A Month of Grace

I'm a little late getting started, but I still have most of the month of November to post thoughts on grace as we head into Thanksgiving. Camille, who started this on her own blog, has been posting profound thoughts about grace. I'm just going to post short quotes and, on Sundays, a poem.

A Living and a Dead Faith

The Lord receives his highest praise
From humble minds and hearts sincere;
While all the loud professor says
Offends the righteous Judge's ear.

To walk as children of the day,
To mark the precepts' holy light,
To wage the warfare, watch, and pray,
Show who are pleasing in His sight.

Not words alone it cost the Lord,
To purchase pardon for His own;
Nor will a soul by grace restored
Return the Saviour words alone.

With golden bells, the priestly vest,
And rich pomegranates border'd round,
The need of holiness expressed,
And called for fruit as well as sound.

Easy indeed it were to reach
A mansion in the courts above,
If swelling words and fluent speech
Might serve instead of faith and love.

But none shall gain the blissful place,
Or God's unclouded glory see,
Who talks of free and sovereign grace,
Unless that grace has made him free!

by William Cowper

A Medieval Feast

Covrse þe fyrst: Soup and Salat
Cock-a-leekie Soup
Salat of Cos Lettuce with a lytel mynt added þer-to

Covrse þe second: Entree
Pastys of Pork
Pastys of Beef
Rost of Lomb
Rost of Pork
Steak and Kidney Pie
Shepherd's Pie
Haggis with Neeps and Tatties

Covrse þe thyrd: Dessert
Manchester Tart
Pokerounce
Oatcakes

Covrse þe forthe: After-Dinner
Tyrkysh Delight
Hot Chocolate

(our table)

This was our second All Hallows' Eve feast, and perhaps our sixth Narnian/Medieval feast. We've gotten more adventurous with the fare over time. The feast went off very well, though half-way through we began to think it might not have been the worse for being smaller. We were all in costume (though I'm afraid we didn't get any good pictures).

The Turkish delight and oatcakes were made early the morning before the feast. The cock-a-leekie soup was started in the crockpot in the morning and allowed to cook all through the day. Then while the moms went shopping, we children--the royalty at the feast, of course--made the pork pastys. They came back with the beef pastys, steak and kidney pie, shepherd's pie, and--though we told them not to--the haggis, from a local Celtic store.

If you're wondering how we ate all that food, the answer is--we didn't. But we did manage to try nearly everything through the second course. The pork pastys were well-liked. The beef pastys were good, and so were the roast lamb and pork. The shepherd's pie was declared excellent. The haggis, tasted with some apprehension, was pronounced to be not half bad, and the steak and kidney pie was pronounced edible (mostly).

Some of the more unusual dishes that we had, with descriptions and some pictures:

Cock-a-leekie Soup
Chicken, leeks, prunes, and rice in a chicken broth, with cloves and pepper to season.

Salat of Cos Lettuce with a lytel mynt added þer-to
Romaine lettuce and fresh mint with a vinegar-and-oil dressing.

Pastys of Pork


Meat pies filled with pork, turnips, and onions, seasoned with parsley and garlic.

Pastys of Beef
Meat pies filled with beef, carrots, potatos, onions, and various seasonings.

Shepherd's Pie
A pie of mashed potatoes, beef, and--vegetables, I think.

Haggis with Neeps and Tatties

(shown here with a piece of our bread)

Canned haggis served with rutabagas and potatos. The haggis was a heavily spiced meat dish, rather like sausage. The ingredients listed on the can are: Highland Beef, Hydrated Pin Oats, Water, Refined Beef Suet, Liver, Spices, and Onions. Traditionally haggis would be served inside a sheep's intestine, like a sausage, but that's illegal in the US.

Manchester Tart


A tart with a layer of jam on the bottom, then a layer of breadcrumbs, and a layer of meringue on top. I'm pleased with the way my first meringue turned out, but the breadcrumbs were very dry.

Pokerounce


Toasted bread drizzled with spiced honey and topped with pine-nuts.

Feast Day!

Last year on Oct 31 my sons and their friend did a Narnia Feast using recipes from The Narnia Cookbook and in Narnian costume (we blogged about it here.) This year they're doing a Medieval Feast. And they're doing it all themselves - I have a busy week with a birthday and company coming in a few days, so they're doing it all--collecting recipes, cooking, decorating the house and preparing their own Medieval attire themselves. They were hoping for some exotic meat like venison or mutton, but the closest we could find in our area was lamb chops. Turkish Delight will still be on the menu, although I'm not sure how authentically Medieval that is! I, on my raw diet, will only get to enjoy the smells of all the dishes they have planned. I did taste a turnip they boiled. They wanted to see if turnips would be palatable enough to use in a couple of the dishes. I've read about turnips all my life and I couldn't pass up an opportunity to see what one actually tastes like. When it's raw it tastes like a radish, but when cooked, it's milder, more potato-ey, although it doesn't get as soft as a potato. Medieval people didn't have potatoes, so they ate turnips.

I tried on Miss M's outfit (the same one she wore last year) to make sure it still fit, and, as soon as it was on, she noticed that she was wearing a skirt and insisted on doing the hula in it.

Busted!

"For several months over this past summer and fall, Michigan authorities tracked Richard Hebron, 41, and his weekly truck hauls the 140 miles or so from Vandalia to Ann Arbor. To gather evidence, an undercover agent infiltrated an organization that was making private purchases from Hebron.

On the morning of Oct. 13, the authorities closed the loop on their complex sting operation. Just outside of Ann Arbor, a state police officer pulled over Hebron's truck during its weekly run, served Hebron with a search warrant, and with several other agents began removing goods from the truck.

Back home in Vandalia, a state trooper accompanied by four plain-clothes agents knocked on the door of Hebron's home, presented Hebron's wife, Annette, with a search warrant, and fanned through their small three-room house, removing their computer, business records, and product samples. Later that afternoon, in Ann Arbor, four additional agents, also armed with a search warrant, rummaged through a warehouse that was Hebron's destination when he was pulled over, seizing more business records.

The trigger in this huge investigation? No, it wasn't drugs, stolen goods, or terrorism. It was, of all things, raw milk . . "


I'm not a milk drinker, but this seems a bit over the top. Undercover agents on a sting operation to catch milk sellers?? Apparently organic and raw milk prodicers are cutting into the profits of the conventional dairy industry, and they're not taking it lightly. As a result of this successful catch, they may have accomplished the closing down of three independent businesses and bankrupted the families who own them.

Read the full article here.

Year 7 Medieval Poetry: Of a Rose

The original is here. This was an easy poem. I was able to get it just from the first reading. Tim suggested that maybe I'm just getting better at it, but I think this particular poem is just easier.

Of a rose, a lovely rose,
Of a rose is all my song.

Listen, lords, both old and young,
How this rose began to spring;
A rose as much to my liking
In all this world I know not one.

The Angel came from heaven's tower,
To greet Mary with great honor,
And said she would bear the flower
That would break the fiend's bond.

The flower sprang in high Bethlehem,
That is both bright and beautiful:
The rose is Mary, heaven's queen,
Out of her bosom the blossom sprang.

The first branch is full of might,
That sprang on Christmas night,
The star shone over Bethlehem bright
That is both broad and long.

The second branch sprang to hell,
To fell the fiend's power:
So that no soul might dwell there;
Blessed be the time the rose sprang!

The third branch is good and sweet,
It sprang to heaven plant and root
To dwell there be our salvation;
Every day it shows in priest's hand.

We pray to her with great honor,
She that bore the blessed flower,
She is our help and our aid
And shields us from the fiend's bond.

Dr. Phil and The Great Homeschool Debate

Dr. Phil has taped a show about homeschooling in response to recent school shootings. Just like in Wife Swap, homeschoolers were sought out and lured to participate on the show and in the audience - only to find that they had been deliberately misled, set up and misrepresented. One homeschool mom who was hand-selected to be part of the audience shares a behind-the-scenes look at the show.

The show is scheduled to air Oct. 27. Don't expect any information or reasons or results to show how homeschooling might be a viable option for a well-informed parent. The audienced was 85 percent local high school students who were bussed in to provide an audience hostile to homeschoolers, and the clips shown were badly edited footage from the group of homeschoolers least understood by the mainstream public - radical unschoolers. The clips were well-calculated to make homeschoolers look bad.

The Way Things Look from Here

(taken from just across the street)

A Month of Grace

This is an idea from Camille, a friend from the Gentle Christian Mothers message board:

"God is whacking me between my eyes SO MUCH about how really terrific His Grace is. I know that's OBVIOUS on some level, but I'm pokey. So for the next month on my blog -- between now and thanksgiving -- I'm going to only talk about Grace. From writers, poets, novels, and, of course, Scripture. Would you like to join me?"

So, for the next few weeks, I'll be looking for thoughts about grace to post - probably not every day, and not exclusively, but as I find things. I expect to find some things in Charlotte Mason's favorite devotional, The Cloud of Witness.

Minor Health Matters

About a month ago I posted about some severe fatigue and lung discomfort. It turned out, I think, to be a long-lived virus - I think it affected me for six weeks! I went to the doctor's at one point with it, and in that visit, there was nothing determined about the lung discomfort, but I learned that I have mitral valve prolapse and osteoporosis (most likely from four pregnancies and four periods of extended nursing). I was prescribed Fosamax for the osteoporosis. I suspect I had the bone loss with my first two babies. I wasn't eating as well then, and I was drinking a lot of coffee, which leeches calcium. I did some research and discovered that Fosamax has some problems associated with it that sound related to bone growing in places where it shouldn't grow, and dead bone growing instead of living tissue. One common side effect is TMJ. People with MVP have a tendency to have TMJ. I don't have TMJ, but it seems foolhardy to me to take something that has TMJ as a side effect when I'm already at risk for it. Conclusion - I'm not taking the medication. I'll take calcium until Miss M weans, and look into strength training, which I think is the same as weight lifting. Strength training builds bone.

When I had the virus weeks ago, I started adding things to my raw diet - soy chikin nuggets, salsa, garbanzo beans, peanut butter. Then it deteriorated to soy ice cream and Ruffles. I was still tired. So, I decided to try a low fat raw diet (as written about by Doug Graham and Nora Lenz). I've been working my way into it for four days, and I actually feel better than I have in weeks. I'm eating only fruit until dinner - mostly bananas, which are cheap, and whatever else I can afford. Then I have a huge salad for dinner with exactly half an avocado (my daily fat ration), some raisins, and the juice of an orange squeezed over it as dressing. It's pretty spartan, but if it helps, it will be worth it.

What We're Reading

Miss M's Honkey Donkey ballet video finally got all of us curious to find out what Don quixote is all about. But I've heard that it's not for children without some editting. So - look what I found! It's Stories from Don Quixote retold by a children's author I really like, James Baldwin. And it's online for free! We're all really enjoying it.


And I read this to Miss M for the first time yesterday - now it's her favorite book.