In spite of its age, our Declaration of Independence is a most suitable response to today's Supreme Court decision on Obamacare.  That decision is not the sole basis for my feelings, of course; the citizens of our nation have already suffered "a long train of abuses and usurpations", as the document says.  I say, let's blow the dust off it and send it to Washington! Our liberties are being torn away from us left and right.  The men who are in power in this nation somehow are under the impression that they have been elected and appointed for the purpose of ruling us, the people, rather than representing us.  A "tax" for non-compliance?  The proper word for that is "fine".  Or rather, theft.  Isn't that what it's called when someone takes what is yours against your will?  

We can't get health insurance.  It's not a question of cutting something else out of the budget. Thankfully the Lord has kept us from needing any.  He has kept the "devourer" (Malachi 3:11)  from swallowing us up.  But now we'll be made to have it.  As the saying goes, "You can't get blood from a turnip."  So that means we'll eventually go to one of those concentration camps they have built out there in the wilderness, somewhere in the extreme wilds of Minnesota or Arizona.  My guess is that common criminals will still have free medical care, but Obamacare dissenters won't be given any.  We'll have to commit a good crime to get long term incarceration with free medical.... what shall it be?  Murder only gets a few years.... tax evasion?  (It would have to be for a different tax, I'm pretty sure.)

I saw this comment today, left on a news website:

Just got a quote from Blue Cross this AM on medical insurance.
For a Family of three with NO preexisting conditions, non-smoker and non drinker. It's ONLY $655 per month with a $12,000 dollar annual deductible! $655x12=$7,860 + $12,000 Deductible = $19,860 per year for insurance. Let see thats ONLY $1655 per month or $200 more per month than my Mortgage payment! At this premium it entitles each family member to ONE Doctor visit per year! Yes it's the Affordable Care Act! Before Obama care we were paying $365 a month with a $2,500 deductible. I see I am saving that $2,500 per year I was promised!

Hm.  $655 a month for three, $12,000 annual deductible (which we would never satisfy, save in the case of emergency). What could it cost for six? Oh, and this would cover us for mental illness, venereal diseases, diseases and conditions caused by obesity, and AIDS, but they won't cover me for diabetes or any complication of diabetes (which is just about everything -- heart disease, kidney disease, retinopathy, neuropathy, etc ).  How come they get to choose what they won't cover, but I don't get to choose the coverage I don't want? Well, it doesn't matter. We don't have the money anyway.

The future is looking grim, indeed.  It has me meditating on this verse:

The prudent forseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished. Proverbs 22:3

Where does one hide?  There are no frontiers left to move to, except maybe Mars.  There is nowhere to hide...

Oh, but wait!  Yes, there is a place.  A most excellent place.  

Deliver me, O LORD, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me. Psalm 143:9

The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe. Proverbs 18:10

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? [...] For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion... Psalm 27:1,5
 

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26:3

Okay I feel better now.  Sorry for the rant.

In case you haven't read it in a while, here's how our Declaration begins, in part. Don't just skim it.  Read it! 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

I would say let's start this country over (with our same beloved Constitution!), but I think that as a nation, we are getting what we have deserved for a long time...  Lord, have mercy.

 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves,

and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways;

THEN will I hear from heaven,

and will forgive their sin,and will heal their land. 

2 Chronicles 7:14

Still Homeschooling

Alison may have graduated, but she's still homeschooling. :)  This week's learning projects: the skirt she is wearing in the photo (made without a pattern!) and some kind of sugar-free cocoa/peanut-butter/raisin dessert concoction, plus listening to Israeli talk radio. 

And the rest of them, well... the two younger girls were at the one room schoolhouse each morning this week, experiencing what they wish our homeschooling experience would look like -- fun!  Amy helped the neighbor kids put on a play while we moms had lunch together.  Oh how I wish I had a photo of THAT!  It was hilarious and delightful. 

So yes, we are still homeschooling.  I think we are getting the "home" part down nicely.  Now if I can just wrap my mind around the "school" part.  Maybe we need to redefine what that is, especially in light of what follows --

Next week we'll do the required standardized tests for the first time.  Public school teachers are required to teach to the test, so I thought I'd look ahead and see what we might need to review.  Get a load of this question on Amy's test.  (It's okay if I tell you. No one knows the answer except perhaps a linguist.)

The participle inflectional morpheme ending is used only with
a. conjunctions

b. adjectives

c. adverbs

d. nouns

e. verbs

Really?? Someone thinks our kids should know this?? What would that prove?  If Amy knows the answer to this question it will prove only one thing, and that is that she has nothing better to do all day than to cram her head full of grammarian tradesman's vocabulary. I'd much rather she know how to clean a bathroom, play a song on the piano, write a letter, defend a Bible doctrine, treat her sisters to Culvers, or cook supper for her family.  And not because those things are easier, but because they are WORTH KNOWING.  

Homeschooling requires constant re-focusing on worthy goals and sifting out humanistic philosophies.  It requires me to keep checking my compass, the Bible, to be sure we are on the narrow but blessed path that the Lord laid out for my family.  And it's a huge blessing that we can eliminate some of the busy work that other kids are forced to do just to keep them off the streets for several hours per day.

Thankfully I don't report our test results to anyone.  In Minnesota we have to do them annually, presumably to help homeschooling moms see where we might have holes in our kids' education.

Participle inflectional morpheme endings are a hole that we are not going to bother to fill in. The same goes for  possessive inflectional morpheme endings!

There is knowledge, and then there is knowledge...

For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

Proverbs 2:6 

Blessings

Last year Elisabeth and Emily went with me to our historical society's one room schoolhouse ending program just to see the fun.  We didn't think we'd ever be able to send the girls, but it would be interesting to see what the children did there for a week.

Forward a year.  Daddy committed to the payment by faith, trusting God to supply the money and the few extra things for the girls to go.  After all, this is both fun and educational and potentially a wonderful childhood memory in the making!

Betz has an old days dress (who cares if it's the wrong century), but we needed something for Emily.  A friend in Kansas picked up a cotton dress from Goodwill, something that was not made to be a prairie dress, something no fashionable person in her right mind would ever be seen wearing in public, but that might, with some tweaking, work out in a pinch.  She would not let me pay for it.  Plain Jane had generously passed her girls' bonnets down to us a long while ago, and the larger one still fits Em.  And, while perusing the web for free a smock pattern, I came up with something that would not only make that dress into a costume, but would also cover the too-low neckline!   Mom sent me a $.69 curve-making gizmo last week and I put it to use.  A quick dig in the fabric box, a trip to WalMart for two packages of bias tape, and voila!  A complete prairie dress for less than $4! And somewhere around here I have a very old petticoat...

Emily, who at first did not want to be seen in the dress either, is now in love with her new costume.

And I am grateful to the Lord for blessing us with these things.  He didn't have to do that.  We don't deserve anything from him, and yet he is pleased to grant us the delights of our hearts.  

School starts Monday.  And we are blessed!

Momsicles

photo from http://melssweetlife.wordpress.com/

I love popsicles because they are cheap and they make little kids happy.  :)  I have my own version for post-pubescent women, which I came up with on a whim from an iced coffee recipe.  Post-pubescent, because they contain chocolate, and everyone knows real women need chocolate.  The coffee is just thrown in for an added bonus. 

Next time you are pouring Kool-Aid (okay, juice, for you healthy people) into your popsicle molds, save one for yourself.  I keep this treasure mixed up in the fridge in a half-gallon jug:

Iced Coffee

2 C warm water

3 T instant coffee

14 oz can (1 C) fat free sweetened condensed milk

2 C milk

2-4 T chocolate syrup

Mix together and store in fridge.  Shake before pouring.

To make one tall serving, whip 1 C in blender with 5-6 ice cubes.  Sip joyfully.

Or

make Momsicles:

Pour into popsicle molds and freeze.

Indulge yourself while the kids are running around the yard

with the colored sugar-water variety.

:)

So You Think the Bible Is Boring?