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Mothers Day Hike 2010, Plano, TX

Mothers Day Hike 2010, Plano, TX

Strawberry Stevia Lemonade

So simple but so awesome - I could drink a whole pitcher myself. Sometimes Stevia can have an odd flavor if mixed with the wrong foods but with lemons it's the perfect marriage - so delicious and perfectly healthy! I don't measure precisely so these are approximate measurements - taste test to find your favorite ratios.

STRAWBERRY STEVIA LEMONADE

3-4 Large Lemons juiced (I use an electric citrus juicer)
3 Large Strawberries crushed (cut small into a cup and crushed with a fork so the juice is not lost)
2 Qts Water
2 tsp Liquid Stevia (taste as you add this in to find your preferred level of sweetness)
1/4 Cup of Grape Juice (Optional - adds a deeper pink color)

Hope you love this as much as I do - I added a strawberry to the rim of a glass pitcher for a special touch - so pretty!

Gratitude or Doubt...

Gratitude to God for His intervention twice in 8 days for baby Frederick and sister J'Non - I know some may still look at the situation of Frederick's birth last week with concern or even disdain thinking that things should have been done differently. My response to that is frustration. I feel very passionately that focusing on possible negative outcomes, undermine's God's Awesome Power and Wisdom as the Creator of the whole birth process! To feel that it was just lucky that things turned out fine in the end is to me the biggest slap in God's face. We owe Him thanks and gratitude not doubt that He could bring his faithful ones through any situation, no matter the circumstances. It could have been that His will was for a tragedy to occur for some unseen reason that only He could know, but if that were truly His will then it didn't matter who was attending the birth or where it was happening. The point I really want to yell from the rooftop is that if we are faithful and obedient to Him then we don't have to doubt as others do. We should appreciate and relish those blessings of peace of mind that come with being obedient and faithful to God. Why suffer needlessly or cause others to suffer over "what ifs" and "should haves" when God was so clearly the One in charge not humans - neither mid-wife nor Doctor could have thwarted God's intentions for J'Non and baby. I do however believe that prayers can sometimes change God's mind based on the examples we read in the bible of that happening. We are very thankful that His will lined up with ours in this case, but sometimes it doesn't. Still we know that all things work for the ultimate good of His faithful and obedient little ones, so we don't have to be fearful. NOTHING happens to God's children apart from His Will. This is something I have learned by experience over the years since my baptism and especially since having children. We can't protect them from everything but we can do our best in obeying and trusting God and in return He will always be there for us even in the times when the answer is no and we do have tragedy occur. He never leaves us or forsakes us. Maybe I am just a "baby" spiritually compared to so many others but this is something that I know with all of my heart and pray that I will not lose sight of it as life marches on and difficult times come and go. I have taken away from my experiences and now those of my sweet sister that God is amazing and He is powerful and we can always trust that He has our ultimate best interest at heart - even in the hard times.

Worms in Pork - has anybody I know tried this?

Oh gross, I just looked on YouTube for the video's of Parasites coming out of raw pork when it is soaked in Coca Cola for 2-3 hours... This only proves God's wisdom in telling us not to eat certain foods... I saw the explanation that parasites infest the pigs and bury themselves into the muscle tissue which is the part that people eat. They encapsulate themselves and go into a sort of dormant state - the acid in the coke dissolves the capsule and the worm flees the meat.... So awfully disgusting. Lots of people are apparently doing this experiment - might be a great homeschooler activity :)

I may have to do this experiment with my kids....

Does God Care if We Celebrate Valentines Day?

Excerpt from Good News article: St. Valentine, Cupid and Jesus Christ

God warned ancient Israel, the people He chose to represent true religion, not to mix pagan customs with worshiping Him as the true God. "When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.' You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods ... Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it" (Deuteronomy 12:29-32).

Paul compares mixing paganism with Christianity to worshiping demons: "What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons" (1 Corinthians 10:19-21).

Holidays such as St. Valentine's Day metamorphose into icons of Western culture, parodying religion. Most people don't care that its origins lie in the Roman Lupercalia and are rooted in tenets that have nothing to do with the Bible. It's this apathy about how to worship God, and the corresponding moral decay, that is the result of mixing Christianity with paganism.

Jesus said His followers would "worship the Father in spirit and truth" (John 4:23). Observance of this holiday is just one of many traditions that must be questioned if Christianity is to return to its foundation laid by Jesus Christ. GN

http://www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn26/valentine.htm