Fun week...fun gal!

Our vacation break isn't over yet...BUT we have had a blast and it's only Thursday! 

We've been playing in the summer rain, bike riding, ice skating, swimming, and tomorrow we have a play date with fellow homeschoolers! 

"A joyful heart is good medicine..." Proverbs 17:22

Churning butter is for the birds!

The amazing thing about buying raw milk is that the cream is on the top!.  This thick sweet yummy cream on top is not only full of nutrients and good fats but it's useful in recipes, coffee...for making butter...you name it!  But grass-fed butter is hard to come by, especially non-pasteurized. You just don't find it in the store. Sooooo today, I am attempting to make butter from the cream.  I have started the process and am ready to punch my blender!  Here's what I've done:

Started with non-pasteurized farm milk.  

See the faint line with the arrow?  Yup, that's the cream!

Suction the cream out with a turkey baster. 

Let it sit until room temperature.  Put the cream in the blender and turn it on low...then high.  Then after 20 mins or longer,  I put the blender in the bathroom because it's TOO LOUD and has been on way too long! :) 

After almost an hour, here's what I have: 

That's right!  NO BUTTER!  What's the deal?  

So I get out my mom's 1980's blender that she used for my baby food.  All the older people talk about how "they just don't make 'em the way they used to" so this should work. I was hoping there was a "butter" speed on it.  Awe darn.  there wasn't.  

My mom actually bargained with me to throw this bad boy away by buying me a new one.  Don't tell her I have it ;)

 

After 15 mins in the good ol' blender, all I have is a frothy cream-shake.  This is where you start looking up scriptures about patience. :)   

Watch how easy it is for this lady on youtube:  Click here

In the old days, they would put it on the back of the wagon for a trip and all the shaking would cause it to churn into butter.  You can put it in a jar and shake it for 10-15 mins.  You can also use a kitchen mixer to make butter.  Why isn't this working?!  Could I have accidentally suctioned out milk into the cream and it's too thin?  Who knows?        

My conclusion is that I am going to beg my sister to start making butter for us now :)  he he he 

To be continued

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.  Gal 6:9

Graduation/Family Pics

We had a sweet sweet newlywed getting-her-foot-in-the-door photographer take some graduation and family pictures!

Just wanted to share the latest and greatest :) 

It was a windy day so poor Jeramey had hair all in his face :) 

We will be getting more pics in soon to post! If you are interested...she is running a special now! Find her on Facebook- BrittanyNicole Photography! 

"And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house...." Duet 26:11

Paaar-tay!

What do kids do who just graduated kindergarten?  They PAAAARTAY! 

We had a little get together with some of Katie's favorite friends at Peter Piper Pizza on Friday to ring in the new grade!  :) I had such a great time blabbing with mom's, I forgot to get pics of all the kids!

Katie getting ready!

Heading out!

I love this little gal! 

Sweet Celeste 

Celeste and Katie

200 Tokens later, we shut the place down!  Katie had such a great time with everyone! 

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sittith in the seat of the scornful.  But his delight is in the law of the Lord;  and in His law doth he meditate day and night.  And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."  Psalms 1

School's out! Bread's in!

School is officially out...so whatawegonna do?  COOK! 

Seems Katie and I have found a new shared passion.

We started 8 days ago making a sourdough bread starter.  Coolest thing ever!

Graduation

EEK!  What an exciting week!  We are counting down the days!  2 MORE DAYS and Katie will officially be graduating kindergarten!

What an amazing amount of knowledge we have gained this past year.  Not only educational knowledge, but patience for each other.  

Good Sport

Katie is pretty competitive.  As we exit the neighbors house Katie screams, "Last one to the house has to wash the dishes!"  I find myself out of breath cutting through yards chasing after her praying I don't loose!  

"Tag you're it" usually follows a gentle slap on the back while doing typical tasks at home.  I turn to see her hair flying as she zooms around the corner so she doesn't get tagged!  :) Katie can't stand to be it last when it comes to me, so the game usually ends when I get tired of chasing her!

So it's no surprise that today when I asked Katie what being a "good sport" meant,  her reply was "Awesome at sports!" The question followed a story about a character named Arby Armadillo who made it last to the monkey bars but was still a "good sport" about his coming in last.

Though she understood the concept, it seemed she was more excited about being good at sports.

Our fishing trip almost ended one weekend recently that she was determined to cast farther than me!  She ended up hooking my hair and scalp (no blood!). Daddy had her put her fishing pole down.  I'm sure he wanted the bigger kid to surrender her's too.   

Though she occasionally gets set back when I beat her at certain things, she usually will push through and strive to be better in that area.  My husband, so sweet and gentle, lets her win most of the time.  But to her, I am someone she strives to beat at everything.  I secretly love it!  

"And the child grew and became strong in spirit;..."  Luke 1:80

Butterfly

"it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body."  1 Corinthians 15:44

Ah, the butterfly.  One of God's miracles.  

Our curriculum always seems to run parallel to issues of life here lately in the Whitehouse home.  We are ending a week of learning about Butterflies when we received news this afternoon of the death of Katie's great grandfather, Naaman.  

Quote from our curriculum book on today's lesson:
"You know boys and girls, learning about caterpillars and butterflies can help us begin to understand about our own lives!  
When a caterpillar goes inside a cocoon, it seems like it is dead.  When our bodies die on earth, it seems like we are gone, too.  .....but the caterpillar comes out with a changed body!  The caterpillar has a new life as a butterfly instead!  
That is a little like when we die.  If we have invited Jesus to be our Saviour, God will give us a new body and a new life in Heaven someday!  
Everlasting life is a miracle!  Everlasting life is something only our mighty God can give." 

I couldn't help but read that and see the simplicity in life in death.  

I pray Naaman is resting peacefully in God's hands.     

"Behold, I show you a mystery.  We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."  1 Corinthians 15:51-52

Naaman, Katie, and Becky

Naaman McDaniel

Teaching Thankfulness

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 

I don't know if any of you parents love to give your children gifts as much as I do!  Any chance I get, I love to give her a gift and see her light up with excitement!

I had no idea the unthankfulness I was planting in her heart by showering her with gifts on a regular basis.  She is my only child.  It doesn't require lots of money to give her a gift here and there.  After all, God loves to give his children gifts, right?  

Being caught up in the feel good of my own desires by showering Katie with gifts, I realized I was sending her into a destructive down-spiral.  Her closet was bursting at the seams and she was sweetly requesting more and more at every store trip!  Katie is pretty well behaved and self controlled.  It took one visit to the store when I denied her request for me to see what I had created.  This was becoming a pattern of doom! While this may be typical behavior for a child in the world's standards, we still answer to a God who delights in thankfulness.  Spanking seemed irrelevant to this matter of the heart.  How do you spank thankfulness into her heart?  Taking her toys away seemed mean and harsh.  Jeramey and I devised a good plan of labor and reward.  

For 3 or 4 weeks, Katie has begun doing chores outside of her normal duties.  Since she lives here, eats here, and messes here; she pulls her weight and picks up after herself.  She does this splendidly without complaint 90% of the time.  Her room and bathroom are her responsibilities alone. Matters of the kitchen, laundry, yard, other cleaning, and animals, she is merely my assistant.  Since we live in the city with modern appliances, you have to get creative! We decided to give her all dishes (3x a day) and daily animal tending at a salary of $10 a week with a pay date of Friday.    

Since we have a puppy in training process the size of a full grown dog, this part of the labor has been quite a task for her.  When she opens the door, Charlie (the puppy) will blast through her into the house and refuse to go back outside, holding his ground.  He weighs close to 50lbs which is a couple pounds more than Katie. Getting him back outside has been quite a task for her, but she has become very creative by coercing him with treats or dragging him by the collar!  This has been quite a patience lesson for her!  I think she's mastered the "catch more flies with honey" theory! 

So today was the big day!  We emptied the piggy bank and took off to Hobby Lobby to get the bear kit she has been eyeballing and saving for since the beginning of her hard work.  I can't say we've completely mastered the art of thankfulness in one month: but  I can say I saw the joy on her face of earning her own reward and that was more precious for her soul than any gift I could ever give!  I am so proud of her! 

On our way to Hobby Lobby! 

Sweet Reward! 

The Whole Deal

I find myself more and more everyday becoming the domestic woman I once couldn't stand. :) 


Katie struggles with digestion problems.  Trying several different food types with no success has almost left me throwing my hands up in the air almost convincing myself that daily fiber supplements would be a new way of life for us.  In conversation with my sister, she informed me of the benefits cooking traditionally.  This included a lot of high fat foods, animal fat for cooking, preparation of whole grains, whole raw milk, no processed foods, no vegetable oils, and no store bought dressings(high fructose corn syrup). I laughed at this idea knowing that Wal-Mart was my primary source for groceries and this task seemed impossible.  It would mean going to farms, buying grain in bulk, and tons of hours in the kitchen.  And, didn't she know how the government warns that high fats are bad for us?  And besides, who has that kind of time? 


So I started researching myself why this diet would be beneficial.  Sure, the plant based diet liberals believe all animal fat causes us heart attacks.  Everyone had so much controversy concerning the pro's and con's of plant based vs animal based diets.  I leave the politics to my husband!  I thought about starting at a place that I knew to be proven truth in my life.  The Bible.  

Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.  Genesis 9:3


And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it. 8And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat. Genesis 18:7-8


So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.  Exodus 3:8


Abraham was declared by God to be a righteous man.  In Genesis 18, Abraham (and Sara) prepared a meal for very special visitors.  I don't imagine Abraham worried about the dangers of raw milk or eating animal meat as he sat down to feed the visitors of Lord.   I'm certain he didn't send Sara to the store to fetch some crackers or pasteurized milk.  According to Genesis 25 Abraham lived to be 175 years old!  


Well, I have to say that I am still learning preparation methods and niches to this diet; so far from the foods I have prepared using this diet, Katie is off the fiber supplements and is now on a daily BM schedule (TMI!)  Another added benefit: I have officially lost 3lbs in less than a week! (and I even cheated this weekend :))


The benefit to eating whole unprocessed foods is that you get to tour the farm where you purchase!  (The Farmers are friendly and invite you to come pet the animals and have picnics) You know what the cows are eating!  It increases your digestibility and vitamin/mineral absorption by proper preparation just like our ancestors knew to do. Proper preparation neutralizes the phytic acid found naturally in foods.  Phytic acid is anit-nutrient and it makes some minerals unabsorbable such as zinc, iron, calcium, and magnesium.  By proper neutralization, it causes the minerals, vitamins, and nutrients to be properly absorbed by the body.  Just one example iron: The main job of iron is to help carry oxygen from the lungs to muscles and vital organs. People low on Iron not only have headaches but are irritable and fatigued.  This is due to the oxgen not properly being circulated.  You might be reading and thinking, 'Well, I'll just pop an iron supplement pill and fix that!'.  Sounds great but if you are putting anti-iron absorbing foods in your body, will that really work?  Processed foods are linked to cancer, hair loss, heart disease, and etc...the list goes on! 


Preparation for this diet actually has caused Katie to be assisting me more in the kitchen, which she truly enjoys!  She has now become my full time wheat grinder. Preparing the foods haven't been too much of a hassle, it mostly requires thinking ahead.  Though I am still waiting on my Nourishing Traditions cook book to come in the mail, I am making recipes I have found from Sara Pope's blog, Florida's chapter leader for Weston A Price foundation. If anyone is interested, here are the links below. 


Weston A Price link: www.westonaprice.org/   
Sara Pope's blog http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/  

Katie the wheat grinder :) 

I made my first batch of yogurt last night! 

A Social Issue

"If you provide your children with a busy world where their social needs can be met without you, they may just choose other friends that are not so "old fogey" and develop in a different direction as dictated by their social circle"   Michael Pearl  Strong In Spirit


Katie and I tend to do our shopping during the day so we don't interrupt our evening family time.  Cash register employees will typically ask Katie why she isn't at school or what is her grade.  Katie's response is usually, "Kindergarten and I do homeschool."  Right after this response I immediately get the story of the homeschooled kids who "needed to socialize more"  or they usually are helpful and point us to "social" events in the city.  



I find myself very patient and loving with these sweet people.  At one time, I too, would look at homeschooled kids as weirdos.  My first assesment of why they were different is because they did not socialize enough.  I have always been the "social butterfly" and could strike up a conversation with anyone. Which brings me to the recent conversations I've had with moms.   



Me: "How is Susie doing?"
Mom of child: "Oh great, she's been going to Chuck E Cheese with Sara, went to the waterpark with Julie, and soccer on Wednesday and Thursday nights plus games on Saturdays.  She has been having such a blast, she enjoys her friends so much!  We've all been so busy, I think I have rarely seen her this summer!"

This is a typical conversation of moms who have their children involved in lots of social events.  They call it "active."  A mom last week told me that all her son wants to do is hang out with his friends and she feels like she's lost his heart.  Mom excuses this behavior with throwing her hands up in the air and saying," kids will be kids."  It's not that she's a bad person at all, she considers it a "stage" and part of growth.  It's a standard we have adopted.  These are scenarios I have seen over and over since I have decided to homeschool Katie.  So when I was reading the Michael Pearl  'Strong In Spririt', I had a DUH moment when coming upon this next phrase!  "If you provide your children with a busy world where their social needs can be met without you, they may just choose other friends that are not so "old fogey" and develop in a different direction as dictated by their social circle" ~Michael Pearl


This sweet mom who throws her hands up in the air invites Katie and I to have lunch..  So we are at lunch and she is genuinely concerned about Katie's social life.  (I would like to add that she is an incredibly wonderful wonderful person and sincerely loves Katie so very much!) She starts suggesting ideas for me to get Katie involved in more social events.  Ironically, I look over at Katie during this conversation and she has rounded up four young girls at Mcdonalds and has them in a circle in front of her teaching them to curtsy!  I nudge her arm and point her focus to that direction.  This is not behavior of a socially withdrawn child.  :)  

It is important for children to have relationships with other children but socialization should be balanced in moderation:  friends should be quality not quantity.  They should never be the primary source of socialization.  A parent should always teach their children to choose friends wisely.  "Do not be deceived, bad company corrupts good morals."  1 Corinthians 15:33   


I was busy cleaning the house and Katie stated, "Mom, I am lonely, could I invite Celeste over?"  Realizing Celeste might not be available, I throw out my first option which is myself.  I said, "Katie, would it be okay if I play with you instead?"  That frown turned upside down and she said excitedly, "Sure mom!  I'll go get Candyland."  I love that she tossed the idea of socializing with a friend to the side to fellowship with me!  She could have said, "Well mom, I really just want to play with a kid!"  But I love that I have sweet fellowship with her and that I am her number one choice!  

I thought I would add a picture of sweet Celeste :)  She is truly an amazing friend!