One Beggar’s Bread

A few years ago, I visited a friend East Africa for my thirtieth birthday. The loudspeakers sounding off from mosques several times a day (and night) were terribly annoying. Of course, the language was unintelligable to me, so I tried to imagine it as background music. I cannot imagine if I understood the words how I could have blocked out the constant brainwashing.

In this eJournal from July 2006, Chris Davis makes a valid comparison between loudspeakers spouting off propoganda in foreign countries, and the media here in the United States.

Chris explains his experience with blaring loudspeakers in Muslim-controlled areas of Israel and goes on to say:

“I once heard John Gatto give [a talk] about his visit to a country undergoing a Communist revolution. There were loudspeakers set up at every street corner so that during all of their waking hours the citizens heard propaganda encouraging them to devote themselves to the Communist way of life. Gatto went on to say that he has become convinced that Americans are surrounded by constant propaganda, but we just don’t realize it because it is not in the form of blaring loudspeakers, but in the form of television, radio, magazine ads, billboards, and the countless other types of media that are continually trying to influence the way we live.”

Are you aware of the subtle and not-so-subtle influences of the world around us?

As American Christians, we need to learn to see life through a biblical worldview, allowing the living Word of God to be the filter through which we process EVERYTHING, not just religious issues. Too often, after compartmentalizing our lives and offering some areas to God, other areas to Psychology or popular experience, we simply don’t realize that the Lord is Lord over all of our lives.  He deserves respect in each arena of His children’s lives — and we’ll be much more content with our lives as we learn to seek His ways.

A thoughtful book on the subject of the effects of media on children is Marie Winn’s The Plug-In Drug. Click to read “Good-Enough Families” to understand the purpose of her book).

Chris encourages the reader to chew on the words from “What an Educated Person Must Know,” quoting much of this speech right in the ejournal and adding a link to the entire speech. Like anything written by John Taylor Gatto, Teacher of the Year in New York State and New York City, it is worth reading and considering.

Make Your Time in Kitchen Go the Distance gives a wonderful example of a week’s worth of Nourishing Traditions meals. I decided to copy some of the ideas for us this week. I have also tried incorporating desserts from a wonderful book entitled “The Fat-Resistance Diet.” We have become too used to eating ice cream several nights a week, and instead of taking dessert away completely I thought it would be better to close off our evenings with something sweet and remarkably healthy.

Also towards the goal of healthy eating, I plan to make a sourdough starter this week (this article about the benefits of sourdough is a great read) and try making “crispy nuts” for the first time.  The kids are making a batch of sunflower seed sprouts for us to add to our salads as well.

I think whatever damage I had done to my stomach has been healed as it seems I can tolerate wheat again. I have decided not to over-do the wheat thing, but do my best to keep to only eating wheat in a healthy way.  So many symptoms went away when I cut out all wheat (joint pain, varicose veins, the feeling of living in a fog) and I don’t want to invite those back. (In some ways it was GOOD for me to not be able to have ANY wheat — I hated the instant reaction of sickness and this kept me from lots of junk food. My self-discipline is not in such good shape without immediate consequences.)

For those of you here to scout out gluten-free recipes, I will mark recipes for you as such.

Monday:

B - Soaked Oats (gluten-free if you use the right kind of oats)

L - Smoothies (yogurt, strawberries, banana, protein powder, raw almonds — blend) and Spoon Salad (GF)

D - My honey took me out to Black Angus, the kids had leftover chili (GF)

Tuesday:

B - Birdies-in-a-nest (sourdough bread)

L - Out running errands

D - Grilled Chicken with Spoon Salad and Zucchini cooked on stove top (thinly sliced into long skinny strips, sauteed - just until tender - in olive oil and butter, sprinkled with red pepper flakes and sea salt) (gluten-free)

Wednesday:

B - GF Cereal

L - Salami and Cheese with Raw Veggies (GF)

D - Wild Salmon, Spoon Salad, Steamed Broccoli with Cheese (GF)

Snack — Popcorn made in coconut or olive oil, butter and sea salt added - yummy!  (GF)

Thursday:

B - Irish Oats (GF)

L - Leftover Salmon and Salad, serve with Ezekiel Bread Toast w/ PB.

D - Slow-Cooked Shredded Beef Tostados (GF)

Snack — Avocado Shakes (my friend who lives in East Africa suggested this snack.  I was skeptical at first, but my kids adore this shake.  You just blend really cold milk with avocado in the blender, and add sugar to taste.  I suggest not telling your kids it is avocado until they love it (mine were SHOCKED to discover the shakes weren’t mint!) (GF)

Friday:

B - Bacon with GF Pancakes

L - Smoothies (with orange juice, blueberries, yogurt, and banana) (GF)

D - Leftover Shredded Beef Tostados with Spoon Salad (GF)

Snack — Fruit Salad w/ Creme Fraiche

Saturday:

B - Eggs with Leftover Pancakes (GF)

L - Quesadillas with yummy Frank’s Red Hot sauces (GF)

D - Bun-less Cheeseburgers with french fries, raw veggies and dip (GF)

Snack –

Sunday:

B - Golden Oats

L/D - Mother’s Day BBQ w/ hubby’s family; bring lamb to grill and Dedra’s Broccoli Salad

I just cut and pasted the following message from an email. We really enjoyed Expelled, and highly recommend it.

Ben Stein’s movie is now in danger of being “Expelled” from theaters

Despite:
A “Top 10” box office opening…
Standing ovations in theaters…
Scathing critics and raving fans…

Expelled is being sued by YOKO ONO – and she’s demanding that it be booted from THEATERS NOW!

If you haven’t done so already, PLEASE SEE EXPELLED NOW; its future relies on you.

Check HERE to see where EXPELLED
is playing near you (1,000 screens nationwide)

Click HERE to hear a special message from Ben Stein

‘Tis the season to crank up the grill!  I’m celebrating by cooking lots of stuff outside this week.  I also had a bit of wheat last week with no reaction, and so am planning to buy some sprouted wheat bread and try it this week to see what happens!  Maybe that’s why I’ve been so “lucky” in not getting “glutened” over the past few weeks — maybe it’s me that’s changed, not the cross-contamination in restaurants or people’s homes.  Here’s to hoping my stomach has healed (I’m not Celiac, just discovered wheat was hurting me a lot.  Walnuts and almonds used also to give me fits and I can eat these fine now, so I am hoping the same will go for wheat, eventually.)

Monday:  Scrambled Eggs, Buy lunch at TJ’s, Chicken Wings (made with gluten free sauce given to me by a friend, called Red Hot) with celery sticks and salad

Tuesday: Irish Oats, PB and J and raw veggies with hummus, Grilled Salmon with steamed green beans

Wednesday: Cereal,  quesadillas and apples w/ pb, Grilled Chicken with zucchini

Thursday:  Eggs, Cold Pesto Salad, Grilled Lamb with mashed potatoes and a salad

Friday:  Soaked Oats,  Leftover veggies w/ hummus and smoothies, Chili in Crockpot

Saturday: Eggs, Leftover Chili

Sunday:  Golden Oats, out to lunch, Find Stuff around the house
for dinner

Our family recently read Prince Caspian aloud together. While laying on the couch (with a very sore throat, thankful it was not my turn to read out loud) listening to my husband finish up the action-packed last chapters, something Aslan said brought a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes.

Aslan was explaining the history of Prince Caspian’s ancestors and how they came into Narnia from our world. Their past included some ugly details, including piracy and violence. Caspian, not thrilled to hear the details, remarked, “I was wishing that I came of a more honorable lineage.”

To which Aslan replied,

“You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve, and that is both honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content.”

It is a strange thing to be so fully aware of my humanity as a Christian.

I feel the incredible shame that comes from being totally depraved, not able to do ANY good without God, being sickly aware of the much-too-fine line between me and the filthiest sinner I can recall. And yet, I feel the unimaginable honor that comes from being made in the very image of God Himself, capable of such breath-taking love and compassion and beauty!

What an interesting paradox, don’t you think?

We had a great trip to Southern California to visit my sister. My 2 youngest boys had a wonderful time getting to know their new uncle (he’s “new” because they just married last December). The boys took full advantage of Grant’s youth and vigor and kept him running around with them at the beach, at the apartment pool, etc. I loved having the chance to see my little sister’s BEAUTIFUL apartment and relished the time to chit chat with her and catch up some. I also loved getting to see the exact place where Grant proposed to my sister. :)

My sister made sure there were gluten-free options for me at every meal and everything turned out delicious :) We ate out twice. Once at Red Robin, and they were great about my gluten free instructions (I got a Cobb salad with grilled chicken, although my tummy hurt a bit after this meal, not too much, and I don’t know why). We also ate at an authentic hole-in-wall Mexican place in L.A.’s “fashion district” — yummy Mexican tacos with carne asada with no side orders of stomach pain — woo hoo!

If you live the L.A. area, you have to check out La Habra Ranch Market at 1220 W. La Habra Blvd. The fruits and veggies were priced ridiculously cheap and they had a huge variety. And they sold things like olive oil, dessiccated coconut, ghee, and other ethnic foods at decent prices as well. I stocked up before making the drive home.

The only bummer about the trip was that I drove home with an increasingly bothersome head cold. I must have caught it from hubby before I left, and it just took a few days to show up (he woke up sick the day I left for L.A.). I’m hoping I didn’t share too many germs with my sister and her husband!

Gluten-Free Sox Fan is hosting this week’s Gluten-Free Menu Swap. For many GREAT ideas, head on over and check it out! (Her pizza crust has wowed me. I love it. Some of our friends, though not gluten-free, are now ALWAYS using this recipe for homemade pizza. It’s that good. Thanks to Carrie for suggesting I go and give this recipe a try!)

Here’s our plan for the week:

Monday –

Irish Oats

Celery w/ PB, quesadillas, Asian pears

Grilled Chicken, Squash, Aspargus (I was going to grill the chicken with just olive oil and sea salt, when I saw this recipe at Ginger-Lemon Girl. We’ll see how tomorrow goes, if I can get around to trying this yummy-looking marinade!)

Tuesday –

Eggs

Snack Stuff that I pick up at grocery store in a.m. (??)

Red Lentil Stew over Rice, asparagus

Wednesday –

Soaked Oats

Leftover lentil stew, carrots and cucumbers

Pot Roast and squash, salad

Thursday –

Leftover Pot Roast

Chicken Oreganato w/ a salad (one for us, one to bring to a family w/ a new baby)

Friday –

GF Waffles

Leftover Chicken Oreganato and GF Mac n’ Cheese

Pork, Apple and Quinoa Casserole from Rachel’s Recipe Box, with green beans

Saturday –

omelettes

Bean and Cheese Tostadas

Leftover Pork, Apple, and Quinoa Casserole

Sunday –

Golden Oats

Out to lunch!

Homemade GF Pizza

Once again, we missed several of our planned meals last week. The week was so busy, I don’t even know where it went and I don’t know why we didn’t eat all these meals. Planning is easy this week, tho, and grocery shopping will be cheap since I have much of the stuff still around.

This week, a couple of the kids and myself are planning a few days out of town to visit my sister and her new husband! I am deliriously excited to see her first apartment!

I’m a little freaked out about trying to eat gluten-free while visiting my sister and without being a nuisance. Luckily, she’s my sister, so she’s very understanding!!

I know that it will be worth a little preparation so that I won’t be sick and grumpy while visiting. I think just coming prepared with some snacks and emergency gluten-free protein bars (ThinkThin Brownie Crunch bars from Trader Joe’s are sooooooo yummy!) and with my sister’s trying to be sensitive to my issue that things will work out fine. I’m actually considering bringing one of my own pans to cook with…ack! I feel crazy with this stuff sometimes, but when the tiniest bit of gluten has made my tummy do somersaults for hours and my brain pop back into a fog for 2 days, it pays to be somewhat vigilant, I guess. I’m thinking worst case scenario I’ll lose a few pounds — and how could THAT be the “worst” case scenario? ;)

Monday:

Gluten Free “crepes” (crepe recipe from here — I tried one of these while making omelettes last week ust to test it out and it worked great! — and filling/topping ideas from here)

Bean and Cheese Tostadas

Spring Rolls (I’m going to try the shrimp w/herbs and broccoli slaw, along w/ peanut sauce) and a yummy salad

Tuesday:

Soaked Oats

Take Daniel out to lunch, pack lunch for CJ and Micah — salami and cheese and apples

Split Pea Soup w Millet Biscuits

Wednesday:

Eggs and Bacon

To Go lunch — yogurt, carrots, rice cakes w/ pb

Chicken Enchiladas and steamed aspargus

Thursday - Sunday:

Take with me: lunch/snacks for me and the kids in the car Thursday (Rice Cakes w/ peanut butter, hard-boiled eggs, string cheese, fruit), protein bars, snacks, Rice Chex, canned chili, prepared dry mix for cornbread,

Leave here for dad and kids: Rice Chex, eggs, oatmeal, cheeseburgers, Split Pea Soup leftovers, chicken enchilada leftovers, Trader Joe’s frozen reheatable meals

Who is Jesus? This question reveals a major breach between what Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christians believe.

Several years ago, when I was meeting regularly with Abbie, a Jehovah’s Witness, she gave me an attractive little booklet entitled, “Should You Believe in the Trinity?” The book goes through the “history” of the Doctrine of the Trinity before getting into theology and scripture itself. At first, I glossed over the history of the trinity, pretty much taking Watchtower’s word for it, and focused with my JW friends on scripture regarding Christ’s identity (I figured scripture was more important than history anyway, right?).

But when one of my aunts revealed some of her research into the historical segments of the booklet, I knew I needed to see the “whole story” behind these quoted passages. Watchtower did not make it easy to double-check these quotes. Although they did cite sources, they did not cite page numbers or chapters (there is no bibliography in the booklet). Thankfully someone else had done the lion’s share of locating the exact sources of the whole quotes, and I only needed to search out these sources to ascertain their meaning for myself.

I plan to re-type my notes made from researching this booklet (I have 6 pages of notes just from researching the first half of the booklet!) and post them here (eventually — I’ve really not much time for blogging these days!). I will include links to online books or to real books (for sale at Amazon or possibly for free at your library) whenever possible so you can look up quotes in their intended context. I wouldn’t want you to take my word for it — check these out for yourselves!

After typing up my notes regarding the history of trinitarian doctrine , I plan to list scripture verses that demonstrate there is only God, that the Father is God, that Jesus is God, and that the Spirit is God. I’ve never been one to be picky about the word “trinity.” It means nothing holy to me, in and of itself. The concept behind the word, however, is precious and can be found from Genesis to Revelation in the Holy Scriptures.

For those of you not interested in wading through my (possibly boring) pages of notes regarding quotes and historical teachings, I thought I’d mention a shining example of a quote published in the Should You Believe in the Trinity booklet that was taken out of context.

If a Jehovah’s Witnesses friend of yours shares this booklet with you, please look with them at this quote from Jesuit Edmund Fortman, on page 6, under the heading Testimony of the Greek Scriptures:

“Jesuit Fortman states: ‘The New Testament writers…give us no formal or formulated doctrine of the Trinity, no explicit teaching that in one God there are three co-equal divine persons…Nowhere do we find any trinitarian doctrine of three distinct subjects of divine life and activity in the same Godhead.’”

Now, I must say that Watchtower used Jesuit Fortman’s exact words.

And the Watchtower was honest in revealing to us when words have been omitted from the quotes by using …’s.

However, if you were to read Jesuit Fortman’s words in their entirety, would you see that he meant the same thing Watchtower tells us he means?

As you read Fortman’s words for yourself, consider what you think his intention was in writing them. Was he out to discredit or validate the doctrine of the trinity? Was he out to show that the Bible does not reveal a trinitarian doctrine or that it does indeed so?

Please see the .pdf version of The Triune God by Jesuit Fortman online to read this for yourself. The full quote can be found on pages xv and xvi of the Introduction. (The final phrase in the above-mentioned quote after the last “…” is not found in The Triune God until several PAGES later, in Chapter 2, page 16, if you’d like to read that quote in its entirety as well.)

I placed the words from the quote below that Watchtower used in the booklet in italics. The rest of the quote was hidden in the …’s.

“If we take the New Testament writers together they will tell us there is only one God, the creator and lord of the universe, who is the Father of Jesus. They call Jesus the Son of God, Messiah, Lord, Savior, Word, Wisdom. They assign Him the divine functions of creation, salvation, judgment. Sometimes they call Him God explicitly. They do not speak as fully and clearly of the Holy Spirit as they do of the Son, but at times they coordinate Him with the Father and the Son and put Him on a level with them as far as divinity and personality are concerned. They give us in their writings a triadic ground plan and triadic formulas. They do not speak in abstract terms of nature, substance, person, relation, circumincession, mission, but they present in their own ways the ideas that are behind these terms. They give no formal or formulated doctrine of the Trinity, no explicit teaching that in one God there are three co-equal divine persons. But they do give us an elemental trinitarianism, the data from which such a formal doctrine of the Triune God may be formulated.”

There were enough discrepancies between several passages in the booklet and their author’s original intentions to cause me to believe that Watchtower was being deliberately deceptive in its presentation.

The weather is beautiful; we’ve planted our garden. This can only mean one thing: soup will not be an option for dinner much longer. We’ll celebrate and say goodbye to the colder seasons by eating soup a few times this week!

I am going to have to start searching the gluten free blogs for yummy warmer-weather meal ideas. If you are on the lookout for gluten-free recipes, the Gluten Free Menu Swap is a great place to start! Check out this week’s at Gluten Free Mommy.

Monday:

Omelettes

Leftover Chili

Mexicale Chicken and gluten-free Cornbread (amazing!)

Tuesday:

Cereal

Salami and Cheese at the Park

Chicken Soup

Girls Book Club here: Chocolate-dipped macaroons and decaf coffee

Wednesday:

Pancakes

Smoothies, raw veggies with dip

Leftover Chicken Soup

Thursday:

Leftover Pancakes and eggs

Cheeseburgers

Split Pea Soup w Millet Biscuits

Friday:

Soaked Oats

Leftover Split Pea Soup

Salmon and grilled or steamed asparagus

Saturday:

Eggs and Bacon

bean and cheese tostadas

Spring Rolls (I’m going to try the shrimp w/herbs and broccoli slaw, along w/ peanut sauce)

Sunday:

Gluten Free “crepes” (crepe recipe from here — I tried one of these while making omelettes last week ust to test it out and it worked great! — and filling/topping ideas from here)

Chili in Crockpot and Corn Bread (bring to church for pot luck) (My friend Tonya mentioned that Nourishing Traditions suggests soaking corn meal in lime overnight before making cornbread. I would like to try this! My batter for Monday’s cornbread is already made, but perhaps for the weekend’s cornbread-to-share I’ll try soaking. I’d love to hear any tips you have for making cornbread healthier — besides cutting out the sugar — I like sweet cornbread!)

Go out to dinner or find leftovers!