Raising a Reader

As an English teacher, I am, of course, biased; however, there is absolutely no more important aspect of raising an intelligent child than teaching that child to read at an early age.  To begin, a house must be over-filled with books of every make and measure.  Every child should have constant access to picture books, photography books, animal books, nature books, culture books, ancient and current history books, and mythology and books of faith.  Young children are stirred by visual images, the audio-stimulation of their parents’ voices, and by the physical books themselves.  Children who are read to learn words rapidly, particularly using children’s books with shorter sentences as they will naturally follow a finger pointing to individual words.  Audio-books are also invaluable tools when coupled with physical books.  When children hear audio-books multiple times, they can then “read along” with a physical book, and the word-memory capabilities are heightened by the audio sounds of words.

Reading is the beginning, middle and end of intelligence.  It is the primary skill by which to attain comprehension, critical thinking, and wisdom.  A child who reads at an early age, and who acquires a healthy reading addiction will 1) perform at far higher levels in school, 2) will write far better than non-reading students, and 3) will develop interests in wide-ranging fields.  Reading produces fascination, and fascination produces invention.  Therefore, work to build a large and varied home library of physical books.  Shop on Ebay, at book sales, and in second-hand stores.  You can never have too many books!!  Raising a reader is one of the best things any parent can do for a child.  Nancy

Animal Growth Hormones: The Main Cause of Human Obesity

If  you have not seen the documentary Food, Inc. rent or buy it today.  It is a documentary that every American needs to see as it makes clear the corporate take-over of the entire human food chain.  One of the most compelling segments of the documentary is its examination of the treatment of meat animals like chickens, cows and pigs.  Please see this documentary.

Animal growth hormones have been used in food animals for decades.  They bring animals to faster maturity by rapidly causing the animals to gain unnatural weight.  This means quicker turn-around times from birth to slaughter, which means quicker profits.  Chickens, for example, are now two to three times their natural weight, many of which being unable to walk and suffering from internal organ failure due to morbid obesity — all caused by animal growth hormones and genetic modifications.  Today’s chicken breasts are two to three times normal size.  Equally, cattle feed contains multiple artificial growth hormones, causing cattle to gain hundreds of pounds just prior to slaughter.  Equally, these animals suffer dire health affects as their final weeks prior to slaughter, where they are overfed hormone-laced feed (genetically modified corn) while standing in overcrowded feed lots (concentrated animal feeding operations), they are also fed multiple veterinary antibiotics in efforts to keep them alive long enough to get them to slaughter.  These animals are pumped full of growth hormones and antibiotics, slaughtered, and their pharmaceutical meat is then immediately sold to us, the consumers.  Interesting enough, the U.S. obesity epidemic coincides with the drugging of meat animals.  If you think about it, immediately following the corporate take-over of all U.S. food, Americans all got fat at the same time, early on-set puberty in pre-adolescent children (girls) started at the same time, the diabetes epidemic started at the same time, and chronic and epidemic cancers started at the same time.  AND the exact same health complications, minus diabetes (a human disease) now occur in animals in epidemic proportions.  Equally disturbing is that food animals are also experiencing reproductive problems, spontaneous abortions, and deformed offspring.  This should be a big head’s-up.  In truth, we are fed the same diet as food animals in the form of corn-based products like snack and cereal foods and foods with high fructose corn syrup — key word being “corn,”  genetically modified corn, that is.  Makes one wonder whether “ill-health”, which feeds the pharmeceutical industry, is by design.  More food for thought…  Nancy

Uncooking: The art of healthy grazing

I often work until 10:00 p.m., and my daughter, who is a university student, has a daily changing schedule.  As such, we have learned to put meals together quickly and creatively.  One thing we have learned is that we do not need to cook, meaning using the stove and oven, for every meal.  One of our favorite dinners is to prepare a relish tray of carrots, celery, peppers, olives, strawberries or other fruits in season, nuts and cheeses.  We actually love to eat this way, particularly at night, as it seems like a special treat, is attractive to present, and is quick to put together.  Sometimes we add dips or salad dressings for dipping, and sometimes not, but we sense that we are eating healthier, eating raw foods, and that the proteins are often healthier than animal muscle, which today is loaded with growth hormones and veterinary antibiotics.  Since we tend to eat all of the food, the clean-up is really quick and easy.  We also enjoy hard-boiled eggs, cheese and crackers or cheese melted on toast with fruit.  Cereal and fruit is one of our favorite “midnight snacks,” as well as raisins or craisins and nuts.

Though we have all been trained to the meat and potato mindset, there are delicious and healthy alternatives to traditional meals.  We must remember that the contents of today’s meats, vegetables and fruits are not the same as our ancestors.  Most food in grocery stores has been genetically altered and chemically enhanced, and most food contains veterinary antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides (weed killers), and/or artificial growth hormones.  Therefore, we must all try to buy and to grow organic/heirloom produce and to purchase free-range meats (animals not raised on corn).  Several years ago, my sister, who is a physician, said the following:  “Ninety percent of what we now eat is not food in any sense of the term.  Today’s food is killing us.”  Food for thought…   Nancy

Actual Community vs. Smartgrid/Economic Community

In today’s world, every other word is “community.”  That is because  society is being transformed by a new economic system where people are highly managed as human resources, and the actual natural resources that they use are to be highy controlled as well.  This is why “community” has come to social fruition and falsely so as a kindness-based group of community oriented voluteers.  The actual outcome is 1) free labor, 2) loss of privately owned property,  3) the elimination of personal automobiles, and 4) greatly lowered wages.  “Community” is about corporate profit and governmental confiscation of all land.  But then there is the meaning of actual community, which is based on the ideal of loving your neighbor and treating others in the way that you would choose to be treated.  It’s about the love of humanity.  Amy, her husband, Roger, and I met through our children, and we all became fast friends.  In getting to know all of them, I realized that they, too, struggled with the same life difficulties that I struggled with, which was primarily the lack of sufficient money upon which to live.    Before we knew each other well, my car broke down, and at that time, I was working seven days a week with three jobs.  Amy and Roger, without knowing me well, insisted that I take one of their vehicles to drive.  I was, frankly, flabbergasted.  But I took them up on the offer as I was in dire straights for daily transportation.  This act of amazing kindness, as well as risk on their part, was an act of profound kindness.  After this act, we began to share meals together, getting to know each other, and finding that we were developing very strong bonds of friendship.  As the years passed, we began to coordinate our needs as separate families.  We decided to shop together, to make shopping lists together, to coordinate combined family meals together, to plant a large canning garden together, and to raise chickens together for both meat and eggs.  Several weeks ago Roger and my daughter butchered 21 meat chickens, which resulted in about 125-130 pounds of meat, now filling a large freezer and worth about $170.00 to $200.00 in retail value.  As a result, our meat expenses have dropped and our sharing of chicken meals has become a source of great pride and thankfulness.  We did the work.  We did it together as a community of friends who cared about each other’s struggles.  The garden will produce immense amounts of food for our families that will be preserved (canned) and will last through next year’s harvest.  Our conjoined finances, labor, and planning brought us all closer as friends, and our families are, indeed, a community based upon our love for each other, our childrens’ friendships, a chosen healthy lifestyle, and the necessity of frugal and thrifty living.  Therefore, do not operate alone, but find your community of family and friends.  Go to church together.  Pray together.  Break bread together, and work for the benefit of each other.  Learn the meaning of actual community, which means loving friendship.  Nancy

Re-learning the Womanly Arts

It never ceases to amaze me what American women have lost in terms of knowledge and skills.    Amidst our earning of higher educations, careers, computer skills, and many other educational benefits of the twenty-first century, we, as women, have lost equal if not more skills that were common knowledge for our grandmothers and great-grandmothers.   Those women were profoundly talented and skilled women.  They could grow anything.  They could preserve anything.  They could cook anything from scratch, from meats of every kind to desserts and breads of any kind.  They could make clothing, bedding, and curtains.  They could knit sweaters, socks, and jackets.  They could crochet lace tablecloths, curtains, and runners.  They could make their own cleaning supplies.  They recovered their sofas and chairs.  They hooked their own rugs.  They made and re-used their babies’ diapers.  They fed their infants using their own bodies.  They made homemade remedies for colds and flues.  They painted their own pictures and houses.  They even made their own paints.  Equally, these women were  experts at saving money, and because they saved money, they had money.  I often wonder how my grandmother and great-grandmother would feel about the shopping addictions of so many of today’s contemporary women.  They would think we were 1) lazy, and 2) crazy.  So many of today’s women are compulsive money spenders who literally nickle and dime themselves into poverty due to their obsession with spending money for frivolous decorations and holiday consumerism while, at the same time, not even attempting to learn how to cook, opting instead for unhealthy microwave or drive-thru food.  They would think we were mentally ill.  There is tremendous value in the womanly arts of the past.  It does not pay to be an ignorant woman because women are the heart of successful homes.  Women with domestic talents keep men happy, keep their children happy, and preserve family life and marriage.  There is no place like a happy home, and ignorant women are incapable of making happy homes.   A good and stable life requires a happy home, and it is only too evident in today’s society, where the divorce rate is about 50%, where women and children are consequently the largest group of people living in poverty, and children are shuffled from babysitters to daycare centers because mothers are career women instead of mothers and homemakers, that the woman’s absence from the home has impacted happiness.  Yes, we have learned new twenty-first century skills and roles, but the effects of our absences from the home are profoundly detrimental to happiness in the  home.  We must re-educate ourselves and reclaim the skills of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers.  To this day, I remember the smell of my grandmother’s home, which smelled like homecooking, butterscotch, the roses from her garden, and her oil paints.  To this day, I can shut my eyes and recall the great joy of entering that house.  Lord knows, we need this again.  We need the brilliance of the womanly arts to reclaim the meaning of  “home.”  Nancy

Correcting Over-Usage Habits

American people tend to overuse nearly everything.  For example, we use far more shampoo and conditioner than is necessary.  In fact, we bathe too often.  Most people who are not outside or who are physical laborers simply do not need to bathe every day, and the products that we use to bathe are not necessarily good for the skin and hair when used on a daily basis.  When my mother was a child, she and her sister bathed once a month in the winter months, and they kept their hair clean by using boar bristle brushes to brush the dirt and oils from their hair.  Consequently, they both had waist-length and very healthy hair.  People in those days took bowl baths, washing particular areas of the body only and did not pour chemical agents all over their bodies in daily showers.  When people had to heat water for bathing, they obviously took fewer baths and used less water, and they did not have expensive water and sewer bills.  On that note, it is certain that water usage is going to be curtailed in the United States and already is in many parts of the country.  Therefore, and in preparation, it is very wise to cut bathing in half unless you are a physical laborer.  There is simply no need to run up your water and sewer bills with unnecessary bathing.  When you do bathe, use less shampoo and conditioner and only soap up the roots of your hair, and then pull the suds down through the ends of your hair, which rarely get oily.  Also, avoid body washes, which are expensive and loaded with chemicals.  Use pure bar soap, homemade if possible, and use them sparingly.  For most parts of the body, using a wet washcloth is more than adequate, soap free.  And the same is true for most dishes.  Use a small amount of dish soap.  Dishes can be “squeaky clean” with a dab of dish soap.    Remember that all cleaning supplies are taxable items.  Use them sparingly.  One great idea is to mix three-parts ammonia with one-part blue glass cleaner in a spray bottle.  Ammonia is very inexpensive and is, bar none, the best degreaser.  I use this mixture to clean all counter tops, cupboards, sinks, washer and dryer, everything in my bathroom, my stove top, my refrigerator (inside and out), my microwave oven, my computer and computer table, and all messes on the floor.  It is my primary cleaning solution, and it costs literally pennies to use.    Particularly for the stove, I spray it on, use a green scrubby pad to scrub the stove, and wipe it off.  The stove literally glows due to the degreasing power of ammonia.  Try it.  It’s the best though a tad strong in odor.  When it dries, however, everything just smells clean because it is really clean.  Equally, do not buy expensive wood cleaners for floors.  Use vinegar and water.  There is nothing better to degrease and clean hard floors.  I mop my floors with a vinegar/water solution, and then mop them again with water only, and my floors literally glow, and a gallon of white vinegar is dirt cheap.  Vinegar water is also just as effective for windows as is the ammonia/glass cleaner mixture, and you use so much less product.  Remember, carefully use everything that costs you money.  Be thrifty and very frugal.  Nancy

One Woman’s Junk is Another Woman’s Treasure

I have been a second-hand shopper all my adult life and by choice, and I have found treasures in my lifetime.  I recall a garage sale about thirty years ago when my mother and I stopped by a small house posting a sale sign.  We were greeted by a middle-aged woman and an elderly man in a wheel chair who was connected to an oxygen tank.  As we browsed their goods, I saw two bookcases in the garage, both matching and 6′ X 6′, solid wood, varnished, and very beautiful.  I inquired about the bookcases and was informed that they were for sale for $20.00 a piece.  My mother said, “If you want them, I’ll buy them for you.”  Well, I wanted them and we closed the deal.  The woman then proceeded to tell us that the bookcases were handmade by her father, the man in the wheelchair.  As my mother made arrangements to have the bookcases retrieved at a later date, I spoke to the elderly man, told him we purchased the bookcases, and told him how beautiful they were and how happy I was to have found them and meet the talented man who built them.  He was clearly in his late 80’s to 90’s, and though he could barely speak, he smiled and said, “I hope you like them.”  I did like them and was blessed to have met their craftsman.  And though, like everything else, second-hand prices have risen tremendously, there are still fabulous deals to be had.  I recently stopped by a church sale and picked up Pyrex baking dishes and metal cake pans for 10 cents a piece.  I also found six full skeins of yarn for $3.00 and purchased six books for $1.50 at twenty-five cents a piece.  Amy and I recently stopped by two second-hand stores, and we saw some fabulous deals on what appeared to be brand new sofas and chairs and even better deals on used couches, some around $100.00 that were in excellent condition.  I bought a stainless steel travel coffee cup, which are now $20.00 in discount stores, for twenty-one cents.  The point being is this:  Shop for second-hand EVERYTHING, and particularly clothing.  Knowing everything is absurdly inflated in price, and that corporations do not need more wealth and billions in quarterly profits, be very tight and frugal with your money.  You can buy excellent clothing, furniture, tools, and all household items second-hand and for pennies on the dollar, and sometimes you can find real treasures.  There is no better way to save your hard-earned money than to simply avoid corporate shopping and support your neighbors’ small mom and pop second-hand stores and local garage sales.  Simply keep a list of everything you want, your wish list so to speak, and keep it  updated and in your purse.  Make a point to shop on Thursdays and Fridays, and stop by sales as you see them.  Do not avoid certain “small house” sales because you never know when one woman’s junk will become your treasure and knock off one or two items from your list.  It is also wonderful to shop with family and friends.  Happy savings and shopping,  Nancy

The Accomplished Morning

Amy and I talk every morning on the phone with coffee cups in hand and typically after the first round of morning work, usually around 10:00 a.m..  We are both morning people who start our days feeding animals, doing the stray evening dishes, starting our loads of laundry, picking up after our children, sweeping and vacuuming, and cleaning bathrooms.  Then, on the phone, we brainstorm the week’s needs, our budgets, our next paydays, and re-do our current shopping lists while beginning our next week’s lists.  It is a constant battle and balancing act to be able to buy what we hope to buy while being flexible enough to withstand the sudden wants, needs, and desires of our children, automobile fuel costs and sudden repairs, and other aspects of life’s unexpected surprises.  We have found that we are both at our intellectual and physical best in the morning hours, and we get most of our heavy work done before 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.  This, of course, is the healthy and optimal pattern for maximum output and accomplishments.  Then, due to our ages, we try to rest for an hour or two before the evening dinner and activities rush begins.  This pattern, however, is next to impossible for working women, and it is sad that we live in a culture that demands women to work, often to also attend school at night, and then go home in the later evening hours to the unfinished woman’s work of the home.  I feel very sorry for today’s women for their lives have become overwhelming and very slavish.  However, this is somehow the culture we have embraced and called “liberating.”  We really, really need to think and pray deeply about this dilemma.  You all know there are a lot of angry women out there.  Perhaps there is good reason for this anger.  Perhaps too much is simply too much. Perhaps we embraced the concept of “superwoman” without considering the physical and emotion toll, much less the toll on contemporary marriages and children.  Perhaps liberation was not as liberating as we thought, particularly when we are still the “cheaper” labor force.  Yep.  Food for thought.  Nancy

Health Requires Quality Sleep

“Early to bed, early to rise…” is not simply a silly cliché.  It is a fundamental wisdom that American people have been trained to avoid.  However, our health is directly linked to the length and quality of rest and sleep.  In my grandparents’ era, both born in the 1880’s, it was normal for people to go to bed around 9:00 p.m. and to rise between 4:00 and 5:00 a.m.  They were, in fact, still connected to the human biology that followed sunrise and sunset hours, which most of humankind has followed since the beginning of human history and prior to artificial light.    We worked with the sun and slept with the moon.  However, in today’s technological culture, we experience second and third-shift working hours, computer addictions, and constant night-time entertainments like television, bars and clubs, and evening shopping.  With the advent of such lifestyles, human health has deteriorated because we are biologically programmed to awaken with the light and sleep with the dark.  I have personally found it difficult to retire at an early hour, but I try to do so  three or four nights per week and find that I feel more rested and also tend to sleep more soundly and longer than when I stay up too late.  In a nutshell, we need to remember that we are natural creatures, and we need to treat ourselves as such.  Re-setting your clocks to daybreak and nightfall will improve your overall health.  Equally, when you are past the age of 50, a nap in the mid- afternoon will refresh you for hours and make you feel generally better, even improving the natural aches and pains of age.   Sweet dreams,  Nancy

Essential Essentials: The quality pantry

Amy and I coordinate our shopping lists and also our pantry wish lists.  We then shop together so that we can plan meals and attempt to fill in the holes of our family pantries’ necessities.  Here is a list that we live by in order to make sure that all necessities are on-hand and in abundant supply:

Beans/legumes (red and white beans, lentils, split peas, and bean mixes)

Rice (non-enriched white)

Potato Flakes or Pearls

Cooking Oil and Shortening

Honey

Salt and Pepper

Hot Sauces

Syrups

Baking Soda and Baking Powder

Yeast

Corn Starch

Oatmeal

Cornmeal

Unbleached and Whole Wheat Flours

Peanut Butter

Jellies (canned/preserved) and store bought

Saltine and Graham Crackers

Pastas

Pasta Sauces/tomato Sauces (canned/preserved) and store bought

Sugars (white, brown, and powdered)

Powdered Milk

Onion Soup Mixes

Soup Base Mixes

Canned Hams, Tuna, and Chicken

Beef and Chicken Bouillon

Canned and Jarred Fruits

Canned Vegetables

Canned and Preserved Vegetables and Fruits

Canned Whole Eggs

Butter Powder

Spices

Ramen Noodles

Vitamin C, D, and E

Coffees and Teas

Instant Cocoa Mixes

Powdered Drink Mixes

Water

Toilet Paper

Trash Bags

Personal Hygiene Supplies

Shampoos and Conditioners

Bar Soaps like Ivory, Zote, and Fels Naptha

Borax

Washing Soda

Lemon Juice

White Vinegar

Ammonia

Bleach

Q-Tips

Tooth Paste and Tooth Brushes

Hair Brushes

Towels

Sheets

Blankets

Sleeping Bags

Pillows

Scissors

Batteries

Big Buddy Indoor-Outdoor Propane Heater

Propane

Hurricane Lamps

Lamp Oil

Wicks

Wind-up Radios

NOAA Weather Radio

Matches and Lighters

Rope

Duct Tape

Electrical Tape

Flashlights

Hand Can Openers

Bottle Openers

Eye Glasses (non-prescription)

Tarps

Furnace Filters

Peroxide

Rubbing Alcohol

Complete First Aid Supplies

Canning Jars

Canning Kit

Pressure Cooker

Pet Foods

Wood, coal, and boards

Nails, screws, and bolts

Complete and extensive tool kit

Long and Short-Handle Axes

Wire and inexpensive fencing

Motor Oil

Coolant

Extra Gasoline

Cash and coins

This is a very concise list.  Dollar and second-hand stores are great places to buy many of these items, but some you will have to purchase in larger stores. You no doubt have many of these items in your home.  One easy Saturday, do a quick inventory and count, and then make a list of a few items to add to your current supply, and pick up one or two of the things that  you do not have on hand.  Keep the list and, week by week, add more items and, soon, you will be stocking up to reasonable levels.   The goal is to achieve a sense of comfort with what you have on hand.  More later, Nancy