I had intended to write the second installment of the How to Plan Your Garden post for today (don't worry, it's still coming) but between a bout of illness in our own home and all of the conflicting reports that we've been reading in the news and on the web, this topic seemed more timely and relevant.

I can safely assume that word has spread widely of the risk of nuclear radiation exposure in North American, due to the nuclear power plant crisis after the recent tsunami in Japan. I can safely assume this because if you tried to purchase a bottle of any sort of iodine supplement in either the USA or Canada, almost anywhere, you wouldn't be able to. It's all sold out.

My husband and I have also been reading and watching and listening to all that's going on, in this grand debate between the government and it's experts who say that there is absolutely no threat to our health at all, and all of the various internet personalities who are insisting most vehemently that there most certainly is a threat and that it is a grave threat indeed. Who are we to believe?

I'll tell you right now that this post is not a "how-to" anything. It's an "I honestly don't know" post. That's the truth. I have no idea.

We fall on the side of generally not believing much of what the government tells us, because 1) it is in their best interests to keep public panic at bay, and 2) governments in general tend to have a long and glorious history of not dealing fully in truth. And yet, in the ever so eloquent words of my husband last night, "It's so hard to know whether we can trust any of these wackos on the web" (hmmm, now honey, what does that make me?) :)

So what will we personally be doing?

First of all, we are not panicking. As I've said before, we have a great and sovereign God who intricately ordains all of the affairs of this world and it is in Him that we put out hope, not in human wisdom or in the plans of man.

Second, we are going to do our best to be proactive and responsible, especially with these three little lives that we have been entrusted with, doing what we feel is reasonable due diligence.

For us, although we could still change our minds as things unfold and as we learn more (particularly if we feel the situation is worsening), this will include taking some moderate steps to boost our family's bodies to better withstand the effects of any radiation (however minor) that we might be exposed to.

Now, as I said before, iodine is basically impossible to purchase at this point, so what other options are there?

While I've been sick, my mother-in-law has been doing some research for our entire family and I particularly appreciated one of the articles that she sent to me, Fighting Radiation Exposure- Naturally. It has a whole host of suggestions other than iodine, including many food options. Probably the most important of the foods that we could consume to offer protection are the brown seaweeds, kelp, kombu, arame, wakame. These sea vegetables are naturally high in iodine. There are many other suggestions as well, including bee pollen, nutritional yeast, green tea, vitamin C, milk thistle (or other liver supports), charcoal, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), and clay (like bentonite clay).

But more than anything...

Though I am slightly worried for my own family, I feel so much more concerned for our dear friends in Japan and the beautiful, generous people that we were privileged to know and live among for the first year of our marriage. When I see the pictures in the news of that familiar land, my heart aches and my desire is to be back there now, helping and supporting them.

Please, continue to pray for the courageous Japanese people, who so desperately need Christ more than anything else, and yet so few of them know Him or realize that they need Him at all. Pray that God would heal their land and people, yes physically, but even more than that, spiritually.

So, my dear readers, I would love to know...

What are your thoughts on the radiation exposure issue? I'm curious to know, what will you be doing to protect yourselves, if anything?

Top image by garycycles4 (this is the countryside in Yamaguchi, the Japanese prefecture where we lived)

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Written by Kate Tietje, Contributing Writer

These days, it’s hard to pinpoint what health really is.  Our country’s health is going down the tubes – there are constantly reports on how more and more people are suffering from obesity, diabetes, heart disease, chronic infections, stomach disorders, reproductive disorders/infertility, cancer, neurological disorders, learning disabilities….  And yet, if you talk to most people, they’ll claim “Yes!  My family is pretty healthy!”

Something doesn’t match up.  How can individual people believe that they are “generally healthy,” yet we know that our population as a whole is not healthy?  Is it always that “someone else” is unhealthy, not us?  Or maybe it’s that we don’t really know what health looks like anymore. I believe the latter is the case.

We don’t want to believe that we are the unhealthy ones.  And when everyone around us is struggling with the same issues we are, especially issues that generally aren’t seriously debilitating, it’s easy to think that we are normal.  We must be healthy, at least in general.

A lot of people will say, “Okay, so I’m overweight…but I still feel good, I don’t get sick very often, and everything else is great!” or “I’m struggling to get pregnant, but I’m really healthy in other ways!”  They don’t realize that it’s all connected.  We can’t be “really healthy” in one way, yet have a huge struggle in one area. It’s like saying, “Well, I only have a little cancer, but otherwise I really am healthy!”  (That’s not to say that those who are really only slightly overweight are really unhealthy, it’s just a common example.)

Image by mcfarlandmo

Signs of Not So Good Health

So what is real health?  How do we know when we are really healthy, and when we are not?  I wrote awhile back on Early Signs of Bad Health, but I’d like to follow up a little on that list here.  If you have the following signs, you are not as healthy as you could be:

• Being overweight; especially if unable to lose the weight (even 15 – 20 lbs.)
• Frequently being fatigued
• Suffering from depression or anxiety; panic attacks
• Struggling to get pregnant; suffering infertility, unexplained repeat miscarriages
• Chronic sinus/ear infections (especially in children)
• Allergies, especially several or severe
• Diabetes
• Auto-immune conditions
• Eczema (a sign of allergies)
• Frequent constipation and/or diarrhea
• Frequent heart burn or indigestion
• Acne or other skin rashes
• Frequent or chronic stress

Do you have any of these signs?  Something’s going on.  You could feel so much better! When your body is truly healthy, many of these little annoyances go away.  You may lose weight without trying, your skin will be clear and smooth, you’ll have energy, you won’t have sinus infections anymore, and you’ll feel good most of the time!

Most people don’t realize that they just don’t have to live with the minor annoyances above.  They are caused by our modern diet (which is poor) and our busy lifestyle, as well as the chemicals/toxins in our environment.  By moving towards a more natural diet and avoiding chemicals in our lives, we can minimize the symptoms we suffer.

Most people suffer from adrenal fatigue these days, because our adrenal glands are very sensitive to stress (emotional and physical).  You’ve read some about that this month already and you’ll read a lot more about it.  By eating a healthy diet, though, you can combat adrenal fatigue.

Image by DrJimiGlide

Signs of Good Health

How do when know when we are really, truly healthy?  Obviously we can’t be perfectly healthy all the time.  We’ll still catch minor colds and other temporary illnesses.  We’ll catch them less often and they’ll be less severe (probably), but it’ll still happen.  How do we know, though, when we have achieved true health?

• Plenty of energy
• Restful sleep
• Infrequent stomachaches, rare diarrhea or constipation (accompanying acute illnesses only)
• Feeling “really good” most of the time
• Normal, regular menstrual cycles (if female and adult, obviously!)
• Ability to conceive easily; no pregnancy complications (conceive within 6 months}
• Stress is temporary and manageable; no panic attacks
• Feelings of happiness; mood is well regulated
• No autoimmune conditions, or pre existing conditions are well managed and symptoms are minor
• Clear, beautiful skin
• Elimination of allergies or lessening of symptoms

Doesn’t this sound wonderful?  We can be healthy.  We can feel great.  It is not unobtainable.  It’s especially important to know, even if your health has not been so great for awhile, even if you do suffer from diabetes, fibromyalgia, PCOS, or other chronic diseases, you can overcome them and be healthy again!

[By the way, very small plug, I just released a new ebook, Healthy Pregnancy Super Foods, aimed at helping women simplify healthy pregnancy nutrition!  A good diet full of super foods can help at any time, but especially when preparing for conception or while pregnant or breastfeeding.]

How is your health?  What is “real health” to you?  Have you overcome any of these challenges, or are you attempting or hoping to soon?

Top image by stacy michelle

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I'm so excited to announce to you the theme for October here at Keeper of the Home!

All month, the great majority of the posts from both myself and my contributing writers will focus on simple, safe and effective home remedies or preventative measures that you can take to avoid getting sick.

Every mama needs to know that avoiding the Tylenol, Vaporub or antibiotics this winter is easier than she might think. We'll have posts on cold and flu prevention (and even cavity prevention), children's remedies, homeopathics, cough syrup recipes, using herbs and more! The line up is absolutely amazing and I know that you will want to check back each day throughout October to see what's new.

On November 1st, to cap off this month's focus on natural remedies, I will be hosting a carnival for everyone who wants to share any home remedies or prevention tips that they have shared on their own blogs. More to come on that, but put the date in your calendar...

Meeting Joel Salatin

This past Saturday, I was very fortunate to meet a man I greatly admire, farmer Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms in Virginia . My darling husband bought me tickets to attend a special dinner with Joel and then I went to a local university to listen to his lecture on "lunatic farming".

First, a glimpse into what Joel Salatin and his family do at Polyface Farms as they raise what he calls "salad bar beef" and other pastured poultry and eggs:

I was a bit surprised to find something unexpected welling up in me as he showed pictures and described his style of farming, as shown in the video : worship of our magnificent Creator. The one who made these unique and even laughable creatures, in such a perfect, obviously-ordained way that makes Joel's common sense system work so smoothly. God's ways are best, and He truly has made His creatures and the earth to work together in unmatchably harmonious and beautiful ways.

I was hopeful that I could write a post that could begin to capture what Joel had to say. When I arrived back home and began to tell my husband all about the evening, I saw that I had written over 6 full pages of notes, and decided that I might do better to give you a few soundbites instead. :)

(And I do apologize that these may not be exactly as he phrased them-- I was writing furiously but he's a man who has a lot to say and not enough time to say it all!)

Soundbites from Joel Salatin

"Are we overrunning our headlights? We go too far in our innovation, beyond what we can spiritually, morally, ethically support.... (Just) because we can, should we? The most precious things in life (children, family, the future, life) that we can't quantify on a bank sheet don't get taken into account. What we have is technology run amuck."

"We have a populous that doesn't know how to cook. Every woman used to know how to cut up a chicken, now most don't even know that chickens have bones. " (Over dinner he told me that our society is full of "culinary ignorance", which I thought was a great term!)

"Food safety is entirely subjective. It's okay to feed kids Cocoa Puffs and Wonder Bread (according to the government) but raw milk and tomatoes grown in compost are bad. (Ultimately) it's about which science you believe. Food safety is about faith, but faith in who?"

"Who owns our bodies, our 3 trillion member community (of cells, bacteria, etc.)? Does it make sense to be able to practice our religious freedom, but not practice freedom over our own body? If I don't have the freedom to hurt myself, I don't have the freedom to help myself. When we give over our freedom to an outside entity/institution, we allow them to control our lives... Local food is too expensive because of capricious, malicious, police legislation that is being controlled by the government, determining what is safe for us to eat."

"The (conventional food) industry fears food freedom, because we would drive them all out of business."

"Government is there to preserve the status quo. Innovation will never come from the government! It must come from us, from the ground up, from the individual choices we make. We can't look at the big picture or we'll make ourselves crazy. We can wrap our head around what I'm going to eat tomorrow. Together, with these kinds of choices, we can create inertia. We can leave the world better than we found it."

I rarely talk government on my blog (everyone has their no-blogging subjects, and this is one of mine), but I couldn't resist posting some of what this conservative, Christian, libertarian, lunatic farmer had to say on the topic, because, well... I agree with him a lot. You probably won't hear me get into it again for a long time (and I only just touched the surface), but if you've ever wondered, well now you know a few of my views on the subject!

One last subject that I asked Joel about during dinner was the question of whether this type of farming could actually produce enough food to feed the world (a question from a reader)... his answer was absolutely yes, and that it was one of his favorite questions! He said that the issue really isn't whether we could make enough, because in fact, we are already making so much more than enough to feed the world.

The problem, he said, is all of the other factors that stand in the way of those who need the food getting the food: issues of politics, economics, poverty, corporations, Monsanto, etc. I don't remember the numbers he quote, but he said that the US wastes (I might be getting this wrong) but I think it was over half of the food that they produce. Literally, it wastes and rots and becomes useless.

Switching to grass-fed farming will reduce production a little (but he did say not much, because of all the land that is suitable for raising animals, and NOT for growing crops, as well as taking into account all of the grain that must be grown to feed grain-raised crops, as opposed to raising them on a completely sustainable feed like grass).

The very next day, I happened upon this post which is a longer version of the very points that Joel was making to me (there's just a teeny bit of language in it, otherwise it's quite good).

Phew... my best attempt to synthesize a whole lot of thoughts into one decent length post! Hopefully I succeeded and gave you some food for thought.

Which Joel Salatin quote did you like or relate to the most, and why?

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Guest Post by Kate Ferry

A few years ago, the Ferry family experienced a traumatic death. We lost all our girls. During the winter, approximately 50,000 honeybees vanished from my backyard. They went into hibernation after Halloween and never woke up. I don’t know where they went, but come spring, there was no one home in either of my hives.

As the air began to warm and the flowers started turning their faces to the sun, the hives remained dark and empty. No one was home. Come the beginning of March, my worst fears were confirmed when the lids were lifted and not a soul was home. No droning hum. No fluttering wings on my hands. My girls were gone.

Honeybees have been a part of my life for many years now. I have a fondness for their company and I admire their lifestyle and work ethic. I devour honey and relish in the bi-annual collection of the blonde liquid. Their disappearing act and careless state of affairs that the hive was left in left me reeling. Questions kept running through my head and doubts clouded my mind…

Where did they go? Why were dead bee carcasses left in the hive and not carried out with all the waste honeybees unload daily? Why were the honeycombs still laden with amber food? Why did they vanish?

And, the question that stung the most…

What could I have done?

Low and behold the answers are still unknown. It appears that my hit was a case of Colony Collapse Disorder. CCD has been dotting headlines and major publications and news channels for the past few years. It is a mysterious enemy and is killing honeybees and destroying hives at an apocalyptic rate.

The beekeepers are helpless. It is a phenomenon of survival of the fittest. The bees are losing the war at a rate that will eventually devastate our food supply and the pollinated crops so many of us love.

My life as a beekeeper has been in a holding pattern until this year. I missed my girls. I missed the cyclical predictability of their season. I missed their comforting drone and buzz that fills my ears when inspecting the hives.

But, the list of excuses has been long and complicated for why these miraculous creatures have not come back into my life. The money hasn’t been there to start up the expensive hives from start. The time wasn’t there the summer after my daughter Beckett was born in August 2008. Sleep and eating on a semi-regular basis were higher priorities. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Truth be told, the nagging excuse that really kept the ship at bay was my conscience and dreadful fear. I didn’t want to lose another hive. I didn’t want to be disappointed and heartbroken. And, I didn’t want to let my girls down.

In April, I decided to take a deep breath and pulled my shoulders up straight. The order was placed for two boxes of bees and the arrival date was set for the first week for May. As soon as I got the phone call that the bees had arrived, I set about like a maniacal pregnant women counting down the days until the baby pops. I began prepping their house and cleaning out old hive boxes. The pollen patties that had been stored were set to thaw on the counter. The pot was bubbling on the stove and sugar syrup was under way. I wanted to open every door for the girls and give them every opportunity to survive and prosper.

A few days later, Beckett and I drove down to Burlington, Washington (about 30 miles away) and picked up the two boxes of honeybees. They are Italian – I call them my Italian lovelies. The trip home was filled with a monotonous, soothing drone intermixed with a toddler babbling “bees cute”.

The weeks before our fated trip to pick up the bees had been a personal struggle to find where to place the hives and how to provide the best protection for them. My first option was my mother’s home. She lives about 5 minutes from us and her property is 40-acres mixed with open fields and dense forests. The pollen sources available are varied and uniquely well rounded; there are snarled blackberry brambles, massive locust trees that touch the sky, gnarly old apple trees and dandelions as far as the eye can see. It is a wonderful home for honeybees.

My second option was the most obvious, our home and property. We are blessed to have a good size lot and the room to house a handful of hives if we wanted. One of my greatest joys with honeybees is the predictable rhythm of watching the bees go about their daily business.

Our home is also a honeybee’s paradise; we are surrounded by hundreds of acres of raspberry fields. But, the scientific evidence that points to the use of pesticides and other contaminants as a major contributor to their unexplainable death is overwhelming. Raspberries are notoriously one of the most chemical laden foods grown and our home is at the epicenter of this death trap. My mom’s house is a sanctuary in the country that offers enough pollen sources to keep the bees distracted and satisfied. I cannot observe them in my garden or watch their daily interactions, but I have loosely draped them with a safety net of sorts.

But, now the bees had arrived and their home was ready. The boxes of bees were filled to the gills with buzzing insects. The queen was carefully removed, placed safely inside the hive and the bees were dumped in. With a solid thump and shake, the bees fell into the hive like a cascade of sticky marbles – one unit of buzzing dervishes. The syrup feeder was filled. The pollen patty was smushed onto the frames. And, the hives’ lids went back on.

As their buzzing bodies were placed into their new homes, I said a prayer.

I pray that my bees live and flourish in my care and my yard.

I pray that they prosper on their staple diet of pollen and honey.

I pray that I am able to enjoy and deliver the golden nectar to my pantry and my fellow bee devotees.

I pray that my beekeeping fosters in Beckett a magical and wondrous respect for the honeybee.

I pray that my bees prepare for winter with steadfast determination and weather the storm with ease and grace.

I pray that my bees live and flourish.

Amen.

And, onward we go.

Here’s to a terrific, beautifully successful beekeeping season!

Any beekeepers (or future/hopeful beekeepers) out there? I would love to hear about your experience with your bees!

Written by Kate Ferry. Visit her blog at www.sacredbee.net to follow the Ferry family's effort to buy organic and local, reduce their waste and eliminate artificial and harmful products from their home.**

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Guest Post by Hallee

I have a new venture in my life. One recent morning in Sunday School, our teacher announced that our class would be one of four groups who would be volunteering with a local church's soup kitchen. That immediately got my attention. I had no idea my little town in central Kentucky had a soup kitchen.

I have always felt a strong calling from God to serve. Lately, it's become an almost audible voice in my ear. I've discussed it with my husband, Gregg, feeling like the call was to go "out" - to join a mission group, pack a suitcase, and go -- which would be a lot easier to consider if my husband wasn't in Afghanistan, leaving me at home alone with three children. The conflict between this call versus my duties and responsibilities and love and life here occasionally overwhelmed my emotions. I felt like I was suffocating.

As soon as I heard the announcement about the soup kitchen, I wanted to get to work. I didn't want to tarry while everything was coordinated, schedules were created, for me to wait my turn to go work just once a month. I now felt overwhelmed with this urgent, immediate feeling of "NOW".

The next week, I fought the urge to call the host church of the soup kitchen all week which would have preempted my own church's plans. I planned my youngest sons' 2nd birthday party, entertained my parents from out of town, and enjoyed a weekend mini-revival at my church. Vacation Bible School started on Monday, and all day I would reach for the phone to call the soup kitchen, but set it back down again. That night at VBS, where I worked in the kitchen feeding the staff and helpers and serving snacks to the kids, I talked with our pastor while he ate, confessing my desire to step forward and work right away.

He told me he was going to the church the next morning with our youth pastor and the head of the men's ministry, and invited me to join them. We worked Tuesday, getting an idea of what was needed so that schedules could be coordinated, and as we finished the day, the pastor told the head of the ministry that we would start our volunteer rotation in July.

I told her I'd be back the next day.

I found out that just one elderly woman cooked five days a week all by herself. At one time, there had been 2 cooks, but one of them hasn't worked for the last two months due to illness. That left this lone woman to do everything all by herself, and she confessed to me that she felt "plumb wore out." It was very easy to step up and say that I would start cooking even more.

My prayer is to be a complete blessing to this wonderful ministry. My family follows a Levitical diet. Among other things, we don't eat pork. The first morning serving at the soup kitchen, we took big cans labeled with nothing more than "U.S. Government Pork". We picked through the canned pig flesh and pulled out big chunks of fat and threw them out, then mixed the remaining meat with K.C. Masterpiece Barbecue Sauce (second ingredient: high fructose corn syrup). This we served on pre-packaged white bread hamburger buns, with Lays potato chips and canned peaches for sides. Dessert was a sugar-free cherry pie artificially sweetened with sucralose.

Almost all of the food is donated by amazing companies. There is a huge warehouse filled with cans and boxes and bottles, and the woman who runs it all (and who is the only other cook besides myself) sits down with her inventory and creates a menu plan. She does this on her own time, completely volunteer, and out of her heart.

The donated food isn't piece-meal, as if the product of a community food drive. There are giant pallets of boxed mashed potatoes or gallon cans of green beans. Corporations give, processing plants give, grocery stores give. A local grocery store gives all of their day-old bread and desserts by the truck full, and what isn't served that day is set on a table to be given out.

And this leads me to what I perceive as a very modern problem.

I'm going to pre-empt this by saying that I in no way am criticizing the ministry. I am not criticizing the generous companies that regularly donate this food to this organization. Nor am I criticizing the people who work so tirelessly, as volunteers, to serve this food to those who are clearly in so much need. What I am criticizing is the very existence of this food in the first place.

A woman came that day we served the BBQ sandwiches. She had a terrible headache and collapsed in the arms of the head cook, just sobbing, because she was so tired and so hungry and hadn't eaten for two days. People come into this church and eat two, three, sometimes four helpings because this is the only food they're going to get all day.

But the food is poisoning them.

Image by NatalieMaynor

I think I have been removed from the real world for too long. I live in my "real food" bubble, with my fresh fruits and vegetables, good meats, free-range eggs, organic dairy, and fresh milled flour. We choose to spend more on groceries and take more time on meals so that our family can benefit from the extra cost and the extra effort. In the end, we spend much less on health care. And when I have occasion to walk through the grocery store aisles, I have actually found myself getting angry with the volume of just pure junk that crowds the shelves.

I wonder when the tables turned. When did processed, chemical laden, nutrient lacking pre-packaged foods became the most economical, the most convenient, the thing that everyone wanted. Why does society just accept that a meal-in-a-box sitting on a grocery store shelf for possibly months at a time is 'as good' as fresh meat and fresh ingredients being used to make a dish of the same name?

I watch these poor, hungry people; so many of whom are sick, toothless, wheezing, hurting -- and I want to hug them and then feed them GOOD food. I want to offer them rich breads and hearty fresh produce. I want to make big batches of a bone broth and load it down with fresh vegetables and aromatic, medicinal herbs and serve it with fresh-baked whole grain bread.

But there is no way I can do that. I can't afford to feed hundreds of people a day all by myself. Even if I could afford it, I'm facing a society of people who don't understand that there is even anything wrong with the mega-farm, factory-processed, all-of-the-life-sucked-out-of-it ultra pasteurized, ultra-homogenized, artificially colored, artificially sweetened food.

I think as I became a "real foodie" and started making the best choices for my family, and as the last six years have gone by and I've removed myself from the junk food world, that I've put on blinders.

I find myself getting angry in the grocery store, then pretend that it isn't there. What? Hallee the Homemaker angry? Yes. I am. I watch shows like Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and get fired up about our kids' school lunches and the health of the children today, and assume that everyone else has the exact same reaction that I have to it. I assume that people just naturally care about it, and are willing to make the changes that I have made, all of which have so greatly improved our quality of life.

I assume that corporations know that the artificial this and that, the preservatives and industrial grade chemicals, the processing that they put food through -- I assume that they know how harmful to the health of consumers these things are and they are are willing to make changes that will better serve us in the end. And I am so very disappointed every time I read the labels of new products to find hydrogenated this and high fructose that all sweetened with aspartame.

Now I'm in the mix of it. Now I'm cooking with it. There simply is no other option. You can't tell someone who hasn't eaten for two days that they can't eat this food because it isn't good for them. I mean, come on.

The biggest problem is the ignorance (and I use this term in it's purist meaning - as in a lack of knowledge and education - and not in a derogatory manner) of most consumers in society. What do you have to do to food to make it shelf-worthy in cardboard for months? What do you have to strip away from it and add to it for that to happen? And why don't we seem to care?

In my perfect world, the donated food would come from local farms. It would take a few more volunteers and a lot more time and effort (A LOT more time and effort), but the food would be wholesome, nourishing, healing, and healthy. And it would more than fill the bellies of the people who eat it - it would benefit their lives, too.

I feel like maybe God is using me for this. Maybe He's sent my family on this real food path, sent us seeking all of the books and information and education. Maybe my exposure to the real foodie community through my blog and through such amazing sites like Keeper of the Home and Kelly the Kitchen Kop has been to prepare me for this ministry. Maybe this journey has brought me to this soup kitchen so that I can help impact it and start getting these people good food.

Yesterday, I talked with the owner of the fruit stand the boys and I walk to a few times a week - where we shop for all of our seasonal fruits and vegetables. After he donated a huge portion of the apples, pears, and peaches I needed for a bake sale, I talked to him about donating produce that he couldn't sell anymore to the soup kitchen. With his supplier contacts and local farming networks, I think that we can start getting some fresh food coming into the soup kitchen.

It's a start. I'm happy to start somewhere.

Hallee Bridgeman is a homemaker and mother of 3 in small town Kentucky who juggles cloth diapers, grain mills, two precocious toddlers, a teenager, and a ministry that has her feeding hundreds of people a week -- all while her husband is in Afghanistan. She has been blogging since August and covers everything from fresh ground whole wheat bread bowls and the breakdown model for Biblical womanhood, to how to clean chubby little lipstick hand-prints off of eggshell white walls. Hallee the Homemaker is delighted to be guest-posting for Keeper of the Home.

Image credit

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In theaters June 12 (I've already marked it in my calendar!)

It's about time a film made it to the theaters that will actually show some of the realities of the so-called "food" being offered to us these days. True confession of a nutrition geek: I was actually giddy when I saw the trailer for the first time. :)

Will you be there? Does this movie make anyone else as excited as it makes me?

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Yesterday morning started like any other day, but at 10 am, my husband asked me whether I would be okay with going to Seattle to stay with his family for a week or two. It was unexpected, but I understood the reasoning behind the request.

I'm not sure how many of you have heard the news from Vancouver, BC lately, but things have been a bit interesting of late. It seems there is a gang turf war underway, as we have had 17 shootings in the past 30 days, I believe. These shootings are generally targeted to either gang members or friends and family of members, but the more concerning aspect is how they are happening. The great majority have been in public places- in front of shopping malls, in parking lots, at gas stations, by coffee shops, and even drive by shooting as a car went through an intersection mere blocks from our old condo.

The gangs are brazen, and have no fear of the police or justice system. No one is being arrested, and no one seems to have any control over the situation. The violence has been escalating lately in the city where we live (a large suburb of Vancouver).

Despite all this, Ryan wouldn't have made a move to have the kids and I leave the city, until about 3 days ago, when a new tenant moved into the rental suite below our house (which we rent- we are not the landlords). We don't really know anything about the new tenant, and that is part of the concern. I haven't met her yet, but Ryan felt concerned when he met her (for various reasons- her appearance, her job, her demeanor, etc.). In light of all the violence, and the fact that the acts are not limited to gang members but also to acquaintances, he felt that it was best for us not to be in the house until either the violence simmered down a bit and/or he got more of a feel for this tenant and what she is like.

So, I rushed around and did laundry like a madwoman, packed up what we needed, and tried to leave behind a semi-tidy house and food for my husband, until we left around dinnertime. We're here, at my mother-in-law's for a week and a half, until the end of the month. We're continuing on with learning time (home school), cooking, my computer work, etc. but might try to add in a zoo trip, some visits, etc. while we're here.

Though we're not afraid of the circumstances going on right now and ultimately our trust is in our sovereign God and His good plans for us, I am happy to be here and thankful for such a loving, protective husband who felt it was better to be safe than sorry. Believe me, he's getting the bad end of this deal- no wife, no kids, no homecooked meals, no clean laundry! :)

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Well, I've been called many things in my lifetime, but this is the first time anyone has ever referred to me as a parasite.

Alright, so it wasn't direct, but I'm included in the group of parent's that Amanda Peet so lovingly referred to in a recent article in Cookie. Quite frankly, I barely know who Amanda Peet is, but her stance on childhood vaccinations caught my attention.

"Once we had spoken, I was shocked at the amount of misinformation
floating around, particularly in Hollywood," says Peet, who quickly
boned up on the hot-button controversies surrounding the topic,
including the unproven link between certain vaccines and autism; the
safety of preservatives like mercury-based thimerosal; and the fear
that the relatively high number of shots kids receive today can
overwhelm young immune systems. Her conclusion? Well, not only is
Frankie up-to-date on her vaccines (with no staggering), but her mom
will soon appear in public-service announcements for Every Child by
Two. "I buy 99 percent organic food for Frankie, and I don't like to
give her medicine or put sunscreen on her," says Peet. "But now that
I've done my research, vaccines do not concern me." What does concern
her is the growing number of unvaccinated children who are benefiting
from the "shield" created by the inoculated—we are protected from
viruses only if everyone, or most everyone, is immunized: "Frankly, I
feel that parents who don't vaccinate their children are parasites."

Thank you. I'll take that as a compliment. :)

If you'd prefer to read something of greater substance, I would highly recommend this Open Letter on Vaccinations by Dr. Jay Gordon, in response to the controversy created by Ms. Peet's words.

Additionally, I would also suggest this excellent article by Dr. Sears, Is Aluminum the New Thimerosal?

Quite truthfully, I'm not offended in the slightest and she is entirely welcome to her viewpoint. I think, however, that it's worth highlighting some more substantial information and research than simply the opinion of a Hollywood star, don't you?

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I have two numbers for you today:

0 and 47

0 being the number of medals that Canada currently has in these summer Olympics as I write this post, and 47th being our ranking among the participating nations. Ouch!

I've heard that the reason we're doing so poorly is because so much money and effort are being poured into the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games (yay- my hometown!), and because of that, not a whole lot has gone into training athletes for these current summer games. Goodness- I sure hope so, because it's a mildly sad state of affairs!

In the meantime, guess I'll be cheering on my neighbors, the good ol' US of A, since they (and China) seem to be the only ones that CBC (a Canadian station, no less!) is interested in covering!

Nonetheless, it's been fun to watch so far. I am a mild summer olympics junkie, I confess. Gymnastics, swimming, diving, track and field- I love it all!

Do you prefer the summer or winter olympics, and which sports are your favorites to watch?

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Written with a whole lot of help from my creative hubby, and much, much laughter (oh, the naughty things we joked about saying!)

(A poet I'm not, but I just sort of thought that a poem might be the way,
to share of my woes and wiggle my nose with disgust at this immoral fray.)

There once was a health conscious Mom,
whose heavenly raw milk came from
a farm, safe and clean,
as you've ever seen.
It was nourishing, pure and wholesome.

Until one unfortunate day,
when the government dropped by to say,
"You've broken the law,
By keeping it raw.
Desist or we'll lock you away."

Their mandate and mission is clear.
To fill all the people with fear,
of drugs and of thugs,
and raw milk in jugs,
so we'll vote for them year after year.

Ahhh, my poor little poem can't really convey the situation or the frustration that I and all the other shareholders feel as our raw milk (that is our rightful property!) is being withheld from us, due to a flawed Order to Cease and Desist.

The distribution of raw milk is illegal everywhere in Canada. Our cow share went out on a limb by finding a legal loophole (and checking it over very carefully before beginning), which allows us to purchase shares as cow owners, thus owning a portion of the milk that is produced. It is legal to drink raw milk from a cow that you own, as it is personal property that you may do with as you like.

Over a week ago, milk was seized and dumped down the toilet at one of the 5 drop points used by our cow share. This week the order to cease and desist was given to the farmers, and we are unable to pick up our milk (which we have paid for) and it will go to waste this week. The issue has been taken to the BC Court of Appeals, but we really have no idea what to expect next. If you're interested, here is a bit more info and the official letter of appeal for our case. 

It is unbelievable to me that a group of regular people, purchasing cows together so they can drink fresh, unpasteurized milk, is an issue worthy of the government's time, money and energy! Can it possibly be for any reasons other than control over what individual citizens do, and to protect the interest's of the highly influential and affluent dairy industry? (I love the phrase "dairy cartel" used in the letter of appeals!)

So tell me- what is the raw milk status where you live? And just to open up a can of worms (keep it family friendly, everyone!) what do you think about government regulation of these kind of things anyways? :)

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