A Must Read

Jeannie Fulbright's post Conviction or Condemnation is so good and exactly what I needed to read today...I highly recommend it.

Quote of the Day

Something I stole from Spunky Homeschool:

The offers are all so very tempting. I would enjoy many of them and maybe even make some needed cash. But in earning the extra money, I know I would be short changing my children. That's a net loss in my opinion. My time with my children is so short. It's hard to say no. But I'd rather say no to those who don't know me than to the little ones sitting around me each day.

I must say "no" to others, so I can say "yes" to my children.

Can "Pro-Choicers" Be Christian Brethren?

I tuned in to Glenn Beck during his 10:am hour today and heard something that shouldn’t surprise me in today’s day and age, but horrified me nonetheless. He reported on a story out of the U.K. where a hospital is incinerating aborted fetuses along with the rest of their medical refuse. As if that wasn’t disturbing enough, he quoted a woman who received an abortion from there:

I am furious and very hurt. Imagine my horror when I discovered that my baby was incinerated in the same furnace as the hospital rubbish.

(Okay, so I don’t need to waste my time stating the obvious hypocrisy of what this woman is saying.)

I don’t want to exhaust my time and energy on something we’ve been debating since last century; it should be obvious what side I’m on in this battle. I expect something as evil as abortion to exist in a world where Satan is constantly on the prowl. But why do so many of our Christian brethren turn a blind eye to it? I just don’t understand when I hear the following phrase by a self-proclaimed Christian: I don’t think abortion is right and I would never have one, but I don’t think we should deny those who want an abortion the right to have one. Why not? Women can be arrested for prostitution or doing drugs. Heck, they can even be arrested for smoking a cigarette in Omaha!

I expect those kinds of comments from the people of this world, not from followers of Christ. The other day I was chatting with my neighbor—an LCMS pastor’s wife—about some emails I had sent out to her and others regarding the stem cell issue we’ll be voting on here in Missouri. We were talking about our friends that have very differing opinions from us (I’m staunchly opposed to the amendment, in case I had to clear that up for anyone). When talking about one of my friends, she asked “is she a Christian”? “Well, yeah…but, I guess so…sure she is…I mean, I think of her as one…but…” and I started wondering why all of a sudden I had to try to defend my friend’s faith for her because her beliefs fall so short of what I would expect a follower of Christ to believe and promote. I came back with a comment like, but our salvation is secured by Christ’s death and resurrection—by God’s grace, through faith in Christ Jesus—not whether we’re pro-life or pro-choice, right?

So I ask you, who else has struggled with these questions:

Can you be pro-choice and still be a Christian?

Should pro-life Christians cease fellowship with pro-choice Christians?

Can we make exceptions for our moral beliefs if it infringes on our rights as Americans?

Now, deep down I know the answers to all of these. I know what scripture says about them (the second I had to look up because I couldn’t remember—1 Cor. 5), so shouldn’t that settle it? It should, but too often I find that I want outside input, too. Horrible, I know. I can imagine that if you’re Reformed you’d say I shouldn’t be friends with a pro-choicer; if you’re Baptist, you’d say what an awesome opportunity to evangelize; if you’re Methodist, you’d tell me to welcome diversity of opinions with open arms, doors, minds, whatever. I’d like responses to my first question of who else has struggled/is struggling with these questions and how they overcame it or hope to overcome it. And from a Christian homeschooling parent’s point of view: how in the world do you explain abortion and pro-choicers in the Church to your kids? The abortion part isn’t that hard—you teach your kids about sin, Satan, and the evil that exists in the world. But how do you explain why some Christians accept it the way they do?

...you should not associate with a person who calls himself a brother but is immoral or greedy or worships idols or is a slanderer or a drunkard or a thief. Don't even sit down to eat with such a person. After all, it is none of my business to judge outsiders. God will judge them. But should you not judge the members of your own fellowship? As the scripture says, "Remove the evil man from your group". 1 Cor. 5:11-13 (TEV)

Where Have I Been?

I’ve been too busy to write these days, mainly because any time I’m online I’m reading other homeschoolers’ blogs…like the ones listed to the left, as well as some others that are good but not worth cluttering up the “Links” column over there. I’m amazed at some of the wonderful Christian writing I’ve found and the sheer volume of information that other homeschoolers put on their blog so I don’t have to search for it myself. So I highly recommend the homeschooling links I’ve posted to check out daily, and if I ever come across something I find interesting that they aren’t talking about, I’ll try to post it when I can. Like this:

According to the Home School Legal defense Association, homeschool graduates are active and involved in their communities. In the survey, "Homeschooling Grows Up," 88 percent of homeschool graduates surveyed were members of organizations-community, church or homeschool groups or a professional organization-compared to only 50 percent of U.S. adults. The survey also said 71 percent of homeschool graduates participate in an ongoing service activity-such as volunteering at a school, church, neighborhood association or coaching a sports-compared to only 37 percent of U.S. adults of similar ages.

You can go here for the rest of the article I was alerted to by the HSLDA, but I thought this particular paragraph says a lot regarding the argument that homeschoolers are or become isolated from the rest of the world.

And as promised (but not always fulfilled!), here is a picture of some pretty sweet boys. Tommy likes to lay on our bed and hold Danny a lot, but this particular time I think he wanted to wrestle with him. I talked him out of wrestling and encouraged cuddling instead. I’m not ready for Danny to take part in the “jump on Daddy” games just yet!

Don't Worry, Be Hoppy

Fermentation is progressing along nicely! It's definitely slowed since Monday, when fermentation was at its greatest. And let me tell you, the beer "burps" that are coming out of my airlock smell awesome, nothing like the beer that I put in there on Saturday. It has a very sweet smell, almost fruity, possibly from the 2 lbs of honey I put in 40 minutes into the boil.

Tomorrow morning I'll transfer it into my secondary fermenter (a 5-gal glass carboy), then I'll get my first look at the brew. The closet in my basement under the steps has worked well for fermenting. It's out of the way, completely dark, has a near constant temperature since there are no supply air grills and has a concrete floor in the event that I spill something. I think I'm going to clean out all of the stuff under there and deck it out with shelving, lighting, hooks...basically I'm going to turn it into my little brewery.

And for an update on my bottle search, I'm doing no better than I was the other day. I have put some feelers out with some guys at work, but that hasn't resulted in anything yet, so tomorrow I might scavenge MU's football stadium parking lots after the homecoming game...wish me luck!

Family Planning: What About Spacing?

There’s some interesting stuff out there on how far apart you should space your kids—three years seems to be the recommended time I’ve come across quite often.  It gives the mother’s body time to recoup in between pregnancies/deliveries; it gives the child more time to grow before a younger sibling is introduced…just a couple reasons.

 

Here’s something else to consider, something that happened to me this week and prompted this topic for my post:

 

I had just started nursing my three-month-old when my two-year-old came to me, pointed to his bottom and said “poo-poo, poo-poo”.  I normally don’t stress too much these days with making him wait until I’m finished nursing, even though it bothers me because I think this is a great milestone he’s reached moving towards potty-training.  However, the budget is tight these days and we’re using some pretty cheap diapers on him, so I know that too many sudden moves will cause a leak. 

 

Not two minutes later I hear my four-year-old yelling “I’M DONE, MOMMY!” from the front bathroom (I was wondering where he ran off to).  “OKAY, JUST A MINUTE!” came the usual reply from me.  So I wrapped it up with the little guy, sat him up for a burp and “SQUIRT”!  It came out the back of the diaper—certainly something we’re use to around here and have the three or four onesies a day in the bathroom sink to prove it. 

 

So what do you do first: the infant-blowout, the toddler-could-possibly-blow-out-and-is-stinking-up-the-entire-neighborhood-diaper, or the preschooler-wipe? 

 

Another “pro” to add to your list if you’re one of those who actually thinks YOU are the one in charge of family planning: I won’t have to worry about what this lady just wrote about happening to me.

 

By the way, I wiped the four-year-old first, changed the baby, then the toddler.  The baby’s poop wasn’t going anywhere and had already made a big mess, plus I’ve mastered holding the baby while wiping the four-year-old and convincing the two-year-old he doesn’t need to help me wipe the four-year-old.  Naturally, the middle child gets pushed to the back…again.  Poor guy doesn’t stand a chance, does he Brewmaster?

My Gender Identity Crisis

I’m such a loser…and here I think I can home school my kids. When Brewmaster and I were concocting this whole blog idea, I thought “Headmaster” sounded awfully masculine, but I wasn’t familiar with a more feminine alternative. Why didn’t you all tell me? (Probably because no one is out there reading this.) I finally sought counsel from Webster himself and he informed me that “Headmistress” would be better suited for my new profile name. Duh.

Things are a brewin'!

My first batch of beer is now in the primary fermenter (a 6.5-gal plastic bucket) and fermentation has begun. The brew on Saturday went pretty well. I started at about 11:00 a.m. and finished around 2:30 p.m., so I think after some of the lessons I learned I'll be able to get it down to a couple hours. Not that it needs to be rushed, though, because it was a rather enjoyable experience (part of the reason I'm doing it)!

I've also compiled a short list of things that would have made things easier, and also may have positively affected the final product, so for any of you out there wanting to buy me something for Christmas, I'm sure Headmaster would be more than happy to pass my list on to y'all!!!

I'm still on the look out for dark colored non-twist off beer bottles, if anyone has any laying around. I've got about 2 weeks before I'll need to bottle my beer, so here are my options at this point if you don't pull through for me...

Time Before Bottling My Game Plan

14 days out Ask friends / coworkers / acquaintances for some

10 days out Resort to begging (including strangers)

7 days out Swing by the local bars on Monday morning

5 days out Call every frat house in town

3 days out Commence dumpster diving at the local recycle drop offs

1 day out Buy 2 cases of expensive beer and throw a party

Headmaster is not real thrilled about many of these options, and since we only have 2 friends in town the party thing won't get us too far, so if any of you have any better ideas I'm open to suggestions.

I'll also post my "do's and don'ts" of brewing your first batch in subsequent blogs, so please check back often (we really like comments even if it's short...it atleast lets us know that you're out there)!

Our Pumpkins

A couple weekends ago we visited our family and Brewmaster took the two older boys on a hayride and pumpkin patch adventure. Sam showed off his muscles picking out the perfect pumpkin and Tommy just wanted to hang out with the cows...."Hi, moo-moo!"

It's About Time!

I can't believe it...it actually let me post a picture! I'm only going to do this one for now and try again later with multiples. Anyway, here's a very recent one of Danny...probably from two days ago. We bought a new high chair shortly after bringing him home, thinking it would be a safe place for him--out of Tommy's reach! However, he's never liked it and would always start crying shortly after putting him in there, but we think he's starting to warm up to it a little. He's such a sweet thing...good eater, good sleeper, good smiler, good cuddler--thank God he's in our little family!

To brew or not to brew...

...that is the question! I'm happy to report that my homebrew equipment and supplies have arrived! Should have beer a brewin' this weekend...I'll keep you posted.

Should HS Kids Fit In?

The following comment was left by an anonymous blogger:

I agree that homeschooling has positive benefits. It gives you control over what your children are exposed to. I might however suggest you be mindful of selective learning. Though it is important to ensure that our children are not 'tarnished' it is also important to make sure they understand the world around them. Do remember that though we live 'for' the next world, we live 'in' this world. Public school education may employ methods and subjects you don't approve of, but there are lessons in them that we all must learn if we are to function and guide our society. In raising children, whether home or publicly educated, we have to have faith in ourselves that we gave them the tools they need. More importantly, we must have faith in them that they will make the right decisions for themselves.

I really appreciate this comment. I always feel bad when I come across as someone who relentlessly bashes all public schools because I know so many good people who are employed there and send/sent children there, and I know many of them feel called to be there. However, I have never met someone with a strong enough case to convince homeschoolers that there are more benefits from public education than homeschooling (unless you feel that yearbooks, proms, sports, extra-curricular activities, etc., are necessary in order to be "well-rounded"). I wish I would have asked the anonymous commenter to be specific on what lessons we learn from public education that will help us "function and guide our society", but I didn't. So in an effort to relate this comment to something I wanted to write about anyway, let's pretend s/he is referring to something along these lines: adapting to today's culture and winning the lost.

For many, the big socialization issue against homeschoolers is more about pop culture than it is about getting along with others; homeschoolers might not get enough exposure to all that is "hip" when they spend all day at home with Mom and their siblings. They'll turn out weird, non-conforming to society's standards, and won't know how to relate to their traditionally-schooled peers unless they immerse themselves in the world beyond the home front. When a secularist makes this argument, we homeschoolers will roll our eyes with a big "whatever". But when our brothers and sisters in Christ tell us that our children should be in the world in an effort to win the lost, I can't help but stop and ponder the issue.

There have always been movements in the Church to not only reach out to the ever-changing culture, but to adapt to culture that it may appeal to the lost. Some Christians argue that children need to be around the lost in order to better understand the lost, as if this is all it takes in order to save the lost. Our faith need not be in our children's ability to get along well in society. It needs to be in the Spirit working through them when telling others the Gospel. Following the latest fads and trends aren't the answer; knowing the Bible is.

We, their parents, have a responsibility to teach them about the world and all that is in the world--even the bad. Not on an R-rated level, but enough so that they know that evil exists and will be able to recognize it when they see it. This is something they can learn while under our watchful care and be ready for when they go into the world as young adults. I do not agree with this notion that children need to be exposed to things that their young minds can't understand or handle in order to cope better later in life. Let them be kids, and let us adults--the ones with better coping mechanisms--worry about the evil that surrounds us.

Putting our children out into the world so that they might come in contact with the lost is another issue. If they are at home all day, everyday, there will be too many missed opportunities to minister to the lost. R. C. Sprouls, Jr., makes an interesting observation about this in his book When You Rise Up. He writes how he has never met a Christian parent who has enrolled his child in a Muslim school in order to save a few lost souls. He adds that if winning the lost should be a priority for our children, shouldn't we find less convenient ways for them to run into the lost than enrolling them in free public schools?

Now, just in case I completely misread the comment earlier on...perhaps the anonymous blogger meant something else by the "function and guide our society" comment. Perhaps this is coming from a perspective that homeschoolers--especially conservative Christian homeschoolers--do not teach their children "diversity" or tolerance to alternative lifestyles, that this is something best taught in the public schools. That would be a correct assumption, at least in our home school curriculum. We won't be reading Heather Has Two Mommies at our school, and I won't have my boys practice putting condoms on bananas for Sex Ed. They will be learning God's Word; they will learn to not only love the Lord, but to love even their enemies. They will learn what it means to show mercy to those who do not deserve it. And they will learn about sin. They will learn about what happens to nations who do not follow the Lord, because they will read about it in His Word. And when learning God's Word, they will also be taught what this means in the world we live in today. They will learn how to pray for the world we live in, for guidance in their own lives and for our government, for the lost, the poor, the sick..they will learn what's most important in guiding our society.

Attention!

An excellent article on giving your kids effective attention is here.

Home Schooling 101: Introduction

In our first post we explained how we came up with the name of our blog. And you know why we're homebrewing (yum). But some of you might like to know why we decided to homeschool. This can be a pretty tricky question to answer, especially because it's usually asked by those who don't homeschool and don't know many people who do. Sometimes I find it hard to not tailor my answer to suit whoever is asking the "why" question; you can't help wanting to impress others. The urge to stress academic excellence among homeschoolers is hard to suppress when an academic type asks why, as is the urge to stress the faith issue when a religious type asks. When confronted by family members and close friends who send/sent their children to school, you worry about offending them in some way...as if when learning of our decision to homeschool, they're really hearing "if you were good parents like us, you wouldn't have sent your kids to school". There's this fear lingering over us that people will look at us as that pretentious little homeschooling family whose kids are too good for school. Then again maybe these concerns of mine are unwarranted. Perhaps they're just the feelings I used to have about homeschoolers before taking the plunge myself.

Not quite a year ago I was asked by my sister-in-law if we were going to homeschool. No way, I said. I was going back to school once the boys were in school (including preschool). We had tossed around the idea of homeschooling and how it seemed like a good thing to do, but I wasn't fit to teach my children. I don't even have a degree. Not long after that conversation with my sister-in-law, my heart grew very heavy. I was looking at a college for organ/sacred music and checking out houses on the market in that town thirty minutes from here. I even loaded the two older boys in the car and drove around the campus and town, and planned on calling the organ professor and discussing options for me and my education there. But my heart grew heavier and I couldn't understand why. For the first time I thought I was finally on the right track moving in the direction that I wanted to go. But this homeschooling thing kept coming up and I kept pushing it aside.

Then I started praying for help with my mothering skills. I was very sick with my third pregnancy and feeling disappointed with the job I was doing as a mother of two small boys, so I prayed and prayed for energy, patience, and the wisdom to be a better mom. I didn't get much energy or patience, but the flood of homeschooling thoughts and ideas wouldn't stop raining down on me. I resisted for a while but finally gave up...then the peace, joy and understanding that only God can give descended on me like the warmth of the sun after a cold rain. I thank God for being patient with me while I walked down my path, and praise Him for leading me down His path!

The answer "because God told me to" probably won't satisfy a lot of people when asking why we're going to homeschool...although I personally can't think of a better reason. But if people keep pressing for other specific reasons, I think the answer I'm going to start using is "why not"? And since this post has exceeded my length-limit that I wanted to abide by on our blog, I'm going to close with an invitation for anyone to comment or ask questions. Remember, you can post a question anonymously if you choose.

For those of you looking for a picture of those adorable boys: So sorry...it won't let me post one and I've tried four different times! Hopefully Brewmaster can get it to work with his next one.

It's SOY Good!

Well, at least Tommy thinks so. But take it from me: instant pudding and soy milk don't mix so well. You'll need a heaping of Cool Whip to thicken it up a bit. He sure didn't mind it being a bit runny, though!

However, we're ditching the soy milk pretty soon and switching to raw cow's or goat's milk. We're hoping he'll tolerate that better than pasteurized milk. I've been reading some interesting stuff about soy and raw milk that might interest some of you. Tommy has not tested positive for food allergies yet, but he's still young and clearly has problems with nuts and minor problems with milk.

But, until I get my hands on that goat's milk, I guess I'll keep experimenting with the soy. It doesn't bother Tommy too much, but Sam makes sure I'm not putting soy milk in his pancakes or waffles in the mornings!

First Batch

As with everything in this world, there's always a beginning. This adventure in Homebrewing our own beer has just begun. If any of you are veteran homebrewers, I'm sure you'll scoff at us blogging something we've never done before, but the way I see it, what better way to start something than with a blog to chronicle our experiences.

With that said, here's a little info on the first batch we're going to brew. I'm an ale drinker, have been ever since I graduated from college, got a job and could afford something more than Keystone Light. My all time favorites are Bass & Newcastle, so of course our first batch will be an English Amber Ale.

I'm taking the easy way out to start off, I'm using a liquid malt extract (see ingredients below). And the equipment I'm using should take all the guessing out of the equation. But we hope to have the first batch ready for consumption by Thanksgiving. And to those of you on our Christmas list, you can expect a six pack in your stocking this year!

First Batch Ingredients

6 pounds of Amber malt extract, 2 pounds of Minnesota Clover Honey, Crystal Malt, Chocolate Malt, Northern Brewer bittering hops, Williamette aroma hops, 1 tsp. Gypsum, 1 tsp. Irish Moss, White Labs British Ale 005 pitchable tube yeast.

Why "Homeschrewling"?

We're "Rush Babies"--kids who grew up around parents who listened to Rush Limbaugh. Well, I am at least; Brewmaster became an avid listener in his late teens and married a Rush Baby, so we'll count him, too. There are many words that Rush throws a spin on, such as school: "schrewl". Okay, so we don't know how Professor Limbaugh would spell it (probably not like that) but it'll work when making up a new word combining our latest passions: homeschooling and homebrewing.

We have several goals in starting this blog. First of all, it will serve as a place for family and friends to come check out the latest photos of those three darling boys of ours. Second, it will give us--Headmaster and Brewmaster--a forum for sharing and discussing our latest adventures at the school and brewery. And, as if all that weren't exciting enough, we'll also share some experiences with our other DIY endeavors--such as home improvement projects--and try to steer anyone we can back too the good ol' days of self-reliance.

To the folks who keep bugging me to send pictures of those boys: I promise to always include at least one photo with each new post. I can't speak for Brewmaster in case he'll be posting from his work computer (during his lunch break, of course!), but you can bet on at least one new post a week from Headmaster...most likely more, so check weekly if not daily.

We hope you add us to your "favorites", visit us often, and share any thoughts you might have with us as we embark on these new adventures. And if you know anyone who might have interests in homeschooling, homebrewing, or whatever else we might be rambling on about, send them on over to "Homeschrewling"!