Convenient Sacrifice

I'm getting tired of eating rice. It's a sacrifice we make because of a principle we believe in, but this week, I remembered that it can really be easy to grow weary of doing good.

A big part of Saturday nights is to be hungry, to connect with the struggles of brothers and sisters around the world.

Still, it's difficult to live in America and really feel this.

Last night, my stomach hurt as I ate the rice. It's not the greatest thing for the digestive system, and I realized how difficult it would be to eat this when you're really hungry. If you haven't had food in three days, rice is not the friendliest thing you can partake of. It sits heavy and is difficult to digest (which makes me wonder why people say you should give a baby rice cereal first. It messed with both of my kiddo's systems, and I stopped it pretty quick for their health's sake).

I couldn't finish my meager bowl, and I was "starving" 2 hours later when our normal snack time arrived. So, I ate. And ate. And ate.

I had an egg and tuna and cereal and fruit. I had a bounty... which kinda counteracted the rice initiative in the first place.

But my point is that this "sacrifice" is only a convenient 2-hour hunger strike, and still it's hard.

Praise God that His Kingdom isn't contingent on me, but is built on His own strength. And by his strength we will continue to push forward to sacrifice for the sake of our little boy.

Wordless Wednesday: Too cool for skool

When Failure is a Victory

I was doing some research last night on Obama's Freedom of Choice Act. Wanting to sift through the emotional responses and get down to the facts, I thought it best to look at sites in support and in opposition to the bill to see what they had to say about the law.

I happened to come to NARAL Pro Choice America's website, and of course, what I found was some disgusting propaganda about our so-called constitutional right to choose being "in dire peril." (Because over 4,000 American abortions a day just isn't good enough?) I always find it interesting that pro-choice people forget that our revolution was fought in order to preserve the right to life.

Anyway, I also found something on their site that was beyond pleasing. It was a grade for the state of Alabama. A big, fat "F."

We, in Alabama, have failed to provide easily obtainable abortions. Things that weigh against us here, in the view of NARAL are the following:

1. Required Biased Counseling and Mandatory Waiting Periods: This is defined in their own words as "Biased counseling and mandatory delay laws prohibit women from receiving abortion care until they are subjected to a state-mandated lecture and/or materials followed by a delay of usually at least 24 hours before they can receive services."

In Alabama, a woman must be told of the details of the procedure, potential risks, probable age and physical development of the baby, and alternatives. The waiting period is 24-hours, and the woman must receive a state-prepared handout of resources that are available to assist with pregnancy and raising a child or placing a child for adoption.

Sounds like some great education to me!

2. Restrictions on Young Women's Access to Abortions: Alabama requires 1 parent to consent to an abortion, if the pregnant girl is less than 18. If circumstances in her family make it impossible to gain this consent, the girl can obtain permission from a family court judge. Harsh.

3. Restriction on Low-Income Women's Access to an Abortion: Alabama doesn't allow tax money to go toward abortions for low-income, unless the pregnancy if life-threatening for the mother. The cost for an abortion, by the way, is usually less than $500.

4. (Unenforced) Bans on Early and Late Abortions: Abortions are not supposed to happen before 12 weeks or after viability. Health of the mother is an exception to the ban on late abortions.

5. Ban on Pro-Abortion Counseling: The Office of Women's Health in Alabama can't advocate for abortions. It is only allowed to educate about abortion and other alternatives.

6. Licensing Requirements: Only a licensed physician can perform an abortion in Alabama. If a facility performs more than 30 abortions a month, or advertises as an abortion provider, it must have be licensed. Abortion facilities must have ultrasound equipment to perform pre-abortion ultrasounds (currently, the law doesn't require that the woman be shown this ultrasound, but she has the right to view it).


Often, you'll hear pro-choice advocates use the rhetoric that they are fighting for fewer and safer abortions. These laws of Alabama are educating women on healthy alternatives. The laws help women make the best choice - one that is thought out and backed with information, not just emotion. When abortion is the choice a woman makes, the law is intended to ensure that facilities will provide safe ones.

Still, we get a grade of "F" with NARAL. This is one bad grade I couldn't be happier with.

**To find out how much your state supports education and life, go to NARAL's State Profiles. Remember, "bad" grades are those that provide for education of women and encourage them to make an informed choice.

Looking Presidential

A friend had a picture on facebook today that I thought had to be a joke, until I googled it and found a page on Amazon.


In case that's too serious-minded for you (cause we all know that Chia sculptures of presidents' heads have the potential to be too serious-minded), you can opt for the "Happy" version.



And of course, to answer the question on everyone's mind... no, we don't have a say in the ridiculous paraphernalia that gets marketed under our last name. Nor do we have any inheritance coming, that we know of.

Heroes

Okay... so, before we started watching Heroes on nbc.com 6 months ago, I never would have done this kind of thing. Proof, there, that TV corrupts.

But here is my superhero self:



http://cpbintegrated.com/theherofactory/

WFMW: Organized Hangers

I have a hate/hate relationship with clutter. I just really hate excess stuff around. But not only do I like to kill the clutter, I also really love an organized home. Mainly because I have trouble thinking in a mess. (Hmmm... seems to be a theme going on... me and problems with thinking)

So, today, I took some time to organize the hangers in our closet because my mind goes crazy thinking about what a "mess" they are. Not that they really are... I'm just weird like this.

Billy hangs all his clothes, so his side of the closet is incredibly tight, and well... unorganized. It's not a mess or anything, there was just a lot of visual clutter with different colors of hangers, and there was not much rhyme or reason to where shirts and pants were hung. Wish I had a before picture.

My side is sparse because most of my clothes are in a dresser, but I still had the same problem with the colored hangers. Just drives me crazy every time I walk into it.

So, today, I organized Billy's clothes so that like items were together (short-sleeved shirts, tee shirts, dress shirts, pants, you get the picture). But I also went a step further to - wait for it! - color code the hangers! Yes! This is what we stay at home moms do all day. Organize things that are actually already pretty organized by the rest of society's standards.

Anyway, it will be much nicer for me to go into there from now on. I got my side together, too.



Color-coding hangers is actually harder than you might think. Since my budget for this project was $0. I had to use what I have, so I was switching and counting and counting and switching a lot. But I finally came up with a good system.

Rock! One less place in my apartment to provide an excuse for my ever-increasing mental chaos. (Yes, Mom... I have some Mental Acuity Plus. I just forget to take it!)

Here are more Works for Me Wednesday posts.

The Murdering Power of Facebook

So, my blog's lain fallow for a while. As usual.

And I blame facebook. No, seriously. (It's all facebook's fault, and none of my own.)

It's like this: I grew up in a time when it went from embarrassing to fashion to have ADD. From there, it become not good enough, and everyone needed to add in that extra hyper-activity in order to fit in: ADHD.

I didn't have it. And I was proud.

But now, my friends, I think I might be coming down with something. Not quite sure what to call it, but it is strongly tied to my status updates.

Writing blog posts, well... you kinda have to have something to say. But ever since I got addicted to facebook, I think in status updates. I think it one-sentence, unconnected, fleeting moments. And it's harder to see the big picture.

But I've found that I'm not alone. A few weeks ago, Billy introduced someone to the concept of twitter and explained, "Twitter killed my blog." (For those who still don't know...(Mom) twitter is just like facebook, but it's not fun.) My sister Kate is a facebook fiend, too, and her blog gets ignored, as evidenced in this post... which by the way is very similar to this post by Laura Anne. Others mentioned it too, but then claimed gardening as the reason their blog is suddenly quiet (I still have my suspicions on whether that's true, Beth. j/k)

Anyway, it's gotten hard to put together a strand of thoughts lately. That whole status thing is just to quick and easy.

Isn't that pathetic? Seriously. I mean... c'mon! I'm a college graduate, majoring in freaking WRITING! Hello!!!!

Yes... facebook is a strong force to be reckoned with, and I'm not sure if I'll win. But I won't go down without a fight.

But just in case, you can find me here:

Why I'm 20th-Century Dumb

So bear with me here, cause I've been going through my yearly life crisis. This is the time when we enter the last quarter of the "school year," and I have to re-evaluate what we're doing and if we're still gonna be doing it next year. This year has been worse than ever, honestly.... mainly because I thought I could make my own curriculum, from the internet, for absolutely free.

And, well... I did.

And it sucked.

So, this year's schooling has had some good times, but mainly it had a lot of bad times. Mainly, I've just been feeling like a failure as an educator, as a parent, as a competent person, really.

But I'm about 90% sure right now that we're sticking with it next year.

I got here for a few different reasons:

Because I'm 20th-Century dumb and so are today's students

As I started preparing for our 4-week unit on the roaring 20's and the Great Depression, I found nothing in my normal online resources. One of the staples that I've used has been some free online chapter summaries from some 5 - 6 grade public schooltextbooks. They are reading comprehension worksheets and vocabulary reinforcements that just go over the basics of the chapter, which have been great for my 2nd grader. The bad thing is that the public schools don't really teach much after the Civil War. So, if finally hit me why I know a TON about the founding of our country, and nothing really about the 1900's. This is how it was when I was in school, and this is how it still is.

5th graders learn about the Indians, the Revolution, Expansion, and the Civil War. It takes all year. 6th graders seem to learn all of our history, but they start back at the Indians again, so for the 1st semester, they're reviewing. Second semester, they get to cram in everything that's happened from Reconstruction on.

Because I never got that I was supposed to actually get science

I was trying to figure out where to go for science. I'm tired of the same old, same old. I've gotten a little bored of animals and plants, and I wanted something a little bit.... well, cooler. Again, curricula online failed me. What is this! It's like everyone thinks that kids only have the capacity to learn about cute, furry things and seedlings. I was think something a little more in depth like... you know... chemistry or something. Cause when I got into chemistry, I didn't get it. I mean, I got the grade. I did fine on my report card and all. I could do the problems; I could pass the test. But I didn't get it, you know. I always felt like if I had understood what I was really supposed to be learning, instead of just memorizing which formula to use, I would have really liked chemistry. I want Eve to have that chance.

Because there's more than one opinion and we ought to hear about them, even if we don't agree

Also along the lines of science is a documentary that Billy and I watched last week from Nova. It was about Intelligent Design being thrown out of public education as a theory to be mentioned as something a student could investigate on his own. Seriously. These schools in Pennsylvania had some copies of an Intelligent Design text book donated. The school board voted that science teachers should read a 1-minute statement that reveals that evolution is an un-proven theory with gaps in it, and that there are scientists who research other theories, such as intelligent design. The books were to be available at school libraries for students to look at independently if they were interested. ID was not to be taught in the class.

In typical America fashion, some parents sued. And the judge declared this statement to be unconstitutional as establishing a religion. WHAT?!!?!?!

I don't believe in macro-evoluion, but my daughter knows about it. I don't believe in Buddhism, Islam, or Greek gods either, but my daughter knows about them. I don't believe in big government, but she hears about that, too. I teach her. I let her watch debates so she can hear things from the people who believe it. (Not saying she gets it all yet at her age, but I expose her to it.)

Because believing something without investigating other options and opinions is mindless, and I'm not interested in mindless education.


So, I remember now that part of the reason I home educate is that I just don't think public schools teach kids what they ought to know.