My First Raw Restaurant!

Today I did another first in my life. My Husband and I ate at Chaco Canyon Cafe - an almost completely raw restaurant in downtown Seattle. Seattle is not the mecca of raw food eating establishments and in my search so far have only located one. More of a cafe bistro feel that a restaurant, it was still enjoyable and we got to try a few interesting dishes.

I really wanted to order about three entrees knowing I could probably eat them all anyway since you can eat much more raw food and not feel as full or stuffed. But I did restrain myself and ordered only a raw pizza and a side salad. Elvis ordered a Egyptian pea soup and sandwich. (He was too chicken to go all raw) The food was very good and to top it all off we shared two desserts. One was a raspberry Tart and the other carrot cake. The Raspberry Tart won hands down and I am determined to make it at home once I figure out all the ingredients and their priority.

I have also been viewing the DVD set that I purchased from Amazon, The Raw Gourmet 3-DVD Set They are live demonstrations of Noni Shannon "Cooking" several dishes that are in her book,The Raw Gourmet which is a thorough collection of all kinds of foods, company and everyday banquets. The DVDs were quite pricey but since we are book sellers anyway, I knew we could sell the set again once I had viewed them so I will list them in the next few days.

For someone who is making a huge jump from a regular SAD diet (Standard American Diet) her videos might be a real kick start if you were starting from scratch. Since I have been on this road for a long time I found them a little basic but still interesting. It is nice to see someone proficient at a new method quickly preparing beautiful dishes before your very eyes.

I am off to try raspberry tart, the recipe made up from scratch. I'm sure it will take several tries so when I get it perfected I'll post is as a new recipe. Have a great day tomorrow.

If you have a new favorite recipe that is either raw or almost raw give me a comment or two. I'd love to hear it.

A REAL high school education!

As I'm contemplating the end of what I view as my children's formal education at home I am thinking about all the principles and concepts I still need to teach them before I release them to the world.

They need discernment skills and wisdom in relationships. I want to caution them in aggressive and unscrupulous women. I need to equip them with skills to survive in this dog eat dog world. (not trying to be negative but there is competition out there) But most of all I want them to be well equipped with a worldview that is rock solid steady, immovable, absolute and deeply embedded.

As much as I believe in protecting our children from outside error and harmful influences I also believe it is vitally important to expose them while still in the home (in due time) to error and teach them how to discern that error correctly and to expose those lies by applying the grid of truth, the Bible.

Since there is nothing new under the sun, this will give them patterns to group error into age old heretical philosophies that started a long time ago. Teaching them to discern and apply the word of truth also gives them the opportunity to "study and show themselves approved unto God." They see first hand that the Word of God is a double edged sword capable of dividing truth from error and is every bit applicable today as it was thousands of years ago.

We had an excellent opportunity this morning to discuss the blatant error of Oprah Winfrey's new church and spiritual teaching classes. A friend passed on the you tube link and I previewed it and then thought it would be excellent to hear what my boys thought of what she had to say.

Click here: YouTube - The Church of Oprah Exposed

We spent several hours afterward discussing the error and the possible reasons that she or anyone could possibly believe in these ridiculous deceptions. They seemed to be out of this world to us but to the undiscerning there is mass appeal.

After viewing the video for the second time I asked them to raise their hands at the first subtle indicator of the New Age philosophy. (a test) They both picked up the first one and just about every one after that. We may go back and study each of these indicators and compare them with the Truth.

One of my mentor friends used to say, "Without Biblical conviction you WILL go the way of culture. (whatever way the wind is blowing in your culture at that time and season)

Viewing this video was an exercise worth it's weight in gold for the opportunity for me to expose my boys to what they will come across in the world. Even if they do not become swayed by it themselves they will need to be prepared to give and answer in due season to someone who is caught in New Age philosophy's clutches. I want them to be prepared enough to be able to witness articulately the way of salvation to someone who is desperately lost even if they do not know it.

This is what I call a REAL high school education!

Let Prayer Change your Life

One of the many benefits of having an online book business is that we frequently are mixing with many gold mines of knowledge and inspiration (books) that are in my search list. I finally found Let Prayer Change Your Life by Becky Tirabassi. I have wanted this book for some time but never got around to ordering it. Now with the next three months ahead of me I have started tackling this great lagging discipline in my life since we have moved into the city 2 1/2 years ago. (Yea, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it)

One of the impressions that I get already, in the first chapter, is that it is not prayer that will change your life but committed communion with God will. The time spent with Someone who not only loves us deeply and sacrificially but just being in His presence WILL change us into His likeness. What a promise!

Oh, how I long to change. (No, not my flesh, I expect that will put up a fight- but my spirit. ) How can you not want to know the author of the greatest story ever told, the God of creation and of all human history?

This is one of the three or four books to tackle in the next three months, along with a study on the character of God and the book of Proverbs and another book that has been chompin' at the bit, Child Training Tips: What I Wish I Knew When My Children Were Young by Reb Bradley! More on this great book in a few weeks as I get to start it.

Wacky Wednesday happens again!

What happens when you put two wacky boys in the same room with egg cartons, plastic Easter eggs and markers? They come up with wacky ideas to "scare" their niece when she comes to visit for Easter!


And yes, Abbie (3) was was duly impressed! I love watching my boys relationships with her develop. They think of her as such a delight and she loves them so much. (one of the many blessings of home education-your children are able to relate and bond with people of all ages, not just their peers.)

Obviously, Caden (10 months) is looking up to Graydon already!

Raising Healthy Eaters- Older Children

If you have visited my blog before and if you are a regular visitor you will by now have noticed one of my many passions in life is Health and Nutrition. I started this blog in order to process the many messages floating around in my mind and to be a blessing to others as I share my journey in the areas that I have both stumbled and found success.

We do hope that our children also share our passions even if just for the fellowship sake and simply because we believe in them so strongly. My daughter-in-law is just one such amazing daughter. She has come a long way in her fight for her own health over the years and has been one of the fastest learners I have ever met! Never have I had a student (even though she has been very much self motivated to learn on her own) come so far in so short a time.

She truly is God's gift to my son and his children in providing well for her family but additionally to me and my family. Needless to say, I'm very proud of her and her very successful blog, Keeper of the Home.

She has been regularly posting on her series Raising Healthy Eaters (and doing an excellent job of it, I might say-that is raising a healthy eater Abbie, 3 , and Caden, 10 months and doing an excellent job of writing on the subject as well)

I am so excited and honored to be invited to present a guest post on the topic of Raising older children to be Healthy Eaters . Check it out here and if you still have little ones at home learning to like good natural food or if you have older children and wish to start over and re instill some healthy habits. Then come back and let me know what you think.

It's my first guest appearance and I'm real nervous!

Menu planning Monday - Disaster redeemed!

What was going to be my First official Menu Planning Monday post today turned into disaster relief and recovery day instead. Somebody, not to be named publicly, unplugged the freezer (for what reason, I never determined) probably a week ago. How I discovered it in time to save the many items of frozen meat and tons of berries still, was amazing. I pulled out a bag of blueberries and sat them on the counter and then decided to get another bag. Digging deeper this time I discovered that the top layer in my chest freezer was completely thawed, although still very cold. Poking my finger in just about everything else I could I discovered that nearly everything was thawed to a point of being soft, but still cold!

I let out a yelp! Oh no, how can this be? All the meat that I planned for the next month was completely thawed and had to be pulled out and cooked ahead of time and re frozen. Well, I guess that takes care of my menu planning after all. We will have chicken soup, meat loaf, hamburger paddies, and spaghetti and meat balls for the next several weeks. The berries will now be frozen for the third time as this is now the second time this mysterious plug has popped out of the receptacle. (The first time it was my fault. You see our vacuum is the problem in that it blows the circuit about 5 -6 times per vacuuming session. We sometimes have removed the fridge or freezer plug in order to stop the shorting out and all too easily forget to plug it back in again. )
Whether this was the problem this time or not, I do not know, but some how we have got the get this freezer thawing habit under control! Instead of the disastrous day we could have had it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Both boys jumped into the kitchen and we all cooked and fried and packaged up our cooked meals for the next few weeks.

Hmm, that was nice. I wonder how I can get this to occur again WITHOUT the freezer thaw catastrophe. I like have company in the kitchen and my boys learned a few cooking tips as well!

Next week - another try at a Menu Planning Monday post, Lord willing!!

Last and final assessment!

Today is the last day of my three month goal assessment. The first day was a wonderful encouragement as much has been accomplished. This last section is down at the bottom for a reason- it is not as high a priority so as much of my time was spent in the first category and not much with the last.

Business-I want to open up a few more areas of product sourcing for our online book sales,
I have purchased some materials from a few different sources and so far have done reasonably well with them. I would prefer to say that they all were whopping success stories but I realize I did not get them from a far back enough source so that a week or two after being listed the market was flooded and prices plummeted from $30 - 50.00 down to $5 - 7 dramatically. Basically we broke even and that is bottom line acceptable. Some books are still in inventory and are maintaining value but are longer selling items and so I am still assessing the success of those items.

...and perhaps adding a website to market them as well (not sure) Not in the plans yet and not likely soon either.

Personal Growth-I plan on learning to type. (gasp she can't type?) Nope, I'm the fastest look at your keyboard typist around but it isn't as good as seeing at all your mistakes happening as you make them, so I plan to attack this weak area.
Nothing formal happening here, just practicing doing it right which takes longer and I soon give up and go back to my usual, faster but much more inefficient method. In the summer, I plan on taking more time to improve in this area.

I plan on organizing the files on my computer so I can find things when I need them most. I have started and have not gotten back to this area of dire need. This will be a priority in the next quarter.

Most of all I want to focus on relationships this year; relationships with my two sons, who are still in our home. Time is short and I want to instill a deeper relationship and foster deeper trust. For my husband I want to enter into prayer on his behalf for his job and a few other important issues and to not let discouragements get me down.
I have been seeing success in this area and will continue to be working hard, mostly in prayer. My husbands job continues to be a severe drain emotionally and physically. We really need an answer to prayer on his behalf becuase leaving his job at this point would mean that we would have to go back to Canada almost immediately forfeiting our green card applications. That would be such a disapointment after waiting almost 9 years already and it seems like we have never been closer.

Tomorrow I will be posting my menu plans. Yippee, I am getting better and recovering from a few years in burn out. Recovery can take a long time but it is worth it once you refocus and start seeing some improvement again.

Have a great day.