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Why do people listen to this?

27 Apr

http://mediamatters.org/video/2011/12/12/limbaugh-calls-poor-children-receiving-free-sch/185173

LIMBAUGH: The state of Missouri is receiving a two million dollar Federal grant to feed needy children near Kansas City and St. Louis during the summer. Two million dollars that we don’t have to feed needy children near Kansas City .
“how can we expect them to feed themselves in the summer when they haven’t had to for nine months.”
Um…they are children.  Last time I checked, we all thought feeding children was a thing that decent human beings did.

As well he might say, “Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?” 

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If I weren’t such a Coward…

29 Jun

<insert rainbow picture here>

If I weren’t  such a coward, I would post these thoughts on my Facebook status instead of here on my blog.  But Facebook has burned me before, and I’m gun shy.  (although if I weren’t such a weenie about unfriending people, it might be safer…)

The last couple of days I’ve had the most icky unbearable feeling.  Not because of the Supreme Court’s ruling to allow Gay Marriage nationwide, but because of the reaction of many of my friends on Facebook.  I’ve seriously considered unfriending some, but as I mentioned before, me = weenie.

My feed looks like this:  All my gay friends and people who love them are rejoicing with sincere happiness. There is no “haha we won” there is no “you losers suck”. Just sincere happiness for a day and a ruling they have longed for. 

 Meanwhile my “Christian” friends are mostly posting damnation, doom, and gloom. It feels like sour grapes and ignorance and major jerky temper tantrums.  

My personal reaction to the ruling:
1.  Dude, this ruling has been inevitable for over a year, why is everyone so upset?  

2.  Predicting that the U.S. is suddenly heading for immediate destruction and damnation because of this ruling is ridiculous.  There are tons of laws in this country already that make stuff legal that I  or others believe is a sin.  This one doesn’t suddenly shift the balance.  

3. Since when did posting bible verses denouncing other people’s sins and inevitable damnation ever help anyone be better? 

4.  What is up with that acronym “SCOTUS”?  Every time I read it, I think “scrotum”. Can’t they come up with a different one?  

5.  This ruling by the Supreme Court really just seems like fairness to me.  I like fair.  

6.  I truly believe that we need to fight to protect families.  But I believe the fight needs to begin with eradication of child abuse, pornography, drugs, and poverty.  When we have gotten rid of those, then we can worry about whether those 2 gay women/men over there are somehow undermining families because they want to be married.  (Even then I think it will sound ridiculous to me). 

I will continue to teach my children in my home that sex outside of marriage is a sin, and that God’s plan is for a man and a woman to be married to bring forth children on this Earth.  However, I will never think it is my place to go up to someone on the street, much less Facebook and tell them they are evil bad & nasty.  My kids will know that it is never okay to be unkind or rude to someone because they are doing something we believe is wrong or because they believe differently than I. 

Anecdote:  I knew a young girl who became pregnant and was not married.  At first, I felt a little unsure how to act towards her. If I was nice to her, would that send the message that I approved of her sin? But I quickly decided a few things:

1. She knew what her mistake had been better than I, and my being unkind to her wouldn’t change either the mistake, the results, or her feelings about it.  

2.  Jesus would have been kind.

3.  My snubbing her or lecturing her would not make her “see the light” or make her feel welcome at church, which is where she needed to be.  

I feel the same thing applies to gay people.  My only part is to be a friend.  Not to judge, not to preach, certainly not to declare their sins to their face.

My part is to work on repenting of my own sins.   Worrying about other people’s sins will not get me where I need to be.  

#lovewins

#gaymarriagemightbewrongbuthateiswronger

#NOH8

We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience and allow all men the same privilege.  Let them worship how, where, or what they may.

My Kids Are Not Just Numbers

13 May

Because I’m obviously pregnant now, I get lots of strangers asking me how many children I have.  I tell them I have seven, and they are shocked.  I then have to decide whether I’m willing to tell them that I’m expecting twins which will bring the total up to nine, and shock them further.  Their responses generally fall along the lines of “I don’t know how you do it, I was overwhelmed with just 1 (2-4).”

I say something about how helpful my big kids are, or how much fun we have as a family, or that I think being a mom takes all your creative energy whether you have 1 kid or 10.  All of these things are true.  It is also true that the numbers seven and nine are just as overwhelming to me as they are to these strangers.

But the thing is, I don’t usually think of my kids in terms of numbers.  The only times I think in terms of numbers is while I’m setting the table for dinner, while I’m buying 1/2 price shakes at Sonic, or when someone asks me how many kids I have.

Most of the time,my kids are not numbers, my kids are my kids.   I think of my children as Blueberry Pie, Cherry Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Peach Pie, Key Lime Pie, Banana Cream Pie and Baby Bean.  That’s not overwhelming,  that’s my kids.  (That’s also a list of delicious food.)  I love them each.

It struck me this week that maybe God feels the same way.  We think of  7 billion people in the world and are overwhelmed and wonder how our Father in Heaven can watch over us and answer our prayers.  But to Him, we aren’t 7 billion.  We are Sally and Suzy and David and Daniel and Josh and (you get the idea.)  We are not numbers.  We are His children, and He loves us.

Moses 1: 37

And the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying: The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine.

Psalms 147: 4 He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.

5 Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.

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Because Twins- Part 2

29 Apr

So I think the best thing about being pregnant with twins is that when well-meaning strangers say to me

“Wow! You are huge!  Are you sure you aren’t having twins?  You look like you are about to pop!”

I can say, “Actually I am having twins.”

I get huge with every pregnancy.  My guess is that because I’m short-waisted, the baby has nowhere to go but out.    So by the time I am 6-7 months pregnant, I get comments like the above every day from just about everyone who lays eyes on me.  Or the comment’s cousin:

“Wow! You are huge!  Are you due, like, tomorrow?”

I plaster a stiff smile on my face and say, ” No I actually have 8 weeks left.”

Then I inwardly cringe at the look of horror that crosses their face, clearly they are sure my skin will give way much before then, and I will explode.

 I often wonder why people think it’s okay to inform a pregnant woman that she is the most horrifyingly huge thing they’ve ever beheld.  As if maybe she hasn’t noticed that she’s put on weight?  

I always want to say “Thanks for pointing out that I look like a hippo, that really made my day.” 

There is this very nice man that goes to my church who commented on how huge I was two Decembers ago when I was 8 1/2 months pregnant with Baby Bean.  I think he was trying to be funny.  To this day, when I see him, I feel a twinge of intense dislike.  It surprises me, because that’s pretty rare for me to not like a person–especially someone who is really a very nice person.  The hormones burnt my emotional reaction to his “great with child” comment into my brain forevers.  An elephant never forgets.

It’s a bad idea to insult a pregnant woman.  

I suggest you even stay away from adjectives like “majestic” because they imply largeness.

Trust me, a woman who has put on 25-30-60 pounds in the last 8 months is not unaware of the fact.  Nor is she unaware of how uncomfortable she feels or how moving at all is difficult and sometimes painful.  Last time she was getting out of the shower and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, she was momentarily frightened (“Dear Goodness! What is that huge pink thing?”) before she realized it was herself.

The only comment I hate more is “Haven’t you had that baby yet?”

Hello!  Would I be here looking swollen and miserable if I had?  Saying this to a pregnant woman who is past her due date will incite murderous feelings within her breast.  I would not vouch for your safety.  Lock your doors while you sleep.  Better yet, keep that comment to yourself.

This time around, when people comment on how huge I am, I can say

“I’m having twins, that’s why.”

And maybe I’ll feel less like its me that is huge.  Because really, it’s the babies, and I do want them to be huge, healthy babies.

Writing Slump

13 Aug

I know I’m not the only one to have lost my blogging mojo for awhile this year, but it feels like it.

I have plenty of stuffs to write about, but just not the energy to fight off 6 kids from the computer so I can have a turn.

Now school has begun and I might have time to write, if I ever get caught up with cleaning and food. Seems like there’s been nothing to eat for weeks around here.

Lots of days I feel like complaining, but generally my day isn’t half as bad as 2 or 3 other peoples I know, and that sort of makes me feel like an ungrateful wretch for whining.

And lots of stuff in my life is awesome, but when I sit down to write about it, the writing comes out sarcastic and gloomy. bleh

maybe I’ll try later

Maybe a lot later

I don’t know why I’m posting this.

My “Multi-Racial” Family

7 Jan

20140107-091746.jpg

My husband’s mother and his father’s father are from Mexico. Amusingly to us, most people think he is Indian. Amusing to me is that he seems the most offended when Hispanics assume he is “chicano” and start speaking in Spanish to him. I think though he isn’t really offended, just unsure of his Spanish. Perhaps he has had to answer these questions for so long, he is tired of them. To me, the questions still seem new. It does surprise me that people so often ask what his nationality is, and then when I explain that he was born in the US, so he is American, they are confused. “No but…where is he FROM?”

I found out recently that my sisters were surprised when I first brought him home to meet the family because i had not mentioned his complexion when i described him to them and they were expecting someone paler. To me, he was (and is) dreamboat handsome and I never can manage to remember that his skin is darker than mine except when I’m slathering on SPF 1000 so I can go outside on a cloudy day.

My 7 children cover an entire spectrum from fair to quite dark. It is my secret fear that someone will come up to me in a store one day and insist that my children cannot be mine because I don’t match them enough. So far, it has never happened, although I am almost always asked, “where did they get those dark eyes and hair from?” Or “Your children are or dark…”

For awhile, I dyed my hair black and didn’t have to answer that question. (The black hair was enough even though my eyes were still blue.) It was nice to not answer that question all the time, and I did feel more safe shopping with my kids, but keeping up with the hair dye got old fast. Also, my sixth child turned out to have light brown, almost blonde hair like mine, so then my dying my hair made her the odd man out. I decided she needed someone to match, too.

Sometimes I think perhaps I am the one who is prejudiced because I have this worry and it has never happened. But it is also possible that people where I live do not usually expect crime, because it rarely happens, and in a big city I would be challenged often.

Yes, I’m going to Rant a bit

3 Oct

beetlebattle

Okay so our government has been shut down for 3 days now while both sides sit on their self-righteous high horses and  refuse to negotiate or compromise.  They throw blame and mud at each other and do essentially nothing.

The radio news media are taking predictable sides as well, with NPR talking about how Republicans are refusing to budge and Conservative talk radio guys talking about Obama and the Democrats refusing to budge.

Left in the lurch is us, the American people, particularly the 800,000 federal employees who have not had a job for the last 3 days.  And then there are the businesses who depend on visitors to places like National Parks for their customers.  And the effect trickles onward.

Some of the pundits have been saying things like

“Big deal, the government shut down.  Nothing happened.  There are no riots.  A few people have been inconvenienced is all.”

That number (800,000 federal employees)  I got from NPR.  I doubt that it includes the few thousand Missouri Guard soldiers who’s Guard Drill was canceled this weekend because of the government shut down.  You would think that our state guard would be paid by the state, but it isn’t, it is paid by the Federal Government.  That is, no doubt, a troubling situation in and of itself that ought to be considered.

The real effect of this on my family is a 15% reduction in our income for the month.  Basically the whole amount we have budgeted for food and household necessities like diapers and toilet paper.

Now, I’d like to know if Mike Levine or Rush Limbaugh would call a 15% reduction in their monthly income an “inconvenience.”  More likely they would be screaming from the rooftops about suffering and injustice.

I’d like to know if the congressmen are still getting paid during the shutdown, while they serve themselves and their own party, instead of the people who elected them.  Are the coffee gophers on furlough as well as the National Guard?

 

Call me crazy, but I thought the whole idea behind a representative government is that the representatives get together, talk about the needs of the people, and then make compromises on how to best serve the people.  

I’m not saying my family is going to crash and burn this month.  We will muddle through and be ok.  I’m pretty sure there are other families that this will hit much harder than us.  The longer the shut down lasts, the harder it will be.  I’m the first one to admit that the government needs to cut some fat, and I realize that means some people will lose their jobs.  If my husband is one of them, we will deal with that.  What just really chaps me is this indecision-do nothing but blame the other party crap that is going on.

Man up and do your jobs, Congress.

That is all.

 

Tiny Pigtails

25 Jul

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Things that make me happy.

The Word for 2013

7 Feb
Christ Mormon

Christ Mormon (Photo credit: More Good Foundation)

I have a cousin who chooses a word or phrase each year to go along with her New Year’s resolutions.  When I first saw this idea, I loved it!  However, in January, I wasn’t sure what I really wanted from this year.  I was really struggling with the tension between things I want to do and things I need to do.  Struggling with how I want things to be and how things really are.  It’s been an eventful month for me though, and my mind and heart have grown.  I’ve realized what my word for the year needs to be:

ACCEPTANCE

That’s right.  Not Tolerance, but acceptance.  Acceptance of my role in my family.  Acceptance of situations in life beyond my control–because until I accept the situation, I can’t do anything productive about it.  I have to be able to say “Here is where I am.  Now what am I going to do about it.”  rather than “But I don’t want it to be like this, it should be like that.”

oh, those dangerous words “Should be.”  So much judgement is hidden in those words.  So many lies are said with those words.

Most of all, acceptance of God’s will in my life.  I have to be willing to let go of trying to control my life and do what I know God wants for me to do.  It is kind of scary to say alright, I’m going to allow this to be and trust that God’s plan is the better one.  My brain says, “but what if it is God’s plan means I’ll won’t get to do what I want.”  I have to answer with faith that God’s plan will be better than mine was.

Have you ever experienced this:  Where something you have heard and talked about your whole life–really taken for granted–is suddenly so real and amazing to you?

It’s happened for me a few times recently.

Something we all say like “God is always there for you.” or “The atonement of Jesus Christ can heal any hurt.”

I remember sitting in church a few years ago, going over a problem in my mind and thinking, “There is no way.  How can Jesus solve this pain for me?  I don’t know if he can.”

But of course, He did solve it.  And now when I hear someone say, “Jesus can heal any hurt.”  I wonder to myself what the story behind that testimony is.  Because it isn’t just something I repeat because I’ve heard it.  It’s something I know from real experience now.

So for this year, I feel like I have learned better what it really means to do God’s will and trust in Him that what happens will be a blessing for me and my family.

I still have my Jonah days, where I want to run away and follow my plan instead.

But my guiding focus for this year is acceptance.  So less Jonah days.

Like Peter, I’m going to try walking on water.  Some days, I’m sure the wind boisterous will distract me and I’ll start to sink.  In fact, some days I’ll probably plummet towards the bottom and it will be loud and messy and terrible.  But other days, I’ll remember to stay focused on my Savior and keep afloat–even maybe keep my head above most of the waves.

What is your focus for this year?

Is there a connection between this post and this one?  Now that I think about it, yes.  But mostly because the atonement of Christ really does cover everything.

Matthew 14:26-32 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.

 27 But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.  And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.   And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.  But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.  And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?  And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.

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Favorite Phrases I’ve heard at family gatherings in the last little while

14 Jan

Image

“He just thinks he’s THE-BOMB-DOT-COM.” (my teenage niece re: her ex)

“You can’t throw stones from a glass whore house.”  (why must it be a whore house?)

“I used to think bare-back riding meant that you didn’t wear pants while riding.” (Blueberry Pie–me:  I guess that would be called “bare-butt” riding.  Oh Dear.  Lets stop this conversation now. )

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