Remember Sestra? I thought I would post some more pictures of her. 
She likes to hide. Do you know where?
Under her water dish!
Whenever I put back inside her cage she tries to get out again.
Sestra
Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker
March 10, 2009 By
But most of all winnie the Pooh
Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker
March 10, 2009 By
The other day Mom, Deanna, and I realized, the Boy had not seen Winnie the Pooh since he was really little. He didn’t remember it at all. We dug it out and he and Rachael (and Deanna) watched it 5 times that day! Here are some pics I got. My favorite is the top one. Which is your favorite?
Why you shouldn’t put too much mustard on your sandwich.
Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker
March 9, 2009 By
Warning, this post is entirely the product of my imagination, so if you are allergic to silliness I seriously recommend that you scroll down and read something else.
One day I was making myself a sandwich. Not any ordinary sandwich mind you, but a delicious, mouth watering, BLT with lovely thick strips of crispy bacon, and colby-jack cheese. But right as I laid the top piece of bread on and prepared to take a bite I heard a voice.
“Don’t you dare,” it said.
I looked around, and didn’t see anyone talking to me. My mom and dad were working online and my siblings were eating boring old peanut butter and jelly, so I assumed that I wasn’t actually being addressed. I lifted the sandwich and prepared to bite again.
“I’m warning you,” the voice came again.
I jumped and looked at my sandwich. I thought in alarm “Surely not…the voice can’t be coming from the sandwich itself?” Feeling rather silly I made sure no one was looking and whispered to the sandwich, “Hello?”
“What?” There was no doubt. My sandwich was indeed talking to me.
I glanced around guiltily and seeing nobody watching I whispered again to the sandwich.
“What are you warning me against?”
“Eating me, of course. I would think that at least was obvious.”
“Why shouldn’t I eat you?”
“Because I told you not to, moron.”
“Excuse me? I just put you together I’ll have you know, and I intend to eat you as soon as we finish this conversation.”
(I must admit, I felt rather stupid, having an argument with a sandwich, crispy bacon notwithstanding.)
The sandwich continued rather smugly, I must say.
“Well you go ahead and do that, smart alec but I wonder, how you will like biting something as it talks to you, or perhaps even…screams for help?”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Maybe.”
“Well, what if I just throw you away?”
“And waste all this crispy bacon, and colby jack cheese, slathered in mustard and mayo? I don’t think so.”
“Well, what do you expect me to do with you, if not eat you or throw you away?”
“Well, I’ve always wanted to see Hawaii…”
“This is stupid. Always? You didn’t even exist ten minutes ago!”
“Yeah, so? Who says I can’t have my own ambitions just because I’m a young sandwich?”
I groaned, “This is ridiculous.”
“Why?”
“Hawaii?!? Next you’ll probably want me to send you to the president.”
“Why not? I think I would be fun to see him jump when his sandwich talks to him. I mean, you jumped. Why wouldn’t he?”
“I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”
Just then Dad walked over and said “ooh Deanna, thanks for making this sandwich for me.” Before I could warn him, he picked it up and took a bite. He chewed, and then handed the sandwich back to me. “Thanks Nonna, I was just kidding. By the way you put a LOT of mustard on there.” I smiled at the irony,
“Yes, it was a bit…saucy, wasn’t it?”
This post is part of this week’s Homeschool Kids Write project. Go see more!
Book: Priests of Moloch
Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker
March 9, 2009 By
In the sequel to The Warrior of the Son bitter young Evan MacKeth is found on a riverbank nearly dead with terrible wounds.
He is deeply in love with the younger sister of the Queen, the lively Aine Ceallaigh who is greatly skilled with the bow and arrows, and has even single handed slain a saber tooth tiger.
Banishment however has not defeated the High priest of Moloch. The evil Claranides has returned to Durham, and is plotting and devising his revenge.
Evan is reconciled with his brother the King, and is taken to his castle where he languishes crippled by terrible wounds inflicted in his struggle with the terrible monster called a Glamorth.
Evan sinks deeper and deeper into despair, and self pity as his strength shows no signs of returning, and his only comfort is in the sweet smile of his beloved Aine. But Evan is not the only one interested in Aine, the dark, dangerous Eowulf Fitzwarren has taken a liking to her, and waits in the shadows, watching for his chance.
But then disaster strikes. The ambitious Duke Fitzwarren and his three sons united with the evil high priest Claranides, plan an invasion of the capital city Durham, and through trickery bind Evan in the church with King Osric planning to sacrifice them both to Moloch. Then miracles start happening. Evan cries out to the One True God as the priests of Moloch raise the knife to kill Osric, and is healed. He takes up his sword and drives them from the church.
Meanwhile the foreigner Anwend Halfdane has been searching for answers since his wife was murdered by a hideous demon called a glamorth, and is called through a dream to guard the weak gate of Durham. Eowulf and his brothers, with a small force of armed men arrive to open it, and let in their treacherous father, and his retainers, to help them take the city. But Anwend cuts the drawbridge rope, and fights them off, killing the men at arms. Eowulf escapes with Clarinades and on the way bump into Aine who tries to defend herself with arrows before Eowulf knocks her out and kidnaps her, leaving his wounded brothers behind.
During this, Evan and Osric are fighting through the remainder of the men at arms who are keeping the nobles, and their families locked in the throne room while the king’s treasonous senechal guards them during the takeover. But the loyal men are more than the traitors and they fight their way to victory, only to realize that Aine has been kidnapped.
No-shampoo update
Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker
March 7, 2009 By
Today is day 7 without shampoo. Remember, under normal circumstances I shampoo religiously every 23.5 hours. This was hard for me.
Sunday I shampooed and conditioned as usual before church. My hair was soft and silky, and I ran my fingers through it to detangle. It took a sweet and admiring husband to teach me to appreciate my very straight, very uncurly-not-a-hint-of-waves hair. Now I love it.
Monday I just rinsed it thoroughly in the shower. I couldn’t run my fingers through soft, silky hair but it was alright. I didn’t expect to.
Tuesday I used baking soda & apple cider vinegar. The cider vinegar seemed to feel more like conditioner than plain white vinegar had when I tried this last. My hair was feeling a bit oily, but still OK. This wasn’t as bad as I expected.
Wednesday I was still feeling strong. I just rinsed my hair again rather than doing the baking soda/vinegar thing every day. From what I gather, a big part of the process is just getting your scalp to adjust to less washing overall, no matter what you use. I thought I might do it every other day, but…
Since we had a party to go to on Friday, I decided to skip Thursday as well. I rinsed it thoroughly in the shower and tried not to touch my hair once it dried. This was, I hoped, as bad as it was going to get. I wanted my hair clean for Friday.
On Friday, I washed with soda and vinegar. My hair felt almost sticky. Couldn’t run my fingers through it and could hardly brush it. And dandruff! Eww! My willpower was suffering seriously. Ick, ick, ick. We had a party to attend with people I had never met. I couldn’t very well laugh it off as a crazy new experiment. I very nearly jumped back in the shower at the last minute, but one of my daughters came up with a pretty headband for me. I pulled my hair up into a bun and used the headband to cover my hairline, and decided to go through with it.
Today, Saturday, is day 7. I used baking soda and vinegar again today, but used more and worked harder to get my scalp cleaner. I scrubbed so much my scalp was tingling. I’m pretty sure I took off all the dead skin, and maybe some live skin too. I’m OK with that. My hair feels better than it has in several days. I finished up with some conditioner, but it just doesn’t seem to work right now. My hair looks and feels clean, but not smooth and silky like it normally does. Oh well. Good enough.
I had nearly resigned to shampoo on Sunday morning simply so I could be presentable for worship, but I think I can do without for this week.
Questions:
- How long does it take to get as bad as it’s going to get?
- Do you use conditioner?
- When will it feel better?
- Does your hair feel soft and silky again once you’ve adjusted? Or does “natural” hair just not feel that way?
- Would it hurt to shampoo once or twice/week? Isn’t this more about adjusting to less frequent washing, than about adjusting to no shampoo? Am I torturing myself needlessly?
Speak up, friends. I need to hear from those who have gone before me.
Who is responsible?
Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker
March 6, 2009 By
Over at Frugal Hacks I posted a link to an interesting article from NPR on the resession.
Among other things the article quotes an economist as saying
“That chart is the most striking piece of evidence that I have that what is happening to us is something that goes way beyond toxic assets in banks. It’s something that has little to do with the mechanics of mortgage securitization, or ethics on Wall Street, or anything else,” Beim says. “It says: The problem is us. The problem is not the banks, greedy though they may be, overpaid though they may be. The problem is us.“
(Emphasis mine)
What do you think? GO on over to Frugal hacks and tell me on the post : “How about a dose of personal responsibility?”
Vision Forum sundries: freebies, sales, and secret coupons
Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker
March 6, 2009 By
First, remember this? We have a winner for the $50 Behemoth.com gift certificate: Jolanthe. Run over and congratulate her!
Second, if you wanted to win and didn’t, you can still get free stuff. There are 2 freebies every day at Behemoth.
Today’s freebies:
Third, Vision Forum has their Moody Science Classics on sale this week. You can get the entire set of 19 DVDs plus a bonus disc (Classic Bible Adventures) for just $6/disc! Great stuff, great price. Signposts Aloft was one of my favorites. City of the Bees, Red River of the Life, and Hidden Windows of the Soul are other favorites in our house.
Fourth, Vision Forum has issued a special coupon code that is only available through affiliates. Would you like to be in the know? Maybe you should become an affiliate…
Here’s the deal: Buy Doug Phillips’s new book Little Boy Down the Road and get his audio message Victories Large and Small for 70% off. The secret code: 0309cd. You can see my review of the Victories CD here.
Fifth…just kidding. We’re done counting for now. Class dismissed.
Our garden so far
Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker
March 5, 2009 By
I mentioned that we built some homemade Earth Boxes – self watering containers for growing garden vegetables. We decided to grow our garden on the deck because we have a bumper crock of rocks and deer. Neither is conducive to growing a productive garden. We used these plans with 18 gallon plastic totes, and began to wing it once we understood what we were doing.
So far, we have:
- 1 container of bush beans – 20 plants total. These are a heritage variety, so we can save seeds for next year.
- 1 container of peas (half sugar snaps, half alaska, both bush varieties) – 16 plants total
- 2 containers of cucumbers, again a bush variety. I know we’ll have to provide support for some of our plants eventually but I’m trying to skirt the issue for as long as possible. 8 plants total
- 2 containers of strawberries – 12 plants total
- Roma tomato plants: 2 in 5 gallon buckets, made into self-watering containers from the plans above.
- Sweet One Hundred tomato plants, 2 of these in 5 gallon buckets as above. We hope to eat these like candy this summer.
- Some Simpson Lettuce and another variety of lettuce in a long narrow flower box just inside the dining room window. I’m hoping to grow greens indoors through the summer, where they will stay cool enough not to bolt in the summer heat. Am I too optimistic for a beginner? I’ll be starting more greens soon, some indoors and some outdoors. I’ll protect them with a bit of shade once the weather turns hot.
- Naturtium, an edible flower that reportedly helps discourage certain insect pests and will beautify our deck garden since the plastic tubs are not exactly doing the beautification job.
I still need to buy pepper plants. We want sweet bells and jalapenos; we’ll have to be careful not to let them cross-polinate! I also have seeds for Swiss Chard (which I’m told is very tolerant of summer heat), a heat-resistant type of spinach, mint, and chives. There’s more on my list, but I’m not about to go find my purse and dig out the list. You’ve heard enough, haven’t you?
What do you think is missing from my garden? Keep in mind I’m in the San Antonio area: long, hot dry summer! What’s in yours? And tell the truth, how am I going to be disappointed? Too much? Too little? Bad choices? What would you do differently?
My first ever live radio interview
Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker
March 3, 2009 By
Last month when we were hunting down in south Texas I had the (first in my life) chance to be a guest on a live talk ration show. My good friend Adam McManus – the local Christian Radio firebrand who hosts a show on KSLR 630 am in San Antonio – hosted me to get my opinion on an article where a liberal goofball called me irresponsible 
. Not really, but he did say,
I think we will work our way towards a position that says that having more than two children is irresponsible. It is the ghost at the table. We have all these big issues that everybody is looking at and then you don’t really hear anyone say the “p” word.
Naturally I was happy to oblige, since I know a thing or two about having more than 2 kids.
Well almost happy.
Remember I told you that I was in south Texas deer hunting? Well, on this particular afternoon I was guiding instead of hunting. I was not going to take the call but the young man I was guiding insisted that I take the call – regardless of what it did to his hunt.
SO I called and spoke rather softly Most of the time I’m on the phone there are 4 big deer just off to the north of our deer stand.
Anyway I want to share the interview with you – Adam was kind enough to send me a copy so without further ado here it is:
My radio interview (click to listen)
Adam on KSLR 630 AM
You can hear Adam’s show ”Take a Stand” every day ONLINE if you don’t live near San Antonio. Just go to KSLR.com and he is right there on the front page. You can also go to Adam McManus blog or email him at adam – at – kslr.com and you will receive his daily email action alerts and program notes. I’ve been a subscriber for over 5 years now. Very useful and very informative. It’s a great way to be notified of issues you need to call your Federal Representatives about.
Adam had another segment on February 18th about the weird (and I believe inappropriate) emotional attachments that are formed in the modern workplace. You can read a great article on his blog about this title “KSLR LISTENER & VISION FORUM BOARD MEMBER DON HART RESPONDS TO THE ADAM McMANUS SHOW SEGMENT ON “WORK SPOUSES”
Definitely worth a read.
Random Musings
Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker
March 2, 2009 By
Adventurous Boyhood Lives!
I want to throw out a couple of links to 2 young blogger friends of mine whose writing I admire.
- John Horn wrote a post waaay back in November that I enjoyed on Boy’s and Toy Soldiers He also has a great giveaway running on this post.
- Joshua Titus put his virtual pen to electronic paper and produced a squib on the motto “Victory or Death!” it’s thought provoking and timely.
Here is a taste of it:
Travis drew a line in the sand and offered every man in the Alamo an “honorable” way out of this death trap. Out of 190 men, only one crossed that line.
Each of those men died. But they sent a message to the world that Texans would not surrender their homes, their families, or their freedom. They also held the Alamo long enough to set things in motion for the men who would ultimately defeat the Santa Anna. If it weren’t for the Alamo defenders who refused to flee or surrender, there might not be a Texas today.
Faith by Hearing
I recently stumbled across the blog of a Canadian gent who is blogging “to collect and categorize the ever-growing availabilty of great Reformed and conservative evangelical audio preaching & teaching”
In his own words:
Faith by Hearing is designed to collect and categorize the ever-growing availabilty of great Reformed and conservative evangelical audio preaching & teaching that has a high view of God and Scripture. This is not merely a machine gun listing of sermons and lectures (though it may seem like that at times.) This is a personal project to encourage others to be blessed by the preaching and teaching of godly men who are faithful to the all-powerful Word of God.
(excerpted from faithbyhearing.wordpress.com/about)
The post that caught my attention was “Patristics for Busy Pastors: An interview with Ligon Duncan” on the importance of studying the early church fathers. I’m about halfway through it so far and am really enjoying the message and look forward to getting some of the books in the bibliography at the end of the post.
Tech stuff
I recently subscribed to the daily email updates for CNET’s webware blog I found a handly little tool called CL Desktop
It’s a handy way to search craigslist, and it pulls the images from the criagslist posts asthubnails/previews when you do your search. Best of all it’s free!
New things I’m trying this month: no shampoo
Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker
March 2, 2009 By
It’s a new month. What new thing are you trying? I’ve got several up my sleeve, but for now I’ll just share one.
I am (gasp) trying the no-shampoo craze:. I’m not quite doing it for the typical reasons. My hair has always been extremely oily and (glancing about furtively) prone to (dare I say it?) dandruff. I’ve been shampooing daily since I was about 10yo. In fact, I always shampoo in the morning, not at night, because it really only looks and feel clean for about 18 hours. If I do it at night, it’s feeling a little gross by the next afternoon.
All that is to tell you that I just think there’s something basically wrong with needing to shampoo so often. I’m hoping that replacing shampoo with baking soda and a vinegar rinse will shock the chemical factory in my scalp into working properly. I don’t expect it to be fun and I just might give up 30 minutes before my next trip into town, but that’s the plan for now.
I would love to hear from anyone else that has tried this bit of craziness. A few questions, if you don’t mind:
- How much of each do you use?
- Does the vinegar have to be apple cider vinegar, or will the cheap white stuff work?
- How long does it take for your scalp to adjust?
Are you trying something new this month? Hop over to Frugal Hacks and tell about it. Or just go see what others are doing.
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