Is taking care of orphans a command or a calling?

If you believe it's a command, what are YOU doing about it?

Random Pics from the Day

Carson loves my homemade granola. (yes, I sit my twins on the counter...)

Scout took a spill in a mud puddle today.

We start 'em early! Luke actually really does love to vacuum.

Happy 39th Birthday, Babe!

Jimmy was gone during the week, so we didn't get to celebrate on his actual birthday. Then he took the boys skiing on Saturday, so we celebrated when they got back. Notice how he's still in his snow pants an hour after he arrived home.... it takes him a good while to warm up after being outside.

Ten Years!

Today is our Tenth Wedding Anniversary! Yahoooooo! It has gone by sooooo quickly. I'd do it all over a hundred times. My mom reminded me the other day that after we broke up the second time I told her I felt like I had just lost a million dollars. Boy, was that an understatement! Jimmy is worth far more than that. I had no idea just how much of a jewel I was getting when I said "I do" ten years ago.

When I was making the kids their smoothie this morning I found a sweet card in the refridgerator and my present - three YUMMY Oreo cookies dipped in half chocolate, half mint (my favortie combo). They were absolutely deeeeelicious. I told him it was my best present yet. No diamonds for this girl - I'm all about dessert. :) (hey to Andrea, my favorite dessert-maker, who really knows how to make a gal feel loved...)

In June we'll head to Isle Mujeres, Mexico to celebrate while Mimi, Aunt Stephanie, and her three girls take their first trip to Bailey, Colorado to watch our children. But today we celebrated by heading to the Denver Zoo with the kids and then we went out for dinner. It was nice and warm out (well, not to Jimmy :) and we all had a really great time.

Granola Bars

After we moved to Colorado and started hiking, I begun buying Luna granola bars periodically so we could have a snack on our longer hikes. Today I decided to try making our own granola bars since (a) store-bought ones are over a dollar a piece, and (b) they're full of junk - the particular flavor of Luna bars my kids liked had over 20 ingredients!

I made two batches, using different nuts and seeds (almonds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pepitas, flaxseeds, wheat germ) and in one I added peanut butter. They turned out pretty well, although next time I'll add a little more honey to make them chewier. I used two different pans, and we liked the ones that came out thinner better. We decided to add a layer of chocolate to make them yummier, but they're delicious without it as well. Whole foods are so much tastier than processed junk!

My Countertop

The kids are finally on the mend. Yahoo! PRAISE THE LORD I did not get much more than a slight cough and fatigue (I'm sure from taking care of six patients every day). I gave most of the above to different children, depending on their particular symptoms. Fresh raw garlic, coconut oil, and raw apple cider vinegar were the things I consumed the most of - they all kill viruses and bacteria very well. The second you feel sick, start consuming these things every few hours! On the far left is dried cat nip, which did wonders with helping my children sleep through the night. I made a tea with it and put some raspberry Emergen-C in it. The little white bottle to the left of the gallon of coconut oil is a homeopathic remedy for the flu. It was the first time I tried it, and it really worked! I gave it to Scout and Riley, who were barely moving and had high fevers, and within the hour they were up and moving, asking for food. The only thing is this respite of symptoms didn't last very long, maybe an hour or two.

Even the flies are dropping in our home...

All six of our children have the flu. It started with Carson Thursday morning, then Luke Friday early afternoon, Riley Friday late afternoon, Scout Sunday morning, and then Owen and Eli got it Sunday late afternoon. My kids have never had the flu before - it is not fun! I'm drinking lots of coconut oil and apple cider vinegar hoping to escape it.

Owen probably feels the best out of everybody.

The intent of our blog is not to discuss politics...

...but this article made me sick to my stomach. I am hardcore pro-life and will never vote for a pro-death candidate.

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The Elephant in the Room: Obama: A harsh ideologue hidden by a feel-good image
By Rick Santorum

American voters will choose between two candidates this election year. One inspires hope for a brighter, better tomorrow. His rhetoric makes us feel we are, indeed, one nation indivisible - indivisible by ideology or religion, indivisible by race or creed. It is rhetoric of hope and change and possibility. It's inspiring. This candidate can make you just plain feel good to be American.

The other candidate, by contrast, is one of the Senate's fiercest partisans. This senator reflexively sides with the party's extreme wing. There's no record of working with the other side of the aisle. None. It's basically been my way or the highway, combined with a sanctimoniousness that breeds contempt among those on the other side of any issue.

Which of these two candidates should be our next president? The choice is clear, right? Wrong, because they're both the same man - Barack Obama.

Granted, the first-term Illinois senator's lofty rhetoric of bipartisanship, unity, hope and change makes everyone feel good. But it's becoming increasingly clear that his grand campaign rhetoric does not match his partisan, ideological record. The nonpartisan National Journal, for example, recently rated Obama the Senate's most liberal member. That's besting some tough competition from orthodox liberals such as Ted Kennedy and Barbara Boxer.

John McCain's campaign and conservative pundits have listed the numerous times in Obama's short Senate career where he sided with the extremes in his party against broadly supported compromises on issues such as immigration, ethics reform, terrorist surveillance and war funding. Fighting on the fringe with a handful of liberals is one thing, but consider his position on an issue that passed both houses of Congress unanimously in 2002.

That bill was the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. During the partial-birth abortion debate, Congress heard testimony about babies that had survived attempted late-term abortions. Nurses testified that these preterm living, breathing babies were being thrown into medical waste bins to die or being "terminated" outside the womb. With the baby now completely separated from the mother, it was impossible to argue that the health or life of the mother was in jeopardy by giving her baby appropriate medical treatment.

The act simply prohibited the killing of a baby born alive. To address the concerns of pro-choice lawmakers, the bill included language that said nothing "shall be construed to affirm, deny, expand or contract any legal status or legal right" of the baby. In other words, the bill wasn't intruding on Roe v. Wade.

Who would oppose a bill that said you couldn't kill a baby who was born? Not Kennedy, Boxer or Hillary Rodham Clinton. Not even the hard-core National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL). Obama, however, is another story. The year after the Born Alive Infants Protection Act became federal law in 2002, identical language was considered in a committee of the Illinois Senate. It was defeated with the committee's chairman, Obama, leading the opposition.

Let's be clear about what Obama did, once in 2003 and twice before that. He effectively voted for infanticide. He voted to allow doctors to deny medically appropriate treatment or, worse yet, actively kill a completely delivered living baby. Infanticide - I wonder if he'll add this to the list of changes in his next victory speech and if the crowd will roar: "Yes, we can."

How could someone possibly justify such a vote? In March 2001, Obama was the sole speaker in opposition to the bill on the floor of the Illinois Senate. He said: "We're saying they are persons entitled to the kinds of protections provided to a child, a 9-month child delivered to term. I mean, it would essentially bar abortions, because the equal-protection clause does not allow somebody to kill a child." So according to Obama, "they," babies who survive abortions or any other preterm newborns, should be permitted to be killed because giving legal protection to preterm newborns would have the effect of banning all abortions.

Justifying the killing of newborn babies is deeply troubling, but just as striking is his rigid adherence to doctrinaire liberalism. Apparently, the "audacity of hope" is limited only to those babies born at full term and beyond. Worse, given his support for late-term partial-birth abortions that supporters argued were necessary to end the life of genetically imperfect children, it may be more accurate to say the audacity of hope applies only to those babies born healthy at full term.

Obama's supporters say his rhetoric makes them believe again.
Is this the kind of change and leader you believe in?

Deer

We haven't seen deer on our property for a while, but yesterday while doing dishes I saw some in our backyard, so I ran to get our bucket of birdfood that our birds don't care for (it has a ton of corn) and put it at the bottom of the stairs off our front door, and sure enough, they started eating it. The second picture is a deer at our salt lick. For all you city folk, a salt lick is a salt/mineral block that animals regularly lick that provides them sodium, calcium, iron, phosphorus, and zinc. They sometimes occur naturally, but this one was bought at the Pine Country Feed Store. They're supposed to attract animals from miles away, but no such luck with ours.