Monday, August 31, 2009

Ah Monday...

Mondays, Mondays. I really, officially hate Mondays. Except maybe holiday Mondays! ;) Poor Nathaniel is cutting a molar right now and he is pretty miserable with it. I also desperately needed and wanted a nap today but every time I was almost asleep a fly would buzz in my ear! OR then there was the few times that I was almost asleep and a mouse started chewing in the wall! I guess I was just not meant to go to sleep this afternoon! I had a good time snuggling up with "Meester" anyway! But Monday is almost over! Tuesdays are usually a nice day! So I will just look forward to that! :) For tomorrow, we are planning on going to a local farm that sells wonderful produce. We will get our produce for the week as well as some young chickens.

I have been reading The Makers Diet by Jordan Rubin (yes I put So Much More aside for a while since I own it and TMD is the library's). I am finding it an EXCELLENT read. It is VERY much the diet that we already follow, the biggest difference being that TMD followers do not eat pork (we do) and certain types of fish. It is biblically based (hence the name) but what I especially like about it is (so far) I have not gotten the feeling that he thinks that you can not have a healthy life or that you are a bad (or sinful) person if you do not follow this diet. I will review it more when I finish it! :)

Saturday, August 29, 2009

A Hood and a Saque


I've decided what materials that I'm going to use for Nathaniel's saque and my hood! For my hood, I'm using remnant pieces of wool left over from when I made "the guys" shell jackets! Its a beautiful blue/gray wool. I'm lining it with some burgundy silk twill I got from Fashion Fabrics Club online. I'm also sewing it 100% by hand! It's turning out lovely so far! :) Nathaniel's saque will be done out of my old cape. I'll use the wool and the polished cotton that it was lined with for the outer and lining for his coat. It should be really cute. I did the muslin (like I said in the previous post) and decided to lengthen it, since he's slim and tall and doesn't seem to be putting on any width but lots of height. I'd like for him to be able to wear it next spring since we only have ONE more event this year!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

WARNING!!!!

Warning -- to those of you who read this blog (if there ARE any?)-- I'm reading So Much More by Anna Sofia and Elizabeth Botkin, again. Its bound to make me rant soon! :D

I'm Back!


I took a week off because I was going to the local county fair almost every day and still had to keep house, too! So this is one thing that I could neglect and not feel too bad about ;)

Fair week was a lot of fun, as usual! I spent most of my time at the maple syrup tent where a family from our church sells maple products! Its a great place to crash and sit in front of some fans and talk to some great people! I know MANY people find that tent a huge blessing!


Nathaniel really enjoyed seeing the animals, of course! We stood by the pigs for probably 15-20 minutes or so while I chatted with a friend and he picked up the pig sound! :P An accurate one, I might add ;)


Thursday I horse showed there. I hadn't shown in about 5 years! I don't specifically remember the date of my last show. I'm probably going to be bringing all my old ribbons here (that are still in my old room) because Tim is very proud of them and keeps asking me when I'm going to hang the ribbons I acquired on Thursday up! So this is about how my day went:

  • 3:30AM - Alarm goes off and I get up.
  • 4:00AM - I leave for the barn
  • 4:45ishAM - Arrive at barn. Bring Walker (the horse) in and feed him. Hang around for a while talking with people who are there getting their horses ready.
  • 5:45AM - Trailers pull out of barn driveway.
  • 6:15ishAM - Arrive at the fairgrounds. Get horses settled into stalls. Start getting tacked up for schooling.
  • 7:00ishAM - School.
  • 7:40ishAM - Back to stall for a short rest and so I can get ready (hair, shirt, coat, number, etc).
  • 8:10ishAM - Get back on and have my first two over fences classes. Place 2nd and 3rd out of four. Not bad! :)
  • Go back to the stall for another rest.
  • Tim, Nathaniel and Stasia get there.
  • Get back on and finish my classes. I did extremely well. Especially, considering that I only rode once in the three weeks leading up to the show! :P I placed in 8 out of 9 classes--and some of those classes had 24 people in them! Not too shabby! God was very good to bless me with good rides and the ribbons to show it! Walker ended up winning the flat portion of the Adult Hunter division and with my 2nd and 3rd places in the over fences classes qualified us for the Reserve Champion ribbon and prize (which is basically second place Champion :P). I even placed third in the county rider equitation class! I won that class probably 5 or 6 years ago.
Yesterday, I worked on a muslin for a sack coat for Nathaniel. Our next event is in October and I'm suspecting that it might be kind of chilly, so I want him to have something warm to wear. I think I'm going to take my old cape (that's not really that authentic) and use that for the wool fabric for it. I already took it apart from the lining, so it's going to be turned into that or maybe a hood for myself. I can't decide. It will depend on how my items that I'm going to sell on eBay do. I'm selling off a bunch of my old riding breeches, coat, and show shirt. And a few other things. I plan on taking some of it and buying a helmet bag for my new helmet and a boot bag (to protect them) as well as some wool and maybe some silk for a ball gown? We'll just have to see how much money I get from it all and what has good prices at the time, etc! Well, that's pretty much all that's been going on with me recently!

Saturday, August 15, 2009

The Second Amendment

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

On Wednesday, I posted a link on Facebook to a video on MSNBC with Chris Matthews interviewing William Kostric, the guy who showed up at a NH town hall carrying a firearm openly (legal in NH). http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp=32378192&#32378192. One of my dear friends, a woman I consider to be "another mother", posted this in reply:

“You know what I think is a worser infringement of my rights than not letting me carry a gun - is not letting me take a dog on public transportation. Europe's got it all over the U.S. in that respect.

Which brings me to another point - namely that "rights" cannot be granted by a government or a constitution - they can only be denied or protected. They are rights because they inhere by nature (i.e. God's creation) in the human person. Granted the U.S. Constitution seems to confer the right to carry deadly weapons - but is this actually a right inherent in the condition of being human - such as the right to life, property, free association, etc.? I'm not saying it isn't. I'm just saying it's not obvious to me that it is.

The Constitution specifies the right to "keep and bear arms" - which is not a universally applicable term. What is the real, human, by nature, right described in the relevant article of the Constitution? - the right to personal defense seems the most likely candidate - if so, what are the limits to my ability to defend myself - may I own missile launchers? May I have tigers roaming my property? May I surround my house with a deadly-voltage electric fence? May I carry a poison-dart blow gun? A hand grenade?

The more obvious rights - free speech, life, etc. - describe the condition of unfallen creation. The right to personal defense applies only in a fallen world. Therefore it is not a universal right, but a contingent one, which may be circumscribed according to circumstances - e.g. if the only threat to a citizen were unarmed, mentally challenged elves, then it would seem inappropriate to allow the right to self-protection to include the right to bear deadly weapons. On the other hand, if the countryside were beset by bands of marauding Klingons, then maybe the right to self-defense would include the right to own missile launchers. It all depends. The right to self-defense is an absolute - the means of self-defense is not."
My reply was:

I think most people would agree that Europe has a far superior transportation system. ;)

I absolutely agree that rights cannot be “granted” by the government and that the only two options for the government are to deny such rights or protect them (as you said). Guns CAN be deadly weapons, yes. So can a steak knife, a hammer, or an axe. There doesn’t seem to be any laws prohibiting their use. Guns don’t kill people, PEOPLE kill people. I know that there is probably a better chance of getting shot than stabbed in some areas, however if YOU, the law-abiding citizen, have approximately the equal weapon to an attacker you have a better chance of coming out of that situation alive.

I believe that the right to personal defense is the main thing the authors of the constitution had in mind when they wrote that. Not only to defend yourself in a dark ally at night, but maybe even from a corrupt government. Why DOES Obama want a national civilian security force (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt2yGzHfy7s)?? The government--whether its this government or another--has to think twice or thrice before they go plowing over people when they’re an armed people. Why do you think Hitler, Stalin, etc disarmed the citizens before they took over? Because they COULDN’T take over with an armed citizenry! As you’re handing over your firearm to the government, you’re also handing the REST of your rights over with it. As Thomas Jefferson said, “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”

I don’t think I agree with your “obvious rights” theory. It doesn’t say that you have the right to free speech ONLY if you’re saying nice things. This world has been fallen from almost the beginning. The need for self-defense has been in effect since Cain took up that rock (or stick, or whatever the heck he used ;). The human right to defend itself IS a right and all others depend on it. If you can’t defend yourself then the criminals know it and you’re dead--making your other earthly “rights” meaningless.

I don’t think that people should be able to have missile launchers or nuclear warheads, but, that‘s because there aren‘t that many people running around with them. However, if there were Klingons running around with missile launchers, I probably would want a missile launcher to defend myself from them.

The fact is, there ARE mentally challenged, crazy PEOPLE, with guns, running around all over this world. Another fact is that the more guns and the less restrictive the laws are in an area, the less crime rate you have. Its been proven time and time again. Do you really think that someone who’s willing to murder or rape someone cares whether the firearm that they use is legal?

Yes, guns can be a VERY dangerous weapon, but when used properly, can be a very fun, useful tool--not only for defending yourself but also for feeding yourself and recreation! What should be at stake here is morals, not guns. I pray to God that I never have to shoot a human being, psycho or not, but if my life or that of my child(ren) is in danger, than God give me the strength to protect us as he sees fit.
"Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. This is not to say that firearms should not be very carefully used and that definite rules of precaution should not be taught and enforced. But the right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America but which historically has proven to be always possible."
- Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, MN, campaigning
for the 1960 Democratic Presidential Nomination
For more really good quotes--the large majority being from our founding fathers and most of those speaking of a tyrannical government--go to http://www.pro-2nd.com/Quotes.htm

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Being Adventurous in the Kitchen

Yesterday afternoon I decided to be a little more imaginative in my kitchen. We are at the end of our 2 weeks (we grocery shop every other week) and our "exciting" meat is mostly gone. Ground beef is mostly what we have and cheeseburgers are getting old. A few weeks ago, I discovered a recipe for a creamy-potato-ham-broccoli creation on www.allrecipes.com. It was super yummy, BUT it called for a jar of alfredo sauce. The problem with that is A) its processed and B) it contained modified corn starch (as well as some other pretties). Since Nathaniel can't have grains (gives him diaper rash) that makes it a "no-no". I could make my own, but the meal is already a fair amount of work with cubing ham, slicing potatoes, etc. So last night, I decided to let my imagination go and not look for yet another recipe. I'm a "by-the-directions" kinda girl, so a lot of times, I'm not very adventurous or creative. I'm working on it, though ;) I came up with a very similar recipe; a ground beef, broccoli, potato, cheese, garlic-white sauce recipe. Other than it needing a little bit of salt on the plate, it was fantastic! A one dish meal and a tasty one at that! Another keeper to add to my list of recipes! So lets all encourage eachother to be creative in the kitchen!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Blogging, Reenacting and Baking

I'm still slowly getting into the swing of blogging, for one thing, I'm not sure anyone actually is reading this at all :P I keep thinking of all these great deep (or more deep than this post will be ;) blog topics and then I forget them. In fact, I can't think of ONE that I've thought of, at this moment! :P So I'm going to start writing them DOWN!

This past weekend we did a reenactment. We did day trips since we live close-ish. It was a great event, even though the numbers were a little low this year. I think the economy is really affecting this hobby. But anyway, the weather was SUPER nice on Saturday. It was very sunny so I did get a little burnt, but I ate a LOT of butter when we got back in and on my mashed potatoes and I hardly had any problems with it on Sunday. Today I've had a bit of pain on my neck where my hair rubs, but I changed my hair to a ponytail--rather than the loose bun at the base of my neck--and it hasn't bothered me :) I really need to stop being lazy about sewing and just get my machine out and FINISH my corded sunbonnet that I started! Its not finished because right after I started it, I got pregnant and I was SOOOOO tired! Then I ended up miscarrying and I just haven't picked it up since. I didn't take any pictures on Saturday as I was sitting around with Mel and Ruthie from the 4th Virginia, having a marvelous time. Nathaniel was so super good both days!

Sunday was strange weather, it was cold but rather sticky-sweaty. Not terribly pleasant, but the temperature wasn't that bad at all. Here are some pictures of Sunday's battle:

Captain Beers of the 26th Texas dismounted Cavalry and Captain Keator of the 4th Virginia Infantry


The 4th Virginia
The 26th TX...sorta. Tim and Dennis are the only official members that were there. The rest were "stragglers"

Confederate Cannons


I spent my day today re-organizing the corner in Nathaniel's room where I store all his old clothes, upcoming clothes, and off season clothes of mine. I vacuumed our bedroom as it needed all the cob/spider webs taken down! It was getting REALLY bad in there! Of course the Adirondack siding that we have on our walls is a spider's playground!


I also made some peanut butter cookies tonight. They are of course sugar-free as well as wheat free. I do most of my baking with brown rice flour. I like them a lot. Tim likes them more :P If you're not used to sugar-free cooking, you'd find it more like a sweet peanut butter biscuit. If you are used to things sweetened with apple juice/sauce, etc, I think you'd find this recipe quite tasty! Someday I'll post it! ;)