Mission Statement

To motivate young;

People to be better

Citizens.

Our grandson received an award Thursday morning. He is a cadet of the JROTC. He received the American Legion Military award. We are so proud of him.  

Can You Predict Your Future Heath?

Where will your health be 10 years from now? If you were to ask a teenager that question you would get a deer in the headlights reaction. As you ease into your 40's, 50's, and 60's, your thoughts on life, longevity and quality of life become more relevant. Wouldn't it be great if we could predict our future health? Would you like to be able to know where your health and quality of life will be in the next  ten years? There is an old saying about how people in their youth sacrifice their health just to get money and then as they get older they sacrifice all their money just to regain their health. Although you can't always tell what's around the corner you, and only you can give yourself the best opportunity for a healthier future. 

 My peas. Don't they look good?

My beans are starting to surface. Wow! Three days and they are up.

Before planting seeds, seedlings and root vegetables like potatoes and turnips, consult a planting guide to ensure you will have the most success with your vegetable garden. Each of the vegetables you may consider planting in your Kentucky garden have an optimal planting time.While you may plant in early Spring before the final frost, for instance, you will often hold off on planting corn and beans until after the final frost of the spring.

Micah Choosing Which Flowers To Plant Where.

 

Even the most inept gardener will see success with these super easy edible perennials that taste great and look natural among the flowers. A perennial is a plant that lives for many growing seasons. With most plants this means that the top portion of the plant dies back each season and grows back the next year from the same root stock (1). Since perennials only need to be planted once, they are low maintenance additions for the garden, great for the beginner.

There are many perennials that can be difficult, requiring certain soil types, fertilizers, sun conditions, and fussy pruning. Luckily there are many others that thrive with little attention, and a number of these are edible and still beautiful enough to add to the flower garden.

Brad And Micah: Outdoor Wonders!  

Rhubarb – Dramatic And Tasty

I love the look of rhubarb. It grows big lush leaves that start growing very early in the season. The dramatic leaves act as a great filler for forgotten corners of the garden. I have used rhubarb to fill in bare spaces in my garden such as behind my composter, as a decorative low maintenance border behind my vegetable garden, and as an accent plant in a hard to reach corner of my flower garden. My rhubarb has survived being buried by my pumpkins, repeatedly being dug up, and having been transplanted and split many times. This plant seems to take endless abuse from me, and always comes back strong and beautiful the next season.

Rhubarb is not only easy and beautiful, it is also delicious. It has a very tart distinctive taste when eaten raw, making a great snack to nibble on while out in the garden. More commonly, it is used in desserts such as pies and jams, as the taste of it raw is too tart for many people’s palates. My favorite way to use rhubarb is to boil it on the stovetop with a small bit of water and honey until it has a smooth texture for a wonderfully tart pancake topping or pudding.

Best practices for caring for rhubarb are to transplant while the root stocks are still dormant, either early spring or late fall, into well drained, fertile soil. Preferably choose spots in full sun, and fertilize well. Water often, and remove seed stocks as soon as they appear. Do not harvest the first year after planting (2). Although this is all great advice, I have broken all these rules and still have great success with this plant.

Daylilies – Surprising Food Source From A Beautiful Flower

My first memories of daylilies are of a whole bunch of these dramatic orange flowers growing along the fence line in the alley. They grow so easily with no maintenance that they are a common sight along fences or other such places where a beautiful low maintained border is wanted. At the time I had no idea that these beauties were edible.

The flowers, buds, tubers (roots), and young stalks are all edible. Buds taste great sauteed in butter with salt, young stalks are similar to green onions, flowers can be used as a beautiful decoration on cakes or salads, and tubers can be boiled like potatoes.

Growing daylilies is extremely easy. They grow in all soil types, they prefer full sun but tolerate partial shade, and although they like well drained soil, they can survive in wet or even occasional flooded areas. They can be transplanted successfully any time of the year (3). These are truly a no fail flower that works great in areas where lush low maintenance flowers are wanted.

Oregano – A Tasty Ground Cover

Oregano comes in many varieties, some growing bushy and some growing as a ground cover. The oregano that I have in my garden is a variety that grows along the ground. It is beautiful, very attractive to bees, and easy to care for. In my garden, the oregano is one of the first plants in the garden to look lush and green in the spring. It doesn’t take over the garden like many ground covers tend to, and it takes well to being split up, making it a great choice to fill in space between plants in the flower garden.

Be careful when selecting a variety to use. If you plan to use your plant for cooking, make sure you smell and taste the leaves before you purchase it, as some varieties are grown for decorative use and not culinary use, so they have a very mild flavor. It is recommended that oregano not be grown from seeds. Cuttings, divisions, or starter plants work best so you know what your plant will taste like, as the seeds are unpredictable as to the taste of the plant grown.  I probably add more oregano to my meals than other cooks have to, but it always ends up tasting wonderful and I have more greens in my food, so I don’t mind.

Oregano is not very picky about soil requirements. It grows naturally in the mountains, so it appreciates well drained, dry, and rocky soil, but I have seen it thrive in lush gardens as well. As for sun requirements, full-sun or partial shade both work well (4).

Sage – Silver Foliage All Year Round

Sage bushes come in many varieties. The leaves and flowers can vary greatly, but my favorite is the common sage plant. It features silvery soft leaves with bright purple dramatic flowers. It grows into a small bush that takes well to pruning. This plant looks great all year long, even in the winter. The leaves stay on the plant year round, providing an attractive silvery accent to the garden even in the winter.

Most of us are probably familiar with sage in Thanksgiving stuffing or perhaps some other savory meat dishes, but few of us use it as a mainstay herb in our kitchens. Since this is one of the readily available herbs in my garden,  It has a beautiful smell and I have yet to make a meal where I regretted adding this wonderful herb.

For best results this plant wants a well drained soil, and to be in full sun. Make sure to keep newly planted plants well watered until they become established. After 4 or five years it is recommended that old plants be replaced to ensure high quality herbs for cooking. As for pruning, it is recommended that each year the heavy woody stems be cut off (5). I tend to prune for the optimal shape which sometimes means I don’t follow this rule and I have yet to replace my plants after more than five years. Since I am using this plant as part of a flower garden, and not heavily harvesting, I have yet to notice any decline in quality.

Growing Food with the Flowers

Adding edible plants to the flower garden is a great way to increase how much food you can grow in your yard and make your flower garden so much more interesting. With so many varieties that look great, taste delicious, and that are easier than the average flower, how could you not include at least a few of them within your flower garden?

Bayer Children's Propaganda

Poisoning the bees and then bragging to children that you give bees the "medicine" they need for their sickness, is like hitting someone in the knees with a baseball bat, handing them a jug of aspirin, and then telling your kids how you're such a good person because you helped someone with their pain. Yet, that's just what Bayer "Crop Science" has gone and done, except they went "all the way" on this one and wrote a children's book full of propaganda about the blight they've besieged on the bees and mankind with these poisonous herbicides they spread across America's crops and land.

With so many illnesses of today, doctor’s and pharmaceutical companies are making a killing; “no pun intended.” The drug industry has medicines for all types of issues, but these drugs come with unwanted side-effects. There are many reports and television ads that claim dramatic advancements of these drugs but in reality; it’s all really false claims. Curing illnesses isn’t the main agenda, but treating the illnesses is big business.

Alternative/Herbal Medicine is the way to go for living the most healthy life possible, but these natural healers don’t get the same advertisement or respect from the drug industry. You see, Alternative Meds can’t be patented since they naturally grow from the earth and if the pharmaceutical companies can’t profit from it; they won’t promote it. To better put it, ” the money is in the medicine, not the cure.” Suppressing an illness is much more profitable than curing an illness.

Did you know that lemon and baking soda is one of the most powerful combinations for natural healing?

Lemons are rich in Vitamin C which helps neutralize free-radicals. Free-Radicals does damage to cells which makes them so dangerous. Lemons help to detoxify your body and maintain a healthy PH Balance. Limonoides in this citrus fruit are anti-carcinogenic and anti-microbial which helps fight or prevent cancer.

Baking Soda helps to normalize the body’s PH Balance by keeping the body in an alkaline state. This substance also helps fight infections and is used to treat many common health problems.

Usage and Positive Actions When Combined

Both of these substances work great on there own for natural healing, but when combined together, these two provide the human body with powerful healing effects. The combination of usage here is that it cleans the body internally and removes the dangerous toxins from the body.

Longevity

Women and men  aged 60 and above who engaged in active pursuits including gardening or walking demonstrated lower mortality rates and increased cardiovascular function. Consistent social interaction with close family and friends is key to a lengthy life span. Decreasing meat consumption increases life expectancy, making a strong case for adopting a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle, if you want to toast your centennial. Discovering that physical activity reduces mortality. Practice happiness! So beef up your baking abilities, cultivate clever crafts, or even clean!  Yes, cleaning is good for you!

AND I WILL GIVE YOU A NEW HEART!

Let’s face it … kids expose our hearts on a whole new level. And in His infinite wisdom, God our Maker uses the daily demands of motherhood to excavate the garbage in our souls.

Selfishness? It’s uprooted piece by painful piece each time we rise in the dark of night to feed a baby or comfort an anxious child. It’s unearthed every time we hold a bucket in front of a sick child, mop a muddy floor or tackle a tower of dirty laundry.

Perfectionism? It’s shaved sliver by sliver as we trade firm abs for stretch marks and spotless windows for smudgy handprints; as we stumble through grocery aisles with spit-up on our collars and wailing ones on our hips. It’s steadily shredded as we embrace our tweens’ goofy mannerisms and our toddlers’ peculiar fashion sense.

Pride? It’s uprooted every time we admit that we don’t have all the answers and we can’t do it all. It’s eradicated when we choose to listen rather than lecture, to compromise rather than control.

The process may be painful, but here’s the good news: When God empties us, He doesn’t leave us that
way. He offers to fill our purged places with something new. God’s excavation is always intended for

transformation.

Gods  love is poured out in the Bible chapter by chapter, verse by verse, so we might understand and accept that His intentions for us are as unique as a snowflake and as extravagant as an ocean sunset.

When I’m feeling unappreciated, unimportant or rejected, it helps to remember that God’s love speaks. I only need to listen.

Your days may sting with an unfulfilled longing, a perceived inadequacy, a devastating loss or a gaping heart wound. Might I offer a word of encouragement? Whether you’re a mother, grandmother, sister or daughter … single, married, widowed, divorced … whether your loved ones value and cherish you or wound you with broken behavior … no matter what, God loves you, knows you and cherishes you perfectly

 

WHAT IS THIS

Few chicken activities are as entertaining to humans as a dust bath. A dust bath is the equivalent of a shower. It is both functional and recreational. Here is how it goes; Dig, Snuggle into ditch, in this case my Chiminea, scoop with beak, toss into feathers, roll, repeat, shake.

REMEMBER

Our Airplane

Remember When 

When a quarter was a decent allowance?

You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?

War was a card game?
 
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?

Peashooters.

Candy Cigarettes.

78 RPM records.

Catching fire flies to occupy an entire evening?

When 'oly-oly-oxen-free' made perfect sense?

Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles?

 Looks like Alex and Micah are racing down the slide.

 Can you believe this!

 Dylan explaining to Brad something about the iPhone.

 We have a great backyard to play ball.

Dylan kicking a soccer ball.

 Micah is holding a football.He loves balls.

Look at that throw.

Saturday was a beautiful day! Sun shining and a lovely breeze. The family got together at our place for fun and good eats. What a great time we had! Is summer here to stay?

Blood Moon

 

How often and easily do we forget our value? How often do we believe lies of the world instead of words from our Creator about us? We set aside the truth that Jesus came and lived and died to prove to us we are of great value to the God of the heavens. Even Dove Soap sees our value. Our renowned Creator has given us inherent value. Yet, we call ugly what God calls a masterpiece.

How we minimize Jesus ultimate sacrifice when we insist that more must be done to redeem our messy lives. We make Satan's job so simple. He plants one tiny lie somewhere along the path, and we take it all the way to our  own self-destruction.

We all have them, those lies we believe. It's time we learn to uncover the lies, to name them, to call them out!

Education

Lets talk about schools. My children are in education. One in higher and the other two in primary. Common Core focuses heavily on busy work, writing and rewriting words and sentences and filling out repetitive packets. Creativity is dead, there's no encouragement for free thinking.

Forget about problem solving, group work, and thinking outside the box, these kids need to memorize the core curriculum first. It's as if creativity holds no merit. Don't we want to inspire kids to be leaders and world changers?

Another huge problem with Common Core is that its implementation seems to coincide with the elimination of recess. The demands of the curriculum are so high that there's no time for recess. Because of all the testing that goes  with Common Core, it wouldn't be fair to force schools to have recess. Which in my opinion is ridiculous.

Recess is when kids truly practice social skills. They take turns. They negotiate, They initiate friendships, and they learn to cope with disappointment. And lack of recess leads to other problems of course, such as problems in a nation where childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents.  

“Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.” (Luke 6:30, NIV)

Our first step is to become acutely aware that Jesus loves us right where we are. He loves us when we’re prickly. He loves us when we fail to think before we speak. As hard as it is to understand, we don’t always deserve a loving response, but our Heavenly Father gives it in generous measure.

Being loved by Jesus allows us to love others. We are free to give a measure of mercy, even as we work through conflict to resolve differences.

2. Treat them the way you want to be treated.

“Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:31, NIV)

When we treat others the way we want to be treated, we give up the need to control them or the situation. We stop looking for flaws, as we realize how deeply flawed we are as well. We hold back verbal karate chops, choosing words that heal rather than heat up the situation, because that’s exactly what we’d desire if the tables were turned.

3. Love unexpectedly.

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.” (Luke 6:32, NIV)

My pastor once asked this question: What if you made it to the end of your life having loved only those who loved you back?

Loving difficult people is a harder path of faith, but it’s also where His greatest work begins in our own heart. It’s where we begin to learn new lessons like, “getting them before they get you” doesn’t make us stronger. Or that living on the defense all the time leaves us little energy to battle what really matters.

Micah playing with his blocks. His new favorite toy!

You’ve surely heard of ‘zero waste’ by now, and if you haven’t, here it is. It is not the new trend of people walking around with designer water bottles. No, it’s the collective effort of ordinary people to face an issue we can no longer afford to ignore – growing landfills and growing economies. 

The idea is simple: Think before you buy and think before you throw.

Take the kitchen – the place that eats up most of your consuming and expenses.

A zero waste kitchen inevitably changes how you see your own eating and spending habits, pushing you to make healthier and more economical choices. Come to think of it – fresh, nutritious food usually comes without a package and it’s the sugary and fatty products that are all wrapped up in plastic. Buying single-portion products also happens to cost you a lot more annually than buying in bulk.

“Zero waste” is to not only be good to the environment, but to be good to yourself. And just like all good things, it’s tough and challenging at the start.

There are three layers to a zero waste kitchen and those are shopping, cooking and cleaning.

Zero Waste Shopping

Buy in bulk

A zero waste routine starts in the shop.

It’s fair to point out, however, that the zero waste kitchen is nearly impossible at a regular store. It’s a lot easier if you do your shopping at a place with an anti-packaging policy like bulk grocery shops.

While it’s true that should you decide to go zero waste ‘bulk’ will become your new best friend, we won’t pretend like it’s easy or convenient to always find a shop with that option.

Here are the shopping essentials for any store you go to:

Bring glass jars

These will come in handy when you need the clerk to weigh cheese, meat, fish, salads, olives, etc. Remember to weigh the jar before it’s full so that you can deduct it from the final price.

Bring reusable cotton bags

Use cotton bags (or pillow cases, for that matter) to carry fruit, bread and other dry items. Having trouble remembering to bring a bag? Keep them in convenient places like the front seat of your car, your purse or next to your front door. I keep mine in the trunk of my car.

How Does Bicarbonate Repair Kidneys

There are many benefits of consuming baking soda orally, because when it’s combined with dialysis it enhances its effectiveness, going directly to the blood stream. It prevents the kidneys from getting burned and also neutralizes the acids from our food, like sulphur, phosphorus and nitrogen by allowing them to go through without doing any damage to our kidneys.

British scientists found that when sodium bicarbonate is used in conjunction with an already established treatment for the kidney failure, it can slow the decline of kidney functions.

After a 2-year research, only 6.5% of all the participants involved needed dialysis. This was a great success, because about 33 percent of them were on dialysis.

How to use baking soda for repairing kidneys naturally?

Not every person can consume baking soda every day. It is usually consumed mixed with water and sometimes people with sensitive stomach cannot drink it. But it is not toxic and if you can, consume it every day to prevent kidney disease.

On day one, put half a teaspoon of baking soda under your tongue. Stir a teaspoon of baking soda and half a teaspoon of high-quality salt into 1.5 liters of water. Drink the solution during the next days.

Keep in mind that your lifestyle habits affect your kidneys. Be more careful about the food you eat.

Other uses of baking soda

– To treat allergies from poison ivy or sumac. A paste made from baking soda and water is used for this.
– The above combination is also an effective antacid.
– Removal of splinters.
– For household purposes like toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant, etc.

Caring

I once read there are two kinds of people in this world: those who walk into a room and say, “Here I am. Come talk to me. Come make me feel comfortable,” and those who walk into a room and say, “There you are! You look interesting to get to know. I’d like to learn more about you.”

Jesus was a master at being a “there you are” person. He saw people and reached out to them.

Sometimes I don’t see my husband. My heart screams, “Here I am. Look at me,” and I miss opportunities to bless and encourage him, or really see how tired or discouraged he is.

What about your children? Do you encourage them. Do they encourage you? We all need to feel loved and wanted. Lets try today to do a little more for someone else.

Are our children screen-obsessed?

Most of us will remember a childhood with hours of outdoor time. What did change over the years to make our children lose all connectivity with the natural world?

UK parents blame the lack of opportunity, unreliable British weather and lack of time as the main reasons why their children do not venture outside. However, the weather and time are not the only things to be blamed.

The rapid growth of technology seems to be the main culprit. While our children are definitely benefiting from coming in contact with technology from a very young age, playing has become increasingly digitized, and they've lost nearly all interest in outdoor play and nature.

Children often refuse to play outside without some form of technology being involved. They prefer to play virtual sports in front of a screen rather than going outside and doing the actual thing.r and healthier. A multitude of studies lend credence to this belief and also show that exercise and time spent outdoors improves academic performance and can help decrease risk of depression, cancer, diabetes, near-sightedness and many other health issues.

Real Food at Walmart? What to Buy!

I was pleasantly surprised with all the real food at Walmart, including organic options, that I found during a recent visit. Save money with my favorites!
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Easy Weeknight Spaghetti Bolognese

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New Real Food Snacks + Other Products (hitting shelves soon!)

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