Category: Health

Where Are You Going to Live?

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Quick check-in parents:  How’s your house?

No, I don’t mean the brick-and-mortar residence where your furniture is located.  I mean your body.  How is it doing?

As Seventh-day Adventists, we are blessed with a beautiful health message.  The 8 laws of health sunlight, air, water, rest, nutrition, exercise, temperance and trust in God are so easy for us to teach to our children.  But I’ve noticed recently that  so many of my parent friends are tired, stressed and on the brink of some sort of health crisis/problem.  I know this is not an isolated situation.   We as parents get so busy managing children, jobs, church work, etc.  that we don’t have time to take care of ourselves.

 

Parents, I know most of us push ourselves to provide the best spiritual, physical and emotional nurturing for our children that we possibly can.   But are we doing it at the expense of our own health and well-being?  How can we be the homeschooling parents that God has called us to be if we are struggling with wellness?

Has the Holy Spirit been prompting you to get back into having a personal devotional time?  Or to go to bed earlier,  or begin phasing a certain food out of your diet?  Most of us know what we should be doing to improve our well-being. I would like to encourage you to prayerfully listen to those promptings and follow through on them.

As a friend of mine says, “If I don’t take care of this house (pointing to his body), where am I going to live?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Science Tools for Science-Minded Homeschoolers

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Are  STEM (science/technology/engineering/math) subjects are a favorite in your homeschool?  Do your children truly enjoy nature study? Is a child showing an interest in deeper STEM study?     If so, then you are likely looking for science tools and resources that go beyond the cheap plastic chemistry sets and play bug nets available at most toy stores.

Every homeschool family that wants to expand or extend any branch of STEM study should be on the mailing list  for the following science resource catalogs listed below.

Nasco Science

Home Science Tools

Nature’s Workshop Plus!

Carolina Biological

We love to get all four of these catalogs in the mail! My children love to mark the pages with kits or equipment that looks exciting to them.   I’ll readily admit that I’ve marked up these science catalogs as well, with all the science curriculum kits, materialsscience 3 and supplements that I’d like to use. I have ordered curriculum materials, lab equipment, microscope slides, dissections sets, etc. from these companies  and have been nothing but satisfied.

The links take you to the catalog request portion of each site, but these companies also have online catalogs as well for immediate browsing.

Both Nasco and Carolina also offer specialty catalogs for specific subject areas such as chemistry, agriculture or early learning.

Do you know of another science resource catalog that would benefit homeschool families?  Please tell us about it in the comments below.

My Place in Space – Lessons on Stewardship

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Stewardship is the theme of the adult Sabbath School Bible Study guide this quarter.   Here is an excellent resource from the General Conference of SDAs that teaches the concept of stewardship to children.  These lessons go beyond the stewardship of money -they direct children to the Bible to look at a broader idea of stewardship.  The lessons can be useful at home and in a Sabbath School or Children’s Church setting . Take a moment to browse the free downloadable files to find out more.  Click the image or link below .

MY PLACE IN SPACE 

Sabbath Playlist- Healthy Inside and Out

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Here is the first of more than 25 free  two-minute audio files teaching children the 8 laws of health and encouraging healthy habits.   This sample file is on sunlight  Each of the files can be listened to online or downloaded for free. These would make a great  introduction to a weekly health theme.   You can find the rest of the files HERE  at General Conference Children’s Ministries.

What on Earth does WFPB mean?!

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With the ever-increasing hash tags in the modern day, online post you’re bound to have come across one in particular that isn’t self-explanatory. That is #WFPB. The first time I heard of WFPB was while reading Dr. T. Colin Campbell’s book ‘Whole’, the follow-up to his first book ‘The China Study’ (a MUST READ for anyone who is keen to understand the connection between dairy consumption and cancer). Campbell explained the abbreviation – Whole Food, Plant-Based. So, if you follow a WFPB diet you follow a diet that consists entirely of whole foods (without refined sugars, flours and oils) and completely void of all animal products.
Initially, this diet proposal may seem impossible, preposterous even, but it’s not. Trust me! I’ve been plant-based for 12 years and I have been pleasantly surprised at the discovery of the wide and variety fruits, nuts, grains and vegetables our Creator has gifted us with. Personally I choose to use small amounts of oils and salts in my cooking and also use minimally refined products, such as gluten flour (to add texture to ‘meat-like’ sausages and mock steaks) and rapadura (evaporated and granulated cane juice used in the place of white sugar). Ideally, aiming to eat the majority of the foods in your diet in their whole food form is optimal.
As Author Ellen White wrote:
Let the diet reform be progressive. Let the people be taught how to prepare food without the use of milk or butter. Tell them that the time will soon come when there will be no safety in using eggs, milk, cream, or butter, because disease in animals is increasing in proportion to the increase of wickedness among men. The time is near when, because of the iniquity of the fallen race, the whole animal creation will groan under the diseases that curse our earth. – Testimonies for the Church 7:135, 1902 CD 356.2
Yes, we will need to gradually learn how to wean ourselves from animal foods, like eggs, milk and butter, but thankfully we live in a time where we have the additional motivation of knowing that current science supports White’s conclusion that plant-based is best. May God guide us to make the healthiest choices possible for ourselves and our families.
P.S. I have recently published a plant-based cookbook which uses predominantly whole foods. Thankfully it is so easy to prepare wholesome meals. Also for any American readers, please take a look (and buy one if you like!) at my cookbook Kickstarter campaign
 (cheap postage and free ebooks for early bird purchases). Feel free to share the link with others who may like to try some yummy, easy-to-prepare meals too. And for the rest of the world, the cookbook is available from my website www.notonlycarrots.com with a 40% discount off the ebook (instant download!) for every hardcopy cookbook purchased.
Thanks!
~Leah Jones

You Are What You Eat

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Have you heard the old saying ‘You are what you eat’? (As a kid we used to joke around especially when a friend was eating beef or chicken, laughing “You’re a cow” or “You’re chicken!!”) Well perhaps some people will think this applies to me today because the topic of this post is nuts.

Yes, it’s true. I am nuts…for nuts that is. Cashews and almonds (great in stir-fries, sweet and savoury creams and sauces), pecans and almonds (high in Omega-3s and a yummy addition to cakes and meat-free patties), pine nuts (a complete source of amino acids and a delightful add-in for tomato-based pastas) and more. I love them. Full of calcium, iron, protein and fibre, nuts are one of the healthiest, plant-based, protein alternatives you can find. Nuts are so versitile. You can eat them raw, roasted or pan-fried. You can grind them into a meal as a gluten-free flour alternative. You can combine them with gluten flour to create a meat-free pattie. You can blend them with water and sweetener for homemade vegan milk, or prepare a delicious, dairy-free sour cream or sweet cake topping.

Best of all, Ellen White’s counsels on diet and health stress that grains, fruits, nuts and vegetables are not only nourishing and but also appetizing (see CG 384.1 & 3). Healthy and delicious! Yay 😀 Here’s my most recent Not Only Carrots cooking show episode – Raw Cashew Mayonnaise. Take a look and see just how easy it is to create dairy and egg-free mayonnaise alternatives.

https://youtu.be/mTuVHN5Ooz0

And learn more about the incredible health-benefits of nuts here. https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/nuts/

~Leah Jones

SDA Health Studies Resource

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If you are looking for a heath studies resource that incorporates Spirit of Prophecy, then consider Medical Missionary Kids.   Through Medical Missionary Kids, your child can learn about the 8 laws of health and their practical application with lessons in hydrotherapy, making poultices, food preparation and more.   Programming  offerings include a homeschool online course as well as mini camps for hands-on training.   You can browse the information-filled website and find the program that fits your budget.  You can also review the online course syllabus as well as find out more about the lessons taught and materials used and meet the course instructors.

The next online course begins September 3rd, with registration ending August 30th.  Visit medicalmissionarykids.org to learn more.