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God’s favor

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I have two entries mulling around in my mind for tonight. I’m going to give this one a go first and then try the other one if my mind isn’t mush yet 😉

 

OK, so I’ve been reading The Powers That Be by Walter Wink. Fascinating stuff. It was recommended in the footnotes of Irresistible Revolution, and it really develops Shane Claiborne’s ideas of embracing pacifism without being passive. Good stuff.

One of the sections that I’ve really been enjoying in this book is all about God’s favor and the idea of God hating our enemies. Here’s the funny thing about that thought. God is love. He loves everyone. We know this. Let’s take a look at Luke 6.

Love for Enemies

27″But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. 30Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31Do to others as you would have them do to you.
32″If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. 33And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that. 34And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. 35But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

OK, so we’ve all read those verses a thousand times, right? So how is it that the church, and particularly “the religious right”, seem to forget about them when it comes to policy-making? God is “kind to the ungrateful and wicked”, but are we? Ha. So often the church is too busy focusing on a God that will favor the good based on their righteousness. We know from scripture that the rain falls on both the righteous and the wicked. Why does the church forget this so often? Walter Wink talks about it:

God’s all-inclusive parental care is thus charged with an unexpected consequence for human behavior: we can love our enemies, because God does. If we wish to correspond to the central reality of the universe, we will behave as God behaves–and God embraces all, evenhandly.

Well, crap. That’s not something I do very well.

Our solidarity with our enemies lies not just in our common parentage under God, but also our common evil. God “is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” We too, like them, betray what we know in our hearts God desires for the world. We would like to identify ourselves as just and good, but we are a mix of just and unjust, good and evil. If God were not compassionate toward us, we would be lost. And if God is compassionate toward us, with all our unredeemed evil, then God must treat our enemies the same way. As we begin to acknowledge our own inner shadow, we become more tolerant of the shadow in others. As we begin to love the enemy within, we develop the compassion we need to love the enemy without.

Let me just say that I have found this to be so true in my life. It is at my most humbled and broken moments that I can love those who hurt me. It is so much easier to have compassion for others when you realize just how much compassion you need.

If, however, we believe that the God who loves us hates those whom we hate, we insert an insidious doubt into our own selves. Unconsciously we know that a deity hostile toward others is potentially hostile to us as well. And we know, better than anyone, that there is plenty of cause for such hostility. If God did not send sun and rain on everyone equally, God not only would not love everyone, God would love no one.

I am finding this to be so true in my life. I have been through a lot of hurt in the past year, and I feel like God has really used this time to show me all of the compassion that I have (undeservingly) received.  He has also helped me to love those who hurt me. I am so far from perfect that it is not even funny, but I am really enjoying the journey. I love serving a God who loves everyone without them having to act a certain way. That’s how I want to be too. Its an amazing journey to try to get there, and I am thankful for God’s unending patience with me. He knows I need it!

I love hearing voices like Walter Wink’s in the Christian community, because I think this is an area where we could really stand to be challenged.  If we think of God as an angry deity who picks sides, then how will we ever see the image of God in those who are our “enemies”?  Its so hard, but we know that we were ALL created in God’s image, even those who hurt us the very most.  It is only when we can see that piece of God in them that we can reconcile and live the kind of life that Jesus told us to live.

Good stuff.

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The many faces of self-righteousness

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I am currently reading Irresistible Revolution and I am really loving every minute of it.  The amazing thing is that God is bringing together my convictions, what I’m learning in my Bible time, what I’m reading in Irresistible Revolution, AND what I’m reading in my Beth Moore Bible study.  Seriously.  Any time Beth Moore and Shane Claiborne intersect, I think it is good to shut up and listen, because that can’t possibly happen that often, LOL.

I have so many things that I’d like to write about from this book, but today’s quote is sponsored by our upcoming presidential election.  I’m so sick of it.  I can’t even tell you how sick of it I am.  I am a fan of neither party, and I am pretty much just dreading this whole thing.  I just pray that the fans and followers of whoever wins (which I assume will be Obama) are able to win graciously.  Ugh.  I’m so not excited.  This whole political season has driven me nuts, because everyone is spending lots of time making villains of the other side, and I think everyone is screwed up.

I think Shane Claiborne agrees  =D

The stuff Jesus warned us to beware of, the yeast of the Pharisees, is so infectious today in the camps of both liberals and conservatives.  Conservatives stand up and thank God that they are not like the homosexuals, the Muslims, the liberals.  Liberals stand up and thank God that they are not like the war makers, the yuppies, the conservatives.  It is a similar self-righteousness, just with different definitions of evildoing.  It can paralyze us in judgment and guilt and rob us of life.  Rather than separating ourselves from everyone we consider impure, maybe we are better off just beating our chests and praying that God would be merciful enough to save us from this present ugliness and to make our lives so beautiful that people cannot resist that mercy.

This quote really gives a very skewed glimpse of what is contained in this book, but I was just reading a bunch of election stuff, and it summed up my feelings quite well.

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Colorado gifted and talented conference

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After my big, bad VBAC post, I thought it’d be nice to have something a bit less controversial, lol.

I am trying to get together some other homeschool mommies to join me at the upcoming Parent Institute that is being offered as part of the Colorado Gifted and Talented Conference.  (Both links are pdf files.)  I wouldn’t mind attending the conference too, actually.  My parents will be in town, and my mom is a gifted teacher, so I thought she might be up for it.  Its not cheap, but some of the sessions look really interesting.

So, if you’re looking for a date for the gifted conference, let me know, lol.  I’m in the market too!  If I don’t make it this year, then I may try again next year  🙂

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Reproductive rights and amendment 48

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–This may not be a post for pregnant mamas–

This issue is extra sensitive for me right now, because one of my very dear friends is dealing with it head-on. I was present at her HBAC, and she inspired me to have my own homebirth. She is being told that she won’t be able to have another homebirth because she is currently living in a country that doesn’t allow VBACs. I don’t normally make posts about political issues, but this is really frustrating me. Grrrr.

I just finished Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care by Jennifer Block. Its really well-written. I highly recommend it. She does the best job that I’ve seen in explaining the modern maternity system. I could write dozens of posts based on this book, but I want to focus on the last chapter because it relates directly to an issue that is on the ballot here in Colorado this November.

Amendment 48 is being billed as a pro-life initiative, although I don’t think that a lot of the members of the pro-life community understand the way that similar amendments have been used in other states. Case law is an important thing, and I fear that the Focus-on-the-Family-backed initiative may do way more harm than they intend.

Jennifer Block devotes her last chapter to the reproductive rights of women. She’s not talking about abortion, contraception, or any of the issues that are typically called “reproductive rights”. She’s talking about the right to decide what is best for your baby and your body when it comes to giving birth. The current system leaves many moms in a position where they are forced to make riskier choices because the hospitals and doctors don’t want to deal with liability issues. Women should have the right to birth as they want. Women don’t choose dangerous births just for the sake of it. Women will choose what is best for themselves and their babies if they aren’t forced between two options that they don’t like (such as a repeat c-section vs. an unassisted home birth after Cesarean). In those kinds of cases, many moms are left to choose between two options that are not statistically their safest. If hospitals don’t allow VBACs, then what shall they choose?

Well, for many moms, the choice isn’t really a choice at all. Many moms have made the choice to attempt a VBAC, based on the statistics and the worldwide recommendations, and yet the hospitals have forced them to make different choices by getting an emergency court order demanding they have a c-section.

Block opens the chapter with the stories of several women who have been through this experience. She starts out with the story of Laura Pemberton. (You can read more about her story, including the legal decision). Laura decided to attempt a VBAC, and initially found a doctor who was supportive. The doctor changed his mind when she was about halfway through her pregnancy. Her only option was a repeat c-section, or an unassisted HBAC. She decided to try it at home alone.

Laura labored for 2 days, and was starting to get dehydrated. She decided to go to the hospital for IV fluids and then to return home. The nurses reassured her that she was doing well. The baby’s heart tones were great, she was dilating, her blood pressure was great, and the baby was descending. The attending physician insisted that she have a c-section though. He refused to give her the IV fluids unless she agreed to a c-section.

The nurses helped her to get dressed and showed her a back door for her to escape. She drove home, feeling reassured from the nurses, and confident about having her baby vaginally. When they arrived home, the police were after her. The sheriff and state attorney were at her house, and they had a court order issued by a judge. They strapped her onto a stretched by her wrists and ankles, put her into the ambulance, and took her to the hospital.

At the hospital, a nurse led her to a room and gave her a hospital gown to put on. She and her husband went into the bathroom and locked the door. Pemberton remembers squatting there, bearing down as hard as she could, willing the baby to come. “I reached up and could feel the baby’s head in my hand,” she says. She pulled at the water bag, still intact. It slipped out of her grasp. They were knocking at the door, and finally she opened it.

Two doctors, the sheriff, two attorneys, and a judge crowded into the small exam room, with Pemberton in a hospital gown on the exam table, and conducted a hearing… At no time was Pemberton offered an attorney.

In between contractions, Pemberton argued in her own defense. She said this was an informed decision based on months of research and preparation… The judge said that my unborn baby was in the control of the state and that it was the state’s responsibility to bring that baby into this world safely,” says Pemberton.

…Pemberton’s obstetrician did one final exam before he began operating. She was 9 centimeters dilated, the baby was literally inches from being born, yet the surgeons went ahead with the surgery.

Laura Pemberton is not alone. Women are often forced to have a repeat c-section when they want to attempt a VBAC.

Some women will labor in the parking lot of a hospital known to be anti-VBAC, arriving on the L&D floor just in time to push the baby out. The “showing up pushing” strategy is discussed in full on the ICAN list. Fully aware that the hospital would have required them to plan a repeat cesarean, they try to time the birth so that when they get to L&D it’s too late. This doesn’t work for everyone, though. Susie Nalbach showed up at a Coral Springs, Florida, hospital ready to push in 2003. Instead, she was pushed into a wheel chair, separated from her husband, and taken into the operating room. Then she remembers two nurses arguing with each other. “The younger one was telling me to push, and the older one was telling me not to push. I kept pushing because I couldn’t help it,” she recalls. “I remember being told to breathe into an oxygen mask. But it wasn’t oxygen, it was general anesthesia. I did not consent to it. I never signed anything. I woke up later with a son.” She says on her medical chart, the indication for the cesarean was “failure to progress.”

Amber and John Marlowe were attempting a vaginal birth to their seventh child. All of their children had been delivered vaginally. A triage nurse did an ultrasound and decided that the child was too big, even though their previous kids had been large – one 12lb 4oz, and she had never had a problem. They tried a second hospital, and things became even worse.

Marlowe spent 14 hours at this hospital, refusing a cesarean section. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the couple, hospital attorneys were petitioning a local judge for custody of Marlowe’s fetus so that the hospital could legally compel its surgical extraction–and they won.

Before anyone could execute the order, however, the Marlowes were in their car driving to yet another hospital, Moses Taylor Hospital in Scranton, where Amber swiftly pushed out a perfectly healthy 11lb, 9oz baby girl, with nary a tear.

Hospital attorneys are able to petition for custody of your fetus, and can legally compel you to have a c-section if they decide it is in the child’s best interest. A 2003 survey of directors of maternal-fetal medicine programs found that 14% of them had used the court system to compel women to have cesareans. That’s really disturbing. What’s more disturbing, is that many of these hospitals get their powers from amendments like #48, which give rights to the fetus.

The campaign for fetal rights, led by those intent on re-criminalizing and stigmatizing abortion, has been a detriment to women who decide to carry their pregnancies to term.

The states that have had these kinds of initiatives have also been the ones to decide that a woman is not acting in the best interest of her child when she decides to give birth at home (or even just a hospital vaginal birth, as in the case of the Marlowe’s). The statistics disagree with these judges and hospitals, and some courts have later gone back and said that the judges were wrong in most of these cases, but it keeps happening.

I want to be clear that I don’t think that these cases are the norm. I understand they are rare, and Jennifer Block is very clear in her book that these are not normal cases. The fact remains that hospitals and states are using poorly worded legislation and amendments to take away the rights of women to birth as they choose. For amendments like 48, I just don’t think there are enough benefits to be worth the risk.

Joe and I were talking last night, and I was telling him that its not like I think that amendment 48 will make abortion illegal in Colorado. Its a federal issue right now, and I don’t think amendment 48 is the right way to go about abortion reform. I plan on voting against amendment 48, even though I am pro-life. I encourage everyone to look at all of the possible ramifications of this amendment and to weigh it against the possible benefits.

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Simple living… and walking

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Joe and I have been doing a lot of thinking recently on simplifying our lives. We took some huge steps last year, and now we’re re-evaluating the “untouchables” from last year – internet service on our phones, multiple computers, satellite tv… We’ve both been convicted about the fact that many of these items take more from us than they give. Its so easy to buy into the idea that these things make your life better, but if they cause you to withdraw and go off on your own, is it really better?

Don’t get me wrong, we love our modern conveniences, but it just seems too easy to surf the internet for hours and then feel rushed into making dinner and cleaning, and then exhausted when I go to bed.  I don’t feel that way if I use that extra time to do things more slowly and with more intention.  

I was reading my Bible a few days ago and came across one of those little built-in devotionals. I’m really not a fan of them, but this one made me think. It talked about how Jesus needed time alone with the Lord to recharge, and yet it is so easy to forget to make that time. Our lives are so crowded with activity, whereas Jesus would’ve had quiet times when he walked to new places, waited for a fire to warm up, or did the millions of other small daily activities that we’ve automated or somehow sped up.  Even with that, Jesus still had to make time for God.  Again, I don’t think that automating of washing dishes is bad, but I think we need to realize that we’ve lost a lot of the down time in our days.

So I’ve had these thoughts in the back of my head, and then Joe and I keep finding all of these articles on the benefits of walking. First Joe told me about an article in one of our little local papers on the value of walking as a couple. Its kind of hokey, so consider yourself warned.

In the article, Amy Henry says

I find it interesting that husbands and wives find hours each week to run, lift weights, attend yoga classes, cultivate flower beds, paint works of art, play sports, watch television and chauffeur the kids to activities, but somehow expect our marriages to miraculously survive — no, thrive — on zero effort, zero time and zero energy.

Joe and I have talked about this a lot.  It is easy to find time to watch Scrubs, so why is it sometimes hard to sit down and find time to hang out with your spouse?!  It makes no sense.  We love each other more than anything, and yet we pick to do stupid stuff.  Joe and I have been working on reading books together, which is fun, and we’ve been talking a lot more at night.  Its so silly that we have to be so intentional about it though!

Moving on…

The average couple spends two to 2½ hours together a day, but half of that time is spent in front of the television, 30 minutes are spent eating, and 24 minutes are spent on household chores. This means the average couple is spending between six and 21 minutes a day actually interacting with each other. How long would we stay employed if we spent only six minutes a day working at our job?

Yeah, that’s pretty sad.

What then is a couple to do? What does it take to tend our marital gardens so they do not end up choked to death with the weeds we neglected to pull? Most people do not have the money for babysitting and frequent dates, the chance for long tropical getaways or the luxury of grandparents willing and available to watch the kids. And, if money is the main obstacle to a great marriage, than why are rich people no happier in their relationships than the rest of us?

Walking together is a great — free — marriage building activity. The benefits are life changing. Not only does a daily hour-long walk eat up enough calories over the course of a year to burn off more than 30 pounds, but it also provides a regular, consistent forum for couples to talk in something other than the Morse code of parenthood. Consistent time together renews passion for those of us who swore we would never, ever call each other Mom and Dad, for those of us who insisted parenthood would never slow us down, and for those of us who bragged we would be romantically sauntering across Europe with Junior in the Snugglie by the time our milk came in.

So, again, while I’m not normally a fan of newspaper articles that are built upon an imaginary couple, she made some good points.

After Joe and I discussed that article, I came across this one about the Amish not getting fat.  The long and the short of it is that the Amish have a lot of the “fat gene”, and yet they aren’t fat.  Go figure!  They’re too busy working from dawn to dusk, giving me beautiful cabinets!  (Just kidding.  I can’t afford them :P)  The author of the article ended up suggesting that you go for a walk.  Duh.  OK.

And then, to complete my triforce of walking propaganda, I was re-reading Urban Homestead (go get it!).  I have been riding my bike and walking to as many things as possible, and I was meditating on the fact that I really feel so much better when I choose to move a bit slower and more intentionally.  I still use my car when the weather is bad, but I’ve found that walking or riding bikes is so much better.  The kids love to walk or ride, and it easily soothes or puts to sleep my 10 month old.  I burn some extra calories.  I get to talk to my kids, and it seems like they always open up and talk about the deep stuff when we’re walking.  Its just so nice, and I don’t know why I wasn’t doing it more.  We picked this house because it was so close for walking, and yet I haven’t taken full advantage of it.

My friend, Cari, suggested that I make a walking challenge.  That might be fun.  Maybe a simplification challenge in general.  I’m going to have to think about it.  Any thoughts?  Maybe an anti-car challenge? That would be fun  😀

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Delight-driven vs. parent-led learning

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Our homeschooling path was turned a bit upside down last week. My 4yo daughter has been begging to start school. I was planning on holding off another year, but she was just so excited about the idea. I had a copy of the teacher’s manual for My Father’s World Kindergarten sitting around, so I decided to order the student pages so that we could use it for this year.

OK… It would be an understatement to say that she was thrilled. She was so excited to start that she stopped eating dinner when the UPS man brought the materials to the front door. She begged to start “school” that night. Her enthusiasm has not waned. As I write this, we still have not even been able to take a day off of the curriculum. Today is Sunday, and we still schooled. She refuses to take a day off. We will finish this thing at record pace if we keep on this track, lol.

So anyways, the other unexpected thing that happened is that Matt decided that he wanted to try the 1st Grade Curriculum that My Father’s World offers. He saw how much fun she was having, and he wanted something similar for himself. His reading level is above what MFW expects, so we’ll still be doing Ambleside for history, literature, character training, and several other subjects. We’ll just be adding MFW for Bible and supplementary science, language arts, and who-knows-what-else. I guess I’m flying by the seat of my pants here. I called the kind people at MFW and they suggested that I bump him up to the 2nd/3rd grade curriculum, but he’s still just a 6-year-old in so many other aspects, and I think he’ll really benefit from making the Bible notebook. It just means that we’ll have to supplement their literature and language arts, which is fine since we LOVE Ambleside, and we’re not ready or willing to abandon the Ambleside readings.

Once I started looking into MFW, I saw that they give the kids book baskets each week. You fill the baskets with books about what you’ve been studying, and let the kids have free rein. You use books that are above, below, and at their reading level, and it is up to them to decide what they want to read and how.

We went to the library today, and it was no surprise to see what my children picked. They always run straight for the dinosaur aisle, and pick out as many non-fiction books as they can hold. They are so single-minded about it. I don’t mind, and they know more about dinosaurs than most paleontologists that we’ve met, so I figure it can’t be all bad. After all, learning about dinosaurs teaches great phonics, geology, geography, biology, classification, etc., etc.

I decided to take a lesson from MFW though, and grab some books to make them a book basket. I picked out both fiction and non-fiction. I grabbed the sequel to My Father’s Dragon, a book that Matt loved, for his basket. I also picked some books for birding in Colorado (he loves birding), snakes, strange animals, a book of poetry, a few books with international fairy tales, and a biography of Benjamin Franklin that is on our Ambleside free reading list. For Julia I picked several of the Ambleside Year 0 books – Blueberries for Sal, Little Babaji, and Make Way for Ducklings. Then I also picked out some non-fiction books on sea creatures and bugs, and then a book of easy poetry. I rounded it out with a book on how to draw dinosaurs.

We came home and I filled their baskets. They were so excited. It was really cute. Tonight Julia read Little Babaji and a few of the non-fiction books. Matt read all of his non-fiction books, one of the international fairy tale books, and decided to start the sequel to My Father’s Dragon. I was reminded tonight that it is good to keep balance. Although I would never stop them from reading dinosaur books, I’m really glad that I grabbed the other books. They wouldn’t have picked them off of the shelves themselves today, and yet they were so excited to read them when we came home. Life is all about balance, isn’t it? 🙂

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Is the Slow Food movement oppressive to women?

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The main criticism that I have noticed popping up around the Slow Food movement is an idea that it is forcing women back into the kitchens and out of the world. The idea is that this is both degrading to women and it is robbing women of pleasure and leisure time that could be better spent.

This lecture was posted on one of my message boards – Mark Bittman: What’s wrong with what we eat. The discussion moved over to the question of “who will prepare this food”? Who will be the one to cook from scratch and to use real ingredients? The underlying assumption is that most of the burden will be placed on women. I’m guessing that this is true in most families. So does that mean that this kind of advice shouldn’t be given?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I can imagine myself saying the same thing 10 years ago. I didn’t see how “domestic chores” could be enjoyable and I certainly didn’t think they could be empowering. I thought that any woman who chose to do them AND enjoyed it was brainwashed or at least allowing herself to be manipulated by the patriarchal society that we live in.

My view has changed drastically. You might guess that by looking at my last post about my apron, lol. Cooking can be just as empowering and enjoyable as any other leisure activity. I love the feeling of sitting down to watch my family eat a healthy, homemade meal. Looking back, I enjoyed it even when I was working full time and we didn’t have kids. I didn’t cook with whole food ingredients very often, but I did cook, and I enjoyed it. I think the closest thing that I can compare it to is the feeling that I get when I look down at a content, chunky baby who has just finished nursing. I can see that she is healthy, satisfied, and I know that I did it all on my own. Its such a great feeling.

I’ve been reading This Organic Life for the past week, and it just so happens to have a whole chapter devoted to this topic. What are the odds?! It also had a chapter devoted to having to kill garden pests. That chapter also spoke to me since I have sneaky little mice living in my compost bin. I’ll save that for a different post though, lol.

Back to the book though. Joan Dye Gussow starts chapter 14 (entitled “Is It Worth It?”) by saying the following

The foregoing celebration of local food rests, admittedly, on the threatening assumption that someone will cook. Judging from their behavior, it looks as if most people in many circumstances don’t and won’t. They seem to have decided that cooking doesn’t pay–although buying lavish cookbooks does. According to time-use studies, what has replaced cooking for females is television and grooming; men didn’t have that much cooking to replace.

Indeed. It does rest on that assumption. There is no denying that the only way that you can eat more whole foods, whether local or not, is if someone is willing to cook it. I really like watching BBC America’s show You Are What You Eat. I’ve always found it fascinating that some of the biggest complaints come over the fact that they have to actually MAKE their food. It appears as though they complain about the prep work even more than they complain about giving up fast food and junk. It seems that everyone comes around by the end, but almost everyone claims to be too busy to cook when they first start the process. I think that’s especially funny because they usually show the people sitting in a recliner, watching tv, and eating from a bag for the whole evening. They don’t look that busy.

So yeah, it seems that many people don’t want to cook. So that is automatically factored into most people’s ideas of the value of cooking at home. So does this mean that it is automatically a burden to ask men and women to cook?

Joan Dye Gussow came across the following quote as she was researching. It is from an Israeli economist named Reuben Gronau

An intuitive distinction between work at home (i.e., home production time) and leisure (i.e., home consumption time), is that work at home (like work in the market) is something one would rather have somebody else do for one (if the cost were low enough) while it would be almost impossible to enjoy leisure through a surrogate.

Aha! That describes exactly how I feel about the work that I do at home. I hadn’t thought about it before, but I really do see cooking as leisure time. I would never want to pay someone to do it for me. It would rob me of all of those great feelings. Apparently Joan Dye Gussow agrees with me.

Wow, I thought. Anything done unwillingly at home is work; anything done voluntarily is pleasure. So if I enjoy cooking, then my work counts as a benefit, not a cost…

The point is that cooking food is not just about whether or not I could pay a “surrogate” (as Gronau says) to do my cooking. The point is that I would miss out on way more than the experience if I were to have someone else do it. I would miss out on the laughs with my kids as they stir pancake batter. I’d miss the chance to meditate and contemplate while I kneaded my bread. I’d miss the chance to create and innovate while nourishing my family. I’d miss SO much more than I would gain by having an extra hour or two to watch tv or groom (which is apparently what the average woman now does, right?)

I consider myself a feminist. At the same time, I am saddened by the feminist idea that anything that was traditionally done by women is automatically degrading. Should men help? Absolutely, if that’s what works for your family. My husband and I have a pretty progressive relationship. We divide our labor based on who is better and who knows more about a given topic. Revolutionary! I would find it silly to make Joe cook just for the sake of equality. There are times that he does cook. It is usually when it is something that he is better at though. Its not just so that he has to work as much as I do at every single task. What about single people? They still have to cook. Is it be degrading then?

I realize that cooking is not something that everyone loves. I do believe that we can all work on finding joy in everything that we do. Joe and I have talked about this several times. He and I both have parts of our day that we enjoy less than others. There are certain tasks that we each must do at our jobs that are not our favorites. That doesn’t mean that we don’t get to do them though. The Bible tells us

Ecclesiastes 2:24 A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?

I actually love the section above this quote, but I have found that people start scanning when Bible quotes are long 😛

I also love Paul’s encouragement to those who were slaves at the time

Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward

Who would have more reason to hate their work than those who were being forced into labor?! Those are the absolute worst working conditions that we can imagine, and yet Paul still said to work as though you are working for the Lord.

I have found that the more that I work with a good attitude, then the more I am open to learn and experience through the task. As I said above, there is so much more that happens during that time. Its not just about accomplishing an objective.

Finally, as if reading my incredibly long post wasn’t enough, I want to link to this great sticky on Gentle Christian Mothers. It was written by a dear friend who has inspired me for years. We used to live near each other, and she serves with me at GCM. I feel so lucky to have her in my life, and I hope that her words can bless you to. Here is her writing on Finding joy in your homekeeping ministry. I hope that it can encourage you as much as it encouraged me 🙂

I hope you’re having a great Sunday, and now I’m off to make dinner!

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My new apron

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First, let me say that I am a huge fan of aprons. I love wearing them during the day. They keep my clothes clean, they look cute, and they are perfect for holding clothes pins, iphones, or whatever else you may need to carry.

I was inspired to sew up an apron, so I scored a sweet deal on some Amy Butler fabrics and voila! Here is my end result 🙂 Its so cute, and much more fun to wear than my plain ol’ clean team apron.

If anyone is interested, here are the instructions. They are in two parts. Here’s part one and part two. 🙂 Happy sewing!

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Consumerism and the green movement

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I just read this article by Michael Pollan. He makes some really good points.

It sounds like he’s on board with the Food, Not Lawns movement

We’ve had in this country what I call a wilderness ethic that’s been very good at telling us what to preserve. You know, eight percent of the American landmass we’ve kind of locked up and thrown away the key. That’s a wonderful achievement and has given us things like the wilderness park.

This is one of our great contributions to world culture, this idea of wilderness. On the other hand, it’s had nothing to say of any value for the ninety-two percent of the landscape that we cannot help but change because this is where we live. This is where we grow our food, this is where we work. Essentially the tendency of the wilderness ethic is to write that all off. Land is either virgin or raped. It’s an all or nothing ethic. It’s either in the realm of pristine, preserved wilderness, or it’s development– parking lot, lawn.

This is a topic that I’ve been thinking about, especially after reading Urban Homestead. They talk a lot about the wastefulness of having a lawn, and I’ve been slowly trying to de-grass my yard. We are expanding our mulched beds, and putting in vegetables, fruits, and herbs that look beautiful, but also don’t waste water. It is ridiculous to pollute our water supply with all of the chemicals that we put in to our lawn, when it gives us nothing in return except for a manicured slab of grass. I am fortunate to live in an area where I am not required to have grass, but my husband is afraid that we will be the weirdos on the block if we completely eliminate it. He helped me to yank out some of our useless water hogs this weekend though, so I think he’s coming on board. For now, my goal is to reduce the amount of water that we waste and to make sure that I do the best that I can to avoid further polluting the water that does go to my lawn.

Back to the article… Michael Pollan also challenges readers to

…find one thing in your life that doesn’t involve spending money that you could do, one change that would make a contribution both to the fact of global warming and your sense of helplessness about global warming.

I think of this when I’m at the grocery store and I see the “green” grocery bags for sale. I know so many people who have tons of canvas or mesh bags at their house, but they feel the need to buy the bags to be more green. Its silly. Our consumerism is tainting our attempts to undo the problem… a problem that it has caused in the first place!

I think this is such a great challenge. Its one that I’ve struggled with… I’ve had to push myself to think in a new way. There are so many things that we can do that will help immensely and don’t require for us to spend a single cent. I use a clothes line outside, but I wanted to dry some clothes inside. I immediately wanted to run (or walk) to the store and buy a fancy, retractable clothesline. I thought about it for a second, and I realized that I had places in my house where I could hang or drape the sheets, and I didn’t need to buy anything. Why did I feel the need to go get the proper gadget to hang clothes?! Billions of people have hung clothes without indoor retractable clotheslines!

I did the same thing with my worm bin. I was researching online to find some kind of super worm chalet. It took me several days to convince myself that all that I needed was the rubbermaid that held my homebirth supplies, with a few holes drilled in the side. It took me only a few minutes, and it reused an item that I wasn’t using. When I went to the Boulder county worm composting workshop, I smiled when I saw that they were using the same thing for their official worm bin. You don’t need fancy stuff to make it work.

I’m not saying that there aren’t times when the special equipment is worth it. For example, I use my grain mill daily, and I absolutely adore it. I traded in my hand powered model for the electric one, because it grinds a much finer flour so I don’t need to supplement with white flour. I still try to make good choices, by buying Colorado grown organic wheat berries in bulk, and by batch processing the wheat. I’m still happy to use the electric version though 😉

If you’ve recently started doing anything to be more green that doesn’t include buying something new, then I’d love to hear about it. I’m always excited to try new things! I am going to try to make a solar oven out of stuff that I have in my garage. We’ll see how that goes. Hopefully I’ll soon be making my zucchini bread in the back yard 😉

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My new favorite book

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If you’ve been thinking about going “green” or taking yourself off of the grid as much as possible, then I really recommend this book.  I stumbled upon it after finding the authors’ blog, and it is such a great little gem.  It covers everything from vermicomposting to guerilla gardening to making your own solar oven and even outfitting your bike for grocery shopping.  Its really great.  I checked my copy out from the fantabulous Boulder library, but I’m going to go buy a copy because it is just that good of a resource  😉  Seriously…  Check it out.

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Garden update

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My garden is so happy!  We’re still eating out of it every day, and I am just so proud.

The early season crops have all either gone to seed or turned brown.  My lettuce has bolted so high that it is taller than my 6 year old.  I was planning on leaving a few and letting them just go to seed and hopefully they’ll give me some volunteers for the fall.  I’ll probably sow some seeds as well.  I’m trying to embrace the fact that things in nature don’t grow in neat little rows or on grids.  I’m planning on removing my grids from my garden to help remind myself that I don’t need everyone in a neat little spot.  Jungles don’t grow like that.

My crookneck squash has already given me some food, and my zucchini is very close to being ready to cut.  My cucumbers are going nuts, but they are still really little.  My basket tomatoes and the ones in the ground are both very happy.  We ate blueberries for several weeks, but that is now done.

So, without further ado…  Here’s some current pics.

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Allowing our culture to shape our lives

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This concept seems to be popping up all around me, so I thought it’d be interesting to discuss.

Yesterday I was watching The Story of Stuff and I was really struck by how much the culture influences our choices. The part that really got to me was when she talks about the way that we are pressured into buying something new even when we have a perfectly good, but older, version of the same thing at home. So, for example, I have an iPod Nano, but there’s a new one out that looks more sleek. When I’m at the gym, everyone knows that mine is the older one. It works perfectly fine. I don’t need a bigger one. Despite all of this, it is obvious to everyone that I haven’t bought a new one in a while, and I’ve had people make comments. Its ridiculous.

Most people just toss theirs in the trash when they buy a new one, and then there are all sorts of toxins and plastics that will take hundreds of years to break down, if they ever do. That doesn’t even count all of the toxins and trash that was made just to create that iPod (and the newer, sleeker one that I would have then bought). The metals and other resources in there will be completely lost, and it is all only because of pressure to change to be like everyone else and to show that I have wealth.

This morning I was watching The Independent Lens as they showed a documentary on The Men of Hula. They talk about how men did hula up until the white man came, and it was quickly shunned. People started to buy into the American idea that men shouldn’t move their hips that way and they should play football instead. It is still difficult for men who want to hula today because the culture has changed and they have lost so much of their richness as Hawaiians. There is a movement to bring back the Hawaiian culture and to stop being ashamed, but several generations now have stopped speaking Hawaiian and carrying on their special traditions just because they were told that it was a low-class activity.  It is amazing that we are willing to give up so much of our history and what makes us unique just to fit in.

The same thing happened with breastfeeding during my mom and Grandma’s time. They each faced a lot of culture pressures to do something completely unnatural (formula feed) just so that they wouldn’t look poor. Although this is getting better in some areas, this stereotype still remains for millions of women and contributes to millions of deaths. According to UNICEF, if every baby were exclusively breastfed from birth to six months, an estimated 1.3 million lives would be saved each year. Most of these babies are formula fed because the mothers feel some kind of pressure, either from medical professionals or their culture. It is so sad!

I am always amazed when I step back and look at all of the things that we blindly accept because everyone else is doing it. My great Grandfather always said that “The masses are asses.”, and I totally get what he was saying. The masses will buy into all sorts of destructive ideas just because everyone else is doing it. Its so sad, and I get sucked in just as much as everyone else does.

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The ultimate local diet

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Sorry for the long hiatus.  I’ve been a bum.  Here’s some of what has been happening in our lives….

#1 – I am so excited! We planted our first garden! We started it about a month ago, and I’ve already eaten my first salad out of it. It was delicious!  I can’t wait for summer when it is all big and beautiful!

img_0625.jpg

#2 – I’m starting to read a new book called Food Not Lawns, and I am hoping to write about it. I was recently introduced to this movement by the Boulder Community Roots Farm, who sells at the Boulder Farmer’s Market. You can read an article about them here at Peaksoil. Basically they are a CSA that uses city plots (mostly front yards) to grow their organic produce. Its a great use of space, and I think it is an awesome way to really put the C in CSA. They don’t have any shares left for this year, otherwise I would’ve signed up. This is just the kind of program that I want to support with my food dollars!

I’ve also been reading another local foodie blog – LoveLandLocal. I thought that I was doing a good job at buying local, but Lynnet at LoveLandLocal is really inspiring me to push myself a bit farther.

#3 – And, for totally random fun, I’ve also been dabbling in hooping. I made my own hoop and I’ve been practicing at home. I am having a blast learning new tricks and watching on youtube. This is my current favorite video…
http://youtube.com/watch?v=x6PEsM3rQpI

Anyways, I can’t spin it on my shoulder blade or anything, but I impress my kids, lol.

Well, I hope to start blogging about Food Not Lawns in the next few days. See ya soon!

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Green Smoothie Challenge

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For anyone who hasn’t heard:  You should hop on over to happyfoody and sign up for her 30-day Green Smoothie Challenge.  It starts today, so you’re not behind!  And hey, join the yahoo group while you’re at it  😉
My smoothie today was banana, orange, strawberry, and spinach.  It was super yummy, and my dh (who makes faces at my green smoothies) was impressed.  He seems to like all of the ones that have strawberry in them, because then they aren’t actually green.  It just looks like a regular ol’ smoothie.

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Menu for 2/16 – 2/23

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Saturday – Vegan Mac and Cheese (from VegNews).
Sunday – Veggie Chow Mein
Monday – Three-Bean Chili with Cornmeal Dumplings (from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker)
Tuesday – Breakfast for dinner, featuring Biscuits and “Sausage” Gravy (from Vegan with a Vengeance)
Wednesday – Snobby Joes (from Veganomicon)
Thursday – Bowtie Pasta with Garlic and Butternut Squash
Friday – Veggie Burgers and Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Tonight was the Veganize It! Mac and Cheese, and it was really good. My family is not a fan of “fake” meals, so I did not bill it as “Mac and Cheese”. I just said that it was a new pasta dish. My kids, who are not fans of potatoes, carrots, cashews, or onions, ate it up! Its a miracle! LOL. The sauce came out very creamy, and it looks just like cheese made from cow’s milk. It doesn’t really taste too much like cheese, but it tastes good, so who cares? I put a little extra garlic in there. We really like garlic though.

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Leaf

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My husband knows the way to my heart! He did all sorts of sweet things today, like hiding vegan chocolate around the house, and taking me to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch. He’s so great.

We went to Leaf Restaurant, and it was killer. I ordered the Jamaican Jerk Tempeh, and it was so very good (and beautiful, lol). I had never tried tempeh before, and I had been a little nervous to try preparing it. Now I know what good tempeh tastes like, so I’ll know if the stuff that I make at home sucks. 😉

Here’s my beautiful (vegan) lunch. You can click it for the giant version. We finished it off with a vegan chocolate raspberry cake. Mmmm. Heaven!

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Cookie love

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Oh man, I am in love! I am a cookie freak, and I am always looking for great cookie recipes. I found the most amazing vegan oatmeal raisin (and chocolate chip) cookies in Veganomicon. They are perfectly chewy and moist and just fantastic.

And, of course, the best part about making vegan cookies is that you get to eat the dough without any guilt ;)  No salmonella worries here!

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to buy Veganomicon right away since it is only in hard cover, but it is worth every penny.  This is definitely the kind of cookbook that you want to be able to reach for anytime you want it.

Tomorrow night I’m trying the Pineapple Cashew Quinoa Stir-Fry from Veganomicon, so I’ll let you know how it goes  🙂

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Homemade Baked Beans

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Mmmm! I love slow cooked meals! I finally gave in and bought Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker, after years of constantly checking it out from the library. It is one of my all-time favorite cookbooks, because it is so easy and kid-friendly.

Today I decided to try the Maple Baked Beans. They are killer! I realize that beans may not exactly be the sexiest looking food, but you’ll just have to take my word on it, lol.  They were perfectly maple-y without it being overpowering.  Very yummy!

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Hey mamas…. what are you putting in your breastmilk?

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I love this book.  I have the older edition, so I’ll update the quotes if I find that anything has changed in the newer one.

In the second part of the book, John Robbins talks about the different chemicals and pesticides that are used on and fed to the livestock in our country.  These pesticides can kill and injure when ingested with the lowest measurable doses (1/2 part per trillion) and yet we dunk, spray, and feed our livestock all sorts of horrible compounds.  They have not been in use long enough for us to learn what kind of problems they will eventually cause in our population, which is even more of a reason to be alarmed.

It is so easy to take for granted what we are giving our babies through our bodies.  Remember that breastmilk changes depending on what you eat, and our kids’ little bodies need the best possible food.   John Robbins discussion on this topic really hit home for me.

You might think that any way toxic chemicals could possibly be eliminated from the human body would be a good thing.  But, disturbingly, the most common way these stored-up poisons are released is in the breast milk of nursing mothers.

Note: This is NOT an anti-breastfeeding article.  Keep reading!

A nursing woman’s body draws on its body fat reservoirs to make milk.  Stored in her body fat reservoirs are virtually all the toxic chemicals she has ever ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through her skin.

So high is most mother’s milk in DDT, PCB’s, dieldrin, heptachlor, dioxin, and so on that it would be subject to confiscation and destruction by the FDA were it to be sold across state lines.

The EPA found significant concentrations of DDT and PCB’s in over 99% of mother’s milk from every part of the country.  Other studies have confirmed these levels of saturation…  The President’s Council on Environmental Quality found DDT in 100% of the breast milk it sampled.

The EPA has concluded that the average American breast fed infant ingests nine times the permissible level of dieldrin, one of the most potent of all cancer-causing agents known to modern science.  As if that weren’t enough, the EPA concludes that the average American breast fed infant also consumes ten times the FDA’s maximum allowable daily intake level of PCB’s.

Obviously that is horrifying.  We don’t want to poison our children.

Some women are so alarmed by these terrifying facts that they decide not to breast feed their young.  But this is usually not the best decision for a number of important reasons:

  1. Human breast milk is nutritionally vastly superior for a human infant to any… formula.
  2. The formulas are also likely to be contaminated with toxic chemicals.
  3. Human breast milk contains antibodies which are crucial for the newborn.
  4. Breast-feeding provides the bonding and emotional nurturance which are tremendously import to the well-being of both mother and baby.

OK, so then what do we do?  How can we minimize our children’s exposure to such dangerous chemicals?

The EPT analyzed the breast milk of vegetarian women, and discovered the levels of pesticides in their milk to be far less than average.  A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found

The highest levels of contamination in the breast milk of the vegetarians was lower than the lowest level of contamination… (in) non-vegetarian women…  The mean vegetarian levels were only one or two percent as high as the average levels in the United States.

That is huge!  1 or 2%!  I think that anything that we can do to improve the quality of our breastmilk (and our personal health) is fantastic, and these statistics are another great reason to consider a vegetarian or vegan diet.  The reason that cows, chickens, and pigs have especially high amounts of these chemicals is not just because they are sprayed and fed them, but also because they eat food from fields that have been sprayed with tons of chemicals and then they store those toxins in their fat.  When we eat their fat, we get the cumulative amount of toxins from the tons of food that they have eaten.

I was googling around, and saw that goveg has an article on the same topic, so feel free to check it out.  They use the same quotes:

http://www.goveg.com/contamination_cautions.asp

Eat well, mamas!

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