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Sunday, December 4, 2011

Thanksgiving

    This year for thanksgiving we were very privileged to be able to go to Georgia to visit our friends the Fuccis. While we were there we had the opportunity of visiting a few other families that we know from Family week. Here are some pictures!

Our thanksgiving meal. Whats that? There is something missing? Oh right! Well, this is a unusual thanksgiving dinner. We did a mostly Raw-Vegan thanksgiving! Everything was superb.

Tammy and Amdis playing the guitar.

Delany and Aliyah making Raw Coconut Ice cream (recipe will be posted on other blog soon!)

Having fun!

New Blog!

    Hey all! I have a new Raw food blog, be sure to check it out! Just click HERE

Sunday, November 20, 2011

The Dangers of Soda to Your Body


     Ok, lets be honest here. Everybody knows that soda isn't exactly the best thing for you, right? Well, the funny thing is, most people drink it anyway because its tastes so good! But have you ever read the ingredient list? Have you ever wondered what those really long unpronounceable words are, and what they are doing to you?
     Lets talk about statistics. In the year 2000 over 15 billion gallons of Soft Drinks were sold, that's one 12 ounce can per person, per day! That one 12 ounce can (or more) that you drink daily adds up to about 60 gallons of soda in one year. Yikes!
     One of the reasons why people drink soda is the caffeine. In fact, that is one of the main reasons why people keep going back for more, because, lets face it, caffeine is a drug. When you drink a lot of caffeine your body becomes used to it, and really "needs" it. If you go without caffeine you will probably experience major migraine headaches, a rise in blood pressure, irritability, and stomach problems. Caffeine intoxication is very dangerous to your body. According to Rhonda J. Malkmus who said in her book Recipes for Life: "While the artificial stimulation of caffeine temporarily arouses the intellect and fatigue seems to disappear, it is short lived. The excess stimulation depletes the body of vital energy and it struggles to deal with the poison that has entered the system." So while you are drinking soda (or anything with caffeine in it) and trying to awaken yourself, what you are really doing is making yourself more tired! Caffeine also causes many other things including : Nervousness, anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, gastrointestinal upset, tremor, rapid heartbeats, and agitation.
     Dr Mary Ruth Swope in her article titled, Why I don't Drink Soft Drinks and I Wish You Didn't, makes the following statement: "Soft Drinks contain caramel coloring, which, according to some researchers, has genetic effects and is a cancer-causing suspect. Polyethylene glycol is used as an ingredient sometimes. Glycol is used in anti-freeze in automobiles and as an oil solvent. Perhaps you have noticed that pouring cola drinks on your windshield in a snow or ice storm with keep the windshield from freezing over with ice." So, soda has an ingredient in it that is used in anti-freeze! Do you want to be putting that in your body?
     Diabetes has been linked to extensive soda drinking. Drinking soda stresses your body's ability to process sugar and increases your risk of Diabetes. Did you know that type 2 Diabetes has increases by 90% in 10 years? I wonder if it has something to do with the large increase of soda intake by Americans? Do you drink lots of soda and get Heartburn often? Thats right, drinking soda causes heartburn, due to the very high acid content. Tooth decay is a horrible result of drinking soda. Did you know that if you place a human tooth in soda, within two days they will become soft and the enamel on the surface will have lost most of its calcium? Now, when you drink soda your teeth aren't submerged in the liquid for that amount of time so the affects will take a little longer to be noticed, but the soda does slowly wear down your teeth. Heart disease and High Blood Pressure are also results of soda drinking, as well as Kidney Stones. You see, the acid content in soda changes the urine in a way that promotes Kidney Stones. An ingredient in soda called Phosphate is really bad for you. Phosphate lowers the calcium in your body, and when your body is low in calcium, your body pulls the needed calcium out out of your bones, this is also known as Osteoporosis. Other results of drinking soda are: Impaired Digestion (soda on an empty stomach upsets the fragile alkaline balance); Mental Health problems (soda dissolves your brain); Gout; Cancer (cancer cant live in an oxygen rich environment, soda depletes your body of oxygen); Weight gain (1 can of soda per day is equivalent to 1 pound of weight per month); Liver Damage (soda is so strong and high in acid that your body has to work so hard to dilute it in your system that it overworks your Liver and Kidney).
     We have talked about regular soda now lets look at Diet soda. Diet soda is advertised as "Sugar Free," and it is. It doesn't have regular sugar in it, but it has something 200 times sweeter, and much worse for you: Aspartame. Aspartame, though you may not realize it, has a very addictive nature and instead of getting you off sugar it actually increases your appetite for sweet things! Have you ever heard of Aspartame Disease? The symptoms are headaches, dizziness, attention difficulties, memory loss, slurred speech, and vision problems. Aspartame is cancer causing and has been proven to result in brain tumors. Methanol makes up 10% of Aspartame and is extremely harmful to the optic nerve (can cause blindness). Aspartame causes Seizures, Multiple sclerosis, Chronic fatigue, Depression, Diabetes, Potassium Depletions (which can result in Cardiac Arrhythmias and Paralysis of the Skeletal Muscles). Pretty horrible stuff, huh?
     Hopefully this article has shed some light on the dangers of soda and next time, when you reach for a can of soda, perhaps you will remember all of the things that it causes and think twice about your decision. :-)
"If Mankind would at once discard all refined, sprayed, and unnatural foods, it would be the beginning of a people that would live long happy lives and be free of disease".
-Paul C. Bragg

                                             

Sukkot

  Hey all! I'm sorry it has been so incredibly long since I have posted. I keep meaning to do it but things keep happening that make me have to put it off (school, shopping, cleaning). So, we have had a busy few weeks. First off we started babysitting every other week, that has been a cool experience, and we just recently went on a 10 day camping trip for Sukkot/ Feast of Tabernacles.
    Our excitement started about 2 weeks before Sukkot which was when we officially decided were we were going, we like to do things last minute, leaves room for more excitement :-) Anyway, we Sukkot-ed in Comer, Ga at Fort Yargo State Park with my Grandparents, and our good friends the F.s from Family week. Actually there were two groups of us, our small group and then another group that stayed at our friends the H.'s house. We had met the H. family at Family Week but hadn't really gotten to know them, so it was a very exciting opportunity! There were 2 or 3 family's staying at the H's house and many more that would come throughout the day to visit. So like I said, we were staying at the campground and would drive to the H's house every day to spend time with everybody.
    Our trip started out great, we got up early and left at around 7am (Thursday the 13th of Oct). Well, right off the bat things got bad. There was a really bad car accident on I85 and it was backed up for miles. The trip from North Carolina to Georgia is only supposed to be 4 1/2 hours but it took us that long just to get out of NC! Our trip all together ended up being about 7 1/2 hours long, so we arrived at the campsite and had just enough time to set up before it started raining! But, what would Sukkot be without rain, right?? ha ha.
    We were to tie rd and had to many things to do to go visit the H's and everybody that night, so, after the rain let up we had a nice fire and welcomed in the Shabbat that marks the first day of Sukkot! The next day we went over to the H's house and started off with some singing and playing instruments, I didn't bring my guitar because there wasn't enough room in the car *teehee, I always over pack* but it was a lot of fun. We spent a all of our time dancing, playing games, singing and playing instruments, talking, bible study, and more!



Oh, did I mention we brought my cat with us? Yes, a cat camping is quite a funny thing to see, but he loved it! Sleeping in the tent on the bed at night, hanging out by the fire, having everybody want to hold and cuddle him. He never forgave us for bringing him back :-)




We were playing a really fun game called Sheep and Shepherds, one person is the narrator and everyone else is either a sheepdog, sheep, or wolf. I don't remember exactly how it goes, but we played it a lot and it was fun :-)





Sheep and Shepherds again.


A group of the kids sitting downstairs talking, I think we were telling jokes :-)



Aliyah, Ella, and Savannah. They went everywhere together!


This was the Shabbat before we left, we were outside doing praise and worship and bible study before a potluck dinner.



Apparently the guitar is popular!! They did great :-)


Some of the Kids dancing to "Father Abraham" on the last Shabbat. It was cute to watch!


Eating dinner on the last Shabbat.


Downstairs playing instruments again!


And then everybody moved upstairs and started playing.


That's Delany and me in the front and then the 6 H. girls.
Amdis, Atalie, Ariana, Amara, Azalea, and Aliyah. It took me a couple days to get everybody's name down!


We did this in height order..... Does it remind you of something?
Aliyah, Azalea, Amara, Tammy, Ariana, Delany, Amdis, and Atalie.


One of my favorite parts was the night that everybody went outside with there instruments. We all gathered around a huge campfire (courtesy of Mr H) and were singing and playing instruments! I was cool outside and the fire and singing was really pleasant. Another fun time was when everybody cam to the campsite and we had a fire and played these really cool games. One was called "One up one down", and the other was called "Umbrella". The goal of the game was to figure out how to play the game! I know it doesn't really make sense, but it was to cool :-) We played a lot of cool games with the H. Family including Taboo, Basta, and Grab.
Well, Sukkot flew by and before we knew it, it was the last day and we were saying goodbye :-( But we had a wonderful time, the H family were a wonderful example and a great encouragement to us and we hope to see them again soon!



Monday, September 26, 2011

Dresses, Kitties, and Fall

                                                       {Fall Folk Festival}
    Yesterday we went to Latta Plantation to volunteer for the annual Folk life Festival that they have. It was fun, and tiring! We were there from 9:30am to 4:00 pm and feasted on funnel cakes...... Which, didnt exactly make us feel so wonderful afterwards but It was worth it. :-) So, I dont have any pictures to show ya'll from the festival because I didnt have time to get any..... But, I will show pictures of the dresses we made that we wore.

{Delany and Tammy}

                                                                         {Kitties}
   Its funny how funny cats can be. You can always expect them to do the unexpected.... Below is a picture of what happens when you get a really big kitty in a to-small box.

{Our cat Little Guy}


                                                                    {Gloriouse Fall}
  Did you know, I *Tammy Glass* love fall? Its absolutly amazing. And its *here*! Here is a picture I captured on a beautiful morning.

{A spider spun its web at the begging of the stair case going up to the front of the house}

{This is one of our pumpkins. Notice anything funny about it? Yeah, me too! Its all twisted and weird. I wonder what happend there. Haha!

Wheat grass juice and Kombucha Tea

    So we have been looking for things to help increase our pH levels, and we came up with a couple things that we have been doing.

                                                               {Wheat Grass Juice}

{Our wheat grass (we have to cover it at night because the cats like sleeping in it!).}

{Our brand new, trusty little wheat grass juicer *this this is awesome*.}

{Wow, look at that!}
{Kombucha Tea}


To tell you the truth I am not really sure what all is in this stuff because I didn't watch it being made but, I know that if it sits on your kitchen counter for a couple weeks it smells pretty vile! You would have to look it up to know everything, but I know it has a ton of health benifits...

                                      

{Soap making}

{Soap making-trial and error}
    Wow, it has taken me a while to post these! For the past two days I have had problems with my Internet connection, so that was a set back. School has also kept be pretty busy, and sewing my costume for the Folk Festival *coming soon*. Finally I found time so I am posting all that I can..
    About two weeks ago Mamma's friends Mary and Michelle came over so they could all make soap together! It was really fun to watch because I have never made soap before. Did it turn out well? Well, um, not really.

                                                                       {Round 1}
{Delany measuring out the Coconut Oil}
  
{Measuring out the Lye in full safety gear}


{I guess you could say that the soap making didn't really work the first time.
The soap wasn't tracing, and then it finally started to! We poured in the essential oils
and then it got all weird and gelly. Hmmm.}


                                                                         {Round 2}


 Round 2 soap making went very smooth and the soap turned out great!
{Delany cutting the soap into bars}
{The bar of soap right out of the mold}
{Tammy cutting the bar of soap}

{Ready to use bars of coconut oil soap! They are not perfect but it works really awesome!}

                                   Sorry about some of the pictures being out of order but sometimes blogger does whatever it wants! Till next time...............................

           

{Allison Woods}

     A week or so ago we went to a really fun event! Allison Woods is something that a local group puts on every year. What is it? It was a "reenactment" (no battles) of the French Indian War, Revolutionary War, Civil War, WW1, WW2, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnam. * I am not sure if they are in the right order*. They had people in costumes, vendors selling atiques and other items, and food! It was a really cold day, it took us by surprise actually! It ended up being 54 degrees with no sun........ We met up with two families from our homeschool group and took the tour together. So here are some pictures, I didnt get a whole bunch because there were always big groups of people everywhere so it was kind of hard.

{Our friends brother wearing vintage driving goggles}

{Dancing *or attempting to dance* the Virginia Reel}

{Delany and Mrs. Elena}

{Handmade bonnets}


Monday, September 5, 2011

Fall is here! *almost*

    Hello! Fall my favorite season is approaching and I am totally psyched! The high today was 76 degrees.......awesome.
So, even though it is a bit early *teehee* I decided to go ahead and make the blog design a bit more "fall-ish".
Some of the reasons I love Fall.
1.The cool weather makes it more pleasurable to go outside
2.Sukkot is in the Fall
3.The trees in the yard look so pretty with the orange, red, and yellow.
4. Hot cocoa
5.Fires in the fireplace
6. Time to get out the sweaters!
And so many more, well dinner is calling! 'later.

Something unexpected

     One day, not very long ago, something strange occurred. You probably saw it on the news, but then again, if you are like us who don't watch much TV, maybe you didn't. Your friend might have told you about it because it happened to them, but then again, they might not live on the east coast. Do you know what I am talking about yet? Well, of course you do, so there is no need to tell you!
Whats that??
You don't know what I am talking about? Well, then, why didn't you say so! Here goes......
     I was sitting at my desk listening to music and browsing a magazine when all of a sudden I could hear a low rumbling in the distance. Not paying attention I turned the page and kept on reading the magazine. In less than a few seconds the ground started vibrating and the shaking harder. "Hmmm, that's weird", I thought "why is the ground shaking"? I turning over in my mind many possibilities, none of them seaming plausible, until I suddenly came to the conclusion that, yes, it was an earth quake! I mean, the plates were shaking in the cabinets! I turned around to look at Delany, who was sitting next to me, and said "Delany its an earth quake"!! We both ran towards the front door, arms flailing and yelling "EARTH QUAKE"! We were invisioning the earthquakes we had seen in movies, pictures falling off the shelves, the ground splitting in two, and we were pretty freaked out. We got to the front door were Momma was, she was on the phone and though she felt the shaking, she thought it was "just her" and dismissed it as nothing. So we pulled the door open and we said " Momma do you feel that"!
    Haha, well, believe it or not, this all happened in about 35 seconds! Crazy. So, maybe we were a bit dramatic, but hey, it was our first earth quake! Oh, BTW it measured as a 5.8.
The End

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Ross visit and the Biltmore

      Well, I am a little out of date as far as posting goes *oops*. We just started school last Monday and getting into routine hasn't left time for much else, so this got pushed down to the bottom of the list! Ok, here goes.     
     The day after the Civil war Reenactment our friends the Rosses came up to visit us. *much excitement*.  Having left at 4:00 am they arrived about 2:30 pm and we got right down to the fun!! We have this huge black tube that we get inside and roll each other down the hill. Well, we were all a little (ok a lot) sore the next day, but it was totally worth it!! And of course, what would a visit be without a couple hundred crazy/goofy photos? Ok, maybe that is a bit dramatic but anyway...... While they we were here we took them to the Biltmore (if you have never been, well, you should go) and they were totally amazed with the size of this incredible house! Getting caught up in all the excitement I forgot to take a picture of the front of the house so that you could see what I was talking about. *oops*. Delany will post some later I am sure :-)
Ok, so time for the pictures!

Eliana and Tammy

Momma and Olivia

Eliana holding Mocha

Tammy and Eliana

Spinning

Delany and Olivia being goofy :-)

Tammy, Eliana, Delany

Eliana waiting for everyone to play Apples to Apples

Delany and Atalya

I told myself I wouldn't post this one, but I just had to. We did a Romeo and Juliet
play and we didn't have a boy, so guess who got elected? Thats right, yours truly..
So, we whipped out a brown eye liner pencil and drew on a mustache and bushy eye
brows. Oh great.                                                                                                                       

*from top left to bottom right*
Eliana, Delany, Olivia, Tammy, Atalya

A *traditional* pose for us. :-)
Ok, so those are the pictures we took at the house, here are some Biltmore pictures.
The amazing gardens, some of them anyway!

A beautiful rose!


The Huge greenhouse and a wall of roses

Messing around in the gift shop. Lovely

All of us piled on a wagon.

A picnic at a very picturesque place on the Biltmore grounds.


The whole group, minus me :-)

So, that concludes our visit with the Rosses!
 
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Sing to יהוה a new song, sing to יהוה, all the earth! Sing to יהוה, bless His Name, Proclaim His deliverance from day to day. Declare His esteem among the nations.







Psalms 96:1-3