Here is my monthly reminder to you guys, my buddies.  Please remember to do monthly self exam.  The earlier detection, the more likely a positive outcome.

For more information on breast cancer, please visit National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, The American Cancer Society.

Please continue to pray for healing and for knowledge to fight this battle.

Hallee

I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your feed reader or subscribed via email.
You can also become a fan on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. I would love to see more of you!

If you do, what do you use (and what is your brand)?  Do you like it?

What does it do?  Does it keep a calendar, task list, grocery list?  Does it compare prices in stores for pantry items and keep a running inventory?

How much did it cost?

Would you recommend it?

Hallee

I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your feed reader or subscribed via email.
You can also become a fan on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. I would love to see more of you!

Our 9th Anniversary

A Sunday guest post by my brilliant husband, Gregg.

Every Sunday, my clever husband offers me a “day of rest” by taking over the homemaker duties here. His primary topic, the Biblical Truth of Creation vs. Darwinism, is a subject that has broad reaching scientific, social, and metaphysical implications and is gaining more and more attention in our modern culture. For believers and non-believers alike, the primary purpose is to present scientific, historical, logical, and/or sociological data in an empirical and defensible fashion, as much as possible written in layman’s terms, and in a format suitable for supplementing any homeschool curriculum whether you choose to believe the Biblical account — or secular guesses — about the origins of human life on earth.

Biochemical Pathways

How does this level of complexity in living things evolve all at once?

Question number 5 in the creation.com Question Evolution campaign is, “How did new biochemical pathways, which involve multiple enzymes working together in sequence, originate?”

It isn’t an argument from ignorance.  In fact, it should be a very easy question for Darwinists to answer if evolutionary biology is based on actual science. How did new biochemical pathways, which involve multiple enzymes working together in sequence, originate?

According to the folks at creation.com, the famous communist British Darwinist J.B.S. Haldane claimed all the way back in 1949 that evolution could never produce ‘various mechanisms, such as the wheel and magnet, which would be useless till fairly perfect.’ (Dewar, D., Davies, L.M. and Haldane, J.B.S., 1949. Is Evolution a Myth? A Debate between D. Dewar and L.M. Davies vs. J.B.S. Haldane, Watts & Co. Ltd / Paternoster Press, London, p. 90.)

Therefore molecular machines in organisms — such as the ATP synthase enzyme or the bacterial flagellum — would prove Darwinian evolution false according to Heldane. Molecular motors such as these do indeed fulfilled one of Haldane’s criteria. Did you know that turtles and monarch butterflies use magnetic sensors for navigation? They are examples that fulfill Haldane’s other criterion. Do you suppose he would have had a change of heart if he had been alive to understand these discoveries. Many Darwinists rule out any kind of intelligent design a priori, so the evidence, overwhelming as it is, would probably have no effect on that closed mind.

The truth is that every pathway and nano-machine relies upon multiple protein/enzyme components in order to work. How did lucky accidents create even one of the components, let alone 10 or 20 or 30+ all at the same time, and in highly specific and specifically complex necessary programmed sequence like a team of contractors following plans and a blue print? Darwinist evolutionary biochemist Franklin Harold wrote, “we must concede that there are presently no detailed Darwinian accounts of the evolution of any biochemical or cellular system, only a variety of wishful speculations.”

Wishful speculations?  Seriously? Are wishful speculations considered a meaningful substitute for science in this century?

See, science is a systematized methodology of investigation that relies on observation, testing, experimentation, and evidence.  It almost never relies on wishful speculations.  Wishful speculations fall more in the realm of philosophy.  Or, you know, religion.

Certain biochemical pathways, such as the clotting of blood or the growth of a human fetus, are irreducibly complex, to borrow a phrase from intelligent design theorists. It is quite plain that biochemical pathways must have come into being all at once as a complete system. In other words, they are designed systems. It is quite obvious that systems this perfectly engineered and specifically complex could not have developed via chance random procesess one little part at a time as would be absolutely necessary with the Darwinian model of evolution.

Even staunch Darwinists admit there is no doubt that certain aspects of living organisms are extremely complex, and the individual parts fit together in a seamless whole that leaves absolutely no vestigial waste in its wake as randomness and chance would leave behind. However, Darwinists countered every example of an irreducibly complex system advanced in recent years, providing far fetched and perfectly implausible explanations of how designed systems could have developed gradually through the mysterious workings of magical evolution. In other words — wishful speculations.

Of course they do not — and cannot — know whether these explanations based on wishful speculations are actually true – after all, if wishes were nickels we’d all be rich. That, and biochemical changes that allegedly “evolved” hundreds of millions of years ago leave no meaningful evidence behind — but Darwinists are able to close their minds once more, secure in their philosophy with the certain knowledge that a “palatable” naturalistic explanation exists and such removes all credibility, in their closed minds, from the obvious fact that life was designed.

For more information about biochemical pathways, visit creation.com/motor.

The Truth

The truth is that Darwinists like to tar believers in the Biblical account of creation as religious fanatics.  The truth is they are much more fanatical in their beliefs since they believe in irrational nonsense that is not supported by either logic or actual science.

The truth is the Biblical account of creation is both more plausible and more scientifically sound.

I commit to you that I will publish every single comment that meets this blog’s commenting criteria. You may want to review that criteria before adding your opinion here.

God Bless you and yours.

Gregg

Resources:
Additional Posts dealing with Creation and Darwinism

BUT –

You hurt your back somehow, and while you’re functioning, it’s not 100%.  And, you’re intentionally taking it easy so that your back will heal instead of getting worse.  Which means that you’re doing laundry but not folding it, cooking, but waiting for your husband and teenager to help you clean the kitchen, and the Legos on the floor are immaterial to you at the moment.

It’s also Wednesday, the day of horseback riding lessons right after school, crockpot dinners served to children very quickly between lessons and the time to leave for church, and the day your husband typically has to meet you at church minutes before it begins because he is almost always invariably late leaving the office on Wednesday.  Which means he also hasn’t been home to see just how bad it can be when I really don’t do much more than supervise children and destroy the kitchen.  (And I was already mildly stressed about him coming home and seeing how bad it can be when I don’t do much more than supervise the children and destroy the kitchen.)

What do you do?

You ask your husband to stall five minutes while you rush home, three children in tow.  Assessing the environment and determining what you have time to do and what you don’t have time to do, you shovel things into your room and shut the door, throw laundry baskets down the basement stairs and shut the door, whisk dishes off of the coffee table, sweep the dirt clods off of the couch that somehow made it from boy feet to the furniture, and set your teenager to the dining room to make sure that room, at least, has order.

When your five minute handicap is up, you smile and laugh away the boy mess as your guest arrives.  You serve him homemade soup, fresh baked bread, and a crisp salad in the one clean room in the house.

And, you thank God for the opportunity to welcome a fellow brother into your home and break bread with him.  To fellowship and enjoy meeting a new friend.  For the opportunity to pray for him and have him pray for you.

In the end, hospitality is not about a perfect environment.  It’s about making someone feel welcomed in your home, giving a traveling stranger a warm haven of rest, about letting the love of Christ show through your service in preparing and serving a meal.

Hallee

I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your feed reader or subscribed via email.
You can also become a fan on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. I would love to see more of you!

Her plans at this moment are to become an attorney.  She spent months thinking about it and began her ninth grade year with that goal in mind.  Law school means she needs to get into a good undergrad school.  A good undergrad school means she needs to really knock high school out of the park.  The problem is that she went to a really not great (and that’s as nice as I’m capable of being) middle school, and left eighth grade completely unprepared for high school.

Case in point: She, along with half of her eighth grade, took Algebra in eighth grade.  Within the first two weeks of Geometry in ninth grade, the Freshmen Academy math teacher for her high school contacted all of the Geometry parents.  ”Our entire class is failing.  We feel like none of them received a sufficient base for any higher maths.  Algebra is important from here on out.  We’re going to just stop now, and turn this Geometry class into an Algebra class.”

Kaylee didn’t have homework a single day in middle school, and she walked into high school completely unprepared, academically, for what was waiting on her.

Now, due to sub-par teaching, she has some catching up to do.  She handed me her proposed schedule for next year, asking me to sign it so that she could have a meeting with her guidance counselor.  In order to catch back up to where she can take Calculus her senior year, she needs to double-up on her maths.  Next year, she’ll be taking Geometry and Algebra II, which is the smartest move in our opinion.  Doubling up her junior year and taking Algebra II and Trigonometry would just be too heavy of a course-load.

Doubling up, though, removes one of her electives, providing her with very little break in her academic day.  And, due to the requirements of the state of Kentucky, she has to take a language as well — which means that she’ll be taking her first ever foreign language on top of two math classes and the rest of her advanced courses.

Adding church youth group, chorus, volleyball, and softball to that year is going to make for a very busy 15/16-year old.

We are incredibly proud of her, and we absolutely believe that she’s making the right decisions.  I’m impressed with the way that she’s plotting far enough ahead to know exactly what she has to do to get to choose which college she wants. At the same time, I’m angry that she even has to play catch-up, and angry that the burden is going to fall on her shoulders and give her such a heavy courseload.

Hallee

I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your feed reader or subscribed via email.
You can also become a fan on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. I would love to see more of you!

I started with just a plain Devil’s Food Cake and made 24 cupcakes.

I frosted them lightly with Delectible Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. I didn’t put too thick of a coat on, because there is so much frosting in the form of the groundhog.

Sprinkle some chocolate cookie crumbs or some chopped up chocolate to give the impression of “dirt.”

Using a decorating bag and a tip — I used a large star tip so that there would be some impression of “fur”– make a mound. The shape is largely unimportant – as long as it’s mounded. Once you get the face on, it will look right.

For the eyes, I cut miniature marshmallows in half.

Using miniature chocolate chips, I pushed the pointed end of the chip into the sticky side of the marshmallow until the tip of the chip started coming out of the back. The chips should stay in place now.

For the ears, I cut pecans in half.

For the teeth, I cut slivered almonds in half.

For the nose, I used a peanut butter chip.

Once the mound is made on the cupcake, I put the ears on, then the eyes, then the nose, then I pushed the almonds into the frosting under the nose until just the tips of the almonds were sticking out.

Since the groundhog is looking to see if winter will stick around, I sprinkled some candy snowflakes around the “ground”.

My kids were thrilled.

Happy Groundhog’s Day!

Hallee

I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your feed reader or subscribed via email.
You can also become a fan on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. I would love to see more of you!

This post was linked to:

Hallee preparing meals for homeless

Gregg and I host a small group on behalf of our church, called a journey group, every week in our home.

This week, through our journey group, Hallee the Homemaker is participating in the Souper Bowl of Caring.  The Souper Bowl of Caring is a mobilization to fight hunger and poverty in local communities.  During the week leading up to the NFL Super Bowl, we will be collecting money and food that we will donate directly to an organization local to us right here in our town — Angel Food Ministries.

We were very excited to learn about their “Backpack” program and those of us in our journey group are all anxious to support it. Each Friday, Angel Food Ministries puts enough food in the backpacks of disadvantaged children that it provides at least one meal’s worth of food for each day of the weekend to that child.

Any and all money we collect will be given directly to that ministry.  We do not send money through the Souper Bowl of Caring or to any national agency — we take it and donate it directly to Angel Food Ministries without any middle men, and simply report the total donated amount to the Souper Bowl Program.

In discussing it in our small group, it occurred to us that if we were this excited about this opportunity to make a real difference in the life of a child, it made sense that some of my readers would want to participate as well.  So, I decided to extend this invitation.

If you would like to be part of this opportunity to help feed hungry children in my local community, feel free to make a donation.  Should you choose to, we politely ask you to donate just $1 (or more if you feel led).  You can click the button below to make a tax deductible donation via Paypal.

If you are also participating in the National Souper Bowl of Caring Program to support a ministry in your community, please let me know in the comments section of this post.  We would love to help you promote it.

Thank you for giving us this opportunity to serve Christ and our fellow man in this way.

Hallee

I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your feed reader or subscribed via email.
You can also become a fan on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. I would love to see more of you! 

Menu for the week of 30 January 2012

Help Feed Hungry Children

We are collecting donations for Angel Food Ministries this week.  Find information about how you can help by clicking here.

Here’s the menu for my family for the week of January 30th.  February 2 is Groundhog Day here in the US and it is also recognized as Candlemas, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple Day in Orthodox faiths.

The “rules” of our household diet can be found in the tab above labeled Hallee’s Galley and further explained in Our Diet.

I usually serve leftovers for lunch the next day, or we’ll save them during the week to graze lunch on the weekends. One meal a week, we eat whatever we want. This is usually our “Dinner Out” meal.

Almost all of the breads are homemade using fresh milled flour. I’ll continue to link to my recipes as I post them. Our daily bread is Whole Wheat Honey Oatmeal Bread.

Here’s the menu for my family for the week of January 30th. As far as desserts go, I am making some groundhog cupcakes and some Candlemas cookies.  I look forward to publishing those posts for you on Tuesday.

Monday:

Breakfast:

Dinner:

Southern Fried Chicken, Herb Roasted Fingerling Potatoes, green beans, garden salad, Granny Evermann’s Yeast Rolls

Tuesday:

Breakfast:

Dinner:

Steak, brown rice pilaf, steamed broccoli, salad, Granny Evermann’s Yeast Rolls

Wednesday:

Breakfast:

Dinner:

Crockpot Vegetable Soup (no beef), Hummus bi Tahini, Whole Wheat Pita Bread, Greek salad

Thursday (Candlemas/Groundhog Day!):

Breakfast:

Dinner:

Observing Candlemas:

Polenta, Tian of Vegetables, garden salad

Friday:

Breakfast:

Dinner:

we’re having friends over for dinner:

Kay’s Company’s Coming Layered Potato Casserole (recipe to follow), French Bread, garden salad

Saturday:

Breakfast:

Dinner:

Family Movie Night

Hamburgers and Beef Hot Dogs with homemade Whole Wheat Buns, French Fries, fresh fruit, popcorn, caramel corn (recipe to follow)

Sunday:

Breakfast:

Dinner:

Spaghetti with homemade noodles, French Bread garlic bread, garden salad

Hallee

I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your feed reader or subscribed via email.
You can also become a fan on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. I would love to see more of you!

This post linked to…

Our 9th Anniversary

A Sunday guest post by my brilliant husband, Gregg.

Every Sunday, my clever husband offers me a “day of rest” by taking over the homemaker duties here. His primary topic, the Biblical Truth of Creation vs. Darwinism, is a subject that has broad reaching scientific, social, and metaphysical implications and is gaining more and more attention in our modern culture. For believers and non-believers alike, the primary purpose is to present scientific, historical, logical, and/or sociological data in an empirical and defensible fashion, as much as possible written in layman’s terms, and in a format suitable for supplementing any homeschool curriculum whether you choose to believe the Biblical account — or secular guesses — about the origins of human life on earth.

Survival of the Fittest

Is Natural Selection Really  Darwinian Evolution?

Question number 4 in Creation.Com’s Question Evolution Campaign is, “Why is natural selection, a contradictory and subjective principle that is nevertheless recognized by believers in the Biblical account of creation, taught as ‘evolution’, as if natural selection explains the origin and the diversity of life?”

By definition, natural selection is a selective process (selecting from already existing information), so it’s automatically not a creative process. While it might in very specific cases under narrowly and subjectively defined parameters explain the survival of the fittest (why certain genes benefit creatures more in certain environments), natural selection is not any kind of explanation for the arrival of the fittest (where the genes and creatures came from in the first place).

Natural Selection -- Speciation Events

What is Natural Selection?

Natural Selection is generally defined as the process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring. Darwinists arbitrarily apply the term to both peripatric and allopatric speciation events.

Suppose a bunch of monkeys were isoloated from the main group and they continued to bring forth within their kinds seperately.  Eventually, they might look different and Darwinists would claim they were seperate species.  Somehow, they rationalize equivocating this very obvious and perfectly normal process with natural selection.  I suppose because this is actually observable and quantifiable in the field of operational science.

Anyway, natural selection is often referred to as the principle of the survival of the fittest. The iconic demonstration of this principle in action is when the ram mountain goats fight each other for the right to breed with nanny goats.  But is this principle of the survival of the fittest really even the case in all circumstances?

After all, how do you know which organisms are the fittest? Well, that’s easy. The fittest are the survivors. Right?

Or is that too circular and absent logic even for the most ardent Darwinist?

Consider the following scenarios and ask how well this principle applies.  Should we rename it to something more appropriate and descriptive?

Survival of the Fastest

Survival of the Biggest

Survival of the Sickest

Drug resistant bacteria are actually quite weak and mutated. Basically, they are sick. Because they are sick, they can’t matabolize antibiotics so antibiotics don’t kill them. Sort of like people without feet will never get athletes foot. Does that mean that people with no feet are the fittest? Does that mean that sick bacteria are the fittest?

Survival of the Richest

Wealth, privelege, and material possessions can certainly afford an advantage over the poor and lower classes with little in the way of wealth or possessions.  Yet there are still poor after allegedly millions of years of human history.

Survival of the Most Well Armed

In a fight to the death, she is certainly better equiped than I to survie at the moment.  One wonders if she is more fit than I am.

 

Who really determines the criteria for “fittness” anyway?  Should we all be blond haired and blue eyed as was the Aryan ideal of the most fit master race?  What confers the label of “fit” and who decides?

Survival of the Best Tree Climber

It’s pretty easy to see that the concept of natural selection, while generally recognized as valid, brings some very real logical problems with it.  Ultimately, nature is not something that has a mind or a will and has no actual ability to select.  To confer such an ability upon nature is to commit the fallacy of reification by lending nature such misplaced contretism.

 

All that aside, natural selection within strictly defined parameters is a fact of life.  Not only that, the principles defined by natural selection were recognized by believers in the Biiblical account of creation long before Darwin ever got kicked out of his father’s house and sent on his 3 year voyage of exile.  It was recognized by believers back then and it is recognized by believers today.Specifically, it is recognized that natural selection often favors certain already-existing genetic traits within populations by culling less favorable genes out of the gene pool.  It is known to be a valid reductive phenomenon.  Thus natural selection helps adaptation of a population to its environment. Even though sometimes the new population that results is given a new species name, the phenomenon of both adaptation and speciation are not now, nor have they ever been, in dispute.  Monkey A and Monkey B are still some kind of monkeys though their genes vary.  Dog A and Wolf B and Fox C are still some kind of dogs though their genes vary.
 
What is in dispute is that natural selection by itself generates absolutely no new genetic information. It cannot be said to be a causefor the type of macro-evolution Darwinists claim commonly occurs that would require the infusion of massive amounts of highly specific and specifically complex information into the genes. Natural selection does not do that.  It only ever successfully reduces the amount of information present in  the genes.Any adaptations that are purely the result of natural selection acting on pre-existinggenetic information are not changes in the right direction to drive primordial ooze to become astronomers.  Therefore — and this is the very easy part for folks who either possess common sense or are not afflicted with Darwinism or both– natural selection is not the same thing as “evolution” in the way Darwinists would like that much more grand process defined.

Equivocation

One major problem, of course, is that while some Darwinists privately admit that natural selection cannot account for large scale evolution ala pond scum to people, most lapse into equivocation.  They use the terms evolution and natural selection interchangably, as if one equals the other.

In theory, Darwinists look to mutations as being responsible for generating the new genetic information required, which new information is then sorted by natural selection.

In reality, does that ever even really happen?  And the answer, of course, is no.

Whenever asked to provide specific evidence or even theoretical examples of any mutations that increase the information in the genome, Dawkins and similar atheist/secular humanist cohorts of his ilk cannot provide even a single coherent answer or point to a single documented case.  By now, Darwinists ought to be able to point to hundreds of examples of such mutations. But they can’t. There is a tiny handful —- one or two at best -— which could even possibly represent a modicum of information increase, and the lead candidate, the ability of a single strain of laboratory grown bacterium to digest the man-made substance nylon, involves considerable doubt.

There is, in effect, no smoking gun.  There isn’t even a burnt out matchstick. 

For more information about question number four, visit creation.com/defining-terms.

The Truth

The truth is that to believe in the Darwinist myth, there is only one thing a person must accept as patently impossible.  It isn’t impossible, believes the Darwinist, that the universe was a bunch of nothing that decided to create everything one day.  It isn’t impossible, believes the Darwinist, that “proto-stars” can explode over and over until they become actual stars.   It isn’t impossible, believes the Darwinist, that they can explode so often and so hot that they can fuse past mass gap 3 or 8.   It isn’t impossible, believes the Darwinist, that the laws of nature can be utterly ignored with respect to the orbits of planets and stars and the placement of moons and galaxies.   It isn’t impossible, believes the Darwinist, that dirt and rocks can decide to create a living cell.   It isn’t impossible, believes the Darwinist, that mutation and other assorted malignant and reductive processes can infuse unbelievable amounts of specific and complex information into living things.

In fact, the only thing a Darwinist ardently claims is impossible is that God might actually exist.

But He does.  God exists as surely as other non-material things such as thought, consciousness, information, love, and hope.  It is not a gigantic leap of faith to understand that God created the universe and it belongs to Him along with everything and everyone in it.  It takes considerably more faith to believe in the patent impossibilities that Darwinism requires. 

I commit to you that I will publish every single comment that meets this blog’s commenting criteria. You may want to review that criteria before adding your opinion here.

God Bless you and yours.

Gregg

Resources:
Additional Posts dealing with Creation and Darwinism

I don’t know why it took me so long to start making my own cream of mushroom soup.  I use it in many different casserole dishes.  I was out of the canned soup one day and making a family favorite recipe and decided, rather than run to the store, to make my own.  The recipe came out perfectly – the flavors were spot-on.

Using fresh mushrooms and your own broth, you can make it without using a can-opener even once.

3 TBS butter (if using fresh mushrooms, add 1 more TBS butter)
2 TBS flour (I used fresh ground whole wheat)
1 tsp Kosher or sea salt
⅛ tsp fresh ground black pepper
1½ cups whole milk
½ cup heavy cream
2 cups broth ( chicken, turkey, or vegetable broth, I used homemade turkey broth)
1 cup chopped mushrooms (fresh or 2 4-ounce cans)
1 tsp grated onion
1 tsp paprika

heavy saucepan
food processor or sharp knife/cutting board
cheese grater
wooden spoon
whisk
measuring cups/spoon

If you’re using fresh mushrooms, chop them.  In a skillet, saute them in 1 TBS butter over medium heat until soft.

If you’re using canned mushrooms, drain them and process them in the food processor.

Grate onion.

Melt butter over medium heat in saucepan.  Whisk in the flour, salt, and pepper.

When it gets bubbly, whisk in the milk, cream, and broth.

Bring to a boil.  Boil for 1 minute.

Stir in mushrooms and onion.  Stir in paprika.

Cook, stirring regularly, for 10 minutes.

6 servings

	~*~
Good source of CalciumGood source of Vitamin A
	~*~

I would love to hear any feedback about this recipe. Did you make it? Did you enjoy it? Did you make any adjustments to it?

Hallee

I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your feed reader or subscribed via email.
You can also become a fan on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. I would love to see more of you!