Dare, but to what end or consequence?

Just as I wrote this a couple weeks ago and stuck it in draft:

This weekend, in church Sunday School, this was written on the chalk board:

Dare to be a Daniel,
Dare to stand alone!
Dare to have a purpose firm!
Dare to make it known. 


I had never read the stories of Daniel. I'll actually admit that I have not read a lot of Old Testament. It never inspired me and I rarely felt led to it. My faith is a gift and I have always felt spirit led when I open the Bible, rarely led to the Old Testament. I digress though, today I was totally inspired by the story of Daniel.


I dare. How dare I? This kept flowing though my mind as I sat there listening to the lesson. Daniel refused the King's table food, not wanting to defile himself. Yes! I thought. That is why I reject mainstream convenience food! All those extra additives, altered molecules, pesticide soaked ingredients that cause sickness and cancer.....those defile us. I reject that. Sometimes it feels as if I am standing alone when I feed my family whole foods, fresh foods, local and home grown foods. It would be so much easier to eat from the king's table and microwave some chicken nuggets, my kitchen would be so much cleaner all the time if I didn't take the time to make food from scratch, but then I'd also have to pay attention to food recalls and e-coli outbreaks. It is a pretty apt metaphor though. Think about it. Those additives and toxins are added to the food so someone can make a bigger profit and have less of a loss, all at our health's cost. Those additives don't make the food more nutritious and nourishing. They are added to make things have longer shelf life or ship better or process easier. They are added to make less work for the farmer or rancher, less of a livestock loss, easier harvest. The king may also be eating from his own table but that doesn't mean the food is safe or clean.


I hear all the time, I feed/fed it to my kids and they are fine. Really? I mean, really? Cancer rates in children and young people are skyrocketing, not to mention infertility issues in my generation, skin disorders, higher rates of ADD and Autism, teenagers with irritable bowel syndrome ..... That's not even the half of it. I'm not blaming margarine for the cancer epidemic, but I do want to share my own story as example.


Since eating whole foods- I no longer suffer the symptoms of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, my body naturally flushed out huge bands of uterine fibroids without drugs or surgery, I no longer have heart burn and ulcers that made me constantly nauseous and unable to eat much, I don't get kidney or bladder or yeast infections, I don't even need to use a moisturizer let alone acne creams, my nails grow, I rarely get migraines anymore, I can actually taste what I am eating. Oh the list goes on and on. And then my blood work came back. My stats look like that of a vegetarian.  I'm 8 pounds over what they say I should weigh and those 8 lbs push me into the obese category? I eat bacon every other day, I eat meat at almost every meal. The word low fat or fat free or diet is not on anything in my food stock. No soy unless it is in soy sauce. I try really hard not to buy things that have ingredients I can't pronounce or identify. Yes, we do like to drink soda, but that is available with real sugar now instead of HFCS. I make things from scratch from food, not processed stuff that has double talk on the label. Processed cheese food? Anything that has to remind you that it is actually food or compares itself to food, likely isn't. And cheesy peas, corn is in EVERYTHING. I even picked up an apple at the grocery store that had an ingredients list label.


But I am going a step beyond my own shopping list. We have started a farm, pledged and worked to make our products wholesome and chemical free. I have made it my purpose to educate people about the quality of locally grown, chemical free food, the importance of nutrient rich heirloom vegetables and free range meat. Trust me that this is no easy task as complete strangers are more open to the message than my own family, even though the health of my own family is WAY more important to me than anyone. I can't even convince my own baby sister to give up processed "low-fat" "fat-free" convenience fake food, nor my husband to give up Cherry Coke. It is an uphill battle, a dark hole that becomes a point of bitter contention whenever I even bring up the subject.


Did Daniel back down when things he believed in were challenged? No! He stood firm.


It would be so much easier not to challenge the mainstream and just do what everyone else is doing. I'd have happier holidays that's for true. But this is my calling and an act of faith. I stand alone to make a difference and soon, I won't be standing alone. In fact, I'm not sure that I am anymore.


The lesson really resonated with me, even a week later. What else does the mainstream "defile" themselves with? What else can we or do we reject to honor what we were created for and as? What else is the "king" offering us from his own table that is dangerous? Ah, more questions.

The Passionate Homemaker wrote this post on natural living. Wow. This was just what I needed to stop me in my excitement. I mean, I am still really inspired and the session really got me thinking, but now I am adding to the thought soup.

I have damaged relationships in my passion for real whole food. I was the one at the family gathering who was loud about my kid not eating something because it was not actually food. That was me at a church gathering too. Those relationships are something that I value more than I care if my kid eats a questionable pork by-product or a bit of something resembling but not really butter. I do care about what food they eat, but I care more about my family and our relationships with each other and our friends.

Eating the way we do actually costs less than eating conventionally and we're pretty tight in the budget right now, so I don't think it is cutting into our offerings to our church. We do try to share our excess garden production though, when we have it and sometimes even when we don't. Sharing a meal is a basic fellowship, I understand that.

I just think that maybe, as in all things, sometimes my passionate nature might well do with a tempering of compassion and empathy. I think I might not have applied the same wisdom when it comes to parenting choices, educational choices, and various other things. I can get pretty excited about the things I have researched, applied, and feel are good choices for us. Even if I am simply stating, with all my heart, how wonderful life is because of these choices, perhaps I should be more aware of my audience. You know?

So back to Daniel. He might have dared to defy the king with his diet, but he did so quietly and his influence on the king was slow, quiet, and over time a wonderful benefit. Not loud. Not with a bull horn. Just a daily presence. And this story is important.

So perhaps I am not yet ready to pronounce myself a warrior for real food. I still have quite a lot to battle in my own heart.

School

I think sometimes that as a homeschooling mama I forget the good things about public school. There are good things, not everyone can stay home with their kids and educate them, some families feel the need to have dual incomes. Not every family feels they are capable of home education, even though they probably are. Some families are abusive and the kids are better off away from them all day. There are plenty of needs that families have that are met by an education system that is collective and not run by parents.

I have met so many awful people who are teachers though. Horrible people, people who are mean to kids, people who hurt children, people who are control freaks and lash out at those minors under their care. Not to mention the absurdity of textbook data and group field trips where children are herded like cattle through things that might interest them.

And yet, many of the awesome moms I know were once elementary school teachers. A person in church cried last week because they were worried about their students and making a difference in their lives, genuinely moved because of their dedication to those children. My own life was touched in many positive ways by the good teachers I have had over the years and by the refuge from an abusive situation at home. Public school is not evil, though it may be flawed and corrupt in design, the people teaching are called to the profession and most love the children in their care.

As my thoughts were meandering a bit this morning, my heart settled on a particular problem I am having. There are social circles that I encounter parents who think homeschooling is a terrible injustice to my children, that homeschoolers are weird and their kids will be freaks, and some that think our decision is poorly thought out. This frustrates me. I don't immediately jump to those conclusions about public schooled families. Is every kid in PS a social butterfly with grace and wit? No. I certainly wasn't. Are there weird and quirky kids who get picked on and don't fit in? You bet. So all those worries about socialization? Yeah. Public school doesn't fix that and homeschooling doesn't cause that. I could cite academic statistics up and down the wall about achievement and success. It doesn't matter though.

What does matter is how my children and I are best suited for our educational choices and if someone decides to be snooty about it or demeaning it is on their heart and their issue not mine. Someday they might turn to me in need and I am not going to close doors to people just because of their ignorance. A fine example of this would be the grace extended to me years ago. I challenged some mamas about TV watching and video games on a homeschool list and instead of the firestorm that was likely by my negative attitude and disparaging comments...they walked gentle and simply educated and prodded me to think about my reasoning and what things might have led me there. They could have just closed the door.

Five years later I count these mamas in my circle of friends and admire them more and more with every encounter. I may not agree with them 100%, but the more I live this life the more I have to learn.

I find myself asking myself this dazzling grey morning, what losses have I incurred from closing doors on people? What loss from being locked out on the other side of that door? How much better would it be to simply stand firm and welcoming in my ideology to shine the light on ignorance or prejudice? I'm not saying it is better to never shut the door, sometimes it just needs to be slammed and barricaded and booby trapped to keep out evil but I think more thought should be put into that door and its traffic flow. You know?

Anyway, I was just thinking about this as I iron out my thoughts about how to better handle some of the negativity I am dealing with from a public school teacher at church. I wonder if I can better handle myself, not bristle so much when the negative comments are made. How can I set an example for my daughters that is graceful and patient both face to face and when I start fuming about it at home?

I'll let you know.

Good Start to the Day

More Things I didn't Expect to Be a Part of Our Farm Adventure

Worms. Worms are gross. Not the earthworms some people keep for kitchen compost or fishing worms.....no I mean gut worms, tape worms, round worms- worms in poop. No animal of mine has ever had worms.

Then we moved to a farm. The pigs had worms, three kinds. We took care of that and all was well. I never thought twice about the domestic animals though. I read that chickens can get worms, but I figured we deal with that in the Spring.

Then one of the dogs pooped in the house and was sick. As I was cleaning it up I noticed the noodles, um, worms. Great. The vet was surprised that I was surprised by this. It is apparently something all the farm folks know, farm dogs and cats need to be wormed 1-2 times every year. So on my great big list of things people should know who are considering farm or rural life: worms, get to know all about worms. Ew.

Then there are skunks. There are a couple seasons where the skunks are worse than usual, where you are more likely to encounter them with your vehicle for example. However, don't think that skunks only magically appear in April and September and hide the rest of the year. No no, they are always out there waiting to spray which ever animal you have decided can live in your home and sometimes they steal eggs and bees too or just generally muck up the normally heavenly smell of fresh farm air.

Add to the list of critters you'll have to deal with as a threat to your own livestock and/or kids and family: coyotes, opossums, raccoons, snakes, rats, owls, weasels, muskrats, foxes, skunks, neighbor dogs, feral cats, deer, bob cats, reckless hunters, mink, hawks, moles, loose cattle/bulls, mice, spiders, ticks, lions, tigers, and bears oh my. Oh and poachers/tresspassers/reckless drivers. Just saying. It is not all fantasy land safe to let the kids run around outside, there are different things to worry about, but things to worry about none the less.

Poop. Farm life is all about poop. You or I can romanticize it plenty and talk about bacon and apples and honey and fresh milk- but really my life right now is about 80% poop. Cleaning out the chicken coup- poop. Pig poop. Cow pies. Identifying predator poop outside the chicken pen. Septic problems/ maintenance, worms in poop, watershed concerns, manure for garden fertilization, horse apples, diapers (ok, that's just because Blueberry is potty training but not yet there and not just because we live on a farm), ect. It just seems like I am constantly scraping poo off my boot. Like I am just surrounded by a bog of poop. I have even learned to tell the subtle difference in the scent of each critters poo- so I KNOW what I have stepped in or which way the wind is coming from. Not all the smells out here are woodsy pine or fresh cut hay. Alas.

Utilities are ruthless. Not that I have ever been late, but there is no grace period. If you are late with a payment, and they are up front about this, your utilities get shut off. In the city, you have a month of grace and can work something out if something comes up. Not out here. That applies to water, electricity, Internet, and propane. I have to read my own water meter which is 1/2 a mile away from my house and then calculate my own payment from a confusing chart. Also, utilities are more expensive by unit here, though we use less than we did in the city so they are lower payments for us compared to what we are still paying in Des Moines for the house that won't sell.

Gas is more expensive than in the city. In Des Moines right now gas per gallon is about $2.36 but in the nearest town to us it is $2.56.

Trash. Burn it or haul it. Disposable diapers and the like do not burn. It is a good thing we use cloth. You know what though, much of what we throw in the garbage doesn't burn either so we have to haul it and the dump is 45 minutes away. $10 per truckload though.

Tires. We have had more flat tires here than in the city and tires made for gravel and dirt roads are more expensive. Tractor tires go flat too. A lot.

4 wheel drive. Required. Often. Sometimes it is not enough.

I am sure there is more. I know that as we were getting ready to move out here I asked people to share these kinds of tidbits with me and none of these things except the flat tire issue came up. None of these would have deterred me though. I would have just liked to know.