Praiseworthy Food: Shrove Tuesday

Today is Shrove Tuesday in the church calendar. Traditionally Christians fasted from meat products as a way of experiencing a sacrifice to commemorate the sacrifice Jesus gave for us. This meant that the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, they would need to use up all of their animal products such as milk, butter, eggs, etc… Pancakes were perfect for this so pancakes have become associated with this day.

Happily, IHOP has also designated this Pancake day and is giving away a short stack of pancakes to every guest. This is an effort to raise money for The Children's Miracle Network and they are asking for donations. Check it out on their website and head over to enjoy a short stack in observation of Shrove Tuesday!

Praiseworthy food and toys!

I just received my new Braun Powermax 2050 blender in the mail from Amazon. My old blender broke and this was rated a best buy from Consumer Reports and only $39! I celebrated by making the following which comes from the Disease Proof blog.

Chocolate Smoothie
5 oz. organic baby spinach
½ cup soy milk
½ cup pomegranate juice
1 medium banana
1 Tbsp. natural unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups frozen blueberries
1 Tbsp. flaxseed, ground
First, liquefy spinach in soy milk and pomegranate juice in the blender. Add all remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Serves 2.
As son told my daughter, don't turn your nose up at it until you've tried it. Instead of five ounces of baby spinach I used a head of romaine and my son (age 6) and I are sharing. I promise you will not taste the greens AT ALL. The chocolate is in my opinion overkill. You could easily make it without and just have a banana blueberry smoothie. Those of you who have people who don't like greens in your life try this. I used regular milk too by the way.

http://www.blyberg.net/card-generator/

Celebrating Lent

This last December my family celebrated the season of Advent in order to prepare our hearts to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We did this through weekly devotions centered around our Advent wreath candles. It was a wonderful family time and a good learning experience for my children.

One of the sites that I gleaned good information from was Advent for Evangelicals which was written by Lindsey of Just Enjoy the Journey. I like many had hoped that Lindsey would start a similar blog for Lent. Apparently, I was not alone as she recently posted on JETJ that others had been asking for the same thing. Well, she is not creating a blog but she will be posting on JETJ about her family's observance of Lent this year. She has recently posted several links to sites with information about Lent.

For those of you who may be wondering about Lent there is an excellent article about why many Protestants don't celebrate Lent but should here. Lent is the church season before Easter designed to prepare Christians to celebrate the death of Jesus. It begins next Wednesday on Ash Wednesday. Easter is really the big celebration for Christians as the death of Jesus as a repayment of our sins is what makes us right with God and secures our eternal life with Him. Much as the Jews slaughtered lambs for their sins, Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for us.

I'm looking forward to finding ways to spend time with my family observing Lent and remembering the sacrifice Jesus made for me. I hope that you will join me as well!

Responsiblity

Tammy Cardwell, a self publisher, has written a very thought provoking article on her website. It's about the responsibility of homeschoolers to honor copyrights. When I was teaching in the public schools teachers were held to strict standards of what they could copy or not copy from textbooks and other materials. But there is no office staff looking over the shoulders of homeschoolers. Many of the people whose materials I have reviewed and we all love to use are written by people just like us, homeschooling parents in search of just the right material to teach their child. Many publish their materials to help support their families and keep a mom at home to teach the children. So in support of these authors, I urge you to take a minute to read this article, "Theft By Any Other Name."