I don’t ‘diet’ per se because diets are bondage for me. I’ve been on so many of them for so many years that I’ve completely lost the patience for them. If I want egg nog, I’m gonna have egg nog, rather than eating 2 oranges, a pile of celery, 30 almonds, a piece of diet toast and then at midnight finally succumbing to a quart of egg nog! Ha! That was my life. Eat everything you can from the ‘yes’ list and think about the ‘no’ list all day…finally indulging in too many ‘no’s’ in a weak moment.

With the holidays upon us, cooler temps persisting – I’m making an effort to keep movin’. That’s what my dad taught me. We jogged/walked and bowled in the winter and played tennis, biked and swam in the summer. It was a natural seasonal progression. I find myself doing pretty much the same as an adult, but now in a warmer climate I get to mix up the summer stuff into winter which is a real blessing!

I was riding my bike in the park nearby this week.

Suddenly I spotted a pack of wild turkeys crossing the road…

I mischievously began to follow them…They began to run frantically – I was laughing out loud while I tried to steer my bike and shoot photos…I was having so much fun and then I realized another biker was behind me, watching the whole scene. I pedaled faster and took a sharp left to escape!

All the colors of fall are so beautiful, aren’t they?! I’m a little sad to see all the leaves disappearing. Seasons change so quickly…

THE BREAKFAST

Every morning, Mike Jaffee caught a train into work while his daughter was sleeping. Every night, he didn’t return until she was back in bed.

“One Monday, I was sitting outside at lunch. I realized this is not the kind of dad I want to be. This is not the kind of husband I want to be.”

He decided to start with one small step – eating breakfast with his family.

The next day, that small step changed his life more drastically than he could have imagined.

Jaffee doesn’t remember what he ate for breakfast on September 11, 2001. But it meant taking a later train to his job at the World Trade Center. The first plane hit at 8:46 a.m. Had he caught his usual train, Jaffee would have been at his desk on the 96th floor and likely would have been among the nearly 300 Marsh & McLennan employees killed.

In the subsequent months, Jaffee realized his job wasn’t right for him anymore. About 18 months later, he began to prepare himself for a new vocation, which he now enjoys.

His advice to others: “Ask yourself what is your ideal life. And then take that one step.”

BE INSPIRED TO MAKE A CHANGE…think big, but start small. WHO KNOWS?

I saw this proclamation the other day while I was out walking. It’s a banner stretched across the chain link fence surrounding our local public grade school. What is puzzling to me is this: with our nation (that’s you and me, if you’re living in the United States and paying your taxes) spending no less than 500 billion dollars, yes I said BILLION DOLLARS on public education annually – how can volunteers be the backbone of the schools? What are they doing with all the money? It would seem to be a healthy sum with which to build the backbone of the system and yet, all I ever hear is how there’s not enough money to adequately fund the public schools…

Something to think about.

Over the past year I’ve had the privilege of working closely with my friends at the Home School Legal Defense Association, whose leader, lawyer Michael Farris, has been persistently focusing on the issue of parental rights. (Let me remind you, “The HSLDA folks are on your side, even if your kids are in public, private or charter schools! Yes, they wholeheartedly support and believe in home education, but the freedoms they are fighting for are freedoms that will impact YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN!”)

Okay, back to Michael Farris, godly husband, father of 10 and lawyer. He is convinced, and has persuaded me as well, that we desperately need to see our parental rights protected through the passing of a constitutional amendment. This sounds dramatic (and perhaps could even seem impossible), but I want to encourage you to educate yourself about this issue so that the enemies of your freedom can’t quietly slip their chains of slavery about you and your family.

Life is a battle, and it’s unfortunate but true, that our liberties are continually being threatened by forces that seem to loom large about us.  If only every elected official in Washington understood that parents are more often than not, the experts children need and that children especially thrive in a free society, governed by the parents God gave them.

I’ve been wanting to broach this topic of parental rights on the blog for awhile, so here we go…

The right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children has been recognized and upheld for centuries. But there are dark clouds on the horizon.

Today parental rights are coming under assault from federal judges who deny or refuse to recognize these rights. Adding further danger to the child-parent relationship, international law seeking to undermine the parental role is advancing on the horizon. Together, these threats are converging to create a “perfect storm” that looms over the child-parent relationship.

Across the country, many judges are beginning to deny the vital role of parents in the lives of their children, instead inserting the government into a “parental” role in a child’s life. This dangerous assertion is leading to the severance of the child-parent relationship in numerous instances across the nation—removals that cause unnecessary pain to both children and their parents.

A thirteen-year-old boy in Washington State was removed from his parents after he complained to school counselors that his parents took him to church too often. His school counselors had encouraged him to call Child Protective Services with his complaint, which led to his subsequent removal and placement in foster care. It was only after the parents agreed to a judge’s requirement of less-frequent church attendance that they were able to recover their son. (Michael Farris dealt directly with this incident.)

A storm that is rapidly forming on the horizon, yet seemingly hidden from most Americans is this:

International law that seeks to empower the government to intrude upon the child-parent relationship is becoming an increasing threat. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), a seemingly harmless treaty with dangerous implications for American families, is approaching possible ratification by the United States.

If this treaty is made binding upon our country, the government would have the power to intervene in any child’s life to advance its definition of “the best interests of the child.” The scenarios that could occur—and are occurring—as a result of this dangerous notion are both manifold and frightening.

Under the UNCRC, instead of following due process, government agencies would have the power to override your parental choices at their whim because they determine what is in “the best interest of the child.”??In essence, the UNCRC applies the legal status of abusive parents to all parents. This means that the burden of proof falls on the parent to prove to the State that they are good parents—when it should fall upon the State to prove that their investigation is not without cause.

A SHELTER IN THE STORM

There is only one solution to this approaching storm: a constitutional amendment that places current Supreme Court doctrine protecting parental rights into the explicit language of the U.S. Constitution. This amendment will shelter the child-parent relationship from the coming storm, ensuring that parents have the right to direct the upbringing and education of their children.??No government, regardless of how well-intentioned it might be, can replace the love and nurture of a parent in the life of a child. Parents care, not because their children are “wards” for whom they are responsible. Parents are willing to brave danger and sacrifice, hardship and heartache to ensure the best for their kids.

Learn more about protecting parental rights through a constitutional amendment, and join the campaign now. We must not wait until it’s too late. Take this opportunity to sign the petition to protect parental rights today.

Visit parentalrights.org for a whole bunch more information, videos to watch, and to see how you can help!

All summer long he spent time with friends and family of all ages (socialization, check!), ran his own lawn care job (entrepreneurial, landscape and work ethic studies, check!), spent time outdoors playing, tubing, riding bikes, tennis with Mom and swimming (P.E., check!) practiced his electric guitar tirelessly (music studies, check!) and performed in some concerts (musical performance studies, check!) along with maintaining his Bible reading (literature, check!) and prayer life (spiritual life studies, check!). He also whipped up goodies in the kitchen regularly and handled his required household chores (home-ec, check!). So for our formal school year, we just add some academics and voila’ – there you have it. The Mira Family Home School.

Anyhoo, October 1st I got online to file our Private School Affidavit since it’s required in the state of California if you home educate. As I filled in all the tedious boxes, and tried to decipher the questions (?!) in order to answer accurately, I felt so grateful for the freedom to home school and yet at the same time I felt so concerned that we could be a thin thread away from losing our freedom to do so.

Even if you choose to send your kids to public or private or charter schools, this freedom I’m speaking of impacts you no less than those who choose to home educate. Why? Because at the bottom line, it’s not about home education, it’s all about our freedom to parent as we see fit, and that’s a freedom tip-toeing on thin ice at the moment in our nation.

You may be very surprised – shocked even, to know what’s happening regarding your parental rights. After all, you’ve got bills to pay and gifts to wrap and kids to raise and taxes to file and a house to clean and – what? the groceries are gone AGAIN?! (Why are the groceries ALWAYS gone?) Who’s got the time to keep tabs on what’s happening in Washington D.C. when I can barely keep up with the dishes and diapers, right?

Well, some of my friends are making it their mission to keep up on your parental rights and I’m gonna tell you all about it on the blog this week. Stay tuned.

And in the meantime, don’t forget to enjoy living life with those growing kids of yours!

Friends, don’t be fooled by the standard American diet. It’s killing our nation and is responsible for the majority of soaring medical costs in our nation for diseases like diabetes, formerly called ‘adult-onset diabetes’ but now a rampant childhood disease resulting more often than not from lifestyle choices like sitting on the couch watching TV (instead of playing outside with friends), while eating hot dogs on white buns with chips, coke and ice cream rather than a fresh green salad, steamed veggies and baked chicken.

There should be one more comment on this notice: CAUTION! We will be serving hot dogs, sweetened drinks, chips and ice cream which have been scientifically proven to shorten the life span of the average American.

Thanks, I had to rant.

He’s learning about real life as a young adult, while I find myself holding my breath at moments, watching from the ‘bleachers’, praying and trusting God for wisdom in the last season of my privileged role of training him.  He turned out the lights about 4 and slept like a log until I woke him at 9.  I tossed and turned for hours. He’s the one with all the pressure…but I’m the one who can’t sleep! So much to think about – am I doing okay as a mom?  Should I have?  Why did I?  How could I? Why didn’t I?  Pondering all the years of mothering my five sons…bumbling through at times…trusting God every single day, while questioning myself regularly along the way. 

I feel a little tender today as I watch him grab his work uniform, his notes and the car keys!…I mumble one more fervent prayer for my little man as I hear the roar of the engine.  Sigh. 

I think I’ll make myself a fresh cup of coffee.  Hope you have a singing Saturday!  May God truly bless your day!