Merry Christmas, My Friends!

And the rest of you, too!

He left the comfort of Heaven to come to a place where His body would be vulnerable to the same ailments as ours. He endured the same discomforts. When it was cold, He shivered. When it was hot, He sweated. He subjected himself to every temptation that we must endure. And yet with all physical and spiritual temptations visited upon Him, He sinned not, and then became the propitiation for our sins, who have failed in a million ways.

We should absolutely enjoy the Feast of Christmas, without turning up our noses at the “materialism” in the gifts and decorations, or the “gluttony” of meals and drinks shared with loved ones. There is a time for feasting and enjoying the bounty of His provision. The times for fasting and mourning won’t be denied, and they are coming. They are inevitable.

One day there will be an eternal feast, with no more fasting when we are finally with our Bridegroom. Let us look forward to that by celebrating our Salvation’s coming on this day.

Merry Christmas, all!

The Fix Still Isn’t In

This one’s for muh normies.

Normies (n.): people who have been so virtuously busy building and maintaining their lives and livelihoods that they haven’t had hours to spend reading and researching the political edifice that rules us all. Normies are often found on social media, whinging and cringing about whatever “news” finally manages to bubble to the surface in spite of media suppression, but without any understanding of how deep the rot really goes. The world could not function without normies, but we are in a time when the world will cease to function if they don’t wake up.

The trouble with people who mind their day-to-day life, and little else, is that they apply just as much emotional energy to politics as they have left after the bills are paid and the children are in bed, and not one drop more. It is, after all, all they have left. When called upon to exercise some intestinal fortitude in nearly any contest, they quickly give in and “deal” with whatever injustice has been foisted upon them this time, so they can get back to the more pressing needs of their immediate lives. The State–the one that operates regardless of which party is nominally in charge–has gotten away with much worse than murder for God-only-knows how long only because normies are honest, busy people.

And these good people are starting to do that thing they do again, far too early. With the media incessantly droning outright lies, and social media intruding on every conversation with an ominous reminder that Joe Biden has won, Trump is done for, they are beginning already to resign themselves to at least four more years of our pre-Trump status quo.

And then? Well, they’ll vote again!

This is adorably naive, friends. I hate to break it to you, but if Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20, 2021, there will never be another legitimate election again. For that matter, we haven’t had legitimate elections in our national races for a very long time. The governor’s race in my home state of North Carolina was also, I am certain, stolen in 2016 and again this year. I haven’t looked into senators and congressmen as closely, but there’s really no accounting for the longevity of a number of unpopular senators. There has been a lot of chicanery in our elections for a very long time.

And why wouldn’t there be? We are, despite our spiraling around the financial drain, the richest and most powerful nation on the Earth. There’s still a lot of pickins on this carcass. But let’s pretend that the nation will somehow survive this insult. We do, after all, have to be back to work at 8 a.m. tomorrow.

With cheating so rampant, and for so long, the only reason we’ve had Donald J. Trump these last four years is that those whom I like to call Core America voted for him in 2016 in such overwhelming numbers that their normal means of cheating couldn’t overcome his popularity. The last four years of acrimony have not been merely hatred of a man for winning against them, or for implementing popular policies, or for his contemptible appeal to “deplorables”. They have been because an honest man in power can see everything they’ve been doing and put a stop to it.

They are panicked. At the end of this, somebody is going to prison. A whole lot of somebodies. If justice is done, Trump will be able to finally deliver on his promise to Hillary Clinton (and dozens or hundreds of others) that “you’d be in jail”.

And that is why he literally can’t leave the White House. If he gives in to their home-soil version of a color revolution, they’ll kill him or imprison him and destroy everyone he loves out of sheer spite. They’ll take down every public supporter he ever had. And then they’ll turn their sights back on the nation that, in their skeezy little minds, is theirs to buy and sell as they please. But they won’t just pick back up the rape of our country where they left off, as my less vigilant friends seem to believe. They will no longer even pretend to abide by the rules. Why should they? We’ve already proven that we’ll do any stupid thing they say, whether it makes sense or not.

They will punish us for not being the obsequious grunts they believe they deserve. They will flood our borders with hordes of immigrants, take everything we own and give it to them with a generous cut for themselves, restart their lucrative wars from which we’ve finally extracted ourselves, limit our ability to feed our families, and inflict a thousand other delightful surprises on our national body. They’ll literally starve us out.

There will be no more America if a Biden-Harris administration enters the White House, I promise. 

Fortunately, there has been another, better promise made to us by a man who has to date always delivered on his promises. (Well, we’re still waiting for Hillary’s perp-walk, but I’m still waiting for Jesus to come back, too. The promises aren’t void just because both Trump and God are exercising patience in getting us there.)

While it is true that there are enough electors to install Biden on the day the certificates go to congress, it is also true that there are enough alternate electors to elect Trump on that day. Even if there weren’t, there would still be opportunity for the Vice President to reject those electors from fraudulent states. After that, each state gets a vote, and we hold that majority. The media don’t want to tell you that part, because it scares them when people know the truth. People who know the truth know how to pray.

The more aware we are, the more they panic, and the more stupidly they behave. Why is that? It’s because they know they haven’t won yet, and they’re not at all certain that they have the physical manpower to pull it off if it comes to shooting. They’re trying to convince you so you won’t be ready to support Trump in the event that he has to use the Insurrection Act to save the country. But they are also trying very hard to convince themselves, because they–the media–are complicit. They’re rightly terrified.

There is an electoral path to victory, and you should be praying hard for that to be the way things go down. But if we find that either Congress, or Mike Pence, who has squished with great squishiness in the past, don’t have the spine (or the cleanness of heart) to stop the steal, we are left with one final option. The truth is, there is so much evidence of fraud that it is a slam dunk case by now, and there are both criminal and martial remedies available.

Hang in there and pray, normal people. Do go about your lives minding your own business, as you’ve always done, but for now, please be ready to put down the normalcy and fight for what is rightfully yours.

If the Congress doesn’t do its job, it will mean war, and Trump’s got an army.

 

Homeschooling in the Christmas Season

How did Christmas get to be a month-long thing, anyway? 

Christmas has become quite the to-do in our home, even though I never really got into the spirit of things for the first several years of our marriage. If I could put the tree up on the 23rd, then take it down on the 26th, that would have been quite enough for me, thank you very much. I guess motherhood is the Grinch-buster, because the longer I have little ones in the house, the more excited I get about all the baubles and lights. Christmas has become a treasured season in our lives, and not just a day. And that’s the way it should be!

Growing up in Appalachian mountain evangelical churches, I don’t think I ever even heard the word “advent” until I was in my twenties. Most people will find that amusing, I’m sure. Dumb hillbillies. Regardless, once I heard about it, I adopted the Advent calendar as a tradition in our home. When we only had a couple of kids in the house, I just put small candies or toys into a paper bag calendar I’d made. I’m not crafty, so you won’t see this one on Pinterest. I can’t believe this was 10 years ago.

As the family grew I couldn’t fit individual things into the bags anymore. Besides, doing things is way more fun.

Now, sometime in November I sit down and think of 24 Christmassy things to do (or eat!) leading up to the Day. I write the ideas on strips of paper and put them in the little drawers of our Advent Calendar.

Advent Calendar

 

Each year is a little bit different, depending on my mood and how much of a mess I think I’ll be up for. There is a lazy side of me that wishes I hadn’t taught the children to expect so much every year, but the quality time is always worth the effort. There are a few things that we do every year without fail. Of course, there is always the Reason for the Season, reading the Christmas story and singing hymns. There are some less pious things, as well, like gingerbread houses made with graham crackers and royal icing. I’ll post a how-to later on for those interested. Yesterday we put together a Christmas puzzle. We’ll use some peel-and-stick sheets to stick it together and frame it. Other things we do are making and taking gifts to neighbors, singing Christmas carols, and drinking hot chocolate.

So how do we keep on schooling when it’s just one big party? Well, to tell the truth, I called the puzzle geometry and art (it’s shapes and colors!) yesterday, and when the time comes for gingerbread houses, I’m going to call that “handicrafts”. We do our morning meeting with prayer and Bible reading, a few together things like Shakespeare or Plutarch, then a little bit of copywork and math. After that we’re as flexible as we need to be, depending on how time-consuming the day’s activity is. Sometimes it’s just an extra story or song. Sometimes it’s an all-morning event.

The kids can still fit their lessons in around the edges while we center our lives around the Truth that Christ was born for us. If we skip some academic things, I can still rest easy knowing that January is coming. We can grind it out then. We have so much going on in December that I’ve learned to look forward to January as a time to accomplish much. Perhaps I’ll even accomplish a few more blog posts! Sorry it’s been sparse so far, but as long as I’m raising these kids, it’s going to be like that. You know how it is.

What are your Christmas traditions? Do you have an advent calendar? Let me know in the comments what you do so I can fill out my calendar with new ideas next year! 

Friday Link-about

Just a few things to think about over the weekend. I’m going to start keeping a better list. I know there was more that I wanted to post than this:

I was so tickled to see that my friend Dawn has a podcast now. She is truly a font of wisdom. She hasn’t had time to post new ones lately, so there’s time to catch up on everything I’ve missed! Find her at One Faithful Mom.

Watch, as Nancy Pelosi explains that a Chinese spy sleeping with a congressman is no concern to her at all, and certainly we shouldn’t be looking into the backgrounds of people who work for elected representatives. The infiltration of American patriots into Trump’s government, though, is horrifying. “They’ve got Q!”

China says private ownership of guns in the U.S. is a serious problem. Well, yes. If you want to invade a nation, it helps if there isn’t a rifle behind every blade of grass.

The L. A. Times says masks don’t work, so the mask-wearing needs to intensify. It is imperative that we remain terrified of each other at all times.

Do you read The Donald? Lots of fun over there.

I’ve been sleeping and exercising with my mouth taped shut. How my family must wish I’d commit to a 24-hour regimen! Breath, by James Nestor is another life-changer of a book.

Finally, a request. I don’t have any public-facing social media at the moment, and may not ever start back down that road, but if anybody wanted to share this blog with friends and family, I wouldn’t complain at all. Unless you shared it with people you know wouldn’t like it, which would make them and me a little bit cranky.

Leave links to anything you find interesting in the comments. You can leave your own stuff, too!

Basic Keto Layer Cake

This is not cake. This is Cake Simulator.

If you’re trying to avoid carbs for the holidays, and need some cheats to get past the dessert trap, here’s a nice way to fool your brain into thinking it’s getting sugar. This Basic Keto Layer Cake recipe has zero blood sugar impact for me. It has never knocked me out of ketosis (NTTAWWT). Everybody is a little bit different with sweeteners, so I recommend using one you know is good for you. The erythritol/stevia blends are the best options I’ve found.

Like most of the things we eat around here, this cake is very specific to our family’s allergy needs. This recipe is made without nuts, grains, or dairy.

chocolate frosted chocolate layer cake

You get no professional-looking photos on this blog. 😉

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