As we’ve been sorting and rearranging, I’ve come across some things I forgot I had.  One is a bottle of Rhodiola rosea.  I thought I’d tell you all about it in case it would be useful to someone, because most people have never heard of it.  Rhodiola rosea is an herb.  It isn’t very well-known yet here in the west (although it is starting to pop up in some unexpected places - like in the “weight-loss” supplement Leptitrex - I’m not sure why), but has been used for many, many years in the east.  It’s classified as an “adaptogen.”  Basically, an adaptogen is a substance that “boosts” all of your body systems without directly interfering with any of them.  This makes it good for encouraging greater energy, and causing everything to function more effectively, without causing any weird imbalances.  Because it’s so new here, there haven’t been a lot of studies on it, so there is no “proof” that it’s safe in any particular circumstances, but from what I have read, and my own experience with it, I would personally be comfortable taking it while pregnant or nursing (and I tend to be pretty particular).

Post from: The Titus 2 Homemaker

Counting Down… (and about Rhodiola)

BFS Assignment #100 - Oh What a Feeling!

Intro:  Oh What a Feeling!   (Marketing credit:  Toyota)
Wow!  As many of us enter into another school year, the feelings that we have permeate in setting the tone for the upcoming school year.  Box Day!– ahhh….the new books and the sound of cracking the binding and smelling the freshly printed pages….Can you FEEL the freshness? ….

Assignment: Take time this week to write about YOU and your feelings of trials and triumphs with homeschooling.  Touch on when you first heard about the concept of home schooling and whether you tip-toed into the idea or just jumped in and never looked back.  Share your schooling as a child and how you compare it to what your goals are for your children.

For me, my own schooling is closely tied to my decision to homeschool my children.  I was homeschooled myself!  Only from sixth grade on, though.  When I hear Christian parents talk about how school is harmless because their schools “are good,” or their “teachers don’t teach evolution,” or whatever, it grieves me.  What they don’t realize is that more is taught at school than that which is officially taught.  When I was in school, I learned to be a “strong” (read: “feminist”) woman.  I learned that feminine softness was a bad thing.  I learned that I needed to work even harder than the boys to “prove” myself, rather than just being who I was and excelling at being me.  I learned that my little sisters were pests to be brushed off or gotten rid of, rather than friends to love, relatives to honor, and younger Christians to mentor.  All of these are unGodly mindsets and attitudes that grieve the Lord - and, now that I know better, me.  This is not the worldview I want my children to learn.

Although we are not far into our “official” homeschooling journey (Ariel is only in first grade this year, and we haven’t started for the year because of the move), I am blessed by the very counter-cultural attitudes we see in her.  Granted, she is very young yet, and we will have to work hard to preserve these, but I believe we have started in the right direction.  Preserving is much easier than undoing!  (I know; it took me many years to overcome my own wrong thinking.)  Just yesterday, she told us that Sophia is her best, best friend.  This is what we want to encourage and develop in her, and in Sophia - a view of the world as God sees it, which includes a good relationship with her sister!

Michael and I knew before we were even married that we wanted to train our children ourselves.  It is our belief that discipleship cannot truly take place if we are sending them away for many hours of the day, even if the place they’re being sent away to is a “good” place.  (For this reason, even a private Christian school is not an option for us.)  It is our responsibility as parents to “bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” to “teach [God’s words] diligently to [our] children,” talking of them when we sit in our house and when we walk by the way, when we lie down, and when we rise up.  (Eph. 6:4; Deut. 6:7)  We don’t want to be like King David, who was known as a man after God’s own heart, and whose children were wicked.  Or Eli, who served the Lord but did not pass a true heart of worship onto his children.  We want our children to love and serve and follow Yahweh wholeheartedly for generations to come.

There are a few who “escape” public school unscathed. But we find our children too valuable to leave to chance* - and our assignment too clear to do so with clear conscience.

*Did you know that, according to the Center for Excellence in Education (as quoted by Considering Homeschooling), 98% of Christian homeschoolers maintain their faith, but 85% of Christian children in public school do not hold a Christian worldview by the time they graduate, and drop out of church?

Post from: The Titus 2 Homemaker

BFS (Blogger Friend School) #100

The hardest part of packing, for me, is not the physical packing.  It’s the mental sorting through of things.  We’ve been setting a lot of things aside to get rid of.  It’s crazy the junk people collect.  I remember when we first moved into the house I spent my teen years in.  One of the outbuildings was full of old theater seating.  Red.  Who in the world collects these things?!  lol  Our junk is not that weird (at least to my mind - but then, it’s my junk), but we do have a habit of holding onto things that have far outlived their usefulness.

Post from: The Titus 2 Homemaker

Oh, my.

See, most modems nowadays don’t contain the full functionality within the modem itself; some of the functionality is in the software - the driver.  These are often called “soft modems” (short for “software modems”) or “Winmodems.”  The software is proprietary, and it isn’t in anyone’s financial interest to write drivers for Linux, so it can be a real headache getting these to work with Linux.  The alternative is what’s known as a “hard modem” (short for “hardware modem”), which contains all of the functionality within the modem itself.  These are usually external modems (attached to, rather than built into, the computer) because they have to be somewhat larger to hold all that they need to hold.

The last time I saw a hard modem, it was huge - larger than a videotape.  I was thinking that this would not be a viable option with a laptop, because it would not be very portable!  I was surprised to find that there are much smaller hardware modems available now.  This particular modem is a little smaller than a stick of butter.  It has a short cord attached, with a USB plug on the end.  The cord keeps it from blocking the adjacent USB port(s), which is a big help.

In Windows (or Mac), it does require a driver.  The driver installed without a glitch on my XP installation.  I didn’t even uninstall my old modem first (which is recommended), and I haven’t had the slightest bit of trouble with it.  After a minute or two to install the driver from the included CD, I just had to tell my dial-up connection to use the new modem instead of the old one, and it dialed up without a hitch!  Once I had confirmed that the modem was working well with my laptop, I moved on to the real challenge.  I booted into Linux.

To my immense delight (remember, I have been working at this for over six years!), Linux recognized the modem right away.  No driver is required for a Linux system, as long as it is new enough - kernel 2.4.20 or later.  This includes most recent Linux distributions.  (I am running Ubuntu 8.04, a.k.a. “Hardy Heron.”)  I did have a little bit of difficulty with ppp not wanting to allow a USB modem port as an option, but wvdial worked perfectly on the first attempt.  No finagling required.

All in all, this seems to have been the perfect solution.  It’s compact and, therefore, portable.  It doesn’t interfere with any of my other hardware or accessories.  And, most importantly, it plays well with Linux.

Post from: The Titus 2 Homemaker

Linux at Last (or Why I Love This Modem)

Meanwhile, I’m still trying to get this Linux thing to work (almost there, I think, finally!), and Blogger Friend School is about to start back up.  I participated in this last year, and it was a lot of fun!  In case you’re not familiar, it is a series of weekly blogging “assignments.”  They’re aimed primarily at Christian homeschool moms, but as far as I know, anyone is welcome to participate.  They build a sense of blogging community among us and help us get to know each other.  The team is just gearing up to begin sending out assignments…next week, I think (wow, is it really almost September, already?!), and they’re kicking off by having a back-to-school contest.  I am participating by posting this to let you know about it.  The prize is a nature journaling/notebooking set.

These assignments should be even easier to complete after we’re moved, because Michael is pretty sure we’re going to get high-speed internet when we get there!  Yay!!!  I’ve gotten to make use of this once or twice at a friend’s house or at my mother-in-law’s, and the turbo-fast speeds are just mind-boggling to one who’s accustomed to a (slow) dial-up connection.  This is the best luxury anyone could give me, and I am so excited that it’s a probability!

Post from: The Titus 2 Homemaker

What’s Going on Around Here

Our trip to Wal-Mart for the popsicle sticks turned up a terrific solution.  We found mini popsicle sticks.  They have all the same benefits of the regular popsicle sticks, with the added advantage that they are only about half as long, so they are much easier to sort, pile, hold a handful of, etc.  Two packages of them (with one bundled into tens and the other left loose) fit into a 4-cup Ziploc container to store with our school texts, and this works for us.

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WFMW - math time

Post from: The Titus 2 Homemaker

My Hubby is So Good :)

For this banking, we prefer to avoid a big chain. We like small, local banks; they seem to be friendlier and easier to work with.  We love our bank here - Chesapeake Bank.  But, being local, they do not have branches in the area to which we’re moving.  So the search begins… to find a new “local bank.”

Silly as it sounds, one thing that would be a plus to me is the use of MasterCard for debit, instead of Visa.  Visa’s commercials convey this idea of everything being about money.  MasterCard’s recognize that, “There are some things in life money can’t buy.”  I know, they’re both companies out to make a profit, but, given the option, I would just rather support the one who’s chosen to send the right message.

What do you like about your bank?  What do you dislike?  What would you look for if you were choosing a bank all over again?

Post from: The Titus 2 Homemaker

Banks

Amazon’s Green Baby Store

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Green Babies

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Moving