Food Storage

Given the current climate, I have had more questions on food storage than before, so here's some info for whoever is interested:

First of all, let me share the best advice I've heard on food storage:

Get your survival food first, the stuff that will keep you alive, then get the tomato sauce and dehydrated fruit and pop tarts to make the survival food go down easier. Variety is extremely important though, especially if you have kids, because "if your kid don't like it, your kid don't eat it", and try to incorporate the survival foods into your regular meal planning. It's a lot healthier for you anyway, especially if you start sprouting and growing miniature greens like wheatgrass.

How much food do you need?

If you go to www.providentliving.org you will find all sorts of info and a food storage calculator. The total recommended amount of food you need is 30lbs of food/ person/ day, that comes out to 1 lb. of food per person per day, that is a 1 lb. loaf of bread (1 lb. of wheat = 1 lb. of flour). I think I would be happier living on more than that. I've heard that 300 lbs. of grain per year is how much the Jews in concentration camps were fed during the Nazi regime so that gives you an idea, but at least you would be alive. That's where you start. Get 300 lbs. of grain and 60 lbs. of dry beans and other legumes and be sure to get some good oil (non-hydrogenated and non-GMO) and salt because they say you can't live long without salt and oil. I think seeds would be a good thing to have also, so you can grow more food, and sprouts are a must for the vitamins we need.

Here's some info on sprouting and some recipes for sourdough bread and pancakes that only require flour, salt, water and baking soda and they taste good. My kids love both.

That's it for the bare basics of food storage. It takes up a lot more space than you would think and it is a major effort, but the Lord will provide for any who seek his blessing and guidance and do their best to keep his commandments. So good luck!! I hope everyone gets their food storage, because I think we may need it desparately someday.... if only I knew when!!

Science Curriculum

My pick at this point for a good elementary school science curriculum is the God's Design series by Debbie and Richard Lawrence.

There is a separate book for each science subject such as plants, animals, the earth, the universe, weather, atoms and molecules, matter, etc. Then each book is divided into chapters that build on each other. It is so organized and full of good information in a format easily understood by the child. Also, each chapter lists the materials you may want to have to do the activity or experiment suggested for each chapter. It is so nice to have it all done for you. I read the chapter to my kids which is written in language for kids and we talk about what we read and then do the activity or experiment to go along with it. There is very little prep time. My kids really like learning real science and I even learn new things along with them. It is very fun!!

Just thought I'd pass this along, I am working on War and Peace and the first 2 books of Herodutus, slowly but surely. I'll finish my essays on the Greek plays at some point, but I got a little burnt out, if you didn't notice!! I've had to give up sewing in order to read, but this month I went back to sewing (for Halloween) and thus the reading went out the window. It's been a nice change of pace, but it's time to get back to reading and cleaning!!

I like turtles

This is just plain funny!!! I had a long hard laugh. It's only 17 seconds long!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMNry4PE93Y

Jon Stossel's Politically Incorrect Guide to Politics

This is an excellent piece showing the ludicrous position of the government and how stupid it is to expect anything from the politicians or the government. The good things that we have in our society come from people. Just like we don't need a leader to tell which way to go when skating at an ice rink, we don't need leaders and politicians giving us regulations. It's called spontaneous order. He asks great questions and shows exactly what people have to go through to get anything done through government from building permits for New Orleans, to filling out paperwork to run for office, to farm bill subsidies. Let's get government out of the way!!! Go watch it on YouTube and you may find you feel the same way I do. Let's do something!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phs6CwnutoY&feature=related

John Adams mini series from HBO

My husband came back from Wal-Mart with this series and we've watched 2 episodes. It is pretty good so far. John Adams looks old and fat, and George Washington looks old and fat too. Most of the congressmen look like they are deathly ill and the American people in the film look extremely rough, but I got over it after awhile because the story is really great. It is based on the book, John Adams by David McCullough who also wrote 1776. I think it does a great job of portraying what it was like to live at that time and the real decisions these people faced.
The first episode shows the Boston Massacre and how John Adams defended the British in that skirmish even though it was unpopular to do so, and it introduces his relationship with his kids and wife, Abigail. The second episode shows him riding through the forest after the first battle at Lexington and Concord and how he joined the Continental Congress and worked to get them to support a continental army and later for independence. It is very sobering when the congress tries to put out an olive branch for the king and are answered with the threat of death if they continue their treason. It is also sobering at the end when they ratify the Declaration of Independence; no one cheers. One of the delegates didn't show up to vote because he felt it was not the right thing to do and did not want to vote for it in good conscience, but didn't want to keep the others from what they deemed to be their duty. It was so good!!

This is the stuff that makes history come alive and makes me want to check and see how accurate it really is.

3 plays by Aeschylus

I just wanted to record here that I tried to analyze these plays, did a search to make sure I understood them and found that I certainly did not!! There is a huge back story to these plays!!!! Before I read any Greek play again, I'm going to check out the plot summary and find out all the back stories, there were a lot of back stories to the Iliad too, like the Trojan horse that just simply are not written down in the story and you practically have to think like an ancient Greek to get it.

So here is what I wish I had known when I read Agamemnon, Choephoroe and Eumenides, this is a summary and not exact:

It all started with Agamemnon's grandfather, Pelops. Pelops won his wife unfairly in a chariot race and then murdered his accomplice afterward. But before the accomplice died, he cursed Pelops and his family. Then Pelops had 2 sons, Thyestes and Atreus. Thyestes commited adultery with Atreus' wife so Atreus banished him. Thyestes asked to come back and be forgiven and Atreus agreed and served him a wonderful banquet in which he served to Thyestes, Thyestes' own 2 murdered sons to eat. Thyestes was livid and left, and had another son, Aegisthus, possibly in an incestuous relationship with his remaining living daughter in order to avenge the deaths of his sons. And that is the curse referred to on the house of Atreus.

Atreus had two sons, Menelaus and Agamemnon. Menelaus married Helen who was stolen by Paris and taken to Troy which is what the Trojan war was all about. Agamemnon married Clytaemnestra who was the twin sister of Helen although Helen was fathered by Zeus and Clytaemnestra was fathered by a mortal. So anyway, Agamemnon of course wanted to help his brother for many reasons against Troy, but when they went to sail away there was no wind because the goddess, Artemis, was mad at somebody for killing a rabbit and demanded Agamemnon's daughter, Iphigeneia, as a sacrifice to atone for the rabbit. So Agamemnon delivered his daugher to be sacrificed at the temple of Artemis without the knowledge or consent of Clytaemnestra, her mother, and then he was gone to Troy for 10 years.

While Agamemnon was gone, Clytaemnestra hooked up with Aegisthus, the son of Thyestes, the cousin of Agamemnon, and they ruled Argos together and planned to kill Agamemnon when he returned. They sent Orestes, the son of Clytaemnestra and Agamemnon, into exile so that he would not be able to claim the throne, and treated Electra, his sister, like a slave.

The first play, Agamemnon, starts when Agamemnon is returning from Troy.

Also, interesting to note is that Cassandra, daughter of Priam, king of Troy, and the slave to Agamemnon, refused to have sex with Apollo at some point prior, and so Apollo refuses to help her in her need when she knows she will be murdered along with Agamemnon.

There!! I think I got it all!! After finding this all out, the plays have so much more meaning and depth. I will write about it after our next discussion as I'm sure we'll come up with some more interesting ideas!!! Wow!! Those Greeks had an imagination, no wonder we are still interested, it's quite the back story!!!

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin in VP debate on SNL

I just watched a few videos of Saturday Night Live impersonations of Sarah Palin because I heard it was funny. I hadn't paid much attention to Sarah Palin because I'll definitely be voting 3rd party so I figured it didn't matter to me, but I did watch a segment of the VP debate the other night. I didn't think much of it because she does seem like a nice person. Like I said I watched some of the parodies and I laughed, but then I had to watch the real interviews. I am flabbergasted!!! I am amazed at how close the impersonations are to the real thing. It's funny at first, and then it is kind of sad. Palin seems like a nice mom, but she is full of hubris. She doesn't know what the interviewers are asking sometimes and she seldom answers the questions. She spouts off every catch phrase about taxes and patriotism and job creation and Israel she's ever heard. She is so unprofessional, she acts like a person they just grabbed off the street. Unbelievable, what an embarrassment. It's not like I'm surprised, but what a sad disappointment for this country and for women at that.

Here's a link to the debate skit, the interview with Charlie Gibson is also pretty good and so is the one with Katie Couric, just google them: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/04/tina-fey-as-sarah-palin-i_n_131964.html



Also, some of you may find it interesting that Japan's market closed down 4 % on their Mon. and Russia started out very low and our futures market is looking like we'll have another low day tomorrow. Even with the bailout we crash!! What a mess!!! We'll see what happens.