Thank you, everyone, for the many great questions. I enjoy getting them, and being prompted to think.
I apologize that this post is long, and contains no pictures. Hopefully the formatting will help make it more readable.
Are your kids able to speak and read German?
They understand everyday German pretty well - well enough to tell them stuff in public I don't want others to understand :) They also read and speak German, though not nearly as good as English. My goal this summer is to only speak German with them at home, when it is just us, so that by the end of summer they can read actual chapter books in German, not just easy stuff. Of course, we have not been true to this goal as much as we should be, but are definitely talking German at home on a daily basis.
I'd love to know more about how to have eliminated teflon from your kitchen. I'd love to do this too, but I use my electric skillet and griddle all the time because I can fit more food for my family on these items (thereby saving time). So, how do you make pancakes (or something similar) in a timely fashion for such a large family?
I use mostly stainless steel pots and pans, as well as baking sheets, though I am adding more and more cast iron skillets, too. Until
this purchase, I had been using two large frying pans at the same time for making pancakes, but am totally in love with my new stove-top cast iron griddle. It cranks out 8 pancakes at a time!
In order for food not to stick in stainless steel pots, the trick is to heat the pot or pan without any butter in it first. Once the pot is hot, add butter, allow to melt, and then add the food. Hot pan + cold butter = non-stick
I think you mentioned once that you have purchased organic mattresses. This is also something we are considering. I'd love more information!
Mattresses in America are just awful. I think the regulations stipulate that in order to be considered fire safe, they must be able to not ignite for at least 90 seconds of being torched with a 2-foot wide raging flame. Whaaaat? The concern in conventional mattress is not just the flame retardant used on them, but also the chemicals with which the foam or latex is processed. The two interact rather horribly with one another, and the deadly off-gassing is most likely one of the major causes of SIDS. We purchased our mattresses from a local store called
EcoClean, and have been very thrilled with them. They currently do not seem to carry the particular brand we bought at the time. We had to wait almost 2 months for them, as they were being manufactured out East by some Amish people.
Do you do something natural in place of food coloring (for birthday cake icing or easter eggs)?
Yes, food-based natural food colors. I buy mine at Whole Foods, but
these are also great, as are
these sprinkles.
We live in Germany temporarily and I'm looking for German toys or games for our kids that can also be souvenirs. (We have several games already - Sagaland, Tempo Klein Fische, Nanu and Obstgarten.) Any ideas?
Those all sound great. You can never go wrong with the "Spiel des Jahres" (Game of the Year) award winners. Ravensburger, Haba, and Selecta all make wonderful family and children's games.
What advice do you have for a girl who is expecting her first son after three girls? Is this a good opportunity to teach my daughters how to be a mother? How do I quell my son's rambunctious spirit as he gets older? I'm sorry, girls are so easy. I have never had a boy. I feel quite incapable right now.
You are very capable, and will do great. Your little boy will be much doted on by his big sisters!! Yes, definitely a good teaching opportunity. There is no need to quell any rambunctious spirit - boys will be boys, as you will soon discover. Having a boy is very different from having a girl, but no less wonderful. You will soon have a very protective admirer!
Would you let any of your children (daughters included) go to college?
By the time our children are college-aged, they will no longer be minors, so this is not a question of us "allowing" them to go to college - that would be their decision. However, it is our hope and goal to teach them that college is overrated and worthless, and that working hard and consistently will advance a career much faster than getting a degree. Our daughters will hopefully have learned that no college or career comes close to the blessing and privilege of being a wife and mother. It's like asking if I'm worried they will grow up and eat at McDonald's: I suppose it is possible, but when you are used to grass-fed steaks, that pink slime just doesn't hold any appeal. They CAN go to college if they want to, but why would they?
Please note that I am NOT against learning. However, going to college and learning are not one and the same. Anything that is taught at college, one can learn on their own through reading or apprenticeship. Not like going to college is a brain transplant - someone just stands in a classroom telling you things that are available elsewhere to learn on your own.
Of course, some professions require college degrees. Should anyone want to pursue a career in one of them, it would be wise to utilize a private college, with no "diversity" training, and without incurring any student debt.
How do you pick your children's names?
We toss ideas back and forth until we find something we both like, and seems befitting the baby. We do not repeat initials of first names (Stephen was an exception because he is named after his dad, and we already had Solomon).
I have a question about the Trim Healthy Mama diet. I was wondering if you consider Stevia a form of birth control? I'd love to try the diet, but I've seen many women saying the sweetener messed up or stopped their cycle all together.I know you would never do use anything that would harm your fertility. I was thinking it might be that a woman would need very high doses, it's a myth, or you do without the sweetener all together. Thanks so much!
I had never heard of that until you mentioned it, and I am so thankful that you did. I did not feel good about using Stevia, so I used it rarely and sparingly. Even so, it made me have insane drops in my already low blood pressure, to the point where I would have tunnel vision, see black spots, and be on the verge of passing out. Clearly, some people are more affected by it than others. For me, even tiny amounts are too much to tolerate. Then I read with shock that stevia has been used by indigenous people as a form of birth control - YIKES!
So - no more stevia for me! I also do not use the erythritol or xylitol promoted in the book. The only sweeteners I can recommend are natural ones such as raw honey, coconut sugar, grade B maple syrup, etc. For the plan to work, these must be used very sparingly (I'd say no more than a tsp per meal), and only with E type meals.
I have always been wondering how and how often your church celebrates the Lord's Supper. I don't believe I have ever heard a sermon or seen a video on it from your church. Do the little children who are not saved yet able to partake in the juice and bread or it's ONLY for believers. I grew up drinking booze every Sunday at catholic church and since my pastor never says anything either way, I don't know what is truly proper.
Good question! We observe it just a couple of times each year. The passover was held once per year in the OT, so we don't think that the Lord's supper is something we have to do frequently. It is only for believers, so young children do not participate. We use unleavened bread, broken up, and pure grape juice. The leaven in both bread and alcohol is a picture of sin. Since the Lord's supper pictures the sinless body and blood of Jesus, it is free of leaven.
Zsuzsanna, I was wondering how to get one of your DVD's "After the Tribulation." I will pay for them, but I would like at least 3. I just don't know how to send a private message to you. You don't have to publish this comment if you don't want to, but maybe others would like to know also. I want to give one to our pastor and some others. Thank you.
You can
order them here. But be forewarned that your pastor is probably not going to be a fan. :)
Since you are against hormonal birth control, I was wondering how you felt about Natural Family Planning? My husband and I are trying for our first baby together (I have two from a previous marriage), and we're charting and watching fertility signs to know the best times for conception. My second child was born by an emergency C-section when his umbilical cord prolapsed, and most likely I'll have to have a repeat, due to the incision I had to have, so more children might not be in the cards for me. I'm not willing to go on hormonal birth control, but at the same time, I want the option for more children to be there, just in case.
I am against NFP for several reasons. For starters, the Bible tells us not to defraud our spouses except with consent for a season that we may give ourselves to prayer and fasting. Since I would not like to fast close to a week or more each month, I would not regularly ask my husband to go on a marital fast for that long, either. Secondly, the fertile phase in a woman's cycle is typically also the one during which she desires and enjoys relations the most - it would be incredibly harmful to make this the time where acting upon these desires is not permitted.
I took German in school and now since we homeschool our children I would like to start teaching them German this year. Do you have any curricula you would recommend?
Generally speaking, any resources purchased from Germany (I use
amazon.de) that teach "German as a second language" are fabulous. Our kids all love the "
Planetino" series.
What colour eyes do your children have?
Mostly brown, a couple are blue.
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Thank you, everyone, for being patient with me as I answer these. I am hoping to publish the answers to the second half of questions in the next couple of days.