CHRIST IS BORN!

Glorify Him!

Today, The Nativity of Christ, we went to 10AM Divine Liturgy of St. Basil.
For the FIRST time in my Orthodox life I was at Liturgy with my entire family but had only ONE of my four children sitting on the floor in front of me. It was very odd, surreal. I didn't know what to do with myself. "Oh, I can pray, join in the singing." But no, I was too busy being proud of the 3 that were not sitting on the floor in front of me.
First, Nicholas. He just turned 6 on the 22nd and served his first Divine Liturgy today as an alcolyte. He couldn't wait!!! All morning it was..."let's go mom, I'm going to be late... We gotta go now! ... I'm gonna be late... Dad would you take me so I'm not late." He did very well! And was thrilled! Someone asked him after service if he was going to do it again, "Of Course."




Second, Kelsey and Charissa. Began singing in the choir regularly about 2 weeks ago. Charissa still comes over to us from time to time, but some days she is REALLY into it and does very well. Yesterday, the choir director and her husband gave them rave reviews and said they really heard their voices come out nicely. Charissa even has a little foot stool to stand on. This picture is really blurry but the little head hiding with the white scarf is Charissa and the other with the pink/purple one is Kelsey.

Waking Up

I feel like I've just woken up from a very foggy dream. My eyes have opened to a brightness I'm not familiar with. I can see the dirt qute a bit easier, I can see the dog hair far too easily, and the mountains I thought my house had grown are really just piles of laundry that for reasons completely out of my control had grown to enormous proportions. Yes, we finally were blessed by the presence of the electric company work truck to remove the large tree from the power lines, replacing three poles and restringing gads of wire to restore power to our little community. It has silenced the neighborhood...no more gas powered generators roaring from the neighbors 24 hours a day. Oh the silence of the country once again. I hardly know I have neighbors...UNLESS the power goes out!
There is a sort of mourning though as I wake to the brightness. I shall miss the simplicity that I learned to live with. No distractions from the TV or computer. The house was quiet, except for the children actually using their wild imaginations to entertain themselves in the dusk of the evening. It was amazing to watch them play, all together, for hours on end; sword fighting, princess rescueing and dragon flying! The glow of the candlelight was really quite lovely and welcoming.
Lessons I learned:
The email kept coming even though I couldn't check it everyday. The world kept spinning even though I couldn't watch the news to see that it was still there. And someone earned a million dollars, even though I wasn't there to watch it. (DON'T TELL ME!!!!!!) I can cook and heat water on the woodstove quite easily. I can bathe efficiently with a 24 qt. stockpot filled with hot water (heated on the woodstove) set in the shower. I can "sweep" dirt and crumbs off carpet with fantastic results. And a chest freezer that is stored outside on the back porch will stay frozen for 5+ days without trouble (in the winter). A chest freezer not plugged in will keep refrigerator items at the right temperature without freezing them nor warming them, if left on the back porch in the cold air. Candlelight is far superior to battery powered lanterns. Children can be sufficiently entertained without any kind of electric powered media or toys!!!

I'm tempted to flip the main breaker once a month!!

I just received a status report on my hit counter and see that I consistantly have 10 hits a day.
Thank you to all who are continually coming back to my humble little space on the web.
I wish it was more exciting.

That being said, I must share with you a book I'm reading. It's no secret I've done a lot of reading on sugar and it's ill effects on health. The more I educate myself on this white "drug" the more I become aware of WHY my body is falling apart. I'm not getting old!!! I'm slowly poisoning myself and my body doesn't know what to do with it.
The latest book I'm reading is called "Lick the Sugar Habit". I highly recommend this book to everyone, whether you believe you need to "lick the sugar habit" or not. It is profoundly informative on nutrition and allergies! I am amazed at what I am learning. She goes into detail about what an allergy is and how it affects your body. She quotes endless research studies and lists them in the back of the book if you doubt her. And my favorite so far is the section on what sugar does to your immune system. Here is a quote on some research done:
Two different research projects that evaluate the effets of sugar on the phagocytic index have been done at Loma Linda University. The phagoctes are those white blood cells of the immune system that eat up foreign invaders and debris; they are the Pac-men of the body. The more bacteria eaten by each phagocyte, the stronger the immune system becomes and the less chance the body has of becoming diseased. The phagocytic index indicates the average number of invaders engulfed by a phagocyte.
One of the Loma Linda studies, conducted in 1973, examined the effects of sugar(sucrose), glucose, fructose, honey, orange juice, and starch on the phagocytic index. Except for starch, all the substances were simple sugars. The starch was the only substance to cause a rise in the phagocytic index--the phaocytes actually ate up more bacteria after starch was ingested. The index was highest approximately thirty minutes after the volunteers ate starch. The sugars, on the other hand, caused the phagocytic index to decrease greatly. The index was lowest 2 hours after ingestion. In other words, the sugar had a negative effect on the amount of bacteria removed by the immune system.

The average American eats 10 pounds of sugar each month! That's 30-33 teaspoonfuls everyday! No wonder we are so laden with disease and so many new degenerative diseases on the rise!!!!

James would say, "Well, if sugar is so bad for you why doesn't the medical world tell us that? Why isn't it made illegal?" The authors answer to this is basically job security. If we aren't sick than the pharmaceutical companies are out of business. If we all go on a whole foods health kick, which is what we need to be healthy, then what would happen to companies like Kellogg, General Mills, Kraft!, Betty Crocker, Nabisco, not to mention the huge soda pop companies. Our entire economic system would drop out of the bottom of the bucket.

Sorry so long.

This is a book I'm definitely going to buy.

Updates and More

Hello there! Life has been so busy! We had a great Thanksgiving weekend visiting with many friends and family who ventured over the water to see our new home and US! It was so wonderful to see so many warm and friendly faces we hadn't seen in so long. We miss you all so much!!!! James wrote about it a little more here.

The chicks really do not look like chicks any longer. They are 5+ weeks old now!!! If there is a rooster or two we should soon be hearing some attempts at crowing.

And the wonders and beauty of snow!!!! Oh, I do miss it often. This time though it came with some deep cold that I did not like. Mostly because my little chicks just don't need that kind of temperature while they are still accumulating feathers for warmth. We had 18 for a low one night!!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!!