Links for you to further explore this month’s Friday Feature posts on natural sources of iodine, protein and calcium:
Top Seven Vegan Sources of Protein at Natural News.com
21 Sources of Protein for Vegetarians at Care2Make a Difference
Understand the Calcium Myth: Here’s What Really Makes Healthy Bones at Natural News.com
Last week I took a vacation to write. This week I take a vacation not to write (at least not extensively). See you soon.
Still counting gifts. . .
My One Thousand Gifts List
#631-640
A workshop at Joshua’s school
Not getting upset with my babysitter for being late
My babysitter watching the boys and cleaning my kitchen
Meeting Sharon, another Emerson parent
Ms. Turner giving me great information at the Reading Comprehension and Writing Workshop
Knowing I had a definite way to help Joshua with reading comprehension and essay writing
Invitation to present a poem at the Master’s Bible Chapel’s Mother’s Day event
Getting laundry done
Good fellowship with Taivia
A stellar book proposal critique from a reputable literary agency
When we eliminate something out of our lives, be it a habit, a person or a friend, we sometimes substitute what’s missing with something unhealthy. We may pick up another bad habit, a toxic friend or a harmful food. This happens with the vegetarian and the vegan when they are trying to ensure getting enough protein and calcium. To get protein and calcium, vegetarians tend to eat too many eggs for protein and too much cheese for calcium, both causing high cholesterol. And vegans, who don’t consume any meat products or byproducts, tend to lack protein and calcium and have problems with weak bones and teeth. Over the last two weeks, I shared posts giving you vegetarian sources of iodine and protein. Today I give you vegetarian sources for calcium, which mostly come from leafy green vegetables. Some of the best foods include the following:
• Collard greens
• Cabbage
• Turnip greens
• Beet greens
• Kale
• Spinach
• Broccoli (Flowers, stems and leaves; they actually come with a lot of greens if you pick them at a broccoli patch.)
• Snow peas
• Beans
Consuming calcium does your body no good if the calcium can’t get to your bones. Make sure to get other essential nutrients, such as magnesium, to help with this process.
What Do You Think? Wednesday
Sometimes disciplining a child biblically can be hard when the child is rebellious and hell-bent on remaining that way. Their behavior and attitude make you want to punch them. I know I’m not the only recovering strong black woman who feels this way. A lot of us, other women and daddies, too, feel this way. But the punching, slapping, cussing and throwing kids and things at kids’ way is not the way to discipline, regardless of their actions. Read more of my thoughts on this as I delve into what the Creflo Dollar child discipline ruckus should remind Christian parents about disciplining our children. This is my latest EEW column, which begins below. Read it and tell me what you think:
I told you about the time I wanted to punch Josh and the time I wanted to cuss him out and the time of the showdown. I have had my mommy moments when I have wanted to take my kids out of the world that I brought them into. But how does the discipline moment for the Christian get to the point where the police are involved, not because someone in a public bathroom witnessed, disagreed with your methods and called the police, but your own child called them to your house?
By now you have heard this is what happened to Creflo Dollar, the megachurch pastor of World Changers Church International in College Park, GA. News reports say Dollar and his 15-year-old daughter argued because he said she couldn’t go to a party. At some point the verbal sparring got physical, with Dollar allegedly choking, slapping, punching, and hitting his daughter with a shoe, though he denies punching his daughter.
Dollar says he was just trying to restrain her after she hit him. According to the incident report, Alexandria Dollar, 19, sister of the 15 year old, says her father “put both hands around her sister’s neck and choked her for about five seconds.” She also alleges that her dad grabbed her sister by the shoulders and slapped her in the face. And the 15 year old on the 911 call says the reported incident was “not the first time.” Dollar was arrested, taken to Fayette County Jail and released on $5,000 bond. He faces misdemeanor charges of simple battery and cruelty to children.
This incident disturbs me on a number of levels: that a girl seems to have been abused at the hands of her father; that the man involved declares to be a representative of God; that all of child discipline will be under greater scrutiny; and that this mars the church, God’s glory and Christianity. By Dollar’s own admission, he wrestled his daughter to the ground. I wasn’t there and don’t know all the details, but I don’t believe that a 50-year-old man has any business physically restraining a 15-year-old girl for any reason. The situation got out of hand, but how does child discipline in the home of Christians get this far? I don’t know for sure in Dollar’s case, but let me help us be mindful of what Scripture says that gives us insight into how we might avoid his fiasco happening to us:
Read more here.
When you come to dark corners and they’re the end in your mind, do you make the end complete by bowing out of projects or consider bowing out of life? I’ve done both when the mantle of strong black womanhood was just too much, when other people’s demands let me know I had not enough to handle what was expected of me.
Erica Kennedy
My One Thousand Gifts List
#621-630
The sun shining on my face
The pool of water making waves in the parking lot
Being led to join the A Holy Experience Gratitude Community
Meeting a white mom of an adopted black girl seeking me for guidance
Making great headway with laundry
Eating fruit in the bed with Nate and Justus
Justus and Nate attacking me with love
The boys loving going to the playground
Nate asking me to push him high in the swing while Josh swings himself high and Justus says “wee”
God protecting us at the name of Jesus from a car accident that seemed inevitable