1-29-12

All that's been on my mind all day is this stupid HHS mandate.  I just want to cry, scream, and shake people at the same time.  What's going on in our country that the Obama administration actually thought they could do this?  What state is the Church in that they just may?  So few bishops have even spoken out.  The people don't know what's going on or they don't care.  Many just see it as the government's dragging us into the 21st century whether we like it or not.  Well, we don't. Or at least I don't.  They have closed adoption agencies because of our insistence on traditional families, and now they are trying to close or force the conformity of our churches, universities, hospitals, charities, etc. and the majority of the Church is silent.  Am I just paranoid in thinking that this is the beginning of a time of persecution?  If we don't comply, then what?  What would the country look like without Catholic institutions?  Do we want to see that country?  If they can do this to us, then what about the other churches?  Which Christian group is next?  They are harder to attack because they lack our organization, something I always thought of as an asset and I still believe that it is, but it's harder to fight something that you can't define which makes Protestants a more difficult target.  That doesn't mean they're not one.  If we can be forced to violate God's laws then so can anyone else.  How sad that I think we have a better chance of getting help from our Protestant brethren than I do from the Catholics in the pews.

1-26-12

Does anyone ever bake the cookie dough in the logs or do we all just eat it with spoons?  It's one of the things I most love to sneak for a snack.  It's the sneaking that makes it taste better, I think.  If the kids caught me it would be gone in a moment.  Instead I let them have a bit at a time ans ration it out.  Like blueberry muffins.  We have to count and divide and figure out how much each will get.  Right now one box of muffin mix will feed us 2 each, but when the baby starts eating we'll have to start using a second box.  The volume of food we consume is amazing.  It's enough to feed a small country.  I think we might be a small country.  If so, we need a flag.  I think I'll put E on designing one.  She needs things to do once she's done with her schoolwork.  You've never seen anyone so determined to learn as our E.  Not even our eldest, who is pretty motivated, ever loved school like E.  She wants to be an architect.  How cool is that?  She loves to draw and do math, so I told her she'd be a great architect.  I explained it to her and she agreed that she could do that.  Maybe she will, or maybe it's just a 7 year olds attempt to please her mother.  Silly girl.  It's very rare for her not to please us.  It's more important that she pleases God and is happy with herself.  Except not really.  She's 7 and needs to please me too.

1-25-12

It's funny the people you talk to on facebook.  All my childhood friends are there, the girls I talked with late into the night.  I don't talk to them.  I chat with the girl who was the school slut, the creepy goth guy, and the hippie vegetarian chick. They're so fascinating to me now.  Why was I so blind to their charm back then?  I love the wry sense of humor, or the wisdom from experience that they have.  The girls who were so cool then are so boring now.  I'll bet they were boring then.  I've learned hat cool is nothing more than the right clothes, a certain walk, and looking too bored to care.  Who would want to be that?  Why is it attractive?  Is it just that they were playing hard to get so we all wanted them to like us?  It's strange because that same aura of boredom is still attractive to me today.  Now, though, I know better.  I see it for the mask of insecurity that it is.  If they want to wear a mask, why wear a bored one? They should find a fun one full of glitter and sequins to mask who unsure of themselves they are.  People get distracted by shiny things.  Like fish.  Fish are attracted to cheap shiny plastic and cool colors so they don't miss the rest of the stuff that's just hanging around.  Funny how the uncool people are the people with the self esteem.  They are also the only ones who can dress like a fishing lure and not look stupid.  It's because they know how tacky and ridiculous they look, but they own it.  They know clothes are just a disguise anyway, so they turn everyday into Halloween.  Which actually makes them the cool kids after all.

1-24-12

Almost 700 hits on my other blog today.  I've never had that many before.  It's been shared and the re-shared all over Facebook.  Facebook is an odd thing.  It makes strangers feel like close friends.  It makes the cooped up stay at homer fell as though she's interacted with dozens of people when the reality is she's seen no one.  We all crave that interaction.  We need other people.  Even the people who don't like people need people.  What kind of people don't like people?  It's the highest form of narcissism if you like no one's company except your own , or the worst self loathing if you include yourself.  That's just weird to me, to hate what you are.  I can see not liking the who part.  We all have things we'd like to change or that we hide from the world.  Like the oozy nasty face of the Phantom of the Opera.  We all have nasty oozy bits.  The trick is to not let then get infected or the ooze will spread.  Who wants to be the spready oozy girl?  No thank you.  I'd rather just stay at home then and not spread my oozy nastiness around. Which is, I guess, how you get to the point of not liking other people.  It's not that they're gross, it's that you are.   Or you're agoraphobic which is even harder to figure out, or was before the internet.  I can see how you can stay home and do nothing now, because you can just order everything on Amazon.  100 years ago you had to leave the house to earn a living and to shop, unless someone else did it for you.  An enabler.  Then I guess you'd need a person after all.

1-22-12

E lost her second tooth tonight.  I kept wondering why her front teeth weren't falling out so tonight I looked.  Her adult teeth are erupting in the roof of her mouth.  There has been nothing to push the baby teeth out of the way.  I used to think that she would be so lovely if the dead front tooth would only fall out, but at least it was in the front where it was supposed to be.  Heaven only knows what this will cost us.  I hate for it to be about money, but it is.  W and L need braces too.  It will be the second time for W, but shouldn't be that involved.  His teeth look worse than they are.  L's should be easy, but he still chews on stuff.  His teeth are chipped and I'm afraid that he will do damage to the tooth surface by popping off brackets with the crap he chews.  I wish I could figure out the chewing component.  Then there's E's toe.  It swelled up and turned black a week ago.  The bruise is gone but it's still swollen.  It doesn't hurt her at all so he hops around and plays every chance she gets.  It's not any better.  We said it was broken or jammed, but the non-improvement worries me.  It could be something worse and I don't know what.  I'm avoiding Dr Google.  He gets me into trouble and makes me paranoid.  I have enough issues.  I don't need to add paranoia to the list of them.

1-21-12

My house is clean for this moment in time, at least the downstairs public rooms.  Whatever you do, don't look in my bedroom.  The baby is asleep in the middle of my bed, but that's the only calm spot.  The rest of the master bedroom is pure chaos right now.  It's the result of the intense cleaning on the rest of the rooms. I'm having women from the neighborhood over to play bunco tonight.  CG is out of town with W camping, and M is babysitting.  That means that the loud and roudy youngest children are all upstairs under the watchful eye of L.  That's a bit like asking the Tasmanian Devil to maintain calm and decorum.  It's a losing battle before it's even begun.  I don't know how one child can be filled with so much energy.  It's almost inhuman the amount of energy that's bottled up in that child.  He eats nothing.  Where does the energy come from?  It's like C.  He's giant and lives on grilled cheese sandwiches.  You wouldn't think that grilled cheese would help a boy grown to gargantuan heights.

1-18-12

I can't believe that I have 3 followers on this blog.  It just doesn't seem like something that people would be interested in.  But people will waste their time reading all kinds of things like that cat blog "I can haz.."  I just don't get that one.  Or Jersey Shore.  How many hours of their lives have people spent watching Snooki or  whatever her name is trying to get laid?  Is that even interesting?  I'll admit to watching Dance Moms though, and my husband doesn't get that either.  These shows are such a waste of time and yet they're like crack, we can't walk away from them.  Although I'm just saying that based upon things that I've heard and read.  I've never done crack so I don't really know how addictive or enjoyable it is.  I have to take others' word for it.  I've only heard about it on the news.  Do you think the news reporters really know what they're talking baout when they discuss things like crack and meth?  I doubt it.  They're just reading the cue cards or repeating what they've heard. Wait.  Do they still use cue cards?  I'm sure it's teleprompters.  Nobody hand writes anything any longer.  That's a good thing for my boys.  Their handwriting is AWFUL.  I make them practice it, and it's beautiful on the worksheets, but when they have to write in real life it's nearly unreadable.  We've been shopping for First Communion dresses for E.  She knows what she wants, but that dress is discontinued. It's hard to fall in love with a dress when you have a completely different picture in your head.  She needs to forget the princess sleeves and move on to something else wonderful.