The Foundations: Food

I haven't really wanted to talking about my personal food philosophy, but I am starting to realize that so many of the things I would like to tell you about won't make any sense to you unless you understand some of the background thinking and research that I have been doing for the last four or five years. I want you to understand that the changes and understanding came slowly, and the choices we are making now as a family reflect a fairly long process of life change.

Grilled cheese with turkey and apple slices

To start off, if this information is new and shocking for you, then don't make any sudden life changes, especially big ones. Remember to always keep your priorities straight, and don't let food come before God or your family. Ever. Period.

Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them.
1 Corinthians 6:13

So with that disclaimer lets dive right in. I come from a family that is pretty health conscious. My mom mainly cooked from scratch and taught us to do the same, really cooking not just following recipes. We didn't eat a lot of sugar, and I remember often wondering why I couldn't just be like the other kids have fruit roll-ups and gummy snacks in my lunch. I was almost an adult before I ever took any antibiotics, because mom always took care of our colds at home. So I thought I was pretty healthy, as far as lifestyles goes. But I was always sick. Always. Anyone who knows me well can attest to the fact. I got whooping cough at 24. Seriously. This and the fact that I was becoming a wife and mother spurred a deeper interest in researching and understanding the foods I ate. I was surprised to learn when I was already pregnant what a large roll the foods I (and my husband) ate BEFORE I was pregnant would play in the overall development and healthy of my future children. I would HIGHLY recommend the documentary The Ghost in Your Jeans, as a way to help you understand how the choices you make today (not just food, but so many choices) affect not just your children, but directly link to many generations after you. You can watch much of this documentary for free on YouTube, in little ten minute segments. This is a slight rabbit trail, but it is very interesting to watch it in light of verses like: Ex 34:7 and 1Cor 6:16-18. So we all have the opportunity to heal and harm the genetics we have and will pass onto our children. I started to realize how wide ranging the ramifications of my choices could be. In addition to that, as a wife and a mother I am the gate keep of my family's health, a job I take very seriously. Good healthy is a gift that cannot be bought, and is a huge asset if used properly in the kingdom of God. Generally speaking my kids will only eat as good as I allow. My kids can't make their own dinner, and even if they could they wouldn't have the wisdom to make choices that would bless them.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
1Corinthians 6:19 & 20

So this obviously brings us to the questions what is healthy food? First eggs would kill you science said, then they are the amazing miracle food. Some people think being a vegan is healthy. Others think eating a high protein (low-carb) diet is healthy. Some think fats are bad, or salt is bad, or...the list could go on and on. There are so many opinions out there, and there is a lot of propaganda, a lot of flaky "science". So how do you know what to believe?
That's a tough questions and one I have asked myself and other quite frequently. The best answer I have found is to hold it up to the light of God's word, which might sound kind of obtuse, when it comes to something like food science, but the Bible has an amazing way of keeping us balanced and helping us to keep our world in perspective. It also talks a lot about food. Second I have learned to question my sources. I learned that food manufacturing is THE largest industry in the US. Stop for just a second and mull that over. The largest in of the wealthiest nations in the world. We are talking about a lot of money.
It's easy for us as modern day Americans to think that science is this unbiased, factual, objective machine, and that my friends is a load of bull crap. Everyone has a history and we all view the "facts" through that history. Science is no exception. You know this if you have looked honestly and openly at the science behind evolution. Science can have an agenda just like everything else, and most of them time that agenda doesn't really care about what is best for you.
"A good example is Harvard University where Dr. Frederick Stare, head of the nutrition department for many years, began his career with several articles delineating nutritional deficiencies caused by white flour and a study on Irish brothers that positively correlated a high intake of vegetable oils-not animal fats-with heart disease. Soon after he became department head, however, the university received several important grants from the food procession industry. Dr. Stare's articles and weekly newspaper columns then began assuring the public that there was nothing wrong with white bread, sugar and high processed foods. He recommended one cup of corn oil per day to prevent heart disease..." Nourishing Traditions.

So there is a LOT of money to be made or lost depending on what you believe and what those beliefs will cause to you to do, because it reaches into money made off of our poor health as well. Understanding that fact will help you to filter in the information you come across. The main aim of the food industry is to make money. Not to keep you healthy, not to say that they are all evil and want to make you sick (though I'm sure that is the aim of some), but that your healthy is not their main goal.

For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil...
1Timothy 6:10

When I was trying to sort out all of these issues, I kept running across references to the book Nourishing Traditions. I hear about it on People's Pharmacy, from healthy nuts, from bloggers, from religious conservatives. It seemed to be popping up everywhere. So I decided to get a copy. Much of the book is simply a cook book, but it has a lot to say about food science and seems to be a very well researched fairly well balanced book. You can read a shortened version called Healthy 4 Life for free here. Other resources that affected my thinking include the documentaries King Corn, Food Inc., and Super Size Me. I also have found Real Food by Jessie Hawkins to be helpful. All of these resources have their own agendas and biases. It's important in any issue to listen to the arguments at both extremes. 

More more than any of these, it has been simply paying attention to the world around me. It was hearing it a news cast that Toco Bell was being sued because their all beef tacos because they contain more "meat filler" than beef. Or learning from neighbors and friends who raise cattle that they had problems with some sick cow (often times it was cancer) and would take it to be slaughtered. I finally asked (fearfully) if the meat from a sick cow was set aside for non-human consumption. I was told according to the law if the cow could walk it could be eaten (though they did tell me the cancer spots where cut out...not that this helps me much). Yum! It was hearing stories from the chicken processing plants in the town where my parents lived (I talked about some of them at the end of this post). It was reading about the link between a low fat diet and depression. It was hearing from a friend that her daughter had constant yeast infections until they switched to organic milk. If you want to be healthy you have to learn to think for yourself. You have to learn to pay attention to the world around you. Learn to learn. Knowledge is power! You can't blindly trust the world around you with no ramifications. The world does not have your best interest at heart, not in any area.

Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.

Matthew 10:16

I know, this was a lot of some of you take in. Lord willing next time we visit this topic I'll try share some of the concrete conclusions I have come to about our diet and life style, and what it means for our family, but I know that our diet will continue to change as our understanding changes, and as we learn more.

Simplifying Breakfast

I try to read through the book "Created to be His Helpmeet" every once in a while. Two copies were given to me by different people as wedding presents,  and now I give out copies to women I think might "enjoy" it. I say "enjoy", because though it is not a difficult read, the book really stands up in your face and challenges you quite a bit. And I like that, though I don't agree with the author in all things. And every time I read the book I seem to walk away with so new challenge or discovery. One part that struck me this time through was, "Always offer your children only once choice for breakfast...Providing the same simple food every morning (except maybe Saturday) causes a child to look forward to getting cereal on that one special morning." And the author went on to describe how to do a weeks worth of simple cooking by morphing one crock pot meal into the next. "It is not a grouchy old husband or bad days that cause the problems of cooking and cleaning for young wives. It is the lack of simple planning."

 I've also been reading the Reformation Acres blog and have been enjoying the inspiration and encouragement in the areas of laundry, cooking and cleaning. And I got to thinking about how much of my energy is directed into making these little decisions like, "What's for Breakfast!!??" while crabby hungry children cling to my legs wailing each and every day. So I started to think and pray about streamlining much of our life in these little areas, and leaving me with more time to enjoy my family. One issue was hampering me though; I'm an epicurean...a foody. I really do love to cook. I love to imaging it up. I love to see it come together. I love all the senses involved. The sizzle of onion in the pan, and watching it turn translucent, and then golden brown. I love to look in the fridge and find inspiration where many would find nothing. I would have been hard pressed not to fall among the leeks and onions crowd of Israelites leaving Egypt...oh and the melons. Don't forget the melons. So I had to come up with something simple...yet interesting. And this is what I have landed on for right now. Oatmeal. Doesn't sound like foodie food to you? Well here's how I'm approaching it. Oatmeal is basically a blank slate, like rice, and I can really dress it up in any way I please. While the blackberries were in I would pick some out of the hedge row and add it to our morning breakfast. I can simply continue through the year dressing up the oatmeal with what ever is in season, moving from berries, to peaches, to pears, to apples, to bananas and almond butter, or dried fruit in the winter. You could even go crazy and add chocolate chips. There are also spices to add, and nuts, or coconut or coconut oil, butter and cream or milk, and nut butters. (I have my first batch of homemade almond butter in the fridge right now. It was very easy, and since I never let it sit at room temperature the oil never separated. You can check out the directions here.) You can also dress up oatmeal with savory additions, like cheese, thyme, chives, bacon, onion, garlic, or even scrambled eggs. It's an interesting combinations, since oatmeal is kind of a sweet grain...I've only tried it once, and I can't decide if I like it or not. Basically what I'm saying is your imagination is the limit to your options, but what you do each morning basically stays the same. Muesli is also a good cold oatmeal breakfast dish if the heat is getting to you.

But I've gone an additional step in simplifying our routine. When I cook the oatmeal I make a double batch. Then the next day I take it out of the fridge and mash it well with a fork (you know how cold oat meal turns into a giant glob) add in any extras for flavoring (like the ideas above) and beat an egg into it all. If I have a lot and the oatmeal doesn't look completely coated then I add another egg. Then I plop down spoonfuls of this mixture into a well heated pan with lots of grease and fry them until they are golden brown on both sides. We eat them with syrup. And if there were ever any left I would save them as finger food snacks for the girls...but it doesn't seem to mater how much I make...there are never any left. They taste like a cross between oatmeal and french toast. It's a great way to reinvent any left over oatmeal, or any sort of left over starchy foods, like bread, mashed potatoes, or rice- but a word of caution, I don't think I would try this with instant oatmeal. I've been working this system for about three weeks now and breakfast is the ONLY meal I've not had any trouble getting the girls to eat, and I haven't gotten tried of it yet either. It really feels like you are eating something completely different the second day, and I guess really you are. So I just wanted to share, in case you might find it helpful too. Now if The Man gets tired of this at some point I will have to come up with a couple of systems to rotate through. We'll see how it goes. I'm saving muffins, pancakes, fresh donuts, waffles, coffee cake and all the other lovely breakfast things out there for Saturdays that I have enough gumption. Now I'm trying to turn my attention to simplifying and organizing my chores and lunch and dinner. Well see how it goes. Blessings!c

Cookbooks for Homesteaders: Preserving the Taste

Years ago my mother and I had a chance to glean in some strawberry fields at the end of the season. The fruit was all either under ripe or VERY much over ripe and it was perfect for making the most lovely strawberry sun preserves. The flavor was just amazing, much like strawberry freezer jam, or spreadable fruit leather. So I searched the internet and found some basic directions for strawberry sun preserves at this site. My batch came our very well. I make it with diced fruit and accidentally left too little juice, but it still came out lovely. I put it in pans in the windshield and front seat of my car (I face the car to the south) on a sunny day, so I don't have to worry about bugs getting in it. Plus it makes the car smell lovely. If you don't have a dehydrator, or if your too cheep to spend money on drying foods (like me!) use your car. Cheep and easy and it doesn't heat up the house. Hopefully I will be putting the car to good use this summer.
I noticed the reference to the cook book Preserving the Taste in the directions for making sun preserves. Its out of print but I ordered a copy (the first version because -again because it cost less and I'm cheep) and got it in the mail just a couple of days ago. And I love it. Its a much lovelier book than the cover makes you think (not that I judge a book by it's cover or anything, *ahem* me?). I don't like the many of the current styles in home preserves:fruit flavored sugar jells. As a family we are trying to move away from sugar in our daily diet, for many reason I may talk about some other time, and the preserves in this book are lower in sugar and really let the flavor shine through. The author Edon Waycott, tells you how to make your own pectin, which I have been interested in for quite a while. It isn't all fruit preserves there are also relishes, pickles, syrups, dried fruits, and herb vinegars. None of them require a pressure canner, which I'm also not very interested in using, because it's another piece of equipment to buy and store, and it steals all the nutrients from your foods too. As a friend of mine said, it makes tasty roughage. If you have been wanting to make preserves where the flavor really shines through then this may be the book for you. I'm hoping to make some of the peach butter...but instead of making it in the oven, I think I'm going to let it set in the car to cook. *smile* I just can't help trying!
I ran across an interesting link with lots of VERY interesting pickles you might enjoy looking at. Now is the time of year for putting up as much as you can. I hope to be elbow deep in it all before long.
Blessings!c

Baby Research

(these are just pretty fall pics...eye candy...nothing to do with the topic.)
When I got pregnant the first time, before the miscarriage, I couldn't figure out how to pick a doctor, and so I started to do research (I completely get this habit of researching things from my father. I think it's genetic, lol.) to try and figure out my best options. About that same time I ran across this blog post, which gave me lots of food for thought, though I still disagree with some of it. And that led to more research and renting this documentary on NetFlix which I HIGHLY recommend it to ANYONE who is pregnant and making plans in this direction. After all of this, I became fairly sure that I didn't want a typical hospital birth, but rather a midwife, birth clinic, or home birth option (home birth is out since we don't have a home, and I'm a first time mom with twins). I'm really glad I was able to make an informed decision about what sort of birthing care I wanted and what was best for me and the babies, instead of just doing what other people do. Oh and btw just in case you care all of this does not mean I won't transfer to the hospital care if it's need, but only if it's needed.

I said I would share some of the things I have been reading in all this research. I've tried to be REALLY picky about what books I read because I know there are only so many things you can learn from a book and if you read too much then you just end up freaked out and overwhelmed. So I did lots of research and took recommendations on books before actually spending the time to read anything. Here is the list I have gathered so far:

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth- This books was incredibly help full to me. I learned so much about how your body handles birth. The first half of the book is all first person birth stories, but not the scary screaming it was so awful kind, though they don't pull in punches either, just a nice balanced look at how a health birth goes. Until this book I was pretty afraid of giving birth, but now I'm not.
The Christian Childbirth Handbook- I've only read though part of this book so far. Of all the information I've gleaned out of it so far (which isn't much, because I haven't read far) I think I like the idea of memorizing scriptures for the birth the best. I mean when would you need the power of God more that giving birth?
Secrets of the Baby Whisperer- This one was recommended to me, or else I probably never would have picked it up, with a goofy title like that. But I wanted to find something about get your baby on a schedule, and this book fit the bill just perfectly. One other thing I really liked about it is that it talks about the different types of babies, personality styles if you will, and how to "read" your baby.
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding- A classic from the La Leche League. The idea of breastfeeding was a little intimidating, and the idea of doing it for twins is much more so. But it seems like one of those things that you mainly need to do and not read about so much. We'll see. My best friend loved this book, but I've been kind of struggling to get there. So much of the info on breastfeeding is mixed up with the info on parenting, because the two issues are closely related. But I don't want to practice some of their parenting advice, like co-sleeping for exsample. So it feels a little labor intensive to read through.
To Train Up a Child- This book was given to us by my in-laws when we married, and it's very good. Some of it is a little too hard core for me, but generally speaking I really like it. The main idea is that you take the time to train your child in private and not just wait till things go wrong in public and then try to hold it all together (something I know I would be VERY bad at) and train and discipline all at the same time. There stance is that there is a difference between training and discipline and if you train right you need to discipline very little in the longer run (and they have the kids and grandkids to prove that it works) . I've read though it once, not long after we married, I hope to read through it a few more times before the babies come, so my life won't look like this, lol. This book has given me so much hope and encouragement for parenting.
I hope to find a good book on baby sign language and to do some more reading on elimination communication or EC. You can read more about that here if you care to.
Blessings!c

At the Heart of It All

This is a follow-up post in regard to a wonderful book I have been reading called "Life Management for Busy Women" By Elizabeth George. You can read the first post here.

George puts first things first for sure. There is so much scripture and encouragement to bolster every point she makes. I wish I could include it all. Part 1, called "At the Heart of It All-Managing Your Spiritual Life" starts with a call to develop a passion for God’s Word, encouraging the reader to give this passion time (in your schedule), first time (like the first fruits of the Old Testament Pr 3:9), and early time (the first of your day Ps 63:1). I know that the Bible does not mandate that you get up early and give that particular part of your day to Him as apposed to having quiet time at some other point. But there is so much to be said for starting out your day with the Lord (Gen 19:27, Ps 5:3, Mk 1:35) all of which she highlights in the book.

The following quotes are all taken directly from the book, with the exception of my comments in parenthesis.

Ten Disciplines for Developing a Passion for God’s Word

1. Refuse to miss a day. (She suggests using a Quiet Times Calendar, like this one, and simply color in each day you had quiet time and use it as a gauge to see how you are doing.)

2. Pray as you approach God’s Word. Ask Him to assist you in understanding the living Word of God. Do as Solomon advised and cry out for knowledge and lift up your voice for understanding (Pr 2:3)

3. Consume God’s Word in various ways. Play teaching tapes and videos. Memorize and medicate on Bible verses. Place Scripture verses at strategic places throughout the house or your workplace.

4. Find a rhythm or a pattern that fits your lifestyle.

5. Be a woman of one Book-the Book. If you only have time to read one book make sure that is the Bible. I have friends who even make it a discipline to read the Bible before they read anything else each day.

6. Be accountable. Declare your intention to those who care for you most and are willing to check up on you and “hold your feet to the fire"

7. Beat the family. Does this sound strange? What I mean is to aim at getting up before your family gets up…As you take time via a personal quiet time to tune your heart strings to heave, then-amazingly!-your “tune” is sweeter when your husband and children get up.

8. Teach your children Deut 6:7 (I know these two points won’t apply to many of you yet.)

9. Purpose to get up. Set the alarm (When I was first trying to start this habit I would set the alarm for I time I knew I would actually wake up at, and pray the night before that God would help me to wake up and spend time with Him the next morning. Then when I got comfortable with that time I would set the alarm for five minutes earlier, and keep up this pattern until I had reached my goal, praying through the whole process. It worked really well for me.)

10. Aim for more time. Something is better than nothing and always aim for more. Donna (a mentor of George’s) shared with me that she did not allow herself to spend more time in any personal activity each day that you spent in the Word of God. (Wow! What a change that would be in my life!)

Five Disciplines for Developing a Passion for Prayer

1. Make a commitment. I know that for the first ten years of my life as a Christian, I flopped flailed- and failed! –in this vital area of prayer. It wasn’t until I made a written commitment that I began to seriously put in the work that the spiritual discipline of prayers demands. These were simple words, but they communicated my heart’s desire to God and defined my commitment-“Lord, I dedicate and purpose to spend the next ten years (lord willing) developing a meaningful prayer life.”

2. Realize that prayer is not optional. Decide that you will set aside some portion of time each day-alone-for prayer. That time can be five, ten fifteen minutes, or more. Once you’ve determined the amount of time, settled down in a place (your prayer place), set a timer (if it helps) and actually gone about the task of prayer, I think you’ll find that, as the sweet hymn bids us, you’ll want to “linger a while with Jesus.”

3. Refuse to miss a day. Like any muscle, the “muscle” of prayer must be used regularly to grow stronger.

4. Study the prayers of the Bible. (She mentions All the Prayers of the Bible by Herbert Lockyer, which sounded interesting to me.)

5. Study the prayers of the saints through the ages. One volume I (as a woman!) especially love is The Prayers of Susanna Wesley. I appreciate two things about these prayers. First, Susanna Wesley had a passion for God and a passion for prayer…Second is the fact that Susanna Wesley gave birth to 19 children! (talk about BUSY!) Without domestic help-and without her husband’s presences for much of the time-she cared for her babies (nine of whom died) and her lively brood, schooling them herself….and yet she still set aside time for prayer. When I think of this dear woman and her taxing circumstances, I can only surmise that…there goes every woman’s list of excuses for not praying!

I am blessed to have had in the past a wonderful, godly, older woman who taught me one of the great lesson of living and managing the Christian life. She cautioned, "Never major in the minors"....And now it's time to look at your life, dear one. What are the current raging passion of your heart? Evaluate your activities, the way you spend your God-given time. Such an exercise will reveal your passions. For instance, I know women who work scrapbooking...all night long! It's an out-of-control passion! I know women, too who stay up half the night reading...Beloved, these activities are "minors".

In this book we're addressing-and dreaming of-a life that's lived with passion and purpose. We're attempting the better management of our lives so that we better life out God's plan for us."



What challenging words! I plan on copying all the lists of personal disciplines into the Moleskin note book I carry in my purse, so maybe some of these things will start to take root in my life.

Vacation Reading-Life Management for Busy Women

I brought "Life Management for Busy Women- Living out God’s Plan with Passion & Purpose" by Elizabeth George with me on our little vacation, but didn’t really get into until after we had come home. It’s very different than the flowers and calendar on the front cover led to me think (you know what they say about judging a book by it's cover), much better in fact. I am VERY temped to write a post on every section of the book, but after a little thought have decided against doing this. One reason is I think you ought to get a copy of this book and read through it yourself. George has the ability to come along side you and feel like a close friend and mentor, and I don't think I could capture that in blog posts without simply typing up most of the book.
The book in broken into eight parts covering the following topics: managing your spiritual life, physical life, home life, financial life, social life, metal life, ministry life, and finally pulling all these parts together, managing your time...and your life. Each areas she breaks into two basic sections: what does God have to say about this and how can you practically apply this to your life.
I have been gobbling this book up. Her studies and the verses she brings to bear on each topic of the book are in depth, highly inspiring, and very motivational. She states her goals for this area well, "We've been addressing the matter of the heart. We've been going over our God-entrusted stewardship of all that we have and all that we are...Why go over these deeper issues? Because the first thing we must manage is our heart. As Christian women, our hearts and our lives (and everything else!) belongs to God. And when our affections are set on God, everything else falls into place..." She then follows up these studies with practical real life disciplines (usually ten) which help form habits in keeping with God's will for our lives. None of the disciplines are detailed guides of what to do, but instead are practical principles which should guide what we do and how we do it. I'm going to write a post soon from the first section of the book called At the Heart of It All-Managing Your Spiritual Life just to give you a taste.
Note: Check for this book at your local library; mine had it.

Vacation reading- Simple Food

I'm a cook book, food blog kind of girl. One of these days I'm going to sit down and read through "The Joy of Cooking". Seriously. I love to flip through them, curled up on the couch with a cup of tea or something and just soak in the inspiration; walk away with a week long menu of new and exciting dishes to whip up. Most of the time I'm a child when it comes to my cook books: I want pictures. If it's worth cooking then they would have put a nice glossy picture of it in the book, right? "The Art of Simple Food- Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution" by Alice Waters is not one of those nice glossy cooking books (thought it does have great black and white sketches all through it), but I think I felt more at home with this cook book than any other I have picked up in quite a while. And no, I'm not quite sure how you feel "at home" with a cook book, but I guess her style and approach really resonated with me. This would be *the perfect* cook book for someone who wants to really start cooking from scratch, someone graduating from college or getting married. Waters starts out with the basics: buy good fresh food in season, buy local, plant a garden, enjoy food and share it. And from there moves steadily through all the basics of learning to really cook, not just follow a recipe. She tells you how she keeps her kitchen stocked with both perishable and imperishable staples, and then lists over 80 different items you can make, ranging from meals to sauces with just theses staples. She goes over the basics of kitchen equipment, and I liked her practical approach. She lists the very bare essentials as two or three good knives and a few pieces of good, heavy heat conductive cookware, and then tells you of other things you might think about adding as you have more money. And the rest of the cook book is full of wonderful descriptions and simple recipes.

"By cooking your way through these lessons, tasting and learning from your
successes (and your mistakes), you will get to know some fundamental techniques
by heart and you won't have to look them up again. This will enable you to cook
with ease and confidence, inspired by recipes-rather then being ruled by them-
and free to enjoy the sheer pleasure of preparing and sharing simple food with
your friends and family." ~Alice Waters

Vacation reading- Gaia's Garden

"Gaia's Garden-A Guide to Home-scale Permaculture" has been one of the more interesting reads I had on my list of not so typical vacation reading. Just a side note before I get into just how much I enjoyed this book, Gaia is a name for Mother Earth or Diana if you weren't aware. The author does present a "what-can-we -learn-from-mother-earth" type perspective in the book, which if it were presented in more of a what-can-we-learn-from-God's-design would be spot on-I'm just going to have to find more places in my daily life to say spot on, jolly good ya'know. Most of the book focuses on practial hands on information. I'm not done with the book yet, but besides the twinges of mother earth stuff I would highly recommended it. The idea of permaculture is to not simply make your land (however big or small) lovely but to make your yard and garden useful, to place plants and structures into relationships with each other which are mutually beneficial. The phrase permaculture comes from the words permanent and culture. I think one of the easiest examples of it I have heard goes something like this. You have a fenced in area for chickens, which is located in full sun. So you build a small arbor over the area and grow a vining plant over it to give shade. You want grapes so you choose to plant them here, because grape vines attract Japanese Beetles, which love to eat your grapes, but chickens also love to eat Japanese Beetles. So you spend less money on chicken feed, have better grapes, and free on sight fertilization, and you get it all with less chemicals, and minimum effort except lots of forethought. Implementing permaculter ideas into your yard isn't simply a step by step list. You have to think about how you eat, what you like, what you have and what you want, and then step back and look at all these pieces and see how they can fit together in the most useful ways. This is a HUGH creative challenge. Part of the pay off for taking the time to plan all this is that your yard is more sustainable, requiring less effort and higher pay-offs. Who mows and fertilizes and mulches the forest? And yet these things happen in nature, why not in your own yard? This books really gives you tools to make this happen and think about all the possibilities. If you're at all interested in doing something to your yard either now or in the future I recommend you pick up a copy of this. Even though I borrowed this from the library I can tell it's a book I will want my own copy of to refer back to again and again, and hopefully in the future I'll be able to post about putting some of these ideas into practice. You can preview the book here for yourself. Note- I was reading the first addition, but I'm sure the second addition is just as good.

Pieces of my favorite books

I love this book. It's the real life story of the Sound of Music, and it is so much better. Maria writes with humor and optimism. Her courage day to day & the things she never thinks to even complain about in her recounting amazes and encourages me. They landed in the States with $4 and 12 people to feed some how. It's one of those lovely history books that lets you step into someone else's shoes in another time and another place and really see the world as you never could otherwise. Every time I read this book I laugh out loud again and again. Another reason I love it is the insight it gives to being a successful wife and mother. It can be hard to find these accounts, because often these women are behind the scenes.
-The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp
"I invented a method all my own, in which I wanted to apply what I had learned about one word to as many like-sounding words as I could find. This proved later to be fatally wrong, and it still haunt my English of today. For instance, I had learned: freeze-frozen. I wrote underneath in my precious little notebook: "squeeze-squozen" and "sneeze-snozen" Proudly I talked about someone being a "thunkard", explaining wordily that I had thought if drinking much makes a person a drunkard, so thinking much, like that professor I had in mind makes him a "thunkard." When I admired the tall "hice" in New York, I got quite offended because they seemed to overlook the logical similarity between "mouse-mice" and "house-hice" I talked about the reet of my teeth, feeling perfectly correct in doing so. Wasn't it "foot -feet" after all?"

"Especially is it bad if you translate the Bible literally. The effect was tremendous when I informed a group of people with whom I had come to talk in the lobby, that: "the ghost was willing, but the meat was soft."

Reading

This is the last quote I plan on posting from this book. This book has done more to make me recognize the areas I need to grow in that anything has in quite a while. It's a little slow starting off. He goes through the Bible and christian history to look at examples of simplicity, or singular focus might be a better way to put it, and then makes application for our lives today. I can tell this is one of the those issues I'm going to have to keep coming back to through my life, and realign my priorities on.

"Frank Laubach spoke of his "game with Minutes." The idea is to take a given hour each day and see how many minutes during that hour you can be conscious of God's presence. At first you will find the practice difficult and you "score" will be low. This is all right; you are developing new spiritual muscles. With practice, the habit will become more and more ingrained. Make your first experiment in a worship service , and hopefully that will be an aid to your concentration. In time extend the experiment to the whole of you day.


When I first began reading Laubach's journals, I was puzzled by the notations at the top of each day: "Conscious 50%....Conscious 25%....Conscious 80%." No explanation whatever was given, and I would wonder, "Conscious of what?" Finally I realized that he was playing his little game with minutes and recording the percentage of each day that he felt he was living conscious of God's presence.


I'm so glad he called it a game, because it is a delightful spiritual exercise. Besides, there needs to be a certain joyful lightheartedness about our task. Otherwise we will become overly serious and dreadfully boring...Our work is no grim duty. It is a delightful privilege. We are engaged in a joyous adventure, not a sour-faced penance."

Freedom of Simplicity-Finding Harmony in a Complex World- by Richard J. Foster



The previous quote I posted and this one I think had the most impact on me. I've realized how I want to compartmentalize parts of my life as "God-Time", (Bible reading, church, prayer), but the rest of the time I just live the best I can, and ask for help when I get stuck. I knew mentally that's not what God wants, yet there is such a difference between knowing something in your head and in your heart. Days I have tried this "Game with Minutes" my day was completely different. When someone would frustrate me, the consciousness that God was right there with me made me react differently. Sometimes I would even think, "God, I don't want to respond with kindness...but I will, because you treat me with such kindness. I wouldn't do this if it wasn't for you so I offer this to you as a sacrifice. I pray you find it acceptable" Now I'm not so wordy in my thoughts but that's the general idea. And suddenly I see the whole day differently, as a journey God wants to take with me; suddenly I understand how changing poopy diapers, typing an e-mail, or grocery shopping can be a holy task, when I let God not just be a part of my life, but the center of my life. What a life-what a journey it could be!

Reading

"I hope you understand what I mean when I speak of living out of the Center. I am of course referring to God, but I do not mean God in an abstract theoretical sense, nor even God in the sense of One to be feared and revered. Nor do I mean God only in the sense of the One to be loved and obeyed. For years I loved God and sought to obey him, but he remained on the periphery of my live. God and Christ were extremely important to me but certainly not the Center. After all, I had many tasks and aspirations that did not relate to God in the least. What, for heaven's sake, did swimming and gardening have to do with God? I was deeply committed, but I was not integrated or unified. I though that serving God was another duty to be added onto an already busy schedule.

But slowly I came to see that God desired to be not on the outskirts, but at the heart of my experience. Gardening was no longer an experience outside of my relationship with God- I discovered God in the gardening. Swimming was no longer just good exercise- became an opportunity for communion with God. God in Christ had become the Center.

You may be wondering what all this had to do with simplicity. Perhaps I could explain it this way. Within all of us is a whole conglomerate of selves. There is the timid self, the courageous self, the business self, the parental self, the religious self, the literary self, the energetic self...If a decision is made to spend a relaxing evening listening to Chopin, the business self and civic self rise up in protest at the lost of precious time...But when we experience life at the Center, all is changed. Our many selves come under the control of the divine Arbitrator...Everything becomes oriented to the new Center of reference."

Freedom of Simplicity-Finding Harmony in a Complex World by Richard J. Foster

Reading

Here are some other quotes from the Foster book I have been reading...I have a few more of those I will post ...and glimps of what has been going on in my corner of the world.

The neighbours made this while most of us were snowed in yesterday. Isn't she pretty?


"The tithe simply is not a sufficiently redical concept to embody the carefree unconcern for possions that marks life in the kingsom of God. Jesus Christ is the Lord of all our goods, not just 10%. It is quite possible to obey the law of the tithe without ever dealing with our mammon lust. We can feel that our monthly check to our church meets the new law of Jesus, and never once root out reigning covetousness and greed. It is quite possible to tithe and at the same time oppress the poor and needy. Jesus thrundered against the Pharisees, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin and ahve neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done, without neglection the others" (Matt 23:23)."

"No doubt you noted that Jesus did not condemn the tithe as such:"These you ought to have done, without neglicting the others." The tithe is not necessarily evil; it simply cannot provide a sufficient base for Jesus' call to carefree unconcern over provision. It fails to dethrone the rival god of materialism...Perhaps the tithe can be a beginning way to acknowledge God as the owner of all things, but it is only a beginning and not an ending."

Freedom of Simplicity-Finding Harmony in a Complex World by Richard J. Foster

Reading

Freedom of simplicity- Finding Harmony in a Complex World by Richard J. Foster
"If the first insight into simplicity that we receive from the Old Testament is radical dependence, the second is radical obedience. Perhaps nowhere is the more graphically seen that when Abraham was called upon to surrender his most priceless treasure-his son Issac. God spoke; Abraham obeyed. No contingency plans, no skirting around the issue, no ifs ands or buts. Through a long painful process Abraham's life had been honed down to one truth- obedience to the voice of Yahweh. This "holy obedience" forms the grid through which the life of simplicity flows."

Reading

I've been thinking and studying about materialism and simplicity for quite a while now. I wanted to share some excerpts from a book I'm reading (borrowed from the local library) on this topic. This way maybe you can benefit from the book without having to read the whole thing, or maybe even decide it is interesting enough to read yourself. I'm going to continue with a few more of quotes in the weeks to come. I also discovered some pod casts today on this topic that reference this same author and topic. Isn't it amazing how that happens? If you go in the next few weeks you can listen to them and down load them for free. (You can also subscribe to the Homemakers by Choice pod cast which I HIGHLY recommend. It has been a daily source of encouragement for me.) Check out this link to listen now, or if you missed it go to this link and e-mail them a request for a copy of the "Celebration of the Discipline--Simplicity" pod casts.


Enjoy!c

Freedom of Simplicity-Finding Harmony in a Complex World by Richard J. Foster

"...Christian simplicity does not yield to simplistic answers. The tension must be maintained: things are good, but that good is limited. Perhaps one more example of paradoxical tension will be sufficient to emphasize the fact that our journey into simplicity will be as intricate, varied and rich as human personality itself. If refer to the attractive ability to be single-hearted and at the same time sensitive to the tough, complex issues of life. It is a strange combination and quite difficult to explain, though quite easy to recognize. It produces focus without dogmatism, obedience without oversimplification, profundity without self-consciousness. It means being cognizant of many issues while having only one issue at the center-holy obedience."



"Oversimplification is a danger in any field of study. But the danger is especially insidious in the study of Christian simplicity, because it can so easily be viewed as a virtue. We have touched on a few pitfalls: however, we have not yet mentioned the area of greatest peril: the danger of assuming that simplicity can function independently of the rest of Christian devotion. Simplicity is the most outward of the all the Spiritual Disciplines and therefore the most susceptible to corruption, and the greatest corruption is to isolate it...Simplicity needs to be seen in the light of the whole. For example, there is an intrinsic relationship between simplicity and prayer, especially that central aspect of prayer which is trust."