Protecting Life: Ireland Holds Out, Rejects EU Treaty

The Irish vote rejecting the Treaty came amidst accusations that the allegedly innocent “re-working” and “streamlining” of the electoral system of the European Union would result in individual member states being reduced to the status of client regions in an overarching, unaccountable and undemocratic superstate. Irish citizenship as well as constitutional law, many critics said, would be superseded by formal citizenship in the EU. This new form of citizenship would be qualitatively different from the current “nominal” or informal EU membership. One Irish “No” campaign flyer ran the caption, “People died for your freedom; don’t throw it away. Vote No.”

Pro-life advocates in Ireland warned that the new political configuration envisaged by the Lisbon Treaty would mean that Irish constitutional protections for the unborn would be negated. More here.

Free Catholic Homeschooling Resource

The Original Catholic Encyclopedia offers: The Catholic 1913 encyclopedia, Art Gallery, Map Room, Church History Curricula, Quotable Catholics, 1,001 Saints, and List of Popes.

A fun resource with many possibilities for teaching: Faith by Numbers.

Iris Giveaway Winner

Since Roxie is missing in action, the second drawing winner is: Debbie J. of Homemaking Dreams!

10% Off Ebay Purchases from 7/18/08 - 7/26/08

Check your Ebay messages if you have an account! From the coupon email:

"Here's how to redeem this offer:
1. Start shopping on eBay. Be sure the seller accepts PayPal.
2. Pay for your item with PayPal before the expiration date: July 29, 2008 11:59:59 PM PDT.
(Make sure the email address on your eBay account is also on your PayPal account. Find out how.)
3. Enter the redemption code: CJULYFUN0810P"

The item(s) must be paid for by 7/29/08.

Also get a rebate by clicking through the Bigcrumbs.com shopping portal. I get a rebate of 36% of the seller's fees every time I shop ebay by clicking through Bigcrumbs.com.

I was so happy to see this because my daughter broke our Brita water filter pitcher, and I was able to find a replacement with filters for a great deal. I also got myself a newish ice tea machine for a price which was less expensive than Walmart's rollback price.

Tips for Slicing Homemade Bread

Frugal Recipes: A Variety of Tasty Dishes Using Canned Salmon

U.N. Making Homeschooling Illegal?

"A U.N. treaty conferring rights to children could make homeschooling illegal in the U.S. even though the Senate has not ratified it, a homeschooling association warns.

Michael Farris, chairman and general counsel of the Home School Legal Defense Association, or HSLDA, believes the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child could be binding on U.S. citizens because of activist judges, reports LifeSite News.

Farris said that according to a new interpretation of "customary international law," some U.S. judges have ruled the convention applies to American parents.

'In the 2002 case of Beharry v. Reno, one federal court said that even though the convention was never ratified, it still has an impact on American law,' Farris explained, according to LifeSiteNews. 'The fact that virtually every other nation in the world has adopted it has made it part of customary international law, and it means that it should be considered part of American jurisprudence.'

The convention places severe limitations on a parent's right to direct and train their children, Farris contends.

The HSLDA produced a report in 1993 showing that under Article 13, parents could be subject to prosecution for any attempt to prevent their children from interacting with material they deem unacceptable."

See more here.

Michael Farris on Obama's stance concerning the UN Convention on the Rights of the Children : "I have every reason to believe that an Obama presidency would be incredibly and particularly harmful to the American family and homeschool community.

For starters, Obama supports the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a treaty that would have disastrous consequences for the American family. This treaty would be, according to our Constitution, part of the Supreme law of the land. And in the U.S. international treaties override state law."



From ParentalRights.com: "The Parental Rights Constitutional Amendment bill has just been introduced in the House of Representatives! Our bill number is H. J. Res 97. You can read the language of the bill by visiting http://thomas.loc.gov and searching for the bill number."

Around Europe:

From the Brussels(Belgium) Journal: "In 2003, however, the Flemish regional parliament decreed that all homeschoolers are obliged to sign a document in which they promise to rear their children along the lines of the UN Convention. The latter undermines the authority of parents and transfers it to the state." More here.

Why open the door to restrictions of our freedoms? We don't need that kind of "change" here in the U.S.A. Less regulation, not more. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are all deeply ingrained in our collective conscience. Let's keep it that way.

Saint Anne's Solemn Novena

Saint Anne's feast day is July 26th, and her Novena runs from July 18th -July 26th.

"Good Saint Anne is especially invoked as Patroness of Mothers, Comfortress of the Sorrowing, Mother of the Poor, Health of the Sick, Patroness of the Childless, Help of the Pregnant, Model of Married Women and Mothers, Protectress of Widows and Patroness of Laborers.

Simplicity is the secret by which we gain Good St. Anne's love, her intercession, and her protection. So widespread is her popularity that there are countless churches dedicated to Saint Anne all over the world." ~ My Catholic Tradition.

HT to Lisa at Are We There Yet?

Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/St. Anne

Immoral Vaccines to be Made Mandatory

New Pentacel Children's Vaccine Created from Cell Line of Aborted Baby

100 Things to Do During a Money Free Weekend

Blueberry Coffee Cake Recipe

Fifth and Sixth Grade Nature Study Resource/Curriculum

I hadn't realized this, but ds's fifth grade science book is all nature study. I had to order additional books(newly published) which cover regular fifth grade science. I was flipping through this book tonight, and it reminded me so much of a Charlotte Mason type nature study. The entire book is in black and white with charming hand drawings throughout. It's a thorough nature study with Scripture sprinkled among the pages. We'll be using both books, the nature study and the regular science from Rod & Staff. The nature study is just too good to skip.

There are two books: Book One for fifth grade, and Book Two for sixth grade.

God's Marvelous Works, Book One is 30 lessons covering Insects, Birds, Flowers and Reptiles.

God's Marvelous Works, Book Two is 30 lessons covering Algae and Fungi, Mammals, and Aquatic Creatures and Amphibians.

Links above show sample lessons.

I got mine on ebay for a few dollars plus shipping. Use Bigcrumbs.com as your shopping portal to ebay for additional discounts. I get a rebate of 36% of the seller's fees. Not a fortune, but every little bit counts.

Saving Money: Coupon and Freebie Blog Resources

I usually buy store brands at discount stores, or rebate for free shampoo and toothpaste at the drug stores, but a few ladies with freebie and coupon blogs have turned me on to couponing at Target.

I got all this today for $9.00 using coupons for everything! The full sized shampoos were all inexpensive Suave which is almost always the least expensive shampoo per unit price. The small sizes were all free trial sizes after $1.00 coupons. I have gotten many free adult shampoos rebating at Walgreens and Rite Aid, but lately freebie rebate items have all been sold out within the first 24 hours. I also need a No Tears/detangler formula for my little girl. With coupons, these Suave products were very inexpensive.

Target's price for Scrubbing Bubbles(my fav for soap scum) is very inexpensive at about $2.00 a can($2.99 for a twin pack). Ace Hardware Store has this price right now as well; this is the lowest I've seen for Scrubbing Bubbles in my area. With a dollar coupon, this was a nice deal.

Here are a few helpful blogs to browse if you are looking for freebies and weekly coupon deals for stores around your area such as Target, Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS, Walmart, and grocery stores.

The "Cent"sible Sawyer
BeCentsAble
Common Sense with Money
My Good Cents
Freebies 4 Mom
Budget Help$
Hooray for Free-bates!

Because we normally buy store brands, and only use coupons occasionally, it's not worth buying the Sunday paper. If you have a free resource for coupons like a recycling center, discarded inserts at the post office, or in our case, discarded inserts from the recycling bin at my husband's work, it's worth it. Yes, we are not ashamed to admit to being the occasional trash picker. ; ) I've had good luck with coupons printed online as well.

Free E-book: Reducing Weight Comfortably: The Dietetic Treatment of Obesity

Timeless commonsense advice for weight loss: Reducing Weight Comfortably: The Dietetic Treatment of Obesity by Gustav Gaertner, published in 1914, and now in public domain.

Click here.

Book downloadable, printable(right click on image of page), and readable online.

Free Electricity - Wind Power for Personal Residences

Homeowners can purchase small wind turbine equipment for their homes. They are a bit pricey, but will pay for themselves in a few years. I noticed that there are some government rebates and grants for wind powered homes as well.

Check out Skystream's wind generator for more information. Also see the Small Wind Association and a state-by-state guide for small wind power. I was surprised to find a dealer here in my small town! The state-by-state link is very helpful for learning all about your state's guidelines concerning wind power, and where to find dealers for the generators.

HT to a Simple Dollar: 25 Gadgets That Actually Save Money

You Are Best Described By...

From the Lake, No. 1 by Georgia O'Keeffe

What Famous Work of Art Are You?

HT to Lisa

Weight Loss Tools

Shield your eyes; it's a nek'd lady! Giggle, Rembrant made fat ladies look beautiful, but I plan to lose a little just the same.

I'm trying to diet yet again! I found a nice weight loss calculator online. It tells you how many daily calories you should limit yourself to in order to reach your weight loss goal by a specific date. My goal was a 25 pound loss by December 2008. The weight loss calculator indicates that I should have a daily calorie intake of no more than 1470.

Today is the first day, and so far so good, but I've been eating McDonald's today which makes it so much easier to measure my calories exactly. I've been using theirBag-a-Meal online nutrition calculator for their menu. You can bag up to six items at a time. I'm trying to limit myself to 40 grams of fat a day. So far I've had a Crispy Chicken Caesar Salad(yum), a wrap, a large sweet tea, and a hot apple pie. After eating an apple and a cup of yogurt at home, I'm still only at 1050 calories. I maxed out on my fat grams with the hot apple pie, but it was gooood.

Tonight I'll be eating leftover boneless skinless chicken, veggies, and a tiny portion of rice for dinner. I have to guess...about 300 calories? Who knows. I know to eat no more than 3 ounces of chicken(size of a bar of soap), and the rice will be about 1/4 cup cooked.

I find it a pain to always have to look up calories, but I use this food counter: Calories in Common Food.

Here's another fast food nutritional counter for Taco Bell . This handy tool lets you plan your meals ahead of time. It will add up your entire tray.

I'll post more lazy diet ideas for the uninspired cook, AKA:prepared low calorie meals. I plan to try Healthy Choice meals next week. My family gets the home cooked meals.

Iris Giveaway Winner

And the winner of the Iris Plant Giveaway is: Roxie! Congrats!!

Please leave your email addy in the comments so that I can reach you. Thanks!

In the event that I cannot reach Roxie( I hope I can, Roxie), I'll pull another name on Monday.

Curly Haircare Product Review: Africa's Best Ultimate Herbal Oil with Ginseng

I have long hair with naturally loose curls. In the summertime it goes bonkers with the humidity. Frizz and dryness are a real problem. I've tried numerous products to control the frizz, and many cause scalp irritation or blemishes around my hairline. I even tried olive oil and mineral oil, but they didn't work well, and the olive oil was very hard to get out of my hair.

For the past week I've been using Africa's Best Ultimate Herbal Oil with Ginseng(made in the U.S.A.) in an 8 ounce bottle which I picked up at Family Dollar for $2.00. I had to use it twice, leaving the oil on my hair overnight, and it worked quite well! My hair is a lot softer and no frizz. You can use this on your skin as well, so it's dual usage is thrifty.

Here are the ingredients:

Soy Bean Oil , Walnut Seed Oil , Kiwi Fruit Extract , Olive Fruit Oil , Castor Seed Oil , Sesame Seed Oil , Jojoba Seed Oil , Carrot Seed Oil , Sweet Almond Oil , *Tocopheryl Acetate , Safflower Oil , Calendula Extract , Yarrow Extract , Cucumber Extract , Carrageenan Extract , Ginseng Extract , Sage Extract , Comfrey Extract , Aloe Extract , Fragrance.

*I looked up Tocopheryl Acetate, also known as vitamin E acetate, and it is a common vitamin supplement.

The fragrance in a little strong, but the ingredients are almost all natural which makes a big difference for my skin and hair. I have a sensitivity to many haircare products for curly hair.

See the good customer reviews at Walgreens online.

Free Old Fashioned Color-By-Numbers Preschool Sheets

These Mennonite coloring books are so cute! I'm going to order the first one, Color-By-Number For Little Hands - Number 1 (ages 3-5). My two year(2.10) old loved the cat and food sheets. I like that they have a few sample printables(click on "Look in the Book") so you can try them out with your little ones.

There are two others we enjoyed:

Color-By-Number For Little Hands - Number 2 (ages 4-6)

Birds - Color-By-Number

I helped with the more difficult ones, but she really enjoyed matching the colors to the numbers. I think it's because they provide large drawing spaces for very young children, and the pictures are simple, but appealing.

Have you seen the Little Jewel Books? These are wholesome hand drawn Amish/Mennonite books about nature, family values, and Christian lessons for young children. My son loved these, and now my daughters picks them up for me to read, often bypassing our Barney books! It surprised me, but I was glad because they teach as well as entertain.

Maybe it is our strong German background(Pennsylvania Dutch: Non-Mennonite), but we are so drawn to these Mennonite resources. The books feature rural scenes so similar to my grandparent's old home outside of Hellertown, Pa(Wassergas). I love the Pennsylvania countryside; it's in my blood even though I've never lived there. My grandparents sold their "gentleman's farm" in the 1980's, and sadly, have since passed away.

If you like wholesome children's books with simple drawings of farms, rural life, nature and animals, these resources will be a hit. They are very inexpensive as well!

Mulching the Garden Frugally

A local tree company delivered free mulch earlier this week, so we have been working on whittling down the huge pile. We got the front yard done and almost finished the backyard today. It's quite a bit of work, but the trade off is it doesn't cost us a dime.

If you can obtain free tree chips(mulch)from your municipality or a tree company, this is a very frugal way of keeping the garden beds moist during hot summers. It also keeps down the weeds, and makes the beds look "finished".

We don't water our garden, so mulching heavily is the only way we can keep a garden without paying large water bills. Our water bills since the drought last year as high enough without having to water the garden. We do water our little vegetable garden, but we use water from our rain barrel.

Plant Giveaway: White Iris

I dug up more than a dozen tall(24" ?) white Iris from my garden today. I'd like to give them away to a new home. I love these under my trees, but they needed to be thinned out a little in order for the neighboring day lilies to survive. I can only ship them within the continental U.S.A.(Customs regulations). Please leave a comment if you are interested, and I'll draw the winner from a hat on Tuesday.

These do well in partial shade and full sun. They are spring bloomers(April - May), but may bloom into the early summer if they have more light than mine do under the oak trees. These Irises will multiple quickly. They will fill out an area within two - three seasons, and keep green sword like leaves through the summer if the weather is not too dry. Very easy to grow! I'll ship the bulbs with the tops cut off. You just plant them and wait until the spring.

Free Online Homeschooling Resources Listed by Subject , Worksheets and More

Recipe Review: Firecracker Chicken

This looks very good, and so easy! See Elizabeth's G's(Home Musings) post.