The Lego Church!

'THE LEGO CHURCH '
Yes, this was created by an adult hobbyist Amy Hughes, on her own time, with her own money. She says it took approx 75,000 bricks, and about a year and a half to plan it, build it and photograph it. It seems to sit in her living room and is 7 ft by 5 1/2 feet by 30 inches.

The auditorium seats 1372 "people" and includes 3976 windows. It features a balcony, a Narthex, stairs to the balcony, restrooms, coat rooms, several mosaics, a nave, a baptistery, an altar, a crucifix, a pulpit and an elaborate pipe organ. (For Amy Hughes website click here. )

I thought that I'd post this amazing work of art/architecture to introduce a posting series on the importance of recording your children's learning projects, games, science fair entries, and yes, even their Lego projects. (not that any of my children - as creative and ingenious as they are- have yet produced a masterpiece like this) We photographed our boys projects and then created Lifestyle of Learning notebooks. I have documented (through photos) quite a bit of my boys "work" but most of it has been recorded on regular film, not on digital. (so I will have to photograph the photos.)

A notebook of projects also becomes their portfolio of their high school years and a wonderful memory book of their whole childhood. Adding narrations of materials used, problems encountered, etc, is a natural way to add writing to their "curriculum" making their notebook very "life related."

So over time I will post some of the entries that we have done in their notebooks to encourage you and to spark ideas of what you can do to create that spark that ignites the passion of learning in your child. Who knows how high their passions can take them, right Amy ?

A delicious RAW onion cracker recipe.

In keeping with my goal of consuming between 30% and 50% raw foods this year I thought that I would post a very interesting recipe that I found on Dr Mercola's site a few weeks ago. Raw Onion Bread is more like a cracker than a bread but don't be shied away by the name, this is delicious! Reminiscent of old fashioned onion soup mix straight from the package, it is full flavored and is great with just about any savory topping you can come up with - hummus, tomato salsa, guacamole, etc.

You will need a dehydrator (or you might be able to dry it in your oven, but most ovens do not go low enough. Remember this is to be RAW, not just dried)

3 large onions, red or yellow sliced very fine or chopped in a food processor very fine.
3/4 c. flax seeds, ground
3/4 c raw sunflower seeds, ground
1/2 c. Bragg's Liquid Aminos (or you could use regular soy sauce)
1/3 c. organic cold pressed olive oil.

Combine all ingredients and mix well by a hand.

Spread the batter out to approx 1/4 inch thickness onto dehydrator trays. You will need some kind of a flat sheet that covers the plastic screen on most dehydrators. They can usually be bought as an accessory to your brand of dehydrator.

Set on 115 degrees and leave for about 12 hours or overnight. Check in the morning and if ready turn over and dry another 12 hours.

When ready it will be crispy and you can cut it or break it into pieces and serve or store for later.

Water, Water Everywhere, But We Are Not Drinking a Drop of It!

What an evening! I just had the awesome privilege of hearing live a wonderful speaker and health food advocate Jordon Rubin, author of New York Time's Best Seller, The Maker's Diet. He is on a 40 week speaking tour around the country starting in San Diego and ultimately ending back in San Diego again promoting his newest book, Perfect Weight America. He was enjoyable, entertaining and very informative. He definitely has a mission and purpose in life and I think He WILL be successful.

His mantra, Change your diet- Change your life - Change your world. His goal is to the see America educated and losing weight, a mission that I think is timely and highly necessary.

One of his many methods for attaining our ideal weight was the simplest and cheapest of all and yet we are not doing it. ....the drinking of water, plain water, purified water, (not tap water) every day.

If you have a headache, drink 8 oz of water, 10 min later drink another 8.
If you remember your headache 10 min later then try something herbal but chances are you won't have to.

If you are hungry, drink water. Most of the time instead of thinking we are hungry we are actually thirsty.

If you are tired, drink water. Water is the ultimate energizer.

If you have allergies, don't take an antihistamine. Antihistamines are designed to dilute the histamines, right? Why not dilute those histamines naturally with plain, safe and cheap water! It works! (From experience I can say that if you realy drink a lot of water when you get an alergy attack, the symptom will get temporarily worse as the dilutions starts to occur. Hang on it gets better soon)

If you are depressed, drink water, the natural serotonin carrier.

Don't drink coffee to wake up in the morning - drink water. It's surprising how awake you will be quite quickly as water hydrates and primes the engines for the days work.

If you crave carbs, drink water. It will speed up your digestion and make carb metabolism more effective.

If you are overweight, drink water. Only water is the perfect fluid replacement to regulate body temperature, carry nutrients and oxygen to the cells, cushion joints, protect organs and tissues, remove toxins and maintain strength and endurance. Studies show that your metabolism will speed up by 30%. Water hydrates your cardiovascular system, irrigates your digestive track and helps to eliminate waste products.

Okay, okay, enough already? "How much do I have to drink?"

It's really quite simple and based on your present body weight. Drink 1/2 oz per pound of body weight, every day. So if you are 150 lbs you need 75 oz of water daily, (and if you are short one day you need to try to make up that shortfall the next day)If you exercise, you need more water daily.

The first step to a new you in 2008 is get healthy, America. I will be watching Jordon's tour with interest as I think he may have a significant impact through this coming year. If the standing room only talk he did tonight was any indication of the growing awareness and desire to make some positive changes, I believe he may well have to book larger venues as the year progresses. See his website for a free online coaching program.
For tour dates and locations see the partial list that I expect will updated as venues open.

Did someone mention the word ..B..B..BUDGET?

One of the deep, abiding and most delightful passions of my whole life has been the running of the family budget. (I know, I know, I need to grab a life)

One of my earliest childhood recollections was of my father writing on a piece of scrap paper his monthly income, minus groceries, minus heat, minus gas/insurance, etc = 0. The light went on. I could see first hand cause and effect. I was probably 6 or 7 at the time but it started a passion that I would hold for the rest of my life.

Fast forward to a newly married couple and a few children and lean times again. My husbands salary had been cut by 1000.00 per month and what was already tight, became impossible. Somehow, since I was the major spender, (interpret that major provider of material goods and food items) I had to make that cut in pay work. I read every book, studied budgeting programs, and worked every cash system there was until I had perfected my own. I loved it. It gave me a rush to have conquered, to have mastered circumstances instead of circumstances mastering me. We not only stayed out of debt during those impossible times but almost completely paid off our mortgage (we moved about three months before the final payment!)

That was a few years ago now and we have well recovered from those lean times. However, one of the wonderful overflow benefits has been that passion made me teach my children everything that I was learning. I made sure my children had financial intelligence and responsibility before they left home. They knew how to run a budget with a zero balance, knew the dangers of debt and I saw them operating a system with self control before they went out in the world.

Today, I am proud of them all (the grown up ones as well as the two still at home) In fact, so much so that I want to feature an article that my own sweet tender little boy wrote. Um, well OK, so he is 27 and married now but he's still my sweet tenderhearted little boy who loved his Mommy so much. He now loves his wife and his children so much and is full of Biblical and financial conviction. (And a little tip, ladies. You do not loose a son when he gets married, you gain a daughter-in-law, and then she gives you sweet babies as well, as a heritage! Oh, what a blessing!)

Take a look at this post on my daugher in law's blog, Keeper of the Home about a wonderful BUDGET SOFTWARE PROGRAM that my son and daughter in law use.

Ooh, I'm feeling tingles up my spine. Someone must have mentioned the "B" word.

The Many Health Benefits of Coconut Oil

Many years ago I remember my mother telling me the dangers of tropical oils. She wouldn't buy crackers made with palm oil or any other products with the deadly heart damaging oil. How far we have come. Much info and misinformation has been propagated by the oil refining companies that has hidden the actual health benefits of this highly saturated natural oil. In fact, coconut oil is so beneficial it is now slated as a safeguard against the deadly disease killers today, cancer and heart disease.

Below is an excerpt from the book, Nourishing Traditions.

Tropical oils are more saturated than any other vegetable oil. Palm oil is about 50%saturated, with 41 % oleic acid and about 9%linoleic acid. Coconut oil is 92% saturated with over two-thirds of the saturated fat as medium chain fatty acid. Of particular interest is lauric acid, found in large quantities in both coconut oil and mother's milk. This fatty acid has both antifungal and antimicrobial properties.
.... these oils are stable and can be kept at room temperature for many months without becoming rancid. Highly saturated tropical oils do not contribute to heart disease but have nourished healthy populations for milennia.

From "The Coconut Oil Miracle"

When taken as a supplement, used in cooking, or applied directly to the skin, coconut oil has been found to promote weight loss, help protect against many diseases, strengthen the immune system, improve digestion, and prevent premature aging of the skin.

Another quote,

It is easily digested by the body and unlike other fats (which tend to go to fat stores), the medium chain fatty acids in coconut oil are used by the body for metabolism. Coconut oil is uniquely rich in lauric acid, a fatty acid chain that is a prime ingredient in mother's milk, which helps to protect infants from sickness. The lauric acid becomes 2-monolauren in the stomach which has been shown by research to have antibacterial, antiviral, and antiparasitical properties

I have been using this wonderful lightly fragrant coconut oil for a few years now with great results. The oil is excellent for frying, having the most highest flash point of any oil on the market today. (meaning it will not become rancid and contain damaging free radicals either when over heated.) Baking with coconut oil also produces light and fluffy results that maintains the freshness longer than low fat baked goods.

BUT, there has been just one issue that I have struggled with over this past few years! The cost of coconut oil is high! At over $30.00 per half gallon it puts it out of the league for the budgeting healthy consumer. Searching for a solution, I came across Mountain Rose Herbals a company out of Oregon that has 1 gallon of organic, cold pressed, unrefined coconut oil for less than what I regularily pay for a half gallon. (1 gallon for $28.00 compared to a half gallon for $32.00!) Furthermore, if I like this product I can purchase a 5 gallon bucket at $121.00 and maybe share it around with some friends and share the further savings as well.

If you have never tried the light and delicious flavor and benefits of coconut oil, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.

Read the Label!

Continuing on our theme of the totally unnecessary inclusion of one of North America's biggest diet fixes, soft drinks. Let’s take a look at some of the other major components in just one can of soda, again taken from Dr Mercola's site, the leading healthy website on the net!

Phosphoric Acid: Which can interfere with the body's ability to use calcium, leading to osteoporosis or softening of the teeth and bones. It also neutralizes the hydrochloric acid in your stomach, which can interfere with digestion, making it difficult to utilize nutrients.

Sugar: It is a proven fact that sugar increases insulin levels, which can lead to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, weight gain, premature aging and many more negative side effects. Most sodas include over 100 percent of the RDA of sugar. Sugar is so bad for your health in so many ways, I even created an entire list outlining 100-Plus Ways in Which Sugar Can Damage Your Health

Aspartame: This chemical is used as a sugar substitute in diet soda. There are over 92 different health side effects associated with aspartame consumption including brain tumors, birth defects, diabetes, emotional disorders and epilispsy/seizures.

Caffeine: Caffeinated drinks cause jitters, insomnia, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, elevated blood cholesterol levels, vitamin and mineral depletion, breast lumps, birth defects, and perhaps some forms of cancer.

Tap Water: I recommend that everyone avoid drinking tap water because it can carry any number of chemicals including chlorine, trihalomethanes, lead, cadmium, and various organic pollutants. Tap water is the main ingredient in bottled soft drinks.
Clearly, the over-consumption of sodas and sweet drinks is one of the leading causes fueling the world-wide obesity epidemic.

One independent, peer-reviewed study published in the British medical journal The Lancet demonstrated a strong link between soda consumption and childhood obesity. They found that 12-year-olds who drank soft drinks regularly were more likely to be overweight than those who didn't. In fact, for each additional daily serving of sugar-sweetened soft drink consumed during the nearly two-year study, the risk of obesity jumped by 60 percent.

Here’s another sobering fact if you’re struggling with weight issues: Just one extra can of soda per day can add as much as 15 pounds to your weight over the course of a single year!

Other statistics on the health dangers of soft drinks include:

One soda per day increases your risk of diabetes by 85 percent
Soda drinkers have higher cancer risk. While the federal limit for benzene in drinking water is 5 parts per billion (ppb), researchers have found benzene levels as high as 79 ppb in some soft drinks, and of the 100 brands tested, most had at least some detectable level of benzene present

Soda has been shown to cause DNA damage – courtesy of sodium benzoate, a common preservative found in many soft drinks, which has the ability to switch off vital parts of your DNA. This could eventually lead to diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver and Parkinson's

If you are still drinking soda, stopping the habit is an easy way to improve your health. Pure water is a much better choice, or if you must drink a carbonated beverage, try sparkling mineral water with a squirt of lime or lemon juice.

There is absolutely NO REASON your kids should ever drink soda. None, nada, zip, zero. No excuses. The elimination of soft drinks is one of the most crucial factors to deal with many of the health problems you or your children suffer.

AMEN!

Coke. It's the real thing - real dangerous!

Here is a fascinating article that I got off from Dr Mercola's site yesterday, about the habit of drinking coke. You may want to sit down with a cold glass of.....water!

Do you want to be healthy? Drinking soda is bad for your health in so many ways; science can’t even state all the consequences. Here’s what happens in your body when you assault it with a Coke:

Within the first 10 minutes, 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. This is 100 percent of your recommended daily intake, and the only reason you don’t vomit as a result of the overwhelming sweetness is because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor.

Within 20 minutes, your blood sugar spikes, and your liver responds to the resulting insulin burst by turning massive amounts of sugar into fat.

Within 40 minutes, caffeine absorption is complete; your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, and your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream.

Around 45 minutes, your body increases dopamine production, which stimulates the pleasure centers of your brain – a physically identical response to that of heroin, by the way.

After 60 minutes, you’ll start to have a sugar crash.

Sources:
Nutrition Research Center October 24, 2007