daybook 11/2/2015 {long-lost blogging habit}

 

For today… Monday, November 2, 2015

Outside my window... sunny and warm – a flash-back to summer!  except that most of the trees and fields are bare.

Hearing... washing machine, speech class

Pondering... time. 

Sounds pretty profound, eh?  Wondering how/why we have ‘so little’ of it in our modern age?

Praying... for Pastor Cornel and his wife Mari ministering in Brasov, Romania.  Mr. & Mrs. F. received full support, so they are off to Germany for the next five years – leaving tomorrow!  Denise has stopped chemo, but continues radiation treatments.  Her son Jon is newly deployed to the Middle East.  The P Family are just returned from Haifa, hoping to find a way to return soon to where ‘home’ is for them.  Kate & Abby are in midst of 9-week block – their schedules of study and ministry are FULL to the brim!

Thankful... glimpses of maturity/responsibility in each of our ‘kids’  …and sweet notes like the one featured in my kitchen window.

Creating... this blog post!  Hoping… to rekindle the habit.

Going... to spend less time staring at face book.  [famous last words/resolution?]

Reading... Nehemiah, Green Leaf in Drought by Isobel Kuhn, too many library novels to list.  Oh, I did manage to pick up War Room and enjoyed that challenge.  Also, In Search of the Source by Neil Anderson/Hyatt Moore was very good!

  

 

Looking forward to... Thanksgiving – Kate,  Abby, and Daniel will all be home with us for the first time in several years!

In the kitchen... baking day in spite of summerlike heat.  Kavring for Mr. & Mrs. M., bread for my family.

In the learning rooms... the Cowgirl and I are thankful for this book, which has made learning some basic accounting ‘easy’

Around the house... clutter. always. 

Seriously, I was looking at pictures of a house for sale recently… INcredible, immaculate staging.  Does anyone still live there?

But the visual lesson is that we have much room for improvement here.  errrr, better stated: we need to find a proper place for what’s needful.. and throw the rest out.

The Mother Load... Laundry is under control.  Ironing is caught up – woot!  Grading school papers caught up – double woot!  Menus planned for most of the month – check.  Bathroom cleaned this morning – check.  Sooo, dusting and de-cluttering would be good things to do.  But instead I am blogging about it…  while the kavring bakes on low.  :-)

Noticing that... it’s really idiotic for the Republican party/candidates to allow the liberal media to ‘moderate’ their debates.   #whatcouldgowrong? 

[Conny and I are both #hashtaghappy]

Something fun to share... I am choosing to NOT craft any gifts this Christmas!  :D 

Baking does not count as crafting.

A favorite quote for today... or two or three…

"If you saw the runaway blimp, you saw our government." - Gov. Mike Huckabee

“This is not a cage match…” – Sen. Ted Cruz

Confirming years of speculation, a new study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Animal Health Monitoring System has found that red meat significantly increases the risk of premature death in cows.  - The Onion

"Whenever politicians promote any cause in the name "of the people," you can be sure that the people have little or nothing to do with the cause and will not benefit from it in in any single way." - Thomas DiLorenzo

One of my favorite things... swatting flies.  Not. 

Caller ID.  Yes.

A few plans for the rest of the week... Tues & Fri – meals for Mr. & Mrs. M.; Fri – attend senior music recital?  Sat – attend a baby shower

A peek into my world... difficult to capture the impact of gold leaves on dark brown trees against bright sunshine and blue sky

~.~.~.~.~

Giving credit where credit is due:

While I am not linking up with anyone, you could read more weekly news posts at other blogs by following any of these links:

• Peggy at the Simple Woman’s Daybook

• Julie for adapting this daybook version as her own ‘Grasshopper Days’ ~ Perhaps I could call it the GHV Daybook. :)

• You can also find a similar weekly meme in Happy Homemaker Monday at Sandra’s

~.~.~.~.~

Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord,

that thou fulfil it. Colossians 4:17

Bastiat and legal plunder

 

{sigh}

This morning I was reading to the kids from Carson about how the Constitution came to be regarded and respected as Higher Law in our country due to a contest between Chief Justice Marshall and the Jeffersonians in the early 1800s.  Interesting.  It was also was understood that each branch of government was to determine its own actions based on its own interpretation of the Constitution.  {{the judiciary branch wasn’t the only judge of what the Constitution says!}}  So Congress often debated the constitutionality of its proposed legislation.  And “until after 1865 many more bills were invalidated by Presidents on the ground of their unconstitutionality than were invalidated by the Supreme Court.” 

Think on that for a minute or ten.  {Then be sure to go back and note the year of 1865.  I could go off on the Lincoln presidency…}

Meanwhile in the year {AD} 2014…

A facebook friend posted yesterday about it being an election day.  I surmised it must be school board election time.  Which we do not get to participate in since we lived outside city limits.  Yet our kids would be considered part of the local school district if we enrolled them in the public schools?  And 53% of our property taxes are sent to the same local district.  {anyone else see a problem with that?}

ANYway, today her status became a short discussion of additional taxes levied to pay for new school buildings…  ad nauseum. One commenter [Jenn] pays for the private education of her children, and she is of the opinion the public schools appear to have an abundance of funds.  Someone else [Barb] was arguing that Jenn also benefitted from the public school systems in her own education {which Jenn refuted with the fact her parents paid}.   But then they both agreed that vouchers were a great option so that Jenn’s taxes could help pay for her own kids’ private education.  End of discussion?

I hesitated.  Thought about posting something like this:

:x

As in, I’m biting my tongue instead of spewing hot lava. 

But then I went looking for Mr. Bastiat’s little gem called The Law.  Since I couldn’t find our printed copy I resorted to an online search:: success!  espec since it’s so much easier to copy/paste.  {and yes, I’m lazy – but I did read much of the writing while searching for his discussion on legal plunder.  So I’m not a total dufus in spite of my own public schools education.  ahem.  God is the Great Redeemer!}

On facebook I only posted the first paragraph I’ve quoted here, but it’s all so good.  So in the midst of my trying to recount the long month of August in our own small world, here’s a little insight to the reality of socialism in America.

Why do we have so many ‘victims’ in our country?  Why is their so much real violence?  Why do we have such an anti-American living in the White House?

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

I am so incredibly thankful that my ultimate citizenship is in heaven by the grace and mercy of God.  Meanwhile we are to be good stewards in the place God has put us.  I believe that includes being a voice for truth and justice.  Now we just need Tim to offer his own blog of wisdom to share with y’all.  For now I guess you could listen to Jan M on WHO Radio along with reading some Bastiat.

While I suggest you click and read the entire book, you could begin with this tidbit from Frederick Bastiat:

 

How to Identify Legal Plunder

But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.

Then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil itself, but also it is a fertile source for further evils because it invites reprisals. If such a law — which may be an isolated case — is not abolished immediately, it will spread, multiply, and develop into a system.

The person who profits from this law will complain bitterly, defending his acquired rights. He will claim that the state is obligated to protect and encourage his particular industry; that this procedure enriches the state because the protected industry is thus able to spend more and to pay higher wages to the poor workingmen.

Do not listen to this sophistry by vested interests. The acceptance of these arguments will build legal plunder into a whole system. In fact, this has already occurred. The present-day delusion is an attempt to enrich everyone at the expense of everyone else; to make plunder universal under the pretense of organizing it.

Legal Plunder Has Many Names

Now, legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways. Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so on. All these plans as a whole — with their common aim of legal plunder — constitute socialism.

Now, since under this definition socialism is a body of doctrine, what attack can be made against it other than a war of doctrine? If you find this socialistic doctrine to be false, absurd, and evil, then refute it. And the more false, the more absurd, and the more evil it is, the easier it will be to refute. Above all, if you wish to be strong, begin by rooting out every particle of socialism that may have crept into your legislation. This will be no light task.

what's up with "common core"?

Watch this video to hear David Barton explain...

freedom honor flight

 

I’ll admit to being ignorant of the current news on most days.  Thankfully Tim listens to the radio while he runs the combine – and usually shares the highlights with me.  Last night he had quite the story to share.  I hadn’t heard the government had actually ‘shut down’ due to the continued battle over defunding Obamacare. 

And while that is news, it was the potential effect on veterans traveling yesterday from Mississippi and Iowa to DC with Freedom Honor Flights that really got my attention….

 

***Due credit to the Des Moines Register and reporters Jennifer Jacobs and Christopher Doering for the excerpts and photos posted here***

 

The 150 Iowa veterans who arrived in Washington, D.C., on day one of the federal shutdown weren’t sure whether they would be able to view the iconic sights they’d made the journey to see.

 

Iowa’s U.S. Rep. Steve King played a central role in helping the veterans breach the gates at the World War II Memorial, defying instructions from the National Park Police that the site was closed. The scene was “both emotional and comical at once” as 80- and 90-year-old veterans shuffled slowly past the guards, toppling metal fences, wrote a Stars & Stripes reporter at the scene.

“There’s a time when you just know it’s the right thing,” said King, a Republican from western Iowa. “I didn’t know what we were going to do when I went down there this morning. I just knew that to be there on the spot, I trusted that I’d know the right thing when the time came.”

The Washington Post reported: “Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said he believed the Park Service opened the gates. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) said the congressmen did it. Rep. Steven M. Palazzo (R-Miss.) said the barricades just seemed to part.”

But the U.S. park police on site were complicit. One officer who declined to give his name told the Post: “I’m not going to enforce the ‘no stopping or standing’ sign for a group of 90 World War II veterans I’m a veteran myself.”

 

I say, Bully for Congressman King and his fellow legislators!

not funny

 

 

marvel not

 

…if the world hate you.  1 John 3:13

We are reading through the epistles of John this month {1-3 John} along with Proverbs.

John wrote to his fellow believers …For the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever. 2 John 2

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. 3 John 4

Do we … have we… have I demonstrated that the Truth lives in me?  People in our world need the Truth so desperately.  Are we walking in truth?

“It's also increasingly apparent to me that our real problems are not political, but spiritual. Both parties have failed to acknowledge that. Democrats have not wanted to even acknowledge the need for God in our public institutions, but sadly, many of the Republican leadership will acknowledge God, but not because they believe we should be humble before Him, but to use God in our speeches and platforms. We wear our love of Israel like a badge of courage but on the issues of life and marriage too many of our leaders are more like lambs than Lions of Judah.” ~ Mike Huckabee {via facebook}

Lots of random thoughts going through my head since last night when my hubby informed me that President Obama appeared to be winning this election….

Wondering if this is how God will show His mercy? I have never liked Mitt Romney, but I voted for Paul Ryan – and his running mate – yesterday.  In hopes of defeating Obama.  Four years ago, I couldn’t bring myself to vote for McCain.  This time I voted for the slower track to our nation’s demise. 

With the idea of God’s mercy (along with a caveat), the song “Blessings” also comes to mind this morning…

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things.

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise…

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise.

 

Verse of the Day from Bible Gateway:

“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” -1 Timothy 2:1-2

 

Do our comfortable lives need stirring up?  Is persecution the only way to strengthen our commitment to Christ?

 

I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. ~ John 9:4

 

Work, for the night is coming,
Under the sunset skies;
While their bright tints are glowing,
Work, for daylight flies.
Work till the last beam fadeth,
Fadeth to shine no more;
Work, while the night is darkening,
When man’s work is o’er.

 

[graphic from Ann Voskamp via a facebook friend]

 

Another hymn that came to mind this morning  ~

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

Under the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same.

Thy Word commands our flesh to dust,
“Return, ye sons of men:”
All nations rose from earth at first,
And turn to earth again.

A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.

The busy tribes of flesh and blood,
With all their lives and cares,
Are carried downwards by the flood,
And lost in following years.

Time, like an ever rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

Like flowery fields the nations stand
Pleased with the morning light;
The flowers beneath the mower’s hand
Lie withering ere ‘tis night.

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.

 

 

He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Thanksgiving Family Forum

We might have stayed at home to watch if we knew the Family Forum was available online at Citizen Link.  However, we did go.  And it was good.  We are watching it again here with our kids.  And you're invited to watch as well.  As Mr. Luntz promised, it was nothing like the debates we've watched previously.  No timers.  No camera/microphone hogs.  Just dinner table conversation with lots of articulate people ~ who each professed to need God's help to lead this nation.

http://www.citizenlink.com/2011/11/19/thanksgiving-family-forum-complete-video/

 

We still aren't sure who our favorite GOP candidate is.  I wish they {the six involved in yesterday's forum} would learn from each other, and we could have some sort of composite candidate with each of their strengths.  Not likely, but I do pray that we will have a GOP candidate I can vote for with good conscience, unlike last time.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  

As Mr. Gingrich pointed out, in the 18th century, the pursuit of happiness was about wisdom and virtue, not hedonism and acquisition.

...So help me God.

You must listen to or read this!

Ron Paul to Congress: If Debt Is the Problem, Why Do You Want More of It?

Transcript

Ron Paul: Mr. Speaker, the Congress is concerned about the debt, the people are concerned about the debt, the markets are concerned about the debt, the world is concerned about the debt and what we’re doing here today, because we live with a world fiat dollar standard and so the whole world is engulfed in this very serious problem.
I do not understand, though, that if the debt is the problem – and I agree, the debt is the problem – that for us to come here and raise the debt by 2.4 trillion dollars is the solution. That just baffles me. I think it’s a distraction, because when a country gets indebted to the degree that we’re indebted, the country always defaults. This is historic, especially if the country is a significant country. On occasion, a small country will quit sending the checks and they’ll go bankrupt; we’re not going to do that, but we will default because the debt is unsustainable.
This year it is said that we have a debt increase of 1.6 trillion dollars, but that’s not true. If you count what we borrow from the pension funds, the Social Security and highway funds, it’s 2 trillion dollars. But if you include the increase in the entitlement obligation, it’s 5 trillion dollars. So this is a huge, huge problem.
But the argument here is, how do you default. And it is said that if we don’t raise the debt limit, we’re going to default and not send out the checks. I don’t believe that for a minute, somehow or another the checks are going to go out.
But if you really wanted to live within the technicalities of law, there’s a very simple thing you could do. We owe the Federal Reserve 1.6 trillion dollars. Well, that’s not a real debt – they bought those treasury bills with money out of thin air. We could just write that off or quit paying the interest, tide ourselves over and get down to serious business to cut back and live within our means. And that would be a solution. But to increase the national debt will only encourage another type of default, and that’s what we’re going through. We’re engaged in the most difficult and a very bad way of defaulting; and that is through the destruction of the currency. Today we have an inflation rate of 9%, and that is defaulting. So if a government can default and print money, and if they can get a 50% inflation rate over a period of time, they’ve cut that debt in half. That is the goal, that is what’s happening, and that is very, very serious.
Just in these last 3 years in dealing with this crisis, the dollar has been devalued 50% against gold, and gold, of course, is the best measurement of the value of a currency and it’s been that way for thousands of years and it cannot be denied because it’s economic law. So we are defaulting, and when the American people go out and start buying goods and services, like they are now, they’re recognizing it costs a lot of money. So right now, we’re in the early stages of rampant inflation, which means we’re going to be hit with higher prices and higher interest rates. That is going to be a tax. So I see the only solution, and that is to cut spending.
Now the reason we don’t cut spending is one side loves entitlements, and the other side loves war. And even this token attempt of a 100 billion dollars of cuts when we have this huge, huge deficit… But there’s no mention of cutting military spending. I don’t want to cut defense spending. This military spending doesn’t defend us, it makes things worse.
Our problem in this country doesn’t come only from the Congress, it comes from the people! The people still have a strong appetite for big government programs. They’re not willing to cut, they think government can take care of us from cradle to grave, and that we can be the policeman of the world. So someday, we as a country, we as a people, and we as a Congress, will have to say, “What should the role of government be?” The founders had a pretty strong suggestion, they wrote a constitution that said the government should be very limited, and the government should be protecting our liberties and providing national defense and a sound currency. We don’t do any of that. We’ve embarked on a course that was destined to end badly and this is where we are today.
So if we don’t understand this, this default will not be because we don’t send out the checks – we will send out the checks – it will be defaulted on because people will get their money back, or they will get their Social Security checks, and it won’t buy anything.
That is much, much worse than facing the fact that we not raise the debt limit and work our way out of this. That is devastating economically, and it’s devastating politically, because if we just saw a taste of what happens, how the anger is built when you see other countries in Europe now defaulting and can’t pay their bills. So this is more significant than ever, because we provide the reserve currency of the world.

a day in the [crazy] life

 

Yesterday was the last day of Driver’s Education Class for Miss MusicBox and Miss Artist.  woot woot!  We were out the door shortly after 7:30am to get them to Ames for the final 2.5 hours of class with Mr. K. (followed by 2 hours of driving with Mr. B.)

   

The Computer Geek came along at my insistence.  After stopping at Fareway for few groceries, we headed to the DOT’s driver’s license station.  Yikes, there must have been at least five people in line before the doors opened at 8:30, because we were about number twelve arriving at 8:35.  Shortly before 10am, he had his learner’s permit in hand.  Whew.  “Busy place” is an understatement.

 

I had decided we ‘needed’ some fresh blueberries, so we headed off to the Berry Patch by Nevada.  (Note to locals:  several streets south of Campustown are ripped up for repairs :p  so don’t try to go that way.  ahem.)  We eventually arrived at the Berry Patch, where the two Judys proceeded to talk us out of buying the pre-picked berries… You’ll have a bucket full in 20 minutes!  Picking blueberries IS relatively easy, but I had the wrong shoes so my foot is still sore from squatting.  At any rate, almost five pounds of delicious yummy blueberries were now ours!  On to the raspberries.  Here I lost my gumption for digging through the thorny canes quickly, but we still came away with a little more than an pound ~ (almost) enough for a batch of raspberry jam.  (and yes, delicious is the key word ~ We’re talking fresh fruit, Julie G.!)

 

By now it was 11:30am, and we were hot and tired …and without a water bottle!  :-\  The GG said he had his (Huxley store-only) Dairy Queen coupon along, so we drove to Huxley for blizzards.  But no water.  {duh}  Zoomed back to Ames to pick up the girls from their drive time and give them some melted Passed their tests at Driver’s Ed Celebration Blizzards.  We made it home by 1pm… for lunch.  Who’s hungry?!  Just oh-so-thirsty.

 

                 

 

After freezing most of the blueberries and mixing up the raspberry jam (with a few wild black raspberries and some strawberries added), I tried for a quick nap.  Which ended a bit earlier than planned due to an unsolicited and unanswered phone call.   :p   I’m looking forward to getting the August GOP Straw Poll over with, but I suppose the phone calls won’t end until November 7, 2012.

Who would you vote for??

     

 

 

I needed to return to Huxley for the Azure Standard delivery.  I left the older girls at the farm office to clean while I ran that errand.  (I’ll be back.  Ha.)

  

But when I arrived at Jenny’s house about 5pm, she told me the truck would be delayed until at least 6:15pm.  (Jenny now has my phone number : ))   I called a couple other friends and Tim to inform them of the delay.  I decided to wait for the truck.  Jenny learned it might be 7pm before they arrived.  It was nice enough (Joy!) to just sit in my van, but I’d come without a book to read, etc.  I wasn’t hungry enough to get a Subway sandwich (and I had spent too much at DQ earlier!)  I opted to hang out at the local library.  I read the DesMoines Register for an hour, then returned to sit at Jenny’s, listening to Simon Conway on WHO-Radio mourn the end of our manned space program.  At 7, several others arrived and we all stood around the driveway chatting… Jenny offered chairs for the old fogies (me), and I had a good time catching up with Wendy and getting to know Heidi.  Sometime after 7:30 ~ maybe 7:45? ~ the truck actually arrived, and we had our order unloaded in about ten minutes.  About 8pm I left Huxley for home.  Where I found the girls baking potato buns and bread… and no one had eaten supper yet?!  (except Tim who’d gone out with a friend for a Smash Burger)

 

 

I was the first one asleep in the house.  Only wakened briefly by a loud and bright thunderstorm about 2am… And then it was time to rise and shine again…

one of Tim's favorites

from Daniel Defoe...

Nature has left this tincture in the blood,
That all men would be tyrants if they could:
If they forbear their neighbours to devour,
'Tis not for want of will, but want of power;
The general plague infects the very race,
Pride in his heart, and tyrant in his face;
The characters are legible and plain,
And perfectly describe the monster, man.

Nor can he otherwise be understood,
We'd all be emperors, 'tis in our blood;
Ambition knows no bounds: the meanest hand,
If once let loose, would power itself command;
Would storm the skies, the thund'rer there dethrone,
Be universal lord, and call the world his own.

(and there's even more to the poem!)

Thank you, Mr. Defoe and Google  :-)

no joke

Just saw this on MSN and thought I'd like to share it with you all in case you miss it in the media  =)  A doctor in Florida posted this on his door advising anyone who voted for Barak Obama to seek their healthcare changes now ~ and elsewhere.

This doc will need some happy face mail from around the country, because I'm sure he'll be getting some of the other variety.