I have always enjoyed reading. The only thing that got me through my broken leg the summer between my Junior and Senior year in High School was a trip to Barnes and Noble. My mom told me I could pick any books and as many as I wanted, her treat. It was great.

Recently Proeun gave me a great treat. While this time around it involved browsing the internet versus a trip to the bookstore, (sorry local bookstores but you’re all huge chains anyway). I was so excited to get my box this week. I haven’t been able to pick out which one to start on. The hard time is finding time. I also have kntting projects, and sewing projects and a house to keep clean, the list goes on and on. But at least I know I am raising readers. After taking the picture both Mavis and Avril enjoyed going through the pile. Now Avril is “reading” or perhaps a better way to describe it would be writing orally a story to me from one of the books. I suppose some day I will have all the time I want to read and look back and wish for babies to hold.

I love food. That is why I farm and cook and do so much in my life. I love any kind of food. a couple weeks ago our local church school hosted an international food festival. The parents of the students make the food and sell it. This is one fund raiser I try never to miss. This year the offerings included African flat bread, Guatelman tamales, Vietnamese spring rolls, Korean eggrolls, Hmong fried noodles, potato pancakes and much more. I was enjoying my finds when another church member asked me what kind of food I would cook at home. I looked at my plate and realized I have and do cook recipes from each of these regions on a regular basis. I happen to love new and interesting flavors.

Proeun injured his back this Saturday and has been home ever since. After 2 days he was in need of some alternative entertainment. Off to the library I went to select movies. While there I decided I wanted one for myslef–Julie and Julia. When we first saw a preview for this movie Proeun said, “who would want to watch that?” I enthusiastically said, “I would!” It has everything– food, history, cooking, travel, writing, food.

Since Proeun is still laid up (we are going to venture out this evening) he was my captive audience. But in the end he saw the beauty in it, of pursuing something passionately, and eating well along the way. While we may be pursuing a different passion the end result is amazing food. Even Julia Child knew the importance of fresh food. There is a scene in the movie where she goes to the markets and says something to the effect that she finds shopping for food more fun then shopping for a dress.

When I journeyed to Paris in my college days I remember going to the markets and just wishing and praying for a kitchen I could rent or something. I didn’t know then that someday I would be a farmer growing my own food.

If food is also your passion or a passion, Julie and Julia is a great way to spend an evening. You might be like me and seriously think about trying some French cooking.

We always wanted our children to have a good relationship with each other. My sister and I do but that didn’t really develop until she was 12 and I was 16 and I had a broken leg making my 12 year old sister my primary care provider for one really long summer. At one point she told me with maturity beyond her years, “Amy I love you but if I spend one more minute with you I am going to go crazy.”

Proeun and his family were close in the way that really extremely difficult circumstances tend to bond people. Whether it was fleeing imminent death in your home country, surviving in a refugee camp, moving across the world to a neighborhood and country that didn’t understand you and sometimes didn’t want you or growing up with no money and not enough food to go around, these circumstances tend to bond people. But even then when conditions got better school friends began to take the place of family closeness. For his next youngest brother with really bad consequences of bad friends and situations that seemed innocent enough at first.

After moving to Minnesota the brothers became closer and Proeun’s family has been an example to me of sibling closeness. But all around me I see siblings that are distant at best and openly hate each other in the worst cases.

This weekend it really hit home for me how important it is to develop and maintain healthy relationships in the immediate family early as this will be the support system that will carry them through the rest of their life.

I think we are off to a good start. They love each other, play with each other, fight and forgive each other. They are really excited about another sibling joining our family.

One book that really helped me was Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends

This book is written by 3 siblings ranging in age from 20 to 12 at the time of the writing–including one adopted sibling. This book helped me see that not only is it possible for siblings to get along but to be best friends! I really wish I had read this as a young woman before moving out of my family home. Even though I was older when I read it it helped me see my relationship with my sister in a new light and make steps to repair some of the damage to our relationship. I highly recommend it. It can also be read aloud as a family with older children.

I love history! As I entered college that was my declared major until I discovered a secondary interest in English. At which point I decided that history would always be a part of my life and to instead hone my craft as a writer. One of my favorite venues to study history is popular stories written during that time period. Historical fiction is nice too but it often has difficulty really capturing the breadth of the philosophies encompassed in a time of the  past.

For my Christmas reading list last year I requested Mother by Kathleen Norris. The book was originally published in 1911 and reprinted in 2002 by Vision Forum (see their catalog in the side bar).

It is the story of Margaret Paget, a young woman from a large family. She is the oldest girl with one surviving older brother. A second brother had passed away before the story begans. There are 5 younger siblings. She works as a school teacher, helping to support her family. When an unusual turn of events gives her the opportunity to move to New York City as the personal assistant of Mrs. Carr-Boldt.

The story says of her mother–Mrs. Paget

        She had married, at twenty, the man she loved, and had found him better than her dreams in many ways–‘the best man in the world.’ For more than twenty years he had been satisfied to work diligently behind a desk and to carry home his salary envelope twice a monthh. Daddy was steady, a hard worker and so gentle with the children. He delighted in Mrs. Paget’s simple, hearty meals and praised her in his own quiet way. ‘God bless him,’ Mrs. Paget would pray, looking from her kitchen window to the garden where he trained the pea vines, with the children’s yellow heads bobbing about him.

Margaret was not interested in following their path, instead she wanted to get out and experience life. And she did through traveling and working with Mrs. Carr-Boldt. She saw the distance between Mrs. Carr-Boldt and her daughters who spent little time together. She saw the empty relationships. The empty lives and mental illness.
 
At one point she wished her parents had had fewer children so that they could afford more nice things. Even at that time in history 2 children appear to be some hidden ideal of the wealthy for that is exactly what she wished for, just 2 children. Thinking it would include her. Then she remembered that she was the 3rd child and would not have existed if her parents had followed her ideal course.

Over the course of the book she sees the emptiness of the life she had idealized and the beauty of the one she had nearly turned her back on and she finds her way back to her mother.

It is an old fashioned book, unapologetically. And I am an old fashioned girl unapologetically. I highly recommend it.

We are a family of oddballs to say the least. As time passes we seem to get more odd, at least according to mainstream America. One of our particular oddities is trying to avoid unnecessary medication. This is in an effort to live as simply and naturally as possible. It hasn’t always been easy for us and for some families I know this is not an option but we praise the Lord for our good health and pray for the wisdom to keep it.

One book that has really helped us towards this goal is Natural Healthcare for Your Child, By Agatha Thrash. Thrash is a leading expert on natural and alternative medicine and with some 50 plus years in the medical field she has a lot to say.

In addition to background information on anatomy the book is organized by ailment. This actually is the only problem I have with the book because sometimes you don’t really know what the problem is and then it is rather hard to diagnoses but in most cases you can figure it out.

For example yesterday Avril seemed fine when she lay down for a nap. When she woke up we had plans to go to Proeun’s parents for the evening. She woke-up and we left right away. About halfway there she started complaining saying, “Mommy I don’t feel very good.” When we got to our destination I was helping her take off her coat when I discovered she was burning up. This is particularly worrisome with Avril because when she was 21 months old she had a fever induced seizure and ended up in the Emergency Room. We were told that she was probably prone to them and we should be very careful with her temperature. The doctor even recommended medicating her if her temp got over 100 degrees. Getting a 21 month old to take medicine is not easy. I normally ended up wearing it. Don’t get me started on suppositories.

When I reviewed the information in Natural Healthcare I discovered that fever induced seizures while common can be prevented and natural methods to prevent or cure high fevers. I also discovered the wonderful work a fever is working to accomplish in our bodies, that of actually fighting illness and to limit this ability in our bodies is to limit the bodies ability to heal itself.

So I knew all that stuff logically but I still wanted to panic when I discovered another fever. I quickly wet a cool cloth and applied it to the back of her neck. This is a trick my aunt passed on. Since all the blood going to your head passed through the neck, often close to the surface this is a good way to cool temps quickly.

Then I saw her pull on her ear–so the problem in addition to a fever was an earache! Even though we have our goals my first instinct was to take her to urgent care and get antibiotics. However on returning home and reviewing earaches I discovered most heal themselves in 3 days or so. Therefore keeping the patient comfortable is the main treatment. Among other things they recommended hot baths nightly followed by early bedtimes and hot compresses on the problem ear. I also learned more about the anatomy of a child’s ear and how to avoid problems in the future. She slept for 13 hours last night and woke with fever much improved and tonight her ear feels “good.”

Other things we have diagnosed and treated, athlete’s foot and eczema. I discovered I have a dairy allergy from another Thrash book, Food Allergies Made Simple. You can get both these books from Country Life Natural Foods. This is primarily a bulk food company but you can also order very helpful books. For great dairy free recipes I love The Country Life Cookbook and 7 Secrets Cookbook.