Happy Sylvester

Happy Sylvester/New Year Eve, everyone!

Best wishes for the coming 2020! Our food this year is going to be in  Scandinavian style, aka smorrebrod, I'll update with some pics later today.

Herring with onion and egg, beet root salad and apple, kraut, boiled potato slices, meat balls and mustard sandwiches

rice pudding with ground almonds, whipped cream and jam

and two sorts of home-made oliebollen (one regular, one with raisins and apples). I always bake mine in the oven instead of deep-frying.

Happy New 2020 for all my readers! I love you, guys!

How To Survive on 10$ A Week

Those of us struggling financially will probably find these videos interesting:

How to Eat for $10 a Week Part 1

Part2

Check her 1$ meal series, they are good, too!

Winter Books And Crafts

Can you believe that it was supposed to be called "November books" but so many things happened right after I took these photos...I still would like to share them with you.

So the first book I bought at the market in Rotterdam, for 1 (!) euro. The salesman told me I was like 500th person who took interest but apparently they were all too cheap to spend 1 euro for this wonderful children's book

with really great illustrations

It was written by Tor Age Bringsvaerd who is, I think, a Swede, or in any case, a Scandinavian. Your children would love it!

Next I bought myself some Tilda

to continue with the Scandinavian theme:)

I could recommend Tone Finnanger's books to any lady who is craft-minded. I already made two gift bags and my next project is supposed to be an apron since I desperately need a couple of new ones. But even if you don't sew, it's just a very nice book with great decoration ideas!

My last one for today is this German book:

I really should have written about it before Christmas, since the whole book is about various Christmas projects, with some cross-stitching patterns, like this one:

I actually don't cross-stitch, not because I can't but because it's bad for my eyes, so I had a brilliant idea to convert it into a knitting pattern, and here is the result:

I promptly started working at another project but then the kittens grew older and I was forced to put it aside for a while. I just picked it up again this morning, comforting myself by the thought that there is nothing especially Christmas-y about it, it's just another generic Scandinavian red and white pattern (shown on the cover), even though it has moose in it:)

I'll share the end result with you when it's finished.

Hope you are all enjoying your Christmas holidays with your loved ones, and while you are at it, please spare a thought and a prayer for those who are by some reason forced to spend these days alone, single and lonely people need our love, too!

It's Not Over Yet!!!

Don't forget that there are supposed to be twelve day of Christmas:)

Anyone else remember singing this song at school?

Merry Christmas Everyone!

And all glory to God:

And...They Are All Girls!!!

The "gender reveal party" was quite a shock for me, as by some strange reason, I was perfectly sure that one was a female while three others were toms. I had to ask the vet if he weren't by any chance mistaken or just kidding me:)

Today is their last day together as tomorrow one of the girlies will leave us for her new owner, a very nice old lady, as a Christmas present from her family and after Christmas, two other sisters will follow suit. I think I'm going to cry...

But there is good news: we have decided to keep the last one so after the holidays I'm going to introduce to you our new family addition!

The Fourth Sunday Of Advent

I'm really late this year with Advent posts, due to all sorts of things (and in fact, this is the first weekend I spent at home in months and only due to basically being down with flu) but I still thought I have to  continue with the tradition of showing you my Christmas decorations. We don't have a real big tree this year because of the kittens, but we still did our best to make it cosy!

P.S. There is no real flame anywhere.

Be Quick: Only Three More Days Left

To get your free copy of my latest book!

Write to this email address:

 SanneW@gmx.com

to get a free digital copy of my recent book The Road To Power!  

The Most Important Decision In Your Life

is, for any woman, choosing a man you are going to marry. You aren't just choosing a romantic partner, you are choosing the father of your children, and since children inherit 50% of their genes from the father, your future children as well.

If you are a Christian, the most important thing about your future husband should be whether he is a Christian himself. If you choose a fixer upper in the hopes of reforming him by the power of your "love" you are gambling and may be in for a very rude awakening. You are also disregarding the clear command in the Scriptures on not being unequally yoked and will probably reap the consequences.

(I actually believe that this command has a broader meaning and ideally, one should choose a spouse from a similar background.)

The second most important quality of your future husband is his ability to earn a living. I'm honestly quite alarmed at the amount of young women moving in with some guy who doesn't even want to marry them and working full time and overtime to support him and pay the rent. You AREN'T supposed as a woman to provide for an able-bodied man and even worse, one who isn't even your own husband. If a man doesn't have a stable income and some kind of a shelter he has no business to start a family. It's just that simple.

If you wish to marry young, then you should probably look up to men in their late twenties who are more or less financially established.

There is another factor to figure in. In a Christian family, the husband is the head and his wife is supposed to submit, but it will be much easier for you if you have similar ideas about things like child-raising, which church to go etc, so it makes a lot of sense to discuss these things beforehand. If you keep fighting all the time, will it make for a good relationship in the future?

We have all been taught by the MSM that marriage is all about "love" and "romance" and yet for the elites behind it, marriage is a hard business decision which has to do with furthering your blood line and your family wealth. I'm not saying that we should be equally mercenary in our actions, but it usually pays off to learn from those who are successful at something and not those who fail. The virtues of hard work, saving money instead of burning it up on frivolous entertainment, and being able to delay gratification, ultimately will pay off in the future.

Outside of the wealthy, most men in the times past and in many countries, also  the women would work and save before they could afford to marry. In fact, I was criticised for my last post but I've read statistics which showed that well before modern feminism, in the previous centuries the average marriage age for men in Northern Europe was about 30 and for women, 28. The reason for it was that since one income family was the norm, both had to save money in order to get married.

Marrying right out of high school was popularised by baby boomers, I believe, and is often pushed nowadays as the "return to the good old times" but the truth behind it is that this custom normalised married women working since many young men couldn't provide for the family alone at such a young age and required the wife to work, too, until they got established in their careers.

In countries like France, btw, where single women enjoyed less freedom, it wasn't uncommon to pair off a young girl of 18 with a man in his forties who could afford marriage. While I'm not against arranged marriages per se, I doubt it would work in our culture.

I know it's difficult for young people out there. It was bad in my time (late 1990s beginning 2000s) and it's even worse now, and many parents hardly even care to provide any guidance for the children any more and lack morals themselves. When you are young, you think you are invincible and the whole world lies at your feet and you can overcome every obstacle, and you are idealistic and romantic. I urge you to consider one thing: bad marriage is very difficult to overcome. It will ruin your life and that of your children. Don't just "drift" into it, plan it carefully and choose wisely. Pray for guidance and don't be deceived by pretty lies men are so fond of telling to silly young girls.

Pastor Anderson is the preacher many love to hate, and obviously, I don't agree with all he says but that video is really good: don't be worse than a concubine.

Should All Women Stay Home?

Whenever the issue of the traditional labour division in society is discussed, there is always somebody asking a question about nurses and women in similar professions and how we would deal without them.

While some of these people are probably just trolling, the question itself is valid and deserves an answer instead of a dismissal.

I should say let's look at the historical precedent first. In the Middle Ages, and later in Catholic countries up to and including the WWII period, the care of sick and elderly, when it could not be done by the family, was the domain of nuns and monks. Early childhood education, idem ditto. There is a 1960s (French, I think) movie about British pilots whose plane has been shot down by the Germans who for  a time being hide in a Catholic hospital where all the nurses AND the doctors are nuns.

While there were no convents or monasteries in Lutheran countries, from what I've read, there were groups of women called holy deaconesses who basically fulfilled the same function, but for a limited time and could marry afterwards, if they so desired.


The traditional Catholic doctrine distinguishes between the women who have a religious vocation and whose duty it is to serve the society, and all the rest whose place is in the home whether they get married or not. I believe this doctrine has a Biblical basis since the Scriptures teach us that there are some people who have made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom. Now one could argue whether a eunuch could mean a female in this context, but we all know that throughout the ages they have been women who showed very little interest in marriage, children and family life in general.

So if the Western society ever becomes traditional again, we'll probably go back to an arrangement of the similar kind, with family taking over some of the care tasks (that's already happening right now with homeschoolers or those who let their aged parents move with them).

In the meanwhile, there are many single women out there, who necessarily (unless they come from a very wealthy family) will look for a job. Now if these women decided to quit all other industries which could do just fine without female labour (did you know that a secretary used to be a male job?) and all became nurses/gynos/doctor's aides/special police forces who deal with women and children/school teachers etc, I do believe they would fight to get a job, because currently there are more working women than the positions in these branches. And, btw, nurses dealing with men could be male, too, you know.

It is my opinion that a society needs some female labour and that's why I disagree with all this piling on single women which happens on the dissident right. Not everybody is called to marriage and family life, plus there have always been women who used to marry late  and spent their early years working, especially in Northern Europe.

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!

Prayer Request

My father-in-law is losing the battle with cancer. Please pray for our family!

December News Alert

 Christmas Giveaway!

Advent is a season of good will and also the time when people usually give presents to their family and friends, so I'm happy to announce my Christmas giveaway:

everybody who sends me an email  using this address

SanneW@gmx.com

will receive a free digital copy of my recent book The Road To Power!  

The offer is valid till December 21

(if you click on the link above, you can read the first two chapters)

And for those who are looking for a nice present, I was taught that a book makes the best present:)

Both of my books are available on Amazon for a very reasonable price.  

Lydia Sherman Reviews My Book

In her latest installment of the Housewife Radio:




(For the review, scroll to the 25th minute.)

She was kind enough to link to it in her post, too.

St Nicholas Day

Don't forget that it's St. Nicholas Day today! Though we normally celebrate it's eve:)




The feast of St.Nicholas

Pill Will Fry Your Brain, Too

Women who take the Pill each day have a key brain region which is smaller, experts have found for the first time. 

The hypothalamus is crucial for the normal production of hormones and plays a role in mood, appetite, sex drive and sleep.

(The hypothalamus is also responsible for parental behaviour, see here: And cells signaling to a hormone-regulating region of the brain's hypothalamus appear to modulate the parenting-related hormones oxytocin, vasopressin, and the stress hormone corticotropin-releasing hormone. It's probably the reason why modern women are so non-maternal).

 

Researchers at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City scanned the brains of 50 women to make the conclusion. 

They saw a 'dramatic difference' in the size of the hypothalamus in women who took birth control pills.

But don't you worry, despite the crucial area of your brain shrinking 6%, it totally won't affect you:

But they said cognitive performance or behaviour did not change - despite the brain region being around six per cent smaller.  

Well, except you getting depressed and dealing with anger issues, that is:

However, other preliminary evidence from the same team found a link between the smaller size and anger and depressive symptoms. 

  

Probably other things, too:

Disease of the hypothalamus, most often caused by brain injury, surgery, tumours or genetic disorders, can cause insomnia, dehydration and infertility.

A feature or a bug? You decide!

Comfort Food For Winter

Lemon curd:

I used an adjusted version of the recipe from this book:

You'll need:

the peel and juice of 4-5 lemons (ab. 1c)
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 c cold butter, in cubes (I substituted some with coconut oil)
sugar - the original recipe says 2c, I actually used ab. 3/4c brown sugar with a bit of extra honey added

Use a smaller pan which will fit into a bigger pan. Combine all the ingredients in it, place it into the bigger pan and fill the bigger pan with water, bring it (gently) to a simmer and keep stirring your curd ingredients (if you let the water boil too vigorously it will make the egg coagulate and that's not what you wish). Cook and stir until thickened, then pour into sterilised jars. You'll get about as much lemon curd as shown in the top picture. It doesn't keep very long so it has little sense to make more than that. Enjoy!

P8rn Will Make You Retarded

Those folks on the internet who will tell you how great p*rn is and how it liberates you from dealing with those nasty women, aren't your friends:

...studies show people who regularly watch adult entertainment often develop damage to the prefrontal cortex, the brain region that controls morality, willpower and impulse control...

...
'Science is only just beginning to reveal the neurological repercussions of porn consumption.'

'It is already clear that the mental health and sex lives of its widespread audience are suffering catastrophic effects,' Barr says. 

'From depression to erectile dysfunction, porn appears to be hijacking our neural wiring with dire consequences.'

Do You Want To Save The Planet?

Eat meat:

Meat is crucial for feeding the planet, leading scientists have said, as they warned it is not more environmentally-friendly to go vegan...

“Meat has massive social benefits. It’s an important source of dietary protein, energy, highly bioavailable micronutrients, even small amounts of animal-sourced food have a really important effect on the development of children, in the developing world on their cognitive and physical development and they are really important.” 

Prof Mike Coffey, from Scotland’s Rural College, added: “It’s completely unnecessary to go vegan. 
“If everybody went vegan it would be devastating for the UK environment. Animals bred for food help boost biodiversity.”

In other news, fruit may be not as healthy for you as we have thought. 

Is Fruit Good or Bad?

For My American Friends

Advice For Future Pet Owners

If you like to permanently deal with a three-year-old, you need a dog, especially a small silly type, of the sort elderly ladies like to take around in a stroller. However, if you prefer a moody antisocial teenager, a cat is definitely a thing for you.

 If your children need a playmate, a more robust sort of dog will be fine and you can let them walk him (they probably won't like it but who cares:) However, if you wish to have an animal which is a) not intelligent b) not cuddly but c) hardly needs any care and d) doesn't live very long, take a guinea pig.

Hope this helps if you are considering which pet is more suitable for your family:)

Is There Even A Difference???

Liberal Christian Attempts To Debate Atheist But They Agree On Everything

SHERWOOD, OR—Local progressive believer Danielle Mason reportedly attempted to debate atheist Lucas Peterson on the various ideas including the existence of God at a local coffee shop Sunday evening, but ended up agreeing with him on every point...

“I don’t believe in God,” the atheist began before laying out his case for the lack of any real deity as the progressive believer nodded in agreement the whole time.
“I guess I don’t believe in God either, at least not in any concrete way,” Mason said pensively during her allotted 15-minute response time. “At least, I don’t think I do. What does it all even mean, anyway?”

(Yeah, it is satire but comes very close to home). 

The Virtue Of Sexism

I had a rather hectic week, and the tiredness is slow to disappear so instead of writing something long and sophisticated, I just want to highlight a surprisingly refreshing post from Doug Wilson where he argues that sexism is actually a virtue:

Boys and girls are different. Men and women are different. The differences are not superficial or accidental, but rather are profound, extending from the tops of their heads down to the soles of their boots, or flats, as the case may be. The differences between them affect everything, and are found in virtually every aspect of their lives. Men and women both have ten toes, and men and women both have two kidneys, but that is about it.

Healthy cultures budget for these differences. Healthy cultures train boys and girls in terms of them. Boys are taught that they need to learn how to “do this” because they are boys. Girls are trained to do “certain things” because they are girls. Not only is sexism a virtue, but so is stereotyping!

Read the whole article over here. 

The Road To Power - A Book Review

Mark Moncrieff reviews my book on his blog:

The Road To Power is the second book from Sanne Wijker over at A Thrifty Homemaker. It tells the story of Eric Ericsson and his adventures. Even though the story has rayguns in it, it's really an old fashioned swashbuckling tale.

Read the whole of it over here. 

Specially For My American Readers

Here is the place where it all started: the historical Delfshaven, from where the Pilgrims sailed to America:

The church they used to pray in:

 Some things have hardly ever changed in all these years

Americans though you may call yourselves, your roots lie in Europe

Multitasking Is Cancelled

In today's busy world, multitasking is all too common. Juggling multiple tasks and responsibilities might seem like the best way to get a lot done, but as you have seen, trying to do more than one thing at a time can actually diminish productivity and performance. Focus on one task at a time, many experts suggest, in order to get the job done quickly and correctly...

 "We studied people who were chronic multitaskers, and even when we did not ask them to do anything close to the level of multitasking they were doing, their cognitive processes were impaired. So basically, they are worse at most of the kinds of thinking not only required for multitasking but what we generally think of as involving deep thought," Nass told NPR in a 2009 interview...

Experts also suggest that the negative impact of chronic, heavy multitasking might be the most detrimental to adolescent minds. At this age, in particular, teen brains are busy forming important neural connections.

Spreading attention so thin and constantly being distracted by different streams of information might have a serious, long-term, negative impact on how these connections form.
Your brain on multitasking. 

Time To Boycott Disney?

Child abuse at Disney.

Proof That Nagging Kills

I just found a semi-scientific proof that nagging could kill you:

the famous rice experiment.

If you try (or have tried) it, feel free to discuss the results! Dr. Emoto's experiments with water (search for Hidden Messages In Water on YouTube), are quite fascinating, too. 

Death By Nagging

Sometimes I ask myself: "why didn't I sterilise her?" (One consolation is that's going to happen soon, very soon now. ) The kittens have now reached the stage of potty training and the mother has reached the state of "why can't you all leave me alone finally?" (isn't it just typical for many modern mothers), there is a constant stream of visitors and my husband has to work overtime.

Enfin, I've scaled down my other commitments and try to look at the bright side, but what it means for the blog is less effort-posting, so I'd like to draw your attention to this interesting post by Aaron Clarey (warning: language):

Skinny Wives Save Lives


This nagging I argue is killing men earlier than normal.  The "crisis of men" where men commit more suicide, the mortality rate of men is going up, and more "depressed deaths" being logged among men is caused, disproportionately by adversarial women.  And while yes, statistics would show opioids, alcohol, liver disease, and the like are the cause of this, the cause of that would be the toxification of the one thing that gave men point and purpose to live - women - driving men to drink and killing their will to live in the process.  You may make the argument it isn't provable, but nagging, being confrontational, and competing against your husband certainly does not extend his life.

Be sure to read the whole thing! Makes one stop and think, doesn't it?:)

Is It The End Of YouTube?

YouTube is probably over.


I wonder if we all should switch to BitChute instead.

Homemade Carrot Buns

This recipe is adapted from a (now defunct) magazine called Home-Style Cooking. The original recipe yielded 48 buns, mine will yield 24.

You'll need:

+/- 1c sliced carrots
1 egg
+/- 1/2c warm water (divided)
1 pkg dry yeast
4.5 tbsp olive oil
1/4c sugar
1/2 tbsp mollases (optional)
1tsp salt
ab. 4 c flour, mixed white +whole grain, spelt, rye.

Cook carrots until tender, drain and place in a blender, add egg and 1/4c of water, puree till smooth. Dissolve yeast in remaining water, add carrot mixture, oil, sugar (molasses), salt and ab. 2.5c flour, beat until smooth and add remaining flour till soft dough forms (add some extra water and/or oil if necessary). Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for about 6 to 8 minutes. (At this stage, you can divide it in 2 and freeze the other half).

Place in a greased bowl and turn once to grease top, cover and let stand for 1 hr. Punch it down and shape into 24 (or 12) balls, place on greased baking sheets, cover and let rise for another hour. Bake at ab. 175*C (350*F) for ab. 20 min or until browned. Serve warm or cold, they are equally delicious!

Christianity Is Not Only About S*x!

One thing I noticed is that if you want to stay relevant and have high ratings you have to constantly talk about s*x, so I decided to write this post:)

Here comes:

The more right-wing Evangelicals and other traditional churches have done a pretty good job covering s*xual immorality and abortion, which is fine, of course, however, on the other hand, it gives a lot of people an impression that being a Christian is only about not engaging in certain types of s*xual activity. Sort of as long as you live a chaste life you are automatically a good person and will go to Heaven in the end.

Yet, the traditional church teaching listed 7 deadly sins or vices, not only one (that would be lust). Gluttony, for instance, is one of them, and considering the obesity epidemic, is probably something that the churches could talk about more. Yet while they will often warn you against overindulging in alcohol, did you ever hear a sermon about the mortal sin of overindulging in food or luxury items for that matter?

Personally I have often wondered how could one call themselves a Christian and yet be so obsessed with status and pursuing material wealth as (some) modern Christians are? In fact, this status driven consumerist life style is covered by 4 deadly sins at the same time: lust, greed, envy (keeping up with Joneses) and gluttony.

Preachers will often warn you against pride, wrath, and sloth. Yet, here is a funny thing: wrath is too often interpreted nowadays as any form of anger for whatever reasons, as if Christians are supposed forever to be some kind of a Milquetoast, yet our less politically correct ancestors used to distinguish between righteous and unrighteous anger.

To quote Wikipedia (I know, I know:) The neutral act of anger becomes the sin of wrath when it's directed against an innocent person, when it's unduly unbending or long-lasting, or when it desires excessive punishment. Kinda like when our tolerant elites crucify teenagers on social media for engaging in goofy behaviour or organise witch-hunts against those whose political ideas they disagree with (mostly working class persons who have no means to defend themselves and are dependent on the good will of their employers).

Sloth is also an interesting topic, isn't it? It's often explained as laziness, and guess who gets accused of laziness? You get it, housewives! Yet, the traditional explanation of sloth is apathy and failure to do your duty. Now if you are a housewife, it's one of your duties to look well to the ways of your household and not to eat the bread of idleness. And yet, some women do exactly that. While they don't hold a job outside the home, they don't bother to do anything in the way of housekeeping, either.

As for apathy, it seems a malady of young people nowadays. While the elderly are often active and cheerful, too many youngsters are constantly bored out of their minds, have no creative hobbies, hardly do any sports and spend their free  time glued to their phones. It's tragic, isn't it? Youth should be full of energy, vitality and the desire to explore the wide world out there.  Get out into the woods, do things, get enough vitamin D, engage in wider community, there are so many things you could do with your life nowadays! (watching anime isn't one of them).

The next sin on the list is envy and/or jealousy. I once read an article which said that it was only natural to feel jealous of the success of others. I'm sure we all felt envious at times, yet when envy turns malicious, when folks become obsessed with what other people may have, when they are covetous, it can't be good.

Sometimes I think that the accusations of witchcraft were often directed at envious people who experienced joy at the downfall of their neighbours. After all, most of us can feel if someone is jealous of us. Sometimes it turns downright nasty and if, soon after such an encounter something bad happens...Well, it's only natural to think that may be the envious person put a spell on you or something, isn't it?

I'd like to end with a couple of words about pride. Since chastity is considered more or less the only virtue nowadays, chaste women sometimes have a tendency to feel quite Pharisaical about it and look down upon women who have made mistakes in the past (and, btw, chastity is also required of men so players who attack women for s*xual sins aren't any better themselves).  Luke 18 comes to mind:

 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
¹² I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
¹³ And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

 It's a good reminder to all of us, don't you agree?

An Ideal Girlfriend?

Advice for men from Roosh:

What do you all think? I guess not everyone will be on board with his religion, but a girl who is modest, devote, loves to bake, respects her elders and dreams of being a mother is quite a catch nowadays:)

He is my refuge and my fortress

It's not only breathtakingly beautiful, but this sort of music appears to have healing properties!

It's (nearly) The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

Isn't autumn beautiful?

Is Our Christianity Too Victorian?

A thought-provoking post by VD:

Christianity isn't etiquette

What We Did Yesterday

We tried this out:

The end result was quite good:) Anyway, it's a much better way to spend your evening than sitting in front of a TV.

Speaking Of Pirates

They are coming back apparently. Or, at least, their ships:

The owners of Fairtransport were inspired to revive sail cargo after witnessing at first hand the yellow smog caused by commercial vessels. They restored two ships, a 70-year-old minesweeper renamed the Tres Hombres and a wooden ketch called Nordlys that dates back to 1873.
Templeman arranged to board the Tres Hombres, sailing from the Azores to the Netherlands. “I was watching the ocean and it came like a ghost ship through the dawn mist. It looked like a pirate vessel. I was so excited.”

All in the name of sustainability, of course:) Well, this is one climate initiative which I don't mind:)

H/t to Wrath Of Gnon

Vikings Weren't S*xually Progressive

You don't tell me! TV shows are full of lies and propaganda??? Who would have thought...

More On Shills

I think I created a bit of confusion with my previous post on this topic, so I thought I'd try to better explain what I mean. In my opinion, a shill is someone fundamentally dishonest who creates a fake internet persona to sell you some product or ideology. I'll give you a couple of examples which (please keep it in mind) are pure fictional in nature.

Imagine somebody starts a blog saying they are a Christian homeschooling mother of 4 and will share their daily life with you. The target audience of this blog will be obviously women in a similar situation (Christian, homeschooling etc). The blog is quite successful and after a couple of months has a certain number of readers. Then the supposed blog owner starts telling you that though her life is hectic at times, there is a certain brand of supplements which helps her to pull through and that they are produced by a Christian company and if you buy them, you'll help all Christians and homeschoolers out there.

Then later you find out the supposed lady was a single guy in his twenties who sells supplements online.

Now imagine that by some reason, I hate Christian homeschoolers and want to give them a bad name so I set up a blog calling myself a Christian homeschooling mom from Arizona and will expressly state that my blog exists  to support and promote homeschooling and then I'll proceed with publishing  stories which will be ever so slightly over the top, portraying my imaginary family as rather dysfunctional and unpleasant, with spoilt kids, borderline abusive husband etc etc. A normal person will read it and think that home educators are crazy and should be avoided at all costs. So my objective of discrediting the homeschooling movement will be achieved.

There is a difference between a shill and someone who is convicted about a certain issue. There are plenty of Christians who will belong to a certain church and think it's the best. Some will even go so far as to state all others are heretics. They may be misguided in some things but they are sincere and moved by the desire to warn others and to promote their own church/community. They will tell you to join this or that religious group because it's the closest to the Scriptures.

A shill, on the other hand, would pretend to be a sincere Christian and then go around bashing all existing churches, communities and preachers without pointing you to any healthy alternatives as to leave you in the state of despair. (Or sometimes they will point to themselves as the only ones in the possession of some truth which will save you. In this case, it may be not really  a shill but simply someone who is very full of themselves and likes cult-like following. ). You see, he's pretending to be one of you and to help, but in reality, such a person is something totally different.

It's much easier to do online due to the relative anonymity of the internet, so it's always a good idea to practise some discernment:)

Climate Activists Aren't That Popular These Days

Check this tweet:

Upper middle class comes into contact with men who actually have to work for their living:)

How To Recognise A Shill

I guess by now we are all aware of "fake news" and what it means. Most people will associate the term with MSM and turn to the alternative news sources, such as the internet. Yet, here another danger lurks: fake persons, aka shills, who may present dangers of their own, especially if they are in the business of giving advice, outside of the sort which is general in nature. I'll give you one example of what I mean. Apparently, there used to exist a site which published erotic fiction supposedly written by a housewife and yet later, it turned out to be a man.

So how to recognise a fake? I guess if someone desires to create a fake persona online we don't really have a way to be 100% sure unless they get doxxed or self-doxx by some reason, yet, imo, there are certain signs which can betray them and their intentions. When in doubt, follow your gut feeling and stay on the safe side!

Personally I distrust everyone who will give online counselling, unless it's something general like "exercise and eat well", especially if they will go into detail discussing someone's personal situation, family conflicts, etc. Another category is the type who will always try to sell you something. It's one thing to be an affiliate and link to a product you like but it's quite another thing when someone obsessively pushes you to buy his brand of vitamins/supplements "because that's the only thing that works!"

Then you have conspiracy theorists. Sometimes they are onto something and may be even right about many things, but there is a type who will tell you that everything around you is fake and that you yourself probably don't exist, either. Generally, when the internet persona tells you that he or she alone is in the possession of (some) truth and everybody else is a shill, they are possibly a shill themselves:)

There are also fake Christians out there, which are probably the worst of all since they can promote false doctrine and that is much worse than wasting money on vitamins (which are probably harmless  anyway and can even do you good). And here is an idea of mine: I may be wrong, but personally I don't trust anyone who will tell you one thing and promote another. You can't be a Bible following Christian and defend things like p0rn, for instance. You can't say that you are all for traditional family and then discourage marriage, whether directly or indirectly. You can't say that you support Biblical gender roles and then say it OK for married women to work.

I also find it rather strange when I see churches being attacked. Yes, churches aren't ideal. We aren't ideal, either. It may be that in the area where you live there is not one decent church left. It could be probably better in some situations for some people to worship at home. But to blatantly say that ALL the churches are bad and corrupted and you can only find the truth on someone's web page is a sign of a cult mentality.

If you have real life problems, please try to solve them by interacting with real life people, and not by joining an internet personality cult!

If you have any ideas, please feel free to share!

The Autumn Garden

Some pictures from last week:

It's mild for the time of the years but it has been raining every day for like 4 weeks:)

How's your weather?