Matthews Family Herald

Hi everyone,

It is the Sabbath - and as a new "resolution", and productive way to use our work-free day, I am endeavoring to be more social, and to stay in touch with friends and family.

So what have we been up to over here in Germany?

Well, first of all I am glad to report that no one is sick right now!!!!! (imagine making herbal teas, and remedies and administering morning and night for 6 children for over a week-plus waking several times during the night! You can imagine why I am soooo happy to announce this!)

We are enjoying having James home a lot for the holidays- Yesterday- he led us in pt and has been helping home school our kids this past week( for which I am most appreciative!) He's put together a Yahoo Group to help in fostering and facilitating home fellowships in our area. He's also studying a German/English parallel bible in an effort to learn the language in the context of our faith. The home church fellowship website is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/heidelberghomechurchnetwork

(Here's Dad and I playing a Dreidel game with the kids using jelly beans. The other photo is of Dad's German/English parallel bible. The Luther Version in German and ESV version in English.)

Rachel is in AZ still enjoying her holidays; please keep her in prayer. She is greatly loved and missed here. She has an amazing talent for taking photographs. While she was here for our celebrations, she took this uniquely angled photograph.

(Each window sill was adorned with tea light candles.)

I recently got a couple of herbal books that I am enjoying, and a large shipment of herbs from Shoshanna's bulk herb store( I am sipping a cup of stress-free tea right now, made of Ginko, St. John's wort,Gotu Kola, Raspberry, Ginseng, and sweetened with Stevia.) I can't wait to experiment making creams and such, out of my own herbs. I enjoy learning all I can and try to implement change into our family for our optimal health and well-being. Well that 's what is new in my own little world.

(Enjoying a "cuppa" in this first picture. The second picture is of the the seasonal set mentioned, in its entirety. The third is of another other set I bought second hand and that was made in

Bavaria, Southern Germany. Those Almond Sugar Cookies were made by the children.)

Micah has been perfecting his magician skills. He checks out every book he can, and got a large magic show for Hannukah with over 100 tricks. He has a gig set up already at the library. He also has put in a lot of comm. service hours at the library and getting some good training. It helps motivate him at home for his schooling and chores as well. He and Jacob also got a large art set for Hannukah , and has been impressing us with there paintings.

(Winter and Summer so well captured here in Micah's two acrylic paintings. Could these be the same tree even?)

Hannah's sweetness and beauty continue to bless our presence. She is improving in her math and reading skills, and really enjoyed the book Heidi, that we just finished(Our country for the month that we are studying is Switzerland.) She is also highly enjoying the Little House books. She shows a lot of interest in flowers and herbs ( I hope I have a little apprentice to share my hobby with) and she always wants to have a cup of tea with me.

Jacob has probably been the most stir crazy lately since he is the most athletic and has a hard time keeping his body still. He is growing so fast, it seems his bones are outgrowing his skin- getting tall and lanky. I hope to find archery or fencing lessons for him soon when we get settled into our new home (which we get to start moving into in a few days!)

(Jacob the acrobat. His other beloved move is to spin.)

Nathan is enjoying building Lego sets (Hannukah) and his skills and attention span are quite impressive. he has been getting in trouble a lot lately however for saying things like shut-up, butt, and other kinda crude things. He doesn't care for the taste of soap too much.

(Nathan, Eden, and Hannah playing with Eden's new tea set. The next shot is Nathan playing with his Legos.)

Eden has hit a growth of development in speech-and blows us away every day with her new word usage and understanding. She is always very funny and sweet.. She was much more interested in the boys wooden swords than the doll she got for Hannukah.

(Here, Eden is finger painting with shaving cream, colored with food coloring. The other picture is of Eden in a new dress she received from the Army's Angel Tree gifts.)

They are all my greatest joy every day! (And my greatest frustration)

-Heather

Just wanted to share what I learned about mustard , first hand(or right forearm). Last night I was frying some fries and onion rings in a deep fryer when the clasp on the tongs I was using slid down and then sprang open while in the boiling grease, dousing about %50 of my forearm. After running it in cold water for a few minutes, I consulted my herbal book, and some sites on the internet, while watching large blisters form on my arm. The neat thing was that James had just read the other day about how mustard works on burns. So at this point, not having anything on hand, like plantain or aloe, I was willing to try. So I slathered it all on, and it was only a couple of min. before there was no pain at all! I had to reapply every 30 min. or so when the pain came back. It removed all blisters, and by this morning, only slightly red in the worst places. I am very much a believer in mustard now, and will use it on all the kids' sunburns. Since I didn't want mustard all over my bed, I soaked a rag in vinegar(which is what I think did the trick in the mustard)wrapped it around and tied it on. There was no pain or sensitivity and I slept well all night! Try it for yourselves, you'll be totally amazed! Another strange remedy I came across, (in case you don't have any mustard) was urine ("preferably your own", it said) HA! James did offer!

Well, after about 30 minutes of trying to sign in!!!! (Thank you, to my computer savvy and very patient hubby - you're the best) I am posting my first blog. I am determined however to continue trying and learning. Speaking of which, James mentioned my recent endeavors earlier. I would like to report that the laundry seems as clean as ever, and we now have several canned jars of food and preserves in the pantry; my favorite of which is the blueberry/lime jam on the homemade %100 whole wheat bread the kids helped me make last night. I can't tell you how rewarding it is to can, bake, learn about herbal remedies, make homemade detergent and use cloth diapers. Is it just because I'm learning something new, fullfilling long-time dreams, or is it something else? Not sure, all I know is that the desire to learn these things and become more self-sufficient has become overwhelming. Most likely, as I see more and more Christians and homeschoolers taking this route, I believe that these are skills that we are going to need someday. Living a wholesome, basic and simple life is very fulfilling (especially in this fast-paced, 9 to 5- American Dream- grind. Not to mention the great quality time and learning opportunity for the kiddos as they help and learn along side me. (I can't do ANYTHING without our 2 yr. old, Nathan, running to help!) Just food for thought.
Anyway, tomorrow is Micah's big debut in Robinson Crusoe -Yes! He got the lead! And he is so awesome - we are very proud! In fact, I had flashbacks at the auditions when they called Micah's name. I saw a crazy red-headed mom whooping on the sidelines, with teary eyes, as Micah hit his first run at his first baseball game when he was five. yeah- it was scarey. Oh, and did I mention that I got a part as well? Robinson's mom of course! Should have some pics tomorow- until then..........

Heather

(I have updated the photo here to depict actually food that my wife has "canned."

My wife has gone "canning crazy" and it's a lot of fun for all of us. She's already canned (Mason Jars) Kiwi jam (it's actually really tasty) and she's preparing to can some left overs in the fridge. She's wanting to can apples and peaches given to us by Mrs. Blake and she's looking for anything else can-able as well. She's like when you first learn how to sell things on eBay and you are looking all over the house.

We are all actually really excited about learning how to do things like this and be prepared for whatever the future has and to be more self sufficient. It's a lot of fun.

My wife has also learned how to make her own laundry detergent and it works very well. It costs next-to-nothing and one batch should last for about 6 months.

I was previously not a cloth diaper fan but now I'm ready to agree that "Yep, these are cloth diapers I can get into." Heather has done the dirty work for us! She ordered 12 different kinds of cloth diapers off of eBay and figuered out which features worked best by trying them all out on our newest bundle of joy, Eden. Watch now as Heather provides you the nitty gritty, low down, down low, no doubt 411 on this latest endeavor of ours. Heather invites you to email her if you have any brand name or ordering questions or whatever and she'll plan to get back with you soon. Email Heather at: mamajama92@yahoo.com