Sparrow's Nest Academy - OR - Mama's homeschool gym and angst chamber - Homeschool Blogger

Emmanuel - God With Us

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:25:00 -0600

It's finally Friday. I feel like i have been holding my breath all week, waiting to talk to my best friend with skin on.

I read Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan and i needed to reconnect with T, who always grounds me when despair threatens to overtake me. Instead, this week has been filled with pencilled annotations on the big calendar, library board meeting, fiddle club practices, worship team practice, wrestling, and on and on...

The first night i was reading the book, i forced myself to finish the story, and it was so dark and bleak i read another, hoping it would end better, and let me sleep. But instead i finished it, and i was up late, it was dark, my husband breathing beside me, hoping for a good night's sleep before he got up early to go to work.

I wished in those late, inky moments, for someone to talk to. Someone to share my sorrow with. Someone to speak to me and tell me that the world isn't really that bad. And i felt a nudging. "You've got Me." He says quietly. So i started to pray, telling him my heart, how broken i felt, praying for Africa, for children, for justice, and for the mercy that brings justice and makes darkness, sin, cruelty flee.

And as i'm praying, i'm still wishing for someone with skin on. Just to hold vigil with me until i can sleep. If i can sleep. And as i pray, God answers me from the other room. I hear baby Meow's voice. A little cat's meow, a little wail, getting louder. Baby needs me. I get up in the dark and carefully stumble to the door, find my warm dolly wrestling up to standing in her crib, her soft hair curly and standing on end. "Num nums,mama" "Yes," i soothe, "Come with mama". She nestles like a tiny kitten into my arms, trying to lay down and go back to sleep, pacified that she will be taken care of, and once i tuck her between T and me, she latches on, her soft little breaths keeping me awake.

The comfort of being a mama in those moments showed me one more way that God is here with us. Emmanuel. God with us. We are His hands, His feet, and sometimes we are standing in for "the God with us" when we least recognize it. But He knows.

Matthew 5:4

⁴Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Sunday Night Workout

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:15:00 -0600

"Am I good at workouting?" asks Lulu as we walk down the stairs to meet Daddy, beaming in front of a white board.

"I love workouting with you and Haven. Cause Haven an' me hold hands an' kiss in between our situps. We're best friends" he says matter of factly about his big sister.

We were down to only five children tonight - our littlest and our biggest girls were just wiped out today, and went to bed early.

Our workout was a little late, too, as i prepped for the school week, pulling books on the ancient Americas, photocopied worksheets, maps, coloring pages, wrote out my plan for the week, and organized everyone's day for tomorrow...

But finally we are down there and this is the workout:

"Race to One Hundred!"

Pick any exercise you like. You will do one hundred of that exercise. If you can do all one hundred in a big long stretch, bully for you! You will be done soon! If not, every time you take a break, you have to pay for your break before you restart the count, by doing ten burpees.

Burpees aren't my favourite.

I chose squats (body weight) and i got to 50 before my quads were burning (they've been the stars in our workouts lately so there's always a little stiffness the last few days) - and i did two sets of 50, with my ten burpees in the middle...

T is still working out, although the children have all run upstairs for a banana before bed, and i am not hearing any noise at all. We're all pretty tired i guess. Hopefully a good sleep will set us all right for a fun week!

Memorizing Scripture...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:48:00 -0600

Again...

I seem to write about this at fairly regular intervals, but i do think it's one of the most important things i'm doing in homeschool and in life, with my children. and so necessary for me.

My friend Terry from tidbits sent along this post from Ann Voskamp http://www.aholyexperience.com/2009/11/why-memorize-scripture-habit-of.html

and i loved it! For one, she writes much more eloquently than i do :) - but there were a lot of beautiful truths expressed there... i loved the vision of intergenerational faithfulness of her example; (go read to see!)

I loved her idea of writing the first letter of each word down on a "cheat sheet" so you can easily check yourself as you go on your day.

My littles are learning James 2 this fall with me - and i could do this easily - add this to my part of the memorizing...

and for my own memorizing projects...

she has a ton of great resources re: memorizing too - i think sometimes the thing's in the doing - not necessarily having the right system or doing it perfectly, but just being faithful and taking a kick at the cat every day...

Strong Willed Woman?

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:11:00 -0600

Lux Venit has posted twice on Cynthia Tobias' book on Strong Willed Women - her original post is here

She asked some questions at the end and wanted all readers to post on their blogs, so she can have as many answers as possible - I'm posting mine below to incite you all to post your own answers - you can post here on my blog, or you can go to Lux Venit and bless her with your wisdom (you know, us strong willed women love to share wisdom, don't we?)

~~~~~~~~

Would you call yourself a strong-willed woman?

yes, i would. it takes a strong will to get out of bed every morning, change a diaper, nurse a baby, bathe three toddlers, make breakfast, get my 14 yo out of bed, all while people are dancing around with things they want to distract me with :)

Do you view the possession of a strong-will as a positive or negative characteristic?

honestly, i haven't always thought of it as a good thing - and my teachers in school certainly did not. Even in college, one professor told me "We need to break your will!" (Eek!) - but one day i was talking to my friend and he rephrased it and said "that's not strong will, that's passion." And i think he's right. I am a passionate person, and i will work hard to try to conform the world to what i know to be right, as much as i am able.

Do you feel like your strong-will hinders or enhances your walk with Jesus?

He MADE me like this - and i believe it gives Him pleasure to see me working whole heartedly, caring about the things He has given me to care about...

Do you believe a woman has to give up her strong-will in order to follow Christ?

No :) I believe He uses all of us in the way He has made us. He made some quiet, some loud, some musical, some thoughtful, some artistic - none of those are bad things, not all of us have those gifts, but a strong will is definitely a gift from God.

Strong-willed women have a more difficult time fitting in with the rest of the women at church. Agree or disagree.

I think we tend to talk too much and steam roller other people. There can be a lack of empathy especially about causes that are sources of deep passion (for me, pro life advocacy is one of those areas). But God has given us into His body to not only play our own role, but to encourage each other, and to have the sharp edges smoothed off, and He has brought wonderful people into my life (and i bet into yours, too)to help me learn the things i need to learn (and continues to do this, out of His great and overwhelming love for me)

Birthday workout

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:57:00 -0600

Today wasn't Wy's birthday, but we celebrated today anyway, since it's more fun to have a party on the weekend. We had a Wii tournament (archery) (which he came in second to his little brother who is seven!) - and a Marble Slab birthday cake (i prefer the cones by FAR!)... plus lots of treats, presents, and fun...

And after dinner we had our workout. T is pretty faithful about getting all the littles downstairs and getting it organized. With our big computer dying, all our iTunes are missing, so we worked out tonight to the tune of babe Meow crowing "One Two!" and "Up Down!" She loved doing the squats (it's crazy how flexible little ones are! She was just about sitting on the floor every time) and we all loved working out with her there to cheer us on...

Travis' "the tabata mix won't work" workout...

We couldn't use our tabata mix, so we did 20 second intervals of working and rest -

we did a set of pushups, a set of situps (i did captains's chair) and a set of squats

20 seconds of work, 20 seconds of rest.

And we did ten total sets each of the three exercises...

Fun workout tonight!

Fortune cookies and workout

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:03:00 -0600

Tonight was Wyatt's choice for Fun Fabulous Friday's dinner - we got chinese food (studying Ancient China this week, so it seemed appropriate) - and got his birthday cake early, too...

When we got home, the littles all dove for the fortune cookies and there weren't quite enough to go around - baby was sad, so Wyatt opened his, broke it in two, carefully pulled out the fortune and handed half of the cookie to babe Meow.

His fortune said " Being kind to others may have unexpected rewards". Babe Meow beamed at him. Reward enough...

tonight's workout :

5 sets of

5 high pulls (i used 15 lb dumbbells - you pull them up from your waist to your shoulders)

10 rows (body weight rows, using the chin station)

15 pushups (i started out manly, but ended girly)

20 squats...

Uly came downstairs to peer at us in his shorn headed pudgey way... he said "we fogot to do da WOke-Out". When we said he could join us he said "Just da Ska-WATS!" hee hee!

Homeschool Poetry

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:05:00 -0600

I know i've written about our approach to poetry before, but on an email list i'm on (tidbits!) we were encouraged to share the poems our children are reading lately, and i shared the poems my little ones are learning right now...

Poems my children are learning right now:

Anaia - Silver by Walter de la Mare

Lulu - Out in the Fields with God (Anonymous)

Haven - Song From the Ship - Thomas Lovell Beddoes

Silas - Night by William Blake (just the first three stanzas)

Wyatt - He Fell Among Thieves by Sir Henry Newbolt

Silver

Slowly, silently, now the moon

Walks the night in her silver shoon;

This way, and that, she peers, and sees

Silver fruit upon silver trees;

One by one the casements catch

Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;

Couched in his kennel, like a log,

With paws of silver sleeps the dog;

From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep

Of doves in a silver-feathered sleep;

A harvest mouse goes scampering by,

With silver claws and a silver eye;

And moveless fish in the water gleam,

By silver reeds in a silver stream.

Walter de la Mare

The little cares that fretted me

I lost them yesterday

Among the fields, above the sea,

Among the winds at play,

Among the lowing of the herds,

The rustling of the trees,

Among the singing of the birds,

The humming of the bees.

The foolish fears of what might happen,

I cast them all away,

Among the clover-scented grass,

Among the new-mown hay,

Among the husking of the corn,

Where drowsy poppies nod,

Where ill thoughts die and good are born--

Out in the fields with God.

NIGHT

The sun descending in the west,
The evening star does shine;
The birds are silent in their nest,
And I must seek for mine.
The moon, like a flower,
In heaven's high bower,
With silent delight
Sits and smiles on the night.

Farewell, green fields and happy groves,
Where flocks have took delight.
Where lambs have nibbled, silent moves
The feet of angels bright;
Unseen they pour blessing,
And joy without ceasing,
On each bud and blossom,
And each sleeping bosom.

They look in every thoughtless nest,
Where birds are covered warm;
They visit caves of every beast,
To keep them all from harm.
If they see any weeping
That should have been sleeping,
They pour sleep on their head,
And sit down by their bed.

When wolves and tigers howl for prey,
They pitying stand and weep;
Seeking to drive their thirst away,
And keep them from the sheep.
But if they rush dreadful,
The angels, most heedful,
Receive each mild spirit,
New worlds to inherit.

And there the lion's ruddy eyes
Shall flow with tears of gold,
And pitying the tender cries,
And walking round the fold,
Saying, "Wrath, by His meekness,
And, by His health, sickness
Is driven away
From our immortal day.

"And now beside thee, bleating lamb,
I can lie down and sleep;
Or think on Him who bore thy name,
Graze after thee and weep.
For, washed in life's river,
My bright mane for ever
Shall shine like the gold
As I guard o'er the fold."

Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803-1849)

Song from the Ship

1 To sea, to sea! The calm is o'er;

2 The wanton water leaps in sport,

3And rattles down the pebbly shore;

4 The dolphin wheels, the sea-cows snort,

5And unseen Mermaids' pearly song

6Comes bubbling up, the weeds among.

7 Fling broad the sail, dip deep the oar:

8 To sea, to sea! the calm is o'er.

9 To sea, to sea! our wide-winged bark

10 Shall billowy cleave its sunny way,

11And with its shadow, fleet and dark,

12 Break the caved Tritons' azure day,

13Like mighty eagle soaring light

14O'er antelopes on Alpine height.

15 The anchor heaves, the ship swings free,

16 The sails swell full. To sea, to sea!

He Fell Among Thieves

'Ye have robb'd,' said he, 'ye have slaughter'd and made an end,
Take your ill-got plunder, and bury the dead:

What will ye more of your guest and sometime friend?'
'Blood for our blood,' they said.

He laugh'd: 'If one may settle the score for five,
I am ready; but let the reckoning stand til day:

I have loved the sunlight as dearly as any alive.'
'You shall die at dawn,' said they.

He flung his empty revolver down the slope,
He climb'd alone to the Eastward edge of the trees;

All night long in a dream untroubled of hope
He brooded, clasping his knees.

He did not hear the monotonous roar that fills
The ravine where the Yassin river sullenly flows;

He did not see the starlight on the Laspur hills,
Or the far Afghan snows.

He saw the April noon on his books aglow,
The wistaria trailing in at the window wide;

He heard his father's voice from the terrace below
Calling him down to ride.

He saw the gray little church across the park,
The mounds that hid the loved and honour'd dead;

The Norman arch, the chancel softly dark,
The brasses black and red.

He saw the School Close, sunny and green,
The runner beside him, the stand by the parapet wall,

The distant tape, and the crowd roaring between,
His own name over all.

He saw the dark wainscot and timber'd roof,
The long tables, and the faces merry and keen;

The College Eight and their trainer dining aloof,
The Dons on the daïs serene.

He watch'd the liner's stem ploughing the foam,
He felt her trembling speed and the thrash of her screw;

He heard the passengers' voices talking of home,
He saw the flag she flew.

And now it was dawn. He rose strong on his feet,
And strode to his ruin'd camp below the wood;

He drank the breath of the morning cool and sweet:
His murderers round him stood.

Light on the Laspur hills was broadening fast,
The blood-red snow-peaks chill'd to dazzling white;

He turn'd, and saw the golden circle at last,
Cut by the Eastern height.

'O glorious Life, Who dwellest in earth and sun,
I have lived, I praise and adore Thee.' A sword swept.

Over the pass the voices one by one
Faded, and the hill slept.

	  -- Sir Henry Newbolt

After dinner workout

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:05:00 -0600

Tonight's workout

(girls were excluded tonight since Haven had a friend over ;) and we didn't feel like forcing her little friend to work out)

5-10-15

as many sets as you can do in 15 min(should be 20, but T shortened it so i can still make my fiddle practice tonight) -

5 chinups (or rows, i did four of chins and eight of rows)

10 pushups

15 squats...

Altogether, i did twelve sets!

Not bad - now to get wiped off and get out the door with my fiddle!

Nov 11, 2009 - Remembrance Day

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:38:00 -0600

Every year, i drag my children and usually my husband to the Remembrance Day ceremony. In Evansburg, it was outside in the howling cold around a tiny cenotaph, with muddy ditches all around and warning tape - in Hinton, it's inside in the beautiful Hinton Centre.

This year, i took my five oldest, and T took the two babies out for cookies and a new crockpot for mama (yup, i am spoiled :)...)..

Sitting there, i wondered how many other people who had dressed up their babies and brought strollers, or got on their orthotic shoes and velour leisure suit and checked their blue hair, were feeling as conflicted as i was. As conflicted as the service was.

We got there early, a little row of six at the very front. I wanted the children to be able to see this year, and it was a good strategy as they really did pay attention. The hymn was one they knew, O God Our Help In Ages Past (we'd been singing it during our Bible time this fall) and a special friend from church (Lillian Lawrence) had brought along a bag of peanut brittle to share with whatever children she saw (that is so Lillian) - and she saw us in the front row and deposited a big bag of treats... So they had a good view, peanut brittle to munch during the quiet moments, and then the soldiers came in.

Eight of them, with their so -dark -green -it's -almost -black uniforms on, their sloped berets, the PPCLI insignia on their shoulders. They looked like healthy, strong, good natured boys a few years older than my own biggie, Wyatt. They knew when to salute, and when the second cadet was going to faint, one stepped up to the front and helped him out to a back room to recover (the first fainting cadet was caught by an RCMP who frogmarched him off while the other RCMP took over flag duty... It's awesome to see people trained for leadership actually exhibiting it).

Anaia had brought a watercolor painting she had done with her friend Abigail the day before, to give to the soldiers, and at the end, we shared two of the little bags of peanut brittle with the soldiers, and got to say thank you.

I always wonder what i should feel - the great great granddaughter of pacifists who fled Russia, Germany, China, and the United States to avoid military service, married to the grandson of men who fought on the Axis side during WWII. Almost like i don't belong. Like maybe i should be pacifist. Or just stay away. And when i look to God's Word, i hear Jesus' voice, telling his disciples

"When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.(Matthew 10:23)

I think of the fight i watched last night with T, which he had carefully taped so he could rewind the "good bits" - all the while wondering about the centuries of censure that prize fighting was under. All Christians agreed that to fight another man for money was a sin - and yet, at the end, my heart broke for the bloodied victor, Emilianenko, who had fought with skill, and speed, despite being shorter, lighter, with a smaller reach, and being older than his opponent.

At the end, he spoke through an interpreter, as his long bearded, long haired Russian orthodox priests rejoiced around him, and even though i didn't understand what he said, my heart was paying attention to his heart so evident in his face... Instead of posturing, and bragging, and glorying in his accomplishment, he mentioned the religious persecution of the Orthodox in Russia, thanked those who pray for the Church there, and said that his victory was not his alone, but shared by all of his brothers and sisters in Christ.

In those moments, i saw beauty and the grace of God in something that i still see as barbaric and cruel. Something useful, perhaps, for warriors, but beyond the ken of "civilized" man. And i see my own hypocrisy. Because as i'm sitting in the Remembrance Day ceremony, i am so. So. Thankful, for those other women who send their sons to fight for our freedom, even now, in countries where "the heathen rage" and plot to destroy my country. And yet, the thought of any of my four sons being in that uniform (as i saw two of my son's homeschooling friends in their cadet uniforms) fill me with panic.

I want someone to fight for me. And at times, fighting is what is necessary. The Jews in WWII did try to flee, some too late - and they could not always flee. The borders were closed, and the time for fleeing was over. The extermination had begun. In this case, they needed a champion.

Praise God for my Champion, the One who laid down His life for me, and set a pattern of self sacrifice and dedication to the new reality He was creating by taking up a cross He could easily have splintered, exploded, and flow away from, borne up by twelve legions of angels...

And i will pray, too, for these young men, in the prime of life, that God will bring them safely home to their mothers to one day sit as old men, covered with medals, and knowing the satisfaction of being honored by their country.

Sunday night workout with children...

Sun, 8 Nov 2009 21:35:00 -0600

Tonight's workout: Dumbbell Complex - the Bear!

(i don't know what it means, but T got it from crossfit.com)

We set up each child with their own little area, and their own kettlebell or dumbbells - we made a safe place for baby to play, but she ended up wanting to be with us, so everyone had to be really careful. Finally, Wyatt ended up trading his heavy weight for a 20 lb baby, much to her delight...

We did five reps each of deadlifts, cleans, and thrusters, every minute, for 20 minutes. I fell behind a couple times taking video (it was so cute!) - but i probably was the most pooped - the little guys had a blast!

T says this is our new after dinner activity :) before any glowing boxes are lit... (tv, video, computer, etc etc)... Nobody is complaining!

Something real...

Sun, 8 Nov 2009 21:01:00 -0600

We have a tiny camcorder. It's not even a camcorder - it's more like a cell phone camera that takes movies, wtihout the cell phone :)...

it's tiny, it cost less than 100$ and the quality isn't that great. Which means that i let the little guys take it and film their daily life whenever they want, and supposing i can find two alive AA batteries (the little thing eats batteries, so unless you remove them after every time you shoot something, they are dead by the next time you want to take a movie. which is a pain in the bottom, since that means if baby is doing something cute, you have to insert batteries, turn it on, wait for it to warm up, and then push record. by then, she's graduated from university...

but i digress...

I took some movies of the littles working out with me and T tonight - it was so cute, there was music pumping and baby got to be Wyatt's "weights" for part of it, and afterwards, i was looking at the movies and decided to title some of the other movies i've dumped into that folder.

At least half of them are not by me. Of the ones that are of me, they are mostly me filming baby's milestones - i don't want to miss any of them - but really, i need to start taking movies of the other children... They are shaky, and strangely colored (especially when we film in the basement - greenish cast to everything). They are chaotic, with people running into the frame to ask me a question about homeschooling, or to thrust a lego creation in front of the lens. Little men without pants, but wearing undone zip up ties (you know who you are...)...

And i realized - this is it - this is my life. No, it's not always pretty, yes it's messy, yes, it's chaotic. But it's a fun life, even if it's not perfect, or perfectly documented... I wish i had time to sweep before they film their "two feet off the ground" movies - i wish my children all wore pants! ( you know who you are!) - but this is good enough. I'm doing all i can, and we're still happy and sane and loving God and each other - and when i watch my littles on their home movies, i am so glad for each little one He's given to our family, and can't imagine a space where that child is...

Little ladies...

Mon, 2 Nov 2009 22:18:00 -0600

I am definitely raising little ladies. Ladylike princesses...

Mimi sits at her highchair, smeared all over with oatmeal and bleary with her milky tea in a sippy cup when all of the sudden she remembers, and raises her tiny arms up to her head.

"Pitty, mama! Pitty, pitty, cute Mimi!"..

She rakes at her once clean hair with oatmealslime hands, all of a tither that she doesn't have a ponytail in her hair...

Later, she and Naynay are being best of friends. Naya had a cup of chocolate milk that she made with some of the leftover chocolate fondue sauce, and she shared it, then made them each another cup. Mimi followed her around reverently while i cleaned up the kitchen, and then i heard this...

"Is that yummy, Mimi?" "Um! " "Is it better than num nums?" "Mama, num nums!" "Yeah, is it better than num nums? Mama doesn't make *CHOCOLATE* num nums!" "Mama... boobies" (okay, this is where it goes from G rated to PG) "Yeah, Mimi! Mama has boobies! An' I have boobies! (lifts up her shirt to show her little sister - see, this is where the ladylike part comes in...) An' you have boobies! An' you have nibbles, and I have nibbles, an' Mama has nibbles!"

I couldn't help but laugh...

Reformation Day fun!

Sun, 1 Nov 2009 12:23:00 -0600

We don't celebrate Halloween - i explained to my optometrist that we don't celebrate Ramadan - it's not our religion, and i'm not sure what Halloween is about but pretty sure it's not my religion either :)

So instead we have a Reformation Day party... and we had fun last night!

First off, a German dinner (pork, apples, sauerkraut, purple cabbage with nuts) by candlelight.

Then, a delicious chocolate fondue for dinner - with pears, apples, bananas, grapes, and two kinds of cookies. (My friend Sharon passed on some little butter warmers yesterday when we were picking up our whole foods order and they were perfect to keep the chocolate sauce warm and bubbling).

Then downstairs for games - we played "Save a Soul from Purgatory" (by throwing "coins" into the tin can) (and winning candy for accuracy!), then "Throw the Papal Bull in the Fire" (they had to get it over a bar, but the bigger ones had to stand farther back),(more candy), then "Pin the Theses on Wittenburg Cathedral" (we pasted scrapbooking sheets covered with actual theses on a door, and blindfolded the children, and spun them around - if they got their sticker on a theses, they got two candies, if they got it on the sheet, they got one - and if they were tiny, they could steal candies :) (i'm talkin' about you, Babe Meow)...

Then, T had got a movie - Up. I'd never seen it, although Si and Daddy had seen it for Si's birthday at the IMAX - i LOVED it! What a beautiful movie - a little dark, i guess - Anaia felt it was kind of sad - but it showed the importance of people over belongings, and the need we all have to have our dad be proud of us... Usually we like to find a movie about "being strong in the faith" but it seems a lot of them are a little too dark... This was a fun movie!

T and I both had sore throats and i was pretty wiped out by the end of the day - he let me sleep in today and is taking care of me... But thought i'd post about our Reformation Day in hopes that it gives my friends who are not comfortable with Halloween some ideas for an alternative...

open letter to Wired magazine re: article on vaccines nov 2009 issue

Sun, 1 Nov 2009 11:52:00 -0600

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience

, i admit it - i bought the magazine probably half just for the cute baby on the cover - but i do love Wired, and love hearing what's new...

The vaccine article, though - was such a disappointment - just a hatchet job, with no understanding of "the other side". Truth is, there are people like Jenny McCarthy, but there is an increasing number of people like me.

People who think that cannibalism is disgusting and who think the truth should be given, so that there can be "informed consent" about these vaccines. Most are cultivated on aborted fetal tissue. These babies aren't tissue donors, they aren't adults who have signed waivers. They are babies who are killed, and then their body parts sold. This is common in modern medicine, but it's morally abhorrent. How can we have faith in a medical culture that lies or is unaware of things that a simple look at the product insert and then their physician's desk reference can prove?

And then there is the issue of informed consent not just of the ingredients, but also the results. The WHO has a "Special Programme" about birth control vaccine research - and there have been numerous documented cases where vaccines were "tainted" with hcg, resulting in targeted female populations being sterilized against their will or knowledge with a purported "rubella vaccine"...

Lancet, 11 June 1988, p. 1296.

Challenges in Reproductive Health Research, Biennial Report 1992-1993, World Health Organization, Geneva, 1994, p. 186.

G.P. Talwar, et al, "Prospects of an anti-hCG vaccine inducing antibodies of high affinity...(etc)," Reproductive Technology 1989, Elsevier Science Publishers, 1990, Amsterdam, New York, p. 231

Name calling doesn't help us come to a consensus when there is such a wide gulf between the two sides - one of which believes it is morally okay to lie to its consumers, and sterilize them against their will.

canada

That's so cool!

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:12:00 -0500

Wyatt just came downstairs to tell me about a fort he'd made for his little brother - he is almost 14 (in two weeks!) and Uly is 3.

Anyway, he used blankets to make a little fort for his brother in the bottom bunk, and Uly told him it was "as cool as trampolines skating on the MOON!"

LOL!

fight gone bad

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:10:00 -0500

First, tonight's workout - Fight Gone Bad.

One minute each of:

box jumps

high pulls with 8 lb kettlebell

pushups

rowing

situps

followed by a minute of rest

Repeat twice more...

That'll get you going!

Exercise

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:46:00 -0500

... 5 km run today through the woods.

Green leaves scattered thickly on the ground.

Dodging other people's dogs (why do they run *around* T but try to climb up my legs? Can they sense a klutz coming up and want some fun?)

smell in the air is something i thought we had missed out on - the day after the first leaves started to fall, we had snow for 9 days solid, sleds, snow pants, mittens, the whole nine yards.

it felt like a gift to be out running in the autumn.

Crisp air, and mittens, but i probably could have gone in my t shirt and stayed warm enough (but why risk it?)

It was one of those days where it is utterly painless to run, and you could just go and go and go.

I still walked up the stairs at the end (boo!)- but i ran nonstop the rest of the way, and we beat our time record by 2 minutes!

- T made his famous bouillabaisse again,and it was so delicious. We've had it twice in the past couple of days, and if all my meals could taste like that, paleo would be no problem at all.

I'm still eating a little bit of carbs, but i'm ramping back down, and maybe this week i'll be back on the wagon. I do find we run out of veggies/fruit a lot faster this way, and my outdoor fridge will soon be out of commission (unless i can convince T to move it indoors) - last week i went out to get a melon and it had already frozen. I just sliced it up that way and we ate icy cold frozen melon. Yummy...

For my Canadian friends - Block Child "Pornography"

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:47:00 -0500

In our country, many are beginning to realize that our laws are creating a safe haven for perverts, and creating a hazardous environment for our children. One website calls it like it is

So long as someone is organizing a parade on these issues, i'm on the float. How about you? Check out their website at www.childsafenation.ca or www.familyaction.org

Block Child Pornography !

Under section 161 of the Criminal Code of Canada, it is a crime to distribute child pornography. “Any person who imports, distributes, sells or possesses, for the purpose of distribution or sale, any child pornography is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years”. This is the law of the land. However, internet service providers such as Rogers, Bell Canada, Telus, Shaw and others distribute tens of thousands of pages of child pornography every day.

The Canadian Government has decided that these corporations are above the law, and have given them complete immunity from prosecution. The result is the abuse of hundreds of thousands of children and this must stop.

Recently I was in Russia, and the headlines said "Massive International Child Pornography Ring Busted". I was ashamed to read that it stemmed from my home city of Toronto. Thirty-five children were rescued, and millions of web pages were shut down, some depicting adults having sex with children as young as 1-year old. How could this happen in my Toronto? The reason is that our former Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, made an announcement many years ago that Internet distribution would not be prosecuted. Yes, the government arrests the individuals that possess the illegal material, but not those who distribute it by the Internet. If someone owns a bookstore, magazine shop, television station or any other media outlet, they will be prosecuted for distributing child pornography. But, if you are a massive corporation like Rogers Cable, they turn a blind eye to this violation of children and the law.

Together, we must call upon the Canadian Government to stop this insanity, and prosecute the perpetrators. The laws currently exist, so we must call the Minister of Justice and our local Members of Parliament, and demand that they exercise the law.

The technology exists to block websites that display illegal material. However, these big corporations are reluctant to do so, as child pornography is a multi-billion dollar criminal industry.

A reporting mechanism is in place at Cybertip.ca, so once notified the ISP’s can block the child porn websites. Countries like South Korea have been doing this for years.

The Council of Europe report stated in 2004 that "the annual market in child pornography on the Internet is almost 20 billion dollars, ...pedophile images make up almost a quarter of the images downloaded from the Internet." It is reported that the Interpol now has a database of 200,000 images of children having sex with adults. A US agency has recorded a 1500% increase in reports of child pornography since 2001. The US Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported one website with 70,000 customers, all paying nearly $30 a month for graphic images of children being abused. We must act to stop this trade of child abuse today. Hundreds of thousands of children's lives depend on us.

I grew up in the cold city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, where one day a mother drove away from a store in a snowstorm. Her car got stuck, so she told her 5-year-old daughter to stay in the car as she went back to the store for help. The mother returned a few minutes later with a group of people. The little girl was gone. They could see her tracks in the deep snow, but the wind covered the trail. It was 30 degrees below zero, so they had to find the girl quickly. They all ran in different directions searching for several minutes to no avail. The mother then said, why don't we hold hands and walk from the car. After taking several steps, they stumbled upon the frozen body of the 5-year-old girl. The mother cried out "why didn't we join hands earlier? My girl could have been saved."

Hundreds of thousands of little girls and boys are out there in the cold, vicious world of child pornography. If we join hands together, we can stop the distribution of child pornography on the Internet in Canada and save thousands of boys and girls.

I ask you to join hands with us and do the following:
1. Call the the Hon. Robert Nicholson, MINISTER OF JUSTICE AND ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CANADA at (613) 992-4621. Write to him at 105 East Block. House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario. Canada, K I A 0A6 and fax him at (613) 990-7255.
2. Donate so we can take out newspaper, television and radio ads. Go to www.blockchildporn.ca
3. Petition: Have your family. friends and neighbours, sign the petition atwww.gopetition.com.
4. Call your Internet Service Provider and demand that they block all child pornography.
5. Pray. Prayer is the key to all victory, however, "faith without works is dead".

Rights of Children - a Sane Approach

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:42:00 -0500

I came upon this article by Margaret Sommerville - a woman who is fast becoming one of the Great Canadian Women in my pantheon...

In that group, i would also include Gwen Landoldt and Senator Anne Cools, by the way!

In this article, which starts off talking about the rights of children conceived through donor insemination, she manages to concisely (in two pages) sum up our responsibilities, in the moral sphere, toward children currently being conceived through the many kaleidoscopic ways, in a Canada that is often at the forefront of, let's face it, lunacy.

It seems that reason has always taken a back seat to the fervor of imagination. And instead of asking "Should we do this" - the scientific ethos and the zeitgeist is almost always with those who ask "Can we do this?"...

Hats off to Margaret Sommerville for being unafraid to be plain spoken, calm, clear, and fair in terms of our moral responsibilities...

http://www.familyaction.org/PDFs/Right-of-children-to-know-who-their-parents.pdf

Please read this!

Tabata Thursday

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:28:00 -0500

Tonight's workout - 16 minutes of work for lazy mamas and burned out daddies.

Thursday is his hardest day at work and it's my last day of homeschool, since we take off Fridays... It's nice to not have to pack the workboxes tonight! Last night only took 24 minutes, but the night before was 47 minutes. That's a lot of time... worth it, and good, but still... it's nice when i don't have to do it...

Tabatas tonight - rows, pushups, situps, squats...