In the first week of December you can expect:
 
An article from Emily on the importance of spending time with your brothers and some ideas on activities that you can both enjoy. 

Also, Lydia will be posting an article on napkin folding that will consist of; directions for folding, pictures, and resources for more ideas. You can use your newly acquired skills to add beauty to any meal. 

Naomi will be posting in second week of December about volunteering at a local food pantry/thrift store. She will share some of her experiences and encourage you to be a servant in your community. 
 
I (Bethany) will also be posting in the second week of December. My post will be about book choices. Even if you don’t completely agree with the conclusions I draw, I hope you will be challenged to re-think your choices.  

For the second half of December we will be posting on:

Praising YHWH  (Emily)

Hairstyles Part 2 (Lydia)

Pumpkin Challah Reveiw (Bethany)

Contentment (Naomi)

                                                                                   Keep living (everyday) set-apart,
                                                                                                   -Bethany-


Dates and Themes are subject to change without notice.  ;)

"Raising Maidens Of Virtue" by Stacy Mcdonald is a book I have just finished reading. The topics include; guarding the tongue,
idleness, sibling relationships, honoring parents, contentment, modesty, purity, cleanliness, and
feminine biblical beauty. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to do a review on it.

I read this book for school but I was planning on reading it anyway. I liked it so much that not only did I read it for school 
but in my free time as well!

Stacy Mcdonald  recommends her book for girls ages 11-12 because there are a few chapters
that younger girls might have a hard time understanding.

It's a book you may want to read if you would like to know how to be set apart from the world.

It has a  section at the end of each chapter titled "share your heart" which is a question and answer about the chaper. I wrote my answers in a notebook, you could also discuss the questions with your mom and/or sisters (Or if you are the mom; your daughter).  
Another reason I enjoyed this book is because Mrs. Macdonald had Scripture to back up what she was saying.

Some of the things I liked about the book is it encouraged me to be more productive, not to be like the world, and that it's good to be set-apart.

The book also talks about modesty, its not only outward appearance but a heart issue too. If someone was dressed in a skirt to their ankles and a very modest shirt but did not have the right heart, then they might seem modest at first but once you get to know them then you might wonder why you thought they were modest in the first place.


                                                  Blessings,       
                                                             Lydia
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We have been very blessed this year with the opportunity to harvest some squash that we did not plant. Fixing different dishes with spaghetti squash requires somewhat of a creative approach because there isn’t much variety when it comes to popular recipes for this particular squash. It seems like just because it has ‘spaghetti’ in the name people feel obligated to only use it as spaghetti. While I have nothing against Italian food it can get monotonous after a while… I’ve had fun experimenting with Asian spices.



 


Maybe you’re like us and you have spaghetti squash and want to find a tasty, healthy and inexpensive way to eat your squash without using it as a  spaghetti substitute. I’d like to share my favorite way to fix spaghetti squash. 

Ingredients:

3 small or 1 1/2 Large Spaghetti Squash
Coconut Oil or Butter
Eggs

Any of the following:
Bell Peppers, Sliced Thinly
Onions, Chopped
Garlic, Minced
Spinach
Mushrooms, Thinly Sliced
Leeks, Chopped
Carrots, Thinly Sliced or Shredded
Cabbage, Chopped

Soy Sauce
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Parsley
Salt
Pepper
Chili Garlic Sauce
Ginger
Hot Pepper Powder (dried, spicy peppers that are ground to fine powder)

Peanut Butter or Peanuts


Directions:

Wash the spaghetti squash

Cut squash in half

Scrape the seeds and gooeyness out of the center

Place squash halves flat-side down on a cookie sheet. Cook in oven at 350* for about 50 minutes

After Squash is done cooking but before it has cooled, place eggs in skillet with oil

Stir up the eggs

After squash has cooled enough to handle, scrape the flesh (I dislike that term for vegetables,eck) out of the squash shell.
(or, if you have really tough hands, you don't have to wait at all!)

After eggs have cooked,
Add your choice of vegetables... I used what we had on hand so cabbage and leeks

Place vegetables in skillet with eggs

Here, you can see, the vegetables have cooked down a little, this is when I added the Soy Sauce

You can add the squash now as well as spices

I cooked the mushroms on the side because some people dislike them. If you don't like mushrooms I would encourage you to try slicing them very thinly and cooking them alone until they are slightly crispy. When  you chop mushrooms thickly and cook them with other food they tend to be more like big, chewy slugs than a small, meatlike, flavor enhancer. You could even try putting them in the food procesor until they are pastey :)

Here is a picture of my favorite asian condiment.. I only used about a Tablespoon or so for the entire dish.

The finished product!

Our whole family enjoys this dish. Our whole family does not enjoy peanut butter in our squash.
If you like peanut butter, like I do, then add it at the table :)

I realize that this recipe does require somewhat of a knowlege of cooking. This is recipe is not for beginners!
There are not hard and fast rules for this recipe... it's more of an idea. Take it and run with it. Cooking is an adventure.

Have fun!
                                                                                                  
                                                                                            Bethany
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Have you ever looked at the warning on the back of a tube of toothpaste?
Here is a list of ingredients from a popular brand of store bought toothpaste
Active Ingredients: Sodium Fluoride
Inactive  Ingredients: Hydrated Silica , Sorbitol , Glycerin , 
Tetrapotassium Pyrophosphate , PEG-6 , Disodium Pyrophosphate , Tetrasodium 
Pyrophosphate , Flavor , Sodium Lauryl Sulfate , Alcohol 1.14% , Xanthan Gum , 
Sodium Saccaharin , Carbomer 956 , Polysorbate 80 , Sodium Benzoate , 
Cetylpyridinium Chloride , Benzoic Acid , Domiphen Bromide .0002 wt% , Titanium 
Dioxide , Blue 1 , Yellow 5.

Yesterday, I tried a new toothpaste recipe from the Mountain Rose Herbs blog.
Mountain Rose Herbs recipe calls for kaolin clay, baking soda, salt, sage, and peppermint oil.

First, put 1/4 cup of kaolin clay, 1/4 cup salt (we used Redmond Real salt), and a 1/4 cup baking soda in a bowl.




Stir is up and add 1 TBS of ground dried sage.

Add forty drops of peppermint essential oil. Stir it up and make sure you get all the clumps. You can be finished here and have tooth powder, just shake a little bit of powder into your palm and roll your toothbrush in it, or you can go on the the next step.

To make toothpaste, add 4 TBS food grade vegetable glycerin.

Clayton was the first one to try this toothpaste, and he said it tasted good and worked well. I think this recipe will work nicely for our family, though I am sure we will still continue trying something new occasionally. Maybe next time I will try some cinnamon and clove instead of sage and peppermint oil.

It may not look very pretty :) but we are happy to use it knowing what all the ingredients are and where we got them.







                        

                                                                Naomi
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