You've Been Processed...We've ALL Been Processed

If you've ever watched the video, "Food, Inc..," you know a little bit about what's behind industrial agriculture's love affair with government subsidized corn. Those of you who've seen this movie might think you know more than a little bit. But "Food, Inc.." is just the introduction to the repulsive world of processed food and the money that motivates this "kingdom." It's a good introduction, nonetheless.

An even more thorough treatise of the world of subsidized corn and soybeans can be found by reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma," by Michael Pollen. I highly recommend this fascinating book!

While you're waiting for your trip to the library to get it, watch this little clip from "Processed People." If you don't believe that you are being used by a money-grubbing "system" that wants your money for the rest of your life and steals your life from you in the process, well, I can't help you.




God created food for us to eat. Precious little of what is in your local supermarket bears any resemblance to real food. Know what you're eating. Seek out locally grown, fresh, real food. Remember, every time you pass a grocery store item across the scanner and it makes that little "beep," that's a vote. That's YOUR VOTE for the kind of food you want sold in your community. Vote wisely.





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My Journey to Honest Food: Danger in Industrially-Raised Meats

For several years now, I have known something about meat raised in our modern "industrial agriculture" system. Because of what I know, I no longer eat this kind of meat. Except on rare occasion, I only eat organically-raised meats, and the vast majority of the beef that I eat has eaten nothing but grass its whole life (chickens eat lots of stuff besides grass, of course).

What is it that I know? Here's a starter video that will share some of the scariest fallout of modern industrial agriculture:


God created food for us to eat. Precious little of what is in your local supermarket bears any resemblance to real food. Know what you're eating. Seek out locally grown, fresh, real food. Remember, every time you pass a grocery store item across the scanner and it makes that little "beep," that's a vote. That's YOUR VOTE for the kind of food you want sold in your community. Vote wisely.

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'Twas the Night After Christmas...

It's been an incredibly busy, non-stop-kind-of-week, but wonderful. We've had plenty of extended-family time, and now the last of the Christmas gatherings are over and my house is warm and quiet...with the exception of the Bears vs. Packers football game on TV! We have 2 Packer-Backers and 2 Bears Fans in our home. So at least we're even!

My sweet husband replaced our broken Keurig coffee maker with a new and improved model! And my darling sons gave me gift cards to Caribou and Jamba Juice...my two favorite "to go" places...along with sweet cards thanking me for helping them to achieve so much in their lives. I was so touched, and blessed by their words, affirming the years and years of work that has gone into parenting and homeschooling them. Bryan will be leaving home in mid-March, and Nathan will be off to college in August. The remaining months of my career as a homeschool mom will, no doubt, fly by at lightening speed.

Our day began with breakfast and then a beautiful church service, with Scriptures and traditional caroles/hymns of Christmas. We arrived home around noon, ate lunch, and then opened gifts. We liked doing things in that order!

Soon we will be off to visit our friends in North Carolina, and Bryan will take time out of that trip to go to Virginia and Polyface Farm for the second-half of his "application" for a summer internship there. It is in God's hands, and we are grateful that He is in control!

I hope you've had a joyous Christmas, and will continue to rejoice over this most marvelous gift from God!




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Norweigan Girls' Choir ~ Personent Hodie

Merry Christmas Eve!

Personent Hodie. One of my favorite Christmas carols, first published in 1582, but possibly penned as early as 1360! Enjoy this rendition by the Norweigan Girls' Choir in Oslo, the video part of Rick Steve's European Christmas:

Lyrics (Latin/English):

Personent hodie
voces puerulae,
laudantes iucunde
qui nobis est natus,
summo Deo datus,
et de virgineo ventre procreatus.
On this day earth shall ring
with the song children sing
to the Lord, Christ our King,
born on earth to save us;
him the Father gave us.
Refrain:
Id-e-o-o-o, id-e-o-o-o,
Id-e-o gloria in excelsis Deo!

In mundo nascitur,
pannis involvitur
praesepi ponitur
stabulo brutorum,
rector supernorum.
perdidit spolia princeps infernorum.

His the doom, ours the mirth;
when he came down to earth,
Bethlehem saw his birth;
ox and ass beside him
from the cold would hide him.
(Refrain)

Magi tres venerunt,
munera offerunt,
parvulum inquirunt,
stellulam sequendo,
ipsum adorando,
aurum, thus, et myrrham ei offerendo.

God's bright star, o'er his head,
Wise Men three to him led;
kneel they low by his bed,
lay their gifts before him,
praise him and adore him.
(Refrain)

Omnes clericuli,
pariter pueri,
cantent ut angeli:
advenisti mundo,
laudes tibi fundo.
ideo gloria in excelsis Deo.

On this day angels sing;
with their song earth shall ring,
praising Christ, heaven's King,
born on earth to save us;
peace and love he gave us.
(Refrain)

The first page of Personent hodie in the original version of the Piae Cantiones.
Personent hodie is a Christmas carol originally published in the 1582 Finnish song book Piae Cantiones, a volume of 74 Medieval songs with Latin texts collected by Jaakko Suomalainen, a Swedish Lutheran cleric, and published by T.P. Rutha. The song book had its origins in the libraries of cathedral song schools, whose repertory had strong links with medieval Prague, where clerical students from Finland and Sweden had studied for generations.  A melody found in a 1360 manuscript from the nearby Bavarian city of Moosburg in Germany is highly similar, and it is from this manuscript that the song is usually dated. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personent_hodie )

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Beautiful Christmas, Simple and Traditional

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas! 

I want to share one of my favorite Christmas videos, "Rick Steve’s Christmas in Europe." These two brief clips share my favorite part of the show (each is about 5-1/2 minutes long). I love the peacefulness, the simplicity, and the picture of the family generations coming together, and sharing the Scripture reading of the birth of Christ.  I hope you enjoy it, too!

Rick Steve’s Christmas in Europe ~ Part 9

Rick Steve’s Christmas in Europe ~ Part 10

May God bless you and your families as you focus on the beauty of God’s plan for His children,
and all that "Emmanuel" means to you.

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Just a Little Silliness...

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A Sweet Young Lady...

I've just recently discovered that a sweet young lady-friend of mine has a blog! I always enjoy the blogs of Christian young ladies, and this one is bringing me much reading pleasure today, so I thought I'd share it with you! "Phia" is in the middle of deciphering the seemingly mysterious "Twelve Days of Christmas" for us. Here is the opening of her first post in this series:

"It has always been a puzzlement to me as to why 'My True Love' was so inconsiderately generous ... I mean where is one to store 23 fowls (not including 8 cows!), and 50 surplus people?? That isn't even taking into account that one is responsible to feed them all ...

*dink-dink*

It wasn't until yesterday evening that my curiosity was satiated, when Mum read to us from a book titled, The Real 12 Days of Christmas

{by Helen Haidle}.

It begins by explaining that in England, sometime during the sixteenth century, any religion, other than the proclaimed state religion, was forbidden. Thus, over the next three centuries, the individuals who refused to adhere to this law developed creative ways to teach the children their beliefs."

Visit her blog, Simple Delights, to continue reading (this series begins with post date 12/13/11). I think she's a great writer, and I know...I KNOW...that she loves and serves Christ with all her heart! She's a blessing to me, and she's got some great healthy-raw-food-cooking talent to boot.    I hope you enjoy her writing as I do!




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My Journey to Honest Food: Meet Trina!

I came across this on another blog, and decided to order it. I'm so happy that I did! Since I'm working my way into and through the "Nourishing Traditions" methods of cooking and other "simple foods" books, I liked how Trina started the same way, and has shared how she's worked this more time-consuming but oh-so-worth-it-way-of-cooking into her busy life.




Learn more at Trina's blog.


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Winding Down...

Aaaaaahhh...Monday morning. Finally!

Not words I would typically speak, especially coupled with a post title of "Winding Down." But today is a nice Monday morning for me. It's the Monday morning after a weekend of hosting. We had a Ladies' Christmas Tea on Friday, and then our monthly all-church fellowship gathering yesterday following services. It's LOTS of fun! We clean up (a team effort) pretty quickly on Sunday night, after the guests have gone home and before bed, so there's no mess to wake up to. 

So it's nice to wake up Monday morning, pour a cup of coffee, and just listen to the quiet for a while. I am done "hosting" now for the season, other than a small family dinner on Christmas Day, not much more than any other Sunday. I am officially "winding down." It's a lovely feeling!

I got up today at 6:30am to give Bryan a good breakfast and a loving send-off to the college this morning. It is the first day of "Finals Week" there, and he is taking three exams today. It is his biggest exam day of the week. He has tests tomorrow and Wednesday, too; then he'll work (he's a student assistant for one of his professors) on Thursday (no tests to take, just helping to grade tests this time), and on Friday he has a luncheon and evaluation time for his role as a Student Ambassador at the college. Then he'll be on vacation! So we figure that by Wednesday, when the last exam question is answered, he'll be "winding down."

Nathan has a normal school week with the exception of a final exam on Wednesday for the Calculus course he takes at the college. He also takes a computer programming course there, but I believe they did a "final project" this last week, rather than an exam, so I think that's done. Like Bryan, after the exam on Wednesday, he will be "winding down."

The only thing that isn't yet winding down is the knife sharpening business. That old phone is still ringing (it just rang now, in fact!) so I'll need to rouse myself to start returning the weekend's worth of email and phone inquiries, and set up appointments for customers. Thanksgiving was really busy, with everyone cooking so much, but we seem to be pretty steady even now with calls. That's a blessing for Bryan's future farm...cuz it's going to take a lot of cash to get that started!

I wish you peace and joy this Monday morning, my friends!




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Tea Talk with Ruth...12/8/11

Click the graphic above to join me and our lovely hostess, Ruth,
for Tea Talk each Thursday!

I'm having...Caribou Blend coffee in my white everyday mug.

I'm feeling... Pressed for time. Asking God for help to just pace myself evenly with no wasted minutes the next 5 hours...I have a gathering here tomorrow but I leave the house at 2pm today, and won't be back until almost midnight, so I have to finish everything now.

On my mind... Mary and Martha. Though Martha's tasks were a reality, Jesus said that Mary chose the better thing to focus on...Him. I have many tasks, but my goal is warm and cozy fellowship for my guests, not "entertaining" my guests. There is a vast difference, and the tasks involved with hosting events -- especially in a time crunch like the one I'm in -- can cause a hostess to lose sight of the goal: that the name of Jesus would be lifted up, and that God would be pleased.

My theme verse for December:

 “'Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.' 

And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.'” (Luke 2:10-14)

My silly dog, who always likes to come to Tea Talk.

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Friday (on Sunday!) FarmGirls@Heart...The Tree Farm (Part 2 of 2)

"There is rhythm to being a farmgirl. It is the rhythm of working hard when there is work to be done. It is the rhythm of finding joy in the "doing" of the work. It is also the rhythm of slowing down to enjoy each moment." 

~Rene Groom

To join the Fun of Friday FarmGirls@Heart, please include a link to my blog in your post, or grab one of my FFG buttons for your posts and to place in your sidebar! You can grab code HERE.

I'm a couple of days late posting this...my apologies! Fellowshipping with dear friends as we share a precious family tradition...old to us, one-year-new to them :-)


This was our trip, the day after Thanksgiving, taken with Christine and her family up north into Wisconsin to visit our favorite Christmas tree farm, CaPaul's. We each found just the right tree, took care of business, then headed back home, stopping at the "Mouse House" for goodies and Cracker Barrel in Janesville for dinner.

Meanwhile, back on the "ranch" this past week...

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Tea Talk with Ruth...12/1/11

(First of two posts today)

Click the graphic above to join me and our lovely hostess, Ruth,
for Tea Talk each Thursday!

I'm having...Green Mountain's Island Coconut coffee in one of my new, everyday mugs.
I'm feeling... Like I'm well on my way to a finish-line in terms of a heavy, burdensome administrative load this week.
On my mind... Lots of little things, a couple of big things; thinking a bit about what I'll do with my life once Nathan is graduated and gone to college and I have an empty nest. Many ideas have come, most have gone, but three remain and the possibilities swirl around in my brain!

My theme verse for December:

 “'Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.' 

And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, (Luke 2:10-14)
And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.'”

My silly dog, who always likes to come to Tea Talk.

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