#JennyHatch Thanksgiving Montage

Paul drove with Jeffrey and Andrew to Utah last week to spend some precious time with his Father, who is bedridden, and the whole extended family, who gather together every other year to Celebrate Thanksgiving.

I stayed home because we didn’t think I could make the trip with my lungs so congested. It is extremely dehydrating to drive over the mountains of Colorado and through the desert of southern Utah. I have done it many times before, but am still recovering from a summer illness. So I stayed home with Benjamin and Samwise and we had a nice quiet week.

Here are a few pictures from Pauls Trip:

Paul has been thrilled by our daughters choice to attend SUU in Cedar City. Jeff was just accepted this past week and we are curious to see if he decides to attend with his sisters next fall. Pauls parents were both professors at the school, and he and his six siblings all attended for undergraduate work.

Allison, Jeffrey, Andrew, and Michelle with Grandpa Hatch

Paul and Jeff making Boston Cream Pie

Jenny Hatch

#jennyhatch Sarah’s Key, Best Movie of the Year!

Every once in a great while I take a chance and rent a movie from Redbox without knowing anything about it.

Most of the time what I see is the same pointless drivel that flows out of Hollywood year after year.

I was shocked to pick up Sarah’s Key the other day, and find myself transported to 1942 Paris France into the chaos of yet another Holocaust Story that nobody ever taught me about in History Class.

The pure emotion of this amazing movie, so well crafted, acted, and musically scored left me quite drained emotionally. The day after viewing it I watched the Making of the Movie documentary on the DVD and read the English subtitles as the French Writer, Director, Crew, and Actors explained the backstory of the book and movie.

Then last night I popped the disc into my player once again and watched it a second time, reveling in movie making at its very best. As the spirit of the story washed over me, I felt enlivened and overwhelmed by the tender way this story was crafted.

Today before returning the movie, I plan to watch it a third time, as my own personal holiday celebration of Family, Life, Love, and Truth. I have already put the book on my Amazon wish list and plan to purchase the movie for our home Library when I have a few extra dollars laying around. When my daughters return home from school for Christmas Break watching Sarahs Key with them will be a high priority during our three weeks of vacation together.

As I watched the second time, I found the story of the modern day journalist more compelling and relevent to my own life than Sarahs Journey…

I am curious to see how a third viewing touches my heart.

Today I am so grateful for the craft of movie making. It touches me on every level.

Take the time to view Sarah’s Key.

It is a life changing movie.

Jenny Hatch

#jennyhatch It has been a difficult week for those of us healing from Sexual Abuse…

There is so much power in story.  So much truth contained in the various struggles we engage in here on Earth.

The Savior said it best when he prophesied that our day would be one of Division.

 51 Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:

52 For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.

53 The father shall be divided against the son, and the sonaagainst the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

And in the book of Micah it says:

 6 For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s aenemies are the men of his own bhouse.

The Apostle Paul prophesied to the Romans that we would be without Natural Affection

 31 Without aunderstanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

For me as a Christian caught in the web of Unnatural Affection, it is difficult to process my reality amidst so much evil being broadcast on television.

The evil around the Penn State Child Abuse story has been so horrifying, at times I have had to turn off the news, hands shaking, hives breaking out all over my body as I heard details of the various assaults on children.

My own childhood nightmare around abuse has been something that to this point in my life I have not published, as the gory details are things I do NOT like to revisit in my mind.

But since today is Thanksgiving, a key time for Family Molesters to Pounce, and if memory serves, three different times molesters in my family took advantage of my little body to use for their own selfish sexual lust around Thanksgiving gatherings, and because my life organized itself this year to allow me to spend this week mostly alone without my family around to keep me distracted and busy, I thought it would be a good idea to spend a few minutes writing for those who have been hurt.

My own children were hurt by a family member and when I phoned the police in our town, it was the first time a molester was truly held accountable for this heinous crime.  The shockwave sent through the family circle continues to reverberate today. So much shame is tied up in Family Sexual Abuse, that when a family member decides to go public and/or get some justice, it is so easy for the rest of the family to circle the wagons and starting yelling about insanity.  It is true that I have struggled with emotional illness during my life, and my family has been so willing to throw out words like Psychosis, Manic Depression, Bi Polar etc etc whenever I bring up our extended families troubles with sexual assault. Most of the time, to them, I am just fine, but if I ever start talking about Family Pattern Abuse, All of a sudden I am in a raging Psychosis in need of forced drugging and “treatment” to shut me up.

None of my family members are psychiatrists and it pains me to inform them that although it might be tempting to blame all claims of sexual abuse in our family on “Jenny’s Mental Issues”, where a little smoke is blowing, often a fire is smoldering that can and will blow up in the next generation of children and grandchildren.

Whenever I think about nieces, nephews, cousins, etc etc…I just wither in frustration knowing that a few molesters in our extended family have access to these little ones, and it just revolts and frustrates me to no end.

I want to create Wanted Posters and email them around to all of the family and warn the innocent and blind not to allow these people to have access to the babies and toddlers.  I want to yell and scream and warn whenever another person enters the family circle through marriage.  I want to shout and hit and bite and kick, put my body in the path to make certain that the babies are kept whole and safe.

If I learned nothing else as I remembered details of my abuse at the hands of my Father and his brothers and a few male cousins, they LIKED to molest pre-verbal babies because Babes who can’t talk yet… can’t tell.

But I feel that any sort of exercise towards justice and prevention on my part would be futile and so I just keep my own kids away from the molesters and pray for the safety of everyone else.  I also pray that those around the molesters in my family will have their eyes opened and be willing to see the truth when and if it smacks them in the face.  And then act on that truth…

That is my prayer on this Thanksgiving day.

Jenny Hatch

#jennyhatch Natural Family Living Class One: November 2011 Food Storage

I taught my class last saturday here in our home.  It was extremely stressful attempting to incorporate the multimedia webinar stream on the web, and so I was grateful that the only person who attended was my friend Helen.  If I had had a houseful of strangers show up to be taught the fundamentals of Food Storage my head might have exploded.  Ben had a meltdown just before class started and was refusing to leave with his Father, who had been asked to keep the nine year old and the dog busy for two hours while I taped, needless to say I was a frazzled mess when the class started, but I gave it my best shot.

Here is the link to the class online

About the Class

Self Reliance Enthusiast Jenny Hatch lectures for 90 minutes the Basics of Short and Long Term Food Storage.

Topics Covered Include:

1. Whole Grains and Beans
2. Flax Seeds for fresh oils
3. Sprouting
4. Canning vs. Freeze Dried Foods
5. Rotation and Inventory

To view and listen to the previous webinars, click HERE and HERE

The Next Class will be on December 17th at 9 AM

December 17th 2011: 72 Hour Kits

*Most Emergencies require a three day window of self-reliance before outside help arrives. This class will cover the ins and outs of survival at home or in a shelter 

Register at WizIQ if you would like to join the class online!

Jenny Hatch 

#jennyhatch OK, I admit it, I was really upset over the weekend…

My daughter Allison went to a dance on friday night.

Since she was a small baby I have followed her around with a hairbrush.  In fact, when she was five she had this beautiful head of brown hair that she would not let me touch.  I sometimes used to sneak into her room with a hot curling iron and curl her hair for church when she was asleep. (*Warning….do not try this in a business setting, only professional Mothers can handle this task while breastfeeding the baby and soothing the two year old, at the same time as curling the sleeping five year olds hair)

When she started dating and going to parties we spent hours working on her hair, trying to come up with the perfect look. I was the hair fixer extraordinaire…With three little sisters I had plenty of practice braiding and curling as I grew up. The night of the 9-12 Tea Party, which I had spent months organizing, was her homecoming dance, and I almost cancelled the tea party when I realized the dance was the same night, so I could stay home to help fix her hair.  A beloved friend fixed it for that dance.

I asked her if Michelle was going to roll her hair for the dance and she said her friend Sierra wanted to do it.  I think I could have handled it better if we had kept this task in the family, something about a friend doing it made me feel sad.

I must admit, part of me wanted to just jump on a plane and fly out to Utah and spend hours helping her get ready for the dance.

But Sierra is a gifted girl and she came up with a beautiful french braid of curls that was a work of art.

When I saw the pictures I was reconciled, but must admit I cried a little bit because I wasn’t part of the fun.

Jenny Hatch