End of TSAP, Plant Project Update, Etc.

The boys are loving the "break," and so am I. We're all getting more time outside, and I'm loving how much I'm getting to read. What a treat! Only two weeks left, and then we start back until our Feast of Tabernacles break (just a couple weeks later). And then we'll continue to work strongly until Jaden is finished with first grade, and we'll have a week's break before starting second grade for him, which is planned in the Roman month of January.

We're continuing to move slowly through Jeremiah in the bible, usually only a chapter a day. It's important, though. The prophets didn't only speak for first fulfillment of prophetic messages, but they also spoke for the end time fulfillment of the same. And it's very clear that the Israelite nations are headed swiftly toward the severe punishment foretold. Praise God that brighter days are foretold afterward, the time that Satan's kingdom comes to an end as he is locked away for 1,000 years, and God's Kingdom inherited by Christ and the other sons of God (the saints) will rule. Rather than world government being established by wars, as is Satan's way, God's way will be by example. The sons of God will lead Israel to be the witness it was always meant to be. People will willingly follow the commandments and statutes of God's Law and will enjoy the blessings of obedience. When all the other nations see how healthy and prosperous Israel is and how abundant their crops are, they will inquire about God's way and will send representatives to Israel to find out. Eventually, the entire world will come under the rule of God's Kingdom, and even the animals will be at peace. Godspeed that day! This world NEEDS the Truth of God's way--His perfect law of liberty, the Ten Commandments and their statutes.

We're continuing to collect leaves for the plant project. Last week we were gone from Tuesday afternoon until Friday evening, visiting family. So, we've only added one more plant over the last week--"Mimosa," Albizia julibrissen. I've not yet collected the identification traits, food, drug, building, and other possible uses for it. It was scanned, and Will has cut and pasted it on a sheet. I did collect info for the Eastern Redbud and write that on the card. There are two or three others in the binder for which I have not collected and written the information about the plants. Apparently redbud flowers and pods are both edible. The former is claimed to be good in salads, and the latter are supposedly tastiest when battered and deep fried. Children have been known to enjoy snacking on the flowers. Well, we'll have to try this next spring. We have the most beautiful redbud tree in our front yard. :-)

Okay, so I messed up on my TSAP. It was Friday. I almost messed up Thursday by eating some mashed potatoes. I put them on my plate, and then I remembered, and I scraped them onto Nathan's plate. Well, then the next day I ate a fried potato, and then Nathan said, "I thought you might like me to remind you that you're not eating potatoes."

Well, this kind of thing happens fairly often in studies. So, what I'm doing is cutting it short. I can't just go on like it didn't happen and then report less-than-accurate results. It was just over a month that I went. I still have not introduced tomatoes or peppers. I had planned on putting tomatoes (except fresh, as I'm pretty sure I'm finished with those, quite sure I have developed an allergy) back into my diet first, but oops. So, I'll wait a few days, and then I'll try that out, and then I'll wait a few days and try peppers.

I never noticed through the month any benefits for which I'd obviously credit the abstinence. Nor have I experienced anything crazy since I ate the potatoes (yes, I continued to eat the potatoes once I started).

A few weeks ago, I guess it's been, I bought more art supplies for the boys. I am planning for Trusten to learn his colors while practicing motor skills and art with crayons, colored pencils, water paints, etc. He doesn't seem to be understanding the various colors still. Of course, he will one day. I hope he will enjoy what I have planned (more on that when the time comes) for when Jaden is working on his school work. I have concluded that Reading Rainbow puts Trusten to sleep. He's not one to take many naps, but RR sure seems to do the trick. Jaden (William) loves watching RR, and Trust will sit there on the couch with him, but time and time again, Trust will fall asleep during those shows. He watches the various biblical and/or safety videos and other such things that are cartoon-animated without falling asleep. But, if something dealing with reading books and traveling around to learn how things work is on, the lights go out for him. I commented about it to Nathan last night, and he said that RR made him fall asleep as a kid, too. Interesting...

I'm halfway finished with the book I'm reading The Birth Order Book. I'm enjoying it.

That's pretty much it for us!

Plant Project, Dragons, WW2 Nazi Movies, and More

I'm moving very slowly through Jeremiah with the boys...or should I say William, since Trusten just can't sit still through it all, and I don't usually make him. I've mostly been reading just one chapter a day, but sometimes two. I imagine some of the prophetic material is a bit on the boring side for children. I do briefly explain what I can to Will, though. I want him to be prepared...

Yesterday was Plant Project day (Thursday). Will cut out two leaves that we had scanned, and he pasted five more index cards to five sheets of card stock, and he pasted the two leaves. I have to catch up on gathering info for what we have. I am hoping to do some of that today.

Oh, I'm still suffering through TSAP. I really would like to have something with spaghetti sauce. I wonder...am I addicted to tomatine, or do I just really like tomato sauce and am having a hard time finding much to eat that doesn't have tomato, potato, or some sort of pepper that is in the plant family of Solanaceae? I haven't had any physical withdrawals of which I'm aware. It's the hardest when I go to the grocery store. It's a bit frustrating. And then Nathan said he's sick of having chicken and dressing for our sabbath meal (I'm read to change, too, although it sure is good), and I'd like to fix lasagna (I make really good lasagna, too!), but I can't. I think I'm going to make chicken spaghetti for this evening's sabbath meal.

Yeah, notice how I said, "I think." Isn't that bad...I'm not sure what I'm going to fix! Oh, and I'd mentioned having a brisket for the Feast of Trumpets (what we usually eat for that day), and Nathan said he'd rather buy a tenderloin and cut up some filet mignon. This is probably a good idea, because it dawned on me that we always use barbecue sauce with the brisket, and it has tomato and cayenne in it. I let Will get a small bag of sea salt and vinegar potato chips from the deli when we go grocery shopping, and it's so hard to bear him and Trusten chomping away on them when I don't get any. I have just a little more than a month to go, not quite halfway through this torturous experiment.

Anyway, for quite a many months I've had the subject of dragons and seraphim in my mind a lot. Well, I verbally spoke to Nathan a couple of weeks ago that I still really wanted to know more about dragons and whether there were/are good and bad dragons and whether the seraphim order of angels are dragons (etymological and other biblical evidence suggests that they may be). Well, it just so happened a few days later (this often happens for me) that I got an email from the History Channel website telling me about a sale, so I went to see what they had on sale, and there was a video on dragon history, which is just what I was wanting. Well, I found it even cheaper on Amazon. I got it for around 10 bucks after shipping costs. So, we watched that about a week ago. The boys watched it with us (sort of, anyway). It was interesting. It was only 50 minutes worth, though. I still have more study to do on the topic. (It did mention Satan being referred to as a dragon and about leviathan in the sea, but it didn't talk about angels beyond that.)

Wednesday night we watched the movie Valkyrie. It is based on a true story set in the time of WWII, about a group trying to assassinate the wicked Hitler. It was a sad story. They failed, and I believe it said at the end that Operation Valkyrie was the 15th failed attempt by different persons/groups to assassinate the evil German ruler. They were so close, and then a change in plans--a change of a building in which Hitler was having a briefing--was enough to foil the whole thing. (You'll have to watch the movie yourself to see why. ;-) It hit me right then that it was the evil spirits working behind the scenes. That is my feeling on the matter. It didn't say why they moved the briefing over to the other building.

Anyway, Thursday night (last night) we watched Defiance. I haven't cried that much during a movie in a long time. And I have to write about it. I really need to watch the movie again today (we have it rented from Amazon for a 24-hour period) and take notes with my Smartpen. But, I just don't see how I have time, so I will either have to make the time to just write something the best I can with the memory of watching it once, or I'll just have to rent it again. The latter is probably what will happen. I don't want to leave anything important out that I want to talk about. Defiance is also based on a true story set in the time of WW2 and the Holocaust. It's about some Jews in Eastern Europe who flee from the German Nazis to the Belarusian forests to survive. They have all sorts of trouble go their way.

Their time of escape happened to be before winter, so they had time to build shelter ahead of time, but then right as winter was about to set in, they had to leave their camp and go establish a new one. This and so many other terrible events occurred. There was some military fighting, though they ended up for the most part just trying to survive and keep each other alive. They didn't trust God enough, though. There was a terrible lack of faith. I wonder how much better they would have fared if their attitudes had been different. There was one part where I cried with joy, and that was during a wedding feast. But, I cried so much more over all the death, fighting, division, heartlessness, sickness. Last night ended up being one of those nights where I just wept heavily because of the sins of humanity, beings made in the image of God Almighty and being treated like some sort of garbage by fellow humans also made in the image of God.

It was one of those times where my heart just melted in love and compassion for my fellow humans and yet at the same time burn with hatred toward evil hearts who bear the image of God unworthily and wonder how they could possibly hate and mistreat fellow human beings in such a horrible manner.

There was certainly much to learn from the movie. I caught a lot of things during both movies, but I especially did from the second one. I saw so many biblical parallels of past and future events. Will watched the movie, too, although I was reluctant in letting him (but Nathan said it was reality and so wasn't too concerned). It's rated R, and there is definitely plenty of violence. I was able to explain some things to Will, though.

Oh, and he's so smart. Toward the beginning of the movie, the two Jewish brothers who are the main characters were hiding at the edge of the woods and watching the Germans kill and haul off Jews. When they all left, they went back to their house to get their youngest brother out from hiding under the floor (their parents were killed) and gather some food and things and then headed back toward the woods, and Will said, "They're having to go survive now." :-( I told him that yes, it was true. One of the games he plays when he's outside is Surviving. He says, "I'm going to go survive." This is before we've really started teaching him survival skills, but that is our plans.

That is a big part of the reason why I'm doing the plant project so that we can learn all we need to know about different trees, wildflowers, and other plants--food and drug usage and building usage (shelter, baskets, etc.) We will soon be starting a long curriculum called Prepare and Pray. I bought the first and second set of the curriculum. The second set is called Blessed Assurance. I'm not sure whether we're going to start it when we end our school break in mid-September or whether we'll wait until the beginning of next year (the beginning of the next Roman calendar year, in January). He'll be so busy with reading, writing, and math (I have a lot of that planned) work that we might not have any time to do anything else (except the animal science I have planned) until January, especially since I'm about to have the baby this fall and that I have a time limit to finish the book I'm writing, God's Law of Love: The Perfect Law of Liberty. But, we'll definitely be starting the curriculum soon.

Nathan will be taking Will hunting this fall, and I'm sure Nathan will carefully teach him how to clean and cut up a deer.

Trusten mostly learns from observing the rest of us and from talking with us. He asks questions. I do various activities with him when I have time. I simply don't have the time to sit down with him as I did Will at that age. Will certainly had the firstborn advantage.

I finished the book The Firstborn Advantage. What a super book. I highly recommend it, especially to firstborns. I did appreciate that the author Dr. Kevin Leman explained how there can be more than one person in sibling group that possesses firstborn qualities/personalities and that the literal firstborn doesn't always act like a firstborn.

I understood this a bit before I read the book, based mostly on my biblical knowledge and how a firstborn son can lose his firstborn rights. This book didn't discuss rights, really, but it just explained that you can have a firstborn son and a firstborn daughter, both with firstborn traits; and that whenever you have five years or more between two siblings, you can consider those subfamilies and that the firstborn of that subfamily may have firstborn traits. I truly believe that. My husband was the second born of two sons, but he's ten years younger than the firstborn. My husband has more firstborn traits, but he also does have two or three lastborn traits (such as his great sense of humor and social skills and his fantastic salesman ability). He's mixed.

I am no doubt a firstborn. The book not only confirmed things I already knew but also taught me things I didn't really know. The book pointed out the good and the bad of being a firstborn and how to use the firstborn advantage to one's benefit and also to the benefit of others (especially when people tend to easily hate firstborns). I better understand now why I tend to be so very analytical, logical, and organized. These traits are typical of firstborns. I'd like to get a copy of Kevin's The Birth Order Book now. I am very much into the study of birth order. It's amazing! I believe, as Kevin said, that there's a need for every birth order in our society, because each birth order possesses different strengths.

Wow, I'm so impressed with William's various houses and other structures he builds with blocks. He loves to build. I think it will be very exciting when he can build good things out wood and nails (he practices this already). If he's anything like his daddy is, he'll do well.

Will also loves the Reading Rainbow dvds I bought for him. I think he's watched them all, and I know he'll watch them again. I'm so pleased. I'm glad I got them. I just LOVED RR when I was a kid. Kudos to Levar Burton, the host. It's so nice to see a decent black person who loves to learn and share with others. (And he was on Star Trek: The Next Generation, too, and I LOVED that show, too!) Will has learned a lot from the videos. Trusten watches, too. My boys are SO CUTE sitting on the couch together watching a video.

Okay, well I'm just rattling on now. The main point is that we are still happily learning, even during our "break." (But, hey, we're enjoying a lot of time outside, and I'm catching up on my reading. Yay!)

Oh, yeah...one more thing. Last sabbath, while the boys went for a ride with Nathan, I was walking around the yard, and I inspected a tree at the edge of the yard. There are bumps all over the trunk of the tree. I assumed it must be some sort of fungal growth but that perhaps the bark was just that way. I'm not sure what kind of tree it is. I have not identified it, yet. But, anyway...fast forward to just two or three days ago, and the boys and I were outside. I was sitting on the front porch reading, and Trusten pointed to a beetle of some sort that was crawling on the house. He asked me what it was. Well, I've seen that type a few times before, but I don't know what it is. I stepped inside to grab our insect field guide and started flipping through it and told Trusten I would try to figure it out.

Well, that particular beetle is not in there, so I still don't know what it is, however I came across something called "scale insects." They had fake pictures of several different kind but not the exact thing that was on that tree. But, I think that must be what those bumps are. Some of them are apparently microscopic, and I guess all of them have legs very tiny (I can't see any legs). That's what I told Will later on, when I brought it up to him. He and I walked out to the tree so that I could show him the strange things. He said that they didn't look like insects, and I said that's not what I would have thought either, since I thought insects had six legs. But, I pulled back out that book to show him, and it said they have legs...you just can't see them.

That's it for now! I've already written what's becoming a book.

Plant Project Update and Miscellaneous

We've been busy with the plant project! So far we have eight different plants (including one wildflower with leaf) in our plant binder. We are scanning the leaves, and it's working out really well. I'm impressed with the print quality. And it's been fun to learn more about the local plants. I'm learning things I didn't even know. It's great! :-) Will is also getting more cutting and pasting practice, as he's not done just a whole lot of this over the past few years. So, this is good for him in many ways. The latest neat thing I learned is that gin comes from the Dutch word genever, which means "juniper." Apparently, juniper berries are what is used in flavoring the alcoholic gin. I had no idea! I love etymology, anyway, so this was nice. Will thought it was interesting that black walnut bark can make a good tooth paste, and he wants to make a tooth brush. "Momma, how do you make a tooth brush in the wild?" :-) You know, we've actually had the tooth brush discussion not too long ago. He was telling me just a couple weeks or so ago how his daddy had once told him that the Native Indian-Americans splintered bone (or maybe it was wood) and brushed their teeth.

Anyway, we're in the book of Jeremiah in the bible and of course still reading Proverbs, as always. We haven't been doing Rocket Readers books every day. I actually had not finished his plant science book with him, but we'd stopped. This week, we have been finishing that up. Today will be the last day, and then Sunday he'll do his quiz and unit test. We'll be starting back up all the book work in mid-September. Anyway, maybe we'll get back to a RR book each day next week. I read a story book to the boys nearly every day. I also sometimes look at books with Trusten to work on his learning his colors and such. I think he knows orange and maybe brown. Sometimes, he says everything is red or green. He is really funny, though. I'll ask him what color such and such thing is, and he'll say, "Ummm, red?"

Will and Trust both are continuing to enjoy the Reading Rainbow videos. Some they've already watched two or three times. I usually let them watch some sort of video each day. We only keep educational and/or biblical videos for them to watch, so it's beneficial for them, and it also allows me to get some things done.

I'm learning to decorate. LOL It's so not one of my strengths, but I'm getting the house the way I like it, and it's nearly done. I'll be very satisfied. I'm almost finished with the girl's bedroom. I've chosen to decorate with a Sunbonnet Sue theme.

We went swimming this Sunday at Roaring River. That was enjoyable for all of us. I hope we can go a few more times before the summer is up. It's fun, it's good exercise, especially for me during my pregnancy, and it is also giving Will more practice to learn how to swim. He told me he was really missing his swimming lessons.

Oh, and now Will wants a guitar and wants to learn how to play so badly. I had originally planned to get him into some sort of music instrument lessons this fall, but I recently changed my mind to wait until next fall, but THEN he starts going on about how much he wants a guitar and wants to know how to play. So, I don't really know...

I guess that's about all I have to say right now. I'm still doing my Solanaceae abstinence experiment (TSAP), and Tuesday when I went grocery shopping this week, I was very tempted to call it off. I had a hard time that day. There was so much I wanted to eat that was forbidden. I'll make it, though. I haven't finished The Firstborn Advantage, yet, because I haven't been able to read everyday, but I think I'll finish it soon. And as for Nathan, he's still talking about doing other things and eventually getting out of HVAC, although right now he just wants to get where, "[He] runs the business, rather than the business running [him]". I think he really needs to make use of that contractor's license he got. There's not very many people that have those. Now, he's wanting to start selling something else, a product in which he believes. He just has to figure out what that might be. I and many others have told him for years that he's an excellent sales person...totally opposite of me, because I'm a terrible sales person. Anyway, I think he's finally believing it. He's really great with people, and he gives the pros and cons...honest about things, and yet he's charming. He's been educating himself more on guns lately. I got him the newly released Gun Digest and preordered the next Shooter's Bible. He used to read those things all the time as a teen, but he's just now getting back big into that.

Well, I guess that sums it up for all of us...well enough, anyway.

Leaf Project and Reading Rainbow

Well, as far as daily bible reading goes, we will be finished with Isaiah tomorrow. Once this week, as I went over the Ten Commandments, I asked Will (I may start referring to him as Jaden, as he is requesting to be called by his first name) what each one meant.

For some reason, I thought about Reading Rainbow about two weeks or so ago. I looked online to see whether there were any dvds made with RR episodes, because that was one of my favorite shows as a child, and I figured Will would like it, too. I bought some dvds off Ebay--six in all for a total of twelve episodes, plus bonus material. He's been enjoying them so much that I just ordered three more dvds from Amazon in the "new and used" section. Trusten sits and watches with him, of course, and he says he likes Reading Rainbow, too. :-) I'd let Will listen to the theme song (which I also love) on Youtube, but apparently they have changed it up. I was delighted to hear the old theme song on Youtube, but on the dvds, it's different. The lyrics are the same, but the beat is a bit different, and the moving pictures during the song are also different. Oh, well....the shows are great! He learns a lot from them and really enjoys watching them.

We started on the Leaf Project today. I have it planned for Thursdays, but last week, which was supposed to be our first week, it rained. Yesterday I just didn't get to it, because I had to go to the post office to make an ebay shipment, and I took the boys to the park.

So, we gathered some leaves. We chose to start with some simple ones that are in our yard. We chose the black walnut, American sycamore, sassafras, and I have the leaves of three other trees of which I'm unsure. I am fairly certain one of them is a mulberry, but I'm not 100% positive. I have been waiting for it to put off seeds, and it has not. The leaves look just like a mulberry. One of the others I suspect may be a blackgum, and the remaining one is anyone's guess. I really do not know...yet, at least.

So far I have compiled info on the black walnut, American sycamore, and the sassafras. The information I'm compiling consists mainly of: brief identifiers, whether it is good for building, and food and drug uses.

For black walnut, I have:

Black walnut (Juglans nigra): the tree's bark, root, leaves, and nuts all have medicinal properties. Pinnate leaves, opposite leaf pattern. Walnut fruits. The main active ingredients of black walnut are tannins such as galloyglucose and ellagitannins, and juglone (5-hydroxy-alphanapthaquinone). Walnut shells are very rich in vitamin C, and betacarotene, B1,B2, and B6 are found in the leaves. Treats fungal infections and skin problems externally. Kills parasites internally and treats gout and acts as laxative. Oil is a hair tonic. Been used for eye infections and eyelid irritations. Lowers LDL cholesterol and treats brain disorders. Dried walnut for colds, bronchitis, asthma. Improves appetite and sleep patterns. Pain remedy for kidney stones. Leaves for wisdom teeth pain, bark for tooth paste. Collect leaves in early summer, harvest nuts in fall. Contains juglone, which is toxic in high amounts. Juglone is especially strong in the roots, but is also found in the leaves, bark, and wood. Also don't use for cough when fever is involved. Can be used to stain furniture.

For American sycamore, I gathered the following information:

American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) large tree, bark of older trees slough off in sheets. Maple-like palmate leaves, alternate leaf pattern. Very small red flowers in spring and brown "button ball" fruits in summer. Good shade tree, wood good for furniture. Food use: Sap can be made into syrup for a pleasant drink, but it has a low sugar content with a higher sap/syrup ratio than other syrup-producing trees. Drug use: Cathartic for menses (roots), infusion of inner bark used for antidiarrheal for dysentary, bark ooze wash infected sores and treat infant rash, emetic, steam bath for gastrointestinal aid for indigestion or biliousness, aid in expelling placenta, infusion of inner bark for measles or for difficult urination w/ yellow discharge, pulmonary tuberculosis, bark and roots for rheumatism foot soak, bark internally for internal analgesic, bark infusion for hemorrhages, colds, blood purifier, lung troubles, and to dry up or heal skin problems.

And I was particularly surprised at what I learned about sassafras:

Sassafras (Sassafras albidum): deciduous tree w/ long slender branches and orange-brown bark w/ three distinct leaf shapes--unlobed oval, bilobed, and trilobed. Leaves and twigs are mucilaginous and have a citrus-like scent when crushed. Dioecious. Tiny yellow five-petaled flowers and blue-black, egg-shaped 1cm long fruits. Steam distillation of dried root bark for essential oil contains high concentration of safrole used for fragrance. Safrole is a precursor for drug ecstasy. Tea can be used for anticoagulant and gonorrhea. Dried ground leaves make file powder, a spice. Roots can be steeped to make tea or to flavor root beer. Has been banned by FDA for carcinogenic effects. Caution should also be taken, b/c it's an emmenagogue and abortifacient. Can induce vomiting, stupor, and hallucinations, as well as diaphoresis (excessive sweating), and dermatitis.

I'm glad I learned these things about sassafras, because Will has wanted to eat the leaves. He did eat one small leaf about three weeks ago. Nathan then told him not to do so. If you don't already know, sassafras has a wonderful smell from the stems, and apparently the roots have a good smell, though I haven't personally handled the roots. Sassafras used to be used for flavoring root beer and sarsparilla. It's apparently banned by the FDA now from being used in food products, cosmetics, etc. I'm thankful that I learned that it's an abortifacient. I would hate to induce a miscarriage ever by using too much of the stuff.

Now, what was really interesting to me was that the safrole, the active ingredient in the sassafras essential oil, is a precursor to the drug which in its synthetic manufactured form is known as ecstasy. Why this is so interesting to me is that during personal research on cannabis (Cannabis sativa) and sweet calamus (Acorus calamus), I discovered that the active psychoactive ingredient in the latter is aserone, which is after what ecstasy is modeled. So, naturally, I did some research on the relation between aserone and safrole. Apparently, along with something called estragole, aserone (sometimes spelled asarone) and safrole are in a class of chemicals called phenylpropanoids. There are other genotoxic phenylpropanoids, but these are apparently the "most important DNA-damaging agents" among them (Michael Wink, Functions of Plant Secondary Metabolites and Their Exploitation in Biotechnology, Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, UK, 1999; pp 91). They are apparently potentially dangerous to the liver.

Anyway, we still to assemble our index cards, press or scan the leaves, and put them in our binder.

I'm reading The Firstborn Advantage by Kevin Leman, as I mentioned in my previous post. I'm one third of the way through the book, and I'm enjoying it.

Nathan bought some lumber (and still has more to buy). He's building two leaning deer stands, a deer blind, and a storage shed with attaching garage for our lawn mower and four-wheeler. He's been wanting to build so badly, and he's very much looking forward to hunting this fall. I am very much looking forward to getting some of this stuff out of our closets and into a storage shed! So, we'll both be happy when the projects are complete. William will be helping him build some things, and they may very well build a clubhouse this fall or winter. Oh, and Will is also going to get to go hunting with his daddy this year! Wow, I was surprised. I figured it would be at least next year, but Nathan said he can go with him in the afternoons (he'll go alone on his morning hunts).

We're planning, God-willing, to take the boys swimming next Sunday (two days from now). Will really wants to go. He says he misses his swimming lessons.

Trusten has a great imagination and will pretend objects are different things so that he can play with them. He also is enjoying when I read to both the boys, but he sometimes gets down and runs back and forth before the book is finished. He's quite a hyperactive little soul, so he has a very hard time staying still and focused for long.

I read to the boys at least one book of their choosing a day. Some days, they each get to choose a book. We sit on the couch, one of them on each side of me, and we snuggle while I read. Also, Will is reading a Rocket Readers book to me on most days.

I have some pictures of Will with a snake and a frog he found a few days ago. I posted two of them. He loves creatures! The two animals shown were found after Nathan used his truck to pull a stump out of the ground.

Well, that's it for now!

Leaf Project, Money Matters, and the Start of TSAP

In the bible, we are two thirds of the way through Isaiah, and as always, we're reading a chapter of Proverbs each day.

We went to a family reunion (my dad's family) the evening of July 18th to mid-day the next day. The reunion was at my aunt's bed and breakfast that my cousins bought for her. It's like a huge mansion, and it has a game room. Nathan worked on teaching William how to play the game of pool. It's been one of Nathan's favorites since he was a young child. He always loved to play with the old men in his hometown. And he's plays well. :-) I've included a picture. I also have included one of the pictures from Will's swimming lessons. His instructor was teaching him how to float in the picture.

Will painted a picture a week ago, and he got the brilliant idea of spending some of his money on a frame so that the picture could be framed and hung in their bedroom. I thought that was a wonderful idea. Doesn't it look great on his bright green wall?

We are about to start the Leaf Project. I have decided we will put aside our outdoors time on Thursdays to work on our plant identification. I bought a green binder, a package of colored card stock (beautiful shades of red, blue, yellow, and green), a pack of large index cards, and some plastic sheet protectors. We'll collect leaves (and other identifiers, such as fruit, seeds, or whatever) and identify the plant. We're going to start out pressing the leaves, and if that glueing them to the card stock doesn't work well, we'll start scanning and printing copies of the leaves. Then, we'll talk about the plants together, and I'll have Will tell me things like whether the leaves are palmate or pinnate, what the leaf pattern is, etc. I'll write these things down on the index card after the name of the plant and include whether it is a source of food and/or drug, whether it is poisonous, and any other important information. Next, Will will paste the index card to the bottom of the card stock, and finally I'll glue/paste the leaf and insert the page into one of the sheet protectors inside the binder.

I wanted a nice cover for the binder, so I found an image of leaves and printed them on sticky paper. I chose the black walnut, because we have a lot of black walnuts in this area, and it is a good food source. (We also have a lot cedars up here, and though juniper berries are edible, those aren't as tasty or beneficial as the walnuts.) I almost chose oak, because I love oak, and acorns are edible in small amounts, too. I'm really pleased with the walnut branch cover, though. :-)

I am scheduling my days in a planner, because I need to work on time management. I've been doing a poor job of it. I'm pleased that it's helping me get more done and also helping to have more peace in the home. I'm also getting to read more, and I've had a hard time getting books read in a decent amount of time over the past few years. Right now, I'm reading The Firstborn Advantage. I've been fascinated with birth order, among all my other interests in physical and spiritual genetics and family dynamics. I've been led to write about family and show how our relationships in physical human families are parallel in many ways to our relationships in the Spiritual Family of God. One of the things I've been shown and have been led to write about is the importance of the firstborn child and more specifically a firstborn son (though people can lose their firstborn rights and not even act like firstborns). So, when I saw this book, it jumped out at me, especially since I'm a firstborn child myself. So far, I'm really enjoying it. I'm reading things I already know, but I'm learning new things, too.

Will is getting a break from most of his school work now. We are going to be working on the Leaf Project on Thursdays, and in the afternoons on most days we are going to be spending a little time on his learning time and money. He's going to learn more responsibility so that he can earn a good regular allowance, and he's going to learn how to tithe, save, and spend. He is going to pick someone or an organization of his choice to help with his tithe, his savings money is going into an envelope that will go into our safe, and he'll have his vacation money for the feasts (it'll be like his feast tithe, since I'm going to be having him do 10 percent for his savings, too), and his spending money will be kept in his piggy bank and his wallet.

I started TSAP--Torturous Solanaceae Abstinence Program--which is what I've named my two month experimental abstinence from all plants in the Solanaceae family. I started going without yesterday--July 27, and even though I'd already cut back, now that I've set a date to stop eating it, tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes look and sound that more appetizing to me, which is why I've named the experiment what I have.

I read a book to the boys after lunch and before we go outside. Then after we come in, I let Will read to me a Rocket Readers book and then work on time or money. I also sit down with Trusten and look at a book with him that works on one of the basic things like counting, alphabet, colors, shapes, etc.

Well, that's it for now.

Experimental Break from Solanaceae, Helicopter Ride, and Almost Break from Books

This Monday, July 13, the boys and I went to Branson to meet my parents and my sister and bil for my dad's 50th birthday anniversary. My mother wanted to do something special this year for him, and going to Branson to spend time together doing things was what she did. We went to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede, which is the first time I've ever been. I look forward to going again. That was great! There were horses, longhorn cattle, and the cutest little pigs that raced (some dressed in Yankee attire and some in Confederate attire). Will also got to ride in a helicopter with my dad. I'm posting a couple pics of that here.

He had fun doing that. He's wanted to ride a plane so badly. He's inherited my love of flying machines. So, I'm glad he has finally had a ride in something, and I've never myself been for a ride in a helicopter. Trusten really wanted to ride. Poor sweet baby. At least he got to go into the hotel pool with my sister. She and my bil Chris got in the pool with Will, and then Trust got in for a short bit before deciding it was cold, and he and I went to our room and took a WARM bath.

Will finished up Explode the Code books 1 1/2 and 2. We're almost finished with the plant science book. It probably won't be until next Tuesday, though. Going to Branson put us behind schedule. And I've had him do some work in math on subtraction. Now, after we get the science and math subtraction finished, we'll take a break from books. What that means is that I won't have things scheduled for him to do every day, except I'm thinking of reading a Rocket Readers book each day. Now, this will be fun for him, anyway, and we haven't been reading those. So, we'll read the bible and then probably read one of those. Then, we'll all have time freed up to do more outside for a couple months. We'll be doing a plant notebook, collecting leaves and things from various plants in the area--both on our property and likely in Mark Twain National Forest--and I'm thinking of scanning the leaves and printing them and glueing the picture, rather than pressing them all and putting them in the notebook. If I do the latter, I would rather have some sort of notebook with the protective covering for all the leaves. I'm not really sure what I'm doing yet, but I'll get it figured out. Then, we'll identify the plant and determine whether it's good for food and/or drug and write what we need to know on the page with it in the notebook. That is our main summer "school" activity. I also am going to discuss with Nathan a day he can plan to take off in the middle of some week so that we can all go visit the George Washington Carver museum. I'm also going to look into some other activities we can do, mostly for the boys and me. I'm hoping we can ALL do some fishing and some other things on some Sundays. Sometimes Nathan works Sundays, but most of the time he tries to take at least half the day off to get things done around here and have time with us to go do things.

Okay, NOW for the part about Solanaceae. From Wikipedia, s.v. Solanaceae:

"The Solanaceae is a family of flowering plants that contains a number of important agricultural plants as well as many toxic plants. The name of the family comes from the Latin Solanum "the nightshade plant", but the further etymology of that word is unclear. Most likely, the name comes from the perceived resemblance that some of the flowers bear to the sun and its rays, and in fact a species of Solanum (Solanum nigrum) is known as the sunberry. Alternatively, it has been suggested the name originates from the Latin verb solari, meaning "to soothe". This presumably refers to alleged soothing pharmacological properties of some of the psychoactive species of the family.

The family is also informally known as the nightshade family or potato family. The family includes Datura (Jimson weed), mandrake, deadly nightshade (belladonna), capsicum (paprika, chili pepper), potato, tobacco, tomato, eggplant and petunia.

The Solanaceae family is characteristically ethnobotanical, that is, extensively utilized by humans. It is an important source of food, spice and medicine. However, Solanaceae species are often rich in alkaloids whose toxicity to humans and animals ranges from mildly irritating to fatal in small quantities."

Over the last few years, I've learned a growing amount about certain plants in the Solanaceae family. To start with, I'd read that those with rheumatoid arthritis usually benefit from excluding tomatoes and potatoes from their diet, as well as any other nightshade plant. Then, sometime in the latter half of 2003 or early 2004, I developed a tomato allergy. In mid-2003 I'd had a severe anaphylactic reaction to an antibiotic, namely erythromycin. I believe certain allergy problems I've developed since then can be linked to that episode, but I'm not absolutely sure. My allergy to tomato could be due to overeating tomatoes and tomatoe by products. Regardless, after a few years of having reactions, I'm quite positive, without having had an allergy test, that I'm allergic to fresh tomatoes. I started noticing the problems whenever I ate salad, and I didn't know at first whether it was the tomatoes or the salad dressing I was using. Initially, I would experience very painful upper gums around my top incisors. It would really hurt, and I wondered the first several times it happened, whether some acid was hurting me.

In time, I no longer had the gum pain attacks, but rather I would experience slight tracheal closing, itchy feeling in lungs, and a running nose. Then, in 2005, I had some more severe reactions, while I was pregnant. One time I called my husband to let him know that I "might" be in danger of anaphylactic shock, and I started taking liquid vitamin C every few minutes. I was having moderate tracheal closing, moderate breathing difficulty due to the tracheal constriction and itchy and constricted feeling in my lungs, moderate-to-severe itching, especially on the soles of my feet, severe running nose, etc. After lots of vitamin C and a cold shower, I eventually became all right. It was during that time that I often fixed homemade pizza for my then-2-yo-son and myself for lunch. I did everything from scratch, including the sauce. I never cooked my sauce for too long (I'd also leave the skin in usually). My sauce is the ONLY sauce I've ever had reactions to. And I had probably 3 or 4 reactions to my sauce in all. I believe this severe reaction I had in mid-2005 was from a batch of my sauce, if I remember correctly. Now, I'd been monitoring the tomatoes I was eating. I only ate organic ones, at least to MY KNOWLEDGE, whenever I ate them at home. I started thinking it was due to hydroponic tomatoes, b/c I noticed some of the "organic" tomatoes I was buying were labeled "hydroponic." (As a side note, I'm ANTI-hydroponic plants and will NOT knowingly eat, smoke, or otherwise ingest anything grown hydroponically, that is to say in water treated with nutrients, rather than in soil.) I'd already determined that it wasn't pesticides, because I was having the reactions with organic tomatoes, as well as conventionally-grown tomatoes. So, I made sure I was not buying anything hydroponic. I also paid attention to the origin of the tomatoes, whether they were grown locally, across the nation, in Mexico, or in the EU. I considered that perhaps the tomatoes I was buying were being cross-contaminated with GM crops. (Actually, I think Nathan suggested this to me.) I was not having a reaction every single time I ate tomatoes. And a couple different times I took short breaks (a few weeks) from eating tomatoes and then would start back, and it seemed like breaks helped. But, long-term, the tomato allergy problem only became worse.

I finally concluded early this year--2009--that it must be an enzyme or something in tomatoes to which I'm having the allergic reactions, that is destroyed by heat. I've never (yet, anyway) had reactions to thoroughly cooked tomatoes. I've only had reactions to my own spaghetti sauce, which I've rarely cooked for over an hour. Since I've eaten cooked tomatoes with their skin still attached, I'm thinking it is not something solely in the skin (remember, my sauce had skin in it, too), but I think it's just something in the tomato that is destroyed under extreme and/or prolonged heat.

For four or five months now, I have not eaten fresh tomatoes. One time a couple months ago, my parents stayed with us, and I was cooking dinner. My mother offered to help, and I let her cut up things for the salad. Well, I keep everything separate and let everyone assemble their own salads, and that is especially so now that I won't eat tomato. Well, I had just finished telling her about my not eating tomatoes, but without thinking [out of habit], she mixed everything together into a bowl. She apologized afterward, and I told her it was no big deal, that I'd just pick around it and not get any of the tomatoes out for myself. Well, apparently just the smallest amount of juice is enough to cause me to have a reaction, because shortly after finishing my dinner I had slight symptoms--running nose, slight lung-itchiness/heaviness, slight wheezing while I breathed. I took some vitamin C, drank plenty of water, and soon I was okay. It wasn't that bad. But, now I'm very careful to never even allow any fresh tomato juice touch my food in any way.

I have continued to eat tomato sauce, cooked tomatoes, etc. But, I've done research here and there over the past two years on tobacco. I believe I've concluded that tobacco is better not touched at all for any reason. There are some things it has been helpful for, but for those few things, there are better and safer options. It is also a most detrimental incense and very abused. Throughout our history, I have only found evidence of heathen peoples using this particular incense for religious, recreational, and medicinal purposes. I have not found any evidence that God's people used this plant for these reasons, until the last few hundred years in New Israel, here in the U.S., and it was introduced by the native Indian-Americans, whom of course were heathen peoples.

Then, I've seen research over the past few years on potatoes. Among natural health teachers, there is a great divide, with some of them very much against potatoes and some of them very much for them. You have the anti-potato group teaching that potatoes are too starchy--that they have too many carbohydrates--and that they have toxins and are especially dangerous when they are have green coloring (this is very true). You have the pro-potato group raving about the abundance of nutrients, including high vitamin C content. I've always stood on middle ground.

I read some about belladonna around three years ago. It was an ingredient in a homeopathic medicinal concoction I bought for my son, who was having bedwetting issues. After reading about it, I decided to discontinue the use of the tablets. I also learned that it's the substance used to dilate one's eyes. I plan to have my eyes dilated at my next eye exam. My optometrists have always pushed to have it done each year, since I have high degree myopia (and thus am at higher risk than the general population of having retinal detachment and other problems), and that helps them to see more of what is going on. I absolutely HATE it, though, and I've managed to refuse it year after year. I think I've had it done twice, only once since married adulthood. But, since I am high risk, I agreed with my optometrist this year that I'd have it done next year. But, I still plan to not have it done every year. That's a very crazy substance. (And for anyone wondering, I really don't know whether they use the real deal belladonna or whether they use some synthesized copy of its active ingredient.) Belladonna means "beatiful woman" in Italian. Women apparently used to use the stuff to deliberately dilate their pupils for cosmetic purposes!

Now, what do all these plants have in common, and why are we apt to become addicted to them? I'll paste a section from http://www.craigsams.com/pages/tobac.html but recommend any interested reader to visit the link and read the entire page:

So what is solanine, the active alkaloid in nightshades? What are its effects? Solanine acts as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor.

WHAT ARE ACETYLCHOLINESTERASE INHIBITORS?

• The chemical that transmits nerve impulses from one nerve ending to the next is acetylcholine - once it has transmitted a nerve impulse it has done its job and is no longer needed so it is broken down by an enzyme called acetylcholinesterase and recycled.
• Solanine (or tomatine from tomatoes) slows the production of this acetylcholinesterase, so acetylcholine isn't broken down as fast as it's being produced.
• Acetylcholine builds up causing a 'traffic jam' of stimulation at the receptor nerve endings.
• The nerve endings become overstimulated
• This overstimulation can lead to muscle weakness, muscle twitching, hypertension, increased intestinal contractions and increased secretions of tear, sweat, saliva, gastric and intestinal glands.
• All nightshade foods contain solanine, a strong acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. This is what makes excessive consumption of nightshade foods unsuitable for many people.

Certain pesticides, particularly organophosphate and carbamates, work as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, achieving the same effect as solanine.

For a diet that seeks to maintain a strong and healthy nervous and neuromuscular system there is considerable evidence that the safest approach is to avoid nightshade vegetables and to eat food that is grown without the use of carbamate or organophosphate pesticides, i.e. organic food. Before the discovery of chemical pesticides, nicotine was a widely used insecticide. It kills insects in the same way, but chemical sprays are cheaper and longer-lasting. Until they were replaced by hormones and antibiotics, organophosphate pesticides were also used by livestock farmers as growth-promoters - the mechanism whereby they cause muscle weakness and increase secretions of digestive fluids also causes animals to exercise less and eat more, thereby fattening them up more quickly.

WHY DO PEOPLE LOVE NIGHTSHADES?

What is it that makes tobacco so addictive? Why is it that sometimes only chips will do, or we are gagging for a pizza? Solanine, by inhibiting the breakdown of acetylcholine, stimulates increased activity of the acetylcholine receptors in the brain and this leads to increased flow of adrenaline. This increases the heart rate, blood pressure and leads to increased blood glucose levels. This mild increase in energy level is achieved, along with a reduced nervous sensitivity; producing a combination of calmness and stimulation. This provides short term relief in the face of the stresses and pressures of modern life. In the longer term it puts a strain on the nervous system as the receptors are being overstimulated.

WHY DON'T WE EAT TOBACCO?

The leaves of all nightshades contain high levels of nicotine. One could, at a pinch, smoke potato or tomato leaves. A potent insecticide can be made with tomato leaves. The levels of nicotine in the leaves of nightshade plants are much higher than in nightshade fruits or tubers. 8-10 cigarettes, if eaten, would be enough to kill a person. First time smokers experience dreadful nausea but gradually develop a resistance to the effects of nicotine and this is how addiction develops – more and more is needed to satisfy the craving.

WHY ARE NIGHTSHADES LEGAL?

If the nightshade foods were to be introduced to the Western diet today, under current Novel Foods regulations they would have to be tested for safety. It is unlikely that they would be permitted to enter the food supply, solely because of their solanine and nicotine content. However, like cigarettes, they slipped into our diet despite some voices in opposition and have assumed a major role in our nutrition and health, a role that, in a free society, should be accepted. However, moderation in all things is a worthy principle and it could be argued that, in our diet we have perhaps gone too far down the road of nightshade acceptance.
Nomato products enable all consumers, not just those with particular problems with tomatoes, an opportunity to enjoy foods like ketchup, pasta sauce, tomato soup, vegetarian chilli and baked beans without exposing themselves to solanine alkaloids or trace levels of nicotine found in tomatoes and other nightshades.

I've done more research and have found plenty of interesting things, but this is enough info to include here.

Lasagna, pizza, and spaghetti have long, long been my favorite foods. But, now it is time for me to take a break. I'll also be taking a break from potatoes and peppers. Tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers are the only things from this family that I really ever eat or use in any way. But, if you think about it, it's not an easy thing to avoid these foods from our modern diet! But, I'm determined, and when I'm determined to do something, I do it. I do still have some tomato sauces and peppers in the house, and we may consume these things before I commit to the break, because it will be easier if I don't have the temptations in my cabinets and refrigerator. But, I'm thinking I won't have a hard time either way, because I've already cut back and have avoided eating these things, so they're just sitting there.

Anyway, my plan is to go without these completely for at least two or three months (which means I'll mostly not be preparing these things for others in the household, either), and Nathan said he's agreeable. He currently is using tobacco (has again for a little over a year), both as incense (smoking cigarettes) and as dip, but he does not smoke around any of us, and Arkansas, where I do most of our business, has made it illegal to smoke tobacco in public places. So, I don't have to worry about being around that, either.

I'll post on here when I start this, and then when I end it, I will introduce back one food at a time and take note of any detrimental effects (I'll also note whether I experienced any noticeable improvements in my health during the abstinence period). If I DO experience any detrimental effects upon re-introduction, I will abolish that food from my diet. If I do NOT, then I will continue my life with those foods included BUT with good moderation. Fresh tomatoes will NOT be re-introduced into my diet, but I will continue to prepare them for Nathan and William (Trusten doesn't like them), if they so desire. I've already made the choice to permanently abolish fresh tomatos from my diet.

I now believe it may be an alkaloid in tomatoes that is causing the allergic reaction. The alkaloid mentioned above--tomatine--may or may not be destroyed by heat. I have not found anything regarding this, but I do know that some glycoalkaloids in existence are destroyed by heat.

One study published:

"In the mean time, tomato belongs to the family of Solanaceae known to produce toxic glycoalkaloids. The major glycoalkaloid in tomato, a-tomatine, is embryotoxic and has been shown to cause rapid death of mice" ( T.J. Fu, NCFST/FDA,"Effects of Processing Conditions on Natural Toxins Formation in Plant Cell and Tissue Cultur," available at http://www.ncfst.iit.edu/platforms/rpbioa.html).

Well, that's it for now! :-)

Natural Play Building, Leaf Pattern Identification, Fire Safety, and Solanacae Evaluation

Will has four lessons left in Explode the Code, and he's working on one of those as I write this. He'll be finished by the week's end. We won't be finished with the plant science book until the end of next week, b/c we missed several days. Anyway, I'm doing it with him every day now, and we may double some of the lessons in order to finish soon. We're still in Isaiah in the bible, going along slowly, because the prophecy stuff doesn't keep his attention well (understandably), and I have to explain it as we go. We still are reading Proverbs, of course. Will started on subtraction for math last week. I'll have him continue addition and subtraction until we're finished with the science next week. Then, we'll take a break from that, and during our "break" from the books, I'm hoping to teach him more about money and time. When we get back to the books in mid-September, we'll go back to more addition, subtraction, place value, etc. I just ordered two dvds off of Ebay; they're part of a series called Drive Thru History. The ones I bought will cover from Christopher Columbus and the Pilgrims to George Washington and other forefathers fighting for freedom. It will pretty much cover everything we went over in Our Christian Heritage. The boys love dvds, so this will be a treat...and they learn. ;-)

Sunday, Will and Nathan went to the very front, near the road, and built a stick house together (a "log home") and dug a pond. I picked several white clover flowers from the yard and made him little flower beds around the bank of the pond. I took several pictures. One of them is included here. Then, Nathan set the house on fire to demonstrate to Will how a house can burn. This was a great follow-up on the fire safety video Will and Trust have recently watched. Of the things we got Will for his sixth birthday, a set of safety videos were included. The series is called Danger Rangers. They teach fire safety, water safety, wheel safety (bikes, etc.), and miscellaneous safety things. One of the pictures I took of the burning house is included here.

The other three pictures show what Will did in science yesterday. After we read the science lesson on leaf patterns, Will went out in the yard to study several trees, bushes, and other plants to see which of four leaf arrangements each had: opposite, alternate, whorled, or rosette. This refers to the way leaves come off of the nodes on plant stems. I included three of the four pictures I took here. One is of him with a redbud tree, another with a walnut tree, and the remaining one is of him with an unknown weed he found by the creek bed.

Will is also studying caterpillars. This is something he's doing on his own. He is collecting caterpillars in a black plant bucket (Nathan duct-taped around the bottom to cover the holes), with leaves and a little water. Every time we see a caterpillar, we attempt to identify it with our moths and butterflies field guide, and then he puts it in the bucket.

He's continuing to take his swimming lessons. He'll be finished with level 1 at the end of the week, and I'm not sure where we will go from there.

Trusten seems to be learning his colors. I talk to him about colors in every day life--our clothes, the grass and trees, the boys' trucks, foods, etc. He also says things that surprise me. He's just very observant. His attention span doesn't do well for long with books, but he's always observing everything--visually, audiby, etc. He's dangerous, though. We do well to keep him safe.

Nathan and I had learned about bot flies several months ago. I can't remember why they came up, but we watched short videos on Youtube of persons removing them from other persons. Well, I didn't know we had such a thing around here, but apparently that's the same thing that invades rabbits, and Nathan had told me about some "worms" that tunnel through rabbits. Well, the most awful thing happened. All of our cats (well, we're not sure what happened to one of the four cats) got these things. Maybe it was b/c they hunt rabbits. The mother cat has killed at least one rabbit since we've lived here and have been teaching the kittens to kill things. Anyway, Nathan and I tried helping the cats. He removed a larvae ("wolf worm") each from two of the kittens, but our most beloved kitten Sylvester--Will's cat and also my favorite--we couldn't successfully help. We were going to take them all to the vet the following morning, but they are outside cats, and all of them were gone again yesterday morning, and we haven't seen them since. They'd been gone a whole day or more before the day we helped them, with one of them being gone closer to two full days. The mother has been missing for close to a week now. I'm really, really sad. :-( I so wish we would have done something to keep them inside that night so that they wouldn't leave. As more time passes, the hope fades. I'm not dealing very well with what has happened to Sylvester, b/c I prayed for that cat all the time, b/c Will is so attached and loves that cat, and I'm sad of continually seeing him lose animals (and he's lost a brother). Another lesson learned here for me is that if want to have a pet cat survive out here very well w/o being a partial indoor cat.

I've been doing more study on the plant family Solanaceae. This is the "nightshade" family of plants, which includes several genera and a few thousand species. Some of the most familiar are tobacco, tomato, potato, eggplant, and pepper (excluding black pepper). I am planning to cut out all sources of Solocaceae from my diet. I will talk yet more about why later. This post is long enough.

One more thing. I took the boys to this traveling reptile exhibit last week. They had a Nile crocodile and a large American alligator. They had all sorts of snakes and a couple lizards. Will had been asking to go.