Just for health sake

I'm not trying to be difficult, nosy or anything else.

Spinach has a plenty of folic acid, lutein, vitamin k and other minerals. It also has oxalic acid which prevents the body from absorbing calcium. Any calcium from other sources in your stomach at the same time as RAW spinach will not be absorbed. I am trying to get my calcium from raw kale and cooked spinach instead. Cooking spinach breaks down the oxalic acid.

The reason I am making this nosy point is that I have read about ton of female bloggers trying to drink a green smoothie everyday. So if you are drinking these smoothies, just know about the acid. Okay. Nose out.

Dreams

The last couple of nights my dreams have had music accompaniment. This morning I was bound and determined to find the song flowing through the dreams like a river connecting one to another. I waited too long to sit down to find it and it drifted away. It was such a peaceful song. It gave me a real restful sleep. I wonder if that ever happens to others.

I have recently found a couple of singer/songwriters that are very comforting. For moments that I am craving a more complex sound I have been going to John Mark McMillan.

"A patriotic sound that incorperates bold stripped down blues with a voice reminiscent of Pete Yorn and a broken America"

HM Magazine

I am really enjoying Sarah McMillan. Yes, it's his wife. Their music isn't really the same. I have been turning to her music when I am feeling the need for quietness. I also am playing Sarabeth Geoghegan for the same feeling, but her music more folk like. I also love that she writes plainly. My favorite song by her is "Lord Deliver Me". Here are some lines...

Lord deliver me from me,

Lord deliver me from the desire to noticed, loved, exalted

Lord deliver me from the desire to be favored, popular, chosen or acknowledged

Lord deliver me from the fear of being long forgotten or ignored

Sometimes I just need to be delivered from myself and unto the Lord. I also like "Tired of Singing Sad Songs." Love it! Sometimes the sad songs just don't cut it and remembering what we are thankful for is a thing of beauty.

Oh, by the way blogspot went wicky in the wacky woo in the middle of this post. I can't figure out why the fonts are different. I would also love to know how to actually post the songs with the music. If any lovely person would like to explain it to me I'd be eternally grateful. However, I did link their websites.

Reading

I have been reading the last couple of days. And each day I have gotten a pretty bad headache on the right side of my head. The strong, bright light is on my left side. I wonder if that could be reason. But the a ton of the pain is in the neck region. So it may the angle at which I read. I am quite upset. Does this mean that I can't read without getting a headache? I may just cry if that is the case.

I have been reading The Mortal Instruments series. I have been enjoying it. It's easy, which always fun, but it does deal with good and evil a bit. The way the author, Cassandra Clare, deals with good and evil is interesting. She even makes room for the grayer shades. She asserts that only demons, at least in this "world," are the only really evil things. Anyway, I think I may read the books again just to see if they would stand the test of time before buying them.

Tebow ad

I'm pro-life. However, I recognize that women who decide to have their baby have indeed made a choice. To take that away that choice from someone is totally missing the whole point! The women choosing life are choosing a full future for someone else. How amazing is that! That as women we have the ability to shape the future in ways men cannot. It just brings tears to my eyes to think about the power God put into our hands.

I do understand people, women, feeling alarmed by the ideas that may have been talked about in the ad. Namely that men can tell women what to do with their bodies. However the ad doesn't discuss that. It's about the wonderful outcome of the decision Tim Tebow's mom made.

I found a great article by a pro-choice woman. Sally Jenkins makes many good points including that fact that his mom did in fact make a choice.

Peace begins in the womb, as Feminists for Life say. Choosing life is choosing the best thing for the women facing a difficult choice. But the abortion debate needs to also about young men being responsible. They have just as much to do with the issue of perventing pregnancy as women. I love the fact that Sally Jenkings mentions chastity as a good thing. Amazing!

Loneliness

Is the emotion of loneliness a sin? I wonder if we experience loneliness as a result of not being in continuous relationship with God, which leads to sinfulness. Or is it just because the earth is not our home?

Loneliness is a part of my life. It has been for most of my life, but now it seems to be worse than other times. I don't live near family and homeschooling the kids leads to a great deal of time spent alone. I am dealing, not very well, with agoraphobia. The agoraphobia means that there are many days that I don't leave the house. Peter says that I'm timid, I say that I'm shy. Whatever it is, makes it harder for me to alleviate the loneliness.

The loneliness has gotten more extreme since being home from Houston and have recently been doing some research. I wonder if loneliness is a mechanism that the Lord uses to bring us closer to Him. Did you know that Elijah dealt with depression? He felt all alone and that he was all alone in following God. So did David, but I think his may have had something to do with his horrible decisions. Or maybe he made those bad decisions because of his depression.

I would love to say that know I am going to just focus on all the positive things in front of me, but that wouldn't be real. I tend toward seeing the hard things. Sometimes that's good because I am apt to see why those hard things are necessary and do whatever it required. And people being mean and saying unkind things does tend to get to me. That is sometimes all I hear.

I don't have all(or any of) the answers but I think that I need to try and focus on Psalm 27 for now. Fear really is son of a motherless goat to quote my funny husband.

Laundry, ugh!

I dislike laundry! I wish there were a way to dress my kids without having to fold laundry. That is really the part that I dislike. I don't mind any of the other parts. Weird, right? I am trying to be thankful/grateful for the things I have instead of focusing of the negative. So, I am thankful that my kids are able to have more than one change of clothes. Maybe if I hold onto that I will be joyful while doing the folding. I may even watch a little TV. Our laundry couch is right next to the TV so it makes it quite easy to let my mind turn to mush.

Brain Drain

*I am trying to find a good way to make sure that we get everything done that we need to get done each day. Since we have been back from Houston not everything gets done everyday. I thought about making check-off sheets for the older boys each day. But we don't do everything every day. I am plenty stumped about what to do. I am going to try this way for awhile and see if it works.

*In other matters, I am totally enjoying reading a Twitter account--specifically Adam Baldwin's. I agree with some of his ideas, but he is way strident. But he just begs for people to have discourse. I wonder if he actually follows through with his ideas, mainly regarding education. I wonder if his children go to public school.

*The boys are still enjoying martial arts. I found a list of good boy films at Mommy Life. I love finding blogs from veteran boy moms. She talks about not trying to stop boys from rough housing. I feel reasonably good about my rule--if you hurt yourself wrestling/rough housing don't come crying to me. It's worked pretty well, if I do say so myself. Now pardon me while I break my arm patting myself on the back.

*Peter is leaving for a trip tomorrow. Yay? It will be good for the kids to get out of the habit of thinking Peter will save them from school work when he gets home. But I will miss having Daddy come save me at 4:45.

*We are thinking about moving Esther to a big girl bed this or next week. There was a bed with a trundle on sale for a really good deal at Costco this week. (BTW, I ♥ Costco.) And now we also got a mattress.

*I just found out how to put that heart in up there. I am so excited!

*On Pat Robertson, Jennifer Moody an education reporter and blogger with the Mid-Valley newspapers in Oregon had some wonderful and constructive things to say.

This format is working well for me right now because I am a bit distracted. It's not too much pressure for me to have deep eloquent paragraphs upon paragraphs.