“Fake food is being poised as a panacea to end world hunger and food shortages, but there’s nothing miraculous about synthetic, lab-made food. It can’t compare to food that comes from nature in terms of nutrition or environmental protection, and as we’re seeing with the mysterious infant formula shortages, when you’re dependent on fake food, your very survival is also dependent on the handful of companies that manufacture them.With parents getting desperate in the search for infant formula, it’s eye-opening that campaigns haven’t been started to encourage new mothers to breastfeed — the best food for infants and one that also happens to be free and readily available in most cases.”Dr. Mercola While breast milk is best for babies, if you are finding yourself in need of formula, the Weston Price Foundation offers a very nutrient dense, homemade baby formula. It was a great option for one of our babies after I was misled by the status quo. Without getting into any details, she thrived on it, and we didn’t have to worry about the horrible ingredients found in all infant formulas. Here is the recipe that we and many parents have used successfully.

https://www.westonaprice.org/…/formula-homemade-baby…/

If we don’t know the Bible, if we don’t know doctrine, if we don’t know theology, it is virtually impossible to identify false prophets.

Voddie Baucham

We know the importance of buying good quality, nutrient dense food, but it’s also very important to consider what we are using to prepare that food with. Teflon has been a very popular product over the years, but unfortunately, it’s now known to have harmful effects on our health.

I asked Kailey if she would write a short post about Ace so we could all remember his story. I didn’t think we would ever own a horse, but God had a different plan. Many of you probably remember seeing the paint pony or had Kailey offer to saddle him up and give you or your children rides. Kailey truly loved giving our family, friends, and customers a ride on Ace. Did you get a chance to ride him?

By Kailey Mentink

Anyone who has been out to our farm and had a tour might remember the little paint pony who would stand at the fence and whinny a greeting as they came close. Today I share with sadness that a few weeks ago, we lost Ace to an illness that took him quickly and peacefully.

How Ace Came into our Life

From the time I could talk, I begged my parents for a horse. They tried to explain they didn’t have the land, the money, the feed. It all fell on deaf ears. I just kept begging. My mom would sigh and say, “Well, if a horse walks into our yard, then you can have a horse.”

When we are feeling financially stressed, it’s best to focus on what we are spending verses what we are bringing in.

With the talk of food shortages potentially coming and the increased price of most everything, I thought I would take a little more time today to share what we have learned over the years about finances that have put us in a better financial position and helped us to discern between our wants and needs. We are certainly mindful of what is going on in the world, and trying to be prepared, but we are not scared or anxious, because we know that God will provide, and He has given us wisdom on how to live with less. Anything good or helpful in this post is of the Lord, not us. We never do this perfectly, and can only give God the glory that our hearts have been changed.

I believe it’s possible to live a frugal lifestyle while still enjoying a good quality of life and health. I have had several conversations with people over the years (married couples already both working full-time) that are very stressed financially and are convinced that they just need to “work more” or “make more money.” There are so many potential problems with this ideology. Working more hours is probably just going to add more stress to an already strained situation. We can get so busy working that we neglect the important things. If we aren’t able to take care of the work at home and ensure that we are eating good quality food, getting adequate sleep and exercise, and spending quality time with other people, our health, marriage, finances, relationships with our children and close friends and family, and spiritual life are going to suffer. Also, the busier we get, the less time we have to problem solve and think about where the money is going. I have noticed that my husband and I are doing a much better job of fixing problems or doing projects on our farm with little or no money, and spending a lot less because we actually have time to think through things.

In our modern world we are bombarded with unnatural fragrances and chemicals that make things smell nice, but are slowly deteriorating our health. While we can’t eliminate all of our exposure to these, we can use natural products to keep things clean and from smelling bad, while using essential oils to give a nice aroma to everything.  As always, my goal in teaching is simply to make people aware of potential risks, to encourage everyone to research and think for themselves, and to get better at problem solving (always ask why).

“Agriculture is our wisest pursuit because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness.”

– Thomas Jefferson.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

People are waking up and ditching their toxic candles, room sprays, and products containing fragrances and replacing them with essential oils. While there is some debate as to whether fragrances and other chemical ingredients found in these products are bad for our health, I know plenty of people that have reactions to them like sore throats, headache, fatigue, and respiratory distress to name a few. I don’t know about you, but I’m not waiting around for the science community to tell me what I already know to be true. Our family has simply used the power of observation in ourselves and others to realize that these aren’t good for us. To me it just makes sense to use a natural product made from God’s amazing, healing plants rather than a lab made product from groups that hide ingredients under the word fragrance so we don’t even know what it’s made from.

My history teacher tried to stress to us kids that didn’t seem to care much about history at the time, how important it is to learn from the past mistakes so we don’t repeat history. I now understand how important this is. Here are a few quotes from the past to ponder that are relevant to our current times.

To conquer a nation, first disarm its citizens.  

Adolf Hitler

Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident that they are acting on their own free will.

Joseph Goebbels