Entries from January 2009 ↓

  Yesterday after attending Story Hour at the local library, we took a quick trip to the grocery store. I only had a few things to pick up ($7.42 worth to be exact), so we weren’t in there a long time. I do admit that I circled the store about 3 times though, because I shop ADD style. 

  I had Fancy in the front seat of the cart and the boys sitting in the back of the cart together. After three people made comments to me such as “You’ve got your hands full, huh?”, “Wow, you have a lot of helpers there!”, “Wow. Three!”, I decided to just keep track of how many similar comments I’d get before we got out of the store.

  At the deli, an older woman stopped and looked at me, “Three,” she said, “Do they all belong…”, she paused for a second, “together?” she asked surprised. “Um, yes, they’re all mine, if that’s what your asking.” I replied. She then went on for around two minutes about how lucky I was to have three boys! I couldn’t get a word in edge-wise to correct her. Forest though, God less his heart, piped up “Excuse me! Excuse me! They’re not all boys! And she….”, he paused looking pointedly at Fancy, “…does not like to be called a he! And she doesn’t like like a boy anyway”. Well, at least he said Excuse me, right?

   Conversations like this are around every bend! Like I’m a cross between a super-hero and a crazy woman. A freak show pushing my cart down the aisle with my green pepper, onion, and doughnuts (come on, they’re my fuel!).

  So we get out to the car, I put it in my bag of groceries, pack in my children, remove my coat (nevermind that it’s 13 degrees, I’m dripping with sweat after strapping them all in!), and Forest pipes up, “Mommy! I have one question!.” I prepare myself. You never know that that kid is going to ask. I’m just sayin’… So he proceeds with “Is three a lot?”. I get all scientific, “Three is not that many. It is a lot compared to zero, or one. It’s more than two even. But a lot less than like, twenty.” “No! No!”, he corrects me. “Is three children a lot? Do three children fill up your hands very, very full?” I giggled to myself as I assured him that three is absolutely perfect, and that yes, it filled my hands full, but not too full.

  For the record, it was thirteen. Thirteen people commented on my family size. At home later, I realized it was senior citizen day, so I guess that added to it. However, wow. I guess the lady with six children would barely get through the grocery store on a Tuesday, huh?

————————————————————————–
Fancy’s Dad may or may not have given her a mohawk that her mother could not get to go away, no matter what she said. So her mother and her brothers may have put a big bow on her head to hold it down. Fancy may not be that impressed.

Did you know bubbles freeze? Neither did I, until we started getting Alaskan like weather.

It’s actually really quite fascinating to watch. They kind of cloud over, and then freeze, forming all these neat patterns. At a certain point, then they pop. I would have played around with getting better photos, and experimenting a little more, but it was like -2 (literally), and um I just had this sneaking suspicion that my neighbors were peaking through their blinds wondering what good kind of drug I was hopped up on as I was outside blowing bubbles in sub zero temps at night.

Check out this, and other Wordless Wednesdays at 5 Minutes for Mom.

1. Soft-shelled tacos (ground beef), spanish rice (spanish rice mix, tomato paste), and refried beans 

2. Chicken Cordon-Bleu, baked potatoes, peas

3. Hamburger gravy (ground beef, spices), mashed potatoes (potatoes, milk, butter), corn

4. Pizza (hot roll mix, sauce, cheddar and mozzerella cheeses, green pepper, pepperoni, onion, and mushrooms), mixed greens salad

5. Oatmeal, toast, fruit

Here is a link to a free 2 year subscription to Parents magazine. No strings attached. No credit card input needed. I’ve done this before, and my subscription just ran out a few months ago. They never contacted me to try to renew it, or get a penny from me.

Watching the news and rallies today made me slightly annoyed. 10 years ago, I’d never have thought that sentence would come out of my mouth. But it’s true. But perhaps not in the context in which you’ve taken it.

I consider myself very conservative morally, which includes being pro-life. However, I think if there’s a battle to be fought, we’re fighting the wrong one, on the wrong battle field. For 36 years, the conservative base has spent millions (billions?) fighting abortion through politics. Politician’s views are vastly ignored, except for the one in which depicts the way they feel about abortion. Many important issues are looked over because of this.

To me, it is not a realistic point of view to think that Roe vs. Wade will ever be overturned, short of a miracle. Call me doubtful. Call me faithless. Call me Godless. But I don’t consider myself any of those things at all.

Honestly, even if it were overturned tomorrow, abortions aren’t going to end. Outlawing abortions is not going to stop them. Not by a long shot. They’re going to continue to happen in makeshift rooms with unsterilized equipment. Women are going to get them.

To me, it would seem much wiser, make so much more sense to take the fight to the roots, where it begins. Supply does not create demand. Demand creates supply.

It’s fine and dandy to go march at some rally to support the cause, but what would be even more effective, would be if all of these marchers would simply take their ambition back home with them, and use it on their neighbor. Use that money they are sending in to whatever foundation, and give it where it counts in real life. To the woman who is a single mom and has three children and can’t afford the fourth she’s carrying. If they supported her, took her to prenatal appointments, bought her baby items, helped her find child-care, a good job. If we educated teenagers so that they did not get into this mess in the first place. If we supported more crisis-pregnancy clinics that offered adoption as an alternative to abortion. If we simply offered hope, we could greatly reduce the demand for abortions.

Now don’t think for a minute that I am suggesting we turn our eyes the other way to political issues we feel passionate about, or that people do not make a difference when they let their voices be known. That is not what I am saying at all. My point is, I am sick of people marching, holding signs, giving money, shaking their fists and being so quick to judge, and ending it there. Those things will not even begin to fix the problem. Realistically, the battle will not be fought on the street corner picketing or even in Washington it’s self. People are mixed up. The battle is not pro-life vs. pro-choice at all. The battle is hope vs. lack of hope. Is your offering of hope bigger than your picket sign?