Nourishing Choices - Part 2

In Part 1 of my mini series, Nourishing Choices, I wrote about sweeteners and the new choices I've made in that area. For part 2 of this series I think it is fitting to now write about salt, just because salty is the opposite of sweet :).

Our new choice for salt in our home is Celtic Sea Salt. After reading about the many benefits that Celtic Sea Salt offers I made the big purchase. And yes, it is a big purchase, as compared to what I usually purchased before, Morton Salt (26 oz.), which costs around $0.80. Celtic Sea salt (8 oz.) at Whole Foods costs around $10.00. Despite the huge difference in price, I am very happy with our new choice as the salt is nutritious as well as delicious and really brings out the flavor in the foods to which it is added.

There are many brands of Celtic Sea Salt available including certified organic brands. I buy the brand pictured above and I'm satisfied with it.

Here are some of the benefits of Celtic Sea salt as listed upon healthfree.com:

• Celtic Sea Salts are a prime condiment that stimulates salivation, helps to balance and replenishes all of the body's electrolytes.
• It provides renewed energy
• It gives you a high resistance to infections and bacterial diseases
• It supplies all 82 vital trace minerals to promote optimum biological function and cellular maintenance.
• It balances alkaline/acid levels
• It restores good digestion
• The natural iodine in these salts protects against radiation, atomic fallout and many other pollutants.
• It can aid in relieving allergies and skin diseases
• And overall greatly reduces toxins and to help prevent ill-health
• Properly stored, salt keeps virtually indefinitely.

Tea With My Daughter

The Olde English Tea Room.

At our lovely table.

A hat is a must for tea, darling.

Let's take pictures!

Sweet One.

Lovely.

Just the two of us.

This hat was my favorite. I love it!

Time to go.

A few weeks ago I decided to take an afternoon off with my daughter (I only have one) and visit a Tea Room that we had been wanting to visit. We had a lovely time together, talking, sipping our tea and eating our delicious lunch. This was the first Tea Room that we visited that served actual plates, or platters, as they were called on the menu. I ordered a chicken salad sandwich with fruit and my daughter chose a Chicken Divan platter which included Chickan Divan (of course), fruit and a croisant. For tea, my daughter chose vanilla and I chose a flower/herb tea (I forgot the actual name itself.)

After tea we tried on the large selection of hats that were displayed and available for use. We had so much fun taking pictures of each other and laughing at how we looked with some of the hats.

After taking pictures we headed on over to a shopping plaza that we passed by on our way home. We had fun browsing and bought a few items.

All in all, it was a wonderful afternoon, just the two of us enjoying each others company.

She Loves Horses

Nourishing Choices - Part 1

This is the continuation of my post, "Called To Nourish." This continuation will be a mini series entitled "Nourishing Choices." I will be sharing the changes I have made in our home in regards to the food I choose, buy and prepare for my family.

Sweetners

Over the years I've purchased and experimented with many forms of sweetners. These sweetners have included, white pure cane sugar, honey, Splenda, molasses, organic unprocessed cane sugar, brown sugar, aguave, maple syrup and stevia. I've now made the choice to not purchase white sugar and I've chosen honey to be our primary sweetner. (Please note that if you offered me a moist piece of chocolate cake or a fresh slice of lemon meringue pie, both made with white sugar, I would not refuse it!) My decision, however, is a conscious effort to assure that the majority of sweetners my family consumes be as natural as possible and not be detrimental to their health. Of course, also natural sweetners must not be consumed in excess for that wouldn't be healthy or good for us either.

Raw, unprocessed local honey is my absolute first choice for a sweetner, but it is VERY expensive. I've reconciled myself to the reality that I cannot make raw local honey the primary source of sweetner in my home until I find a more affordable source. For now I make do with processed honey for baking and everyday use. I do buy small quantities of raw honey at our local farmers market which I use for medicinal purposes in cases of colds and allergies.

Secondary sweetners in my kitchen include, organic maple syrup for pancakes and stevia once in a while for baked goods. I have a small bottle in my pantry that I've had for two years now and it's halfway full! This tells you how much I like it! Stevia has a light licorice taste that can interfere with the overall taste of the food you are preparing. However, it is still a good choice and I use it occasionally.

Now, we all know how bad processed white sugar is especially in regards to tooth decay, but I was really convicted after reading over and over in different books and website the detrimental effects of sugar in our bodies.

Consider these facts:

Sugar suppresses the immune system by causing the pancreas to secrete abnormally large quantities of insulin, which is required to break it down.

Insulin remains in circulation in the bloodstream long after sugar has been metabolized, and one of its main side effects is to suppress the release of growth hormone in the pituitary gland.

Growth hormone is a primary regulator of the immune system, so anyone who eats a lot of sugar every day is going to experience critical growth hormone deficiency and consequent immune deficiency caused by the constant presence of insulin in the bloodstream.

Furthermore, refined white sugar is treated as a toxic foreign agent by the immune system, owing to its unnatural chemical structure as well as the industrial contaminants it retains from the refining process.

Sugar thus triggers an unnecessary immune response while simultaneously suppressing immune function, thereby debilitating the immune system with a double edged sword.

Sugar is the chief culprit in many diseases and degenerative conditions.

It can easily cause diabetes and is a major factor in candidacies, both of which are epidemic in the industrialized Western world.

Since sugar is 'nutritionally naked', the body must 'borrow' the missing vitamins, minerals and other synergistic nutrients required to metabolize sugar from its own tissues.

Heavy sugar consumption therefore causes a constant siphoning of nutrients from the body. Recent evidence suggests that sugar causes dental problems not so much by contact with the teeth but rather by leaching the teeth of calcium from within.

Sugar also depletes the body of potassium and magnesium, which are required for proper cardiac function, and is therefore a major factor in heart disease. (To learn more click: Sugar )

View this informative chart of natural sweetners to learn more about sweetners and help you in your own nourishing choices: Natural Sweetners

Laura at Heavenly Homemakers has a wonderful post about the most nutritious sweetners. Read her post by clicking HERE. At the bottom of her post Laura lists other sites to further educate ourselves on sweetners.

Mother's Day Tribute

The following Mother's Day tribute was posted by
Doug Philips on his blog on May 8.

It is beautiful Truth and tremendously inspiring.
Please read and be encouraged!
I pray your Mother's Day was full of blessings. :)

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Your High Calling

Mother, whoever you may be,
You may think long and earnestly
Of your high calling. Pondering
The undreamed honour of the thing;
Learning how God, through you, would plan
To be well-known to every man.
And through your arms would gather fast
The whole world to His heart at last.

Fay Inchfawn

Mamas: the Shapers of Eternal Souls

The most underrated job in America is that of being a mother. The entire world seems to conspire to mock and minimize the true blessings of motherhood. This is why we appreciate the words of J.R. Miller, who once wrote:

Oh, mothers of young children, I bow before you in reverence. Your work is most holy. You are fashioning the destinies of immortal souls. The powers folded up in the little ones that you hushed to sleep in your bosoms last night, are powers that shall exist forever. You are preparing them for their immortal destiny and influence. Be faithful. Take up your sacred burden reverently. Be sure that your heart is pure and that your life is sweet and clean. —J.R. Miller, The Family, pg. 106

The Cost of Motherhood

Once a lady went to visit her friend. During the visit the children of the friend entered the room and began to play with each other. As the lady and her friend visited, the lady turned to her friend and said eagerly and yet with evidently no thought of the meaning of her words: “Oh, I’d give my life to have such children.” The mother replied with a subdued earnestness whose quiet told of the depth of experience out of which her words came: “That’s exactly what it costs.”

There is a cost of motherhood. And the price is no small sum. And if you are not willing to pay this price, no amount of encouragement about the joys of motherhood will satisfy. But the price of motherhood is not fundamentally different from the price of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. In fact, Christian mothers see their duty as mothers flowing from their calling to Jesus Christ. And what is this cost?

Christian motherhood means dedicating your entire life in service of others. It means standing beside your husband, following him, and investing in the lives of children whom you hope will both survive you and surpass you. It means forgoing present satisfaction for eternal rewards. It means investing in the lives of others who may never fully appreciate your sacrifice or comprehend the depth of your love. And it means doing all these things, not because you will receive the praise of man — for you will not — but because God made you to be a woman and a mother, and there is great contentment in that biblical calling.

In other words, Motherhood requires vision. It requires living by faith and not by sight.

These are some of the reasons why Motherhood is both the most biblically noble and the most socially unappreciated role to which a young woman can aspire. There are many people who ask the question: Does my life matter? But a mother that fears the Lord need never ask such a question. Upon her faithful obedience hinges the future of the church and the hope of the nation.

In 1950, the great Scottish American preacher Peter Marshall stood before the United States Senate and he explained it this way:

The modern challenge to motherhood is the eternal challenge — that of being a godly woman. The very phrase sounds strange in our ears. We never hear it now. We hear about every other kind of women — beautiful women, smart women, sophisticated women, career woman, talented women, divorced women, but so seldom do we hear of a godly woman — or of a godly man either, for that matter.

I believe women come nearer fulfilling their God-given function in the home than anywhere else. It is a much nobler thing to be a good wife than to be Miss America. It is a greater achievement to establish a Christian home than it is to produce a second-rate novel filled with filth. It is a far, far better thing in the realm of morals to be old-fashioned than to be ultramodern. The world has enough women who know how to hold their cocktails, who have lost all their illusions and their faith. The world has enough women who know how to be smart.

It needs women who are willing to be simple. The world has enough women who know how to be brilliant. It needs some who will be brave. The world has enough women who are popular. It needs more who are pure. We need women, and men, too, who would rather be morally right that socially correct.

As we approach America’s national Mother’s Day celebration, let’s remember that we are fighting for the Lord, and it is He who prioritizes motherhood and home as the highest calling and domain of womanhood “that the word of God be not blasphemed” (Titus 2:5). May the Lord fill our churches with faithful mothers!

Called To Nourish

As a Keeper at Home I have the blessed opportunity to provide wonderfully nourishing foods to my family. Foods that promote healing, that strengthen the immune system, provide energy and important vitamins and minerals to growing bodies.

I’ve been interested in nutrition on and off throughout my life as a wife and a mother. My interest in nutrition once again has been sparked due to health situations in my own life and that of my youngest son. The Lord has impressed upon me the importance of taking responsibility for my “temple”, and the “temples” of my husband and children.

Several years ago, due to chronic sinus infections, I embarked on a semi-vegetarian diet with mostly all organic whole food for myself and my family. Although I benefited greatly from that diet, I quit after one year because it became very expensive. For several other periods I bought only organic meats and dairy and grocery shopped at only natural food stores, but also quit again due to the expense. I came to the conclusion that in order for this change to be permanent I needed to take time to research, plan, comparison shop and budget to be able to provide the highest quality whole foods to my family. I have found that with a lot of planning and creativity I can provide a mostly organic whole food diet for my loved ones and stay within reasonable boundaries in our food budget.

To be continued…

Hello Friends!

Hello There!

It's been two months since I've blogged. (I can't believe it's been that long!) Our faithful computer had a nervous breakdown, she crashed and therefore my family and I were offline for several weeks. Before that we had a lot going on and blogging just didn't make it to my list of priorities. I'm now happy to announce that I am now online again and good to go! :)

These past few months we have been making a lot of changes in our home, mainly in the area of health, nutrition and in our schooling. We've also been evaluating our homeschool, reorganizing ourselves and changing and making new goals for our family. We've asking the Lord to lead us and He has been faithful. It's been exciting and I hope to share some changes we've made in the next few weeks.

It's good to be back! Check back soon for new posts!