Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Boulder Girls' Weekend

This past weekend one of my very best friends, Andrea, came to visit me! We had a little Girls' Weekend from Friday to Sunday in Boulder and I had the most fabulous time. I'd say the highlight of the weekend was uninterrupted conversation with Andrea while dining on exquisite cuisine. Yum-o-la. Everything from some rock'n biscuits and gravy to a hummus wrap with fresh carrot/celery/lime/blue algae juice to my multiple visits to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.

A huge THANK YOU to our amazing husbands for letting us go! It was the first time Jimmy had all six children, and he even took them swimming at a local ranch with some families from our church! I was very impressed!
A few pics...

On our way to Boulder! Yahooooooo! (in my husband's 4x4 Dodge Ram 3/4 ton diesel truck... not the smoothest ride for such sophisticated girls like us... :\

Yum-o-la!


Look at that manicure!! Andrea found this place, and it was amazing. It had a big-screen TV, huge lounge chairs to relax in, and two huge jars of FREE plain and peanut M&Ms!! All to indulge while getting your nails done. Brilliant business idea, we both thought.

The biggest and best biscuit ever!

Monday, May 26, 2008

Ummm...


Why does my husband insist on keeping clothes that are literally 20 years old? I am a minimalist and I'm continually trying to have less "stuff." I cleaned out a basement closet today and put all the stuff I wanted to get rid of on a table for Jimmy to go through. (which, btw, my former self would have just thrown it all away immediately hoping Jimmy would never notice, but I'm more enlightened thanks to my good friends the Joneses, who taught me by example that I need to respect my husband's "stuff"....) Anyway, he wanted to keep this "perfectly good" LSU sweatshirt that he's had FOR TWENTY YEARS. Is it just me, or am I the only one who thinks it just doesn't fit him anymore?

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Preach it!

Voddie Baucham is my ALL-TIME favorite pastor. He's an African-American pastor from Texas that has written a few great books, Family-Driven Faith being one of my favorites. I literally stomp my feet "in agreement" every time I hear him preach. He's absolutely amazing. He "talks the talk and walks the walk," and an extra bonus about him is he has adopted two children and most likely will adopt a few more. The percentage of African-Americans who adopt is quite small.

Anyway, he wrote this great post on his blog that I had to share.

Barack Obama: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Friday, April 18, 2008

Barack Obama is the most pro-abortion candidate ever to run for President. He could not even bring himself to vote for the Born Alive Infant Protection Act which would have protected children born in the process of an abortion. That’s right, Mr. Obama cannot even bring himself to support a plan that simply says to doctors, “If they slip past while you are trying to kill them, you have to let ‘em live.” With this vote, Obama was more pro-abortion than the radical abortion group NARAL.

I am absolutely amazed that at a time when Margaret Sanger’s Darwinian, Eugenics inspired dream of eliminating the poor, the lame, and the inferior races through targeted abortion is being propagated at record rates, black people still support the man who epitomizes her murderous philosophy. Black and hispanic women make up less than 13% of the population, but account for nearly half of all abortions. The overwhelming majority of Planned Parenthood’s abortion mills are located in minority neighborhoods. Abortion is absolutely racist. Yet most blacks have no problem supporting people like Mr. Obama who want to make sure that the killing doesn’t stop.

In his article, “Shepherds Leading the Sheep to Slaughter,” Rev. Clenard Childress notes:

“Here are the birth statistics for African-American babies in the City of Philadelphia just a couple a years ago: 10,880 born, 9,259 aborted. Nearly half or 46% of all babies in the City of Brotherly love were dismembered and brutally killed by means of abortion. Moreover, there are twenty-five other major urban cities in America that report having a higher abortion rate than live birth rate.”

This is absolutely astonishing! The only thing more astonishing is the fact that black clergymen in Philadelphia are supporting Mr. Obama. Then there is the consistent mantra from black supporters of America’s first bi-racial candidate... “I’m just happy to see a black man in this position.” Amazing! That’s like Hitler hiring a Jewish doctor (on his father’s side) to run the human experiments at Dachau and hearing the Jewish prisoners hail the fact that ‘one of their own’ has ascended to such great heights in the Nazi regime.

America is slaughtering children at a rate of about 3,600 per day. Unfortunately, a disproportionate number of those children look just like me. I was born to a single, teenaged black girl in South Central Los Angeles, CA in 1969. I shudder to think about the pressure my mother would have faced were she to find herself in that position in the current moral climate. Today people consistently make the argument that people in my mother’s position would do better to kill people like me before we’re born.

But what about cases of rape? Well, as the father of an adopted son whose biological mother was a rape victim, I say, he didn’t deserve to die either. I praise God his mother realized that he was an innocent party in a terrible tragedy. I am also honored to call him my son. Our second adopted son was born to a fourteen year-old middle school girl who also bucked the odds and gave her baby life.

So many people are more concerned about gas prices than they are about the greatest moral crisis of our day. I’m afraid we are going to get precisely the leadership we deserve. I was just in Munich, Germany where people are paying over $8.00 a gallon and still driving over 100 mph on the Autobahn. Ironically, gas doesn’t cost as much as bottled water, but we are more worried about paying a few bucks at the pump than we are about genocide right under our noses.

God help us! Or should I say, God Forgive Us!

VB

Take a few minutes to watch this...

Monday, May 12, 2008

Mondays

Lately I have been just sick at the rising cost of groceries to feed our family. I don't buy organic unless it's as cheap as conventional, but we do try to eat a "whole foods" diet. I would love to garden, but there's not much you can grow at 9200 feet and with the extremely short growing season. (even tomorrow, May 12, we're supposed to get a 6-12 inches of snow) I also want to get some chickens eventually, but that will have to wait.

Our most expensive foods are the five gallons of raw milk we buy from a local farm and the meat and eggs we buy locally - grassfed beef and completely free-range chickens - but I think they're definitely worth it for our long-term health. I also love supporting local farmers.

In an effort to lower the cost to feed our family, I asked my wonderful husband if it would be okay to have black beans and brown rice every Monday, and then have leftover beans and rice Tuesday as well but wrap it up in a now-homemade tortilla and bake it. He was all for it, thankfully, and it's one of my kids' favorite meals.

There's not much else as cheap as black beans and rice for dinner, especially when you buy it in huge bags. I bought a 25-pound bag of black beans for $25.00 and a 25-pound bag of long-grain brown rice for $24.00.

To feed our family of eight two dinners, we use about three cups of black beans and three cups of rice. That's one CHEAP meal, and also easy when all you have to do is throw the beans in the crockpot first thing in the morning. It would be even cheaper if Jimmy didn't request that I throw a few pieces of bacon in it! :) My kids have some Iowa in them and don't mind bland food.

Scouter

Me and the kids went hiking today with our neighbors. We went down to the creek next to our property and hung out. Scout fell in the VERY cold creek trying to jump across. She was a trooper. She still hiked for another hour after falling in and never complained once. By the time we made it to our driveway, this is what she looked like - her pants were so wet they wouldn't stay up any longer. She found a huge bone in the woods - I have no idea what kind of animal it belongs to.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Eli never fails to entertain...

Whole Wheat Tortillas

We buy our whole wheat tortillas from a Columbian lady at the local farmers' market, and they are delicious. We go through them very quickly here, probably three bags a week - one bag for burrito night, one bag for egg/cheese/potato tacos, and the other bag Owen eats throughout the week just plain as a snack before bed.

They're $3.25 for a bag of eight 10-inch tortillas. Jimmy has mentioned a few times that he thinks that's expensive. I think it's a steal since they're not made with lard and they're fresh. I haven't compared the price to the yucky ones in the grocery store, though.

Well, today I decided to make homemade tortillas, so I ground up some wheat, mixed in some water, baking powder, salt, and olive oil, and then cooked them on a tortilla press, and they turned out great! They were super easy and very delicious. And of course dirt cheap. Jimmy's frugality has definitely been a "mother of invention" for me in the kitchen. Well, not mother of invention - more like mother of a larger baking repertoire.

The kids ate them plain faster than I could make them, but here's a picture of the few I had left:

Friday, May 2, 2008

My Kids Have the Coolest Daddy in the World

Owen wanted Jimmy to make him a bow and arrow, so tonight after dinner they went off to the woods to get them some aspen branches, and wah-lah! He never ceases to amaze me...



Happy Birthday To Me!

I had a fabulous birthday today! I'm not the type that makes a big deal on my own birthday (or others' birthdays, for that matter... :) or expects much, but I must say today was my best birthday yet! I got up at 6:00 a.m. when I heard the children, and Jimmy told me he was going to take care of them this morning, so I slept in till 7:45! Then as soon as I came out of our room they said Happy Birthday and presented me with some "cards" they had made. They got out the typing paper this morning and Owen wrote his own card for me, and Eli and Scout dictated to Daddy what they wanted their cards to say, and they were sooooo precious to me. I don't save much but I think I'll keep these.

Owen's card said: "Happy Birthday, Mommy! I love you sooooo much! Your a great Mommy! Bey. Love, Owen" (supposed to say bye) And in every O he put a smiley face.

Eli's 1st card said: "We hope you have a great birthday because this is your 2nd birthday in Colorado and we hope you love us for the rest of our lives. Eli."

Eli's 2nd card: "I love you very much and I'm glad you are my Mommy. I hope you and Daddy have a good time on your vacation even though I'm going to miss you. And I hope you love me a long time!"

Then he wrote a song for me: "I love you, Mommy, because it is her birthday today; I love you, Mommy, because she takes care of me; I know my love, it is so powerful. I know I love her to me!"

Scout's card: "Happy Birthday, Mommy! It is your 2nd Birthday in Colorado! And I hope you enjoy your birthday! Love, Scout."

Jimmy's card: "Honey, since I didn't make it to the store this week, this is your homemade birthday card. Happy Birthday! You're the best wife a guy could want and I can't wait for Mexico. I love you. Hubby."

I am soooooo blessed! So many kisses, so many hugs, and so many birthday cards. It just doesn't get much better than that.

After lunch I made chocolate chocolate chip cookies and blew out my candle! Of course I didn't get to taste my birthday cookies because I'm on a juice fast! Arrrggghhhh...