Thoughts on the Comparison of Evolution and the Modern Family

This week, when Jordan and I were sitting down talking, she asked about why a particular woman worked outside of the home. In the same conversation, somehow we also got to talking about dinosaurs. During that conversation, I had a epiphany.

Think about this. In nature, so many animals after they mate, the male leaves the female. The female then carries the baby, or lays the egg. The female then may care for the animal for a short time, and then she turns the baby over to its own devices. I know this is not the situation for every animal, but for so many it is the way they work.

Now, think about this. If because of evolution, we are nothing but higher order animals, it makes sense for the man to mate and leave. If because of evolution, we are nothing more than higher order animals, it makes sense for the female to turn the baby over to someone else to care for it, leaving it in a day care to fend for itself. This is exactly what is happening in our society today.

Unwed mothers who are no longer involved with the father of their child are rampant. Many men enjoy the pleasure of a sexual relationship to leave once they find out there is any responsibility attached to that relationship. Women, not wanting to sacrifice their career on the alter of children, leave their children with people who have many, many other children the same age and slightly older to care for.

While our society today, on the whole, says that they believe in God - even those in the church - act just like they are products of random chance happenings in the way that we deal with our spouses and children.

God has called us apart. God has called us to be different and to show forth the picture of Christ and the church. Christ's church trusts in His provision for their salvation and even daily well-being. A bride should trust in her husband's provision for her daily well-being. The bride of Christ should be seeing 'offspring' and nurturing them. A wife should be seeing offspring and nurturing them.

If you belong to Christ, ask yourself, would someone from the outside see an accurate picture of Christ and the Church in your family or would they see a picture of evolutionary thinking.

NEA Calls Right Wing People B****rds

This e-mail is C&P from the American Family Association.

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National Education Association's top lawyer touts their real purpose

Says those who promote traditional values are a group of "right-wing b****rds"

July 21, 2009

Dear Suzanne,

PLEASE READ AND THEN FORWARD

The National Education Association's (NEA) top lawyer, Bob Chanin, recently made clear the goal of the NEA. He called those who believe in and work for traditional family values "b****rds." He also praised the NEA because the organization has "power" and "hundreds of millions" of dollars from dues to spend in promoting their agenda and political candidates.

I have included an article which shows, in their own words, what the NEA is doing. It is time for Christians who are members of the NEA to get out. We are funding the demise of Western Civilization. Please read this article!

Chanin's volley left no doubt where the NEA wants to take the public education system, and our children. It also served as a wake-up call for those who might be considering taking their children out of public schools.

If you are a member of NEA, I suggest you contact some more teacher friends and discuss this matter with them.

If you need legal help, I suggest you contact one of the two organizations listed below:

Liberty Council www.lc.org
Alliance Defense Fund www.telladf.org

...

P.S. Many members of the NEA are not aware how the NEA is using their dues to promote leftwing politics. They can drop their membership in the NEA and secure many of the same benefits by joining other professional organizations which offer the same benefits.

The Association of American Educators is one. You can visit them on the web at www.aaeteachers.org.

Also, Christian Educators offers many of the same benefits. Their website is www.ceai.org.
The Association of American Educators is one. You can visit them on the web at www.aaeteachers.org.

Also, Christian Educators offers many of the same benefits. Their website is www.ceai.org.

My Letter to President Obama

I sent this via the contact form at www.whitehouse.gov/contact/. I suggest that all of you do the same.

Other contact information can be found here.

Karen

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Mr. President,

I am requesting that you stop your efforts on what you consider health care reform. I am completely opposed to socialized health care which would have surely killed me three years ago. I have four children seven and under.

I have a friend who is an MD in England. She stated that she couldn't believe how quickly I was able to get in to see an specialist when I was desperately sick with C Diff. She stated that I would have "been stuck with the likes of her" for six months to a year. Mr. President, I would have been dead. I had been dealing with my own doctor who believed that I just had a stomach virus. He couldn't diagnose me correctly.

Please do not continue to pursue something that the Canadians are abandoning because it has lead to a higher mortality rate instead of a lower one.

Karen Morris

Stripping of Our Liberties via the UN

I would not have thought that there could be a more pernicious vehicle by which to strip the freedoms of us as parents than the potential threat of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). There is, however, just as great if not more great a threat than the UNCRC to us that has just been brought to my attention.

There is another UN convention that may also be brought before the Senate for ratification. This is the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Now if this convention only spoke of liberating women from the slavery of forced prostitution or the freeing of women from a forced life of polygamy, while I detest the UN as a whole and believe that the US should have no part of it, I would not in principle object to that particular convention; however, that is NOT what CEDAW is about.

According to HSLDA's Home School Court Report, "If ratified (requiring two-thirds of the Senate or 67 senators to approve it), CEDAW would become the supreme law of the land under the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause in Article VI, thus trumping state laws and being used as biding precedent by state and federal judges."

So what would this 'trumping' mean for us. Again according to HSLDA's Home School Report, "The greatest danger posed by CEDAW is its requirement that a curricula be revised to ensure that no differentiation is made on the basis of gender. CEDAW's Article 10 gives the government the power to make these revisions: 'States Parties shall take appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women. . . and in particular to ensure . . . the elimination of any stereotyped concept of the roles of men and women at all levels and in all forms of education by encouraging coeducation and other tpes of education which will help to achieve this aim, and in particular, by the revision of textbooks and school programmes and the adaptation of teaching methods."

So in plain English this means that churches will not be able to hire only male pastors because that is discriminating against women. In essence, it means that Christian school curricula and home school curricula, if in accordance with the convention, would have to teach that it is okay to have two females or two males as your parents. Heaven forbid you use the terrible stereotypical names of "Mother" and "Father", as these discriminate.

To quote R.C. Sproul Jr. "God began by discriminating!!" In his sermon, Simple, Separate, Deliberate he goes on to discuss how on day one, God discriminated between light and darkness. On day two, God discriminated between the Heavens and the Earth. On day three, God discriminated between the seas and the land and so forth. God starts by discriminating. God calls us to follow His example in our discriminating. We should call those things that are light, light! We should call those things which are darkness, darkness. We should know and realize that the Heavens, while it contains the Earth, are separate from it. God calls us to look at situations and to be able to determine whether something is right or wrong in the situation and act on it accordingly! We are called to discriminate.

We are NOT called however to treat people inferior to ourselves. Whether Christian or not, we are all created in the image of God, but we have each been given distinct roles to play. While a wife's and mother's role is no less than her husband's, it is distinct and different. While a deacon's role is not at all unimportant, it is different and distinct from that of the Pastor - and there both males.

We as Christians need to begin modeling for the world what it means to be feminine and what it means to be masculine. We should fight against the picture of androgyny and replace it with a picture of how the Lord meant His church to function, distinct, but equally important to His kingdom.

Pray with me. Fight with me for our freedoms! Do not let us passively give up our freedom's to raise our children in the way to which Christ has called us. The price will then be dearer when we will have to disobey the government in order to follow Christ.

Country Moments in the City

If you know anything about us, you know that we want so badly to live in the country. It has been a burning desire of ours for quite awhile.

Today, the Lord gave us a little bit of the country in the city. While I sat at my desk, Jordan, Ian and I had the opportunity to sit here and watch a little bird (I don't know what kind)hop along the railing of our back porch. The bird had a piece of bark in it's beak. I'm assuming it was off to build, enlarge, or repair it's nest. It paused several times to give us a better look at him.

This evening as we came downstairs after we gave the little two baths, Jordan stopped and stared out our front door. She motioned us over and we all stood there inside the door as a rabbit gave himself a bath in our front yard. We watched it as it continuously licked it's front feet and then rubbed them over various parts of it's head, the backs of it's ears, it's face. It proceeded on to clean it's back feet. It almost looked like it was eating the dirt off of them. It scrubbed it's tummy in the same manner. We stood there for probably ten minutes before Shannen leaned on the door a little too quickly and heavily and it became aware we were watching it. It hopped off not long after.

Maybe these seem like such little things, but for us, who so want to be in the country, they were both real blessings.

5 Easy and Almost Painless Ways to Save

1.) Shop at Shop and Save on a "Coupon Thursday". Spend $50 and save $10. I literally add up all my purchases on my grocery list. I will spend as close to $50 as possible (before taxes). Then with coupons and the $10 that they take off, I get out for much less. Tonight, my bill before any discounts taken at the register was $56 before tax. After the $10 off $50, and my coupons, I paid $30.92.

2.) If something breaks, don't replace it. Okay, this one may or may not sound scary. Really it hasn't been bad at all. Within the past 6 months, our wireless router, our vacuum cleaner, our microwave, and a printer went kaput on us. The only thing we replaced was our printer, and we only spent $21 on that buying a used one from Steve's work. Don't get me wrong, I still clean our carpets, but instead of vacuuming, I use.....heaven forbid, a broom! It takes more elbow grease, but I get the carpets cleaner with than than I did with our old vacuum! We have had a wonderful time without the microwave! We use a wonderful old fashioned tea pot for tea and pop popcorn right on the stove. It's great.

3.) Repurpose items for use in other parts of the home, or find inexpensive alternatives to fancy items. If you've seen anything about my posts on Facebook recently. I've cleaned out my office. I knew I needed a permanent place to put my coupon box, I also needed a place to put file folders upright on top of my desk or file cabinets. I went to the Container Store and instead of a beautiful wooden shelf, I found a wonderful mesh one that I can stack others with later if need be. I also purchased a vertical plate divider to use for my manila folders. The two cost me $13. Those two, a little clutter removal, and elbow grease has given me a new office!

4.)Don't renew subscriptions. Look for free magazines that you would enjoy instead.
I was excited when Money Saving Mom posted that there was a place to get Family Fun Magazine for free for 2 years! I cannot tell you how excited I was. It was a magazine I had been wanting for awhile, but I hadn't wanted to pay for it. What a blessing! On the other side, I have by choicelet one of my subscriptions lapse. I don't miss it a bit.

5.) Get rid of little used services - Do you have a gym membership that you don't use? How about your netflix plan? Is it over adequate? How about your cell phone plan, do you not use many of its features? Scale them back. It'll save you a chunk of change every month

The Triple Dog Dare

Tonight, I have stared myself in the face and said, "I triple-dog-dare-you to live on $180 for the rest of the month". Now, let me put that in context for you. I have $30 cash and $150 in a gift card for a grocery store. Now, are we than hard up for cash? No, honestly we're not (we do have savings), but we made a choice to buy a really wonderful set of CD's from Vision Forum for $62. This item was not budgeted. Now, there's a good buy on some dresses for Jordan for this fall. That's another $66. We have the money in savings, but I don't want to dip in.

So here's the scoop. There are 16 days left in July. I'm taking one week's grocery/living budget and allocating it to the CD's and dresses. This would make us almost even for our spending. I then have to live on $30 cash and $150 in a gift card to a grocery store. I am not at all worried about making it on the grocery side, but what it does mean, is that we have to keep our belt tightened on anything not absolutely necessary for the rest of the month.

Here's to our efforts!

Federal Healthcare Unconstitutional

Take a look at this video clip by Michael Farris.

Interesting Facts

Those who read my blog regularly know that we homeschool. Those who have read for awhile or who know me well know that I believe homeschooling to be tantamount to training our children and bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the CHEF home school conference. Even before I attended the conference, I had heard a message by Voddie Bauchum called "The Centrality of the Home in Evangelism and Discipleship". It stepped on toes despite the fact that we were already homeschooling. As I have heard him say, "Can't say amen, gotta say ouch."

Within the past week, I have relistened to "The Centrality of the Home in Evangelism and Discipleship" bought through Vision Forum as well as "Getting Your House in Order" from the CHEF conference.

Here are some hard facts that he gives. According to a study done by the Southern Baptist Convention, of the children that go through a youth ministry program, 70%-88% leave the faith of their parents by one year after they graduate from high school. 70-88%!!! That is not JUST Southern Baptists. The first time they did the study, they found that 70% of Southern Baptist children leave the faith by one year after they graduate high school. They thought the number was high, so they decided to do another study encompassing people from many protestant denominations. That is where they got the 88% number. What I also found was interesting was that it didn't matter if they went to a public university, a private college, or a Christian college. Still 70-88% of high school students who are involved in youth ministry leave the faith by one year following high school. More troubling than this already troubling scenario is that these children who leave the faith are NOT returning to the faith and church later in life.

By contrast NHERI, National Home Education Research Institute, found that homeschooled children are retained in the faith of their parents through all of college and beyond at a rate of 94%!

We do what is right because it is right, not because numbers are the end all be all of what works. What is right works, not what works is right. In this case, however, I would hope these numbers would convince Christians to homeschool.

Experiment

I had had some bananas which had passed their prime, so I decided to make banana bread. Instead of following the recipe, I decided to make a 'healthy' version. I replaced the shortening with olive oil. I replaced the sugar with sucannat. I replaced the bleached white flour with half whole wheat/half white. I'm waiting for the results, but it sure smells delicious. I'll update later with a picture and the ensuing results.

Update

Okay, I forgot to take the pictures of the bread, but it looked great! Fortunately, it tasted great too. I think I'll continue making it this way. Definitely better for us.

Public Health Care - Petition Information and Must See Videos

Sign the petition to keep health care private. Congress and President Obama are refusing to use the same health care system that they want to impose on us. Canada is already heading back to private health care because of the failure of socialized health care leading to increased deaths.

Here are two videos to watch which show the democrats in their own words with what they are planning. Here's video 1. Here's video 2.

Changing Face of Life

We have been and still are waiting for where the Lord is leading us to serve. One thing that has been pointed out to me recently is how much the Lord has changed us over the last two years while we have been waiting. We have come to a Biblical understanding of our children; how we relate to them; and how we are to guide them, educate them, disciple them, and walk alongside them. We are learning to live out the faith once for all delivered to the saints. We have changed how we dress. We have changed how we spend our time. We have changed how we interact as a family. We have listened to hundreds of hours of preaching and teaching via CD's from Vision Forum which have so greatly influenced the Biblicity of our world view. We have begun to get our financial house in order. We have begun to set goals for how we would handle things once our house sells. We have begun to dream (on a very small scale) of what the Lord may allow us to do. So many things have come about during this long period of waiting.

Our house looks so different today from what it did when Steve graduated from seminary two years ago. This is not a pride thing. It is just a statement of how the Lord is changing the face of our lives. I am thankful for His leading.

Busy Weekend

This weekend has brought a much anticipated visitor to the house. Around here Papa Ron is a favorite, though we have had more visitors over the last year than many of the previous years combined. Today was a rather quiet day around the house, but hopefully we'll enjoy some other trips this week.

It's been hard to blog lately because I feel like I have nothing to blog about. Life never stops, but people don't care to read much about laundry, dishes, meals, shopping, and general living. While that is not all we do, it is certainly the vast majority of it.

I'm hoping as life goes on that I will be able to come up with more interesting topics to bring your way.

Productive, but Tiring Day

Today was so busy, but I got much accomplished. We grocery shopped at Aldi's and Shop N Save. My eyes almost popped out of my head when my pre-coupon total was $90. I don't spend $90 at any grocery store. On my grocery list, I do keep track of how much I'm spending, and my total on my paper was $41. Okay, $90 and $41 are a far cry from each other. After coupons though, my total was $52. Not quite the $41, and I must have missed adding a couple of items prices up, but still $38 off, not bad.

I've been trying deliberately this week to take the children to my parents' house to let them run in their back yard. After we finished shopping, I packed a quick picnic lunch and we headed over to my parents' house. It was a great time picnicing and playing.

This afternoon, I had grandiose plans for a baking day which didn't happen, but I did get this week's bread baked, all five pints of blueberries cleaned, some frozen, some not. I also got two pounds of strawberries sliced and some frozen. I got our Sam's pork cut into four meal sized portions, wrapped and frozen, as well as our cheese from Sam's divided up and frozen. So while I didn't get my tortillas, waffles, pumpkin bread, and cornbread baked I did get a lot done.