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Our Books

We are excited as we get closer to printing two of our Christian children's books in hardcover this Fall! Be involved with our project or fundraiser or receive updates when they are available.

The first children's book The Blessings of Visiting Grandma and Grandpa is still available as a Kindle book on Amazon.  We are working on getting the ebook available here on our website.  Our goal is to print this hardcover book along with Franicia's second children's book.

The second children's book is currently being illustrated by Debbie Hostetler. Her beautiful paintings will grace this grateful children's book that honors parents from the voice of a child.  We are expecting to print this hardcover book together with The Blessings of Visiting Grandma and Grandpa.

We are planning on launching a fundraising campaign so that the books will be more inexpensive for everyone with a large printing upfront.  Many of our friends and family members have expressed that they are ready to purchase our children's books and it made sense to us to have them be involved in the campaign so as to make the books more affordable for everyone. :-)

Healthy Food Preparation and Ideas

For over a decade we have been asked for our advice and recipes on preparing healthy food at home or on-the-go while traveling.  We've been filmed cooking healthy food a few times including a segment on Guam's military channel. You can see that episode on YouTube or on our About page.

Over the years I've taken hundreds if not thousands of food photos as part of my food journal.  It was a way for me to document quickly what we were eating especially when it was easy to make, healthy, and delicious!

We have made and make a number of things from scratch that include pasta, pizza, bread, bagels, sauerkraut, kefir, vanilla extract, scones, biscuits, tortillas, muesli, and a number of dishes from various places around the world including healthier versions of Chamorro, Filipino, American, Japanese, and Italian food.

We love using cast iron and stainless steel for our cooking and use them daily. We also threw out our microwave when we were newlyweds almost 12 years ago and warm up food the healthier and old-fashioned way. It just takes an extra minute or two. :-)

Taking pictures and videos was many times much easier for me to do being a busy homeschooling Mom to many young children instead of sketching and writing my recipes in my Moleskine notebook that I had occasionally been doing for years.

How Do You Stay Fit and Small?

Every week we meet someone new who asks us, especially me, how I manage to stay "small" while being a mother of six young children.  When they say "small" I automatically think they are talking about my Asian Pacific Islander height. :-)  But then they say that I don't struggle with weight issues and look healthy and want to know my "secrets."  We don't have secrets and gladly share what we do!

We live the way we do because the Lord says our bodies are His own. By having more energy by eating healthier and getting proper rest or exercise (when able and understandably more challenging during childbearing years), we can do more for the Lord.

Our family's goal is neither to be overweight or thin --- we want to be healthy.

If you'd like to learn more, sign up for our mailing list as we share more information, books, meal and snack ideas, recipes, videos, as well as a new members-only subscription service we are planning on launching!

Exercise

We want to share with you ways that we keep fit as we also maintain a busy homeschooling household of little ones. We want to show you how you can exercise without having to go to a gym.

Tim currently exercises at home using iron kettle bells, sandbags, and other exercises.  He is an avid biker when he uses that his form of transportation to work and loves using his Vibram five finger shoes.

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I, Franicia, used to lift free weights in high school as part of my P.E. curriculum and also learned most of my exercise regime from the military when I attended the U.S. Naval Academy Preparatory School in Rhode Island and then the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland for two years. We have both trained with Navy Seals as well as numerous trainers in the military using obstacle courses, weapons maneuvering, just to name a few.

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I have simple ways to stay active and exercise according to my season as a busy homeschooling and often-blessed childbearing mother that I want to share with other women who are interested. I want to show you that you don't have to wait months to go on a "walk" or "run" in order to stay fit.  Quite the contrary!

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I want to share with you some simple exercises that you can do at home that can flatten your belly (abdomen) by a few inches (at times) in less than a week. I also want to share what simple walks you can take in your backyard (or similar) area during short moments you have within your busy day.

Herbal Products

We make most of our organic herbal tinctures (glycerinates and alcohol-based ones) and organic salves at home for our needs.  We also have treated a number of ailments using bulk organic herbs in the forms of healing teas, compresses, etc. By popular request, we will be teaching these things as well.

The potent herbal salves I've made for bug bites and scrapes and bruises have been very successful in our family's use as well as other friends and family we've shared them with over the years.

As a quick example and testimonial, one of our young boys was bitten with fire ant bites all around his back, legs, and foot last year when he was playing outside of our Florida home. We stripped him down when he came inside complaining to keep from getting bit anymore.

The ant bites made large half inch to one inch red circles with raised bumps very quickly. We applied my potent bug bite salve and his numerous bites were barely recognizable after a couple of hours of checking on them to reapply the salve. Who knows how quickly the salve did it's work?

A number of times our boys have also needed a different salve I make for "boo boo's." Their bruising was nowhere to be seen after a four days or less of applying the salve. I've shared some of these stories on our main Instagram account.

Christian Encouragement

We have felt honored that the Lord would use any of our writing for His glory. Many people have written to us or told us in person how they greatly benefitted from our writing. We hope to keep you updated with new posts that will be easier to receive and keep track of through our mailing list.

Self-Defense

Although Tim and I have weapons training including boxing and wrestling from having attended the U.S. Naval Academy, I am a trained black belt in Karate using the Aiki jutsu system which is of Isshin-ryu style. I learned Karate in high school while attending a missionary Baptist academy and so "meditation" was never incorporated.

The moves I learned are deadly. I know how to cut off breathing or breaking noses or other body parts.  It's a very serious matter when the need for self-defense arises.

During that time I was also trained to strengthen my punching (boxing) and kicking skills to give powerful blows to the attacker's body.

My sensei also trained me to throw blades using throwing knives at certain targets. He gifted me a sharper and heavier German steel bowie -axe when I made him a second-degree black belt.

Because I knew how escape moves and how to protect myself I have had a sense of peace that I didn't realize most people --- especially women --- do not have. I've had to protect myself a few times from others who were trying to harm me (my "intense" boxing and wrestling partner at the Naval Academy and also when a large male friend of mine was about to be attacked) and want to be able to pass that on to other Christians in need of this knowledge.

My husband has always wanted me to train our family. I have taught them a few things. I have taught a few other women in Arkansas a few maneuvers that would help them to escape from a back grasp or hold or from a forward attacker.

My desire has further been ignited when I had a recent training session in Michael & Guinn Seewald's home. I didn't realize the need until they expressed their daughters' interest. This also happened at the same time that the church we had visited talking about the devastating capture of many Christian women.

How many women could save themselves if they were to learn some techniques and build efficient strength to protect themselves when necessary? That is my desire.

Perhaps this is one reason why the Lord in His workings brought me to undergo all the training that I did so that I could impart that knowledge for the benefit of my sisters-in-Christ? My goal is to teach these things in the most feminine way possible, even showing you where you can still do so many maneuvers and exercise even when wearing a skirt.

Homeschool Products and Resources

We are fairly new to homeschooling in that we have young children and have not reached the high school level yet but we get asked many questions enough to put them online to save us sometime from writing the same things by hand or by phone.

One of the reasons we launched our family website was to put useful information that saves us time with sharing and allows others to view at times that are best according to their personal schedule. :-)

Knitting and Sewing

These are just a few things we do in order to save money. They may be occasionally added in when necessary.

Photography

We have a great passion for capturing special memories, especially of that of our children and family members and friends. We are happy to share what equipment we use and how take and edit our photos.

Computer and Technical Advice

We've had a number of clients for webwork or computer-building or related questions. Many of our friends refer to us at the "techie" ones. Instead of sending everything by email, we build separate websites for things, adding appropriate folders to our FTP server or using apps like Slack for client communication.

When people want to have a meeting with us for projects, instead of flying down and spending airline tickets and hotel room reservations, we recommend (and have) Skype and Google Hangouts meetings to save money and get more things done.

We use technology for our benefit and as a tool while also living a "simple" life.

App Development

We are also in the process of developing some extremely helpful family apps and an educational one for children that is not a time waster but solves problems and makes life more productive and better.

Book Reviews

We love great quality books and link to them on our website.  We sometimes do a short review of them on Instagram or post them within links in our blog posts.

Modest Clothing or Layering

We are affiliates to a number of clothing companies that have great quality clothing for a fraction of the price. Some of their clothes are either NWT or used and in great condition.

We add current coupon codes on those pages or send them out to our mailing list.

Other Special Discounts and Promotional Codes

Once in a while, we will receive special discounts as affiliates of companies such as Berkey Water Filters, Vera Bradley, and more.

Write to Us

If you see a need that we already cover but have not shared, please feel free to write to us on our Contact Form.

Are you encouraged by this post? Is there a need that you've had or question you've always wanted to ask us that we've covered here? We'd love to hear from you!