Celebrating Reformation Day

When I discovered that October 31st is the day protestants celebrate Reformation Day, that was the end of trying to come up with a Halloween alternative. Not only is there something else to celebrate besides the “harvest” or the “hallows”, it is something so important that it is the foundational to our faith as believers! For the last 5 years we have thrown a Reformation Day party and celebrated the important truths of Scripture that were re-discovered during the reformation. This year we focused on the truths that are found in the 5 Solas : Sola scriptura ("by Scripture alone") Sola fide ("by faith alone") Sola gratia ("by grace alone")Solus Christus or Solo Christo ("Christ alone" or "through Christ alone") and Soli Deo gloria ("glory to God alone").

Our carnival style games were centered around 5 questions and answers about these Solas:

Where can we find the good news? ~Only in the Bible

How can we be saved? ~ Only by Faith

How can we be accepted by God? ~Only by Grace

Who is our only hope? ~Only Jesus Christ

Why does God save us? ~Only for his Glory

We transformed our church building into the White Horse Inn, which was a place in Cambridge where the early reformers met to discuss the ideas of Martin Luther. His books were smuggled into England hidden in bales of cloth.

The kids had fun with our “horsey” theme this year!

After playing games to earn coins, the kids traded them for candy.

And a good time was had by all.

Stay tuned to find out what happens to the candy my kids brought home!

In which we do not go down with the ship

The last several months have been some rough seas for my kids. In December we went to NIH for updates in the research protocols that the girls are involved in, and they told us that Lily has ADHD. Finding that out seemed to trigger depression in her and she has really struggled with anger, sadness, and frustration in addition to attention problems. Acadia has not been very stable and her nighttime anxiety has become OCD. All of this has made homeschooling very difficult to say the least. Having two kids at home together trying to do math while riding emotional tides and attentional tire swings is a perfect storm. Throw in a vocal toddler who wants to be in the middle of everything and the S.S. Homeschooling starts going down.

We have decided not to go down with the ship. I love homeschooling, when it is what it is intended to be: A nurturing environment where kids can learn and grow. But it has become something else. And it has not been good. I care too deeply about the emotional health of each of my little girls to pretend that we can just continue this way. 

This is a big leap for me. I have not thought about sending my kids to school before. I feel like I have been brought to this moment and then given the grace to make the decision and move forward.

While Dan and I were in the process of discussing this, I was reminded of a song I have loved for some time. It’s a reminder of who is in the midst of the “perfect storm” and that the safest place to be is out on the waves with the God who controls them, not clinging to the boat that is sinking fast.

Oh,what I would do to have
the kind of faith it takes
To climb out of this boat I'm in
Onto the crashing waves
To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown
Where Jesus is,
And he's holding out his hand
But the waves are calling out my name
and they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times
I've tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
time and time again
"Boy, you'll never win,
You you'll never win
But the Voice of truth tells me a different story
the Voice of truth says "do not be afraid!"
and the Voice of truth says "this is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the Voice of truth

Voice of Truth ~Casting Crowns

We heart mini donkeys

We happen to think that mini donkeys are downright adorable and the other day we saw a mother and baby as we were driving by. So we stopped and asked if we could take a closer peek. The owner was kind enough to turn off the fence and let the kids have a little visit.

   This little baby is 3 weeks old and his name is Jumping Jack. 

“Okay everyone I am going to turn the fence on…..NOW”!

Gotta love the perks of homeschooling. Spontaneous field trips!

Losing it....the weight I mean.

We started eating real whole foods last fall. But I hadn't been losing any weight. Dan asked me if it would be motivating for me to have a goal/reward/carrot. I said well, yeah! So we came up with the goal of losing 10 pounds and he would get me the Wii balance board and Wii Fit Plus. I accepted the challenge. It took me about two months and I am still losing. I LOVE playing on Wii fit, but that's not really how I'm losing weight. I promised my facebook friends I would share my secret so here's what I'm doing.

• Eating whole foods as much as possible, avoiding processed foods, corn syrup and artificial sweeteners.
  
• Replacing vegetable oils or shortenings with traditional fats and oils.


• Drinking raw whole milk and eating full fat dairy, butter, cheese, etc.


• Limiting breads and giving up processed cereal.


• And my number one secret for making this all work.....COCONUT OIL!
  

Here's why I think the extra virgin coconut oil is the catalyst for my weight loss. It contains medium chain fatty acids that increase metabolism, keep me feeling satisfied longer, and reduce my sugar cravings. I cook my eggs in it for breakfast. I put it on my oatmeal, in my coffee or tea, or make a warm vanilla milk drink with it. I sometimes cook or bake with it when it fits the recipe. I use a couple of tablespoons a day, and when I hit a plateau with my weight, I make sure to work on incorporating it into my diet more. Find out more about coconut oil, good fats, and weight loss here.

So that's my secret. It's working well, I'm not hungry, I try to limit portions, but I still eat dessert sometimes! I'm trying to excercise too. I have lost 15 pounds so far and am hoping to lose more. I feel like the food I am eating is nourishing me, and my body is letting go of what I don't need now, that it's happier :)

How to get a really strong iced coffee for $1.05 (and rip off DD)

Yeah. I'm pretty pleased. I just got this really robust iced coffee for really cheap.

It's because I married a Java Genius. When I'm at home my JG just makes me an iced coffee with espresso, ice and half 'n half. But he figured out a way to get this same Beautiful Beverage when we're on the road, without paying a lot of money for it.

And although I'm not willing to share my JG, I will share this fantastic secret with all of my Dear Readers. Here's whatcha do.

Go to Dunkin Donuts and ask for: a double espresso, on ice, with cream (and sugar, if that's how you take it). But hold on, it's not quite that simple. Now comes the hard part. You must wait while the teller is momentarily befuddled. "Can you repeat that?" he says. And you do. "That will be a dollar five," he says. And yes, that's $1.05 for a BB at DD without even having your own JG!

So, DR, are you curious why it costs so much less than a regular iced coffee? It's because you're not paying for water. A double espresso (also known as a turbo shot at DD) is only $1.05, and they don't charge extra for cream or ice. If you make the mistake of ordering an iced coffee with a turbo shot you're going to pay somewhere around $3 which is just too much to shell out very often.

And if you don't drink coffee and you still want a novel way to cool off you can try Lily's method:

Let me know if you try either of these hot tips, I'd love to know what the tellers tell YOU!

A few of my favorite things

The beautiful shape of these mangos. What a fantastic Designer!

Blue sky in the background, chubby cheeks in the foreground.

Morning sun making shadow masks, jammies stained with that one little sip of Dad's coffee.

Bair piggy toes peeking out from blue jeans, gripping the floor with all their might.

This bright yellow vintage highchair, it makes me happy when I look at it.

What would you do?

What would you do if someone threw things at you from across the room

What would you do if they threw something at your child and she screamed in pain

What would you do if someone followed your child around day after day and screamed insults and accusations at her

What would you do if they ripped photos of your children out of their frames and destroyed them

What would you do if someone could make your child cringe with just a word or a look

What would you do if someone made your baby cry in fear

What would you do if someone like this was with you and your family 24/7

What would you do if this someone ... was your little girl?

Beatrix LIVE!

Bea the Biter

Bea and the Barnyard

Bea and the Basket

b&m&b: Real Food on the Run

One of the big challenges for our family in eating real food right now is what to eat when we are in town and haven't packed a lunch. Cadi has been going through fast food withdrawal, but we are making progress.

When we are downtown on a weekday we like to go to Bagel Central, a local bagel shop that makes fresh homemade food. I get the girls a bagel with melted cheddar, and I like the potato pancake served with applesauce and sour cream. Especially in the winter it's nice to be able to have something warm and tasty to nourish us during our busy day of errands and appointments. Plus, it's one of my favorite spaces; exposed brick, long tables, and now they even have WiFi!
Tonight, we were out shopping and had planned to head over to Bagel Central but they close early on Friday night for the Sabbath. Out next stop was Target so we decided to throw in the dishtowel on getting good food and get something from the snack bar. I will NOT tell you what Dan and the kids ate other than to say it was "foodless food" as Holly has christened it. I was

going to eat the same thing for lack of better choices, when I discovered that Starbucks has oatmeal! I mixed in the dried fruit, nuts, and brown sugar, and enjoyed my sweet but nourishing supper. In fact, I kinda kept going on and on about it to Dan, who was not nearly as thrilled as I was. Our dinner entertainment was this little girl sitting in her stroller making funny faces and laughing to our uproarious response.
The girls were also highly amused by Dan's warning to them that they might not be able to get pretzels at Target because the machine might be broken or something. When we got up to the counter, lo and behold, the woman told us the pretzel machine was broken! (Miller family smirks and giggles.) She said that the pretzels in the case were just for display. I'm thinkin' those ones probably have as much nutrient content as the ones they make anyway.

I still need to work on more ideas for eating on the run, but at least now I have two. Tomorrow I'll be making granola bars, which would also be a good thing to pack for snacks in the car, but I have a feeling they won't last long around here!

Get out and play in it!

'Bout time for a blog post with family pictures eh? I thought so too. When it snows, my family has a tendency to be gloomy about it. But once you get out there and start playing in it together, it is kind of fun. That is, if you can find your boots, and mittens, and your ski pants feel just right.

Beatrix, waiting for a snowflake

Lily, on the slide

Mom thinks I can't possible move in this snowsuit,
but the bathroom door is open and now is my chance.

Seals do it, and so can I. Slap-swish, slap-swish.

Bub-bye.