Its hard to say but I think probably not. We dont even know how we ended up with each other- really! We are so, so different! But I had a voice in my heart say "this is your destiny" over and over when we were first going out. And he told me "you are going to have my kids- I had a premonition" when we were going out, and we still didnt really get on very well ( I think I threw something at him when he said that, too)! Some relationships are just a mystery. I dont think we really felt we chose each other even 17 years ago. It somehow just happened. But we have both learned and grown a lot and theres lot's of love.

We woulndt have because thats just how we were, and we never felt the need to have a honeymoon, and we didnt ever have anyone we trusted with the kids enough to leave them. However, one or the other of us has gone away. I have been away for 3 weeks overseas, twice. But the kids were with dh. Each family has their comfort zone. I think it's one of those things you have to follow your gut feeling on and not worry about what anyone else thinks.

My son was the first to ask for a cell phone when he was about 11, because his best (homeschooled) friend had one. We agreed. Dh is pretty technically minded, we all have our own computers. It seemed anatural extension of our lifestyle. Ds used it a few times and it has sat in a drawer ever since- he is 13 now. Dd15 wanted one soon after- I think she was 13 or so. She has used hers night and day since the day she got it. She is onto her 3rd phone. The latest one she bought herself on a contract. She is a social creature and through the Scouting network she knows kids all over the state and she actually keeps in contact with them all- hundreds of them!- through internet and her phone. She generally only texts. This is her nature, to communicate and keep many friends (not people she met once, but people she spent days with on camps, usually, some even from overseas), and the phone allows this expression and fulfillment of her particular nature (along with the computer). Dh bought me a phone a couple of years back, and I use it just for emergencies and keep it in my car, not my handbag. It is useful to phone home when there is a traffic jam and dh is wondering where I am (happened once, last week). It is useful if my car breaks down. A couple of times I have used it to phone dh when I am away for a weekend. I use it hardly ever. Dh has a phone for the same purpose in his glove box, barely used. We said yes to the phones and really it's only dd15 who is likely to get RSI from texting! Its not a big deal for us. Yes, we do have issues of her using the phone rather than communicating with us or other adults- at times. But in the context of our lives which are so intimiately entwined as homeschoolers, it's not a big deal to use it as a teaching moment and show her that it is rude. She is not generally "switched off" from us. Every family must find its own way with this one, but I dont have a problem with kids having phones, because it is jsut part of the world they are growing up in. It seems natural for us. Could we live with out them? Well, dh, ds ad I certainly could. Dd15 obviously could too, but it would be a big hole in her life.

It's absolutely horrible. I read the book A Thousand Splendid Suns a year or so ago, and it really opened my eyes to what life is like for many women in Afganistan.

The above quote is nonsense to me, as I am familiar with "paganism", some "secret cults" and Hinduism, and the author of the quote obviously isn't, or else he has an agenda and so isn't especially interested in the truth. In other words, dont believe everything you read. Here is a poem by Rumi, a famous beloved Sufi poet and mystic. Does it sound like he feels you must be worthy first? Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, Worshipper, lover of leaving. It doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vow a hundred times. Come, yet again, come, come. – Rumi Here is an apparently more accurate translation: "Return (in repentance), return! Whatever you are, return! Even if you are an unbeliever or a Magian or an idol worshipper, return! This court of ours is not a court of despair. Even if you have broken your repentance a hundred times, return!"]

That hasnt happened here at all. There has only arisen the desire to defend the "other religions" against those such as yourself who see Christianity with such rose coloured glasses compared to those "other religions". It simply a response to perceived ignorance (which I think you continue with in the rest of your post but I dont feel like pulling it apart). Peace to you...there is no way we are going to agree, and you have not shared any examples to back up your points so I will leave you with your own thoughts and beliefs.

Yes, this is my understanding. Those few decades mean a lot to me...but I am also surprised, and consider myself newly educated, to find out that it was relatively unchanged since then. Well, there must be some changes because different churches have different versions and believe different things. But I find it interesting that it was translated and rewritten and scholars say little was changed over long periods of time.

How about carbonated mineral water (or soda water?). I dont do soda but in summer we love a bit of fizz. We often drink half juice, half soda water. Very refreshing.

To stay balanced I do whatever, and I mean whatever, I need to do to take care of myself, so that I can be happy and healthy for my kids. What that looks like is : I get up at least an hour earlier than everyone else for meditation I take a walk with my dh or alone most mornings while the kids get ready for school or start their maths I make myself available 100% for them until a little after lunchtime. Then I take 1-2 hours for myself in my room, reading and napping. The afternoons the kids finish any work they need to finish, independently, and entertain themselves (play on the street, play with Photoshop), while I do any chores- housework, shopping, errands. Also anything creative like sewing. Its a good several hours to do what I choose, although 2 days there are music lessons to drive to. Evenings I am often taking the kids places but dh works evenings so other than being available for driving the kids, I have time to blob out and play on the computer. When the kids come home, or evenings we are all home, we watch one or two episodes of a TV series. I go to bed by 9.30, lights out by 10pm. I also have my own interests- natural health/medicine, sewing, friends, playing music, reading. I go to a yoga class once a week where I meet a friend and we chat afterwards. I take off a week a year to do a retreat. I also have a cooking job two days a week, but its from home so I just fit it in.

Ah, thankyou. That is very fascinating. That is more the approach I resonate with. Quote: Higher criticism treats the Bible as a text created by human beings at a particular historical time and for various human motives, in contrast with the treatment of the Bible as the inerrant word of God.

Originally Posted by Peela Then I suggest perhaps you have been living in a box, considering what Christians have done, the millions they have killed, the whole races they have annihilated, in the name of their religion. Well, you dont have to look far, but I am sure there are many Native American tribes. There are many Australian Aboriginal tribes, and the whole of the Tasmanian race. I am not saying it is Christian behaviour or pointing the finger. Its just very ignorant to think that other races commit terrible atrocities "in the name of their religion" without acknowledging the many that people who have called themselves Christian have done and continue to do. I am not picking on Christians in this...it is just fact.

I could have googled but I wondered if Christians generally knew, off the top of their heads. Apparently not. Thankyou, that was what I was looking for. Now I am a little more educated, without having to wade through pages of documentation. I am aware though that there are many documents that werent included in the Bible that conflict with what is in the Bible. It is a very interesting area of study, obviously. I appreciate that you took the time to search for the information that was accessible for me, while on holidays.

No one answered me in a clear way about this. Surely it is a very simple question with a straightforward answer? Or does faith in the Bible mean no one ever asks this simple question? Abstract answers mean you give your power up to the scholars and trust. Fair enough. But someone should be able to say "the Book of such and such was written by such and such who was with Jesus". I am pretty sure no book exists that was written by anyone in the same generation as Jesus, who was living while he was and who talks about him. They were all written long after he died by people who didnt actually know him. But I just wanted to find out if anyone could give me any specifics. Apparently not. Im not trying to undermine anyone's faith. Its a fairly academic question and I am genuinely curious about it since my dh watched a documentary about it on Discovery Channel or History Channel or somesuch. He was very surprised himself at the information.

I dont have a "number" of outfits per person. Dd15 is too old for me to sort through her clothes. They pour out her drawer and cupboards. She is learning, slowly, to let go of things she no loonger wears. Ds13 is hopeless when it comes to clothes. I go in there and throw out (disappear) clothes with stains or holes, pictures I dont like much or sayings that somehow snuck into his collection, and just keep for him a nice collection of decent clothes so that when he grabs something, anything, out of his drawer, its probably half decent. I clean out every season or so. Another thing I do is put away a lot of clothes in the off season to a high cupboard in big bags, so I have plenty of room for my /ds's clothes. I just keep skimming, decluttering, till they all fit nicely in my drawers and cupboards with a little space to spare. I do it several times a year (as I buy a lot of 2nd hand clothes).

Lol, I went to a wedding once with one. There were hundreds of strawberries to dip into the chocolate fountain. It was heaven :) I think they are probably great once in a blue moon.

OK, you may be able to educate me here. Which parts of the Bible were actually written, and we have the original scrolls in whatever language, during or within a short period after, Jesus' life/death, by someone who actually knew him? I didnt think there were any but I'm no Bible scholar.

Sure seems like that from DownUnder :)

Again, so the many times rewritten Bible says, and I dont know enough to know whether all Bibles put it that way, anyway.

I was at Ravenswood School for Girls from grades 4 through 10.

And your point is...what? that other religions are barbaric compared to Christianity? Then I suggest perhaps you have been living in a box, considering what Christians have done, the millions they have killed, the whole races they have annihilated, in the name of their religion. Acts of barbarism are acts of barbarism and no race is free of them, and they are often done in the name of religion. Muslim terrorists do not represent the majority of Muslims yet they kill in the name of their religion too. It's a sick, messed up world, and that sure doesn't exclude the Christian believing parts of it. There is also a lot of good in it, and I have been to India and its is largely a peaceful place where people's religion is very much part of their day to day life. In every religion, there are those who seek for the essence and pure heart of the religion, and those who are prepared to just go along with the widespread culture that grows around any religion. In any country where there is a lot of poverty, lack of education and ignorance.. there will be horrible activities such as wife burning and child selling etc. That doesn't mean the religion promotes it or that most intelligent, educated people follow it. After all, they burned witches a while back, by the thousands, didn't they, in the name of Christianity? And now we go and kill millions of people in other countries in the name of righteous wars. We are not civilised, Christian or not, and it is purely ignorant to think that Christian people or nations are exempt from committing horrible deeds any more or less than anyone esle. I am just responding to the quote above and the rest of it that was along the same lines, not to what anyone else has said. I find it very offensive that anyone would think that Christians are more loving or more civilized, less barbaric, than say, the Hindus, in general.

We are in the last chapters of Ivanhoe- its been great.

I would pretty much agree with the article, in what it reflects of modern trends. I think there is good and bad in it. I think people feel they are "spiritual" if they do a bit of yoga or whatever, or have an altar, or a buddha in the backyard. Spiritual materialism is rampant. Its somehow satisfying to feel confused, and then feel better because you can go buy something that makes you feel more spiritual, or do something, as in attend a workshop or burn some incense. Or even go to church, of course. I do believe spirituality can cross many religions or no religions, but I think it's also getting watered down in the process. I believe God is a God of absolute unconditional love, for all of His creation, every last particle- unconditional means, you don't even have to believe in Him. Many religions know this but few teach it. Christianity seems to mix in some wrath and judgement and revenge with the Love, and they dont actually mix. Either he is All Love, or the other, can't be both, IMO. All religions get caught up in dogma and creeds and scriptures that have been altered and changed to suit the powers that be over the centuries. I dont know why or how God specifically chose to keep the Bible as the untouched literal Word of God, when everything else has been tampered with, and mere humans have done plenty of translating and copying. I think people want to strip away the dogma, and find the essence. You have to have an open mind to start on that journey, and the trends we are seeing are a reflection of people actually trying to find the truth, and getting caught in all sorts of things along the way, including spiritual materialism. And btw, to someone who doesn't take the Bible literally, you can't quote the Bible at them as if its the literal truth and expect them to agree with you. It's a belief- believing in the Bible literally is a belief. And many people, including me, want to examine all beliefs and see what holds water and what doesn't. I do think its a good thing. Truth is Truth, and I believe it can handle some scepticism and a genuine, sincere searching heart.

I hadnt heard of a sugar shortage- and we produce our own in Australia so I imagine it wont hit us here for a while, until you guys start buying ours at least- but surely its not a bad thing? Sugar should be a treat, an occasional food, not a staple.

Rather than microwave it, put it in a pot of warm water. It should stay runny for a while. However, honey certainly doesnt go off- its the one food in the world that cant go off- and the crystallization won't hurt you at all. I buy honey in a jar so that I can dip a clean spoon in. I buy raw honey for its superior nutrition and living enzymes, so it does crystallize in winter, but it tastes the same. Dh however buys the pouring honey, and sticks it in the microwave. Eww. He is forbidden to touch my honey, ever.