deterrent to crime.
Another fact conveniently ignored by the major media is the connection between wanton killings and so-called "gun-free" zones. For an example of this, look no further than the Virginia Tech massacre. In spite of Virginia state laws that allow citizens to carry concealed weapons for self-defense, Virginia Tech forbade its students and faculty from carrying weapons for self-defense on campus. Had a student or faculty member been armed--as was Ms. Assam in the Colorado Springs attack--no doubt many, if not most, of the Virginia Tech victims would not have died. Obviously, bad guys do not pay any attention to "gun-free" zones, except to note that such zones create a free-killing environment.
Is it any wonder that those states and cities with the most restrictive gun control laws tend to also be home to the highest crime rates? The old saying is still true. "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns." There is another saying I like even better. "When guns are outlawed, I will be an outlaw."
Even our Lord understood and validated the right of every person to arm themselves for personal self-defense. He said, "He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." (Luke 22:36 KJV) The old Roman sword was the First Century equivalent of a modern handgun. It was the most practical and convenient form of self-defense available at that time. Also, please note that at least two of Jesus' disciples (one of whom was Simon Peter) were in the habit of carrying their own personal swords, and Jesus never rebuked them. (See Luke 22:38.)
Jesus also acknowledged, "When a strong man ARMED [emphasis added] keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace." (Luke 11:21)
Furthermore, the Apostle Paul said, emphatically, "But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." (I Tim. 5:8) Does "not providing for his own" include not providing protection? Of course it does.
The right and, yes, obligation of personal self-defense is entrenched in both Christian and American tradition. People who would deny citizens the right to arm themselves are either naïvely ignorant or deliberately duplicitous. As Robert Heinlein said, "An armed society is a polite society."
America's Founding Fathers agreed with Heinlein. Thomas Jefferson said, "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." He also said, "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
Samuel Adams said, "[T]he said Constitution [shall] be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms."
James Madison said, "To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms."
Thomas Paine said, "[A]rms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property . . . Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."
George Washington called the private collections of arms "the people's liberty's teeth."
America must always preserve the right to keep and bear arms. To do any less is to invite oppression and tyranny, not to mention acts of violence.
Some years back, Alan Rice of the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO) wrote, "Since 1900 at least seven major genocides have occurred resulting in the murder of 50-60 million people:
*Ottoman Turkey, 1915-17; 1-1.5 million Armenians murdered;
*Soviet Union, 1929-53; 20 million anti-Communists and anti-Stalinists murdered;
*Nazi Germany & Occupied Europe, 1933-45; 13 million Jews, Gypsies, and Anti-Nazi murdered;
*China, 1949-52, 1957-60 & 1966-1976; 20 million anti-Communists murdered;
*Guatemala, 1960-1981; 100,000 Mayan Indians murdered;
*Uganda, 1971-1979; 300,000 Christians and Political Rivals of Idi Amin murdered;
*Cambodia, 1975-1979; 1 million murdered."
Rice continued to say, "In all seven of the genocides summarized above, gun control laws were in force before the genocide occurred, in some cases decades before. In five of the seven genocides, the lethal law, the gun control law was in force before the genocide regime took power."
Rice also said, "Gun control laws are usually enacted during a crisis or a perceived crisis." He then said, "Government officials, not hate groups or common criminals, were responsible for these seven genocides. In most of these cases the murder victims outnumbered their murderers; yet they were powerless to defend themselves because they were disarmed."
Do the math yourself. Absent an armed citizen, 32 innocent people lost their lives at Virginia Tech, while the presence of 1 armed citizen resulted in 2 innocent deaths in Colorado Springs. Furthermore, the presence of over 200 million firearms in the possession of the American people has done more to keep America free than any other human element--bar none!
Therefore, to help keep your family safe and your country free, go buy a gun.
© Chuck Baldwin
This column is archived as http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2007/cbarchive_20071214.html
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Don't ya just hate it....
When you have tried and tried to fight it and you end up sick anyway? Me and Fred have been fighting the latest virus going around for so long and we thought we had it beat. Until last night when I started running a fever and feeling like I was hit by a train. Hopefully though since I've been doing everything I can to fight this stuff off I will have beefed up my immune system enough to handle this better than I normally do! I hate being sick, especially when we have so much to do around here and my time at home seems so limited!
Fred and I had big soap making plans that have now been postponed and trimmed down to accomodate the two of us feeling so yucky. We did manage to make a small sampler batch of our newest creation.... Silk and Honey bars!! We have been playing around with adding silk fibers to our soaps and the batch we tried out we also tried our first stab at hot process soaping. We got so excited to see the saponification process happening so quickly that we totally forgot to add any scent to the soap at all so it's unscented. That's okay too though since we have a special friend who doesn't handle scents so well!
Hopefully we will both get over this virus soon and make lots and lots of soap. We would probably be making more right now but we are out of oils and I feel too yucky to stand and blend it right now. As soon as I am well enough to go to the store look out! There are some really cool benefits to doing the hot process soaps too, like you don't have to wait three weeks to use the soap.... perfect for impatient people like me. I have the oils infusing now for a new batch of eczema soap and oils infusing to make a silk soap with rosemary and spearmint and lemon. The only big drawback to hot process in the crock pot is that I have to do really tiny batches. We'll probably try in the mold in the oven hot process soon to get around that.
Well, I'm off to lay down.... letters are beginning to swim on the screen a bit. See ya.
Fred and I had big soap making plans that have now been postponed and trimmed down to accomodate the two of us feeling so yucky. We did manage to make a small sampler batch of our newest creation.... Silk and Honey bars!! We have been playing around with adding silk fibers to our soaps and the batch we tried out we also tried our first stab at hot process soaping. We got so excited to see the saponification process happening so quickly that we totally forgot to add any scent to the soap at all so it's unscented. That's okay too though since we have a special friend who doesn't handle scents so well!
Hopefully we will both get over this virus soon and make lots and lots of soap. We would probably be making more right now but we are out of oils and I feel too yucky to stand and blend it right now. As soon as I am well enough to go to the store look out! There are some really cool benefits to doing the hot process soaps too, like you don't have to wait three weeks to use the soap.... perfect for impatient people like me. I have the oils infusing now for a new batch of eczema soap and oils infusing to make a silk soap with rosemary and spearmint and lemon. The only big drawback to hot process in the crock pot is that I have to do really tiny batches. We'll probably try in the mold in the oven hot process soon to get around that.
Well, I'm off to lay down.... letters are beginning to swim on the screen a bit. See ya.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Hi there
Things as usual are busy around here but thankfully my sweet Hunk 'O Honey told me to stay home today and try to get rested up a bit and caught up on some of the work needing done around here. With all the extra work going on away from home and then the revival meetings at church we just haven't had much time to get anything done around here. Truth be told I could probably use about 2 months time to just get caught up at home but I don't expect to get it anytime soon.
We are trying to figure out what the best plan would be to get a better set up built for the chickens. We are still very interested in breeding some of the more rare/interesting breeds but with the dog problems and such we are going to have to invest the time and money in building a better home for them first. I have a great idea for a "chicken moat" around the garden but I lack the upper body strength to build it myself, not to mention the tools and the time to spend doing the work.
The chicken moat would be so good for us because it would lower the bug count in the garden dramatically and also keep out the rabbits.... my two biggest causes of loss out there. Plus it would reduce our workload since instead of hauling wagon load after wagon load of compost from one end of the property to the other all we would have to do would be rake it out onto the garden and spread it. The other plus is that we could easily turn the chickens and guineas out into the garden area (while protecting the plants) to scratch and eat the weed seeds and bugs and they can free range here and there instead of being totally confined all the time. Then the old chicken yard and house will be used as the rabbitry and storage.... handy since the bunnies are quickly taking over out there anyway!
We really want to get some speckled sussex chickens too! We are hoping that out of the remaining chickens there is a dominique hen and rooster (instead of them being all one or the other) and the same for the two australorps. Lord willing this spring we'll get the sussex chickens and some buff brahmas too and maybe a few other breeds. I'm trying to learn a less expensive way to feed them all though... at 11 bucks per 50 lb bag of feed these critters ain't cheap! I'm researching raising meal worms for the protein content and then feeding oats and corn and flax seed instead of pre-mixed feeds.
So now I've rambled on and on about the chickens... but we are also trying to get ready for goats. We really would like to try our hand at raising them but have been hung up on whether to get milk goats or meat goats. I think we've about decided to try for a nubian/boer cross that way we would have dual purpose goats. Jared may be going to work for a preacher down the road who is raising goats to get some experience working with them. Taeler is reading everything on the subject she can find and Caleb as usual is willing to do whatever work we tell him to. Troy is just praying that we make wise decisions about the breed and that the kids don't get livestock confused with pet. They haven't had any trouble with that so far but goats and sheep tend to be like large puppies and they have such personalities that Troy is concerned that the kids will give in to the urge to get attached.
The bees are doing good as far as we know. We are planning to inspect the hives later on this week to make sure that they are all queenright and storing food the way they should. If all goes well this winter we'll have the hives ready to begin making splits early in the spring and the kid's goal of 12 hives by mid summer will be attainable. The plan was to sell eggs all winter and early spring to buy the wooden ware and so on that they would need for the splits and the honey supers but with the loss of the chickens that they invested in we'll have to think that over.
Sometimes I just feel very very out of place around here. There isn't anyone else that I know here who is interested in the homesteading/simple living kind of stuff that we are and more often than not we are looked at funny for all the things we do with the critters and the garden and such. I miss living in the middle of nowhere with all the carhart/boot clad kids being the norm! I even miss having to drive so far to get to the store.... it sure did save Troy a lot of money too.
Speaking of saving money.... I was talking with someone the other day about one of my favorite websites in the web world, the Hillbilly Housewife. Miss Maggie has turned that website over to Miss Suzanne for those of you who weren't already aware. It will still have all of the HBHW recipes on it and articles but Miss Maggie just felt ready for something just a little different and she has begun a new website called Frugal Abundance. On her new website there is also a link to her new blog and there is plenty of information about what the changes are all about on the two websites.
Well folks, that's all the blogging time I have for now.... actually I've taken up more time than what I should have but you know how that goes. I hope everyone is having a good week so far.
We are trying to figure out what the best plan would be to get a better set up built for the chickens. We are still very interested in breeding some of the more rare/interesting breeds but with the dog problems and such we are going to have to invest the time and money in building a better home for them first. I have a great idea for a "chicken moat" around the garden but I lack the upper body strength to build it myself, not to mention the tools and the time to spend doing the work.
The chicken moat would be so good for us because it would lower the bug count in the garden dramatically and also keep out the rabbits.... my two biggest causes of loss out there. Plus it would reduce our workload since instead of hauling wagon load after wagon load of compost from one end of the property to the other all we would have to do would be rake it out onto the garden and spread it. The other plus is that we could easily turn the chickens and guineas out into the garden area (while protecting the plants) to scratch and eat the weed seeds and bugs and they can free range here and there instead of being totally confined all the time. Then the old chicken yard and house will be used as the rabbitry and storage.... handy since the bunnies are quickly taking over out there anyway!
We really want to get some speckled sussex chickens too! We are hoping that out of the remaining chickens there is a dominique hen and rooster (instead of them being all one or the other) and the same for the two australorps. Lord willing this spring we'll get the sussex chickens and some buff brahmas too and maybe a few other breeds. I'm trying to learn a less expensive way to feed them all though... at 11 bucks per 50 lb bag of feed these critters ain't cheap! I'm researching raising meal worms for the protein content and then feeding oats and corn and flax seed instead of pre-mixed feeds.
So now I've rambled on and on about the chickens... but we are also trying to get ready for goats. We really would like to try our hand at raising them but have been hung up on whether to get milk goats or meat goats. I think we've about decided to try for a nubian/boer cross that way we would have dual purpose goats. Jared may be going to work for a preacher down the road who is raising goats to get some experience working with them. Taeler is reading everything on the subject she can find and Caleb as usual is willing to do whatever work we tell him to. Troy is just praying that we make wise decisions about the breed and that the kids don't get livestock confused with pet. They haven't had any trouble with that so far but goats and sheep tend to be like large puppies and they have such personalities that Troy is concerned that the kids will give in to the urge to get attached.
The bees are doing good as far as we know. We are planning to inspect the hives later on this week to make sure that they are all queenright and storing food the way they should. If all goes well this winter we'll have the hives ready to begin making splits early in the spring and the kid's goal of 12 hives by mid summer will be attainable. The plan was to sell eggs all winter and early spring to buy the wooden ware and so on that they would need for the splits and the honey supers but with the loss of the chickens that they invested in we'll have to think that over.
Sometimes I just feel very very out of place around here. There isn't anyone else that I know here who is interested in the homesteading/simple living kind of stuff that we are and more often than not we are looked at funny for all the things we do with the critters and the garden and such. I miss living in the middle of nowhere with all the carhart/boot clad kids being the norm! I even miss having to drive so far to get to the store.... it sure did save Troy a lot of money too.
Speaking of saving money.... I was talking with someone the other day about one of my favorite websites in the web world, the Hillbilly Housewife. Miss Maggie has turned that website over to Miss Suzanne for those of you who weren't already aware. It will still have all of the HBHW recipes on it and articles but Miss Maggie just felt ready for something just a little different and she has begun a new website called Frugal Abundance. On her new website there is also a link to her new blog and there is plenty of information about what the changes are all about on the two websites.
Well folks, that's all the blogging time I have for now.... actually I've taken up more time than what I should have but you know how that goes. I hope everyone is having a good week so far.
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