Got Milk?

Yesterday we went grocery shopping. Harris Teeter was having some pretty good buy 2 get 3 free sales. I love it when their sales match my coupons. It makes me so happy to save more than I spend at the grocery store. BUT, this is not the point of the blog post. We were going to buy milk while we were there, but our friend Skyler told us about some yummy and all natural milk he bought at a local market. So we headed to Reynolda Farm Market to check it out.

I have been aware of the "cow factories" where almost all of our meat cows come from, but I had (ignorantly) thought that our dairy cows escaped that same fate. As it turns out, most of our milk comes from cows that live in confinement, feed on grains, are injected with hormones, and milked three times a day - all so that they will produce more milk.

Consequences (besides not having a happy cow) for our milk?
*Lower amount of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) - a fat that might be one of the most potent cancer fighters.
*Distorted ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids - studies suggest that those who consume equal amounts of omega-3 and omega-6 have a lower risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, and other disorders. The more grain and the less grass means the more omega-6 and less omega-3.
*Less vitamins - the more a cow is milked (2 times is the normal milking) the less vitamins per milking. Also, more vitamins are consumed (and passed to the milk) when the cow is pasture fed.
You can read more information here.

So here is our new milk:

This milk is from Homeland Creamery. And, it is made only an hour away from here. These cows are not 100% pasture fed, but they are not given any hormones, and are only milked twice a day. Check out the website - it looks like those cows are happy cows :)

Got Milk? Yes we do, and yummy good milk at that.

A Fresh Start

So again, the look of our blog changes, but this time, the theme of the blog changes too. It is no longer just about the "happenings" of Jamie and me, but about us trying to embrace an entirely different way of living. We believe God is calling us to change. The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it. We want to live in a manner that cares for and respects all of God’s creations.

Our goal for this blog is to share the ways we are changing the way we live, whether that is giving up something, adding something, adjusting something, or being more aware of something. Food is going to be a big part of the changes we make and our first life change is to move away from industrialized, processed foods. One consistent aspect of our blog will be us documenting at least one meal a week which we will make from local ingredients whose source we can trace, grown in organic soil and conditions, and that we may have even helped harvest.

Hopefully through this, we will not only change ourselves, but contribute to changing the world as well.

Responsibility

Last night was the third night we stayed up with Ellie, letting her out every couple of hours because of diarrhea. We also had a paper due yesterday that we waited until this week to start writing. Not good timing- talk about being tired.

This puppy relies on us for everything: food, play, discipline, care, and family bonding and love. She is solely our responsibility and that is a big task. Though at times she can try our patience, and will sometimes keep us up at night because she does not feel well, it’s worth it! We love her very much.

Sweet story: This morning a little before 7am, Ellie and I were coming back inside from her third potty time since 3am. When we got to the room (she sleeps in a crate in our room), she put her front paws up on the bed and whined a little. She looked so sweet, and I felt sorry for her after her long night, so I picked her up and put her on the bed. She curled up next to Jamie and went back to sleep- such a cutie!

Eat Pray Love

So, I'm watching Eat Pray Love for the second time this weekend (interrupted occasionally by puppy training and puppy potty breaks), and fantasizing about traveling. So many place I want to go and see!

While watching the movie, I decided to google cheep ways to travel the world. I found a few interesting websites. These sites are for people who are willing to work a bit while they travel. You can contact people who need a helping hand in the area you want to visit. They will house and feed you while you are there, and you work a few hours a day where they need you.

• One is about working on organic farms and learning about sustainability: www.wwoof.org
• One focuses on environmental and social volunteering: www.the7interchange.com
• One has all types of work opportunities: www.workaway.info

I haven't dug too much in to this, but I plan on it. I could be an interesting way to spend the summers while we are in school- travel, learning, and helping others- beautiful :)

Currently

I felt the need to redesign the blog- therefore, I felt the need to blog.

Currently:

*We are back in GA

*Jamie is serving. Ashley is babysitting

*Ashley is attempting to coupon as a hobby. If she can't make money from a hobby, she's going to try to save money from one.

*Biggest news (and life adjustment): a puppy! We adopted a border collie and named her Ellie. She is helping us stay active and get up earlier :) She is a GREAT puppy and I have a feeling future blogs will be about training her - what works, what doesn't, and other stories. We are training her with a clicker as well as treats (only positive reinforcement) and it seems to be working fairly. She does not respond when she is not paying attention to us yet. But, when she’s focused, she’ll sit, come, lay down, shake, and leave it. She’s learning quickly. Today's story: she took a pair of socks today and attempted to bury them in the back yard. If it weren’t for one sock peeking out of the ivy, that pair might have been lost forever J

November

Sometimes I do not understand why it’s so hard for me to blog. I’ve written down a few ideas to blog about, but after a few days I no longer care about the topic enough to share it online. So… a month passes with no posts. Mostly we have been going to school and working – nothing news worthy really. We have had some fun get-togethers at our apt complex: Halloween/Birthday Party and Thanksgiving meal. We are very thankful for our neighbors/friends.

I told some of you that we would post our Old Testament midterm for you to read. In my opinion, our essays are a good summary of what we learned and discussed the first half of the semester. I’m not going to post it online. I got nervous that something might be misconstrued, and once it’s online – it’s out there for the world to see forever. Having said that, if you are interested, send either of us an email and we’ll send it to you for your reading. We’d love to discuss you’re ideas after reading it as well.

Another thing we have done since our last post is take advantage of Bank of America’s free museum weekend in November (those with BoA should take advantage of these weekends). We decided to go to the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. The best thing I took away from that trip was this website: www.g-dcast.com

I have not watched all of them, but two of my favorites are Shemini and Vayetze.

Shemini – very catchy and the most entertained I’ve been with Leviticus

Vayetze – story of Rachel and Leah

Remember, these animations are not a word for word reading of the Old Testament but I think they give new life to these stories that I’m used to reading. Enjoy

Well, our Thanksgiving Break is coming to a end and we have two more weeks of classes – this includes finals. Wish us luck!

P.S. Jamie is now writing for another blog (Yes, I am a little hurt that OUR blog has yet to have a post from him in the course of its 6 month life, but he’s has already posted twice to the other one just this week! And, yes I am writing this to hopefully guilt him in to contributing here.) You can read his writings here.

Thank you Church for letting Galileo in to heaven

Seminary is a great experience!

Coming out here I did not know what to expect. But one thing I did not want was to be given “the answer book” for Christianity. My faith and theology has taken a few punches, and it has also been built up. Honestly there have been times when I’ve thought “Professor, just tell me what I am ‘supposed’ to believe because my brain is starting to hurt with this intake of information.” But I am so very glad I am being challenged and forced to reconcile thoughts and theories for myself.

We have been studying for our Old Testament midterm this past week and I wanted to share this nugget of information with all of our readers (though many of you might already know this).

Hear what our great Reformation leaders had to say about Copernicus because he believed the earth went around the sun instead of the sun going around the earth.

“People give ear to an upstart astrologer who strove to show that the earth revolves, not the heavens or the firmament, the sun and the moon…. This fool wishes to reverse the entire scheme of astrology; but sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, not the earth.” Martin Luther

“The world also is stabilized, that it cannot be moved” (citing Ps.93) “Who will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy Spirit?” John Calvin

Don’t get me wrong, I greatly appreciate these men for their contribution to the Christian faith!

It is just interesting to think about issues we call other people “fools” about today when they might just be right…

I am not thinking of anything in particular, just something to ponder.

(Sidenote: most people/scholars today who hold to the inerrancy of the Bible do include as a qualification that biblical writers used phenomenological language)

Title explanation: Galileo was excommunicated from the church because he also promoted the theory that the sun revolved around the earth… but then they let him back in during the 1990s J

P.S. More Old Testament stuff will be posted once we get our grades back from the essay portion of our tests.