Road Trip

This is a photo I pirated of my oldest daughter - she tends to get his way in vans...or when she's not had enough sleep - I suspect both were true at this moment in her life. They are back from Seattle now and settling into the normal Master's Commission routine.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZANDER!!!!

Zander is 5 today. When I asked him how old he is, he said, "Fifty-five"! It does sound a bit more impressive, doesn't it?

My Daughter the Emo/Goth

*got permission to cross-post some things from the girls' blogs...Bre's next week. This from Krista:

On a bit more of a serious note, I have some thoughts from a scavenger hunt we did the Friday after Thanksgiving. On this scavenger hunt a group of adults from the church goes to the mall and hides, while the youth tries to find them. The youth that finds the most people get a reward.

The hiders are encouraged to dress up. Bre wore her host brother's clothes and went as a boy, Molly dressed like a girl punk rocker. I dressed up like an interesting Emo/Goth. I ended up getting separated from the group and walking around the mall by myself for two hours.

I learned a lot by doing this. People would shy away from me like I had leprosy. This was weird because people usually crowd me and make me move for them! The little kids were all scared of me and were hiding behind their mothers! Everyone else acted like they didn’t SEE me! Now, they had to see me to avoid me. Didn’t they? After an hour of this, I really just wanted someone to smile at me or even acknowledge my presence. One person did, a person at a KIOSK!

I got to thinking about it. The place was crammed with people from the church, but none of them saw me. I walked by all the youth kids, and because they wouldn’t look at me, they didn’t recognize me. How often do we walk around judging people by how they are dressed? All the mothers that hid their children from me, would have let me baby-sit if I was dressed differently!

How may of the people that look mean and scary, that walk around the malls or around town, are inside longing for someone to just smile at them? I was. You have kids with bad lives that start dressing scary or even just DIRTY, because they cant afford nicer, and people treat them like outcasts. Except the REALLY gothic people, the witches, they will accept them. So that is where they go. The whole time they might be crying out, as they are dragged down that road, but we, as Christians don’t see or hear them because they are ”scary” and not “acceptable”.

Next time you see an Emo/Goth dresser, try the smiling instead of the judging look that asks why someone would dress like that.

*The Bible Cure For Thyroid Disorders by Don Colbert, M.D.*

It's a "thing" I have. I need more than one credible source for any information (be that a Scriptural word study or a new piece of nutritional information) before I believe it. I set out to read a few more books on thyroid disorders before I believed what I read in the previous book too firmly. {G}

I picked this one up cheap at our local Christian Bookstore. It did agree with the info in Mary Shomon's book. Dr. Colbert also discusses more nutritional and environmental things that can impact the thyroid. I'm not quite ready to give up all plastic - but I'm getting closer. ::snort::

One thing that I'm finding to be consistent is that some of my favorite raw veggies are not good for someone that is hypothyroid - though they are great for someone who is hyperthyroid and fine for someone with NO thyroid issues. These include broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale and sweet corn, peanuts, almonds and walnuts (all my favorites for salads!) make the list too. I've read this in two books and checked in Sally Fallon's book (crunchy nature type LOL) and Sally has the same list. I'm not sure how I'll act on this info, but it is turning up consistently. I need to find out how serious of a problem this is because I've NEVER been told this by any doctor or endocrinologist I've seen.

I enjoyed the small format and concise information in each chapter. I did NOT like the way that Dr. Colbert sometimes takes Scripture out of context (or so it seemed to me). I also did not enjoy the constant reminders to read this or that book that he has written in the past - this man is a prolific writer. I thought I was picking up a theme that it is God's will for all to be in perfect health - and I was. I don't necessarily agree with him here either.....or we can split hairs as I hear and say it's God's "perfect will" for all to be in complete health and his "permissive will" for some to be ill? I don't know...I only know that I see plenty of evidence that God allows and uses illnesses to draw us closer to Him and for His glory.

Other than those few things, I enjoyed the book. It will be good to have it on my shelf. I was considering reading Dr. Colbert's book "The 7 Pillars of Health". Has anyone read this? Is it worth it? Did you enjoy it?
I have ANOTHER book on hypothyroidism that I got from PBS...but the doc stated you should eat a diet of 800 calories to lose weight with a thyroid disorder. I'm not ready to go there since that disagrees with what I've been told to do - and I don't need a lot of conflicting information like that just yet. LOL

Our Favorites so Far

*A Kid's Catalog of Israel by Chaya M . Burstein*

This one is a TOG find. We have really enjoyed the books that TOG picks for studying Israel and the Jewish Culture. This book features whimsical, black and white drawings. It features chapters on the geography of Israel, the various ethnic groups that make up Israel, Zionism, armies, holidays, crafts, recipes, language, traditions, stories and a great chapter on MORE books about Israel.

I used this book with the younger ones (PS, 2nd, 3rd) and Jared (7th) read it as well.

*Israel Enchantment of the World by Martin and Stephen Hintz*

There are several editions of this book. We checked two out by accident. We MUCH prefered the latest edition. We loved the photos in this book - colorful and clear.

I ended up reading this one to the younger ones (we picked sections out of the previous one). This book features many of the same chapters but the vibrant pictures made this one a MUST for us. We are fairly visual and the photos brought our study of the establishment of Israel to life. This book doesn't have recipes and crafts...but the other topics are similar.

This is the book that had the photo of Cholent in it. {G}

"Hotel California"

A hit by the American band the Eagles in 1976 (dating myself a bit?)....all the words do not apply at all....but this is something of the theme song for Mike and his traveling partner. ::snort:: The song is really fairly dark now that I read all the lyrics...and to think we ran around singing this thing.....LOL

"Welcome to the hotel california
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the hotel california
Any time of year, you can find it here

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before’relax,’ said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave! "

Daddy Bear is Fixed!!!!

Thanks, Mom for the great idea of using the phone. Now we wonder why we didn't do this in the first place. I guess the shopowner mentioned mailing the voice box to him and that's as much mental energy as I spent on the project. LOL