Saturday, November 29, 2008
FEMA moving at government speed
Three years later FEMA's trailers still sit in Hope, Arkansas. Now there's government bureaucracy at work.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Hurry Sicknes
Are you constantly focused on getting things done?
Are you preoccupied with escaping?
Does it seem that time is passing too quickly?
Do you have a constant sense of urgency?
Do you desire a simple life?
Do you have little time for love?
If you answered yes to most of these questions then you have Hurry Sickness, not to be confused with being busy. Being busy is an outward condition. Hurry Sickness is and inward condition of the soul having to do with competing priorities
So here are five thing you can do to cure what ails you.
1) slow down
2) say no
3)declutter
5) use leisure in life giving ways
To be content is not having all you want, but to want only what you have.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Are You Suffering from S.A.D.?
What does it mean to be ungrateful? The dictionary says it's being thankless. I feel like we are blind to the the blessings, we always want more I wish I had this or that. Our pastor calls that condition S.A.D. The S stands for stressed, the A for angry and the D for depressed. Look at 2 Timothy 1:3 tells us
"I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers."If we have poisoned ourselves with S.A.D. Then what we need to do is stop blaming others and make a decision to change our attitude. Yes, it is a choice and it is up to us to stop magnifying the bad. When we put the negative parts of our life under the microscope they get distorted and we are not able to look at the big picture. So many times we say if God would just speak to me, tell me where to go or what to do, well, guess what He is speaking to us. In Ephesians 5:20 He says,
"always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."To give thanks in all circumstances, this is God's will for us. Not just when things are going well, but all the time we are to give thanks. When we focus on God's blessings we will be blessed.
If you don't believe me just look at this study here. Dr. McCollough and Dr. Emmons conducted a study on gratitude. Basically, people were divide up into several groups. One group was instructed to focus on everything that is wrong in the world while another group was instructed to focus on the goodness. The results were outstanding. The gratitude group was less angry, more energetic, determined, joyful, they exercised more and had fewer illness. I think that says a lot for what ails this country, myself include. We are all suffering from Eeyore syndrome. As you know from the old Winnie the Pooh cartoons, Eeyore was always under a cloud of misery. Let us remember that when we choose to live like that we won't be able to see sun shine through.
Have you ever wondered why people who have been raised in some of the worst circumstances rise above all of that? It's because of their outlook on life. The choices that you make not only have an effect on you, but the effect those around you. I want to use this up in coming holiday to focus on the blessings in my life. To have an attitude of gratitude. I think this simple choice will make a big difference in my life, anyone else willing to give it a try?
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Beloved Pets
Saturday, November 22, 2008
making soap
I have always wanted to make my own soap. Many years ago, soap was made from lye and animal fats. The lye was obtained by pouring rain water through hard wood ash that had been burned at a high heat in a sort of filtering system. You can make your own filtering system out of a water tight wood barrel. You would need to put the barrel up on blocks in a remote location so that it wouldn't get knocked over. Then you would drill a hole near the bottom of the barrel and place a cork in the hole. Next, you would need to add a layer of river rock, followed by a layer of hay, then top it off with the hard wood ash. Finally, you would pour in rain water; leaving up to six inches from the top of the barrel. This would need to sit for three days. After that you could place a container under the cork and fill the container deep enough to float a potato. If the potato didn't float a quarter size piece above the water line, the solution would be too weak and you would need to either add more ash or drain all the water and pour it back through the barrel letting it sit for another 3 days. If the potato springs up, the solution is too strong and you would need to add more rain water. Remember not to use metal containers or utensils because the lye will react with metal.
For the sake of this process the lye was purchased. As you remember lye was taken off the shelves several years ago, but you can now purchase it on line specifically for soap making.
The following are all items needed to make a basic 10 pound batch of soap:
3 three pound cans of Crisco.
4 cups cold water
1 18 ounce can of 100% LYE!
large stainless steel spoon
10 qt pot for melting
9 pounds of Crisco
1 measuring cup candy thermometer
2 qt plastic pitcher Large plastic bucket (must be able to hold all the oil with room to stir)
shallow rectangular cardboard box (like the kind used to hold a case of cokes)
2 white kitchen sized plastic garbage bags
2 old thick blankets
goggles
Playtex rubber gloves
old clothes
Optional items: 1/4 cup honey 3 tbs oatmeal (finely ground)
First we measured out the lye by weight.
Next we added the lye to the water. The lye and fat need to be within 5 degrees apart between (100 and 120 degrees) Always add the lye to the water, not the other way around.
As you can see the lye heated up room temperature water to almost 217 degrees.
Once we reached trace** we added honey and oats.
You can add other essential/fragrance oils if you like.
At this point you must cover the soap and allow it to cure** for 24 hours.
Cure time- the length of time to let the soap air dry and the water content of the soap to evaporate.
Saponification- the chemical process of making soap
Essential Oils- these are natural oils that are extracted by various means from plants and fruits to form scent. Rose Essential oil etc. These are extremely volatile and not stable when making cold process soap. They are also extremely expensive.
Fragrance Oils- these are man-made or synthetic oils. The hold up very well when used with cold process soaping. They are inexpensive and easy to use.
Lye Solution- water or milk after Lye has been added.Setting up- when the soap is left ALONE UNDISTURBED (no peeking) for 24 hours to turn solid.
Trace- refers to the stage of soap where the soap leaves a "trace" of the spoon trails. The consistency of the soap is similar to thick pancake batter.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
24/7
Our Bible tell us that our purpose is to worship God. I don't mean for an hour on Sunday mornings. I am talking about worship that effects our whole lives. When we worship, we are to submit to Him, to pay service to Him, to glorify Him, and to make a sacrifice to Him. In Romans 12:1 Paul says that in view of all that God had done for you, you are to present your whole body as a living sacrifice. In other words, we are God's twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. What happens in that hour on Sunday morning should set the stage for every other hour in our lives.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Tee Time
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Raising Chickens
Not having grow up around chickens I can't say that I knew too much about them. I certainly know more today that I did a year ago. For example, did you know that a Female chicken under the age of 1 year is called a pullet and a male is called a cockerel?
Did you know that pullets start laying eggs at about 18-20 weeks of age. And that when she starts laying regularly she will lay an egg every 25 hours. I've also learned that hens require about 14 hours of light each day to lay on a regular schedule. That mean that they will decrease their egg production in the winter unless you use artificial light as a supplement for them to have that all important 14 hours.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
We Have a Voice
Barack Obama has consistently voiced his support for organic agriculture. We, as organic consumers, have an incredible opportunity to shape the future of federal food policies. President-Elect Obama is in the process of formulating policy and assembling his transition team. He is considering nominees for The Secretary of Agriculture, who is responsible for directing the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its $90 billion annual budget. Obama has said that he wants to hear from the public in order to formulate his policies. So, let's take him up on his invitation. The Organic Consumer Association has a petition letter to President-Elect Barack Obama that you should sign and urge him to take a stand in support of organic food and farming. Please go here to sign the petition.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Mushroom Quiche
This is all you need, how simple can it be?
A pre made pie shell
Mushrooms
4-5 eggs
half and half
Swiss cheese
I started by preheating the oven to 450. I covered the edges of the pie shell with foil and baked it for about 10 minutes. While that was baking, I sauteed the mushrooms (I just cut up a lot, I don't know how many, if I had to guess, I'd say a lot!). You could buy pre-sliced and save yourself a bit more time. When they're done, spoon them out in to your egg mixture along with the Swiss cheese. Pour it into your pie shell. I like to tossed in some parsley flakes for color. Then I just bake it with foil still covering the edges of the crust for about 20 minutes at 375 degrees. Remove the foil and bake and additional 10 minutes.
School at Home
One day, several years ago, I sat down and listed a few of the reasons we decided to homeschool our children, just to have it in black and white. I had all but forgotten about that list until the other day when a friend of mine sent me an e-mail. She was telling me a cute story about some comment one of her children had made to her and her husband. She followed the story up with a remark that I haven't been able to forget. She said, "[My husband] and I never really talked about[that] with either of the boys… so I think they've been getting some feedback at school." Now this couple is very loving and also very involved in their kids activities. The comment just struck me; shy are many parents detached from their children educations.
One of the many reasons we chose to homeschool our kids was that we wanted to be involved in their education. I just think is sad that so many parents don't know or even worse don't care what their kids are learning. Here is an excerpt from that original list.
Schools have the one-size-fits-all approach. At home we can teach each child in the way that they learn best and at the rate that is appropriate for them. If they don’t “get it” the first time we can spend more time on what they need help with and move along with ideas and concept that are easily understood.
Schools tend to have an atmosphere that is overly controlling; lining up kids, moving them around like herds of cattle, and a disciplining them inappropriately for the problematic behavior. At home children are able express their individual personalities and only receive the appropriate amount of discipline for the infraction.
Schools have an institutionalized environment. At home children are loved and nurtured.
Schools spoon feed children what they want them to know. As our children grow they will have the opportunity to experience self-directed learning. They will acquire the basic skill to learn independently.
In the school setting our children will be exposed to outside influence that we feel are not safe for our children. Examples of such concerns are bullying, cussing, fighting negative influencing of peers, and illegal drug use. Many times these factors are over-looked or unseen by school officials. At home we have the ability to mold our children and shape them with high moral
Schools have set schedules. We are able to study each subject when the time is right, travel if need be, hold ‘class’ during the hot summer months and enjoy the out-of-doors when the weather is pleasant. Flexibility is one of the perks of schooling at home.
Why would I want to send my children to school when the schools are admittedly producing poor quality students? There is violence in the school. The teachers and staff are unable to protect the students. The courts have ruled that once you drop you child off at the door of the school you no longer have to direct your child’s education.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Liquid Laundry Soap
Here's all you'll need:
1/2 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1/2 cup 20 Mule Team Borax
1/2 bar Fels Naphtha Soap
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
green is my favorite color
I hope you are using cloth grocery bags! At Kroger we get 3 cents back for every bag we have. In less than 34 visits to the grocery store the bags have payed for themselves. I absolutely love to go into the store do my shopping get in line, hand the clerk my bags, and watch her subtract money off my total all because we brought in our own bags. And yes, I am that obnoxious person in front of you that turns and says, see it pays to be green!
Another good idea that we love is Freecycle. If you haven't heard of Freecycle then you are really missing out. Freecycle is a grassroots movement to keep perfectly good stuff out of landfills. Membership is free and they are nation wide. All you have to do is go here , search out a group in your hometown and sign up. You can get daily e-mails with posting of items that people are giving away.
If you know if any other green ideas please post them here. I always love to hear how others are helping out mother earth.
Monday, November 10, 2008
me, raising chickens
I never in my life thought I'd raise chickens until my son ask if we could get some chickens after attending a homesteading class at our local homeschool co-op. My husband and I thought if he had a good argument as to why we should get some chickens then we'd hear him out. He talked about how much he loved eating eggs and how we could save money. But his winning argument was that he would be responsible for the chickens. Guess what? We gave in.
Now you may be asking yourself, why would I want to raise chickens. Well, one good reason is that they lay eggs. Not only can you eat the eggs but, you can sell them. We sell ours for less than the grocery store, and still have enough to pay for their up keep.
They are also great to have around because their poop, once composted, is a great fertilizer. We use it on our garden. Of course we compost most of our left overs, but our girls are great for eating up items we don't compost like meats and pastas. They consider our leftovers a real treat. Another good reason to raise chickens is that they are great little pest controllers. We just let our girls out to forage and they eat all the flees, ticks and other unwanted intruders. And a final reason for raising chickens is that they are very low maintenance. Once we enclosed a shed for their coop we really haven't had to do much at all.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Cotton Picking
Yesterday afternoon we went on a field trip to the Plantation Agricultural Museum in Scott, Arkansas. Having an opportunity to experience the process of picking cotton, trying to remove the seeds by hand, using a small hand cranked cotton gin and even combing the cotton first hand gave my children the thrill of a life time. We even had an occasion to see what some of the first cotton gins looked like and tour The Continental Gin Company.
We learned that pickers would drag 9 foot long bags behind them, if the sack was packed tightly enough it could hold up to 100 lbs. The cotton was then weighed on scales suspended from a homemade tripod. The pickers wages depended upon the selling price in the open market. In 1938, Scott, AR pickers were paid .50 cents for 100 lbs. Many pickers were able to pick up to 300 lbs in a day, bringing home only $1.50 for a days wages.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
What Makes Food Organic?
First and foremost organic foods must not be genetically modified. It must be produced according to certain production standards, meaning it is grown without the use of conventional pesticides (including herbicides), artificial/synthetic fertilizers, human waste, or sewage sludge, and it cannot be processed without ionizing radiation or food additives.
Organic production standards also include strict rules on the composting and application of manure. Organically raised livestock must be given organic feed and kept free of growth hormones and antibiotics. Organic farm animals must have access to the outdoors, including pastureland for grazing.
When buying organic, look for the following regulated terms on food labels: Food labeled "100% organic" has no synthetic ingredients and can legally use the USDA organic seal. Food labeled "organic" has a minimum of 95% organic ingredients. It is eligible to use the USDA organic seal. Food labeled "made with organic ingredients" must contain at least 70% organic ingredients. It is not eligible for the USDA seal. Meat, eggs, poultry, and dairy labeled "organic" must come from animals that have never received antibiotics or growth hormones.
Go here to read more on organic safeguards.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Why Recycle?
Each of us uses approximately one 100-foot-tall Douglas fir tree in paper and wood products per year.
To produce each week's Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down.
If you recycle a 4 foot stack of newspaper you will save a 40 foot tree.
If only 100,000 people stopped their junk, mail, we could save up to 150,000 trees annually. If a million people did this, we could save up to a million and a half trees.
Recycled paper can also be made into paper towels,construction products, notebook paper, envelopes, copy paper and other paper products, as well as boxes, hydro-mulch, molded packaging, compost, and even kitty litter.
Lighting consumes up to 34 percent of electricity in the United States.
Compact fluorescent light bulbs are an energy-saving alternative to incandescent bulbs. CFL's produce the same amount of light, use one third of the electricity, and last up to ten times as long. If every household replaced its most often-used incandescent light bulbs with CFLs, electricity use for lighting could be cut in half.
About 75 percent of the water we use in our homes is used in the bathroom.If just 1% of American homes replaced an older toilet with a new Water Sense labeled toilet, the country would save more than 38 million kilowatt-hours of electricity. That's enough electricity to supply more than 43,000 households for one month.
The average bathroom faucet flows at a rate of two gallons per minute. Turning off the tap while brushing your teeth in the morning and at bedtime can save up to 8 gallons of water per day, which equals 240 gallons a month. A full bath tub requires about 70 gallons of water, while taking a five-minute shower uses only 10 to 25 gallons.
Americans throw away enough glass bottles and jars every two weeks to fill the 1.350-foot towers of the former World Trade Center. Glass never wears out, it can be recycled forever. We save over a ton of resources for every ton of glass recycled.
Every year we make enough plastic film to shrink-wrap Texas. Americans go through 2.5 million plastic bottles every year. If every American household recycled just one out of every ten plastic bottles they used, we’d keep 200million pounds of the plastic out of landfills every year.
Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours. An aluminum can that is thrown away will still be a can 500 years from now.
I hope I've convince you to start recycling. Remember you can make a difference.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Ode to Autumn
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Cream Cheese and Pesto Stuffed Chicken Breast
All you need are:
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Enviromental Issues
That he plans to establish a market-based system to curb
greenhouse gas emissions, mobilize innovative technologies, and strengthen
the economy.
He plans to work with our international partners to secure our energy
future, to create opportunities for American industry.He proposes cap-and-trade system that would set limits on greenhouse gas
emissions while encouraging the development of low-cost compliance options.To support the cap and trade system, he will promote the innovation,
development and deployment of advanced technologies.He will foster rapid and clean economic growth.
He believes that there must be a global solution to global climate
change.He will also develop a climate change adaptation plan based upon national and
regional scientific assessments of the impacts of climate change.
That the U.S. must take aggressive action now to reduce the emission of
greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
That one of the greatest threats facing the Great Lakes is aquatic
invasive species and he was successful in ensuring that Illinois receives
adequate federal funding to operate a barrier to prevent Asian carp from
entering Lake Michigan and disrupting the balance of the lake's ecosystem.
That mercury contamination in can cause serious developmental problems
in children. To address this problem, Senator Obama introduced two bills that
would significantly reduce the amount of mercury that is deposited in oceans,
lakes, and rivers.
In the elimination of childhood lead poisoning.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
NaBloPoMo
Visit NaBloPoMo
This marks the beginning of National Blog Posting Month.
I started this blog just over a year ago, having never really read another blog. A friend of mine suggested I join NaBloPoMo last November, against my better judgement, I did.
National Blog Posting Month is a place to "set the habit of blogging by doing it
every day for a month, including weekends, [bloggers] can go here for moral support, inspiration, and the camaraderie that only marathon blogging can provide."
So we're off...
“Be the change you want to see in the world.” mahatma gandhi