Your Parental Rights are Being Threatened by the UN!

Please take the time to check out this website. It is really important that as many people as possible join this campaign by signing their petition. ParentalRights.org brings together everyone who agrees that the vital role of parents in the lives of children should not be undermined by government action or policy. I'm standing with them and I know this will be of vital importance to you and your family as well.

When you go to their site click on the "Learn" tab at the top of the page to find out more information about how an amendment is needed to our constitution to protect us from the extreme threat of a United Nations treaty for children's rights that is being sent to countries around the globe to sign. Once signed, rights of the children will supersede those of the parent AND an U.N. sanctioned international court's ruling trumps our laws unless the constitution specifically states that an international court cannot decide our cases. If our next president should sign this treaty (Britain already has and is suffering the whiplash) without a Constitutional amendment in place, your right to homeschool and your children's right to someday homeschool their children could end in this country not to mention the devastating results of stripping parents of their parental rights. I never realized the ramifications of this treaty nor the power of international law. Homeschool families in Germany are having their children taken away from them and having to leave the country because the state deems the parents too dangerous to educate a child and the state is viewed and legally supported as more safe to raise a child. This is very real. Please take the time to check out their website and spread the word. I really can't emphasize this enough.

ParentalRights.org

Profits are better then wages! How to get out of the rat race.

For many of us getting out of the rat race is a daunting task. Taking that first step into risk, trusting that it is an educated risk seems to be equivalent in fortitude to the famous "First Step" phrase uttered by Neil Armstrong. "One small step for real estate investing, one giant leap for the Langford Family Wealth Equity Panic Plan. And yet, the worse case scenario is not making a fatal mistake on your first try but the Analysis Paralysis that paralyses you into not doing anything at all.

A solution? Join a mentor or mentoring group with a host of experts that can walk you though initial shaky spots, and be available to answer any questions that come up with those baby steps. The benefits of online mentoring are the extremely low cost that a real live mentor can offer along with the cumulative opinions of many experts that are all in on the same path in your field.

The way of the future is membership sites and they offer innumerable benefits to a newbie. One such membership site that we have recently signed up for is Real Estate renovator experts Steve and Jodi Falkner. They are a homeschool family who have renovated houses for a tidy profit for over 15 years. He now renovates full time and I believe he knows what he is doing. In just one year, he created over 300,000 in equity in real estate. He lost money on only one house, his first, and since then has seen a profit on all the rest. If you want to take a step to get moving forward and real estate is your desired goal, you will want to join this group of enterprising individuals that can be both advice and support to you in your new ventures. HowToRenovateHouses Check it out.

Are you ready to learn how to educate your kids (and yourself!) to be an entrepreneur? To use your natural abilities to serve God and others and earn the money you need for financial liberty, all from the comfort of your Home?

Well, if you are, have I got a community for you!

To break out of the Rat Race, you need to do 3 things:

1. Get vision for what God wants you to do
2. Get specific education so you can do it
3. Take action because nothing will happen if you don't change what you're doing now.

EntrepreneursAtHome online community focuses on giving families practical cutting-edge education and continual encouragement in areas such as real estate, ebay, and the Internet that you won't find just anywhere. Ask your questions in our 24/7 international forum. Read tons of our success stories. Check out our Recommended Resources to cut your learning curve by years! I have been a part of this active group for a few years and you can really learn a lot and skip by much trial and error
having access to many seasoned success stories of those that have already been there and made the mistakes. It's like have a personal mentor with the combined years of experience of several experts.

You have to do some thing different in order to expect different results. If you are ready to see some new ideas and be inspired to focus on a new direction you've come to the right place! EAH can help you like we've already helped thousands of others realize that God wants more for you than to focus on paying that power bill every month. He has a job for you to do and we want to help you figure out what it is, then get empowered to do it!

So if you're ready to get started, join our community now! We're going places! Check out the Entrepreneurs At Home site today!

The Most Serious Learning Gap in your Home Education Plan- and How to Fill it.

The most frequently asked question I receive when mentoring young home school families is, "What about learning gaps." We all know what that means because we all have felt that fear, that twinge of panic that churns within making us feel glaringly inadequate and causes some of us to rush to the nearest curriculum fair to ease our panic. Let me assure you first of all, no matter what you teach your children you will have gaps. Mozart and Einstein, Da Vinci and Isaac Newton all had some serious learning gaps. But we don't think of them as being inadequately educated. We know them as being geniuses.

They were specialists in their fields, and probably went well beyond the expertise of their teachers. I think in God's providential design these and other men and women of history were called to fulfilling their calling in their period in time with their gifts, talents and abilities in spite of the label many of them achieved even from some of the experts of their own time.

But there is one learning gap that is very important to avoid in your home educational plan. We must teach our children how to think entrepreneurially. In fact, business should be the natural outcome of your home school. But what to do, we as parents cry out, "I don't feel qualified, I have never operated a business and do not know where to even start."

You may be completely justified in your insecurity. You and me and most of the common people of our age have been educated in public schools and on the left side of what Robert Kiyosaki calls The Cashflow Quadrant. On that top left side is the square is the "employee mentality," those who are trained to exchange "time for money," an hourly or monthly wage. Below that are those who are "self employed," (who work harder than anyone exchanging that time for money). We all know and feel comfortable on that left side of the cashflow quadrant because we all have been raised there and so have our parents and their parents before them. But we also feel trapped,... trapped in the rat race and many of us feel hopeless and unable to get out. How can we lead our children to a place we do not know how to get to ourselves?

Our modern day schools were produced to serve the industrial age, to produce workers for the factories. They are assembly line based and produce assembly line thinking: those who just know what to do but are never encouraged to ask why. We are no longer in the industrial age and yet our modern age schools are still producing workers for factories. It is very difficult to turn around an ocean liner on short notice and a small area of water but home school families can be those small speed boats that have the agility and power to make changes in direction very quickly. As home school families we are not part of the public school system. Let us not follow them in the same direction and yet still hoping for different results. There just may be a Niagara Falls up ahead. Let's capitalize on our ability to turn and speed in the opposite direction back to the way the founding fathers, the pilgrims and entrepreneurs that built this country were educated. Our home and families can be independent and free to make these changes very quickly. I challenge you to learn to think differently yourselves, to think entrepreneurially.

For us as homeschoolers to reach for an old fashioned diploma, the rubber stamp of social approval created by an industrial age government system is not going to produce free thinkers and leaders that this information and recommendation age is going to require. Furthermore a college education is no longer the insurance policy your children need to protect their careers and produce a stable income in the future. In fact, if we as a society continue to produce factory educated workers, our future may be grim indeed. In this coming age, in the age of perhaps severe financial difficulty ahead; may be characterized by a vacuum of free thinkers instead of specialists in creativity, self motivated, innovative, and confident leaders. Instead, we will be waiting someone, anyone to lead us as a nation...into what? Life in the coming age may be very different from what we have known all our lives. Our current economy looks fine on the outside but is extremely unstable. If the current rate of foreclosures is any indication of where we may be heading, we may be in for some radical changes in the coming years.

So, there is another way, and for the most part the wealthy of this country have educated their children differently, on the right side of the cash flow quadrant. On that top right side is the title "Business Owner," and "Investor" on the bottom right. To live and operate on the right side of the quadrant takes another way of thinking and another type of education. But again, you don't feel qualified? That's OK. God has not abandoned us to futility.

God has gifted your children with some very unique giftings and abilities and has called them into a world that needs their calling to be fulfilled. It is our job to help them discover those unique callings and help them develop the ability to fulfill that call, and then learn to turn that gift and call into a profitable business. The purpose of education is to equip them for life, not just prepare them for a job.

So then, what do we teach our children? Even though I may be preaching to the choir we need to look again at our scope and sequence to assess if we really do have our ladder propped up against the right tree. There can be no worse regret than to have certain goals and plans for our children's future only to find that we had a double and opposing paradigms, blinding us into doing things one way and thinking another way. The desired goals could not possibly be the outcome of our operational plan as we were thinking erroneously or being double minded.

First and foremost, teach your children to seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness. After that teach them to think and reason Biblically, to humble themselves and to renew their minds on the Word of God. Then fill their imaginations with wonderful stories of heroism and faith and perseverance. Teach them history and HIS providential story on the earth. Teach them to ask why. Teach them to seek to answer their own questions amongst great books and great people.(biographies) Teach them to experience life and do projects and to wonder at the marvels of the world. Oh yea,... and teach them reading, writing and arithmetic as well. And give them that leadership/entrepreneurial education, by allowing them to take the lead in their own education, an education that will produce those who can think and not just parrot.

Our homes are the ideal place to be the seed bed of an entrepreneurial education. 20th century poet and Nobel prize winner,William Butler Yeats said,

"Education is not the filling of a bucket but the lighting of fire."

That fire is the delight of discovery, the pride of mastering a problem, and the well honed desire to know more.

It has also been said,

"Don't teach your children knowledge, teach them to think and then set them free. Specialized knowledge will be theirs."

Teach your children to specialize in whatever delights their hearts and then teach them how to monetize what they have mastered. That is the key to a healthy, full and rewarding education.

One of the best initial resources that I recommend to home educating families is to read the two book set by Robert Kiyosaki.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad This book is the foundation of all financial education in our family, starting with us as parents, having had to renew our minds on entrepreneurial thinking and then teaching and modeling it for our children. Robert tells his story of his two Dads, one, his own highly educated and intelligent but financially illiterate father (Poor Dad) and contrasts his philosophy with the incredible influence that his best friends entrepreneurial father had on him, who he affectionately calls his Rich Dad. Written as Roberts biography but it is riddled with financial principles. We have found this book to be great fodder for our entrepreneur/business notebook. Try doing a comparison sheet of quotes from each dad and then do a word study on wealth, money and riches from the Bible. What a great exercise. I highly recommend this book and the next in the series as excellent choices for family read aloud time. I assure you there will be lots of discussion!

Cashflow Quadrant The next book in the Rich Dad Series is Cashflow Quadrant and is highly recommended to be read in succession. In Cashflow Quadrant Robert explains the four financial quadrants that we all operate under, but which side you are on and why might surprise you. He teaches you what really is and is not an asset (your house) and how to really learn how to live on the right side of the quadrant.

Another day, another dollar - SAVED!

With even more purchases of energy savings light bulbs and another day on the ladder and we expect to wracked additional savings in our power bill thanks to a great sale on compact fluorescent light bulbs.

We have a big house, probably too big for just the four of us at home now and so the power it takes to run this baby is steep. When my husband came home with his arms loaded with .....lightbulbs I thought he's blown a fuse! But as he mentally calculated the difference it could make in our power bill, sparks ignited more potential savings. This is how we worked it out.

We took out 5000 watts of potential power usage (66 light bulbs!)and replaced them with approximately 1000 wattage of potential use. That gave us a 4000 watt "savings," and an 80% savings on the light bill! He estimated approximately 4 hours per day useage on every bulb in the house (which might be rather high)times 8 cents per KW charged with our power company = 1.28 per day X 365 days equals a savings of $467.00 per year. Minus the $50.00 invested in the bulbs yields an approximate savings of over $400.00 per year providing the bulbs last as long as a year. (They are advertized to last 7 years) That's over 1.00 per day, hence another day and other dollar-saved.....and we all know that a dollar saved is a dollar earned.
Any which way you look at it, I'm having a blast. Just call me the Merry Misery Mom. I'm in my glee.

I'm so excited!

I love saving money! I get chills up my spine, shaky knees and yet feel empowered all at once. My husband came home from Costco today with a big box of ....light bulbs!

"Guess how much there were?"

I shuttered. I just happened to pay a whoppin' $7.00 for ONE of these very looking bulbs at Winco (my cheap store) and do so every time one of our 13 spotlights blow out.

"Well..guess", he insisted.

"Umm , $5.00 each?" I hoped.

"Nope, $4.00 for a package of 6!"

"No way, I exclaimed."

"Yup, they are not your normal bulbs, they are compact fluorescent bulbs using 75% less energy." Working out the wattage and voltage usage my electrician husband estimated a savings of $300-400 per year!"

He quickly installed them all. They do not come on instantly though and in fact when we first tried them we were a little surprised at the slowness to become fully bright. Once they warmed up, (30 sec? or so) they seemed as bright as what we have had before. Yea, I can compromise....open my eyes a little slower for that kind of savings. As long as the expected life span is as good as it says on the box we'll be set.

Apparently, the "government" in Washington (cause for suspicion) was giving a price break rebate of $12.00 off per package at the register in Costco to promote power savings. Let's see if it works. I am going to be checking our power bill and maybe charting it compared to last year this time to see if it makes a difference. I'll keep you "posted!"

For a compulsive organizer, taking down the tree, packing up decorations, and vacuuming up the last of the Holiday cheer spurs a flurry of uncontrollable Spring cleaning. I know it isn't Spring yet but January is an excellent time to purge and replenish.

Have you ever noticed "White" sales are always in January? Furniture stores usually boast large sales numbers in January as well. I think it is more common that I thought. The urge to clean up and clean out comes naturally in the dark inside days of January. Furthermore, this is still our school break and I so rarely have start and "finish the job" time to spare so I am on a rampage, every closet, every drawer, everything in sight must have an excuse for being there. I become merciless in tossing, donating and reorganizing. And I'm in my glee. You see for compulsive organizers such as myself, this is the most delightful time of the year. I rethink systems, work on economizing products that we use, and restore order and fresh air in closets, etc. Some of the most inspiring books on cleaning and dejunking I have read are two books by Don Aslett:

Is There Life After Housework? by Don Aslett and Craig LaGory

Clutter's Last Stand: It's Time To De-junk Your Life! by Don Aslett

Even though I read them years ago I still use many of the systems that I put in place almost 10 years ago. I still have spray bottles with dilutable cleaning solutions in every room for specific tasks. Bathroom cleaning takes only 3 and a half minutes when done daily. I can wash all the windows of my house, sparkling clean, inside and out in about two hours. (This is the only exception, I do NOT clean windows-in Seattle-in January. I let the rain do that.)

By the time Spring really does come I can be outside planting and preparing for a great summer show of blooms and tomatoes.

Being proactive throughout the year really does mean you can be on top of events and unexpected happenings as they come up instead of drowning in mess and dysfunction.

So, let's see, Kitchen drawers-done, laundry room-done, office and downstairs bathroom-done. Now, onto the school room. Hmm, I wonder if library late fees are tax deductible?

Are We Raising our Children to be Learners or Thinkers?

As homeschooling parents we all know that to teach your children to be lifetime learners is one of the most desirable traits and skills you can do for your children. But is your goal too shallow if all you teach them is to be a learner, to always learn but never to able to arrive at a conclusion? Could it be that being a thinker is a deeper and much more scriptural principle?

Today's school system is set up to teach learning and not thinking. It used to be when our grandparents went to school that the goals then were to teach thinking skills and their eighth grade graduating diploma gave them a much higher level of thinking than our twelve years of schooling does today. Perhaps the claim is that there is more information to impart now than there was several generations ago? Perhaps, but that may just be the point! Modern day schools with dialectic teaching and testing methods teach knowledge which is always going to be incomplete and full of gaps and not thinking and reasoning skills which is critical in bringing our children to maturity in discernment skills.

Furthermore to teach someone to think is to teach them the difference between right and wrong. To be able to reason the truth by principle is the deepest and most foundational education that we can give our children. They can learn what Mom or Dad might think about this or that but to reason and discern truth based on principle is the ultimate goal to leave as our Godly heritage.

Doesn't a thinker have to learn? Yes, but does a learner have to think? No. A learner is graded on how many facts and pieces of information he can parrot back usually on a test. By that definition a computer is an excellent learner but it cannot think! Does God want blind obedience or deliberate choice? Does He want our children to think and choose wisely or to just do as they are told without the reason or promise of a blessing? Let's not produce robots in the education of our children! Let's teach them to reason, even to reason with God himself. “Come now let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow!”

Learners know facts and yet thinking is discouraged. Thinkers deal in ideas and concepts and reasoning is the goal. To the learner the more facts the better but the thinker knows that the facts are important and they can be found when necessary.

Learners look at the effects; thinkers looks at the cause. Learners don't care why, things just happen and sees man as the focus of history. A thinker constantly asks why and understands the cause and effect principle. A thinker also views history providentially. A thinker is one who can apply thought processes to circumstances and is able to extract truth. The bottom line is a learner is paid for what they know. A thinker is paid for how they think, the basis of the entrepreneurial mind!

Teach your children to ask why, but don't tell them the answers. Teach them to search, to hypothesize and to reason the answers through the knowledge that they already have. The ability to craft a good question is a sign of intelligence and it is so important to surround yourselves with people who think and challenge your thinking. Of course, there is no higher call and better example you can set for those in your charge than for those thinking mentors to be your children's parents!

Knowledge is cautiously esteemed in the scriptures but we are implored to embrace wisdom. Wisdom cannot be taught; it must be reasoned and ultimately comes as a gift of God. Therefore, to be a truly accurate thinker is to be Biblically minded. A Biblical thinker is constantly comparing the ideas presented to him with the Word of God, to discern what is Truth and what is a lie. A Biblical thinker truly fears God over man which we know from Scripture is the beginning of wisdom! Let's teach our children to be wise through the practice of excellent thinking skills, and to lead their future families, this wayward culture and possibly our nation by being true Biblical thinkers!
Janet Langford
www.RaisingEntrepreneursatHome.com

Happy New Year, 2008!

Well, it's the New Year. Have you spent the day planning, inspiring vision in your kids, serving your family or sitting around watching TV all day? Well, I have done a combination of all of all of these today and that's OK, but tomorrow, it'll be a back to business day and I will be planning and focusing on where we will be going in the New Year. I will be assessing my strengths and weakness and see where I can improve in a few areas. Some coming into focus already are


Homemaking-I plan on continuing to serve healthy meals to my family. That takes planning. What I find the hardest about planning ahead is balancing what my family wants (husband in particular) and what is practical, cost efficient and healthy. (All three don't ways compute in my family) Books to use are Nourishing Traditions, Raw-volution and Cooking free (just ordered from Amazon) I plan on Reading the following books Homemaking by J. R. Miller and rereading Don Aslatt's books on housekeeping. Anyway, I will try again at meal planning. My goal is 1/3 - 1/2 raw, mostly vegetables, sprouts and salads, and an increase of cultured foods, such as daily- Raw yogurt, kefir, sour cream and cream cheese. I plan on making these myself so there will be a learning curve. I also need to find a source of clean raw milk that is NOT $10.00 a gallon (which is what it is in our local Health Food store) I also plan on including some cultured vegetables. (I've tried them before and enjoyed them but my family turned up their noses. I'll try again.
I want to use my microwave less, plan more and cut down on our grocery budget without compromising taste or satisfaction (is that possible)- I'll be doing more sprouting and making some delicious salad dressings.
I also plan on getting my recipes organized- in one spot and findable when needed.
I plan on improving on getting dinner o the table at a more reasonable hour. 6:30pm if possible. I'd like to plan on 5:00pm but there is no way of knowing when my husband will be home. I plan on being tidier and neater and to inspire my children to do the same. I will be using Don Aslat's clutter free living.

Spiritual growth- I will be including in my reading journal for spiritual growth a book by Hannah Whitehall, The secrets to a Happy Christian and using this for meditation this coming year. I have a prayer goals of certain issues that I need direction on, I will plow on till I receive his will on these issues. I want to reimplemented a daily quiet time focusing in the Lord and his direction in my life. I want to get personal, and have Him dig deep in my heart. It hurts but it is so good to be clean and in His care. I will be doing some word studies and hopefully some character sketches from the Word. I want do a comparative study on David, an example of the spirit controlled life (with a few hiccups) and Saul an example of the flesh) Home Education- I plan on reading 1 book per week, of history, classics etc. I resolve to move along in history moving up to the modern age by the end of this school year.

Parenting- To be more proactive with my children's character training. I have such precious time left and so much more I feel I need to cover and work in them. I will be re reading Keeping their Hearts by the Maxwells

Physical- I do regularly exercise but in the last few months,,,.... OK almost a year good habits have gone the way of the fire engine approach. do what is urgent first. So again be proactive in my intent. And maybe tighten up a little and loose 5 lbs! (That would be great) I will be continuing with Jane Fonda's complete work outs And walking daily as well I hope with my sons.
Business-I want to open up a few more areas of product sourcing for our online book sales. adding a new book inventory and perhaps a website to market them as well (Not sure) I am looking to increasing sales by 10 percent and stabilizing fluctuating monthly income.

Personal Growth-I plan on learning to type. (gasp she can't type?) Nope, I'm the fastest look at your keyboard typist around but it isn't as good as seeing at all your mistakes happeing s you make them so I plan to attack this weak area.
I plan on organizing the files on my computer so I can find things when I need them most. I really really do want to understand why this ....blessing of a computer does all these wacky things when I try to direct it.
Most of all I want to focus on relationships this year; relationships with my two sons, who are still in our home. Time is short and I want to instill a deeper relationship and foster deeper trust.
With my husband to enter into prayer on his behalf for his job and a few other important issues and to not let discouragements get me down.
With my grown children and their spouses, I love them all so much. How can I serve them? and with my grandchildren. I want to be a Grandma to be remembered, one with a multi generational goal of spiritual influence. That takes a life a sacrifice, of prayer and of commitment.
OK, so off with the TV and get to work. (actually it's not just plain old TV, it's Hogans Heroes 2nd and 3th season collection that my youngest got for Christmas. Hilarious!)
I've got another year to live with gusto. In a nutshell, I need to get organized and get focused.

Raising Your Children to be Leaders, not Followers.

My friend and mentor Kerry Beck has written an article about her leadership training philosophy. I've included the whole article here. It is very good!

Raising Leaders in your homeschool.
How can teachers use their curriculum to train leaders for the future? How can parents encourage their children to lead when they grow up?

The first place to start in raising your students into leadership is to change your own education paradigm. “What in the world do I mean by education paradigm?” Most of us grew up in a public or private school, which can be likened to a factory. All the students come to the factory or the school. They start in kindergarten and move on to first grade, down the conveyor belt. At each stage of the conveyor belt (or grade level), the student learns the exact same information as everyone else. The students are told what to think.

Even though the school may be using tools like classics, the school’s approach to education only teaches students “what to think”. Too often, teachers lecture and “force-feed” information to their students. Please know I do not believe lectures are bad; they have a place. But too often, teachers lecture, telling their students what to think about the readings. Later on, tests are
given to determine if the student knows what the teacher thinks about the readings, not what the students discover about the readings. John Gatto says it well.

"After you fall into the habit of accepting what other people tell you to think, you lose the power to think for yourself." John Taylor Gatto, A Different Teacher, 2002

When you have a steady diet of lecture, you lose the power to think for yourself. To develop leaders of tomorrow, you need to change the methods used to educate the children of today. How do you look at education? Do you believe educators needs textbooks for everything? If so, you are training your children to follow. The underlying assumption of textbooks is that the teacher and student do not know enough to evaluate resources so the textbook author will do it for you. All the student has to do is learn the conclusions of the textbook to become successful in “school”. This model of education makes great followers who learn what to think. Ponder for a moment. Textbooks give students questions to answer. If the student can answer the chosen questions on a test, he can move on to the next piece of information. Textbooks do not encourage students to think outside of the answers in the teacher’s manual. This model has provided our society with highly trained, but poorly educated graduates. Leadership education takes a different approach to curriculum.

One of the essential elements of leadership is teaching how to think. I don't think your children should complete their education and not know how to think on their own. Shifting your educational model from from "what" to think to "how to think"can be a major change in your life. Below are some practical ways to set a foundation for this type of foundation by starting with yourself. As you teach your children how to think, you might see a lifestyle change for your entire family. Leadership education ultimately involves the family as a whole. Initially, it takes much effort from a parent because you must be involved in learning and growing yourself. You cannot hand over some workbooks and say, "go for it." Workbooks merely teach your children what to think, not how to think.

To begin your own education as a teacher or parent, start by reading one classic. Choose a classic that interests you. If you’re not sure what classic to read, consult a young adult classics list. After you finish your first classic book, read another one. Repeat this until you have read four or five classics. You are off to the start of a fine education for yourself. As your children see their parents studying and learning, they begin to have a different idea of what education is all about. You will be excited about what you are learning and want to share it with your own children. After you finish five classics, read another one and add a writing activity. As you read this classic, keep a reading journal. In your reading journal, write down your thoughts about the story. Share your thoughts with someone else.

Now, it is time to start with your own students. Choose a classic to read aloud together. The first classic you read together should be purely for enjoyment. If your students have never enjoyed classics, you may need to read a few more before moving to journaling and discussing. Once you think your children are ready, ask them to journal about the story after you finish reading each day. Then, discuss what the students wrote in their journal.

Francis Bacon said, “Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man."

Reading, writing and discussing is foundational to developing students who think for themselves. If you want your children to be leaders, they must think on their own and classics are the best place to start.

Kerry Beck is the author of Raising Leaders, Not Followers, which encourages parents to raise their children to be leaders who make wise decisions and call their own shots. http://raisecom.familyebiz.hop.clickbank.net/

Purposeful Persimmons!

I came across a winter salad recipe calling for persimmons. Quite honestly, I stumbled a little and thought, "What's a persimmon?" I had heard of them but had never bought or tasted one. I do not even know if I would recognise them at the grocery store, so to save face I did the only thing any honest housewife would do. I sent my husband! With a cool and collected look on my face just as he was walking out the door I asked him to pick up a couple of persimmons at the grocery store. His reaction was worse than mine! "Persmidons? What's that?" I rolled my eyes and spelled them for him and told him to ask someone in the store or read the signs, "I want two, please," silently chuckling as I closed the door. I was astonished at the price of 2.00 for two tiny plum sized orangeish fruit but simply followed the directions and peeled them and chopped them for our evening meal.

Wow, I am sold! Persimmons are mine, to love and to hoard. They made a delightful color splash in our green salad and since then have tried them to my delight in a smoothie. Yum. AND, they are grown in the USA making them on my OK to buy list (No US banned pesticides.)

They are somewhat high in carbs and natural sugars but topping a salad makes for a moist sweet flavor boost amongst flat lettuce leaves. They are high in natural iron and vitamin c making them a great winter addition to our diets.

Persimmons are delicious whether eaten fresh, dried, or cooked. As a fresh fruit, they are unbelievable, perhaps the cross between a crunchy peach, and an sweet apple. However you might describe them, the taste of a fully ripened persimmon is superb-incomparable to any other fruit. (Persimmons are featured in the soon to be released book, "101 Foods that could Save your Life,")

Today, I found them at my local Winco grocery store chain (standing for Washington, Idaho, Nebrasca and Colorado,) for only 28 cents each! I filled my plastic bag with visions of what else I can try?

Hmmm,....How about homemade persimmon ice cream? I'll let you know how that turns out.

Posted by Janet Langford, at 7:28

Great marmalade AND a natural antibiotic to boot!

Every year we make our favorite marmalade and hand it out as Christmas gifts "from our kitchen." This year however, I noticed a link that for some reason I had never clued into before. These two recipes may be prescriptive and preventative, one after the other. The first is a natural antibiotic, just in time for cold and flu season and the other a yummy fresh tasting spread to put on hot buttered toast after you have recovered as a maintenance and a delightful winter treat. They are made from some of the same ingredients and both work great.

The first is what I call my powerful natural antibiotic recipe and is made in a regular blender using organic citrus fruit. They really should be organic as regular oranges and lemons have a lot of chemicals and coloring agents in and on the skin. If you cannot find organic, soak and scrub regular oranges well using a fruit and vegetable cleaner and a scrubbing brush.

The honey should be raw, unfiltered for the antibacterial benefits. Cooked filtered and otherwise processed and altered honey is permanently runny and may be diluted with undesirable sugar or corn syrups, exactly what you do not want in a remedy for a sick person! Raw honey will be a thick liquid that will eventually turn in to a crystally solid and is great on hot buttered toast all by itself.

Perhaps not as important but preferred are organic onions as often store chain onions are treated with anti sprouting agents. (along with potatoes -but we don't use potatoes in this recipe)

So here it is.

2 whole organic oranges, skin pulp and all

1/2 - 1 whole organic grapefruit, same thing, the whole kit and caboodle

1 organic lemon- all of it.

blend with

1 cup raw honey

till smooth as possible.

Add

1 or two large whole garlic cloves or more if you can tolerate it

add a half an organic onion.

Whiz till smooth. Pour into a glass jar with a lid and store in the fridge for easy and frequent use. Take 1 tablespoon every hour for the day and evening hours, drink plenty of pure water and expect a quick recovery-without the harmful, and cyclical damage of prescription antibiotics. Continue the next day if symptoms persist .

Although is sounds like quite an offensive combination it is not entirely unpalatable. If small children object add a little more honey and adjust to a little less onion. We have used this for many years and the first time I tried it on my four year old's ear infection, it cleared up over night!

Perhaps you might want to start with half the recipe to start and see how it works for your family.

AND for prevention in the dark of winter when we have overindulged on Christmas sweets enjoy a very yummy healthy marmalade. Try this one.

2 large organic oranges

1 cup of raw honey

whizzed in a blender till chunky or smooth and poured into glass jars and refrigerate till ready to spread onto hot buttered toast.

(This is the first in a series on natural remedies. Check back for more tried and true natural and healthy remedies for your family)

Hmm, I think I'll go check to see if there is any left in the fridge.

Happy New Years Day and we wish you a great, healthy, prosperous and successful year for you and your family.