Praying for America

This election has me bothered more than any other I remember. And I have remember a lot of politics. It was always discussed in my growing up years and I devoured the newspaper - I was a weird kid I know.

But it is not the politics that is bothering me so much (well, it is but that is not
what is bothering me the most). I have never seen our great nation so divided.
And the division is heated and spitting mad. Hatred is brewing (BOTH sides!).
I do not see any good coming from this election no matter who wins.

I prayed last Tuesday in our Bible Study and was sincere when I did so for healing in our land. We need this more than anything else - along with revival and a turn to God. Oh sure we need financial stability and peace and a lot of other worldly things but most of all we need each other and we need God to head our lives.

A Nation divided against itself cannot stand. (I do not think that is original.)
While I don't think we are about to break out in another Civil War, I do think
the division is strong enough to divide friends and families if we let it.

Unless I missed something God is still Sovereign and still on His throne. He is still in charge and can change the course of empires and the hearts of kings (and Presidents).

IF his people pray and seek His face..

Pax

Michael 1954 and My Mother 1980, 1990

Amy 1958, 1980, and 1990

Matthew 1988 and 1968

Duane 1968 and 1988

1976 Matthew and Michael

Yearbook in Time

http://www.yearbookyourself.com

Photos Years - 1970, top; 1950 and 1960.

(I have to find time to do more later - this was too much fun!)

The Annual Check Up

I cannot bring myself to write of all the indignities done to me today.
It is an outrage what they do to cats every year in the name of "keeping us
healthy". And every single year the Doctor Vet tells me the same old thing -
I need to eat less....well, from what I see, she could stand to push away from
the old food bowl herself!

And spare me from telling me that "we ALL have to have check ups!". I never
see my humans coming home with these stupid cloth thingies around their necks!!!!

At least she did comb my fur with a nice brush. I love that.
But it wasn't worth the trip.
Aslan

Encouraging Early Literature

I tried giving her "Cat in the Hat" but Darcy thought that was just a silly book so
we have moved on to serious literature.

Do not hold your children back!

smiles, Chris

2008 Pumpkin Patch Visit

Everyone finally picked their favorite pumpkin. Jacob is still trying out
various faces - he is quite the little actor. And poor Jeremiah just did not
understand why just when he was REALLY enjoying himself everyone wanted to move on
to do something else entirely. He would have happily pumped water for the plastic ducks all day long and who really WANTED to feed those fat goats anyway? He let us know this in no uncertain terms too. (I certainly had memories of little Michael
after yesterday. I miss those days. Really!).

Darcy was VERY particular on what size pumpkin she wanted. It had to be the RIGHT
size. But she found one finally. A fun time was had by all.

And the weather was perfect too.

Darwin and Women

NOTE - I DO NOT AGREE WITH THE FOLLOWING POST!!!! Darwin was a male
ditz! Chris

DARWIN'S THOUGHTS ON WOMEN

According to Charles Darwin, the central mechanism of evolution is survival of the fittest. In this concept, inferior animals are more likely to become extinct while the superior ones are more likely to thrive.1 The racism that this idea has produced has now been both well-documented and widely publicized.2 Less widely known is the fact that many evolutionists, including Darwin, taught that women were both biologically and intellectually inferior to men.

Reasons for Inferiority

According to Darwinian theory, women were less evolved than men, and because of their smaller brains, they were "eternally primitive," childlike, less spiritual, more materialistic, and "a real danger to contemporary civilization."3 The supposed intelligence gap that many leading Darwinists believed existed between human males and females was so large that some leading Darwinists classified them as two distinct species-males as Homo frontalis and females as Homo parietalis.4 The differences were so great that Darwin was amazed "such different beings belong to the same species."5

Reasons for male superiority included the conclusion that war and hunting pruned the weaker men, allowing only the most fit to return home and reproduce. Women, in contrast, were not subject to these selection pressures but were protected by men, allowing the weak to survive.6

1 Darwin, C., The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, London: John Murry, 1859.
2 Bergman, J., "The History of the Human Female Inferiority Ideas in Evolutionary Biology," Rivista di Biologia/Biology Forum 95(2):379-412, 2002.
3 Gilmore, D., Misogyny: The Male Malady, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, p. 125, 2001.
4 Love, R., Darwinism and feminism: "The 'women question' in The Life and Work of Olive Schreinr and Charlotte Perkins Gilman," in Oldroyd and Langham, Eds., The Wider Domain of Evolutionary Thought, D:Reidel, Holland, pp. 113-131, 1983.
5 Rosser, S., Biology and Feminism, Twayne, New York, p. 59, 1992.
6 Dyer, G., War, Crown Publishers, New York, p. 122, 1985.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v2/n1/darwin-taught-male-superiority

Oct. 23rd is Mole Day

WHY is Oct. 23rd Mole Day you ask?

Avogadro figured out long ago that there are 6.02 x 10 to the 23 power atoms in one atomic mass unit of every element (i.e. look at Carbon on the Periodic Table. It's atomic mass is 12. So in 12 grams of carbon there are 6.02 x 10 to the 23 power atoms of carbon atoms in 12 grams. It works for every element. It makes conversion between elements very easy.).

SO on Oct (10th month) 23 (GET IT??) (10 to the 23rd??) we celebrate mole day.
Well, officially only at 6:02 AM or PM (I forget which).

And I just KNOW all my readers wanted to know this!


Chris (Well, my labs are fun at least - sometimes anyway)

Oct. 23rd is Mole Day

Aslan inspects the Bath Salts

I smelled every jar! Not ONE of them smelled like catnip! I do not know how she expects to sell any of these. Humans are so strange.
Aslan

Making Bath Salts

I love making bath salts and soaps and even lotions. If it were not so expensive a hobby I might do more of it. So as it is I just do it for Christmas presents and to sell them at our ministry bazaar once a year.

I use Essential Oils I buy online at Wholesalesuppliesplus.com and they are of excellent quality. I have tried those you buy fairly cheaply at hobby stores and find they do not last as long - that is they do not hold the scent as long. Of course if you use the bath quickly that doesn't matter but if it sits for some time, you may open the jar or bag and find that it has no odor.

After using some today in my bath I may add just a bit more drops of oil next batch.
The jars smelled fairly strongly but the bath didn't seem that scented (it was nice enough though). It did soften the water though which around here is very needed as our water is very hard.

In mixing I mix the "oils" in one bowl and the powders in another (epsom salts, baking powder, sea salts - coarse grain, and this year I added a cup of Nutrasorb Milk Bath powder to each batch - it helps to retain the essential oils and is also nice in the bath water as well.) The oils include Sweet Almond Oil as the base, about a teaspoonful of Vitamin E oil, a few drops of coloring, and about 15 drops of the essential oil that I've chosen. I made 5 different types this year - Honey Almond, Peony (a soft fragrance), Nature's Rain (a clean smell), Lavander and Vanilla and a mix of Jasmine and Sandalwood that was nice.

I hope I haven't bored anyone reading but I really enjoy doing this every year and my kitchen certainly smells good for a week or so afterwards!

Mount St. Helens 2008

Duane just returned from a trip to Washington state. He took over 300 photos of
the Mount St. Helens area. I cannot possible post all of them so I'm having to
go through them and choose but he took a lot of good ones. This is hard. I'm definitely going to have to give in and start using Picassa.
As you can see the volcano is still smoking. I wish I had been able to go!

Can Crushing - Air Pressure Demo

From Apologia Physical Science text:
The key to doing this one is speed. Put a small amount of water (SMALL amount, just cover the bottom of the can) in an empty soda can. (Or as we say in the deep South, a Coke can which means any soft drink). Have a bowl of ice water ready nearby. CLOSE BY! And wear heat proof gloves. (I've tried using tongs. Unless you are great with tongs and can move fast with tongs, forget the tongs and go with heat proof gloves!). Put the can on a heat source (as you can see in the photo I just used the eye of a stove. When you see steam coming out of the can (proof of boiling water) you know that the air in the can is HOT HOT HOT. And this is what you want.
The air pressure in the can has now risen and it is pushing against the sides of the
can as hard as it can (of course some is coming out of the hole in the top of the can and that is why you want to move quickly.). Cover the hole with your hand (you are wearing heat proof gloves right. This is important unless you want to treat burns later.). MOVE QUICKLY NOW. I cannot emphasize this enough.
Put the can upside down (HOLE DOWN) into the ice water. QUICKLY. The can will
collapse into itself as the air goes from HOT to COLD quickly - it pulls the sides
of the can in with it. (If you were too slow it won't work and you get to try all
over again.).

It is a "do that again" experiment (as you can see!) I did it 3 times this week
with different results each time but it worked all 3 times.

More Science Experiments

In Apologia Chemistry text:

This one uses "The Works" drain cleaner which is composed in large part of
hydrochloric acid. (Vinegar will also work - acetic acid - just much much
slower.). That is the liquid you see in the jar. Use gloves when using this
stuff. It will burn! Carefully put your raw egg in the jar in the acid.
You'll see bubbles immediately forming as the calcium carbonate shell starts
coming off. (See the white foam? Some of that is soap suds but much is
the shell too.). After about 30-40 minutes I carefully spooned the egg out
(still wearing gloves) and went and washed it off. The egg membrane is intact
but the shell is completely gone. It is rubbery feeling and the kids are
always amazed. Great one to do at home. The photo of the egg is hard to do
to make it do justice afterwards but maybe you can tell there is no shell there.
It's one you really need to do yourselves!
Definitely shows a Chemical Change.

Mentos Redux

Always a FUN Demo to do when the weather is great (as it was yesterday) and Physical Science WAS on the unit on air (so it was SORT OF related - we released a LOT of carbon dioxide all at once - I'm sure it contributes to Global warming though so I shall have to repent later.)

And I will have to give extra credit to my volunteer helper this time - the new student this year, Felipe, who bravely pulled the string so I could take the photos.
He got soaked. I'm SO sorry!