How do you feed all those kids?

Monday: quiche: 10 eggs scrambled with some water and a dollop of sour cream, a few handsful of cheddar, and a sprinkle of bacon bits. Then I tossed in a good bit of frozen chopped spinach for color. 18 biscuits, made by mixing 3 cups flour with a stick of butter, some leavening, and water. We were out of milk.

Tuesday: a stew made of about 2 lbs of smoked venison sausage, chopped into bite size chunks, to which I added 4 cans of rinsed black beans, 3 raw peeled sweet potatoes chopped into bite size chunks, and a cup of frozen corn. Next time I'd put in at least 2 more sweet potatoes and another cup of corn, and more water to make 50% more stew. They've had liked bread to go with, remember to make bread next time.

Wednesday: had a hankerin for good old Memphis pulled pork bbq after I happened to see a "Memphis style" bbq sauce (HEB brand) on the store shelf. It was pretty good. Served with cole slaw, of course, on white bread. The cole slaw dressing was 1/2 cup Miracle Whip, 4 spoons full of mustard, 4 spoons full of honey, and a squeeze of lemon.

Thursday: beans and rice, just like they like it. With Corn bread.

Friday: pizza night!!!!! Actually it's Blue and Gold Banquet night, and last year I took pizza and for some reason it was a hit.....

I bought a bag of Clementines today. It's gone. ;)

Making things on Monday

I've had several friends send me links recently on how to make things. I have absolutely no desire to make anything right now. Hahaha. I have a pile of fabric to make napkins, and that's all I see happening any time soon. So I will pass on the links to YOU! Maybe one of you can make something. If you do, send me a picture and I'll post it, and we'll all Oooh and Aaahhh over your handiwork.

Remember, repurposing old things into new things is being eco-friendly!

Make a cute summer dress for daughter out of dad's old shirt.

Make fun team logo or other logo cloth diapers from old tees!

Make yourself a pair of yoga pants from an old teeshirt!

Make a cute doll for the little girls in your life.

There are so many things wrong with this, on so many levels, but it reminds me- I want to move to France

Political Science for All

DEMOCRAT	You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful. You push for higher taxes so the government can provide cows for everyone.
REPUBLICAN	You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So?
SOCIALIST	You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor. You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.
COMMUNIST	You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk. You wait in line for hours to get it. It is expensive and sour.
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE	You have two cows. You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.
BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE	You have two cows. Under the new farm program the government pays you to shoot one, milk the other, and then pour the milk down the drain.
AMERICAN CORPORATION	You have two cows. You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one. You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses. Your stock goes up.
FRENCH CORPORATION	You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows. You go to lunch and drink wine. Life is good.
JAPANESE CORPORATION	You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains. Most are at the top of their class at cow school.
GERMAN CORPORATION	You have two cows. You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour. Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.
ITALIAN CORPORATION	You have two cows but you don't know where they are. You break for lunch. Life is good.
RUSSIAN CORPORATION	You have two cows. You drink some vodka. You count them and learn you have five cows. You drink some more vodka. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.
TALIBAN CORPORATION	You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two. You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature' sprivate parts. You get a $40 million grant from the US  government to find alternatives to milk production but use the money to buy weapons.
IRAQI CORPORATION	You have two cows. They go into hiding. They send radio tapes of their mooing.
POLISH CORPORATION	You have two bulls. Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them.
BELGIAN CORPORATION	You have one cow. The cow is schizophrenic. Sometimes the cow thinks he's French, other times he's Flemish. The Flemish cow won't share with the French cow. The French cow wants control of the Flemish cow's milk. The cow asks permission to be cut in half. The cow dies happy.
FLORIDA CORPORATION	You have a black cow and a brown cow. Everyone votes for the best looking one. Some of the people who actually like the brown one best accidentally vote for the black one. Some people vote for both. Some people vote for neither. Some people can't figure out how to vote at all. Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which one you think is the best looking cow.
CALIFORNIA CORPORATION	You have millions of cows. They make real   California  cheese. Only five speak English. Most are illegal. Arnold  likes the ones with the big udders.

A P.S. on punishment

I hadn't heard about this news of the children in CA when I blogged just a few days ago about spanking. This is why I am not ashamed to openly speak against spanking as a "parenting tool." It's not a tool. It cannot be perceived as a tool. The D. A. is saying the children were tortured, and there was systematic, ritual abuse. This describes how I started off parenting! I wanted so hard to be a good mother. But I wasn't very good at thinking through things for myself; I was only good at doing what I was told. I had majored in child development, but the things I was exposed to in the Christian church insisted that everything I learned in college was "humanistic" and "ungodly." It was stressed to me in parenting classes like Growing Kids God's Way, that godly parents will have their children in absolute order at all times. The day should be regimented and controlled. Every playmate, every toy, every book, every movie should be carefully chosen to be "like-minded" in order to keep this control.


But my kid wasn't having any of it. He had a mind of his own. So I sought more help from more Christian teachers. I was told to beat him until he gave in. I am ashamed to admit I tried that. But this child would not give in. No matter how perfectly I followed the rules of godly parenting, nothing was getting better. I do believe now, that the early years of my parenting could be considered abusive to my kids. What's sort of funny is that years after I walked away from spanking and most forms of "punishment" my kids were just as well-behaved as they'd always been. My one kid was still his own animal, though, and people did notice. One woman who was new to the church we attended at the time, who had these really orderly homeschooled kids- those kind that end up on magazines you know? They play instruments, always mannerly and orderly and are always dressed neatly and you want to call them the Von Trapps- she walked right up to me one day to give me her advice for getting my son in control, "you should give him more order, and spank him" she said. "Then he'd behave." It's not just spanking, but any form of physical punishment-- the woman who used the Pearls' advice accused of poisoning her child to death by giving him "tonics" to control his lying.... the woman who used the Pearls' advice to strap a sleepless toddler in a carseat, and the child strangled on the straps.... the woman who used the Pearls' advice and swaddled her preschooler to keep him in bed at night, and he suffocated.... and these children who were beaten sufficiently enough to cause organ failure. So I will blog about it again. And again. It's not necessary, and it shouldn't be considered normal. Another mom posted a very good blog post on this subject, even better than mine. When Parenting Kills- What Can We Do?

One point where I still vehemently disagree with Tedd Tripp, John Piper and Mark Driscoll

Spanking is a wedge between your Biblical family and being the Light of Jesus to a lost world.

Spanking doesn't even make sense in a family that proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  In my experience, it really doesn't even work as a tool to control or train children, and I think that is a direct result of being so unlike Christ.  There is absolutely nothing in the Gospel, nothing in the life of Jesus, that would lead an adult to strike his own child.  I posted last week about the love of the Father to the Son- that love that happens just because you ARE, not because of what you have done or can accomplish. Just because "I made you, you're my precious child, and I love you."

The very purpose of spanking is to get a child to change his behavior to a behavior you feel more comfortable with.  So this simple thing means you aren't loving the child just for who he is.  You are only willing to give your approval for the child who has done right or can accomplish "goodness."  This is a false gospel.

It is also a false teaching, but popular among evangelical teachers, that the Bible says if you love your children, you WILL spank them. Inversely, if you fail to spank your child, you must not love the child. In Heartfelt Discipline, Clay Clarkson explains how the Bible has been interpreted sloppily to support this argument.  First of all, the verses used to support spanking, the "rod verses",  do actually instruct one to use a large rod or stick, much the size of a broomstick.  Not one single teacher that I know of will condone the use of a broomstick on a child, and that practice would rightfully land a person in trouble with the law. So there is already hypocrisy in the spanking camp.  The spankers also teach that the best time to spank children is from infancy- before they can even walk- through about 8 years of age. By this time, they say, the children should be trained well enough not to need spanking; besides, once a child is 8 years old, you can use other effective methods of discipline. Like talking to them.  Clarkson teaches in his book that the word being translated as "child" in the rod verses is the word applied to King Josiah (8 years old), Daniel and his cohorts in captivity, David the shepherd boy, and Eli's foolish sons.  In other words, it is usually males between the ages of 8 and 20. Frankly, I have 4 males of that age group and I can see where one may be induced to spank such fools, sometimes . 

My intent in this post was, however, spanking in your Biblical family is a wedge that prevents effective gospel ministry to unchurched peoples.  There is no way, in our culture today, to effectively engage unchurched people if you spank your children.  Unchurched people usually believe that spanking is barbaric, unhelpful, and should be unlawful.  You must have a firm grasp on GRACE in order to reach the postmodern culture. A number of books are available to help you raise your Biblical family on the premise of GRACE- an exercise that will bring you closer to ministering to unchurched people.

Heartfelt Parenting by Clay Clarkson
Parenting is Heart Work by Scott Turansky & Joanne Miller
Families Where Grace is in Place by Jeff VanVonderan
(also check out the sidebar Amazon box for other titles)

A PS on Punishment

Waste-Not Wednesday: Free Soup

Jana at Pennies a Plate posts today's Waste-Not idea.   She tells us how to get FREE SOUP!   Jana also gives us free printables for grocery/shopping lists and menu plans.  Thanks, Jana!  The Free Soup idea is a great way to save the $3 I would have used to purchase organic vegetable broth.  Plus, my chickens are actually MORE likely to eat the veggies strained from making the broth than they are to eat the veggie "scraps" if I just toss them out there all big.

Jana says:

In today’s economy, keeping the grocery budget low and nutritious must be intentional. It requires diligence, trial and error, and determination.

It is my hope that sharing my methods and mistakes and making some of my tools available to you will help and inspire you in your efforts to feed your family nutritious meals for much less.

While you are at her blog, be sure to check out her How-To, Outsmarting Grocery Pricing Trickery.

Moms, your mission starts here

I went to a conference last week, on "Missional Living."  This means, living as if you are a missionary where-ever it is that God has planted you. Missions is not a vocation, and it does not involve moving to a Third World country, despite our modern treatment of missions. The impact of what I learned at Verge came to me during Saturday morning's time that we worshiped through song and prayer-the Holy Spirit impressed me with this thought, "Mom, your mission starts here."

Preconference Session: Redefining Discipleship-- David Putman & Shawn Lovejoy

1. Christology must define our ecclesiology.  This simply means that we start with our understanding of Jesus, not our understanding of the church.  As a mom, we can apply this thus: start with your understanding of Jesus, not your understanding of the home. Read the gospels- I blogged that last Fall. To understand Christ, we need to read the gospels. Start with Matthew, then Mark, Luke and John. Then start over again at Matthew. We won't know Jesus if we don't read his biography. You think you've heard it before, but read it again.
2. Christ's commission must form our mission. A popular thought in church-sponsored parenting seminars and homeschool seminars is "write out your family mission statement."  You don't need to figure out the mission statement. Jesus stated it for us: Go therefore and make disciples. The modern church has become proficient at teaching us to talk about it but not to do it. 
3. We must put FLESH on our theology. On the Sonlight forums, we talk about being Jesus with skin on.  We say we believe-- but do we follow? Don't be so concerned about "believing right" that you fail to follow. Knowing doctrine just doesn't make much difference if you aren't doing.
4. Discipleship is both art and science.  The presenters suggested dichotomies: create v. plan, organic v. strategy, focus v. intention. There are two parts, an art and a science. There is balance- choose to keep it balanced. We can't be on one side or the other-- too structured v. unstructured. Find the balance point in between.
5. Must think differently about how we disciple.  We're looking at fruit, not meat. Too many people go to church saying, "I need fed. I need fed. I need meat."  The truth is, it's about fruit not meat. The ones insisting they need meat are really just asking to be impressed with your knowledge. Growth shows by the fruit produced, not by the meat consumed. Knowledge puffs up!!! 
6. Discipleship is cyclical, not linear. How many times have we thought we failed because we "should be past this" issue already and here it's popped up again?? Each time we come back to the same place, we are digging deeper and understanding more thoroughly, and changing more completely. 

Session One: Missional Communities and Compassionate Justice-- Charles T Lee

1. This is Jesus Stuff.
2. Just Start.
3. Defined: Social version of the gospel-- seek fair redistribution of resources.
4. Compassion is a response to a crisis. Justice is rooting out the cause of the crisis.
5. Band-aids aren't justice (they are compassion). To reach justice, we have to go to the infrastructure, the governing foundations.
6. Is. 1:15, 17- stop doing wrong; seek justice
7. Is. 58:6-7- choose not to receive so that others may receive
8. Jer. 22:16- Is this not what it means? 

^{13 -17}"Doom to him who builds palaces but bullies people,

   who makes a fine house but destroys lives, Who cheats his workers
   and won't pay them for their work, Who says, 'I'll build me an elaborate mansion
   with spacious rooms and fancy windows. I'll bring in rare and expensive woods
   and the latest in interior decor.' So, that makes you a king—
   living in a fancy palace? Your father got along just fine, didn't he?
   He did what was right and treated people fairly, And things went well with him.
   He stuck up for the down-and-out, And things went well for Judah.
   Isn't this what it means to know me?"
         God's Decree! "But you're blind and brainless.
   All you think about is yourself, Taking advantage of the weak,
   bulldozing your way, bullying victims." 

So how did God use these teachings to tell me "Mom, your mission starts here"?  How many times have I concerned myself with others and neglected serving my own children these ways?  How often am I guilty of not letting my own children into my space? Do I treat my children like I treat my friends?  Charles T Lee, Dave Gibbons, George Patterson all said something to the same effect:  Jesus is not for beating people into submission.  It's not about arguing over whose rules are better. Jesus is just at a higher level than that!  But how often are we using rules and "obedience" and Jesus to "beat our children into submission"?  Where's the GRACE?

Do we wait for God to say go?  Dave Gibbons challenged us to just GO, till God says stop and go somewhere else. George Patterson challenged us to START A MOVEMENT. And to both, the Holy Spirit told me during prayer time:  START WITH YOUR OWN CHILDREN.

Pros and Cons

What I heard this weekend @ Verge 10:

"You're going to have to enjoy living. Get a life. Don't be a crappy missionary."  - Hugh Halter


All movements that change the world have a sense of comradeship that says "I have your back." - Hirsch


RT @edstetzer: We've made it acceptable for ppl to sit in church every week & do nothing & call themselves a follower of Jesus.


@JohnBurke_ "if your unchristian friends are not finding faith and becoming the church you're not missional."


RT @edstetzer: Any church system that disempowers and de-motivates the people of God is unhelpful and perhaps sinful.


RT @edstetzer: When pastors do for people what God has called people to do, everybody gets hurt & the mission of God is hindered.


 "Some of us (followers of Christ) need to suffer just to realize we are for real. " - Francis Chan


@vincemarrotte  "motives: am I part of a House Church cuz of a reaction? Am I part of a Mega Church cuz I seek a platform?"




RT @_Stew_: Usually conferences run late cause speakers can't stop speaking. #verge10 running late cause worshippers can't stop worshipping.


RT @_Matt_Carter Honestly...I can't remember a time in my life I have felt the Presence of God more distictly in a worship environment

Hello, I love you.

How many times have we considered our long, miserable life, and wonder why we can't just get some of the love?  The popular people seem to have the love- but if we're honest we see it's attention they get, not love. So we look again. It's not attention we want, right? It really is love? Remember as a child, being willing to do something naughty just to get attention... but it wasn't attention. It was love we craved. Just to have Dad say, I love you, you're mine. Not "I love you, you are so great at sports."  Or "I love you, you make me look good in front of my peers." But "You're mine, I made you, having your fellowship gives me joy, and I love you." Tonight I was listening to this sermon on Luke's gospel, and Mark had this to say about being loved:

Some would say, “Well, the Bible doesn’t say Jesus is God.” He was murdered because he wouldn’t stop saying he was God. The New Testament repeatedly declares him to be God. He receives worship as God. And God the Father parts heaven and in front of a huge crowd says, “That’s my Son. And with him I am well pleased. He is beloved to me.”

Question: Did the Father say this before or after Jesus began his public ministry? This is very important for our understanding of identity. In so far as we can tell, has Jesus performed a miracle yet? Has he cast out any demons, raised any dead people, healed any sick people, walked on any lakes? No. Has he resisted Satan’s temptations? That’s coming. Not yet. Has he gone to the cross to die in our place for our sins? Not yet. So how could the Father be well pleased with him? What’s he been doing? He’s been working an honest job as a carpenter with his dad for about thirty years. Isn’t that amazing? If you’re a good plumber or electrician or mom, God’s pleased with that. People like me are no holier than you, and people who are in paid vocational ministry are no closer to God than those who aren’t because the truth is we all work for God. I love the fact that the Bible records that the Father loves the Son and is pleased with him before he does anything public.

That’s the opposite of religion, and I really want you to get this point. Religion basically says, “Work really hard. Try your best. And at the end of your life, maybe God will say ‘I now adopt you. I will now love you. I’m pleased with your life.’” Our God is a God of grace. He reveals himself as a Father. And our relationship with him begins with love and approval and affection. I’ve got five kids; one in heaven, miscarriage. All of my children begin with this: “I am your Father. You are mine. I love you. I’m pleased with you.” That’s where we begin with God.

So many people, men in particular, their whole life they’ve wanted to hear from their Father what Jesus heard, “You are my Son. You are beloved. I’m pleased with you.” I have good news: if you are in Christ, you are beloved, you are a son, the Father is pleased with you. That’s where your relationship with God starts. Some of you say, “But I’ve sinned.” I have too.

It says it in multiple places in the New Testament. I’ll give you one example from Galatians 4:6-7, “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son,” – that’s the Holy Spirit – “into our hearts crying, ‘Abba!’” – or Daddy – “‘Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

Here’s what he’s saying: Jesus went to the cross and he took our place. And in so doing, he gave us his. Isn’t that amazing? So Jesus goes to the cross and suffers and dies in our place for our sins. God made him who knew no sin to become sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Friends, Jesus went to the cross and took your place and gave you his place so that now you are a son of God.

Some translations will call us “children of God” in an effort to include the ladies. The statement here, “son of God,” applies equally to the men and the women, but we don’t want to be politically correct, we want to be biblically correct. And when the Bible says that in Jesus we are sons of God, what it is saying is that we hold that esteemed position that the Son did; that we get the full inheritance and the family name, Christian; that there are no second-class citizens; that we’re all treated like sons. That includes the ladies. It’s being in this privileged position: through Jesus, sin forgiven, adopted into the family of God, he says, the Holy Spirit placed in your heart so that you can cry out to God as Father. Even if you didn’t have a dad, he’s a Father to the fatherless. And he has an inheritance for us. Paul says the down payment of that inheritance is the Holy Spirit: the beginning of God’s good gifts.

And the Holy Spirit will empower our new ministry out of our new identity. If our identity is son who is loved and the Father is pleased with us, and the power is the power of the Holy Spirit, now we are freed from sin to live a new life patterned after Jesus’, one of great passion and joy, not powered by religion and guilt but the Holy Spirit in joy.

You probably don’t believe that. I pray that the Holy Spirit would confirm that to you. If you are in Christ, you are his son. I’m not saying you’re God and divine and equal to Jesus. I’m saying that you have been gifted the same position that Jesus enjoyed. The Father loves you like he loves Jesus. The Father is pleased with you as he’s pleased with Jesus. And the Father has good things for you as he does for Jesus. That changes everything, does it not?

Does the Holy Spirit in you confirm this and stun you? “Jesus took my place and put me in him? And I am beloved by the Father and he speaks to me through the Scriptures and tells me that he loves me and he’s pleased with me in Christ.” As sinful, as wretched, as rebellious as we are, that’s our identity in Christ. I really need you to know that. And if you’re not a Christian, I need you to know you’re chaff. You repent of sin, trust in Jesus, receive the Holy Spirit, enjoy the adoption as a son of God and live a new life by a new power to the glory of God like Jesus. Amen? I’ll pray.

Holy Spirit, I request that you would impart the truth of Scripture to those who would hear me teach. Holy Spirit, I thank you. I thank you for this revelation of the Trinity. I thank you for this declaration of the deity of Jesus. I thank you for your anointing of our Savior and your anointing of our church and your empowerment of our lives. Holy Spirit, thank you for inspiring the writing of Scripture. Lord Jesus, thank you for living humbly among us by living through the power of the Spirit, by taking our place and giving us your own; that you are condemned and we are beloved. And Father, thank you that you speak from heaven, that you speak about Jesus, that you send the Spirit that we might know him and love him and live like him to your glory and our joy. Please help us as a church to come to know these truths in such a way that they are not just information but transformation. That we would not live in such a way that you would love us, but we would accept your love and live in light of it. We know that you cannot love us anymore. You will not love us any less. And so God, please empower us to be transformed to your glory and our joy. Amen.

The long days of early childhood

I didn't come into this parenting gig unprepared.  I went to college. I studied Human Development and Family Studies. My focus area was parenting education.  Go ahead, laugh. Seriously~ I was 22, and because I'd taken all the college classes (with a respectable GPA) I was certainly an expert on how to raise kids. Besides, I had also taught in daycares for several years. I had helped out in 2 year old Sunday School since I was 12. I had babysat since I was 11. This parenting thing was going to be a Piece. Of. Cake.

Then Jacob was born. Jeff and I quickly realized we were in parenting Boot Camp. As an aside, a busy email digest I was a part of for many years was one of those specifically set up for people managing large families. There were families with 10 kids on there, even larger families. One time, for fun, the moms did an unscientific survey: What was the name of the Most Rambunctious Child in the family. Jacob won, hands down. Caleb was in a close second. Bless her heart, I knew a girl who had twins named Jacob and Caleb and another girl who had named her son Jacob Caleb. Goodness gracious. All I know is there is a Jacob at every playground I've ever visited. No matter where I am, as I pass a playground area, I hear some parent holler, "JAAAACOBBBBB!"

The pregnancy with Jacob was textbook- and my book was What to Expect When You Are Expecting (go ahead, snigger). Jeff made a Nutrition Chart for me and I dutifully checked off the components of my Best Odds Diet. (No folks, I'm not making this up.)  When he was born, Jacob was not exactly a textbook baby- he did everything we expected him to do before we expected him to do it. And he did many things we never expected him to do. When he was 5 months old, we tried to Ferberize him. Jeff cried for 3 nights in a row. I finally took to sitting next to Jacob's crib (SuperNanny style), inching my way out of his sight and out of his doorway. The child woke daily, promptly at 5 a.m., at which time I stumbled to the kitchen and made what I presume was formula bottles, but I honestly don't remember, to toss into his crib on my way back to my bed.

By 15 months old I had taught him to help himself to a bowl of cereal and start the VHS player. I could sleep until 7; my alarm clock was the end credit music of any one of his 7 favorite videos. I still sometimes have dreams of Donut Man.

One time, emphasis on ONE, we parents thought that it was really important to make sure he ate his green peas that I'd put on his plate. Because of course, if we parents lost this battle of the wills, he'd run roughshod over us the rest of his life. I think the standoff lasted close to an hour, and yes the boy ate the food. But you know what? We gained nothing from it. He has a higher price than that.

And I'm glad he does. Now that he's just blinks away from manhood, I've never once been really glad I fought with him over a few veggies on a plate. In fact-- Jeff and I learned that sleep and food were simply nothing to fight with kids over. Their little bodies don't require it. And their wills are not bound in their sleep and nutrition. What was ultimately more important than where and when he slept, or what he ate, was whether he understands who God is and how He was revealed to us.  In this, we see well enough evidence that we succeeded in imparting these truths- and we praise God that He works in the boy's life to bring fruit.

Speaking of fruit, he likes it. He still rarely eats anything I fix- he prefers to sit out mealtime, and fix himself fruit smoothies later on when no one else is in the kitchen. As for sleep, it wins out. Every night.