Breaking: nuns, babies, puppies, dolphins spark fierce liberal backlash

Breaking: nuns, babies, puppies, dolphins spark fierce liberal backlash | The Matt Walsh Blog

(Ok, so it's not breaking. It's about the Super Bowl commercial)

Coke commercial with all the different languages singing America the Beautiful. Mehh. Thought it sounded pretty. Kind of cool to think of all the people who have come here to seek a better life and found it. Kind of cool that "American" is a very vague description of a person.



And I'm about as conservative as they come.



Offended? Yes. They didn't use the national anthem. Gasp! (never mind no one can actually sing that song. Oh never mind being offended. Let's all vote to change it to America the Beautiful or God Bless America and be done with it. They're better songs anyway.)



But offended at the different colors on the screen? Nahh. Just looked like my family and friend's families.



You know what? Maybe if the liberals would shut up about race for a month or two we would all quit even noticing and become racially-colorblind.



Truth is, their the ones keeping racism alive. They'd be out of work if they didn't.

1 Corinthians 10

^6-10 The same thing could happen to us. We must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way as they did. And we must not turn our religion into a circus as they did—“First the people partied, then they threw a dance.” We must not be sexually promiscuous—they paid for that, remember, with 23,000 deaths in one day! We must never try to get Christ to serve us instead of us serving him; they tried it, and God launched an epidemic of poisonous snakes. We must be careful not to stir up discontent; discontent destroyed them.

Why DIRT is The Most Important Ingredient to Raising Children

Why DIRT is The Most Important Ingredient to Raising Children |

I have always thought it was.

Price Alerts Deals | Compare Price Alerts Prices in mySupermarket

Price Alerts Deals | Compare Price Alerts Prices in mySupermarket



This site compares the prices for each item at amazon, walmart, cosco,
Walgreen and a couple of other places each week. This just might
revolutionize grocery shopping! I just wish it would let me add a couple
of other stores to the list:-)

Charity and Compassion

 

This kind of quote makes me so frustrated! Jesus did command us to help the poor, absolutely! He did NOT tell us to take money away from other people to do it! The liberals steal money from the people who earn it to give to their pet charities and call themselves "loving." Conservatives give of their OWN MONEY and TIME and ENERGY to their pet charities and allow everyone else to do the same and somehow this is hateful?!

I think it is telling that in the Mosaic Law, (what Paul called the only Law that could bring perfection if a Law could bring perfection), though charity was commanded, there was no power given to any human authority to enforce it. This was an issue left between God and each individual man.

Articles: Charity by Force: Jesus vs. Marx

Will Private Charity Be Enough | Bleeding Heart Libertarians:

History has proven that, when given free reign, private giving is most certainly enough.

Some people don’t deserve a living wage | The Matt Walsh Blog
The whole "living wage" thing sounds real good and is a useful tool for those who think they know better what a business should/can pay their employee than the owner does. It is an argument used to raise minimum wages.

But here's the deal:
Not everyone needs or wants, much less deserves a "living wage." Matt covers that last one well. Lazy, selfish people should have to change their ways in order to get paid.

If you were a business owner who would you hire? a teenage boy just out of school or a 25yo man with work experience? The answer depends on what you have to pay them. If you have to pay the same no matter what you will take the man. If you are allowed to pay less for less experience you can take a chance on the boy, opening the door for him into the working world.

History shows us that minimum wage laws ALWAYS  hurt minorities, minors and seniors. This is because they make the playing field unlevel: middle age whites bring better education, work experience, and more work time for the training costs to the table. No one else can compete unless they can bring lower wages.

(Now, just a side note: if minimum wage laws had never been enacted minorities would have been able from the 60s at least to prove themselves on equal footing with whites. It was happening in the 50s with employers taking a chance on the cheaper labor. Today they would likely be equal to whites in the job market with no difference in perceived worker-worth had the liberals kept their hands out of it and allowed the market to do its work. Instead, we haven't gained any ground in this area at all, and may have lost some.)

And generally teenagers don't' need living wages. They just need "allowance" wages. Often the same for the elderly. They just want something to supplement an already ok retirement.

Minimum wage laws prevent these alternative reasons for employment and without actually doing any good anyway.

If wages go up, so do business expenses. If owners must pay more for labor they must either reduce costs somewhere else (use lower quality goods) or raise their prices. Quickly all prices go up to compensate for the raised wages, so people have to work the same amount of time for the same purchasing power. But the good thing is that politicians get to feel good about themselves.

And that's all that's really important, right?



Articles: My Conservative Adventure
Interesting:-) That's all.

The War on Poverty kept poor people poor - Outside the Box - MarketWatch

New Pets

New pets:-)


This is Angel

This one doesn't have a name yet.

This is Squirrel.

New chicks.

The #1 Thing We’d Have Changed In Our Marriage | The Resurgence

The #1 Thing We’d Have Changed In Our Marriage | The Resurgence

Hubby is my best friend. I can't imagine trying to be married to someone who was not. 

You know you're sick when...

You ask your adult children how they feel, they take one look at you and say "Better than you do." Honestly other than the headache and feeling like crying I feel fine:-P

Josh (2) is asleep. Several of the kids are definitely down. None look "well." We're going to have one of those rare TV days.



So in pondering, is it better to be "connected" through all the socialization media possible (from a business point of view) or to focus on one. It is so hard to balance computer work and life. Neither one ever really gets finished.

Today's post brought to you by the letter H

H for hypocrite.

I am getting sick and tired of those who claim they love Jesus but turn around and diss the Church and those who go to it.

News flash: You can't love someone but hate their wife! They are ONE.

Those who pull this attitude are just excusing their own hypocrisy. At least those in church recognize their need for God and His people. Those who hate church goers think they are too good to associate with sinners.

Guess what? Jesus judged. Jesus took a cat-o-nine-tails (big, bad whip) to people who thought they were better than everyone else. Yes, He loved the down-and-out sinners, but He told them to SIN NO MORE.

You'll find most of my thoughts for today at http://www.pinterest.com/8etty5ue/

" Zig Ziglar said that he invited a friend to go to church with him. The man answered, “Well, I’d like to go. But the church is so full of hypocrites.” Ziglar replied, “That’s okay. There’s always room for one more.”"

Hypocrites in the Church? Yes, and in the lodge and at the home. Don't hunt through the Church for a hypocrite. Go home and look in the mirror. Hypocrites? Yes. See that you make the number one less.

Billy Sunday

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/b/billysunda183041.html#z5IerER3fZbupTmK.99

Hypocrites in the Church? Yes, and in the lodge and at the home. Don't hunt through the Church for a hypocrite. Go home and look in the mirror. Hypocrites? Yes. See that you make the number one less.

Billy Sunday

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/b/billysunda183041.html#z5IerER3fZbupTmK.99

Hypocrites in the Church? Yes, and in the lodge and at the home. Don't hunt through the Church for a hypocrite. Go home and look in the mirror. Hypocrites? Yes. See that you make the number one less.

Billy Sunday

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/hypocrite.html#KtpOcYLloFRu1mSu.99

Hypocrites in the Church? Yes, and in the lodge and at the home. Don't hunt through the Church for a hypocrite. Go home and look in the mirror. Hypocrites? Yes. See that you make the number one less.

Billy Sunday

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/hypocrite.html#KtpOcYLloFRu1mSu.99

Hypocrites in the Church? Yes, and in the lodge and at the home. Don't hunt through the Church for a hypocrite. Go home and look in the mirror. Hypocrites? Yes. See that you make the number one less.

Billy Sunday

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/hypocrite.html#KtpOcYLloFRu1mSu.99

Yesterday, a young man came and got the calf crate we have bee using as a rabbit hutch. The doors are heavy and sticky and I have been afraid a little girl would get hurt on them. He is going to use it as a pig crate.

Got more information on the neighborhood goat share program. Just might be something we can use.

Headache. Been having a lot of those lately. Don't know if I'm eating wrong, back's out of place, or something else going on. It does usually feel better after breakfast so blood sugar issues are the most likely.

Nearly done with "Curing Tooth Decay naturally." Lot's of good information. Toothdecay is more related to our bad American diets than to bacteria or genetics.


Host for our church's sermons changed everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, around. It's like trying to learn a whole new site. Hoping to get caught up on all my work soon.


I feel so much better after reading this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-nielsen/10-reasons-why-the-resear_b_5004413.html This is actually the conclusion I have come to. It's the Amish idea: technology is not inherently bad but must be evaluated on its good and bad points and intelligent decisions made. I have decided  that the benefits of my children writing...constantly...on their own blogs, plus all they are learning through publishing their own YouTube channel and exploring Minecraft are worth the down sides as long as I monitor their exercise. And having a math tutor come into my home everyday (Math U See's author Steve giving video lessons) is worth it's weight in gold!


Matt Walsh's take on the whole Hobby Lobby thing:

"Want the government out of your sex life? Stop asking them to subsidize it. Stop asking them to force employers to subsidize it. Stop making your sex habits into a public issue....Truly, only a modern leftwing progressive can get away with asserting their right to a particular good or service by simultaneously arguing that everybody uses it and nobody uses it."

If it's so hard to get birthcontrol that we have to violate peoples basic rights to religious freedom in order to provide it, than how can the majority of women be on birthcontrol? and as one commenter pointed out, don't we already pay Planned Parenthood to provide BC? Why do we have to force people who believe they will go to hell for paying for it to do so anyway?     Read the rest of his article here.


Hypocrites:-P  I am getting so tired of those hypocrites who call people who go to church bad names and constantly degrade those trying to serve God. It's the ones who call themselves CHRISTIANS that are the worst (actually I understand the lost doing it, but those who are supposed to be brothers and sisters in Christ? Really?) How in the world does it help ANYONE to call the church names and call everyone who goes names? Grrrrrrrrr.

Fact is, it is fashionable to to despise the church right now. Talk about selling your soul to Satan to get in good with worldly powers. Just remember, when the Nazis come to drag the church goers to jail it was you, dears, who gave them the power.

Of Squirrels and Angels

We had a good weekend. Church was nice, though we had a few missing. They need prayer. One person who was there is moving in down the street from us.

After service we went to the livestock exchange they were holding at the little park here. I was surprised to see a good 30 people! The woman leading it gave a talk about the different kinds of small livestock (chickens, rabbits, goats) and fodder, though I missed the fodder part:-( Then I bought three new rabbits from our butcher's Aunt! small world:-)

I will try to get pictures up tomorrow. The buck's name is Squirrel because that is what color he is. He is very gentle.

The does are both white, one with gray ears. The pure white one is named Angel. I am voting for Misty for the other one, but I'll let Joy have the final say. They are New Zealand/California crosses; the two biggest production breeds. So we should actually get a lot of good meat from these.

I would like to try them in the run, a much more natural life.

I am also experimenting with fodder. This is a system where you sprout seeds and feed the little plants to the animals before the plants need dirt. They are using it on a large scale in Texas because of the drought. Evidently a lot of my neighbors are using it too on a smaller scale for their rabbits and chickens.

I am hearing different ways of doing this fodder thing. The lady yesterday soaks the seeds for six hours, covers them so they think they are in the dirt, and then feeds them to the animals a week later (uncovering them as soon as they sprout.) Others soak them for 24 hours and water them once or twice a day (depending on which website you read). Either way, I need some sort of container that has sufficient drain holes. For my experiments I can use some old, non-disposable coffee filters I have on hand (what I use to strain milk when we have a cow), but I will need something bigger. The lady yesterday punched holes in a Dollar Tree dishpan. I happened to pick up a couple of extras of those this last week, so that's a thought!

This weeks outside plans are to start building the new, outside nestbox for the chickens, let the chicks out to graze a few times, work on the irrigation in the garden, glue the panels into the greenhouse, move the "compost" (rabbit manure) to the garden, and generally clean up. Since I only have half an hour or so a day outside, it's a good thing I have such a big work crew:-)

Inside, we MUST get some school done, need to work more on my fodder experiment, and generally get caught up on the cleaning. At least I don't have to do laundry. Our septic has been acting up and Hubby asked me to take it all to town this week to give the tank a chance to rest. So to the laundromat we will go!



Hubby got his first-ever standard checkup blood tests back. High LDL (no surprise there). The surprise was borderline diabetic. He is already making some changes. He has told me to not buy anymore cool-aid. When our stock is used up, it's gone. He has already reduced his deserts and is drinking more diet coke (instead of sugared). We are looking for other ways to improve. Frankly, I have always had sensitive blood sugar (my family is full of hypoglycemics and diabetics) and with a recent weight gain I have been suspecting mine is all messed up too.I have reason to believe a couple of the kids are having hypoglycemic trouble too, so this will be good for all of us.

As far as the LDL, I firmly believe fat has nothing to do with it. I think there is much more evidence that it's sugar intake and lack of exercise that causes the problem, so the changes we are making for the blood sugar should help that too.

I have finished two very good books lately. The first is Micheal Pearl's "In Search of a Help Meet." This is a book to help a young man prepare to be a husband and to find a good wife. VERY good.

The second is Israel Wayne's "Full Time Parenting." This book goes up with Pearl's "To Train Up a Child" and "Growing Godly Tomatoes" I highly recommend EVERY parent (and grandparent) read it.

Calendars, Tasks, and Allowances

Google calendar lets you have several different task lists. I know from experience that

having my "to do's" sorted and assigned to certain days of the week helps me to not feel overwhelmed. So this morning (after my prayer time and editing commentary on Ezekiel 29), I made/renamed my task lists according to the days of the week.

• All work for my church gets done on Monday. First Fruits of my time and all that.
• All business and blogging kind of stuff gets done on Tuesday.
• Correcting my children's writing from school, working on their blogs and Etsy shop, and so on gets done on Wednesday.
• Menus, coupons, sale hunting, and shopping lists get done on Thursdays.
• Writing (books, pamphlets, articles, etc) as well has running MalwareBytes and Ccleaner on all the computers gets done on Fridays.
• Cooking for church (bread and desert), as well as any extra cooking and handcrafts get done on Saturday
• The only "work" I allow myself on Sunday's is crocheting (which is more fun that work) and laundry.

In addition, I have a "house to do" list which includes making yogurt (we save close to $30 a week by making it instead of buying individual servings), kefir, buttermilk, soaps, big cleaning chores, and gardening chores.

I am hoping this will help me get over the feeling of being overwhelmed I have had so much lately.



I actually started yesterday with writing. I was able to get six pages up to our church's website. I have known for some time we needed something explaining our views of of Israel and prophecy (we believe differently than most Evangelicals), but have felt too overwhelmed to write them. It dawned on me while talking to my mom I already had something written I could use. I expected one page, but it just kept growing! Feels good to have that job done?:-)



We have changed how we do the kids allowances. Before we gave them all their allowances on the second Friday of the month, but this added more than $100 to our budget for that week! I have made two big changes in the last month:

• We are now doing two kids a week. I even added it to my chore calendar. This makes it about $30 a week which is much more hand-able.
• We have opened Akimbo accounts. This is a pre-loaded credit card designed just for allowance-type stuff. The parent opens a main account and can add up to five sub-accounts. Each account gets it's own visa card. I move allowance money to my card each week and than to the appropriate child's card. (My Jim (19) has his own bank account and PayPal so he didn't need an Akimbo card. My Joy will open her own Akimbo account I can just send her allowance to. She has no interest in a brick-and-mortar account of her own). We are just getting this set up, but I think it will work well. I seldom have cash on hand so it has been where the kids try to spend all their money as soon as they get it so I don't forget. With their own cards they can save if they want, buy at Amazon, Wall-mart, even our thrift stores without worrying if I have the money or not. And, most importantly, they have to keep track of their money and make appropriate decisions on budgeting. This should build much better habits.

I am looking for an app where I can put in store websites and get a comparison of prices for the week for each item on my shopping list. Any ideas?

For various reasons we are switching to a high protein diet around here. Things I have observed since the switching began:

My 2yo quit having meltdowns. None of my others did this.

My 9yo who struggles with school has vastly improved

Well worth the change

“What if Your Child was a Homosexual?” Thoughts About Really True Love |

“What if Your Child was a Homosexual?” Thoughts About Really True Love |

A Web Designer Built A Tiny House With Zero Debt - The Tiny House Project

A Web Designer Built A Tiny House With Zero Debt - The Tiny House Project



Why isn't this a camp trailer?

HSLDA | The Romeike Case

HSLDA | The Romeike Case



However controls education controls the country.



The German government uses a Hitler era law to forbid parents from homeschooling, supposedly in order to prevent another Hitler.



They insist there can be no "alternate cultures" come up and so all children must be educated in the same schools in the same way in order to assure tolerance.



Yea. Real tolerant there; let's put all parents who disagree with us in jail in order to teach tolerance.



I'm very glad the Romeikes can stay, but the Supreme Courts refusal to hear the case, letting BO's policy that governments have the right to control education stand scares me.



Where do Americans go when our government cracks down on those who are different in the name of tolerance?

Problem solved: let private businesses refuse service to anyone anytime for any reason | The Matt Walsh Blog

Problem solved: let private businesses refuse service to anyone anytime for any reason | The Matt Walsh Blog

Articles: Zero Tolerance, Evil Objects, and the Psychosis of the Left

Articles: Zero Tolerance, Evil Objects, and the Psychosis of the Left

LAF/Beautiful Womanhood � The “P” Word

LAF/Beautiful Womanhood � The “P” Word

"How to Homeschool When You Think You Can’t |

How to Homeschool When You Think You Can’t |



"While it may be true, in some cases, that without two incomes, or
without a second parent in the home, the basic bills (food, shelter,
utilities, clothing) simply won’t get paid, this is hardly ever the
reality."



I was once asked in a survey from the county what they could do to get me to enroll my kids in public school. My answer:



"Teach the Christian God in every subject from Bible-believing point of view."



Nothing less would ever even tempt me.  

Why Are Churches Weak? | Blog | NCFIC

Why Are Churches Weak? | Blog | NCFIC



The Church is supposed to call us to repentance and to help us live a life of righteousness, not play nicey nicey.

Snowed In | 3 Ultra-Stupid Pieces of Marriage Advice The World Gives You

Snowed In | 3 Ultra-Stupid Pieces of Marriage Advice The World Gives You

The Last Two Weeks:

We have been very busy away from computers for the last two weeks. Here are my facebook updates for that time:

March 11 

Lady came into our yard today telling us about activities at the local community center. Turns out she is an ex-homeschooler (kids grown), farmer, herbalist, .....

Didn't know there was room for two of us in the neighborhood:-) lol

March 11 

Spent the last two mornings building a greenhouse and rabbit run. Run is done. Greenhouse frame is done, too, but the door, window and walls still need to be installed.

Today's news:
Splitting headache:-(
Lost bolts to the green house
fridge is terminally ill.

March 15 

2 o clock [A.M.] and all's....uhhh... not so well:( Josh woke up sick. All cleaned up and he's back to sleep now. Hubby don't feel so hot either:(

March 16 

News: my headache finally went away but Josh was complaining of one last night. He seems to be resting well now though.

New fridge arrives tomorrow.

Cat is fat. She was adopted from a shelter and was fixed before we adopted her. At least that was what they told us.....

Now to make some sourdough biscuits for lunch after church...

22 hours ago 

Today's news: New fridge is pretty, though a bit smaller than the last (really I think the freezer is bigger so there is more room for frozen dinners, which we don't eat. I would prefer the space in the fridge, but it just wasn't available.) But now we get an ice maker again (been without one for years).
 

Drove a trailer for the first time. Even backed it:-)
 

Wind didn't quite blow away the new greenhouse. I think it is a success since we only had to chase down a few panels. We'll glue them all in as soon a possible. The frame looks fine though:-)
 

Josh is up and around though I don't think he really feels good yet. Several others are a bit off, but up.

 And today:

Did school for the first time in two weeks. Actually, we have been "doing school." It's just more practical hands on stuff than our normal book work. The hands on will probably be more usefull in the future anyway. 

Our new Betas dies:-( Jenn is researching what she wants to get next.

The chicks are about ready to go outside. Just a bit too cold yet.

I have learned how to remove skin from a Gecko toe. Seems they don't always shed it all the way off and can lose a toe to the restriction of the retained skin. So we soaked her for half an hour on a wet paper towel, pulled out the tweezers, and did a manicure.

Fodder experiment doing good. Beans are already sprouting.

After Joe's first computer programing lesson today he informed me he already knew all that. He learned it playing Minecraft.

By the way, after prayer, we found all the lost bolts for the greenhouse plus one extra:-D 

Forget all the Christian charities and hospitals, let’s talk about their bad tipping habits | The Matt Walsh Blog

Forget all the Christian charities and hospitals, let’s talk about their bad tipping habits | The Matt Walsh Blog

Bossy liberal feminists have just invented another ridiculous reason to be offended | The Matt Walsh Blog

Bossy liberal feminists have just invented another ridiculous reason to be offended | The Matt Walsh Blog



"If boys generally feel better about themselves, why do they commit
suicide in astronomically higher numbers? Depending on where you look,
US males kill themselves at a rate between 3 and 10 times higher than
females."

The Well-Rounded Mama: The Disappearing Ones: Weight Loss Surgery, Shame, and Isolation

The Well-Rounded Mama: The Disappearing Ones: Weight Loss Surgery, Shame, and Isolation

Harvard Columnist Warns University Free Speech Threatens Liberalism

Harvard Columnist Warns University Free Speech Threatens Liberalism



What are they afraid of? Why do they think they have to outlaw opposing opinions?

If they are as right as they think they are, thy have nothing to fear form free speech and academic freedom.

These are the acts of tyrants, people.

The Official Meatrix I

)

Raw Milk Sales on the Rise -- No Illness Seen

Raw Milk Sales on the Rise -- No Illness Seen



We owned a cow when Jane was a baby. She could drink raw milk from our own cow with no problems, but if I drank pasteurized milk, ate ANY form of commercial dairy, or she consumed any store bought dairy she got very sick (thankfully she outgrew this). I have a friend that is the same way. Yet in our state it is illegal to sell raw milk. Thus, those humans in government arbitrarily have decided it is better for my friend and child to have no milk or be sick. What right do they have to make that decision for me and my friend?

Why Moms Are Protesting Common Core - Eagle Forum

Why Moms Are Protesting Common Core - Eagle Forum



In what is supposed to be the richest, free-est country the world has ever seen there is NO excuse for any unpopular policy to be implemented. If parents thought their child's education more important than their high standard of living they would think it worth while to pull their kids and make sure they received a God-centered, righteous education.

As I've said before, whoever writes the check makes the decisions.

Top reason conservatives can’t take America back

Top reason conservatives can’t take America back



"the failure of the Republican leaders,” he said. “When they’re in power, they act like Democrats, except they grow government a little slower than the Democrats do.”

This is why I am NOT a Republican. What difference is it if the plane hits the the ground at a 90 degree angle or an 80? What difference is it if the government is a tyranny today or tomorrow?

I have studied history uncensored by the government while teaching my children (homeschool). What I have seen happen in other countries throughout history disturbs and scares me. America is behaving no differently than ancient Rome just before her fall, ancient Greece, China, India, several African empires, etc.

If I am right in what I am seeing we are now entering a time of oppression and tyranny. Our freedom is over.





My only hopes are the homeschool movement (which is inherently anti-big government) and modern technology. It's hard to disappear people when you are being filmed by 20 smart phones. 



And this generation of young people all have rebellious Hippies for grandparents and no respect for authorities (which, ironically, are now those same hippies.)



What we need to do:

• Term limits (the longer someone is in DC the more liberal they become. This applies to SCOUTS as well as congressmen.)
•  
• Transform all government bodies into virtual-governments. What I mean is, insist that all government officials live in the districts that elected them and meet virtually. It is hard to oppress the person you have to buy your milk from every week. Now more isolation from the very people they hurt most by moving to the richest zip code in America. (This would be better for security anyway. Instead of one nuke in the middle of DC taking out the entire government it would take at least 50!)
•  
• Eliminate Public Schools. What is taught in the schools today will be the government tomorrow and taking money from one neighbor to pay for another neighbor's education is socialism and tyranny at its core. I would compromise with vouchers for a time as people become used to paying for their own children's education just like they pay for their food and to allow charities to be established to take care of the poor (as they did at the founding of this country). The only way we will permanently reestablish true freedom is if we start in kindergarten.
• Pass a law that no law can be more than one 8.5x11" paper long at 14pt font, and must not contain any word more than 3 symbols in length. 
• Above all, those of us who have been blessed with the time and resources to study non-censored history MUST speak out, loudly and frequently! We must NOT allow ourselves to be cowed by mudslinging accusations of hater, bigot, etc. These are ad hominem attacks used to distract from the issue and discredit the speaker. We must fight back with our voices loud and strong.

Articles: Totalitarianism and the Silence of the Lambs

Articles: Totalitarianism and the Silence of the Lambs

Grammy's G E M S: What, or Better Who, is a Writer

Grammy's G E M S: What, or Better Who, is a Writer

Homemakers That Live in Homes, Not Boxes (Debunking Myths) |

Homemakers That Live in Homes, Not Boxes (Debunking Myths) |

Snowed In | Why I’m Not A Heterosexual Anymore

Snowed In | Why I’m Not A Heterosexual Anymore

Three Lies Christians Tell Themselves Kevin A. Thompson

Three Lies Christians Tell Themselves Kevin A. Thompson

Morning

Thought I'ld drop a note to say I should be getting back to normal soon. I have finished up loading my organizer.

Now back to a "normal" schedule, though I have quite a bit of catchup to do.

Waht I've been up to

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was switching my planner to Google calendar. Well, in the middle of that I realized that should something happen to my organizer (which I have used as my purse/memory chip-in-print for several years) there is a great deal of information that would be totally lost! including login information for sites I only need to go to occasionally, birthdays, business info, etc.

Can we all say EKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!

Dropping my purse overboard on a fairy on vacation, off a cliff, it getting munched on by a friendly cow at a fair, or just plain forgotten somewhere never to be heard from again (not to mention the slight possibility of it being stolen or being burned up in a house fire) are all very really possibilities!

So I decided it was time for me to go electronic, making sure everything was backed up on the cloud.

I am almost finished with this massive switch. I know a few who would like to benefit from my research, so I thought I would share here and send them the link. That way I can benefit you too:-) (Just for your information, no one mentioned here is paying me to say anything good or bad, but maybe they should!:-)

First of all, I have used Dropbox for a couple of years now. Story: a young man would do his college homework every night but constantly forget to take his thumb-drive of work to school with him. So he invented Dropbox.

You download the app to all your internet connected devices. Every time you edit or create a document on one device and save it to your dropbox folder, it updates/saves on the cloud as well as each of your devices. This way your work is always secure and backed up, as well as available anywhere on the planet. And since your account is password secured, you are also safe and private. (I have set Word and Open Office as well as Powerpoint to automatically save to dropbox. This way all my books and articles as well as the kids school work is automatically backed up.)

Dropbox also lets you share files with others. For example, my church has an account and shares a folder with all the workers in the church. This way we all have access to the most up to date version of whatever we are working on at the moment.

The first 2G are free, plus you get extra space for each friend you invite to join  who accepts. If you still need more space (which I do) you can get 100G for just $100 per year.


I have described what I am doing on google calendar here, so I won't go into it more. However a few things have changed since then.

I discovered that my basic phone doesn't hold enough memory for Verizon to function as my addy book. Not too big of a problem, though. I have addy books in my yahoo email, my gmail account, and with my domain names (3 of them), so I'll just research which is the best and go with it, right?

Uhh, no. Turns out there are so many more options out there that do so much more! After hours of comparing reviews I decided to give Plaxo a try. Now this is subject to change (which is actually much easier than it sounds thanks to mass downloading and uploading offered by all these sites), but for now it's what I am using.

At Plaxo, each person is in charge of their own "card." So, for example, if you are one of my listed contacts and you move or change your phone number or your email, you just update your own card in your own Plaxo account and it changes your card in my account. You don't even have to tell me!

If I have enough info on your card in my account, Plaxo puts a link to your location under your name which takes me to that spot on Google maps.

And (if Plaxo and I get our disagreement on whether I have given "permissions" or not) if I link to Facebook, anyone listed in my addy book who is also a friend on FB will have their picture and birthday automatically displayed in my card file.

When I get a phone or tablet that is compatible with the app, I will be able to dial or text straight from Plaxo, too.

Like Dropbox, your account is kept secure on the cloud and synced to each registered device.

And they offer eCards, notifications of birthdays, and a calendar. A good deal of memory is free, but you can pay for more if you want to.

I am also no longer using Google Keep for my notes. Keep is like having a stack of post-it notes in my hand and making random scribbles of information. Uhhh, that doesn't help.

Instead, I am using Evernote.  This is more like having a stack of paper next to my chair that I record information on, clip articles out and glue to, or just brainstorm with, and a file drawer that I can then put each item into all nicely organized and tagged, with the benefit of it being backed up on the cloud and synced to all my devices/computers.

Evernote has a little button you can add to your toolbar in your browser that will let you "clip" pages or URLS. These can be filed very nicely in your "notebooks" for access later.

Also, when you open the app, you can immediately start writing. You don't need a third party program (i.e. Word, Notes) like you do with Dropbox.

So I put my bigger notes from my organizer into Word documents and saved them to Dropbox, but the short little bits of information I just filed away in little notes in Evernote.

I am also trying to form the habit of clipping websites I want to read later to Evernote instead of bookmarking them. This way should something happen to my computer (like my toddler shoving it to the floor again) I still have all my bookmarks. They will also be available anywhere I can get to the internet.

"Free users can make a single note up to 25MB in size and can upload up to 60MBs of new stuff every month. Premium users can make a single note up to 50MB in size and can upload up to 1GB of new stuff every month."


After the above mentioned incident with the toddler and the laptop which required me hunting up all my blogs, bookmarks, and feeds all over again for the fourth time in two years, I decided I HAD to do something to back all that up. If I spend all my time  redoing the same things over and over, I'll never get anything done!

The solution I came up with was My Yahoo. Just go to yahoo.com and there will be a button at the top right to set up MyYahoo. This is a personalized homepage (I have my browser set to open to this spot). It allows me to add tabs and to add RSS feeds to those tabs, as well as save bookmarks.

I have tabs for mommy blogs, farming blogs, news feeds, politics, herbs and religion. When I have the time to read, I go to each tab and look over each blog's feed to see what's new.

I find the bookmarks spot too cumbersome to use for quickey things I don't need to keep forever, but it works great for things I need frequently (links to email accounts, business sites (like my book manufacturer), favorite coupon sites, etc). I sorted those into categories, too, for easy access.

Now if my computer crashes (to the floor with a loud BANG) I haven't lost everything I have been saving. Also, I can access it from any computer with just my Yahoo password.

I discovered about the time I thought I had it all figured out that I also used my organizer as my garden planner! So back to the web...

Now, I have a brown thumb and already spend way too much on the garden each year. It in no way pays for itself. So any paid planner was out. I specifically searched for free ones.

Smart Garden is what I came up with. It allows me to plan my beds, and after finding out how many people were in our home and what we like to eat, it made suggestions for what type of each plant to grow. It even offered to let me order the seeds right from their site (which is where I believe they get their money- the seed companies. No problem. Win-win from my point of view! They get a customer and I get a planner and an easy way to get my seeds.) I enter all my activity in my journal on their site and located my property on Google maps (put my marker in the middle of my peach tree:-), and they send me a to-do list synced to the historical records of frost dates in my area (This week's to do list is "take a nap in your hammock" since its really too cold to plant).


The last thing I am doing is moving my pictures to Photobucket. I did a lot of research and, though techy's and photographers tend to like Flicker and Picasa much better, everyday people choose Photobucket (43% of the market share). This is probably because PB is more focused on keeping your pictures safe than sharing them (though you can do that too, if you want), and it offers the ability to make prints and calendars.

I set an account up with them years ago when I wanted a slideshow for my toolbar on this blog. I even discovered some pictures I don't have in my files when I went back this week! I will be spending some time in the next few weeks making the transition from Drobox to PB which was actually designed for storing and displaying pictures. DB will do it, but it isn't really what it was made for.

This and putting my music in Google Play will free up a little space in my DB account, too; something I need to keep an eye on since we are already using 75% of my paid for memory!(Honestly, I don't listen to much music. I enjoy listening to God's symphony of the wind and rain, the animals chirrpings and squeaks, and my children's laughter much more. But I do have a few albums I enjoy occasionally that are different than what Hubby picks when he is home. His music is saved on iTunes, I believe, as well as having his entire computer backed up to Carbonite.)

I hope this helps someone out there:-) I think once I get used to it, these electronic assistants will actually free up more time for housework and the kids since I won't be spending time rewriting things in my organizer. More time on the computer but way less on organizing and planning in general should equal more time for what's important.

I am afraid of this indisputable pro-choice argument | The Matt Walsh Blog

I am afraid of this indisputable pro-choice argument | The Matt Walsh Blog



If the woman in Rachael's argument injured the famous singer to the point he could not survive without being tied to her through life support and then she hacked him to pieces with a hatchet, her scenario would be much closer to abortion.



Pregnancy is not a disease that randomly happens to people for no reason. 99% of abortion happen because mommy wanted to screw around and then decided to kill the baby that came into existence due to her own actions. He is not an invader, but a totally innocent victim of mom's libido.

Chicken Sunday

Though we usually have some sort of chicken for lunch at our church's potluck each

Sunday, that isn't what I am talking about:-)

After service today we went to a local feed store and bought this year's supply of chicks. Each year I try to buy replacement chicks for 1/2-1/3 of our flock. This way, come fall when they begin to molt (and quit laying) for the winter we can cull out the older hens and only feed those likely to produce more the next spring and maybe even some during winter.

At least that's the theory. So far we end up not having the heart to butcher anything until they are so old the whole flock needs replacing.

Anyway, today we picked up five Americanas, which lay green eggs(!) and five Buff Orpingtons who will lay brown. We've had both breeds before and enjoy them. The old ones are Plymouth Rocks and Red Sex Links.

We rotate breeds so we know which ones are old and which ones are young come fall when they all look the same!

This makes our grand total of residants for our 1.35 acres;

• 1 85lb dog (lab mix- shelter rescue 5 years ago)
• 1 small cat (also a shelter rescue)
• 5 rabbits (mostly Red Satins though a couple are mixed Red Satin and ?)
• 1 Leopard Gecko (and accompanying cricket and mealworm food supply- Ewwwww)
• 2 Female Beta fish
• 2 Zebra Finches
• 13 adult hens (7 white and 6 brown/red)
• 10 chicks (5 yellow and 5 brown and yellow)
• and, of course, 11 humans (4 adults, 2 teens, 1 preteen, 3 children and 1 toddler)

We might be a bit, uhhh, cozy around here.

:-)

Anyone else notice that the "experts," who are supposed to have all the right answers, change their minds every couple of years? And that this applies to nutrition, education, science, economics, society, and on and on? Maybe, just maybe, all the experts really are humans making the best guess they can and they don't really have all the answers.

My testimony. The good, the bad, and the ugly. | The Elliott Homestead

My testimony. The good, the bad, and the ugly. | The Elliott Homestead