No God, BIG problems

This blogpost was inspired by the amount of problems I see in our world.  Problems created and exacerbated by ignoring our Heavenly Father's commands and taking control of life in a way we were never meant to.  Whether it is science teaching us it's o.k. to play God, or government cheating the sovereign people and taking kickbacks for themselves, or just in general people's selfishness and lack of respect for others - all of it is caused by one thing...yes one alone!! First I will say that I do NOT know everything! Please don't take this as my arrogant tell-you-what's-wrong end all be all.  It's not.  I think alot of people I know would agree with me.  Here it is:  There is a correlation between a crumbling country and  people turning away from God.  The reason we see crime going up, national debt going up, pollution going up is because America (and the rest of the world) are not digging into and following the truth in God's Word.

 Hosea 4:6 says "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge"  What is knowledge? Proverbs 1:7 says "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction."  The respect and honor of God is the beginning of EVERYTHING!! This is where it starts!  He IS knowledge and without him knowledge would be nonexistent.  It's like the verse from Amazing Grace that goes - was blind but now I see!  He makes things clear to us.  There is a verse in the Bible and I just couldn't remember where it's from (if anyone knows please tell me!) that talks about how God makes things of great magnitude be understood by the simple, common person but confounds the person who thinks they know everything.  Searching His Word is where we find truth for every area of life.  I think that in our day in age the Bible has been labeled as a "spiritual" book and it is; but, it's so much more too!  It has precepts and wisdom for everyday life!  Physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual - God's Word has it ALL wrapped up.  We have to be willing to unwrap the beautiful gift and learn everything we possibly can about Him.

Think about the Founding Fathers (I love those guys - they were really amazing men of God - I will reference them alot)  They understood this concept.  The Bible was where they got the idea for the Constitution and a free republic by sovereign people.  God used them in phenomenal ways because of their willingness to be a vessel that God could direct and guide into works for his glory.  A secular history class I took at my college up in MI brought up how our nation is one of the greatest accomplishments in history.  My teacher said that the colonists' ideas about society and government revolutionized history.  He told us to think about it:

A constitution that has lasted over 200 years.
13 little colonies defeating the most powerful country of the world at that time.
Those same 13 colonies becoming a sovereign nation that now is the superpower of the planet.

And its' true.  The Founding Father's were extremely intelligent and very talented but there is no way they could've founded a free nation on that alone.  This is what my teacher missed.  Yes, there's no doubt they did an amazing thing but in their writings they were humble and honest.  They wanted this for His magnification.  They wanted to be able to raise their children and see their children raise their grandchildren in a free and peaceful land.  My teacher also never talked about the motivation behind these men.  Sure, alot of people want freedom of all kinds in the world today but does it necessarily happen.  No not usually, because as soon as the going gets tough people quit... guess they didn't want it as bad as they said they did!! I don't know if any of y'all have watched the HBO documentary series on John Adams ( great films though historically inaccurate because they left out any "Christian" aspects of the Father's lives) but the soldiers who fought the American Revolution didn't exactly live in comfort.  In fact, alot of colonists didn't live in comfort due to British blockades and shortages of supplies.  They didn't give up though.  What if they had??  Just a thought.....but I'm guessing we might not be here today or if we were it would be under different circumstances.  The courageousness of those people inspires me as it should everyone!! Thank goodness they obeyed God and sacrificed their lives, comfort, and stability so that we can have freedom even to this day.

Speaking of which, Memorial Day is tomorrow!! Like my pastor said this morning, too often people totally forget what this day means in lieu of going to the beach and starting their summer.  Please remember our fallen men and women who have given their lives so that America can remain free and safe.  I am so thankful for what they did!  Keep their families in your prayers. :)  Alright,  coming blogposts will show some more pictures!  Dad and Brady built a fire pit our backyard in the clearing in our woods :)  It looks awesome!! They also built Mom and I a raised garden box.  Mom planted lettuce and tomatoes and other stuff.  She's begging them to build 2 more! *laughing* Tomorrow, we are going to the Riverbanks Zoo here in Columbia.  I am really excited to see the penguins - one of my favorite animals.  We will be sure to take lots of pictures!

~Morgan

Starting From Scratch - Apples n' Oats

 

One of my kids favorite things to make and it is sooo yummy! :

They loved making this video for our blog! Look for more videos to come in the future!

Tomato Basil Soup

This is a great soup to warm you from the inside out! :D  Unfortunately, here in South Carolina, our soup days have been gone for a bit.  We have been in the 80's for quite some time now and soup is the last thing on your mind.  For today and yesterday though the weather has been cooperating (only being in the mid 60's and mid 70's) with my desire to have some tomato basil.  So today Parker and I enjoyed making our dinner.  I made the tomato basil and small salad.  Parker decided she would make us a gluten free biscuit to go along with the meal.  Tomato basil is a simple, but very tastey soup.  Here is the recipe:

Tomato Basil Soup
1 stick butter

1 medium size onion (diced small)

5 - 6 cloves garlic crushed (more or less to taste)

1/4 cup honey

5 - 28 oz cans of diced tomatos (preferably organic)

5-6 tsp dried basil
16 oz organic sour cream
pepper to taste

Saute onions and garlic in butter for a few minutes until translucent but not brown. Stir in honey.
Add cans of tomatos and heat through.  Next add the basil, pepper and sour cream.  We then use one of the hand blenders for the soup.  We used to do this job in a regular blender, but the hand blender gives it a chunkier consistency that we love!

For our biscuits we used:
1 1/2 cups brown rice flour (some white rice can be used)
2 cups arrowroot flour
1/2 cups sorghum flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsps guar gum (or xanthan gum)
1 stick of butter (shredded into flour)
1 1/4 cups of milk (can use almond milk)
1 1/4 cups of water
1 egg (can use an egg replacer)
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

Mix all dry ingredients, then grate butter into flours.  Add liquid (water, milk, eggs and vinegar) slowly beating well into a smooth batter.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden.   

Side salad completed the meal with a
Honey poppy seed dressing which calls for:

1 cup olive oil
3Tbsps dijon mustard
2 Tbsps Braggs Liquid Aminos, tamari, or organic soy sauce
2 Tbsps honey
2 Tbsps lemon juice
1 Tbsp thyme
1 1/2 Tbsps poppyseeds

Tomato Basil

Side salad with almonds, cucumbers, cherry tomatos, raw pepper colby cheese topped with a honey poppyseed dressing! :D

Enjoy! 

Gluten-free Corn Casserole

Recipe:

This recipe makes a 9x9 pan so we doubled it for our family of 6 and used a 9x13 pan.

1 can organic corn

1 can organic creamed corn (can make this by gently blending 1 can of organic corn if you can't find creamed corn) 

1/2 cup water

2 organic eggs

1 cup organic sourcream

1 tsp. aluminum-free baking powder

1/2 cup organic cornmeal (you can find this pretty inexpensively in you health food store's bulk section)

3/4 cup organic corn flour

1/2 tsp. xanthan gum

1/3 cup xylitol or organic sugar

1/2 cup grated cheese (any kind- we used raw milk cheddar!)

Mix together the first 5 ingredients.  Fold in the rest and pour into a well-greased (we used butter) 9x13 pan.  You can add some cornmeal to the greased pan before you pour in the batter to ensure no sticking.  Top with the cheese! Bake at 350 degrees for 35- 50 mins.  Ours took closer to 50 mins. to be fully done.  Something we have learned cooking gluten-free is that recipes sometimes take a bit longer to cook; but, it's WELL worth the wait!  Hope y'all enjoy :)

Before baking

Our side salad

After baking! So yummy!

An Introduction to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)

Hey everyone! Our next blogpost is gonna be a recipe for gluten-free corn casserole.  We will also include pics of how ours turned out!   Our family had a hankering for an old favorite; so we adapted it and the results were great! For those of you who don't know us that well yet, we try not to do a lot of corn unless it is fresh or frozen organic corn because around 90% of our conventional corn is a GMO.  If you are asking what are GMOs?  Well, we will be glad to let you know! Genetically Modified Organisms are when one species gene  is inserted into another species DNA  in a laboratory to create  new combinations of plants, animals and other organisms.  These organisms now can be equipped with genes that they could never acquire naturally. This supposedly gives them an advantage in growth, production and survivability. 

The problem lies in the fact that these GMOs have not been significantly tested to see the effects on people and our environment.  Testing that has been done has largely been performed by the bio-tech industry themselves (the ones who stand to profit from large scale acceptance by the agricultural community).  Common sense would say that this alone is a conflict of interest!   This is just one of many problems that became apparent to Jeffery Smith, executive director of the Institute for Responsible Technology, and a leader in education regarding the dangers of GMOs.   

A few of the studies he cites in his books Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette, show that: 

1.  Rats fed Monsanto Bt corn for 90 days showed significant 

changes in their blood cells, livers, and kidneys.

2.  After rats were fed GM FlavrSav  tomatoes for 28 days, 7 of  20  got bleeding stomachs and several died.

Some crops that are largely GMO are:

1. Soy

2. Corn

3. Cotton

4. Canola

A way to avoid GMO products is to eat  a diet as fresh as possible.  Avoid prepackaged, processed foods, as 80 % of processed foods contain GMOs.  Unless a company states that they do not contain GMOs you can rested assured they most likely do.   Eat organic and local foods,  check out the local farmer's market and see what great natural foods you can get!!  Also, become a label reader!  It is amazing just how many kids products are corn or contain corn syrup (corn syrup we will discuss in the future). When eating out or elsewhere, try to choose a dish that doesn't contain corn and ask about the dressings and whether they contain soybean and/or canola oil.  Some great websites to check out for more information are: 

www.responsibletechnology.org

www.nongmoproject.org

www.gmwatch.org 

Educate your friends and family on GMOs!  We believe people want a choice and that the more they learn about the problems with GMOs  and the corporate greed that is driving their mainstream acceptance, the more people we will have standing up and demanding that GMOs be labeled so that consumers have a choice.  

It always amazes us how God's Word has been so relevant across the ages and into the present day.  It just shows the awesomeness of Our God.   In Genesis 1:11-12 it says: 

“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”

When God says something is good - you know that it's just fine the way it is.  We believe that even though humankind fell and sin came into the world, God's food is still the healthiest and nothing man invents in a lab will change that!!  This verse makes it clear that seeds of one kind are supposed to reproduce after THEIR kind.  Genetic information is supposed to stay within the species it was designed for.  This is God's plan and humans are messing it up by trying to play God.  

Can you improve upon what God has already perfected in his creation?  

Responsibility

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" ~Hosea 4:6a
 There are so many aspects of life that this verse pertains to!  One area where we, God's people, lack understanding is in the taking care of the temple that He has given us.  There is alot of confusion out there about what a healthy lifestyle is.  We believe a healthy lifestyle means eating the foods God put on this earth and avoiding the ones man makes!  Health is a responsibility that many Americans have taken far too lightly.  Our country has an epidemic of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases - you name it; we have it!  Many of these diseases (if not all) have a link to our diets.   We are constantly amazed by the gift of medicine God gave us through food and how it heals many problems! In our upcoming posts we hope to provide information to make healthy eating fun, family-friendly, and tasty.  As we grow and learn, we will share our trials and triumphs with you! :)