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Sunday 28 December 2008

My Web Wanderings (weekly)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Sunday 21 December 2008

My Web Wanderings (weekly)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Saturday 20 December 2008

Lentils and Rice




I just typed up this recipe for some friends (one of them has anaemia because they had cut back significantly on meat due to costs) and I thought it would be good to share here. As you will see from the figures at the bottom, it offers significant savings compared with meat.


Ingredients

½ cup lentils

1 cup rice

1tbsp whey

1 ½ cups stock (approx 750ml)

1 small onion, chopped

1 small clove of garlic, crushed

1 tsp thyme

salt and pepper

The night before

  1. Place lentils, rice and whey in large jug and fill with water to double the volume.
  2. Leave to soak overnight.

The next day

  1. Strain and rinse lentils and rice.
  2. Place in pan with all the other ingredients and bring to the boil.
  3. Leave to simmer for 1-2 hours until all the stock has been absorbed.
  4. This makes approximately 2lbs/1kg.

Serving suggestions:

  • Can be served as is with vegetable casserole. We usually add some homemade salsa on the side to make it a little more tasty.
  • Can be used in any dish which calls for mince (ground meat).
  • Lentil burgers – mix with egg, tomato puree or salsa and seasonings (I usually use curry paste); place in heaps on greased baking tray; cover with tin foil and bake at GM4/180°C for 30-50 minutes.
  • Meat loaf.

Iron Content

Lentils and Rice contains approximately 1.3mg iron per 100g which is roughly similar to chicken.

Lamb contains about 1.7 mg/100g.

Turkey contains about 2.1 mg/100g.

Beef contains about 2.7 mg/100g.

Ham contains about 1.1 mg/100g.

Pork contains about 0.9 mg/100g.

Bacon contains about 0.1 mg/100g.

Cost (1kg is roughly 2lb)

Lentils and rice costs about £1/kg.

Pork mince is £4/kg.

Lamb mince is £4.60/kg.

Beef mince is £3.75/kg.

Tesco value mince is £2.42/kg.



Thursday 11 December 2008

A blogging rest

At the moment things seem to have come together so that I am not getting much done. None of them on their own would make a significant impact but in combination they do. (Please note I am not complaining: I realise God has a purpose in everything even if I do not know what it is.)

The first is that my husband is working different hours to usual so is out of the house for much longer and gets home later than our usual bedtime. This would not be so bad if Little Girl and I hadn't both come down ill at the same time (there's something going round our church).

In addition to this we have an ongoing problem with our freezer which means that I keep having to defrost our freezer when engineers come round to look at it. As a result I have had to run my freezer stocks down and don't currently have a stash of precooked meals in the freezer which I would usually make use of at a time like this. Fortunately one of my husband's customers who has lots of spare space in her freezer has kindly taken almost all of the frozen breastmilk which is a blessing as I don't know what we would do with it otherwise.

Anyway, since I'm struggling to keep up with everything and writing posts is just too mentally taxing at the moment, I thought it sensible to have a blogging rest until the New Year. I may do the odd little post and there will be the automated posts from Diigo but that will be it until January.


Sunday 7 December 2008

My Web Wanderings (weekly)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Thursday 4 December 2008

Seven Random Things

While catching up on posts in Bloglines, I realised that Crystal tagged me back in September and I haven't done it yet so here goes:

The Rules

1. Post the rules on your blog
2. Write 7 random things about yourself

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post

- I was born on a Saturday.
- I have double jointed thumbs.
- I am 1/8 Indian.
- Although I was not "homeschooled" my mum taught me to read, write, tell the time, add and subtract and do long multiplication and division.
- I have been a Christian for approximately ten years.
- When I was younger my ambition was to become the youngest person to swim the Channel.
- I made my wedding dress the fortnight before I got married.

In the spirit of randomness I'm going to tag the last seven people (excluding those who aren't blogging) to comment on my blog so that's:
1. Heather
2. Brandy
3. Casey
4. Mrs Flam
5. Suzanne
6. Linda
7. Our Family Is His


Tuesday 2 December 2008

Blog Awards

Since April, three four people have been kind enough to give me blog awards so it is about time I passed them on.

The first one came from Toni in April:

Excellent Blog Award

I'm passing it on to the following people:
1. Amy from Amy's Place
2. Amy from Blessed Motherhood
3. Buffy from Buffy's Salon
4. Jimena from Do Good and Communicate
5. Shannon from Homemaking in the REAL World
6. Jennifer from Joyful and Graceful Living
7. Rachel from Life in the South
8. Casey from The Beautiful Letdown
9. Heather from Wanting What You Have
10. Amanda from Wholly by Grace

Then more recently in September I got the BFF Gold Card from Heather:

BFF Gold Card

Here are the rules:

Rules: You may choose 5 awardees

Choose 4 faithful readers of your blog.

1 should be someone new or someone far away.

I've picked:

1. Toni from Amazing Grace

2. Heather from Wanting What You Have

3. Crystal from The Richey Family

4. Jennifer from Kruegers Journey to Simplicity

5. (new) New Life


Also in September, Amy gave me this award:

Brilliante Award


Which I am passing on to Elena at My Domestic Church.


And finally Our Family is His gave me this one:

Coolest Blog Award


The Rules:

1. Put the award up on your blog

2. Add a link to the person who awarded it to you

3. Nominate at least seven other blogs

4. Add links to these blogs on your blog

5. Leave a message for your nominee on their blog

My nominees are:

1. God's Dancing Child at Dancing Among Infinite Love, Yahweh's
2. Linda at Ivory Blossom
3. Stephanie at Sojourner in a Strange Land
4. Brandy at A Work in Progress
5. Milehimama at Mama Says
6. Kristin at Homemaker at Heart
7. Ace at Joy and Grace

Each blog has different reasons for being picked and I like them for many different reasons but if I figure if I try to include reasons for each one I'll never get this post finished. If you have time, do check some of them out.


Sunday 30 November 2008

My Web Wanderings (weekly)

  • tags: pro-life

    • The husband of the teenage girl who has become Britain's youngest mother of Siamese twins said she and the babies were doing well.
    • The husband of the teenage girl who has become Britain's youngest mother of Siamese twins said she and the babies were doing well.

      Laura Williams, 18, gave birth to conjoined girls, named Faith and Hope, by Caesarean section.

    • The couple, from Shrewsbury, had defied advice from doctors to abort the girls early in the pregnancy, which they described as the 'hardest decision of our lives.'

      Only about 5 per cent of conjoined twins survive the first 24 hours. But the girls' chances are thought to be good as they are joined at the front from navel to breastbone and do not share a heart.

  • tags: Reading

    • The optimal time to learn to read is when a child is one to three years old,
      because this is the time when their brains naturally do the most closely-
      related task: learning to under-stand speech and to talk themselves.
    • Nearly all children naturally learn to understand speech, and to speak themselves, between the ages of one and three years (although the foundations do indeed start from early infancy). This is an enormously complex task, yet you don’t really teach a child to talk. Instead, children learn to talk essentially on their own, so long as they are raised in an environment rich with speech and with social interaction. And children generally learn to talk with obvious delight, seemingly without effort and, often, with amazing speed. They don’t learn to talk through regimented lessons, instead they learn by listening to and interacting with their family and friends, by singing songs, and by playing games. Nearly every child does this successfully, in every culture around the world, and children have learned to talk like this throughout recorded history and, surely, before recorded history, too.
    • I believe that the reason some children read easily and early is because reading early makes learning to read easier.
      I know this sounds strange at first. Most people consider learning to read a fairly difficult task. Look at how many six-year-olds struggle with it! And since it is difficult for many six-year- olds, they assume that learning to read must be much more difficult, if not downright impossible, for a four-year-old—to say nothing of a two-year-old! But this superficially compelling logic is not valid for all tasks.
    • For example, nearly everyone now knows that learning a foreign language is much easier when you learn it at an earlier age. In fact, in general, the earlier the better. It is better to learn a foreign language early for the simple reason that early childhood is when our brains naturally are most receptive to language acquisition. It is a window of opportunity that, if missed, makes learning harder. You can learn a second language later, of course, but it is much more difficult to attain the fluency and accent that young children pick up with no trouble at all. Because of this, schools in this country have finally started to move foreign language instruction from the last few years of high school to much earlier in the curriculum, preferably all the way to kindergarten and even to preschool. Many people resisted this because, although everyone knows that children learn their own first language spontaneously and with ease in early childhood, they assumed that learning a second language would be somehow too confusing. The reality is, while there are occasional moments of confusion— moments when a child speaks a bit of Franglais or Spanglish—children generally deal with the additional complexity of a second language better when they are younger. Preschoolers, compared to older children and adults, are truly geniuses at learning languages.
    • The core insight of native reading is that this natural genius young children have for learning spoken languages can, if given the right environment, be easily extended to written language, too. If children learn in this more natural way, they not only read years earlier, they also gain an ease and familiarity with the written word that is achieved by older children, if at all, only after a much greater struggle. Native readers learn to read as a natural, effortless extension of learning to talk. And the best time to learn to read this way is the best time to learn to talk: before the age of three. Better yet, when children learn to read in this more natural way, not only do they learn easily, joyfully, and at an early age, but they then become truly native readers. They become deeply and effortlessly literate in a way that has lifelong benefits, just as native speakers of a language have an ease and fluency that can generally only be marveled at by those who learned too late.
    • Many people have heard of a case or two of a child who could fluently read by three. Indeed, throughout history there is ample evidence that children are certainly capable of reading that young. For example, by the age of three the great mathematician Gauss could not only read, he also knew enough mathematics to correct an error in his father’s payroll accounts! More recently, it has been reported that not only was the entertainment mogul Oprah Winfrey reading by the age of three, but that she was actually so fluent a reader that she started her career in public speaking at this same age, reading for her church congregation, to much applause and amazement.
    • fundamentally, speech and writing are just two different forms of the same language. The critical factor is to create the right environment where the natural miracle of language acquisition extends to the written word.
  • tags: Unit conversion

  • tags: Education, Montessori

  • tags: pro-life

  • tags: pro-life

  • tags: pro-life

    • Laura Williams, 18, from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, defied medical advice to abort the girls early in her pregnancy, and will now give birth to Faith and Hope by caesarean section this week.
    • When Aled and Laura Williams arrived at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital they were understandably excited. About to have the first scan, 12 weeks into the pregnancy, they paid the requisite £10 for three photographs and duly waited for their appointment with the nurse.

      Two hours later, the couple sat in the hospital car park, Aled's face a ghastly shade of grey and Laura, beside him, still in shock and unable to stop crying.

      It was only then that they realised they didn't even have a picture . . . and why the doctors, in their supposed wisdom, had thought it better that way. For Aled and Laura had just been told they were expecting conjoined, or Siamese, twins.

    • The couple felt the doctor was blunt to the point of callousness.

      Laura recalls: 'He said I'd be better to get rid of them, that I would probably lose them by 14 weeks and if they lasted any longer it could cause all sorts of complications and I could end up having to have a hysterectomy.'

      He then told the couple to go home and think about it while the nurse returned the money for their scan pictures.

    • Aled says: 'We're just hoping for the best. If God wants the babies to be in this world it will happen. If not, that's what it's got to be.
    • 'Most people of her age want to go out drinking and having fun but Laura's always said she wanted children. And at the end of the day they're still our children no matter what the outcome.'
    • Laura says: 'No one can say we haven't tried. I'm just glad we have proved that first doctor wrong.

      'I bet there are a lot of people out there who have been in our position and have felt they had no choice. Whatever happens to us, we've proved that's not the case.'

    • The couple do not have the first, 12-week scan as the doctor advised an abortion and thought it would be upsetting to have a picture to remember their babies by.
  • tags: pro-life


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Saturday 29 November 2008

Getting Used to a New Routine and Other Bits and Pieces

From yesterday until Christmas Eve, Hubby is working late shifts Monday to Saturday so we're having to get used to a new routine. Yesterday was rather disorganised but today has been better. I'm trying out a meat loaf recipe I found on New Life. I never made meatloaf before (I think maybe it's an American thing) so I'm looking forward to seeing how it will turn out. I did make a couple of modifications as I used lamb mince instead of beef mince and I'm putting salsa on the top instead of ketchup. The loaf is now sitting in the oven ready to cook and the salsa is made and ready to be added.

Meatloaf in oven Homemade salsa

Last year Little Girl was too young to particularly notice that Daddy was around at different times but yesterday after bath time she was calling, "Daddy" and trying to go downstairs to look for him. I'm sure we'll all get used to it soon though.

A while back I read about the "box of beans" toy at Lentils and Rice and had been trying to think of something suitable for Little Girl as I knew she would love it but beans would be too small at her age. Today I finally thought of pasta so she spent the half hour before lunch time playing with a cup of (dry) pasta and three plastic tubs:

Little Girl with 'Pasta in a Box'

One last thing I wanted to share before Autumn is over is our Autumn table decoration:

Photobucket

It's not really an English thing to do but I've been reading about Autumn decorations on lots of American blogs and thought it sounded like a nice idea to mark the seasons so this is my first time. The stuff is actually on a lazy susan which is nice as we can turn it to face different directions and it makes it easy to remove and put back when we need to. Hopefully on Monday morning we will go out foraging for holly so that I can make a Winter one.


Friday 28 November 2008

Sourdough Starter - alternative to buying yeast

I've been making bread now for over a year without having to buy yeast. According to Milehimama, it costs about 9 cents for two loaves. I usually make three loaves a week so over a year that would cost about $7. In England, the same quantity of yeast would cost me 17p for two loaves which would work out at around £13.

Instead of buying yeast, I use sourdough starter which makes use of naturally occurring yeasts.

It is very simple to make: Place a cup each of wholemeal flour and water in a large bowl (or jug), stir, cover with a tea towel and leave to stand overnight. Each day for around a week, add equal amounts of flour and water, stir, cover and leave overnight again. (I think my book suggested one or two cups a day but I only did half cups as I didn't want too much starter.) After a while it will start to get frothy and smell a little "beery". It will hopefully look something like this:



After a week to ten days, if your starter has become frothy then it is ready to use.

To make a 2lb loaf, I use two cups of starter, half a cup of water, a pinch of salt and around 1lb flour. I mix the first three ingredients together before adding flour. I keep adding flour until the dough seems about right. How much flour you need will depend on your starter so if you need a lot of flour and your loaf is too big for the pan, reduce (or even cut out) the additional water. If you find your loaf is on the small side then add extra water. After putting into tins and leaving to rise overnight, I bake the bread at GM4 for 1 to 1 1/4 hours before turning out to cool.

Once you have used your sourdough starter, you no longer need to keep it at room temperature. (You can if you want but if so, you must remember to stir it every day otherwise it will go mouldy.) I usually transfer it into a new container and top it up with 1-2 cups each of flour and water before putting it in the fridge. Either on the morning of the day I want to use it or the night before I get it out and add more flour and water to help bet it going again and to ensure there is enough of it for the next use. You may be able to use it straight out of the fridge but I find I get leaden loaves if I do this. I keep my starter in a jug with a plate over the top. This allows it to "breathe" and also enables me to see exactly how much of it I have.

Crazy Sheep

I was looking through our photos on the computer from the last year when I happened upon this video clip which I'd forgotten about. We were on holiday and decided to go for a drive while Little Girl was sleeping to look for snow. (Hubby loves snow and Little Girl slept better in the car than the holiday cottage so it made sense to combine them.) There we were drining through snowy hills when we came upon some stampeding sheep:





Wednesday 26 November 2008

Our Annual Newsletter 2008

Today Hubby had a day off work so we spent the afternoon making our annual newsletter. Usually we print them off ourselves but we got a deal on Postcards at Vistaprint which was worthwhile in terms of both time and cost compared to doing it ourselves and they will also be better quality.

I thought it would be nice to share so here is the (anonymised) back of the card.


On the other side we have the same logo in the corner but larger and a picture of the three of us plus a greeting.

Tuesday 25 November 2008

I am a "Mainline to Conservative" Christian

I found this quiz on Stephanie's blog. For once the top result was actually what I would have expected...

1. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (100%)
2. Seventh Day Adventist (83%)
3. Eastern Orthodox (77%)
4. Roman Catholic (77%)
5. Orthodox Judaism (69%)
6. Orthodox Quaker (69%)
7. Islam (67%)
8. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (65%)
9. Jehovah's Witness (65%)
10. Baha'i Faith (62%)
11. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (60%)
12. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (46%)
13. Jainism (40%)
14. Liberal Quakers (39%)
15. Sikhism (39%)
16. Hinduism (37%)
17. Reform Judaism (34%)
18. Mahayana Buddhism (32%)
19. Theravada Buddhism (32%)
20. Nontheist (31%)
21. New Thought (30%)
22. Unitarian Universalism (28%)
23. Scientology (23%)
24. Neo-Pagan (16%)
25. New Age (15%)
26. Taoism (13%)
27. Secular Humanism (10%)



Monday 24 November 2008

Snow!

This weekend we had snow on both Saturday and Sunday morning! It melted by the afternoon but it is quite unusual for it even to lie at this time of year and it is only the second lot of snow we have had since Little Girl was born.

Little Girl in the snow

Little Girl in the snow 2

On Friday we decided quite last minute to go to a table top sale on Saturday morning. We'd been thinking of doing a car boot sale but didn't fancy the cold so it seemed ideal. Unfortunately hardly anyone came so we only just sold enough to cover our £5 table fee and the organisers made a loss but it wasn't a complete waste of a morning. It was good practice and we've decided that maybe we should wait till the summer and then do a car boot sale. We also got a lovely dog book for Little Girl for 75p (she loves dogs - "woof" was her first word) and the people on one of the stalls gave her a toy vacuum cleaner which they didn't want to cart home again which she proceeded to use to "vacuum" all around the hall and under everyone's tables.



Sunday 23 November 2008

My Web Wanderings (weekly)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Wednesday 12 November 2008

Toddler Towels

Works For Me Wednesday


Since Little Girl is now into gardening, painting and "helping" to empty the potty, toddler handwashing is a frequent occurence in our house.

Photobucket Photobucket


Unfortunately as none of our towels are hung at toddler level (we rent so can't just put a towel rail in a better position) I was having to hold her up in the air at the same time as trying to help her dry her hands.

Suddenly I had a brainwave: Flannels! I have a large stash of cheap flannels from Ikea so I hung one up in the bathroom from the toilet roll holder we don't use and one in the kitchen from one of the cupboard door knobs.

Photobucket Photobucket

If you didn't happen to have anything at just the right height then hooks on rubber suckers would work too. (I don't know what the American for "rubber sucker" is so I've linked to an example.)

Now I just need to find a solution for the actual handwashing as apparently stools are not a good idea!

Tuesday 11 November 2008

A Book Meme

Hmm this one's been waiting in my cyber "to do" pile for over a month now...

I have to grab the closest book to me, turn to page 56 and type out a few lines.

The nearest book to me is "Shepherding a Child's Heart" by Tedd Tripp. It's currently on the computer desk because I am typing up notes on it as I read it.

From page 56:
"Teaching your children to live for the glory of God must be your overarching objective. You must teach your children that for them, as for all mankind, life is found in knowing and serving the true and living God. The only worthy goal for life is to glorify God and enjoy him forever."

I should tag people but I know a lot of people have done this tag already and I don't want to over tag people so if you're reading this and you want to do it, go ahead and leave a comment with a link.

Lest we forget

Today is Remembrance Day here in the UK.

I always have difficulties with knowing how to view it because my father was very against it. Not against remembering those who gave their lives but against the glorification of war.

War is a terrible thing. Sometimes it is necessary but that does not take away from the horror of it.

In the Battle of the Somme alone more than a million men died but there was little effect on the positions of either side.

Neither of my Grandfathers fought in the Second World War. My grandad had a cousin who did though. Growing up they had been good friends. He had qualified as an accountant but could not find work so signed up to the RAF. He died the day before his wedding day.

Most of us in the West have little personal experience of war or its effects. We do not realise the horrors men went through to give us our freedom. I have have never met anyone who fought in the war who was prepared to talk about it - I am sure there is a reason for this.

So, I suggest that on this day, we should give thanks to God for those men who suffered the horrors of war that we may not and for the protection he has given us.

Friday 7 November 2008

PIF winners

The winners of the PIF give away are...

Jennifer, Toni and Amy.

Congratulations.

If you each leave me a private comment with your e-mail address, I'll e-mail you to get your postal addresses.


Wednesday 5 November 2008

Pay It Forward Give Away

N.B. This is a "sticky" until 5th November so scroll down for new posts.

Heather had a Pay It Forward Give Away last month (I can't believe it's a whole month ago!) and I was one of the winners:

Photobucket

It was so lovely to receive a nice box in amongst all the sorting of boxes I was (and still am!) doing. Anyway, it's time for me to pass it on so if you would like to enter, please leave a comment by 5th November. Three people chosen at random will get a present in the post from me and then they in turn pay it forward by doing the same thing.

Sunday 2 November 2008

My Web Wanderings (weekly)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Friday 31 October 2008

Thoughts on Halloween


Should Christians take part in Halloween celebrations?

"When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God. For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do."


Verses such as this make my husband and me feel that is probably not a good idea to celebrate Halloween. We believe that if we are in any doubt as to whether something is right or not, it is best to err on the side of caution and not do it than to take part in something we feel might be sinful.

(I am not condemning those who do choose to celebrate Halloween - after all, let he who is without sin cast the first stone - but it is good to discuss why we do things as it helps us to consider whether our actions are right regardless of which "side" of the issue we are on.)

Fortunately for us, our church does not try to do anything for Halloween and our daughter is not in school so there is no pressure (other than trick or treaters calling) for us to take part in it however it is still important to consider such issues and be clear about them in our minds even if it is not a pressing practical concern.

Milehimama wrote a very good post about why her family do not celebrate Halloween and Jennifer did a post about alternatives to the usual Halloween activities.

Sunday 26 October 2008

My Web Wanderings (weekly)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Monday 20 October 2008

My Web Wanderings (weekly)

  • tags: pro-life

    • The
      center of the American abortion industry is the state of Kansas.  This comes
      as a surprise to many, since Kansans tend to be simple, down-to-earth, conservative
      people—the kind that one would least expect to find inside the walls of an
      abortion clinic.


      Of
      all the states in this country, why Kansas?  What makes Kansas special when
      it comes to abortion?  The answer is simple: Kansas is home to George
      Tiller
      , the most prolific late-term abortionist in the entire western
      world.  


      Since
      1973, George Tiller—or "Dr. Tiller", as he likes to call himself—has
      performed thousands upon thousands of late-term abortions.  He is renowned
      among the pro-choice community for his impeccable record of safety: unlike
      some abortionists, he has yet to kill a woman in the process of terminating
      a pregnancy.  His apparent skill as an abortion practitioner has won
      him numerous awards, including the National Abortion Federation's highest
      honor, the Christopher Tietze Humanitarian Award.

    • Among
      pro-life advocates, he is famous for the cruelty with which he treats the
      unborn.  No case illustrates the extent of this cruelty better than the tragedy
      of Baby
      Sarah Brown
      , one of his many victims.  In 1993, a pregnant teenager and
      her parents traveled 900 miles to Tiller's office in Kansas to receive an
      elective late-term abortion.  





      Tiller began the abortion by injecting a poisonous
      syringe through the pregnant teenager's uterus and into the upper left side
      of the unborn baby's face.  He then instructed the teenager to return the
      next day for the completion of the abortion.  




      To everyone's dismay, the baby did not die
      during the intervening hours.  After the teenager began to complain of serious
      abdominal pains, her parents rushed her to a local hospital where the baby
      was eventually born—alive.  The delivery room staff felt that life-support
      would be futile, so they wrapped the baby in a bassinet without attendance.  The teenager and her parents quickly left the scene.


      Even without medical care, the baby remained
      alive.  After many hours had passed, the delivery room staff decided to
      give her treatment.  Miraculously, she managed to survive through the entire
      ordeal.  "Sarah", as her adoptive parents later named her, lived
      until the age of 5, when she succumbed to the developmental harm done to
      her body during the abortion.  The KCl solution that had been injected into
      the side of her face had left her permanently blind and brain damaged.





      Prior
      to the abortion, Sarah was a perfectly normal baby.  The relevant medical records indicate
      that she had no disabilities or deformities.  If Tiller hadn't attempted to
      poison her, she would be a healthy 9 year old girl with an entire life ahead
      of her.  Instead, she is in a grave.

    • In
      the middle of 1998, the state of Kansas instituted a mandatory reporting policy
      that required Tiller to submit information about the abortions that he performs.  The Kansas Department of Health and Environmental Statistics has recently
      published this information: http://www.kdhe.state.ks.us/hci/absumm.html.  


      The
      information sends a clear message: the majority of late-term abortions are
      purely elective.  They typically involve healthy babies and healthy mothers.  If you are inclined to disagree, or if you have a hard time believing that
      mainstream abortion practitioners would be willing to kill babies that are
      months from being born, then I ask that you continue reading.  You will be
      amazed—and hopefully outraged—when you see the data for yourself.  

    • The
      "health" exceptions built into these statutes make them absolutely
      meaningless.  They haven't restricted a single late-term abortion.  All that
      Tiller has to do to keep his atrocities within the boundaries set by the Kansas
      Legislature is find one pro-choice psychologist in the United States willing
      to claim that late-term abortion is necessary to preserve a woman's mental
      health.  If he can do that, he can do whatever he wants.  It certainly doesn't
      seem like a very daunting task, does it?  


      Since
      the concept of "health"—especially the concept of "mental health"—has
      no established legal meaning, virtually every late-term abortion that Tiller
      performs, no matter how abusive, remains legally invincible.  If he wanted
      to, he could exact a partial birth abortion on a healthy, 40 week old infant.  He would get off scot-free.  Sadly enough, prosecutors would be powerless to
      convict him of wrongdoing.  As long as he manages to find a mental health professional
      willing to vouch for his actions, there isn't really any basis for conviction.  

    • Abortion
      advocates often deflect negative attention by insisting that late-term abortions
      are in the best interests of the babies that are aborted.  They claim that
      if the babies are not "terminated", they will live lives scarred
      by illness.  The truth is that the vast majority of the babies condemned to
      death by late-term abortion are healthy and capable of living meaningful lives.  


      There
      also exists a common misconception that late-term abortions are limited to
      medical emergencies.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  From 1998 until
      2000, only one out of the 1168 abortions that Tiller performed after viability
      was done during a medical emergency.  Upwards of 97% of his late-term patients
      weren't even from Kansas—they flew in from other states to have abortions
      that they had scheduled in advance.  

    • It
      is inconceivable that the poisoning of a viable unborn baby before an induction
      could be necessary to avert physical health damage to a pregnant woman.  The
      death of a baby doesn't cure any physical illnesses.  What, then, are the "health"
      problems that are leading to these abortions?  Again, the answer lies in the
      nebulous concept of mental health—a loophole that has been tailor made to
      legalize elective abortion throughout the nine months of a pregnancy.  The
      argument put forth by the abortion industry is that unwanted babies, if they
      are allowed to live, pose a threat to the psychological well-being of the
      mothers who will have to raise them.  Consequently, they must die.  


      Let
      there be no confusion: the motivation behind these abortions is not the termination
      of an unwanted pregnancy.  Once pregnancy has reached viability, doctors can
      perform abortion without engaging in an act of killing.  The motivation behind
      these abortions is the destruction of an unwanted fetus, the elimination of
      an unwanted child.  Tiller himself seems willing to concede the point.  From
      his own mouth, "it is unplanned and unwanted motherhood that shipwrecks
      women's lives, not unplanned pregnancy."  (George R. Tiller, Victory Rally
      and Declaration of Reproductive Independence, Wichita, Kansas, July 13, 2001
      <http://www.prochoice.org/Voices/Providers/Tiller.htm>)

    • From
      January of 1999 to December 1999, Tiller performed 574 abortions after 22
      weeks.  302 of these abortions were performed on viable babies.  All of the
      abortions were done for "health" reasons; not one was done to preserve
      the life of the mother.  


      During
      the same period, Tiller performed 182 abortions with the PBA method.  Every
      single one of these abortions was performed after viability.  As in the previous
      year, he was asked to indicate, for each patient , whether the procedure was
      done to protect the patient's physical health or the patient's mental health.  His answer in every case was mental health.  

    • From
      January of 2001 to December 2001, Tiller performed 635 abortions after 22
      weeks.  395 of these abortions were done on viable babies.  As usual, all of
      the abortions were done for "health" reasons.  Not one was done to
      preserve the life of the mother.  
    • When
      considering the statistics on post-viability abortion, it is important to
      remember that they deal with "viability" as it is defined by an
      abortionist who is definitely no friend of unborn children.  George Tiller
      is well-known for putting the unborn at a disadvantage when making determinations
      about their chances of survival outside the womb.  His own former employee
      has testified to his deceptive tactics:




      "Tiller [would determine
      the baby’s] BPD (biparietal diameter), which is a measurement of the babies
      head.  Tiller gave me this simple explanation of what a BPD is: at this certain
      angle, the baby’s head is roughly egg shaped.  The ordinary method of measurement
      is to go from the top of the egg to the bottom of the egg.  That is the widest
      point of the angle.  But Tiller said he goes from side to side on the egg and
      gets a much narrower measurement.  He does not keep the photos in the medical
      records and he disposes of the babies, so there is no way to go back and see
      what he has done."



      She
      was viciously attacked by the abortion industry, but, as the statistics verify,
      her statements were very close to the truth:


      "I
      was there for about seven months, which is a fairly representative amount
      of time. In over 95% of these babies, perhaps more, there was nothing wrong
      at all. Nothing.  And these were third trimester abortions."  

    • He is killing babies that his
      clients—many of them teenagers—have felt move in their wombs for months.  What
      could be worse for a teenager's "mental health" than to spend the
      rest of her life with the after thought that she chose to have her baby killed
      in a grisly late-term abortion?  How could a twisted experience like that help
      the mental outlook of a teenager?  

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Monday 13 October 2008

My Web Wanderings (weekly)

  • tags: Biblical womanhood

    • I do not know Sarah Palin, I do not know her relationship with The LORD. I can only observe how she lives her life and compare it to what the Bible has to say about what we Mothers and Wives are supposed to be doing IF we are serving the Lord. Mrs. Palin does claim to be a Christian, therefore her behavior and life choices are supposed to come under scrutiny. Even more so if she is doing these things in such a public fashion. I mean, is she a role model for Christian young women or not? Think carefully before you answer this. Are you going by God's standards...or the world's? Young Christian ladies are waiting on us, waiting to see if we really mean what we say about Titus 2, if we are willing to live it, no matter the cost.
    • I am questioning the Christians backing her. Not the ones who feel that they have to vote for her ticket in spite of her, but the ones that are saying she is "Esther" or "Deborah" (funny, no one mentions Jezebel). Mrs. Palin is an admitted "Christian" feminist and, in my humble opinion, being a Christian feminist is an oxymoron. Your are either one of them or the other, you CAN'T be both.
    • Many Christians are under the very mistaken impression that bad rulers come to power when God is out maneuvered somehow. No, many times (again, read the Bible) God allows Pagan rulers to be over his people as a punishment, as an indictment against them. So just because God ALLOWS it, doesn't mean it is a blessing. I would think anyone who has been a parent would get that concept. Ever heard of tough love?
    • Being a Christian isn't supposed to be easy and you can't change the rules whenever you want, fit them to whatever situation YOU want. This is why a lost and dying world is pointing at Christians and ridiculing us, because we claim to hold ourselves to a standard and serve our God, yet the second it becomes inconvenient...we start arguing semantics and looking for loopholes. How can you call anyone ELSE to holiness, to set themselves apart and accept Christ's sacrifice when you do not hold fast to those things He has called you to do in obedience to him to be a witness to the unsaved? This is how God's name and His word is blasphemed among the unsaved...by us!
      • And onto the myths...


        1. Esther won a beauty pageant. Ah, no, she was commanded to get in line to be tried out by the king with a bunch of other virgins.


        2. Esther was co-ruler. Really, than how come the woman who had previously held her position could be removed without so much as a by your leave? Esther had no say in her coming into the kingdom (as far as we can tell) and she became the King's WIFE, not his co-ruler.Verse 2:17 specifically illustrates that the King loved her, chose her to be his wife. He did not hold an interview for the best candidate for a co-ruler.


        3. Esther didn't have to obey anyone. Again, really? Read verse 2:20, she was still obeying Mordecai like when she was under him as a daughter. A QUEEN had no problem submitting to both her husband and her father figure.
    • Sarah Palin is just like Esther.."for such a time as this." I have an idea for people who like to grab "phrases" out of the Bible and then apply them to everything and anything, read the whole BOOK! Verse 4:14 is the one that I keep hearing chanted in regards to Sarah Palin. That she has come to us from God for "such a time as this", really, where is the comparison? The King fell in love with Esther and he had favor for her to the point where he married her. This was obviously God's design. She was in the KING's HEART and therefore when no one else would sway him, no one else could have his ear, no one else could dare approach him...his WIFE could. Only if he was in LOVE with and married to a woman who was of the people he had just signed a death warrant for could his heart be turned to protect her. "For such a time as this " was acknowledging the provision and providence of God AND, if you notice, her uncle tells her if she does not intercede for them that the Lord will still make a way for them. She is not the only way, she is not necessary to the Lord rescuing his people. She is a WAY that has been provided, but the rescuing is through HIM. Are these Christians suggesting that The Lord would "provide" a way to win an election (of a corrupt government) by asking a Christian wife and mother to go AGAINST his commands?
  • tags: Breastfeeding

    • ‘There can be no food more locally produced, more sustainable or more environmentally friendly than a mother’s breastmilk, the only food required by an infant for the fi rst six months of life. It is a naturally renewable resource, which requires no packaging or transport, results in no wastage and is free. Breastfeeding can also help reduce family poverty, which is a major cause of malnutrition.’

Friday 10 October 2008

Boxes and Lack of Sleep...

... are the two reasons why I haven't posted in a while.

I've no idea why but regardless of when I go to bed I am waking up between five and six o'clock every morning (I normally get up just before seven). Little Girl has also been waking but this has not been disturbing me as I've already been awake. It is really strange as the mornings are getting darker at the moment so I would have thought we would be less likely to wake up early rather than more likely.

I've also been very busy sorting out these:

Boxes of stuff
It was actually more than that as I later found a couple more boxes I'd forgotten because they were being used as a bedside table for Hubby.

I had all of my school work, Christmas and birthday cards and letters from age eleven onwards plus loads of other random things I had decided to keep over the years. I hauled everything out of Little Girl's room (which is where it is stored) and have managed to cut it down by about half:

resultant pile of boxes to keep

In order to speed the sorting process and get the boxes put away as quickly as possible I have just been sorting everything into "keep" or "not keep". I'm now sorting through a mountain of stuff sorting it into either rubbish, recycling, scrap paper, other useful stuff, and stuff to sell or give away.

not keep stuff to sort
(This is only a sample of the "not keep" stuff.)

This process is then doubled because Hubby had a pretty similar amount of stuff to sort through (we both come from families of hoarders) except that his letters and cards go back to preschool and his family are rather prolific letter writers so he has mountains of them.

Needless to say, we are planning to teach Little Girl how to be discerning about what she keeps so that she doesn't end up having to do the same in twenty of thirty years time.

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