Tuesday, July 27, 2010

reading writers

Douglas Wilson continues his series for writers who first need to be readers and a few other things.
Word Fussers and Whowhomers.

Others in the series can be found in his Literary Notes. (Heads up:
This will explain what a clerihew is if you're like me and needed to know.)

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Bible story books

A few years ago, a friend recommended this book as she was reading it to her children at the time and they all were really enjoying it. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when I started reading it as a preview for my husband who would be reading the book aloud to our son at bedtime. I only made it to chapter four before they were ready to start reading it together, but I must confess that even as an adult familiar with the content, I was intrigued by Starr Meade's retelling of well known Bible stories. Her consistent message of God working to bring about His plans through various peoples and families is a wonderful way to see the Bible for what it is: God's story of redemption.


Starr Meade now has a new book out called The Mighty Acts of God. Is there a limit on how many excellent Bible story books one family can own? I certainly hope not! :)

spiritual children and their fathers

Two separate posts, one common theme. Christian fathers (and mothers, of course) are the God-intended method of raising disciples of Jesus Christ.
And I don't think this ends when your children are grown, out of the house and onto growing families of their own. Obviously the shepherding takes on a different role but parents still need to be active in their care and concern for the spiritual well being of their children. Perhaps I can find someone who addresses this issue for a later post. But for now, consider these two men's words to fathers and parents in general.

It turned out that Mr. Westendorf was a humble yet intentional man. He loved his children and was willing to sacrifice his time and give his attention to them. He cared for them because they were under his authority. And to this day, he remains my prime example of Malachi’s, “turning the hearts of the fathers to their children.” This father of nine was raising godly offspring. And for the next five years I committed myself to grabbing the crumbs that fell from his table. Mr. Westendorf was not to be feared, but he was to be treasured. He displayed to me how God intended for children to be raised.
The Answer for Producing Spiritual Children


This faithful father shepherded his seven children by taking one morning a week to meet individually with each of his children. Seven days in a week–each of the seven children got one morning each week with their dad. They prayed, read scripture, talked, and read a book of that child’s choosing. Inspired by his amazing example, I came home and established a similar model in our home that I remain faithful to this day. Here is what I do to individually shepherd my four children regularly in addition to our regular time of family worship, as well as implications attached to it:
Shepherding My Children

the real goal

Cookies or Christlikeness

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Joel Salatin, grass farmer

There is a Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms lecture available through this link:

Food: The Cornerstone of Christian Credibility

I listened to this lecture a few weeks ago now and missed only the last few minutes of the Q&A that followed. I think he had some important ideas to consider. I'm not so keen on all the humor. It kind of distracted from his content a bit, in my opinion. I would love to be able to eat his food but there is a farm more local to us that follows a similar farming routine. You can check them out at Grazing Days.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

keeping me busy

marriage and parenting

A guest blogger on Tim Challies blog recently wrote about attending a marriage seminar by the author of this book. Parenting and marriage it seems are interrelated.

To lift yet another example from Tripp: if my children wake in the wee hours, start to fight, and I respond by stomping down the hall toward their bedroom with the mantra “inconvenience, inconvenience, inconvenience” running through my head, I am reacting sinfully to their sin. Of course, it’s a fact of life that sinners tend to respond sinfully to being sinned against.
Read the post in its entirety:
Using the Bible Biblically to Parent Biblically

You can check out Tripp's book at Westminster Books. I haven't read it yet but I read a review a few weeks ago and thought it might be helpful.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

books to look for

Heidi did it again. Another book post to enjoy.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Tasty Kitchen

Need some cooking and baking inspiration?
Go thee to it!
The photos are intoxicating!
Drink deep. :)

Tasty Kitchen

Submit a favorite recipe to Tasty Kitchen

reduced sugar jam

In my search to reduce the amount of sugar I needed to put in my strawberry jam, I found this great pectin product called Pomona's Universal Pectin. Our local natural food store had two boxes left, so I asked them to be put aside and my husband brought them home that evening. I used about half of the pectin powder in the first box and the calcium water(see website)is in a jar in the fridge for future use. The directions were similar to regular jam instructions and I was able to make 10 small jars in a very short amount of time while my girls napped. The jam appears to be quite firm and is sweet with only using about two cups of organic cane sugar per four cups of mashed berries. I could have used less sugar but the berries were starting to turn and I wanted to make sure the flavor was good. You can use whatever sugar substitute meets your needs as well as a fruit-only recipe. This blog post at Foods for Long Life introduced me to the pectin. I am thrilled to get away from all that sugary jam.

Friday, July 09, 2010

books to look for

Heidi from Mt. Hope Chronicles has a great guest post featuring wonderful books to inspire anyone to enjoy and create art. I happen to love book lists and this post is full of them. Enjoy!
Art and Creativity in the Great Outdoors

tomato plant intervention

On Sunday, I discovered that my tomato plants were developing yellow and brown spotted leaves starting with the lower ones and working its way up. I was devastated and ready to run out and buy any fungicide that would stop this disease immediately. Monday passed with quickly with our daughter's day surgery and recovery. Tuesday, I mentioned it to my friend and neighbor and she suggested that a baking soda mixture might help. I did a quick search and found the following instructions:

At the first sign of early blight, it is advised to clip off infected leaves, but only if the foliage is dry. Messing around with damp, infected foliage will only serve to spread millions of fungal spores throughout the garden and infect other tomato plants. After infected foliage is removed (if possible) it is advised to spray down the tomato plants with a mixture of one part milk to four parts water, along with 1 teaspoon of baking soda for every quart of water used. A few drops of liquid soap will help to make the spray stick. The reason this spray is effective is that dried milk when exposed to the Sun's ray's temporarily changes into a disinfectant, while the bicarbonate component of baking soda kills new fungal colonies.

Full article here.

Wednesday morning I made a small batch in a spray bottle and applied it liberally to the leaves. I needed to make the recipe two more times before I was satisfied that the leaves on all the plants had been covered. It is now Friday and the leaves that remain look healthy with only a few showing any sign of disease. But best of all, the plants are producing lots of baby green tomatoes and are growing well. The article suggests another application in 5-7 days. I am hopeful that this may help slow or even stop the disease altogether.

Friday, July 02, 2010

reliable source

As we will be studying Ancient History this year, I found this of interest:
In Isaiah 39:1 we read of Merodach Baladin of Babylon. Because his name was not mentioned in history, the critics reckoned there was no such king until an actual tablet was dug up in the city with his inscription dating about 720 BC, agreeing exactly with the Biblical record.

Here is the link to the full post, The Bible as History.