The Common Room

Testing

2019-12-09T07:55:00.002-06:00

Interesting.

"Unwin examines the data from 86 societies and civilizations to see if there is a relationship between sexual freedom and the flourishing of cultures. What makes the book especially interesting is that we in the West underwent a sexual revolution in the late 1960’s, 70’s, and 80’s and are now in a position to test the conclusions he arrived at more than 40 years earlier. "

Here is just one of his findings:

"Effect of sexual constraints: Increased sexual constraints, either pre or post-nuptial, always led to increased flourishing of a culture. Conversely, increased sexual freedom always led to the collapse of a culture three generations later. "

It's worth reading the whole thing.

Update Your Bookmarks!

2012-06-05T21:52:00.002-05:00

The Common Room has a beautiful new facelift and a brand new home. We're told it loads up faster, and I can now read it on the Kindle with ease. If you're a subscriber, you need to update your subscription for the blog in your Google reader to the new address: thecommonroomblog.com

See you on the other side!

Thank-you

2012-05-28T05:08:00.001-05:00

Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord

2012-05-27T04:47:00.004-05:00

Verse 1:
Teach me Thy way, O Lord, teach me Thy way!
Thy guiding grace afford, teach me Thy way!
Help me to walk aright, more by faith, less by sight;
Lead me with heav'nly light, teach me Thy way!

Verse 3:
When doubts and fears arise, teach me Thy way!
When storms o'erspread the skies, teach me Thy way!
Shine through the cloud and rain,
through sorrow, toil and pain;
Make Thou my pathway plain, teach me Thy way!

Verse 4:
Long as my life shall last, teach me Thy way!
Where'er my lot be cast, teach me Thy way!
Until the race is run, until the journey's done,
Until the crown is won, teach me Thy way!

This is a very handy site for learning to sing the hymns in four part harmony. You can select any one of the four parts and just listen to it plunked out on the piano.

Can We Call Him A Socialist Now?

2012-05-26T11:49:00.000-05:00

Via Buzzfeed

Well, maybe. He spoke at a DSA event. But maybe the speakers weren't socialists. Let's see.

According to Wikipedia's entry on William Julius Wilson, Wilson "...identified himself as a Rustin-style social democrat. Wilson has served on the advisory board of Social Democrats, USA" and according to the entry on him he is a long time DSA Affiliate and,

"In 1989, William Julius Wilson, was a member of Democratic Socialists of America. ...

In 1990, Democratic Socialists of America was selling a list of pamphlets, mainly by members, including "Democratic Promise:Ideas for Turning America in a Progressive Direction", by Michael Harrington, William Julius Wilson and Robert Kuttner and "Poverty", by Michael Harrington, with contributions from Barbara Ehrenreich, William Julius Wilson and Mark Levinson.["

Professor Michael Dawson: it is interesting that in his Curriculum Vitae, he does not include his work with the DSA, not even in the list of 'selected speeches. He's also a founder of the Black Radical Congress, which is a socialist organization.

Toni Preckwinkle: Sodahead (I know) identifies her as a leftist Democrat with ties to Chicago's socialist community. She did speak at:

The Memorial Service for Chicago Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member Saul Mendelson was held on Sunday, March 29, 1998, at the First Unitarian Church, Chicago^[7].
The service was MC'd by a retired colleague, Bob Clark. Carl Shier of DSA, spoke first and was followed by Saul's friend Deborah Meier, "a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient who is now starting a new school in Boston". Amy Isaacs, National Director of the Americans for Democratic Action, spoke of what "Saul had meant on foreign affairs to the ADA".
Other speakers included Communist Party USA aligned Senator Carol Moseley Braun, Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, State SenatorBarack Obama, Illinois House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie and "a good friend from New York", Myra Russell.
The concluding remarks were made by an old friend, Harriet Lefley, a former Trotskyist with Saul Mendelson in the 1940s, who was then Professor of Psychology at the University of Miami Medical School.

Eulogies also came from Quinn Brisben, (Socialist Party USA presidential candidate 1976, 1992) and David McReynolds (Socialist Party USA presidential candidate 1980, 2000).
Both Brisben and McReynolds are also members of Democratic Socialists of America.

That's an awful lot of socialists in one place.

Professor Joseph Schwartz, identified in New Ground 45, March - April, 1996 as "a member of DSA's National Political Committee."

There is a lot of well documented dot connecting here. I would call it must reading

So what did Obama have to say? According to the New Ground 45 issue his theme was three areas state government should be doing more:

The first is "human capital development". By this he meant public education, welfare reform, and a "workforce preparation strategy". Public education requires equality in funding. It's not that money is the only solution to public education's problems but it's a start toward a solution. The current proposals for welfare reform are intended to eliminate welfare but it's also true that the status quo is not tenable. A true welfare system would provide for medical care, child care and job training. While Barack Obama did not use this term, it sounded very much like the "social wage" approach used by many social democratic labor parties. By "workforce preparation strategy", Barack Obama simply meant a coordinated, purposeful program of job training instead of the ad hoc, fragmented approach used by the State of Illinois today.

The state government can also play a role in redistribution, the allocation of wages and jobs

However, The Democrat Socialists of America say that Obama is not a socialist.

Hmmm. Would they have any reason to say this if it wasn't true? I think we know that they would. I also think that even supporters of Obama would have to agree that this is not how he portrayed himself during the last election. Also interesting- somewhere in that list of links, Obama was endorcing gay marriage in the 1990s. So we know his position on the issue did not 'evolve' as he has attempted to portray it, but rather, his revelation of his actual position has been a carefully orchestrated, long, slow strip-tease. This methodology, btw, is, IMO, obviously his strategy for other hard-core socialist policies. Obama care is meant to be a failure, because then he can step in and 'reform' it by further government intervention.

The DSA did endorse Obama in the state election of 1996, the same year he spoke for them. If you've studied the way Obama won that election, you'll find this sentence a bit ironic:

Luckily, Mr. Obama does not have any opposition in the primary. His opponents have all dropped out or were ruled off the ballot. But if you would like to contribute to his campaign, make the check payable to Friends of Barack Obama, 2154 E. 71st, Chicago, IL 60649. If you would like to become involved in his campaign...

He ran unopposed because sealed divorce records of at least one opponent were inexplicably leaked to the media and Toni Preckwinkle had "successfully challenged the signatures of Obama's opponents in the Democratic Primary for the Illinois Senate, allowing Obama to run unopposed." (her entry on Wikipedia)

It's obvious that discussing his socialist leanings is effective to some degree, because Obama's comedy team Jon Stewart did a segment on it. It's funny, because Stewart and his team are funny people, but Once you get done laughing, there really isn't anything substantive there.

Obama was a member of the Chicago Socialist Party in the 90's.

Let's change things up for a moment. Let's swap out all the above references to Obama to some Republican candidate. And let's swap out all the references to the DSA or other socialist groups to, say, a Libertarian group. Would it be unfair or a 'smear' to suggest that candidate had definite libertarian leanings based on his long time association with libertarian politics and people? No, it would be fair. So what's offensive about pointing out Obama's long time associations and connections with socialists,and socialist meetings?

I wish we had such a candidate as my hypothetical one, somebody with libertarian leanings, btw.

But we don't have that. We have a socialist President and yet another 'pragmatic' Republican "who will trade away principle for temporary power and expect my gratitude for the privilege."

Weekend Plans

2012-05-26T00:14:00.000-05:00

Last night we had a family with four girls between the ages of 18 and 12 over for dinner, along with their parents and grandparents.

Remember these chairs?

After dinner the teen-agers went upstairs and played with the chairs. They tell us they were playing trains- each sitting in a wheeled chair, holding on to the one in front, and then all rolling in a line as fast as they could around the room.

It sounded like they were playing bumper cars.

The grownups sat in the living room and talked about when, where, and how we met, when we became Christians, where we'd lived, and told funny stories about the kids.

Then they all left, taking our boy with them. He is spending teh night at his married sister's house north of us (where our friends live), so that he can go off to play at battles with whackings and thwackings and freakishly large weapons, like this:

His brother-in-law will be playing as well, along with several other of his male friends and even a few girls.

Meanwhile, the HG is loading up her two babies and coming up here. We shall probably dabble in the pool:

Presuming the Striderling has the go-ahead given his recent determination to rid himself of his g-tube without waiting for any silly old doctors to remove it the medically approved fashion.

The HM and possibly the FYG will go play volleyball at a friend's house. The rest of us are invited, it's a big Shabbat shindig of some sort, but it's including a lot of people and I need to unpeople myself for a bit. So I'll be here with the two married girls, Pip, and the grandbabies, and I know you are thinking "Are they not people?" but no, not in the same way.

Some of them, really, really not in the same way:

We will visit, sing, read, maybe play, mostly sit, do some swimming, or rather, floating, and probably cook something. I will study sign language.

Then the Happy Warriors will come back up north together, we'll all get cleaned up and nosh a bit and head off to the three dollar movie theater to see October Baby.

Striderling and Fam are spending the night. Actually, I thought we were supposed to have the Little Boys, when they left on Tuesday they asked when they could come back, and I said Friday- but they never showed up.

Anyway.

Sunday- we leave for church at 7:30 in the morning, or we try to. My deaf friend shows up at the taile end of class, and I interpret the rest of class for her and the church service, and I do that very, very badly, but fortunately, our preacher makes an awesome outline. Unfortunately, my requests to get the list of songs sometime Saturday so I can look them over generally falls on the somewhat unresponsive ears of some 20 somethings who do not do a good job of putting themselves in anybody else's shoes and yes, I am kind of in a crabby mood about that right now. Sometimes......

Sunday afternoon, we will go over the HG and STrider's apartment and help them pack.

Sunday night it's church, more interpreting, and after church the same people we had over for dinner Friday night are having everybody over for a cookout and a movie which they will be showing on their barn wall.

Then we head back home- this time with the STriderling family still in tow, AND my deaf friend, who is coming out to spend a couple days with us. I'm a little nervous about this and also excited. that's a lot of signing. Gulp.

Monday we have a cookout and Karaoke over at Shasta's house. Until you have heard the Dread Pirate Grasshopper sing You Are My Sunshine with his father and Oh, John the Rabbit wtih me, you just don't know how beautiful life is. Okay, maybe you do. But you should still see it.

Do you know John the Rabbit?

Tuesday morning sometime one of us will drive my deaf friend back home.

I will sit down at the laptop, slack jawed, drooling, and numb of brain. Not sure how long it will take to recharge my drained batteries, but I think it will take a whole lot of doing nothing and then resting afterwards.

I will look kind of like this for at least a day (I hope):

I have to do school with the teens, though. And I have to do several other things, so at some point I will get up and trudge away at life.

There's a laptop in her basket, you know.

Blynken, Nod, and Photography

2012-05-25T16:09:00.001-05:00

The Little Boys and the FYG had fun taking pictures the other day.

Blynken wanted pictures of their hands on the globe- he loves maps. Here's the pic the FYG took:

Here's the picture Blynken took- the FYG said it was annoying because it took her several tries to get the picture focused the way she wanted, and Blynken got his right on the first try:

He's learning about maps in school- they do the K-12 charter school at home program, which I think is a fabulous fit for them.

Scary Stuff in the Blog World

2012-05-25T15:51:00.002-05:00

Only for many, it has spilled over into the real world. People have lost their jobs, had to flee their homes, and had swat teams called to their homes via hoax phone calls. Ugly. Here's some longer background information on the Speedway Bomber. Conservative blogger Aaron Worthing, actually Aaron Walker, details his claim that the subject of the above video attempted to 'out' him for the purpose of making his name and home address known to those who might object to his 'everybody Draw Mohammed Day," and then frame him for a crime he didn't commit. It's long, but well documented. Apparently, a new harassment technique is to call the local SWAT team from an anonymous phone, claim to be the person you wish to harass, give that person's number, and then tell the SWAT team you've just killed your family. The sort of psychopaths who do this like to be on the phone with their victims when the SWAT team arrives. This happened recently to Patterico, or Patrick Frey. Guess who was on the phone with him, even though it was kind of late at night? Now he heads a 501C3 nonprofit, and guess who donates? Michelle Malkin writes:

Over the past eight years that I’ve been blogging and operating Internet media companies, I’ve witnessed or experienced firsthand some of the most unhinged behavior against conservatives — from individual harassment and intimidation, to e-mail bombs and e-mail hackings, to troll infestations, distributed denial of service attacks, coordinated spam block attacks, and death threats. Over the past twenty years that I’ve worked in daily opinion journalism, written books, and traveled across the country speaking in every type of venue, I’ve always believed that the most effective response to attempted censorship of conservatives is more speech, not less. More. Louder. Bolder. For conservatives online, it is also a time-tested truism that there is great strength in numbers. When bloggers, activists, video content creators, and Twitter users on the Right unite behind common principles — fighting jihadi propaganda, exposing corruption, calling out media bias, following the progressive money trail, holding the Republican Party’s feet to the fire, etc. — we can accomplish uncommon things.

There's a comprehensive read here. Here's a newspaper report at the time- note that according to the report, while still in jail, he attempted to hire one man to kill the assistant US Attorney who handled his prosecution and a witness. He attempted to hire another man to commit a 'copycat style' crime while he was still in jail, so that police would be convinced he wasn't the killer. And he attempted to hire somebody to lure the attorney and a witness into a compromising situation and video tape them. There is so much more. Here Stacy McCain outlines a very ugly campaign against Tea Partiers. It's vile. It's by Neal Rauhauser (“Stranded Wind”). Patterico explains his understanding of the connection between Kimberline and Rauhauser here. Now note this from Protein Wisdom= 'Stranded Wind' authored post titled "Organized Intimidation? Ambush Time." (it's been removed, you can see it through the Wayback Mchine), and this excerpt:

I carefully considered publishing the particulars of how I am handling this and I feel openness has merit. The right has a core of calculating leadership but their most vocal supporters are quite often prey to all sorts of conspiracy theory. Planting the idea (quite true) that some of their not so crazy sounding second and third tier players may be Progressive agents will amp up the paranoia and drive the entire community further to the fringe as they seek to weed out our people.

People engaged in provocative online conduct feel insulated; they’re in the comfort of their own home, if they’ve engaged in a little bit of caution they may feel completely anonymous, and this emboldens them. Specifying the strategy we’ll use to break their anonymity won’t permit any mitigation on their part without adjusting their behavior, which counts as a win for us. We’re dealing with people who have likely had no interaction with the court system beyond a traffic ticket; the potential for a pro se litigant to force them into expensive, long distance, lengthy, discovery laden litigation doesn’t seem to cross their minds. The reality of travel, or frightful expenses, or summary judgments needs to be made real. We probably need to make a very visible example of at least one of them before the rest understand.

Keep in mind that for many Progressives, confronting them with facts is provocative conduct that must be punished, or at least shut up.

And note that this is guy has been defended by so-called Progressives, funded by them, often allowed themselves to be led down a very dark path by him:

Kimberlin was convicted as the so-called “Speedway Bomber,” who terrorized the city of Speedway, Indiana, by detonating a series of explosives in early September 1978. In the worst incident, Kimberlin placed one of his bombs in a gym bag, and left it in a parking lot outside Speedway High School. Carl DeLong was leaving the high school football game with his wife when he attempted to pick up the bag and it exploded. The blast tore off his lower right leg and two fingers, and embedded bomb fragments in his wife’s leg. He was hospitalized for six weeks, during which he was forced to undergo nine operations to complete the amputation of his leg, reattach two fingers, repair damage to his inner ear, and remove bomb fragments from his stomach, chest, and arm. In February 1983, he committed suicide.

He left a bomb in a gym bag in a high school parking lot? Updated to add- see Popehat's excellent post where he explains once again that free speech isn't free speech if it's only for people we like. Then scroll down to Ted Francis' comment that no, basically, people he doesn't like do not deserve free speech, and anyway, he paid his debt to society and Kimberlin's victims deserved it. And remember that Kimberlin blew a leg off a man, a total stranger. He has refused to pay off the civil suit judgment against him filed by that man's widow- to this day.

Random Updates

2012-05-25T02:08:00.001-05:00

101 Answers to the Summertime, "Mom, I'm Bored" Blues

My sweet friend the Church Mouse reviewed my summertime activity book on her blog- check out what she said!

Sherry at Semicolonblog has a review and a give-away: http://www.semicolonblog.com/?p=17964

The 4 Moms, 35+ Kids parenting e-book has received positive reviews everywhere, really, and it's very gratifying to hear how much it's helping other moms. It's not too late to get your e-book copy or your Kindle version of 4 Moms of 35+ Kids Answer Your Parenting Questions .=)

I really enjoyed these fifty uses for everyday things- like using the Twister mat for a tablecloth; using rubberbands on coat hangers to keep clothes from slipping, Using an old mitten for sunglass protectors, using a colander over a bowl to hold ice at a party....

Simple Chinese Homestyle Cooking (Chinese Homestyle Recipes): Free4Kindle- today. Probably won't be free tomorrow.

My weekly Frugal Hacks post- changing your attitude, the one dollar car, grocery shopping, and good sources for coupons for healthy products and more.

Company coming for dinner tonight- making this and this.

Just over a week left before Jenny comes home. The day after she gets home, Pip and I are off to North Carolina for a few days- an educational conference we planned a while ago.

The Striderling downed 4 ounces of milk on his own without prompting a couple mornings ago, and he loves yogurt drinks and can slurp them without choking, so that's cool.

Here's another free Kindle book, and it will probably stay free: Walks and Words of Jesus A Paragraph Harmony of the Four Evangelists. The editor combined the four gospel accounts, put them in chronological order, removed the verse references, and added chapter divisions, making a life of Jesus that reads, as much as possible, in narrative form. I've only read the first four chapters, but I am impressed so far. I think we'll be reading this for school Bible reading when we finish our current read (Give Attention to Reading, a study with some excellent open ended questions).

And, lastly, as you know, the HM lost his job a few months ago and quickly found another one as a teacher's aide. We managed, thanks to some kind donations, freezers full of meat from our own cows, careful budgeting, and of course, the Grace of God, to make it thus far without touching the emergency fund, even though his new job paid something like 35% of his previous job. However, in the summer months, it pays 0%. We do have things lined up for July. We do have that emergency fund. Obviously, I've stepped up on the Kindle publishing, and we have some blog advertising money and the AF pension coming in. I am confident, however, most of all in the Lord's grace, and while we do not sit on our hands, we do trust the Lord and look expectantly to what he will do.

One very cool result of all this- in the past, our youngest two, born and raised during the most prosperous portion of their parents' lives, have been a bit casual with their spending requests. But lately, they have turned tables and told me, "We don't need to buy that, it can wait. We can do without dessert (something they were loathe to do before)..." That has been fun to watch. The FYG, who hated cooking last year, this year has come up with some very creative variations on cooking ground beef using what we have in our hands instead of asking for extra trips to the store for pasta, sauces, and special ingredients. Last night we had an amazing stir fry which included a turnip here, a couple of radishes, and other odds and ends from the freezer, AND she is excited about her discovery of a wild onion patch in the woods:

Okay, I guess that wasn't the last thing- I have blossoms on my tomatoes and peppers, and several other green things are growing better than I expected in our various containers- old wash tubs, five gallon buckets, and an old horse trough.

And the boy explains he can always shoot a squirrel or two if we need extra meet for the stew pot (actually, he can't, did you know there's a season for squirrels?).=)

Homeschooling When You're in a Rotten Temper

2012-05-24T01:24:00.001-05:00

Ever have one of those days? You know. THOSE days, when you are crabby, out of sorts, and if looks could kill, somebody would be in great danger of being transformed into a smoking grease spot on the floor?

There are many causes, some within our control, some not so much. Maybe you have chronic pain. Maybe you're a chronic grouch. Maybe you're not getting enough sleep. Maybe you're worried sick about a dying friend or family member, a straying spouse, an unpaid mortgage, or paying off the electric bill this month- and it 'makes you' snappish, and you can't focus on teaching the kids essay writing today.

Except- it's not really the external causes that 'make' us do anything (I can't tell you how I hate to admit that). We all carry a bucket through life, and the only thing that spills out of it is what we had in it in the first place.

We started filling our buckets when we were quite young, often too young to know what we were doing, and some of us filled our buckets with very little help from those who were supposed to help us most.

Here are some verses on Kindness and other 'opposite of rotten tempered' character traits, verses which you probably already know, and which, perhaps, are not always verses that make you feel buoyant, and uplifted, but rather, cast down, and burdened by your failures. At least, I assume so because I hope you are not all so very different from me. Used properly, these verses can help you fill your bucket with the right sorts of things.

Proverbs 31:26
She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.

But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing. 2 Thess 3:13

add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 2 Peter 1:5-7

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Galatians 6:9

but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses,in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, 2 Corinthians 6:4, 6

These are also helpful:

Proverbs 24:16
for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again,
but the wicked are brought down by calamity.

1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Romans 8:38-39
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

^{Psalm 37: 8-11} Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.
For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.
For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.
But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

Proverbs 15:30
A cheerful look brings joy to the heart

Romans 5:8-10
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

Zep 3:17
The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."

These are just a few of the verses that may be helpful to you when you are in a foul temper. Print them out and tape them to your bathroom mirror, inside a kitchen cupboard, the computer...

But there's more to overcoming a bad mood than just reading Bible verses, isn't there?

Here is something to help before the rotten temper causing days come:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith... Galatians 5:22

Notice that fruit there is singular, not plural. And notice that this is about the outcome of something- the fruit. The fruit of what?
I do better when I remember that these qualities are outpourings of time spent at the feet of the Lord, receptive to the Holy Spirit, these are part of the 'fruit of the Spirit,' and fruit is the natural outcome of a well watered and fertilized plant.

Spend more time at the source, with the Master Gardener, and He tends to take care of the fruit.

Work on being cheerful no matter what- if it takes pretending to yourself all day long that somebody slipped a hidden camera into your kids' little shirt collars, than pretend that. Learning the discipline to be cheerful in the small things can help you in the face of big things.

Developing a habit of not letting your mood or any external circumstances control you begins in small, seemingly insignificant battles with yourself over things as silly as whether your will smile and swallow the burnt toaste, the cool coffee, whether you will say something rude about the truck driver who cut you off or whether you will choose to smile and brush it off, whether you will say something sharp about the rubber stamps used on your living room furniture or whether you will count to 1,000 and then cheerfully ask your toddler when she's going to get a job and start paying for the replacement furniture.

Possibly some of the outside issues that contribute to the problems of bad temper can be removed- are you eating and sleeping right? Do you need to take medication, see a doctor, see a chiropractor? Self control is all very well and good, but as Shakespeare said, "there has never yet been a philosopher who could endure a toothache patiently, even though they all write as if they had risen above human suffering and misfortune."

But what if you woke up this morning the epitome of the yellow badge at the upper left of this post? What if you want to scream, "I have one nerve left, and you are STANDING on it!"

Then you might apply this verse in the manner I will suggest:

Ecclesiastes 9:11 also says:
Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again.

Grab a bag of stale bread, crumbs, or crackers, head to the park and feed the ducks.

Alternatives: Call a jammy day and everybody spends the day in pajamas reading and coloring.

Declare a Jane Austen Marathon and watch Jane Austen movies all day.

Go for a walk or a swim.

Clean a closet. I do my best closet cleaning when I am angry about something.

You're a homeschooler, for heaven's sake. You don't have to do a 'regular' day of school on a day when you're not going to accomplish anything except to make everybody hate homeschooling. Take a field trip, take a three hour quiet time, call a friend and ask her to play hooky with you, make a run to the library to borrow a new movie or book on tape, go to a park, have a backyard picnic, have a picnic on the living room floor, skip and go naked. Metaphorically, of course.

Do something as different as possible from what you regularly do. Have pancakes for supper and steak for breakfast. Distract yourself from your bad mood and its causes as much as possible.

You don't want this to become a habit, so that the skip and go naked days outnumber the educational days, of course. That's the point of the first three fourths of this post.

But some days, it's just fine to cast your bread on the waters by heading to the pond to feed the ducks.

The Four Moms: Life in a Shoe, Smockity Frocks, Raising Olives, and Me

Giveaway

2012-05-23T21:44:00.000-05:00

Win a free book! Sherry at Semicolonblog has a give-away: http://www.semicolonblog.com/?p=17964 Full disclosure- it's a copy of MY book, 101 Answers to the Summertime, "Mom, I'm Bored" Blues.=) Give her some comment love. It's a sweet review, too. Thanks, Sherry! She made me want to go back and reread my own story.=) You don't need to own a Kindle to use the book. You can download an e-reader from Amazon and read it there. And, actually, for the free copy you'll win at Sherry's blog, I will be emailing it, so you don't even need the reader.

Good News, Bad News, Good News....

2012-05-22T15:29:00.000-05:00

So at the Striderling's most recent evaluation, everybody decided it was a reasonable and doable goal to get him weaned from the g-tube by the end of summer. He eats like a champ, it's liquids he struggles with. He does okay with a yogurt drink and a straw, but has trouble with milk, formula, or water unless they add a thickener to it.

Still, he drinks about 8-10 ounces with supervision, over the course of a day, so all summer to get up to 24 ounces of liquids a day seemed manageable, even if the family is trying to pack and move by June.

That's good.

Today his mommy changed his diaper and discovered his g-tube was gone. All of it.

That's bad.

Using her best Mommy detective skills, she realized that it must have happened when he was climbing on the couch two hours previously- which means it didn't hurt him at all, because he never winced, fussed, or cried or gave any indication of discomfort, which is good.

But the hole had started to close already since it had been two hours, which was probably bad.

After phone consults with Striderling's pediatric developmental specialist AND his endocrinologist (it's amazing the number of twelve letter specialists on a first name basis with the Striderling)- they have decided not to reinsert the tube, but just let Striderling pick the timing, which he apparently just did, for going full oral. Tentatively good.

This means loads of extra work for his parents in supervising the downing of liquids, and more regular appointments to monitor both his weight and his calcium levels, and a sudden switch from getting his medication down him via dissolving it in liquid and pouring it down the tube to slipping a full pill in his spoonful of yogurt.
Stressful, particularly when his parents have to pack and they can't just give the boy a bottle of water and let him have at it (he can't suck from a bottle, for one thing, oddly enough, and for another, it requires total supervision), but still tentatively, well

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

He just might be done wtih the g-tube. Who would have thought it, 18 months ago when we were all in the NICU weeping, praying, and hoping, never expecting to be here, at this point, at this time.

The Real Reason for Early Vaccinations? Parent Training

2012-05-21T11:01:00.002-05:00

I know that they do this with tetanus- if you take a kid in with a cut, a kid who may or may not be up to date on their tetanus shots, the doctor will want to make you sure the kid gets his tetanus shot- but what they will not tell you (and will only reluctantly admit if you ask point blank), is that this is of no value for the wound which is the reason you brought the kid to the doctor for in the first place.
I have no particular objections to the tetanus shot itself, but I do object to the other stuff they bundle up with, and I resent not being given a choice as to which toxins I have injected into my child.
But it’s worse than that. That combination of some 20 different shots you are supposed to get into your kid’s system before he is one- they are even more useless than that tetanus shot. REally.
See here:

the 24 recommended vaccines given in the first year of life can have no possible benefit, as infants cannot produce antibodies until about age one. I had made this statement in my morning presentation. At the panel Q & A that afternoon, a doctor came to the microphone to ask this highly-respected immunologist if what I had said was true. Here is the transcript and audio clip of this brief but remarkable exchange:
Immunologist: “So, in terms of the vaccines that are given at two months, four months and six months, right…”
Participant: “…there’s no protection.”
Immunologist: “There’s no protection from those vaccines. No. I’m sorry I missed the earlier talk, but there’s no real protection from the two months, four months and six months.”

So what’s the point, you want to know? Besides putting money in everybody’s pockets but yours, it’s training.

Q. So the science seems fairly clear that for the first year of life, probably, that the immunization is not stimulating the kind of response we expect it to stimulate.
A. True.
Q. So what’s the rationale for continuing to do that if it’s not doing what it’s supposed to be [doing]?
A. The vaccines are given at pediatric wellness visits, and the idea is that you are training the parent to bring their child in at all the pediatric wellness visits, and that it’s only the year visit that actually is truly important. But that for most parents you are not going to get them to bring their kid in if they don’t come in at two months, four months, and six months. And so it’s actually more of a training thing.
It’s interesting, I was on the phone with [?] county public health last week, with one of their vaccine nurses. She was like, ‘Oh, you’re talking about vaccines? Make sure you tell them they have to do that year shot because the first three [the 2, 4 and 6 month shots] don’t work.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I know.’ [laughter].
Now, the person speaking here is not some kid with a blog. This is an impeccably-credentialed, pro-vaccine PhD immunologist. She knows more about the detailed intracies of human immunology than I ever will. I have great respect for her, and her decades of dedicated work in this field. And I was so glad I was sitting right next to her as she confirmed what I and others have been saying for years.

The medical profession is training you poor dumb parents. And it works, too- don’t we all just trust the experts? Isn’t “My doctor said….” one of the most authoritative statements somebody can make in an argument? Well, unless somebody is saying that to me, because, cynic that I am, the words “My doctor said….” start off all kinds of alarm bells and whistles and make me more suspicious, not less.

Teacher Bullies Student, Tells Him It's a Criminal Offense to Criticize the President

2012-05-20T21:06:00.001-05:00

Update below

If your kids are not nearby, listen to this shrew of a teacher rant, rave, and harangue a student in class. There is quite a bit of foul language on the tape (from the student, after he's been screamed at a bit).

The social studies teacher's 'fact of the day' was that Romney was a bully because when he was in high school, he cut a hippie kid's hair. One of the students says that Obama bullied somebody in school too, she says no he didn't, and another student points out that Obama admits to bullying a kid in his book, he knocked a little girl down. At this point, the teacher loses it completely, shouts him down repeatedly, tells him he is being disrespectful, tell him that it's against the law to 'slander' a President: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/20/NC-teacher-screams-student-Obama

The kid is a bit of a challenge, but he's right about pretty much everything he says, and she is screaming and pounding on something when all he's done is ask a question and back it up with information from Obama's own autobiography. Later he swears- not really at the teacher, he's just vulgar ('everybody talks *** about the Presidents').

She also announces to the class at large that the boy she dislikes doesn't do his school-work. "See that your daddy comes to see that you ain't been doing no work." What a winner.

In one of the news stories about this travesty of a teacher, some expert they ask about it says the boy was setting her up, although he does admit the teacher went overboard and there is no truth to her claim that people have been arrested for 'sayin' bad stuff' about former President Bush. To back up her claim, and I am not kidding, she says, "there was a government official who called out he was a liar right in the State of the Union address and did anything happen to him? No!"

Not only does that have nothing to do with her claim, and proves the opposite point, but it wasn't Bush, that was Obama.

She also tells him he needs to be in her other class, not that class- and whatever that means, it's clearly an insult and a put-down.

Furthermore, whether the student knew he was pushing her hot buttons or not- and I agree he did, she shouldn't have such easily pushed hot buttons about anything, but especially not about politics, and certainly her heart is on her sleeve when it comes to her man Obama- which is fine in almost any other context, but not she is teaching students in a state school on a state salary.

Furthermore - this student is not the only who is talking, and he's not the only one getting shouted at. From what I can tell, he's not even the student who 'starts' is- he's just the most informed, which is, of course, why his teacher hates him. His knowledge and poise while under her laughable attempts at withering fire are impressive in a high school student- and she knows it.

This teacher is shockingly ignorant. Her grammar is atrocious and inappropriate for any high school teacher. Her ability to reason is so non-existent it's painful to listen to. Her teaching skills are based on screaming, ranting, and attempting to belittle and marginalize students who disagree with her- that comment about how he belongs in another class is extremely disturbing on many levels.

He keeps telling her he wasn't being disrespectful, he was only asking a question. He asks the class to speak up- they all heard it, didn't he just ask a question? There is an uncomfortable silence and that is when this teacher-bully says something like, "nobody is going to back you up in here- do you know why? Because you don't belong in this class, you belong in my other class." She thinks that she's been clever, but she has only been shallow, petulant, nasty, and cruel. There is an uncomfortable silence.

Here's what I think we all need to know- what is this 'other class?' Does this misguided bully actually teach special needs kids? An "Alternative" class of some sort? And did she really just use those poor kids as an insult against another student in her care, as a put-down? That's certainly what it sounds like.

The parents have pulled this boy out of the woman's class and put him in another school. She continues to be paid by taxpayers to work in a public school, paid to bully, belittle, and lie to their kids- and possibly to teach a second class of, shall we say, less than average kids, kids she holds in such apparent low-regard and disrespect that she uses them to mock and insult a student, telling him in front of all his peers that none of his peers will have the courage to back him up because he is an outside, he is not one of them, he is beyond the pale (a phrase I am certain she doesn't understand or even recognize in the least), because those 'slow' kids- that is the class where he belongs. And all the school district can say about it is, "Well, this is a learning experience."

But you know what will happen when those kids graduate? They will grow up, they will grow into their own skin, and more of them will look back and realize what she did and who she really was- and they will not be impressed. They will cringe. they will regret not standing up when they could have. They will not want to be party to that sort of low-grade thuggery any longer. She may have just bullied several kids and their families right out of the party she thinks she is defending.

More here, and all over the internets, really. And about the kid trying to 'pick a fight?' According to Breitbart, he asked a friend to record it so he could prove to his parents that this teacher yelled at kids, shouted down opposing views, and really had an agenda other than education. It sure looks like all that is true, so all he was really trying to do was get her to perform as usual. And it worked.

Tanya Dixon-Neely's classroom at North Rowan High School is apparently no place for students who want to gain an actual education.

According to the school district, Tanya Dixon-Neely has been suspended with pay, pending investigation. Of course, in the case of a different teacher in another district who permitted the bullying of a special needs child in her classroom, they lied when they claimed that other teacher had been suspended- she'd merely transferred to a different classroom in another district school.

A Narrow Fellow in the Grass

2012-05-19T12:45:00.000-05:00

My son nearly stepped on this in the yard:

It does appear to have eaten recently- observers tell me that they can see the bulge moving down as it visibly moves down.

Any idea what kind of snake?

We're thinking a striped garter or a blue striped garter snake.

Free Books

2012-05-19T12:11:00.000-05:00

You don't have to have a Kindle to take advantage of these. You can go to Amazon and download their free Kindle app or their cloud reader and read from your computer.

The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter

Andrew Lang's A Short History of Scotland

In Freedom's Cause : a Story of Wallace and Bruce by G. A. Henty

Do Not Attempt This At Home

2012-05-18T12:58:00.000-05:00

We all know that our society has grown so namby pamby about safety issues that they've pretty much sucked the fun out of everything. But there is something to be said for caution, too. Consider this idea given in a vintage book on games and activities for children:

Make your own artificial volcano (!)
Dangerous and should be attempted only with great caution (!!!!)

Mix well together 28 lbs of sulphur and 28 lbs of iron filings and add as much water as will make the whole into a paste. Choose an open common or field for the situation and bury the mass of ingredients about two feet below the surface of the earth. The day must be warm and not damp or rainy and if all things have been properly managed, after twelve or fourteen hours the buried mass will generate so much heat as to swell the earth and burst out with a volcanic eruption throwing up whatever presses upon it and scattering ashes of a yellowish dusky colour.

And I love this warning:

After the ingredients have been buried ten hours great care must be taken not to approach too near to the spot as it is quite uncertain when the eruption will occur and to what distance the earth may be thrown.

Landmines for fun and play?

Water Walls and Paper Boats

2012-05-18T11:20:00.002-05:00

This is just the beginning of it. More things will be added. I showed The Boy pictures from this website. We already had a pallet up and ready in our backyard, it's the side wall of our compost pile.

It's just outside our back door, too, so the Dread Pirate Grasshopper and Nod can stand out here and pour water into the containers to their heart's content and still be right under our noses and presumably out of trouble (you never can be sure with these two).

Last time we had a singing, a lot of people brought carbonated beverages in two litre bottles, and we saved them. He used a drill- he tried a hammer and nails, but found that awkeward- he didn't have enough room to swing.

I think a shallow container- like a window box, on the ground at the bottom would be cool, too- then they can float little boats in it.

Speaking of boats- here is how to fold paper boats.

1. Make them from glossy magazine or catalog pages and they do float for a while. You take any rectangle shaped piece of paper and fold it in half (bringing the two shorter edges together):

2. Lay it so that the folded edge is uppermost. Mark the center of the fold and fold the right corner down into a triangle, so that the folded edge is now lying vertically against the center of the page. Bring the left top corner down to meet- the two folded edges of the triangles are now touching each other.

I propped it up above so you could see the folds better, but you want to leave this lying flat and crease the folded edges of the triangle very well.

3. Now fold up the bottom edge of the paper over the two triangles:

4. Flip it over and do the same to the other side:

Now you have a hat, if you wanted a paper hat.

5. For the boat, Fold this into a square by gently opening it a bit and bringing the two corners I've marked 'A' down to meet each other. Your old creases are now diagonal creases, and you want to crease the edges of your square really well:

6. now fold it again, this time, taking the corner I've marked 'A' and folding it up, bringing the 'A' up to meet the top corner, folding the square on one side in half.

7. Flip your square over and repeat with the other side, so now you have a triangle again:

8. Repeat steps 5- making a square again.

9. Now fold the open corner of the square up to the closed corner- on my example, I will be folding the corner with the 'P' in power up so that it is touching the corner with the 'g' at the end of breastfeeding. Repeat with the other side. It should look something like this:

10. Now you are ready for your boat- this is the trickiest part. You are going to gently take hold of the two triangles in the center, and pull them apart- a little up and out (in opposite directions)

As you pull these corners up and out, the other sides also pull up to make the boat, so you end up with something like this:

side view of the paper boat

top view of the paperboat

Yes, I did just make a paper boat that says "Celebrating the Power of Breastfeeding' right across the side of the boat.
No, that wasn't on purpose. But I do think it's cool.

Obama's Birth: Are We Really Going Here?

2012-05-18T11:05:00.002-05:00

Yes, we are. I have skirted the issue because I have believed all along that the President was born in the USA, although it does disturb me that we aren't even allowed to ask any questions about a Constitutional requirement or demand any evidence without being labeled quacks.

But this is strange. It appears that from 1991 until 2007 (two months AFTER his declaration of a run for President), Obama's OWN biography on his literary agent'sinfo and his publisher's website stated that he was born in Kenya.

He did have some control over that, y'all.

The 1991 information was from a promotional brochure produced by his literary agents.That information was on their website, too, something competent reporters interested in facts rather than spin might have dug up. It wasn't corrected until two months after he declared his intention to run for President.

What does it mean? I'm inclined toward the explanation at Breitbart:

The biography does, however, fit a pattern in which Obama--or the people representing and supporting him--manipulate his public persona.

Ouch, yes, that should be manipulates. All politicians do this to some degree, but Joel Pollack at Breitbart gives several more examples of the ways Obama does it, and he does seem to shift beyond 'manipulate' into lies about. He doesn't just seek to win friends and influence people by giving certain impressions, but by actively lying.
If you look at that booklet and the timing of it- Obama was essentially a nobody, the information that he was born in Kenya could really only have come from him. And he would have been allowed to vet the brochure for accuracy. It suited his purpose, the persona he wanted to portray, to be thought of as a foreign national, somebody born in Kenya, brought up in Indonesia and Hawaii. Now, it doesn't, so he slips out of that biography like a flim flam man sheds his suit, and puts on a different suit- now he's the Abraham Lincoln candidate, American made, now he's the 'outsider' because somehow his name makes him the underdog, now he's the post-racial uniter, now he's the potential father of a Trayvon Martin, whose case only matters, it seems, because he's the same color as Obama's non-existent son.

I think there are several reasons for this, and not all of them are political. I think this slipping into different personas is something I see in many men from broken homes, especially from homes where the father's involvement is almost non-existent. It's a survival mechanism and it becomes a second skin.It works because it's totally sincere- chameleon like, they are who they are when they are with you. They are just somebody a little different when they are with other people- and that's who they are then, too.

Not having a firm, strong, unchanging sense of self is also something I see with Third Culture Kids.

- they stand outside the circle a little bit more than kids with single culture roots (and even though I believe he was born in Hawaii, his time spent in Indonesia makes him a third culture kid, as our time living in Japan has made our HG, in particular, a 3rd culture kid, and my Canadian childhood has, not so strongly, but still somewhat, given me 3rd culture leanings as well).

And then there are other reasons.

Whatever the reasons, even his most ardent supporters have to admit certain things with this story:

It appears that for whatever reasons,for over 15 of his adult years, Obama thought it was important for people to believe he was born in Kenya, and now he doesn't. It does seem a little unfair to heap scorn and ridicule on those who believed him during that period.

Facts, the truth- these are fluid things in Obama's world.

It appears that for obvious reasons, the press is content to lie and cover up for him, avoiding even the most basic of vetting.

Four Moms Q and A

2012-05-17T04:42:00.000-05:00

The Four Moms: Smockity Frocks, Raising Olives, Life in a Shoe, and Me

This week is our Q and A session.

Unfortunately, I forget that this was coming up, and I've been answering several questions on the blog.

For instance-

Somebody asked me what features I would and wouldn't have if we were building our house today. I answered that here, and so did several readers (see the comments, they are gold).

I answered two questions about my pop culture post here- one of them being 'why do you wish you had not given the girls separate bedrooms?.

I answered this one in the comments to the post (are the books in that bookcase really all just cookbooks? Why, yes, yes they are).

I also answered the following question about hospitality:
My husband hates to have people over. What do you suggest?

You may just not be able to practice hospitality if your husband is averse.

OR you can invite a quiet grandmama, or staid older retired couples over to visit in the mid mornings or afternoons.
You could have them for brunch or tea, or you don't have to serve food at all. Have a small and intimate card making party, or a card writing party for somebody who is sick.

If your husband doesn't care who comes over when he's not there, invite a couple of college girls over to help you bake cookies for the boy scout troop, or to study for a test, or have the fourth grade Sunday school class over to play games in the backyard or to build bird houses- all during times your husband will not be annoyed.

Or, if he doesn't want anybody over ever, whether he is there or not, help somebody else with hospitality. Get together with a friend who is having people over and offer to supply some home-made bread or bags of chips.

And pray about it.

Other reasons why hospitality may not be something you can do just now:
Illness.
Homelessness.

Here are three things Hospitality is NOT:
1. Entertainment.
2. A Pampered Chef or a Tupperware Party (or anything like it)
3. A vague invitation to feel free to come by some time, unless the vague invitation is made more solid by a known history of being totally open to people dropping by and specifically having the recipient of that open invitation over by specific invitation some time..

Here are some things hospitality does not have to have:
1. Food
2. A clean house
3. Cloth napkins

Here are some things hospitality is:

Using your home in meeting other people's needs, and those needs can be physical, spiritual, or heart related- friendship, community, relationships

That's all i can think of.

Don't miss the free Audio Bibles and other goodies linked in this post!

If you follow me on Facebook, you get first dibs on the free stuff for Kindle and your mp3 player, which I post nearly every day!

And... did you see our interesting announcement here? Interesting to me, anyway!

What do you wish I'd answered?

Bin Bzy, Backson

2012-05-16T23:43:00.003-05:00

That's my off the cuff approximation of Christopher Robin's cryptic note to his friends in the Hundred Acre Woods when he left for school (Busy, Back Soon).

My youngest brother has been out for a visit- I haven't seen him in about a dozen years.

Because he's been out for a visit, the Married Daughters and their families have been here more.

Because they've been here more, the Grandbabies have been having fun here, too.

Lots of fun:

Don't those little feets just make you want to SQUEEE!!

AND I have just wrapped up my third and last ladies' Bible Class on hospitality. Whew.

AND in lieu of my usual quarterly rearranging of the furniture in the house, I have had a friend doing the heavy lifting on rearranging the blog, and it will be unveiled soon. We have our own domain name, and a font that makes me so incredibly happy it's almost as good as eating chocolate just to look at it. It is Oh, so, pretty!!

The Striderling is WALKING- not just taking a few faltering steps here and there, but WALKING, and very proud he is, too.

The HM is definitely starting school to get his teaching degree. The Veteran's Admin will pay for that, plus a small stipend, which is, again, yet another pay cut, but it is a pay cut toward something better and something he will be happier doing. This summer will be tight, because school won't be in session.

However, he just found out that he will be able to work at the local airport for at least the first few days after school lets out.

We dodged a huge hit- the Colorado house we haven't been able to unload sustained thousands of dollars in damage from hail and wind, and for a few days we were biting our nails and praying (two activities which don't really go well together) that insurance would cover it- and, yes, insurance is covering all of it.

The DPG is keeping me humble- he walked in the other day and I was wearing a sleeveless top, which I never do in public. His eyes got big and he said, "Grayma! You've got squishy arms!!"

All the better to hug you with, my dear. All the better to hug you with.

If You Were Building Your House Today....

2012-05-16T08:25:00.000-05:00

I am a mom of 4 so far. We are getting ready to build and was wondering if you had any advice for a growing family? I know big everything and more cabinets. But is there something you really wish you had?

That's a recent question from the older post Four Moms Open House!

As I said in another more recent post, I wish I had given the girls essentially a dorm room instead of private bedrooms.

We have several places where we put outlets midway up the wall instead of down near the floor. I *love* this.

We have a bathroom in our large laundry room, which also has an outside door. I really appreciate this. It's great to funnel all the comings and goings through one doorway. In the spring and summer, this keeps the mud tracked in the house at a minimum.

In the winter it doubles as an arctic entrance, so all the heat doesn't leave the living room every time somebody goes in or out. I wish we had made the coat closet deeper and longer.

I wish all of our closets were deeper, but you should understand that for some reason, our builder barely made them as deep as the width of a single coat hanger- and, in fact, in the coat closet in the living room, he didn't even give us that much space, hence, the removal of the door altogether.

In the kitchen- I like my island, and I like having electrical outlets at the island. I like my super hot water dispenser. I love my magnetic knife strip for hanging knives out where I can see them but up high out of reach of grandbabies, and not in drawers where rummaging is a health hazard or in a knife block which takes up counter space.

I like my cork floors, although aesthetically, they aren't holding up well. I did not stand my ground on giving them a good coat of some sort of laminate, and I wish I had stood my ground and insisted on two or three coats. Neither the builder nor my husband thought it was a good idea, but I disagreed, and now I disagree even more strongly. The floors are holding up best in the kitchen and dining room for two reasons- we bought the lowest end for the rest of the house because it is so big. I bought a higher grade for those two rooms. And we keep the dogs out of the kitchen. We also went with tile entry ways in every outside doorway- and for the entire laundry room.

I let a salesperson talk me out of the metal sink I wanted, and the finish on ours was ruined and ugly within the first month that we moved in. It's important to remember this when choosing things for your kitchen- kitchens and their fixtures are designed by and for people who do not actually use them, and they are sold by people who get their information about kitchens from the promotional material from those companies. They will think you are stupid and that they know better than you. Thinly veiled contempt is apparently an effective sales technique that is calculated to make you second guess yourself. Before you let a salesperson talk you out of a feature you want, ask him how many kids he has and how much cooking (or laundry, or hospitality) he does himself, personally. Ask the size of his largest cooking pot, and ask him how much oatmeal he buys in a month.

I let my salesperson talk me out of my metal sink because out of all the other salespeople I talked to, she was the only one who didn't argue with me about the depth of my sink. The others wanted to sell me a sink that was a ridiculous 9 inches deep, at best. And when I said that would never work, I received pitying smiles and was told that 'studies show women only fill the sinks to 9 inches anyway, so you don't need a deep sink.' I tried pointing out that if you fill the sink to nine inches, then obviously, you need a sink at least 11 inches deep to keep the water from spilling out onto the floor when you put dishes in that water, but they just looked at me like I was a backwards child. I also pointed out that studies show most women do not cook in five gallon pots, but I did, and I needed to wash those pots, and I think they just didn't believe me.

I found that there were many areas where quite often people with no idea about our lives and lifestyle wanted to tell us we had no idea how we really lived. Just about everybody in the area kept telling us we didn't need a house this big because the kids would be gone as soon as they were 18- not true. And anyway, I still needed room for my ridiculous number of books and bookcases.

One builder we considered kept telling us we needed either a family room OR a living room, not both, that 'studies showed' we'd only use one of those rooms, not both. We told him that we were pretty sure those studies were not done on people who had gatherings of fifty once a month, or who might have a dozen different overnight guests in any given month, and he'd quietly erase it from our plans anyway, and I'd put it back in. Others tried to talk us out of a separate dining room. Even the builder we went with wanted us to leave off the wall between the dining room and kitchen- making it all just one giant room. He kept thinking he'd talked us into it and I'd have to keep telling him no, put the wall up. I need to be able to keep the Cherub out of the kitchen, though, and I dislike eating in the midst of dirty dishes, and my kitchen is always looking like a land mine exploded in a bag of flour by the time we finish cooking a meal.

I love my pantry, although I do wish the sliding doors with magnetic whiteboard surfaces were actually on the pantry instead of taking up space in the garage. I measured to make sure the pantry was deep enough, and the space below the lowest shelf high enough to accommodate my five gallon buckets.of grain.

We still have five children at home. By the time we get down to three, I probably will not need all this space, in which case, maybe we will remove the shelves and turn this into a coat closet, or push a small table against the wall and have a breakfast nook (a very nooky nook), or find an old church pew to slide in for guests to have a comfortable seat.

You can look at other pictures of the dining room and kitchen here, and I talked a bit about what I did and didn't like there as well.

One idea I liked but didn't go with because of the expense, is a wall mounted toilet. This would make clean up so much easier. I wish I'd cut back on the number of bathrooms and done wall mounted toilets instead.

What about you? If you were building your house today, what features would you want?

A Lunch Of (Cheap) Champions

2012-05-15T16:15:00.002-05:00

(or, What Happens When You Accidentally Cook Too Many Lentils And Have To Use Them Up ASAP)

* 4 c. cooked lentils
* 1 large can diced tomatoes (purchased on sale for $0.75)
* generous dash of basil
* sorta generous dash of garlic powder
* sorta generous dash of celery salt
* sprinkling of pepper
* 1.5 cups chopped ham (purchased on sale for $.99/lb)

Heat. Serve. Enjoy. We had it with a sliced pear on the side. "Is this a dish you just made up or one based on a recipe?" was the question my husband asked. uhm.... both? In my head, it sounded like a few of the recipes I've read in cookbooks, so I went with what I remembered. The cookbook collection is currently in a jampacked mess on my dining room table as I sort through what I want to keep and pack and what will be heading to Goodwill. whew. Moving!

Free Stuff For Your Listening Pleasure or Instruction

2012-05-15T13:57:00.000-05:00

Because we all have pockets full o' free....

Audio Bibles

KJV Old Testament - King James Version (Dramatized)

KJV New Testament - King James Version (Dramatized)

ESV New Testament - English Standard Version (Dramatized)

CEV New Testament - Contemporary English Version (Dramatized)

CEV Old Testament - Contemporary English Version (Dramatized)

Music:

Traditional Gospel Hymns

The Artist Sampler - A Home for Singer-Songwriters folk music- you'll want to preview first. I like it, but some of y'all will not like The Reverend's Son, for instance ("ain't no fun for the reverend's son to carry the family name for the woman he wants to marry is bringing his family shame....papa, don't you preach about throwin' no stones, we're throwing them every which way, she hang a sign in the window, and everybody knows her name... darlin' I fear that my feet are too weary from walking this line, all of my life I've been doing what's right, no more toeing this family line..."- and though in the end the Reverend's Son continues to toe the family line, it's more than a little questionable if that was the right thing to do).

Native American Flute Lullabies

The Orange Mountain Music Philip Glass Sampler Vol.I

Singles:

London Bridge Is Falling Down Folk music

El Condor Pasa- beautiful, peaceful, instrumental- soothing.

Old Dan Tucker

Africa Land

Christmas Music

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen- a very pleasant instrumental version

What Child Is This (Greensleeves)

My Great Grandmother's Journals

2012-05-15T10:39:00.000-05:00

I've written about these before, you can catch up quickly here.

I thought I misplaced most of them, and I looked through several closets, boxes, and drawers over the last couple of years. I only had the most recent two or three years worth, not the older ones.

Then last week Mom, (Granny Tea), revealed that she had them- I had brought them over to show my aunt, and learned Mom had never read them either, so I left them here for her to read.

My great-grandmother and her husband had four children, two girls and two boys. I think he was a supervisor in a steel mill.

Her oldest child was my mother's mother. Her youngest child was quite a bit younger than the rest. He'd served in WW2, and married an out of state girl when he came home, but they settled down not too far from his parents. In fact, at least at first, they rented from his parents.

Her youngest son and his wife had one little girl at the time this journal begins, and she and this grandmother would always be very close. She is the baby mentioned in this 1951 entry for January on the anniversary of my great-grandfather's death:

"Dad left us today. The year has been long and lonely. Have tried to do as he would want me to. So glad to have Rogers and that darling baby."

Other entries that week- she paid the milk man (3.13), the light bill, the telephone and water bills (total of about 8 dollars), spent 6 dollars on groceries, and 4.59 on meat, put in five tons of coal (no price given) and 'rec'd back from Social Security' 50.70

Her daughter-in-law was expecting their second child, and my great-grandmother wrote on the day that she went to the hospital to deliver, she (my great grandmother) had her little grand-daughter to stay as her guest. When the new mother came home from the hospital, my great-grandmother went to stay with the family, helping with the older girl (who was 'so good'), and getting supper and dinner for the family, and getting up at 7:30 with her grand-daughter.

She helped her son do the laundry and he helped her figure out her taxes. By the time the baby was three weeks old, she was babysitting both baby and his big sister while his parents shopped. A notable entry was when they went out and bought a Frigidaire refrigerator.

For more on refrigerators and advertisements, you should really check out this blog. It's fascinating