The Fair Hills Farm Weblog

If we look back 100 years ago, we see a time in this country when that which was once wholesome and pure began to be adulterated. I suppose it really goes back further than this, but if one really wants to see a parallel in society, you could say it began with the Pure Food and Drug Law of 1906. As I say, it actually goes back to the Industrial Revolution in the latter part of the 1800’s, but it seems to have culminated with the need for the Pure Food Law. My daughter has written about Harvey W. Wiley, and he is a fascinating character to me. But one of the reasons that he is a fascinating character is because of what his mission represented, that of keeping the food in this country whole, unadulterated, and nutritious, for the life of its citizens.

Amanda and I were discussing this morning the parallel in this country of the rise in food adulteration and the corresponding adulteration of Biblical Truth. As people began to get used to the effects of adulteration in their food, they no longer demanded the pure food. As people got used to the adulteration of the Truths found in the Bible - whether it was the Truth of God creating the heavens and the earth, or the Truth that Jesus Christ was a real person who lived a real life who died a real death on the cross for all of humanity, and then rose again through a real resurrection, or whether it was the Truth that all people are sinners deserving damnation but offered salvation by a merciful God’s grace through faith in His Son. What I see is that as the bread in this country was being adulterated and fed to the population, the message of the Bread of Life was being adulterated and diluted to the point that the population wasn’t sure if He was still real, or if His message was in fact true.

As compulsory education took over and experts began to be the primary teachers of the children instead of the parents, Truth began to be filtered through what the teachers said and taught. When there became more experts espousing Darwinism and humanistic reasoning both in the field of education and in the fields of medicine and psychology, Truth became a matter of relativity to the public and even to many in the churches. By the 1960’s, God was basically thrown out of the schools, and the bogus “separation of Church and State” became as the separation of wheat germ from the wheat - the very source of Life and Truth to our nation was thrown away, as the valuable wheat germ was thrown out to make the white, pristine and fashionable flour. Never mind that the lifeless flour then had to have added to it some synthetic vitamins to replace the genuine nutrition it had been robbed of, in order for the stuff to have any edible qualities at all. But you see, this became easier to mass produce and mass feed to the population, just as Darwinism and humanism was and still is continuously mass fed to the willingly swallowing people. You can’t blame the people, they were just doing what they were told. They were just eating what was given to them. They were just going along with the experts, never doubting what they were being taught or fed.

There must have been many who did question things as they were being taught, and who never lost their taste for Truth and wholesomeness. I am hoping they are still quietly living, teaching, multiplying, and keeping themselves “unstained” or “unadulterated” by the world. As I was looking up the definition of “adulteration” in the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary, I thought it was interesting that the definition of “adulterate” was as follows: “…To corrupt, debase, or make impure by an admixture of baser materials; as to adulterate liquors, or the coin of a country.” Adulteration then means: “The act of adulterating, or the state of being adulterated, corrupted or debased by foreign mixture. The adulteration of liquors, of drugs, and even of bread and beer, is common, but a scandulous crime.” To adulterate can also mean “to commit adultery.” Anytime a person or people breaks a covenant, they are commiting adultery. It goes without saying that currently in this nation the divorce rate is roughly 50%. Do you think there is a connection between the adulteration of Truth, the adulteration of our food and the adulteration of relationships? Basically, the outcome of adulteration is disease, death and divorce. If you stop and think about it, it is all connected. What affects the body affects the mind. What affects the mind, affects the spirit. And, it is also known that what affects the mind also affects the body. This is why there needs to be a collective effort to feed the mind that which is Truth, as Paul says in Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.” Along with that, there needs to be the same effort to eat good food - food that has not been adulterated. It is one thing to have the occaisional junk food bout, but another to make it your habit. So let us make it our habit to choose the good stuff, so that once in a while exposure to the adulterated stuff won’t harm us or turn us away from the good.

Obviously the acts of spiritual, cultural and nutritional adulteration go back to ancient times, as we can find examples from the Old Testament. It is definitely a battle, but it is one that can be fought and won on a personal and family level as well as on a national level. We don’t have to wait for the next church program to begin. We don’t have to wait for anyone to tell us to take on this battle, we can get started this very night. We can determine what we want to do and lay it before the Lord to ask His blessing and His direction. We can create an atmosphere of authenticity and integrity, and create meals of whole, good foods to nourish our families’ bodies. We can seek God and His Truth just by reading our Bibles and worshipping Him and by praying. And we can teach our children truth in history, in government, in literature, in science and in math. And we can work at blessing the body of Christ and sharing His Truth with the world. When you think about it, there is quite a lot one little family with one little mother and one little father can do. Perhaps if we are faithful in our little corner of the world, God will do miracles in the nation. And no matter what, we will go at it with all our might, as unto the Lord!

Blessings on you and your household!

I was just re-reading over my last entry, and I have to admit that it surely will offend some people terribly. I want you to know that I don’t mean to hurt and insult anyone, or be unloving. I suppose that it is nobody’s business who another votes for, but it seems like much of what I have read and have myself written, are reasons to vote for McCain or not vote for him, why we shouldn’t vote for Obama or Third party, or why we should. So in my last entry, I was trying to show why believers should be united on this election, even though I don’t think I did a very good job of it.

All of that aside, I know that there are some very high-stakes issues facing us concerning this election, and I received an e-mail which I will share that gives some good ideas as we go into the last week before this extremely important election:

The Stakes Couldn’t Be Higher

October 27, 2008

With the upcoming elections 8 days away, satan has worked hard to deflect attention off of the real issue. This has been relatively easy through the economic meltdown and an unpopular war. Many Americans, including Christians, will vote based on these two issues. While these things are obviously important, they pale in light of the real issue-the Supreme Court.

The cover story of USA Today, on Thursday of last week, spelled this out quite clearly. It stated that the real legacy of the next president won’t be the economy or the war, but the Supreme Court. The next president of the United States will appoint at least 2, and maybe 3, Justices in his first term. If he serves 2 terms, it could be 5 Justices-there are 5 of the 9 on the Court 70 years old or older! Since the trend is to appoint younger and younger Justices, the next president will most likely shape the court for the next 30-40 years! This means we are not voting only for a president, we are voting for the Court we want for the next generation! The vote we cast on November 4th will do more to shape the culture we give our children and grandchildren than any other vote of our lifetime! Perhaps some succinct bullet points will help us see this clearly:

Without question, no institution, organization, or agency has shaped the current culture of America in the last 50 years more than the Supreme Court. You don’t need millions of people, the majority in Congress, or the President to shape the culture of America. You only need 5 people-the majority of the Supreme Court. Five people can kill 50 million babies (the number aborted since Roe vs. Wade), legalize homosexual marriage, remove parental rights, put God out of schools and government, rob from us our godly heritage, etc.

It is now split-sometimes 5-4 toward life, family, morality, our godly heritage, the intent of our forefathers when they wrote the Constitution; sometimes 5-4 toward death, immorality, legislating their beliefs from the bench (though not their constitutional role or right, this is easy-they simply say the Constitution is a fluid, living document and therefore must be changed to accommodate the times), removing God from our nation, etc.

2-3 Justices will retire over the next 4 years, their replacements chosen by the next president; possibly a couple more will step down 5 to 8 years from now, making it 5 potential Justices that could be appointed by the next president if he serves 2 terms. This will determine how the Court rules for a generation.

The first two Justices to go will almost certainly be Stevens who is 88 years old and Ginsberg who is 75 and ill. They are the two most liberal and are no doubt waiting to retire, hoping for a president that will replace them with 2 more liberals. These two replacements alone, if they are good, conservative judges could shift the Court toward righteousness for many years.

Conclusion: our vote this November 4th will be not for a president, not for the economy, not for ending our involvement in Iraq. Our vote will be for what we want America to look like 40 years from now!

The ramifications of this are staggering! We are no doubt reaping great judgment now in America-diseases, family breakdowns, violence, a death culture, destructive weather, and much more-because of abortion alone - not to mention expelling God and His laws from our schools and government. I don’t know that we can survive another 40 years of this without completely losing our godly heritage and destiny. The economy will recover and the war will end no matter who is elected president-but this is not the case with the Court and the soul of this nation.

If you don’t know where the candidates stand on the Court and the kind of Justices they would appoint, read the USA Today article. It makes their positions very clear. Share this information with every friend and acquaintance you have. And finally, pray like never before for God’s will to be done in this election. We CAN win this war and we MUST NOT lose this war. Pick up your word, go to war and let’s make history together. Here are some practical suggestions to consider:

Fast (a meal a day; a day this week; a Daniel fast; 3 days; TV; etc.) and spend the time praying.
Agree in prayer with someone everyday for God’s will to be done.
Hold nightly prayer meetings
Take time in every gathering to pray. (Take 15 minutes in every service to pray for the elections. Turn an entire service to harp and bowl style intercession-worship and prayer combined.)
Join 2 or more friends on a conference call and pray for 15, 20, or 30 minutes.
Pray on the way to work (and on the way home).
Pray before you go to sleep.
Pray before church services.
Ask God to give you His strategy-He will!

For God and Our Great Nation,
Dutch Sheets

This blog was originally set up so I could blog about our experiences living in the country on a small farm while raising and educating 8 children. This is still my primary purpose, and it is also a way to share with others the things I have learned and am learning regarding matters of health. Though I no longer work as a registered nurse, my college degree in that discipline has helped me understand the way professional healthcare providers do things and approach treating patients, but at the same time, I know that disease prevention is the best way to deal with chronic health issues. That is to say, if you can stay healthy and safe, then your healthcare costs should be minimal.

Now in case this sounds too simplistic to you, let me just say that besides catastrophic healthcare costs (that would be accidents and/or trauma injuries requiring hospital care), the next most expensive things are hospital births and then children born with special needs that require continual care. There are also the times when emergency surgeries or illnesses requiring surgery present themselves. These types of surgeries or illnesses we long to prevent if possible, and generally speaking, that is what we should all aim to do. Nevertheless, sometimes they happen. Keep in mind that I am writing this as a sort of overview for the purpose of addressing the healthcare issues in the current political campaign. Last week Sen. Obama said that healthcare was a right, and Sen. McCain said it was a responsibility (when a questioner asked if healthcare was a right, a privilege or a responsibility). Keep in mind also that we already have in this country, Medicaid for younger people and Medicare for the older people, as a sort of safety net for the more vulnerable people to receive medical attention. I don’t know the ins and outs of these programs, I just remember studying them in school, and I know people who are in these government programs. We also have to remember that we already have Health Departments where people can receive checkups, immunizations, home health visits, WIC program assistance, and other things for little or no cost. Again, it has been a long while since I worked as a student in a Health Department setting, and certain things may have changed, but I do know that they are there and people use them.

So for a presidential candidate to say that “healthcare is a right,” I would say that in this country, healthcare is already practically a right. The problem of payment for health services is the problem we are really discussing. Healthcare availability is everywhere, and accessible to most people on some level. But the real problem is health insurance, or everyone’s ability to aquire health coverage for a decent price. As I was pondering this, it ocurred to me that we have car insurance, home-owners’ insurance, life insurance — why is health insurance so horribly high for people who are either not employed or perhaps self-employed, and why is it so hard to find reasonable rates? I have a few ideas. If Congress wanted to, they could inspire insurance companies to re-design their programs, and maybe insurance companies could be enticed to lower their premiums by tax incentives as a way to help make health insurance more affordable to more people. They could do this without taking over the entire job of forming another government entity to socialize medicine in this country. If you want things to get messed up really fast, and government spending to go through the roof, and at the same time, lowering the quality of care, this is a good way to do it. Our government has too much on its plate right now to even think of doing this. It is irresponsible for Barack Obama to even suggest that he would or could do something of the sort if he were elected President.

One of the things you have to look at when trying to figure out why medical costs are so high, is the cost of medicine. Drug companies are the ones who make out like bandits here. In fact, as our country’s health gets worse and worse, people take more and more medicine. The idea is that the more dependent people are on medicine, the more money the pharmaceutical companies make. They make billions and billions of dollars off of sick people. Sickness is big business. It really is. I am not trying to pick on pharmaceutical companies, I am telling you the truth. It is good that these companies make legitimate life-saving medicines, but the idea that people need to take prescription drugs to stay healthy is, well, not the way we should all want to live. It is not the way God meant for us to live, I believe. Many chronic diseases have come about through poor diet and health habits, as well as nutritional deficiencies. When these things are corrected, symptoms improve and many times diseases are healed. I know of people who have been cured or healed supernaturally by God Himself. It is not a forgone conclusion that everyone is going to need prescription drugs, even as elderly people. It would be good if medical practitioners could seel the value in looking for alternative ways to treat people with less medicine. This in itself is a tall order for the medical community, and one that will take time, no doubt. But people everywhere can educate themselves on good nutrition and take an active role in health maintenance. People can pray for healing and for good health and for wisdom in dealing with sickness. Perhaps this will lead to less trips to the doctor, less prescription medications, and better overall health. Maybe there should be rewards for people as there is in auto insurance, (for not getting in wrecks or getting speeding tickets), that if you don’t need to use the doctor that much, you should pay less in premiums. For example, a family pays $550.00 a month for health insurance. If they go for a certain length of time - say a year -and haven’t had to use the doctor, or have gone only once or twice, couldn’t they lower their premiums? After all, if they are paying that much, and rarely need to see the doctor (even with children), shouldn’t they be allowed to pay less for coverage? Isn’t it a good thing to have an incentive for taking charge of your health? We don’t want to punish people with health problems they have through no fault of their own, or special needs children. That is not what I am talking about. I just know there are better ways and any number of options for people to be able to get quality healthcare at an affordable price without socializing medicine. There are also Christian groups that have cost-sharing which works in the same kind of way as making insurance payments, but it is not a company trying to make a profit. When someone has health expenses, the money is there for payment.

One of the things I noticed during the Republican primaries was that everyone who was running at that time had valuable opinions on nearly every issue. When I saw the Republicans debate, I saw men looking for answers to problems, and debating about the different ways to solve problems. They talked of specific ideas and plans to address different issues. It looked like if you only had that group of men working together, they could probably come up with a sensible solution for everything facing our nation. By contrast, when I saw the Democrats debating, I saw a lot of government-speak, a lot of vague notions and generalizations, a sort of elitist attitude towards the American people. I am not picking on Democrats on purpose, it was just something I saw. If I could have heard something encouraging from them, I would say so. I will give credit anywhere it is due. The fact is, healthcare, like all of the other issues our nation faces, is best addressed by people looking to solve problems by spending the least amount of taxpayers’ money, in the most efficient and legitimate manner possible. Empowering individuals and private businesses or corporations is good for the country as they encourage competition and capitalism. There are probably a lot of illegitimate government programs now, but the Department of Defense is one area that should never be skimped on. It must remain strong, with the best and brightest people working in it. It is a legitimate job of the government as defined by the Constitution. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are some of the inalienable rights that the Founding Fathers said you and I are endowed by our Creator with. These are rights, according to the Constitution. It is our responsibility, then, to take care of our lives, and use our liberties in profitable ways. We can pursue happiness as long as we are not robbing someone else of theirs. We have so much freedom in this country. But with freedom comes responsibility. In fact, freedom demands it. If you have freedom without responsibility, what happens to you? You begin to think everything is owed to you, and you shouldn’t have to work for anything. And in so doing, the lines between right and wrong, good and evil, should and shouldn’t all begin to blur. Everything is relative. The Constitution was not written for that kind of people. This is why a socialist government cannot rightly exist under our Constitution. It won’t work and it doesn’t need to be tried.

I would really be interested in hearing anyone’s thoughts on this matter. I welcome your comments!

Today started out nice enough, as the sun shined and the breeze blew gently through the trees out here in the country. School work was done, I made four loaves of bread, my husband took our three sons with him to get the chainsaw repaired and to see his Dad and grandparents. I and our five daughters went down the road to an older neighbor’s house where we spent time with her and learned some more spool knitting techniques. She is a sweet, wonderful lady who is a very talented craftswoman. She makes all kinds of things with yarn, felt, wire - she makes greeting cards, and baskets and weaves on a loom. She has a spinning wheel, too, but says she really doesn’t do much spinning now. I am so thankful to know her and have her living so close to us. I am thankful for her willingness and eagerness to teach my daughters some of these lost arts. She is very insistant that atleast one of my daughters will learn how to weave. She has three looms, and she told me recently that she doesn’t know of any young people, (including her own granddaughters) that are interested in weaving. She wants desperately to pass this knowledge down to the next generation. I am so glad she wants to do this, and I am glad that my girls are learning from her.

When we got home, it was late in the afternoon. My husband and the boys were back, and I listened as I heard how Ben (”cuta Ben”) ate lots of lunch, how the grandparents were doing pretty well, how David was delighted to go out to eat with Grandaddy and smiled the whole time. I was glad to hear that the chainsaw is now fully functioning again.

As my husband was watching the news, I sat down to observe with him. We were watching Fox News, which is the only news channel that even approaches being objective and impartial in presenting the facts. Even so, as information about polls and electoral college votes were being discussed, it was pointed out that John McCain is down about 8 points or so in general polls and even down that much in the state of Florida, a place where he was leading just two weeks ago. The longer I listened to the news, the more frustrated, angry and upset I got. It wasn’t just that the poll numbers were down for McCain, it was the feeling that something wasn’t right with this picture. I got tired of hearing about the “conventional knowledge” that this year is supposed to be the Democrats’ year, that the bad economic news will help Obama and the Democrats, that soon McCain will be down too far in the polls to recover. All I could think of was, “Who are these people who think they can declare to us what is going to happen as if they are all -knowing and all -powerful?”

I have never understood why Obama made it past the primaries. I have nothing against this man personally, but he does not belong in government. If the people of this country really understood who Barak Obama really is, understood what his philosophy is, and understood who the people are that he calls his friends and associates, he could never get elected. If people had even the slightest notion of the damage his economic and social policies could do to this country, if they could grasp the danger of his defense and national security policies, there is no way in the world they would vote for him. I am talking about average, ordinary, hard-working men and women - decent, honorable, tax-paying citizens. There is no way these people -who make up the majority of the population of this country- would vote for him. Most people who are planning on voting for Barak Obama are either way leftist in their social and economic ideology and do know the real Obama, or they have been brain-washed and suckered by the biggest fraudulent salespitch ever leveled at the American people. It is almost like there has been a massive hypnotic spell cast over the middle section of the United States, and people are dutifully saying they will cast their vote for Obama. You can almost here the dull mantra “follow Obama, follow Obama, follow Obama, he wil save us, he will save us, follow Obama,….” This is the most sickening thing of all. Not only will he not save anyone, he will destroy the country with his liberal leadership. Liberalism always drags a country down, and drains the life out of productivity, prosperity and patriotism. It never fails.

In fact, if there is one group of people that does not need to be in the leadership of this country right now, it is the Democrats. They have gotten away with or blatantly allowed some of the most heinous, horrendous and illegal acts in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac blowup ever imaginable. And the American people are clueless. If you want an overview of what took place in the years leading up to this debaucle, have a look at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZVw3no2A4. The other thing that is disturbing is that Democratic policies always contain tax increases. If they do not raise taxes specifically on the middle class or all across the board, they will increase the tax on businesses, corporations, capital gains, and the “wealthy.” These tax increases then affect the average person by increased prices on all goods and services, on less jobs available for hiring, on less charitable giving, on less businesses being started, or more businesses going overseas. Did you know that during George W. Bush’s last 7 years, to include years with tax decreases, a terrorist attack and subsequent wars, and the economic trouble we have had in the last two years, - that the U.S. still raised 20% more revenue - than during the Clinton years with the tax increases. Bill O’Riley recently presented that to Barak Obama when he was interviewing him, and Obama did not deny that. The whole reason this nation has taxes is to put cash in the national fund, the money to run the government. We actually make more money when the taxes are lower, but the Democrats always lie and tell you otherwise. They incite class warfare and envy, they buy votes by telling people they will give them some government program, they make people dependent on government programs so that they become enslaved and dependent upon DEMOCRATS. They seek to socialize everything they can get their hands on, so that the country will be dependent upon THEM. Democrats pad their own wallets with money, but limit their constituents’ ability to become wealthy, because if that happens, they won’t need THEM. Why don’t the wealthy Democrats like George Soros and Warren Buffett just give away more of their own money to the poor, or start more businesses to give others a chance to become wealthy instead of funding liberal Democrats? Because if the government takes care of the poor, then they won’t feel so guilty for being so rich.

One of the reasons we bought a small farm when my husband retired from the military a few years ago, was that we wanted to quietly raise our children, grow or raise some of our own food, and teach our children a good work ethic. We seek to live out 1Thessalonians 4: 11-12:”…and make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you; so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.” We don’t need government bureaucracy delving deeply into our lives in order for us to lead happy and productive lives. And I can tell you that after being in the military for so many years, and having government healthcare, it is not as good as private healthcare. There has to be any number of answers to the healthcare question, but a government-run healthcare system is not it. Run from that one - run far and fast.

So all of this leads me to my title for this entry. I have been encouraged for some time that McCain/Palin would end up victorious in this election. I do not mean to be presumptious at all, but rather have been hopeful that the confusion hanging over the country would subside and cooler heads would prevail. I do not want to lose heart and get discouraged, even though every time the news is on, it is easy to do that. I think about how powerless I am to do anything at all about it. But then again, maybe I am not powerless. After all, God knows all that is going on, and not only that, but He is the ultimate Ruler. He is the King. I will quote Psalm 67:

“God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us-
That Thy way may be known on the earth. Thy salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise Thee, O God; Let all the peoples praise Thee. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; For Thou wilt judge the peoples with uprightness, And guide the nations on the earth. Let the peoples praise Thee, O God; Let all the peoples praise Thee. The earth has yielded its produce; God, our God, blesses us. God blesses us. That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.”

It is not too late for this election. It is not too late for the people to wise up. God is in control over all the earth and if it would please Him for McCain/Palin to win, they will win, no matter how bleak it looks right now. For that I am thankful and for that I praise Him. He is worthy to be praised and thanked, always and forever.

The weather is beginning to get a little cooler out here on Fair Hills Farm. It is definitely getting darker earlier in the evenings now. The seasons change, and so do those to-do lists, when you live in the country. Always there is something outside to do! And this brings me to my first point today.

I have been reading lately on the value of vitamin D, and how that nutrient is so necessary to the vital functions of the human body. The two main ways we absorb vitamin D is by getting outside in the sunshine, and by consuming foods which contain vitamin D. Many people are deficient in vitamin D because they don’t get enough sunshine. We actually need something like 20 minutes a day exposure to full sunshine in order to get enough through our skin. But what lie have people fallen for in the last 30 years? That sunshine will kill you, stay out of it, and when you venture outside, slather on lots of sunscreen to keep your skin from absorbing any sunlight. Be afraid! Be very afraid! Now, aside from this whole notion lacking common sense if you just think about it, it has proved to be an outrageous untruth that millions of people have been sold, because the media reported what the “experts” determined. Now I am not advocating sunburn here, and if you are going to be outside in the sun at the beach or fishing for an extended period of time, you may have to wear sunscreen or wear clothing that covers up the vulnerable spots. But as a general rule, getting outside in the sunshine and fresh air on a daily basis for atleast 20 minutes or more is a good idea. And do it without sunscreen. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to diseases such as osteoporosis (because you have to have vit. D to absorb calcium), melanoma, colon cancer and viruses such as colds and flu and other chronic diseases. And since when have these diseases sky-rocketed? In the last 30 years. And what else has been popular in the last 30 years? Lowfat everything. Lowfat milk, lowfat cheese, fake- fat- not -real butter, and skinless everything. Now let me tell you a secret. Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin. That means that it is stored in fat and uses fat as its carrier to do the work it needs to do. So when you take out the fat of a nutritious food which contains vitamin D - such as milk and cheese, you rob it of the vitamin D and its ability to do its work. So the best way to utilize vitamin D in foods is to make sure you eat full fat dairy, real butter, and hopefully meat that has grazed out in the sunshine! Taking cod liver oil is also a way to ensure you are getting adequate vitamin D. In our house, we take Carlson’s Cod Liver Oil in the green bottle which has added lemon. It does not taste bad, and we take it in a little no-added-sugar fruit juice. The young children get one teaspoon, the older children who are adult-sized get two teaspoons (as well as my husband) and I take three teaspoons since I am still nursing my 2 year old and yes, sometimes the 4 year old as well. After all, little ones need raw milk as long as they can get it. We generally take the cod liver oil during the week and skip one or two days over the weekend. This is to give the body a break which is a healthy thing to do when taking superfoods or supplements.

Another interesting thing I have been reading up on is the role of lecithin in keeping your arteries clean. I saw recently that Dr. David Williams advocates taking lecithin to melt the plaque in arteries instead of going through chelation or taking cholesterol medication that doesn’t even address plaque formation. This got me to thinking about what foods naturally contain lecithin. I already knew that egg yolks have a wonderful concentration of lecithin, but other foods which contain it are milk, peanuts,garbonzo beans, cauliflower, and wheat germ! So if you regularly consume these foods, there is a good possibility that you are helping your body keep your arteries clean. Now I know there are lots of soy lecithin supplements out there and I would never venture to try to figure out which ones would be good to take, for a few reasons. Soy as a food product is best consumed in small amounts as a fermented condiment. This is the way the asians consume it. (For more info on this see www.westonaprice.org) Secondly, the majority of soybeans farmed in this nation now come from genetically modified seed (recent figures I saw were 80%). The only way you can be sure the soy is not genetically modified is if it is labeled “organic.” Thirdly, most supplements contain additives that I am not comfortable with and I would really rather get the nutrients through food. My husband’s grandmother (she is 90 years old) and grandfather (he is 93 going on 94) have eaten eggs and bacon and white bread toast every morning for breakfast for atleast the last 50 years if not more like 60 or 70. They don’t eat nitrate-free bacon either. And they eat white bread. They have been through a lot medically, but neither have ever had cancer. Grandmother has broken her hip and had 2 corrective surgeries and she had a bypass surgery years ago. She had a stroke after she had an exploratory catheterization which revealed her arteries looked fine for her age. She probably would not have had the stroke if the doctors had left well enough alone. Papa Joe and Grandmother Mary used to have a huge garden and ate lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, canned and froze alot of the produce and made the best homemade icecream. Years ago when grandmother had a young son (my father-in-law) she milked a cow every day and had to haul water to the house. Years later they used to go on fishing trips to the Gulf every Fall and enjoyed having suppers with fried fish, tomato relish, coleslaw and french fries. It makes me hungry just to think about that! My point in sharing all of this is that here are two elderly people that grew up working hard and eating good food and even in their nineties when they are no longer out and about very much, they still have a strong underlying constitution that is surviving even though they are taking probably more prescription drugs than they really should.

And finally, I can’t seem to get away from the political environment and the recent meltdowns in the financial and housing markets. It is a hard time for this country to be taking on more debt through bail-outs. I want you to be very careful and discerning when you look at what is going on in this country. There is a lot of lies and untruths being told in the name of politics right now, and the facade needs to be stripped away and the reality seen. If one even tries to be objective and sort out facts, it is not hard to see what is going on. The Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae debaucle was started back in the 1990’s by the Clinton administration. The policy to make mortgages available to people who would never be able to pay them back was a way to equalize housing opportunity with no regard to credit risk. The current democrat-run Congress has drug their feet on the offshore drilling for oil issue and has made no attempts at encouraging energy independence in this nation. When Pres. Bush tried to make progress on this issue a few years ago, it was blocked by the democrats by one vote. And when President Clinton was in office and the Republican -controlled Congress tried to make an energy law for offshore drilling, Pres. Clinton vetoed it. And just within the last year, when the U.S. was making a deal with Iraq to contract with U.S. oil companies to drill in Iraq for oil, three democrat senators (Sen. Shumer, Sen. Kerry and the woman from Missouri (can’t remember her name just now) wrote to Sec. of State Condi Rice telling her not to do this deal until Iraq can implement some environmental regulations. Of course, the Bush administration was going to ignore this, but the press got wind of it and made enough of a stink about it that Iraq decided instead to go and make the deal with China. This was from an article in the Weekly Standard. I should compile a list of sources for all of this and will try to do so. But what it all amounts to basically is that democrats seem very adept at screwing the government up more and more; the more opportunities they get, the better they do. I am just being objective here. The problem with the Republicans is that they either let the Democrats get away with it, or they don’t do enough themselves when they have opportunity. We need stronger, righteous people who will do what is right and not be out for self gain. I think this is going to require a miracle. May our God who is Yahweh help us. And may we all work at discerning the truth in everything we see on the media and read in print!