Keto Kathy - Bulletproof Cubes

If you've been using Keto guidelines, and are struggling to make good choices in the morning, 

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If you're a sucker for shortcuts to make your life easier,

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If you've noticed that Bulletproof coffee has a staying power better than any sugary breakfast,

................... This video is for YOU!

So without further ado,....... I present Bulletproof Cubes

You'll also notice an affiliate link to this product: The best $30 immersion blender on the market!

Enjoy!

NaNoWriMo 2017

Have any of you ever tried to write a book? Me too...

Have any of you ever gotten past the first thousand words? Trickier, huh?!

Have any of you ever tried to write a book in a single month? WHAT?!

That's the process behind NaNoWriMo, also known as National Novel Writing Month, which happens every November. I joined them this year, and was able to write more than 10,000 words in the few days that I participated. I found it difficult to write every single day, but it was a fun challenge to aspire to. I at least have a few chapters done, and that's more than I had finished on November 1.

What are you writing?

Don't pay the ransom...

I know it's been tooooo long since I posted, but I hope you'll be as excited as I am that I'm finally getting a start on one of the many books God has put in my heart. 

Guidelines for Inclusion:
1) Christian family in which 

2) mom died and

3) dad remarried

4) while his children were still in the home 

For many years now, the Lord and others have encouraged me to write a book about step-parenting. While I don’t feel qualified, He has finally brought me to a place in which I pray that I have something to offer other women who are considering stepping into this amazing privilege of being a step-parent. Obviously, most of my thoughts are from a step-mom’s perspective, but I would like to get both sides of the story, to the extent that is possible.

If you know someone who matches these characteristics, please let me know or put them in contact with me. I'd like to include as many perspectives as possible. I have created surveys for each member of the family (teens and older) and woud like to start getting some feedback, so I can improve my techniques and see what God has for me to share with other future step-moms.

In Him!
Rachel

Making Memories... and Snow Ice Cream

In Kansas City this week, we received our first measurable snow-fall in more than two years. It was awesome!!! I'm a snow lover, though, and I like it even better when there's a layer of ice under it, so we're stuck at home with a good book.

Since we had gone so long without a good snow, my girls and I immediately started thinking of all the fun things we could do with this type of weather. Unfortunately, the temps hovered around zero for the first couple of days after the storm. While the kids were out in it a lot, I was staying snug and warm in my chair! :-)

The first thing my girls do any time there is snow in the forecast, is to put a bowl out on the picnic table on our deck. They know that if they can collect enough snow, we'll make Snow Ice Cream! Yeah!!!

I thought I'd share the recipe and process with you, so you could enjoy this sweet treat with us when you're next blessed with a snow-pocalypse! :-)

Ingredients - for 1 gallon of (wet) snow, you'll need:
    1 cup white sugar
    2 cups milk
    vanilla, to taste (up to 1 Tbsp)

Before dumping in the whole amount of milk and sugar, start with about half and mix it in super well. I found that this snow did not mix the same way previous snow falls have mixed. The colder the temps, the drier your snow will be, and it will take A LOT more snow (about double) to make the same ingredients work. If your snow falls when the temps are right around 30 degrees Fahrenheit, then you can use the proportions listed above.

I found that my Snow Cream was too strong (too sweet, and too slushy), so we went outside and scooped more snow off the tops of the tables and chairs (do this carefully... and avoid the yellow snow!) :-) Eventually, the Snow Cream had the texture of crumbs, which is a much better texture. That way, when you serve it, it collapses into scoops and serves up beautifully!

Enjoy the recipe, but most of all, enjoy making memories with your kids while you relish the beauty of God's creation.

Book Review - Who is to Blame?

In “Who is to Blame,” Jane Marlow re-examines a genre made popular more than a century earlier by Alexander Herzen. In this incarnation of the story, the author uses an individual serf and the other peasants whose lives intersect with hers to represent the poverty of nineteenth-century Russia. The opposite side, represented by Count Maximov’s family, clearly portrays not only the disparity of wealth, but also the inability of the gentry to function within their society after the loss of their labor force.

Marlow is careful to present facts in a very sterile way. When showing loss of dreams, illness in a destitute home, or choices that are outside of the control of the serfs, her language is factual and avoids editorializing. In the same way, she presents the Count’s family as making their own decisions, and does not really examine their motives. When the Count mandates marriage among the serfs, and the peasant protagonist is forced into a difficult union, Marlow states the facts baldly, even in portraying later abuse. I appreciate the lack of editorializing, allowing me to draw my own conclusions and arouse my own emotions.

This book lost a star in my mind simply because of the gratuitous use of crude ideas. Several times, the Count’s son is shown to consider his abilities as a man in vulgar terms. As a reader, I am not interested in the effects of his alcohol abuse on his virility. For the most part, the other uses of offensive language are placed in such a way as to reveal more about the characters’ lives, and did not seem unreasonable.

Marlow places her characters at a point in history that made the story captivating to me personally. She allowed her protagonists to discover intersecting points of history, such as the U.S. Civil War, that helped to place it in context. The book covers more than 25 years of her characters’ lives, which seemed too broad in some places. However, the time frame became more appropriate as she used the intervening time to develop the boorish behavior of the Count’s progeny alongside the difficult life of the peasant family.

All in all, I’m glad I read this book, and I found enough to appreciate in it that I will probably seek out other books in this genre. I received this book as an ARC through Netgalley, and this review is posted at https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit/31948086.

A Reason of the Hope that is in You

I Peter 3:15 tells us to “…sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” (emphasis mine)

One week ago today, just over half of the eligible voters made a decision that made most Americans either angry or ambivalent.  The 55% voter turnout in the 2016 presidential election is less than we’ve seen in twenty years (since Bill Clinton’s reelection against Dole). This tells me that many, like me, felt there could have been better options given. Unlike me, 45% of those dissatisfied with the process stayed home, wasting their voice and silencing their right to complain over the next four years.

Before you tell me there WERE better options given, let me remind you that we live in a two-party system, for better or for worse. Until a third-party candidate can overcome trending topics like who is having a gender identity crisis or who died on the most recent zombie show, America is not ready for, and really doesn’t deserve, a third party president. In order to elect a third party, we would need to work together with the same number of large, easily defined groups with which a majority of voters identify, in much the same way the other two major parties have done. If a third party candidate can get the Catholic church or the national labor unions to endorse him, he has a fighting chance. But 3% of the Kansas vote only takes those votes from the more likely candidates. It doesn’t necessarily even “send a message” to the establishment, unfortunately. I imagine few hate this fact as much as I do, but it’s true!

  

So, after holding our noses and voting, regardless of which candidate we chose to support, what’s a Christian to do when confronted with the real fear and despair facing our Democratic friends and family? Here are some of the quotes I’ve seen from women I love, and have a personal goal of ministering to:

I'm trying to stay positive. But all I can think is that more than half of Americans decided today that my precious, beautiful daughters are only valuable for the sexual gratification they provide to men. That's what this feels like.

The scariest reality. I don't want to tell my kids when they wake up. It's all so disgusting. Terrifying. Desperation, sinking into somewhere dark and cold.

One thing that is clear, is that we MUST NOT ignore them! Whether or not we understand these feelings, the truth is that many DO feel this way. In order to 'answer with meekness,' we must acknowledge the feelings they share with us. No, you and I did not publicly plunge into depression or ask for safe space after the elections of '92, '96, '08, or '12. But does that matter in 2016? Not really. Not to those who believe they are seeing the death of all that is important to them.

One of the basic ways President-Elect Trump won this election was by drawing a clear line between himself and the Democrat ideal. Where the Democrats welcome illegal immigrants, Trump would build a physical wall and deport many who are already here illegally. Where the Democrats push the LGBTQ agenda forward, Trump advocates his own description of family values (one which many, even in our camp, find deplorable). Even the poor, who have enjoyed unprecedented provision under the recent administration, see an opposite in Trump's plans to clean up the welfare system. And unfortunately, where the Democratic party has extended arms of perceived love and acceptance to many disabled and otherwise sidelined individuals, Trump repeatedly mocked and abused them. If you voted for Trump, you have a responsibility to answer those who fear for the disabled, the illegal immigrant, the poor, the homosexual, and for their own vulnerable daughters. 

Telling them everything will be OK is not enough.

So how can I possibly go on with life, knowing Trump will be our president in just 72 days?

First, let me be clear:

The election of Donald Trump as 

our 45th president is NOT the reason 

for the hope that is in me! 

If anything, this election reminds me once again that my God is in the heavens (Psalm 115:3) and has the power to put up kings and to tear down kingdoms (Daniel 2:21). If He is allowing America to continue to exist in the present moral climate, it is because He has a reason that will ultimately fulfill His plan for the universe. 

But here’s the major difference between myself and those expressing fear and even despair: my hope is not in ANY part of this world! 

Not in its institutions. 

Not in its leaders. 

Not in its churches. 

And certainly not in Washington! 

 My hope is in the Lord, who made heaven and earth (Psalm 121:2). Since He made them, He can certainly maintain them. A more accurate definition of the KJV “fear” is reverence. So a big part of my answer to the fear of my loved ones is my reverence for the true King of Kings. Because He is my King, I can’t even commiserate with the fear they are experiencing. I simply can’t feel a fear that deeply, because the fears I face come up against the Solid Rock of my knowledge that He is the blessed controller of ALL things (I Timothy 6:15). I think this is a big reason that Christians seem indifferent when interacting with the fearful in our community. When they accuse that we don’t get it, they’re right. But it is our responsibility to communicate the hope, without minimizing them as people.

In conclusion, we must start by ensuring that the position God holds in our lives really is that of Lord and King. If we see Him as the highest power in ourselves, we can accept Him as the highest power in the world around us. But, we must also face the fears of those around us with both meekness (acknowledging their pain, and that Trump and Clinton neither one are the answer) and fear, or reverence (sharing the name and character of our Lord as an answer to their fears). 

I think this quote, from another friend, sums up what our friends need from us. [My notes are in red.] While the hands and feet of our responses may differ from hers, she asks only what is our biblical responsibility. Pray about it. It's what Christ would do for "the least of these" (Matthew 25:40).

I need all of you who voted for this administration to be prepared to fight for what you say you believe. You say that you want a greater America. Well, any basic civics lesson will tell you that America is only as great as the way it treats its most vulnerable citizens. Get ready. You've exercised your right. Now exercise your duty.

When the disabled are mocked, you must be the first to rise in protest and cry foul.

When immigrants are scorned, you must be the first to defend their humanity. [Am I maintaining their dignity, even as I demand they enter legally?]

When women are raped, you must be the first to step forward to protect them. [Remember, protecting a woman would be the opposite of offering her a major operation, such as an abortion.]

When the poor are denied access to health care, you must show up and care for them yourselves. [Is my own church doing enough to care for those who fall through the cracks in the secular system, without judging them for how they got there?]

When the LGBT kids are bullied, you must show up to wrap your arms around them and love them back to life. [We MUST do this, but do it without approving their lifestyle or their demands for special/equal rights.]

If you voted for this administration, I'm talking to YOU. This is your sworn duty now. Take it seriously. Show us you weren't just lying when you said you want us to be a great country.

Show us you have the ability to love as ferociously as you have shown you can scream insults and threaten to imprison people. I have to believe you have the capacity to do both. Prove it.

That's what I need.

Book Review: The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

One rainy afternoon, while riding a city bus, Gretchen Rubin asked herself, “What do I want from life, anyway?” She answered, “I want to be happy”—yet she spent no time thinking about her happiness. In a flash, she decided to dedicate a year to a happiness project. The result? One of the most thoughtful and engaging works on happiness to have emerged from the recent explosion of interest in the subject.

One of the things that most resonates with me from this study is the similarity between the author and myself of expecting “gold stars” for accomplishments. Rubin showed repeatedly throughout her year-long experiment how this predisposition to expect praise and gratitude from those she interacted with negatively impacted her happiness. I find the same to be true in my own life. If I expect someone to notice what I’ve done (whether for him or for life in general), it is because I am keeping score in a way. If I take out the trash and expect someone to notice, it is often because I subconsciously view it as “not my job” and by definition, as his or her job.

The way Rubin accomplished many of her more onerous micro-goals within the larger project was to “Act the way you want to feel.” When she didn’t feel like singing in the morning, she made up a silly song about not feeling like it. I've given this counsel to my older kids (step-kids) for many years, and am now building it into the lives of my younger children, as well. Far from creating little hypocrites, a practice like this teaches ourselves and our children the importance of choosing their behavior, and thereby choosing their attitude. If we allow our emotions to dictate our actions, we never grow beyond the childish level of tantrums (think of an over-tired or hungry toddler). But as adults, we often must force our actions to dictate our emotions (getting up to help a sick loved one in the middle of the night or when we ourselves are ill). What better time to instill this life skill than in childhood?

Another concept from the book is one I've been taught by my own wise parents. "Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good." My dad, our yearbook coach in high school, used to say, "It will never be perfect, but it WILL be the deadline." In other words, don't let the pursuit of perfection either derail you from finishing a job, or from beginning it at all. If you can’t change or perfect everything all at once, work to change SOMETHING right away, and improve more later.

Rubin builds a fabulous project to enhance her happiness, with the goal of improving her relationships with others, during an intensive one-year undertaking. She uses thorough research, micro-accountability, and specific goals to measure her progress, and by doing so, challenged me to think more deeply about my own choices regarding happiness. Although not a Christian book, the Happiness Project correlates well with Scriptural themes of choosing joy regardless of our circumstances, and deciding to be content in whatever state we find ourselves. She uses the concept of considering one another in her First Splendid Truth: One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make others happy. That one will preach!

There's much more to love in The Happiness Project. Take the time to read it with a notepad beside you, so you can benefit from your own intensive study of happiness.