The Catholic News year in review

This is really great stuff. I really should get a subscription to the National Catholic Register, but I haven't yet. I just got Faith and Family, which means I no longer have to steal from others.

I think many people have no idea how much Catholicism plays into world news. It's really remarkable. Read the whole thing, it's really fascinating.

Happy New Year!!



Published on National Catholic Reporter Conversation Cafe (http://ncrcafe.org)
Top 10 neglected Catholic stories of 2008
By John L Allen Jr Weekly
Created Dec 24 2008 - 11:23
All Things Catholic by John L. Allen, Jr.
Bookmark and Share [1] Friday, December 26, 2008 - Vol. 8, No. 14

Editor's Note: We're posting Allen's Friday column early this week because of Christmas.

For most media outlets in the United States, there were really only two big Catholic stories in 2008: Pope Benedict XVI’s April 15-20 visit to Washington and New York, and the fate of the “Catholic vote” in the November elections.

Both, of course, were important tales to tell, and for the most part church officials have no right to complain. Saturation coverage of the pope’s trip alone probably meant the Catholic church drew more positive notice in ’08 than in most years, especially recently.

Yet inevitably, plenty of other important Catholic stories flew below the radar. To remedy that, here’s a rundown of the “Top Ten Neglected Catholic Stories of the Year.”



10. Benedict’s “Second Act” in France
While the pope’s trip to America drew bell-to-bell coverage, his Sept. 12-15 visit to France might as well have been on the dark side of the moon in terms of American media interest. That’s too bad, because it offered “volume II” of Benedict’s reflections on church/state relations. In the States, Benedict praised a model of church/state separation that, in his view, means freedom for religion rather than freedom from religion. In France, he closed the loop by challenging their model of laïcité, which the pope sees as exiling religion from public life. That’s likely to be a battleground for some time to come, since laïcité is more or less presupposed by the architects of the new Europe.

9. O’Brien and the Legionaries of Christ
In June, Archbishop Edwin O’Brien of Baltimore demanded greater transparency from the Legionaries of Christ and their lay arm, Regnum Christi, and barred them from one-on-one spiritual direction with anyone under 18. The fact that O’Brien, who is no one’s idea of a doctrinal liberal, took those steps suggested that controversy surrounding the Legionaries is not merely about the usual left/right tensions. The story raised larger questions about how to balance the zeal and missionary spirit of some of the “new movements” against the need for proper oversight and accountability.

8. The Bishops and Immigration
Amid suggestions that the American bishops had a single-issue focus on abortion, their outspoken approach to immigration sometimes got lost. In September, the bishops called upon the Department of Homeland Security to halt immigration raids, asserting that the “humanitarian cost” was “unacceptable in a civilized society.” Over the summer, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles asserted that “a human being’s worth is defined by their God-given dignity, not by what papers they carry.” That position brought blowback; an invitation to generosity by Benedict XVI during his visit, for example, caused CNN’s Lou Dobbs to fume, and some conservatives threatened to challenge the church’s tax exemptions if it pushes a pro-immigrant line. While the election of Barack Obama augurs battles over the “life issues,” immigration reform may be an area where the bishops and the new administration can do business.

7. Ups and Downs in Dialogue
In November, a new “Catholic/Muslim Forum,” meeting in Rome, symbolized commitment to dialogue in the wake of Benedict’s controversial citation two years ago of a Byzantine emperor to the effect that Muhammad brought things “only evil and inhuman.” The forum concluded with a statement recognizing a right to religious freedom. It will meet again in 2010, in a Muslim nation. Meanwhile, Catholic/Jewish ties saw new flashpoints. The year began with fallout from revival of the old Latin liturgy, including a Good Friday prayer for conversion of Jews. The prayer was amended by the Vatican, though not to everyone’s satisfaction. In June, the U.S. bishops deleted a line from their catechism that said the Mosaic covenant “remains eternally valid.” (The bishops said the line wasn’t wrong, just misunderstood.) In September, Benedict praised Pope Pius XII, whom some Jews fault for alleged “silence” on the Holocaust. Despite these tensions, most experts say Catholic/Jewish relations remain sound, and Benedict’s visit to the Park East Synagogue in New York reaffirmed his desire for “bridges of friendship.”

6. Benedict’s Unique Shade of Green
Throughout ’08, the pope continued to craft his distinct form of Christian environmentalism, in a way seemingly destined to give everybody heartburn. To conservatives, Benedict insisted that the doctrine of creation requires engagement from the church on issues such as the rainforests or climate change, whatever fears they may have about baptizing Greenpeace; for liberals, Benedict asserted that ecology cannot be separated from the church’s defense of other aspects of creation, such as unborn life and marriage. One sign that this budding environmentalism has made some people nervous is that Benedict felt compelled to lay it out one more time in his year-end address to the Roman Curia, where popes often try to reassure their lieutenants about aspects of their activity which have raised eyebrows in the Vatican.

5. Changing of the Guard at the CTSA
Fairly or unfairly, the Catholic Theological Society of America has long been seen as the leading forum for the church’s “loyal opposition.” The group’s June meeting in Miami, however, was devoted to the theme of “generations,” and it gave voice to a rising cohort of younger theologians -- at least some of whom appear less interested in challenging the church than secular culture, and for whom the traditional polarization between left and right doesn’t hold much appeal. What that might mean for the future of Catholic theology in America will be a fascinating trend to track.

4. The Synod on the Bible
Synods of Bishops in Rome are easy to write off as expensive talk-shops, but for those with ears to hear, they offer a unique sounding board for currents in the global church. The Oct. 5-26 synod dedicated to the Bible offered a case in point; among other things, contributions from bishops from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and other parts of the world suggested that the struggle against secularism is to some extent a Western preoccupation. In the end, a basically moderate line seemed to prevail; in their final propositions, the bishops called for admitting women to the ministry of lector, and gave a strong thumbs-up for lay-led liturgies of the Word and for small ecclesial communities.

3. Identity Pressures on Catholic Charities
Efforts to assert a strong sense of traditional Catholic identity represent a leading “mega-trend” in the church these days, and in 2008 those efforts reached down into Catholic charities. In January, Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, the Vatican’s top official for charitable activity, endorsed Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput’s threat to shut down church-run charities if the state barred them from hiring on the basis of religious affiliation. Later in the year, Catholic Relief Services faced criticism that some of its HIV/AIDS prevention materials promoted condoms, and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development came under fire for its links to the controversial community organizing network ACORN. Collectively, all this suggests that charitable agencies will face growing pressure to be sure that they consistently “think with the church.”

2. The Jesuits Come in from the Cold
The John Paul years were occasionally marked by tension between the Society of Jesus and the papacy -- which, to the outside world, offered a symbol of the alienation of moderate-to-progressive Catholics from the church’s leadership. The election of a new Jesuit superior in January created a chance for Benedict XVI and the Jesuits to turn a new page, and by most accounts, it worked. Some Jesuits said they actually wept with joy after a Feb. 21 audience when Benedict told them, “The church needs you, counts on you, and continues to turn to you with confidence.” Benedict has also put his money where his mouth is, naming Jesuits to key posts such as Vatican spokesperson and secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. While this rapprochement doesn’t mean everything is sweetness and light, it at least suggests that the order is back on good speaking terms with the Shepherd-in-Chief.

1. The Crisis in India
The anti-Christian violence that broke out in India over the summer was hardly just a Catholic story, but Catholics were dramatically affected: A lay Catholic missionary was burnt alive as she tried to rescue children from a church-run orphanage; a young nun was raped; parishes, convents, hospitals and schools were sacked. Beyond the human toll, the crisis offered an important wake-up call. India is a rising power, but it also faces a rapidly metastasizing form of Hindu extremism. If things break the wrong way, the Indian subcontinent could become the new Middle East -- a perpetually destabilized region whose animosities seed conflict around the world, radicalizing a global Hindu diaspora. India is also a great 20th century Catholic success story. The church exploded from less than two million faithful to 18 million, and by 2050 there could be almost 30 million Indian Catholics. It’s an inspiring social as well as spiritual triumph; some 60 to 75 percent of Indian Catholics are either from rural tribes or the “untouchable” caste, and both groups experience the faith as a liberating force from oppression. All of that, however, could be at risk if India can’t resolve its cultural and religious tensions. American Catholics may be in a special position to help, given that improving relations with India has been one of the few foreign policy success stories of the Bush administration.

http://ncrcafe.org/node/2348

Links:
[1] http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php
[2] http://www.constantcontact.com/safesubscribe.jsp
[3] http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/1395
[4] http://nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/archives.htm
[5] http://ncrcafe.org/node/27
[6] mailto:jallen@ncronline.org

Doggy video

Ok, this is really, really cute.

Maybe I should do a run of pet videos.

German Shepherd Owned By Chihuahua @ Yahoo! Video

Seed catalogs, cure for the winter blahs

Do you know what just arrived in my mailbox?

The 2009 Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog. Drum roll, please...

Here is their website: www.rareseeds.com

I went to their website to order a catalog and thought it would not ever come. This was part of my planning in case we have a much huger economic slow down than people think we are going to have. Stony Creek Digest was having a discussion on that, and someone suggested these guys in their comments. Growing your own garden is a really good idea if you foresee food prices rising. I don't know for sure if they will, things have stabilized for now, I think, but considering the past year or so, I think I will just live very frugally and then if things go downhill, at least I had fun getting prepared. I really love learning about gardening.

Occasionally it occurs to me that someday I will be partially in control of some amount of farmland, unless my parents do something completely unforeseen and sell it all. That is just not likely, so I'd better keep my green thumb handy in case farming is in my retirement plan. I have an inkling that it is, at least part-time. And in California. Currently my parents are beginning a process of readying said property to make hay, literally. They are tractor shopping and pole barn shopping, and I guess they might be serious. I'm glad it's hay and not cows. I'm not ready to play midwife to anything with four legs right now, and hay is relatively stress free. You worry about the weather, but what can you really do about that? Other people's dogs, on the other hand, you always feel bad shooting. Ah... farm life. I miss it so.

Because I enjoy it and because I used to do it with my family, and because it's likely to be in my future, I keep reading the fun hippie seed catalogs. Heirloom gardening is very, very interesting to me. First, there is a profit involved, because when something is rare, it is more expensive. Secondly, there is worldwide history involved. Thirdly, this stuff is just healthier for you, and more fun to look at, at least in a lot of cases. There are many hobby farms that try to keep certain breeds alive, since there is less interest in them now that everything is so commercialized. You thought the endangered species list was interesting? Try the list of farm animals and plants that are going extinct just for lack of interest in farming!

I have no idea how to keep seeds. I need to get a book on that. I did follow the directions this year for my beans, and next year we'll see if I did it right. I think you just dry them out for a couple of weeks and store them cool and dry. Right?

This catalog is amazing. These people have built a regular old west town around their business. It was started by one son of a homeschooled family, when he was 17. Seventeen!! What male teenager has an obsession with seeds? Well, he got married a bit ago and now they have a little girl. The catalog is beautiful, and gives some history of certain seeds from places like Iran and Israel and Thailand, not just the US. It is indescribably beautiful and makes me want to get in the van and just go see the place next summer. I've never been anywhere near Missouri, though. It would go nicely with a trip to uncover some Laura Ingalls Wilder history, too, being also in the Ozarks, where she and Almanzo ended up.

So many things to do, how can anyone in their right mind ever be bored?

I told DH that Rikki should NOT see this catalog. I stand by that comment. But how can I possibly resist the looks of giddy glee that will come over her face when she sees this thing?

Oh, and by the way Rikki, I did that dump run today we've been meaning to do. So when you get home and your garage is missing a few items, don't worry, it's just the garbage.

Tempting as it was, I still did not lose your cat in a snow drift. It was on my to-do list, though. :)

Doggy + Baby = EW.

We're babysitting a poodle for the next three days. She's really cute and gray and her name is Suzette. Great poodle name, no?

I brought all her stuff over today, and in a bag were two little stuffed animals she likes to chew on (you can tell by what they look like).

Dominic thinks he's a dog and he's 19 months old. He got down and picked up the stuffed cat in his mouth and walked around with it. Suzette and Dominic are having some jealousy issues. The next thing I know, the dog leaps up and grabs the toy right out of the baby's mouth! I'm SO glad Suzette doesn't bite, so I can get my kids used to her before we get our own dog. That way I can teach them gradually how to act without them having facial scarring! The baby and the dog are also fighting over who my lap belongs to. It obviously does not belong to me.

In other news, the neighbors and I had an impromptu snow-shoveling party down the driveway from us. It's a real steep hill and some folks have been stuck a while, and since someone needed a push anyway, we got out three shovels and some bags of sand, and whooosh! the hill is now maneuverable. Why did we not do this before? Because we THOUGHT it would MELT! It's not supposed to be around anymore. It is way overdue, and I think we got two more inches this afternoon. Then we turned around and shoveled enough to get our beater back in the carport. It took an awful lot of head starts and fishtailing, but in the end, it is back in there, where it belongs, never to leave again til more melting occurs.

Time to cook dinner... laters!

My favorite Christmas rendition

Here is an awesome little mix of Christmas carols by Sarah MacLachlan and Barenaked Ladies. It's my favorite. You will have to turn off my auto-music to play it, though, I think.

By the way, is it fun or annoying to play music on my blog? I'm still deciding.

Enjoy! I love the mix of their voices. Merry Christmas!!

The Orphan Train -- history

Wow. I never heard of this. Makes foster care look pretty good in most cases by comparison.

What really gets me is how incredibly wrapped up we are in the feelings of our children and spoiling them to death, when 100 years ago and even 50 years ago, no one gave much thought to feelings. Survival was more important. You really had more important things to worry about, and people had a bit more purpose in their lives. It wasn't perfect, but you can't say society is perfect now, either!

If you click on the link, there are great photos and video, too.


He rode the 'Orphan Train' across the country


By John Torigoe
CNN

PUEBLO, Colorado (CNN) -- Orphan Train rider Stanley Cornell's oldest memory is of his mother's death in 1925.

"My first feeling was standing by my mom's bedside when she was dying. She died of tuberculosis," recalls Cornell. "I remember her crying, holding my hand, saying to 'be good to Daddy.' "

"That was the last I saw of her. I was probably four," Cornell says of his mother, Lottie Cornell, who passed away in Elmira, New York.

His father, Floyd Cornell, was still suffering the effects of nerve gas and shell shock after serving as a soldier in combat during WWI. That made it difficult for him to keep steady work or care for his two boys.

"Daddy Floyd," as Stanley Cornell calls his birth father, eventually contacted the Children's Aid Society. The society workers showed up in a big car with candy and whisked away Stanley and his brother, Victor, who was 16 months younger. PhotoSee the Cornell family album »

Stanley Cornell remembers his father was crying and hanging on to a post. The little boy had a feeling he would not see his father again.

The two youngsters were taken to an orphanage, the Children's Aid Society of New York, founded by social reformer Charles Loring Brace

"It was kind of rough in the orphans' home," Cornell remembers, adding that the older children preyed on the younger kids -- even though officials tried to keep them separated by chicken wire fences. He says he remembers being beaten with whips like those used on horses.

New York City in 1926 was teeming with tens of thousands of homeless and orphaned children. These so-called "street urchins" resorted to begging, stealing or forming gangs to commit violence to survive. Some children worked in factories and slept in doorways or flophouses.

The Orphan Train movement took Stanley Cornell and his brother out of the city during the last part of a mass relocation movement for children called "placing out."Watch Cornell share ups and downs of his family story

Brace's agency took destitute children, in small groups, by train to small towns and farms across the country, with many traveling to the West and Midwest. From 1854 to 1929, more than 200,000 children were placed with families across 47 states. It was the beginning of documented foster care in America.

"It's an exodus, I guess. They called it Orphan Train riders that rode the trains looking for mom and dad like my brother and I."

"We'd pull into a train station, stand outside the coaches dressed in our best clothes. People would inspect us like cattle farmers. And if they didn't choose you, you'd get back on the train and do it all over again at the next stop."

Cornell and his brother were "placed out" twice with their aunts in Pennsylvania and Coffeyville, Kansas. But their placements didn't last and they were returned to the Children's Aid Society.

"Then they made up another train. Sent us out West. A hundred-fifty kids on a train to Wellington, Texas," Cornell recalls. "That's where Dad happened to be in town that day."

Each time an Orphan Train was sent out, adoption ads were placed in local papers before the arrival of the children.

J.L. Deger, a 45-year-old farmer, knew he wanted a boy even though he already had two daughters ages 10 and 13.

"He'd just bought a Model T. Mr. Deger looked those boys over. We were the last boys holding hands in a blizzard, December 10, 1926," Cornell remembers. He says that day he and his brother stood in a hotel lobby.

"He asked us if we wanted to move out to farm with chickens, pigs and a room all to your own. He only wanted to take one of us, decided to take both of us."

Life on the farm was hard work.

"I did have to work and I expected it, because they fed me, clothed me, loved me. We had a good home. I'm very grateful. Always have been, always will be."

Taking care of a family wasn't always easy.

"In 1931, the Dust Bowl days started. The wind never quit. Sixty, 70 miles an hour, all that dust. It was a mess. Sometimes, Dad wouldn't raise a crop in two years."

A good crop came in 1940. With his profit in hand, "first thing Dad did was he took that money and said, 'we're going to repay the banker for trusting us,' " Cornell says.

When World War II began, Cornell joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps. He shipped out to Africa and landed near Casablanca, Morocco, where he laid telephone and teletype lines. Later he served in Egypt and northern Sicily. While in Italy, he witnessed Mount Vesuvius erupting.

It was on a telephone line-laying mission between Naples and Rome that Cornell suffered his first of three wounds.

"Our jeep was hit by a bomb. I thought I was in the middle of the ocean. It was the middle of January and I was in a sea of mud."

With their jeep destroyed and Cornell bleeding from a head wound, his driver asked a French soldier to use his vehicle to transport them. The Frenchman refused to drive Cornell the five miles to the medical unit.

"So, the driver pulled out his pistol, put the gun to the French soldier's head and yelled, 'tout suite!' or 'move it!' " Cornell recalls.

Once he was treated, Cornell remembers the doctor saying, "You've got 30 stitches in your scalp. An eighth of an inch deeper and you'd be dead."

Cornell always refused to accept his commendations for a Purple Heart even though he'd been wounded three times, twice severely enough to be hospitalized for weeks. He felt the medals were handed out too often to troops who suffered the equivalent of a scratch.

His younger brother served during the war in the Air Force at a base in Nebraska, where he ran a film projector at the officers' club.

As WWII was drawing to a close, Stanley Cornell headed up the teletype section at Allied headquarters in Reims, France. "I saw [Gen. Dwight] Eisenhower every day," he recalls.

On May 7, 1945, the Nazis surrendered. "I sent the first teletype message from Eisenhower saying the war was over with Germany," Cornell says.

In 1946, the 25-year-old Stanley Cornell met with his 53-year-old birth father, Daddy Floyd. It was the last time they would see each other.

Cornell eventually got married and he and his wife, Earleen, adopted two boys, Dana and Dennis, when each was just four weeks old.

"I knew what it was like to grow up without parents," Cornell says. "We were married seven years and couldn't have kids, so I asked my wife, 'how about adoption?' She'd heard my story before and said, 'OK.' "

After they adopted their two boys, Earleen gave birth to a girl, Denyse.

Dana Cornell understands what his father and uncle went through.

"I don't think [Uncle] Vic and Stan could have been better parents. I can relate, you know, because Dad adopted Dennis and me. He has taught me an awful lot over the years," Dana Cornell says.

Dana Cornell says his adoptive parents have always said that if the boys wanted to find their birth parents, they would help. But he decided not to because of how he feels about the couple who adopted him. "They are my parents and that's the way it's gonna be."

Stanley and Earleen Cornell have been married 61 years. She is a minister at a church in Pueblo, Colorado, and is the cook at her son's restaurant, Dana's Lil' Kitchen.

Stanley Cornell believes he is one of only 15 surviving Orphan Train children. His brother, Victor Cornell, a retired movie theater chain owner, is also alive and living in Moscow, Idaho.

My new music box

Merry Christmas to me.

I was reading Sardonic Catholic Dad, and decided to click on his music to see where he got it from. Oh My Gosh. It is so fun. So I put together THE most ridiculous set of my favorite music ever. It is so cool.

To me. Maybe not you. I mean, really, who puts John Denver next to MIB?
I ask you.

I hope you like it. Comments and questions welcome.

Oh, and DH got an iPod Touch, which he saved up for by selling computer objects, and he tells me that listening to the Blue Collar Comedy Tour is awesome, and relieves the stress of a very long commute very quickly.

I wonder what people think of the guy next to them laughing his butt off without seeing what he's laughing at?

Ah... the things we do in the wintertime.

Sloth and the internet

Did you know the internet is a great way to avoid housework and let it pile up?

I'll bet you did.

I'll bet some of you have more self control than I do.
Perhaps I will have to turn it off again.
I think I will. Right now. Really.
Two days til Christmas and I have not finished addressing Christmas cards, cleaned off the table, or wrapped any presents.
It's time to turn off the internet for the day and go do something productive. Lots of things. Bathing the children and myself for one thing.
Bye bye internet. You are malfunctioning today anyway, so have a nice vacation.
If anyone misses me, give me a call.

Love,
Annaberri

My new hair and a lot of snow

The hair is cuter in person, I like to think.

This is how much snow is in our yard. It's not done yet, they say.

DH did indeed get to work, so far as I know. He passed two abandoned cars in the five blocks it takes to get to the main road. He had chains, then took them off after he got to the freeway.

Wow. What a white Christmas! I'm SO not going anywhere today. I have one kid with a major cold and another with croup, but going to the doctor would probably be hazardous to our health.

More fun websites

This week I came across these websites. They are really fun, each in their own way!

www.sardoniccatholicdad.blogspot.com Great music! Tech geek dad and has lots of kids. Too bad he's on the other coast. If you need a "grown up" break, I like it!

www.thepioneerwoman.com Great ideas, pictures, recipes, and funny ranch stories from a woman who never, ever thought she'd be a ranch wife, homeschooling four kids. She's really fun. And that's where I got my Christmas cookie recipe I plan to try. I didn't know what almond bark was. Now that I've hunted for it in Safeway, I know.

www.urbanhomestead.org A little old garden in Pasadena. Very, very interesting links. These guys try their darndest to provide great food and save the earth from their little patch of land a mile from downtown Pasadena. Yeah, that Pasadena. As in Los Angeles.

Have fun! You might be busy for a couple of hours, so get a cup of coffee or whatever your poison is. Time to get comfy! Besides, it's snowing and freaking cold out there.

What to do.... decisions, decisions....

My husband has left the building, having put the chains back on the car in case of catastrophe, and has gone to a certain house five minutes away which has temporarily acquired an XBox. And "Left For Dead" a game in which one kills zombies. He says it will take him a while just to figure out the controller. Considering how much trouble Vista has given him and the fact that we missed the delivery of his iPod and now have to wait til Monday, he needs to go kill some zombies. And the friend who invited is rarely seen these days, so I hope they are having a LOT of fun.

It is very quiet here. Let's see. I got on Facebook, and had a conversation with an old college buddy who seemed to want to discuss recent choices of girlfriends and the wisdom thereof, but then I had to put the kids to bed, and then he was gone. Dratz.

Now, I could be addressing Christmas cards. Or I could go to bed. I'd like to go to bed. I was going to make cookies and deliver them to all my Rosary Group friends. And then I thought, I can only stand driving in chains so long, and one family is particularly unreachable in Blizzard 2008, so I'm not going to get to them anyway. And Christmas is a mere five days away, only three of which the mailman will be moving on. And of course, the storm may stop the mailman. Nooooo!!!

I could just go upstairs and read, and fall asleep like all my children have already done.

Nope, I think I'd better get to work. ARGH. I still have to go buy 100 stamps, too.

There's a raging snowstorm out there right now, and I wonder in the morning if it will be as big a deal as the forecasters say. I see some wind, but not a lot. It's very fine, cold, prickly snow. Not the big, wet flakes you usually see around here. Good thing the chains are on already. I'm really not sure if we'll make it to church in the morning, but we'll see. I just hope the power is on in the morning, because we don't have a stove or a generator in our townhome.

If the power is off, Rikki, you can expect six visitors early on Sunday.

Rikki has gas power! :)

The Duggar Family strikes again!

As an aside, our community is completely covered in snow and refuses to warm up til after Christmas, they say. In fact, more snow and wind is forecast for Saturday-Sunday and into the wee hours of Monday. I LOVE IT! It is soooo fun!

Today is one of those days we are doing almost nothing. Except tonight is date night, so we're going to... wrap presents.

Romance is not dead.

Better than last year, where we went nuts on Christmas Eve.

Anyway, I love this family. I love how they put themselves out there for all the world to see, because they obviously are not afraid of criticism. They take great care of each other as a family, and they keep a great website. And they'll probably be grandparents soon, since one of their kids got married last year.

God bless the Duggars!

Arkansas family welcomes 18th child, a girl
1 hr 5 mins ago AP – In this Aug. 2, 2007 file photo, Michelle Duggar, left, is surrounded by her children and husband Jim … ROGERS, Ark. – An Arkansas woman has given birth to her 18th child.

Michelle Duggar delivered the baby girl by Caesarean section Thursday at Mercy Medical Center in Rogers. The baby, named Jordyn-Grace Makiya Duggar, weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces and was 20 inches long.

"The ultimate Christmas gift from God," said Jim Bob Duggar, the father of the 18 children. "She's just absolutely beautiful, like her mom and her sisters."

The Duggars now have 10 sons and eight daughters.

Jim Bob Duggar said Michelle started having contractions Wednesday night. She needed the C-section, her third, because the baby was lying sideways. Jim Bob said both baby and mother were doing well Thursday night.

"We both would love to have more," he said.

The cable network TLC broadcasts a weekly show about the Duggars called "17 Kids and Counting." Chris Finnegan of TLC — which handles public relations for the Duggar family — said the show's name would be updated to account for the latest addition to the family. He said TLC also will air a show Monday on the baby's delivery.

Jim Bob Duggar is 43, a year older than his wife. Their oldest child, Joshua, is 20.

The other Duggar children, in between Joshua and Jordyn-Grace, are Jana, 18; John-David, 18; Jill, 17; Jessa, 16; Jinger, 14; Joseph, 13; Josiah, 12; Joy-Anna, 11; Jeremiah, 9; Jedidiah, 9; Jason, 8; James, 7; Justin, 6; Jackson, 4; Johannah, 3; and Jennifer, 1.

"Our whole family is excited about Jordyn's addition to our family," Jim Bob Duggar said. "She's just perfect in every way."

___

On the Net:

http://tlc.discovery.com/

Encouragement to not complain about one's lot in life. Ever!

Someone posted this today on one of my yahoo groups. I really needed to read it, maybe you do, too!

HOME DESTROYERS

Part 4

Philippians 2:14-15, "Do all things without murmurings and disputing: that
ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke,in the
midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the
world."

We are up to No. 4 today. One more to go in this series.

4. COMPLAINING

Psalm 106:25, "They murmured in their tents, and hearkened not unto the
voice of the Lord." Read the story in Numbers chapter 14, especially verses
2 and 27.

Where were the people complaining? In their tents, which were their dwelling
places in the wilderness. Where does most complaining happen? In the home.
But what does it do? It tears down the home, whether we complain about our
circumstances, the work we have to do, or our husband. Not only do the walls
of our home hear it, but our children hear it--and God hears it!

The children of Israel murmured and complained against Moses and Aaron, but
when God heard it, He said they were complaining against Him. God says in
Numbers 14:27, "How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which
murmur against Me? I have heard the murmuring of the children of Israel,
which they murmur against Me." Stop press! Help! When we murmur and complain
about all our problems, God hears it as murmuring against Him.

The ten spies had returned from spying out the land of Canaan. It was a land
flowing with milk and honey, but they complained about the fortified cities
and the giants they would have to fight. It looked impossible! Even after
all the miracles of coming out of Egypt and provision in the wilderness,
they did not believe God could help them. They blamed Moses for bringing
them out of Egypt. They complained that all their children would be taken as
salves.

What happened? God told them, "Get back into the wilderness.. ." He told them
that they would all die in the wilderness and their children who they
complained would be taken as slaves would be the ones who would go into this
magnificent land. Where do we end up when we complain? In the wilderness.

Wives and mothers,

we take our families into

a wilderness journey

when we complain!

The root of complaining is unbelief. "Can God furnish a table in the
wilderness?" The Israelites cried out in unbelief. (Psalm 78:19). "How could
we ever have another baby?" you cry out in unbelief. "We can hardly make
ends meet now!" "How can we afford to educate our children?" "How can I put
up with this little house any longer? I need more room" And so it goes on.

Here's a good habit to start. Change every sigh into a Hallelujah! Every
time you are tempted to complain, turn your heart to the Lord and
acknowledge His power and His presence. "Thank you, Lord, I trust you. I
know that you are ordering my footsteps. I thank you that you are with me in
these circumstances. " It will take time to establish this new habit, but
keep at it.

It doesn't mean that your circumstances will necessarily change, but you
will change. God promises in Isaiah 43:1-3 that when you pass through the
waters, that "I will be with you. They will not overflow you." God says that
when you go through the fire that "You will not be burned, neither shall the
flame kindle upon you."

What is our confession? "I'm going through a fiery trial. I don't know how I
can make it." Or, "Thank you, Lord, no matter how hot it gets, I will not be
burned because you are with me!"

I remember when complaining as a young child that my mother would
immediately direct me to think about those who were poor and suffering in
the world and didn't have all the blessings that I had. It's not a bad idea.
There are millions in the world who live in abject poverty, without running
water, adequate food, shelter or any of the basic amenities of life which we
are used to. My husband, who has ministered in the slums of India and many
third world countries, often says, "Just to live in a tent in America makes
you a millionaire! "

I think about the Karen people, the displaced people of Burma who have been
fighting a genocidal war against them from the Burmese government for over
50 years. We complain about keeping up with homeschooling. The Karen try to
school their children while they live in hiding. We complain when things are
not just as we want them when we give birth. Many Karen mothers give birth
while running from the enemy. No time for recovery. No time for relaxing
with their baby. No gifts. No excited calls from family and friends.

The wife the founder of the "Free Burma Rangers" shares about the love,
forgiveness and generosity of the Karen, even in the midst of suffering and
hardship. She says, "The gifts they gave were of themselves-- their time,
energy and love. In my experience in the West it is easier to go to the
store and buy a trinket as a gift. For this reason I have chosen to raise my
children in this war. The influence of these people is something I have
never experienced anywhere else."

Pictures, as promised

Playing in the snow this week! YES! I LOVE SNOW!










Simbang Gabi celebration at a local Catholic church. Very, very interesting!! :) I was too busy chasing kids to get many pictures, and besides, it was ridiculously crowded. Must be a Filipino event, alright. Food and people, people and food.



A St. Nicholas table topper. How cute is that?


I'm glad I have Ethel to remind me. I did promise pictures. I have some good ones from our Nativity play, too, but they haven't made it off the camera yet.

Here we go!

Go Pope Benedict!

I SOOO should be filing or cleaning or something.
Naaah.

Got this from June Cleaver.

And a video link

Ok, Ms. Vanilla Mocha, now I have discovered Tim Hawkins. I really don't know who he is, but I have to say, this is really funny. Every homeschooler needs to see this, and every person who doesn't like homeschooling needs to laugh at themselves.

:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM6uqj0_jQc

Fun homeschooling examples

Ooo oooh! I should ALWAYS look at links on other people's blogs.
Thanks Barb at www.mckillipklan.typepad.com. I love this link and a few more, too.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/homeschooling/

PETA is funny to me

Last night I exposed my children to animal torture.

Ok, really, Grandma started it. She sent us two DVD's of Rodeo Bloopers one year. Last night, being in a random mood and needing a video to pacify the small people, I decided to plug it in while we removed the Thule from the roof of our van. In 20 degrees. Yes, I should have done this at least two weeks ago. Yup, yup, yup. Our keyholes to our car were frozen last night, and the car could only be opened by key-fob, or what I call the bee-bop.

The video we put in shows lots of rodeo funnies, including rodeo clowns' antics, cowboys getting their hands stuck after getting bucked off, the Omak Stampede, and in the other video, they have "mutton busting", which is when us insane country types strap our little five year olds onto a sheep with a rope and a helmet and turn them loose. That is very possibly the funniest part, and something I would have died to try when I was little. One of the two spankings I remember involved me riding my pet lambs when I was told not to. Hey, they wouldn't turn me loose on horses yet, and the sheep were right there! It doesn't hurt to fall off something three feet high.

I know lots of animal rights types scream and holler all the time that the poor animals are suffering, yadda yadda. You know what? The only critters suffering are the cowboys, and someone pays them to do it. And they come back after breaking most of the bones in their bodies. That, I don't understand, but hey, it's a free country.

I don't believe most animal rights folks have ever been bucked off by a four-legged animal. I have. A few times. Make that quite a few times, since age 5. I believe one of my earliest memories was my mom leading "Otis" along, and all of a sudden, I was on my back with my legs up against the mesh fence. I remember being on the other side of it, but my mom tells me that's my imagination. I don't really know. That same horse bit me, ran me under branches, and stepped on me a bit for good measure. Otis, by the way, would have made the supreme champion bucking horse. But Dad fell in love with him for some reason. I think Dad likes animals with "character". Somehow, I still love horses, and can't get enough of them, but am currently distracted by four little people for the next several years.

I want to tell people from my perspective as a person who has been injured by animals, you know what? Those animals are SMILING. If they could laugh, they would. Jolly belly laughs. Really!

I know they have a strap around their nether regions to make them buck, but it's not like someone is yanking on them. They are having a great life. An animal who has made it into the bucking circuit has it MADE. He gets to breed better bucking stock if he gets famous, which all animals truly enjoy, and he gets to eat tons and live a very long life, with many days off a year.

Are you kidding me? Most humans don't have it that good! And if you know animals well enough, you can see them smirking as they trot around the arena. Some of them nearly take a bow, they are so pleased with the cheering.

So, PETA, as with most things you stand for, I suggest you go get some experience with these critters before you tell me how bad they have it.

And read some Baxter Black. It's good fer what ails ya.

Environmentalist Beauracracy

This is what happens when people surround themselves with people who agree with them. Let's spend lots and lots of money so we can accomplish practically nothing, shall we?

I learned something interesting that even my history buff husband did not know. I was reading this:



I learned that from the early 1300's and for 300 years onward, the world saw a mini-ice age. Let me quote for you from pgs. 8-9:

" 1303 The Baltic Sea freezes over and starts what we now see as the Little Ice Age (lasts til 1700). Shorter growing seasons - Measly food means hunger and misery for millions.

1315 Floods compared to Noah's flood in the Bible. Ruined crops. Hungrier and miserabler millions. Reports from Europe of people eating cats, dogs, pigeons' droppings and even their own children."

The Horrible Histories series is terribly tongue-in-cheek, and I wouldn't really recommend it for kids who can't stomach that kind of thing, but they have their funny moments, and contain many things you just did not learn in school. While their pot shots at the Catholic Church were annoying, you gotta admit, the people running the Church in Europe at the time were often anything but saints. And they did mention Joan of Arc, at least.

Anyway, given that historical perspective, why are we freaking out so much? Because we EGAD can't control everything around us? Who knew?

See below:


Hot air from Obama


Bjorn Lomborg | December 15, 2008
Article from: The Australian

IN one of his first public policy statements as America's president-elect, Barack Obama focused on climate change, and clearly stated both his priorities and the facts on which these priorities rest. Unfortunately, both are weak, or even wrong.

Obama's policy outline was presented via video to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Governors' Global Warming Summit, and has again been shown in Poznan, Poland, to leaders assembled to flesh out a global warming road map. According to Obama, "few challenges facing America and the world are more urgent than combating climate change".

Such a statement is now commonplace for most political leaders across the world, even though it neglects to address the question of how much we can do to help America and the world through climate policies v other policies.

Consider, for example, hurricanes in America. Clearly, a policy of reducing CO2 emissions would have had zero consequence on Katrina's devastating effect on New Orleans, where such a disaster was long expected. Over the next half-century, even large reductions in CO2 emissions would have only a negligible effect.

Instead, direct policies to address New Orleans' vulnerabilities could have avoided the huge and unnecessary cost in human misery and economic loss. These should have included stricter building codes, smarter evacuation policies and better preservation of wetlands (which could have reduced the ferociousness of the hurricane). Most importantly, a greater focus on upkeep and restoration of the levees could have spared the city entirely. Perhaps these types of preventative actions should be Obama's priority.

Likewise, consider world hunger. Pleas for action on climate change reflect fears that global warming may undermine agricultural production, especially in the developing world. But global agricultural/economic models indicate that even under the most pessimistic assumptions, global warming would reduce agricultural production by just 1.4p er cent by the end of the century. Because agricultural output will more than double during this period, climate change would at worst cause global food production to double not in 2080 but in 2081.

Moreover, implementing the Kyoto Protocol at a cost of $180 billion annually would keep two million people from going hungry only by the end of the century. Yet by spending just $10 billion annually, the UN estimates that we could help 229 million hungry people today. Every time spending on climate policies saves one person from hunger in 100 years, the same amount could have saved 5000 people now. Arguably, this should be among Obama's top priorities.

Obama went on to say why he wants to prioritise global warming policies: "The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear. Sea levels are rising. Coastlines are shrinking. We've seen record drought, spreading famine, and storms that are growing stronger with each passing hurricane season."

Yes, global warming is happening, and mankind is partly responsible, but these statements are - however eloquent - seriously wrong or misleading.

Sea levels are rising, but they have been rising at least since the early 1800s. In the era of satellite measurements, the rise has not accelerated (actually we've seen a sea-level fall during the past two years). The UN expects about a 30cm sea-level rise during this century, about what we saw during the past 150 years.

In that period, many coastlines increased, most obviously The Netherlands, because rich countries can easily protect and even expand their territory. But even for oft-cited Bangladesh, scientists just this year showed that the country grows by 20sq km each year, because river sedimentation wins out over rising sea levels.

Obama's claim about record droughts similarly fails even on a cursory level: the US has in all academic estimates been getting wetter through the past the century (with the 1930s dust bowl setting the drought high point). This is even true globally during the past half-century, as one of the most recent scientific studies of actual soil moisture shows: "There is an overall small wetting trend in global soil moisture."

Furthermore, famine has declined rapidly in the past half century. The main deviation has been the past two years of record-high food prices, caused not by climate change but by the policies designed to combat it: the dash for ethanol, which put food into cars and thus upward pressure on food prices. The World Bank estimates that this policy has driven at least 30 million more people into hunger. To cite policy-driven famine as an argument for more of the same policy seems unreasonable, to say the least.

Finally, it is simply wrong to say that storms are growing stronger every hurricane season. Even for the Atlantic hurricane basin, which we tend to hear about most, the total hurricane energy (ACE) as measured by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has declined by two-thirds since the record was set in 2005. For the world, this trend has been more decisive: maximum ACE was reached in 1994 and has plummeted for the past three years, while hurricanes across the world for the past year have been about as inactive as at any time since records began to be kept.

Global warming should be tackled, but smartly through research and development of low-carbon alternatives. If we are to get our policies right, it is crucial that we get our facts right.

Bjorn Lomborg is the author of The Sceptical Environmentalist and Cool It, head of the Copenhagen Consensus Centre, and adjunct professor at Copenhagen Business School.
Story Tools

We gots snow!

It is gorgeous outside! It is also frozen at about 28 degrees. Hooray! We have a Christmas pageant today, so we'll see how that goes, but I certainly hope anyone who lives around here has chains and knows how to use them, even if the snow only comes around a few times a year. It is supposed to stay near or under 30 degrees for the next week, so I guess the white stuff.will be sticking around for a while.

Last night we went to Simbang Gabi, which I'd never been to before. It is the same, approximately, as Misa del Gallo in Mexico. Silly ol' Spaniards, taking over the world! It was a very peppy Mass, with lots of procession and decor, and sparkly things. Fr. Olson strongly believes in a normal, by the book Mass, so there was also incense in good places and he kept it as usual as possible while still allowing for cultural fun.

The party after was standing room only, but the food was AMAZING. And gone quickly, surprisingly. There was a whole pig with the head still on, there! They also had grade school and middle school aged children doing dances from the Philippines, and they were spectacular. I will post pics when I get them off my camera. Wow.

Anyway, hooray for snow! Have a wonderful Gaudete Sunday!

Wow

Never have I see this. There's plenty more where it came from, too!

New work schedule, we think....

This has been DH's first week as a real, honest to goodness, Microsoft employee. Yay, you! I'm so very glad it's finally here. People have asked me how he likes it, and I reply, "What work?". He's too busy filling out forms still, for the most part. Lots and lots of benefits info. For some reason, he's never sure of Dominic's birthday, and has to call me. Maybe there are too many May birthdays in his head.

So far, it looks like he'll work days next week, and then he'll be on swing, so he'll have to work 11am-8pm, Tuesday-Saturday. This is about as good as we could have possibly hoped for. We thought he had to work nights, but it is looking less and less like he'll have to. Still possible, but not as probable. That schedule does several things for us:

1. He can still go to church on Sunday.
2. He misses heavy commuting hours.
3. We get to see him in the morning, when all of us are in a better mood anyway.
4. We still have our babysitting night every other Sunday afternoon, and his gaming night with buddies on opposing Sundays, which makes him VERY happy.
5. He can even still make it to beer-making night with other buddies on Saturdays on occasion, because they never start til 9pm anyway.
6. We'll have yummy breakfasts, which are my favorite anyway, and we'll have time to work out in the morning. YES!
7. Mondays I can use the van to go further away than Everett. Something the beater cannot do. So I'll cram doctor appts and visits and field trips into Mondays, but that's totally ok.
8. He will actually sleep and be home at night.

Bad things? 1. No Rosary night for DH. 2. No cub scouts for DH. All up to me.

He gets a free membership to a swanky exercise facility, which thankfully does have a branch this far north. A family membership was a little pricey for us, since I'm not sure if I'll use it enough, but I think we can afford to add just me for now. It looks like we'll have to take turns because, like most places, they think my children are at school in the morning, so we won't have babysitting. It looks like they have one class that tickles my fancy: boot camp. Sounds like rowing without the rowing. I think I need a coach, and also they charge $5 when you are late without calling ahead, and that's a good thing, because I need the incentive.
It's also at 5:45 MWF, which is ok, but I haven't done that in SO long. I'd feel so much better though, if I lost a good 20 lbs and had muscle again. We'll work out on opposing days of the week, and he'll just go to work from there. A good wake-up in the morning.

Now that we have figured all that out, we'll probably end up with a completely different schedule. :)

Jeff's ok!

Yay! Jeff's ok!!

From his website:

Thank you all for your prayers. Jeff is coming home tomorrow. It appeared that he didn’t have a heart attack. The cause of all this excitement may be traced back to an old ailment recurring now after over two decades.

Deo gratias!

LeXuan

Pray for Jeff

On my sidebar you will see Stony Creek Digest listed. We met the Culbreath family this summer on our trip. His blog says he was admitted to the hospital for a heart attack, according to blood work. We are praying he is ok, and hope you will join us. They really did not need this just now. He's been job hunting, and they have six kids, ages 1-12, I think. Maybe 13.

Please pray for his wife, LeXuan. I know she's a strong lady, but this is hard stuff.

How to clean a drain

EWWWW....
I never knew, but figured it could be done. Haven't tried it myself yet, but I hear someone got a "snake" for toilets and such, so I guess I'll be doing something like this someday.
Eww. When we lived in apartments, people did things like this for us.

This is from a website I found accidentally that I kind of like. It's called Little House in the Suburbs, and it's about "suburban homesteading". Kind of fun stuff. I laughed out loud, and figured other people might need a laugh, too.



Tuesday, December 9, 2008
100% Natural Drain Cleaner

Last night, around nine o'clock, my husband and I had HAD IT with our left bathroom sink drain. It has been clogging worse and worse every day for weeks.

So, I employed my 100% Natural Drain Cleaner--taught to me by a dear plumber friend:

Step 1: Get a bucket.

Step 2: Put bucket under u-shaped "trap" and unscrew the unscrewable-thingies with your fingers. (See below)


Step 3: Eventually, after you've struggled with them for a while, gotten jar openers out on them and asked the resident male person to take a twist at it, the whole U will drop into the bucket. Just before you feel it let go (there will be leaking prior, but you'll know) HOLD YOUR BREATH. Blech. Blech. Blech.

Step 4: Sling anything foreign into the trash can, and anything 'organic' into the toilet. Rush to the tub and blast the whole mess with the shower head.

Step 5: Jump around with the gross out chills and try not to swear too loudly.

Step 6: With fear and trembling, return to the devil sink and check to see if there is anything hanging out from either open pipe, like a hair. That's a hint that there's more fun ahead of you. Remove the dangling whatever and BE CAREFUL. Last night, with covered hand, I yanked on a hair that was in the way of rescrewing it back together and was ambushed by a slimy eight-inch hair-and-heaven-knows-what turd that jumped out of my wall and took five years off my life. I still haven't recovered.

Step 7: Screw the whole durn thing back together and congratulate yourself on saving 100$.

I've done this in the kitchen and both bathrooms. Usually, it's not this traumatic, just pencils or beans or the occasional toothbrush, but really, it's SO much cheaper and more ECO than anything else.

EW EW EW!!!!!!

The forecast is a changin'

We've been hanging around 45 degrees for at least a month, with overcast skies, some sun, some rain, but really not even a wind storm yet.
Looks like winter is arriving finally.
I hope we get tons of snow. My husband has the chains, and I don't have to go anywhere, really.


10-Day Forecast

NEW: Larger Radar Maps & No Ads

High /
Low (°F) Precip. %
Today
Dec 11 AM Clouds / PM Sun 44°/38° 10 %
Fri
Dec 12 Rain / Wind 41°/36° 100 %
Sat
Dec 13 Rain 37°/25° 70 %
Sun
Dec 14 Few Snow Showers 28°/20° 30 %
Mon
Dec 15 Partly Cloudy 29°/21° 10 %
Tue
Dec 16 Sunny 32°/27° 0 %
Wed
Dec 17 Few Snow Showers 34°/27° 30 %
Thu
Dec 18 Partly Cloudy 38°/26° 10 %
Fri
Dec 19 Few Snow Showers 33°/29° 30 %
Sat
Dec 20 Rain / Snow Showers 42°/35° 60 %
Last Updated Dec 11 07:05 a.m. PT

Very scary medical news

This is quite scary, I think. Did you know at least 30% of everyone has cold sores, this particular kind?

This definitely comes under "What the Hey". Yikes. Although, I guess that does give some hope of finding a cure. I guess that means Alzheimer's might be an autoimmune disorder? I don't know, but viruses are a bit hard to kick.


From BBC News:

Catching a cold sore puts you at risk of Alzheimer's disease, mounting evidence suggests.

The herpes virus behind cold sores is a major cause of the protein plaques that accumulate in the brains of people with Alzheimer's, scientists have shown.

On the plus side, the latest discovery by the University of Manchester team may mean antiviral drugs used to treat cold sores could also prevent dementia.

The findings are published in the Journal of Pathology.


This could lead to new treatments for Alzheimer's, based on existing antiviral agents
Rebecca Wood of the Alzheimer's Research Trust

Professor Ruth Itzhaki and colleagues found DNA evidence of the herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 1 in 90% of plaques in Alzheimer's disease patients' brains.

They had previously shown that HSV1 infection of nerve-type cells in mice leads to deposition of the main component of the plaques - beta amyloid. And that the virus is present in the brains of many elderly people and that in those people with a specific genetic factor, there is a high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

Taken together, the researchers say the findings strongly implicate the cold sore-causing virus as a root cause of Alzheimer's dementia.

Professor Itzhaki said: "We suggest that HSV1 enters the brain in the elderly as their immune systems decline and then establishes a dormant infection from which it is repeatedly activated by events such as stress, immunosuppression, and various infections."

Cell damage

In turn, this causes damages the brain cells, which die and then disintegrate, releasing the proteins which develop into amyloid plaques, she said.

The researchers now plan to test whether antiviral drugs used to treat cold sores, which block the action of HSV1, might stop the cell damage that leads to Alzheimer's.

Another possibility is vaccination against the virus to prevent the development of the disease in the first place.

Rebecca Wood of the Alzheimer's Research Trust said: "This could lead to new treatments for Alzheimer's, based on existing antiviral agents. However, the underlying causes of Alzheimer's disease are still unknown. Much more research is needed if we are to offer hope to the 700,000 people in the UK who live with Alzheimer's and related dementias."

Professor Clive Ballard of the Alzheimer's Society said: "Although the new research provides some additional evidence supporting a link between the herpes virus and Alzheimer's disease there is still uncertainty around whether this is a promising avenue of research."

Most people become infected with HSV1, which then remains dormant in the facial nerve emerging periodically in 20-40% of those infected to cause cold sores.

Babysitting fiesta!

Yesterday was crazeee!

I knew I was babysitting for one family from 5:30 til possibly 8 or so, and then I remembered it was a Holy Day of Obligation, and we wanted to go to Mass at 7pm, so I called back and mentioned that part, which worked out fine.

Then it was remembered to me that I was supposed to take certain children during a parent-teacher conference, around 2.

Then my very, very pregnant friend called and asked if I could watch theirs while they walked around and tried to get that baby moving, in the hopes that they could get going before an imminent induction today. I don't think it worked, and am eagerly awaiting news this morning.

So, at 2pm, four children from one family arrived, closely followed by two from another. Don't forget, I have four, too. So for a couple of hours, there were 10 kids and me, but the adults did continue to check in. A movie was called for and cookies were made.

Then I figured it was a good time to go get the car from the shop, since I had other adults with me. So two of us went to do that. When we pulled in, in two separate cars, my husband also pulled in. Another parent was pulling out at the same time. Three cars in, one car out. Another car had arrived while we were gone, containing four more children, so at that point, six kids left, four kids came, and we still had eight, plus now my husband.

Welcome home from your first day at your new job, honey, we now have eight children instead of four. :)

I did point out that we always wanted to be the kind of family that had the swinging door of people coming in and out. You know, the kind all the kids in the neighborhood come to. Really, we like that. We would just like to do it in a house double the size! That's ok, though. The kids are still too young to notice.

At 6:30 pm, the last parent returned, off to a scout meeting we were missing to go to Mass.

At 6:35, there was one lonely car in the driveway, back from the shop, and no people in the house at all.

The kids did behave at Mass, except the "baby", who is having a serious jump in brain development, and learned to crawl to the top of the bunkbed yesterday and is not even slightly interested in sitting through Mass, after a month of having done so. But otherwise, really, the day went amazingly well!

The moms and dads in this situation laugh because we know this will only get more ridiculous, as two of those moms are having their fifth baby soon, and it's getting to the point where, if we have three families in particular over, our four families will equal 19 children, and that's only because we don't have a fifth. Yet.

My husband did ask about a girl's name as we walked out of church. I asked if he had plans for a girl. Maybe we should call Leah, the Stork. That's what I call our former social worker, because one day, she just sort of delivered Brandon. And he never went back. Honestly, I still expect her to call me and say Brandon has a new baby sister, but it hasn't happened. Yet. Mom being in her early forties, I'm hoping that's that.

But this time I'm ordering a girl.

NOT YET!! Don't any of you hold me to it. Gimme at least another year before we get serious about that. Francis has the van right now, and I don't have enough seats in the car!

You have a story, too!

This was a gorgeous post on my favorite blog. The kind that could possibly change lives. That's why I'm posting it.

www.heartkeepercommonroom.blogspot.com

Enjoy! And happy second Sunday of Advent.

Thursday, December 04, 2008
Embracing the Story

This is a post brought about by several recurring thoughts, some staunchly held opinions, and simply a sense of sheer wonder.

It began many moons ago, when the DHM asked The Equuschick if she remembered where and how she learned to write.

The trouble with this question is that The Equuschick actually doesn't remember learning to write. She remembers reading. The Equuschick has long been troubled by the kind of mind-shaper that will bewail a child's lack of writing ability and imagination, all the while denying the child the heady meat of a good story. A mind will never learn to create what it was not first taught to appreciate. There will always be varying levels of abilities and interests, but for pity's sake give a child a chance to learn to love the Story.

And what is the Story?

Listen, oh fellow Christians. We are right when we refuse to excuse base immorality on the grounds that it makes for "good art", but how dare we run in cowardice to the other extreme and close the minds of our children to the glory of the Story because some Stories have scary bits, some Stories have immoral people, some Stories are fantasy and we should never let our children read about the supernatural? (Never mind for now that the life we live is supernatural.)

And there is The Equuschick most distressed. When children are denied fairy tales then we have all lost all sense of reason and all appreciation for the art of creation, a creation that resembles life in different colour tones.

Oh sure, a well-written Story will increase a child's vocabulary and help with spelling, but there is so much more to learn about life and death and pain and joy.

We return to our original question. What makes a good Story? A good Story is well-written and full of large words and all that, but a good Story is one that makes your heart beat and the tears flow and makes you laugh out loud, and most importantly a Story that says to you softly "You have heard this one before." A Story will speak to the darkest parts of ourselves, it speaks to the voices we thought we had silenced in our modernism and secularism and sense of safety in the familiar. "This is not all there is", a good Story whispers. "This is your Story. It is being written today, all around you. And it will go on." They speak to the most ancient parts of our very souls.

Who wrote the First Story, anyway? Was the God the Christians worship not the first Author? And what a creative, brilliant, devastatingly beautiful story He told.

John 1

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2The same was in the beginning with God.

3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4In him was life; and the life was the light of men. \

Gen. 1

1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Among the Common Room's best-loved Stories are those of the Inkworld, by Cornelia Funke. There is a book of words that the voice of one man brings to life, and into the Inkworld we are led where words are still being written and the Story still being told, and yet the characters in the end seem to choose whether or not the written words control their final destiny.

Is this not our Story? Did a Creator not speak our world into being? Did not He mold us, and yet leave us with the final choice? That Christians should deny this type of Story is tragic.

Let us forget, for a moment, even the Great Story of a Creator God and a rebellious people and a blood sacrifice that redeemed the world from evil.


Let us consider our own rather little Stories, and note that still our little Stories are grand.

Let The Equuschick but tell you her Story and you will know (if you don't all ready) that you have a Story too, a tale as full of light and darkness as the most frightening fairy tale. And were it not for the fairy tales, all the treasures needed most to appreciate the journey that is this life would be buried in our cynicism and we would surrender, as G.K Chesterton has said, to the dragons we never knew we could defeat.

The Equuschick was born nearly 24 years ago to a mother whose childhood was full of many kinds of pain, but she found brief beacons of light in a strange and unexpected rural little place where dwelt an eccentric uncle, and to a father whose childhood was spent between a loving grandmother, a cold and absent mother, a series of step-mothers, and a cold and absent father.

From these roots sprang The Equuschick, the second of what would be seven children.

The childhood of her parents had fed in both of them a determination to do better, and choices were made that might never have been made were not it for the struggles of their childhood. These struggles shaped the parents, and therefore also The Equuschick.

Many years passed in a sort of tranquility, The Equuschick's childhood was a happy one. Travel and moves were frequent, as they are all for military families. Friends were made and lost and others made and kept as The Equuschick's family travelled the world like gypsies. After a glorious five years in the Pacific, they prepared to travel to a cold and distant land far north. A visit was made first to the strange and rural country where dwelt the famed eccentric uncle, and from there the trek was made to the northern wilds. This trek was a peaceful one, a most glorious trail that the Equuschick never will forget.

The family arrived at last, but the stay was brief for unexpected reasons that never should have been. They simply happened without much explanation at the time and the family was sent traveling again to a desolate midwest country and nobody thought then "It is good that we be sent here."

And yet once we were there two beautiful things happened, and most Story-like of all, we only recognized the one and missed the other completely.

Sure, the 8 year old Equuschick met, with her family, two young boys being raised by a single mother, and The Equuschick's parents being who they were (it having been noted in the beginning of the Story that they had resolved always to aid the suffering of children) they were taken under the HM's wing. And all well and good, for these two boys, but no one blinked then. This was only a coincidental part of the Story.

Five years passed and then a trek was made to sea country. It is worth noting that when The Equuschick left, she left kicking and screaming. She cried for days to leave her friends and all that was familiar to her.

She will never forget sea country again. It seeped into her blood and dug its way into the center of her soul and she will always miss the sea and close her eyes to see it crash and hear it thunder and to smell it. It became a great part of her Story and shaped a great part of her character. Friends were made there too, friends that became main characters and lessons were learned and memories made.

And there one day (the day of the Columbine High School Shooting an event that sent The Equuschick to her father's arms in tears),the family received a phone call from a young man in the midwest. He had become a Christian.

A year or two passed in peace, and the young man called to say he was joining the army. To do what, asked the HM? To weld. Oh, said the HM, to weld tanks on the front line? And the young man said he hadn't thought of that.

But it was peacetime then, and the Story went on in peace.

In due time the gypsies packed up again and went a tad bit more southwest, and there a great reunion was made with the family's greatest friends. Times were good.

But peacetime never lasts forever and a war was soon began on foreign soil, and there was a sort of awakening as The Equuschick watched as so many friends, from all parts of the country, were called away. There was a friend from the sea country who went and was brought back when his young wife suffered a terrible miscarriage, there was a dear friend of the Equuschick's whose husband went while she had knee surgery. And the young man from the midwest went too.

And for over a year, prayers were sent up every day.

The young man from sea country was safe, the young man from the midwest was safe. And safe too was the husband of The Equuschick's friend.

At the end of that trek, came the end of the trekking.

And you could also say then came the End of the Innocence, because all fairy tales must take a darker turn here and there.

In The Equuschick's 18'th year she and her family prepared to leave behind their friends and all that was familiar once again. The choice was made to come to a strange little rural place in the midwest to care for the aging and eccentric uncle.

But he died, and too soon. He left a house and land, and the family moved with heavy hearts.

It was not a peaceful journey. There was a moment where The Equuschick sat in front of the van reading Wives and Daughters and all was well, and then a moment came when it wasn't well anymore and she will never know what happened in between.

Half the family had an accident that left the HM with a broken arm requiring three surgeries and several screws and required months of physical therapy.

And so the family of 9 descended on a 1200 square ft. house, the husband and father in a cast. Family was kind and came to help. Neighbors were kind and they helped, but the neighbors lived a different way of life and it was hard to find close friends. Roofers who were hired to repair a leaking roof were not kind, and there was a night where the rain descended in a torrent and inches rose in the house and the FYB, still traumatized from the accident, crouched in the bedroom and cried because he thought it was the deluge.

There was a moment where everyone gathered in the house and suddenly someone made mention of giving it all up and going back to the sea country. It was first presented as a joke but in their desperation and frustration, the family looked the option in the face quite seriously that night. It was let go of, and for a moment it was gut-wrenching.

The roof was repaired. The cast was removed and the physical therapy was completed, jobs (but not good friends) were found. A routine began, momentarily shattered when the FYG cut the tendons of her toes on a razor and required surgery and physical therapy of her own.

But life went on. Life was new and strange for the gypsies, who had never lived in a place like this before. Friends were few and far between. There were brighter moments, visits from out of town friends. Once the young man from the midwest came, a great relief because of late his life had been uncertain and his faith unsure, he had suffered in the army. But he came once to that 1200 sq. ft house, and helped to repair the bridge across the creek. But he left and life went on.

Always, there was a sense of "Why? What is this? Is it always to be like this?"

In a day, less than a day one day, we learned that it wasn't always to be like this. It could get worse.

So many things shattered. So many months (years?) in darkness, fear, misery. Insecurity. Pain. Grief. All sense of stability ripped out from under our feet.

Nights spent in tears and cries of "Why God? Please make it end, God. Help us God, we're drowning." And of, "Why here? There is no hope in this place."

Life went on, but no longer dull. We wished for the dull again, but it never came. Only nightmares came. Memories of the fairy tales helped, because we all knew the Stories of those who had faced epic pain and conquered, and those Stories fueled the true faith that is faith in a God you can't see for the dark in your eyes. Beside the questions was the sense, not quite expressible, that like it or not this was in the script of our Story. Embrace the Story, however it ended. A good God has written it.

It was shortly after this time that the young man from the midwest began to visit more often. Slowly he too was putting the shattered pieces of his life back together. But he was so funny, he was so full of joy himself that he lit the darkness briefly when he came.

Darkness never disapears, but darkness slowly lifts and slackens its hold. There was no moment of transformation.

The Equuschick remembers the time where she was in the hospital and the darkness threatened to return, but it was there in the dark of the hospital room that the young man you now know as Shasta called and first said to The Equuschick "Hey sweetie, how are you?"

He later confessed that it was then he was reminded that he really didn't have forever.

And then he came again for Christmas, and The Equuschick remembers a moment where she cried in the bathroom in confusion and in the end there was only this sense again. "This is your Story. You control your part in it, but no one else's. Embrace your Story."

And the Story was embraced and The Equuschick waited to see how this chapter would end. It has ended well, this chapter. Not perfectly, nothing is perfect this side of the Last Chapter of the Great Story. The Equuschick and Shasta now live in the 1200 sq. ft. house left by the eccentric uncle and the joy illuminates the darkness for all.

If The Equuschick were to read her own story between two covers, she'd have bawled her eyes out and said "What a beautiful story."

The Equuschick does not ask you to tell your own Story, only to acknowledge in appreciation and in awe of Life Itself that you have one. The Author has crafted it well and it will end well, if only you do not rip the pen out of His hands every time you encounter a frightening chapter. You know your Story's secret descents into fear and its flights into joy.

But perhaps, if you are not familiar with the pattern of all good Stories everywhere, you will never know quite how to fight the fear. You will never appreciate the moments of joy as they ought to be appreciated.

The good Stories that all children should read, they are mirrors. In them we see our own Stories and we learn we are not alone. This is the song of the spheres and we are granted a minor but lovely key.

another widget

I added the debt ticker today. Yes, I really am putting out there how much we owe. That includes the student loan and the car payment, but not the mortgage. $26,000 of that is those two things, so I actually feel ok about that. We had to have one good, working car, after all, and the student loan is just the last to get paid because its interest is so incredibly low.
They say you can make progress when you admit where you are, so there we go. I will be very excited to announce our progress.

Meanwhile, a cow died yesterday. May it rest in peace, in the knowledge that it will feed at least four families for at least 6 months, and bring much happiness and frugality to our homes.

Amen.

Constitution problems

I'm not sure how much anyone is paying attention, but I do know gun sales are up for a reason. I think this is the reason. People aren't into conspiracy theories yet, but they should start looking. Here is an interview with Glenn Beck. I really think people should remember there is a constitution, and if we need to follow it. If people like anarchy, they can take a look at Somalia. People are not loving life over there.

Here's Glenn Beck. His perspective that this is a politician problem, not a Democrat or Republican problem is a good one.


Glenn Beck: 20,000 troops to deploy...in America?
[Insider] Audio Available:

December 1, 2008 - 13:11 ET
RELATED STORY
Pentagon to deploy 20,00 troops inside USA...

GLENN: You know, I was going to talk a little bit about India and Pakistan but I want to change because there's a breaking headline now on Drudge. While the rest of the world is going to pay attention today to Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton and they are going to make this the big story, the big story today, at least for those people that are following the world, should be Pentagon to deploy 20,000 troops inside the U.S. for domestic security.

I told you this story two months ago? Was it two months ago, Joe, when I first found this story. And I said on the air this cannot be true. It can't be true. The only source I could find on that day was in Stars and Stripes and I knew that Stars and Stripes wasn't going to print something about the troops that wasn't true, and I brought that story to you. Now, these guys are being deployed for security for chemical, biological, terrorist activity, natural disaster. But this is what the National Guard is for. The reason why our founding fathers said there would be no standing army is because the federal government has no place in your town. The power to order troops, the power to be able to have people with weapons in your neighborhood must not ever be in the hands of the President or the congress. It must be in the hand of the individual governors. Our founders knew this. 20,000 -- this is a battalion. This is something entirely new.

Now let me ask you this question: Why? They are going to give you all kinds of stories. If anybody really rises up and says anything, if anybody in the media is anything but mindless sheep, they will see exactly what this is but they'll -- I'm sure. I mean, they will go after, you know, they will go after the most ridiculous stories on the planet but when it really comes down to it, they seem to not understand. They seem just to buy the government's excuses on so many things.

When I'm at these book signings, we had a bunch of Constitutions. I bought a bunch of Constitutions from the Constitution Center in Philadelphia and I'm handing them out to anybody who is in the Service and I've signed each one of them and they are little pocket Constitutions and they come up to me. And if they mention the service or I ask people before the book signings, if you are in the Service, introduce yourself. I give them a Constitution and I shake their hand and I look them right straight in the eye and I say, we are counting on you to know this. This is for domestic security. Well, what exactly is domestic security and how many steps does it take before you say domestic security is for martial law? What has to happen? Does anybody see the powder keg that we're sitting on? We are sitting on a powder keg. All that somebody has to do is do something stupid and the place goes up like a match. And I'm telling you our government knows. No one is telling you the truth, but I'm telling you I know what I know, and I know that I know and these people -- I'm not the smartest guy in the bunch. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I'm not some war gamer. I'm not some, you know, somebody who is -- they would never hire me to put puzzles together, for the love of Pete, at a puzzle store and somehow or another I can see all of these pieces come together and no one else can? Bullcrap. They see it and this is why 20,000 troops are being deployed here in the United States of America. Gang, I warn you fascism is coming and it has nothing to do -- listen to me carefully. It has nothing to do with Barack Obama. Remember this has happened under George Bush's watch. I am not a conspiracy nut. I don't believe in the Star Chamber. I don't believe that there are things going on where these dark meetings are happening. I don't believe any of that. People just keep taking steps one after another because we have to do this. Somebody knows that we are sitting on a powder keg in this country. Somebody knows that we better take precautions because this thing, with the economy -- I'm telling you, I am telling you, I hope to God I'm wrong. I hope in twelve months, A, I'm still on the air; and B, that I can come to you -- mark this -- Stu, you have your calendar. Put this in your calendar.

STU: Okay.

GLENN: That I hope I can come to you today and say -- I mean a year from today I want to be able to go on the air and say I was wrong about the economy; it looks exactly the same as it did last year. I hope to God I can say that to you, but I'm telling you alarm bells are going off in me and they are getting louder and louder and louder and I don't think you are going to recognize this country or its economy next year. And when the economy starts to go, people are going to get more and more desperate, more and more hungry, more and more worried, more and more into conspiracy theories. You have something like what happened over in India a year from now and I think even today, this country has a possibility of turning on itself and we must root ourself in the Constitution. And listen to me and please preach this, say this as much as you can to anyone that listens. This is not a Democrat/Republican thing. This is not Barack Obama is the bad guy and George Bush was the savior. George Bush is the guy who started this ball rolling and Barack Obama is going to continue rolling it. This is a Democrat/Republican political parties both taking us down the same damn road. This is both of them. This is not a problem with the Republicans, it is not a problem with the Democrats. It is an American problem, and Americans will need to solve it. Americans are going to have to solve it by standing their ground. Americans are going to have to say "Excuse me?" And you will not be able to do that unless you are -- unless, A, you know what we are, you know who we are, you know what we're founded on, you know what the Constitution says. Gang, eternal repercussions if we lose liberty. Eternal repercussions. It is in our -- this is our watch. You are a watchman on the tower if you see it coming. The blood of everyone who you could have woken up and said "Storm coming" will be on your hands. If you ring the bell, if you say to people "Prepare, find who you are, find out what we are, keep peace in our heart. Please don't tear each other apart. When an event happens, be a peacemaker." If you don't do those things, all those that you could have alerted, their blood, going to be on your hands for eternity. Those people who won't wake up, you did your job. You've got to move on and wake up others. And I know there are a lot of people that are listening right now and saying to me, "Oh, Glenn, you are such a fearmonger. Oh, Glenn, oh, please, the sky is falling, the sky is falling." Let me tell you something. I wish you could stand in line and meet the people that I have met in the last three weeks as I go from city to city and shake their hand in these bookstores and time and time and time and time again people come up to me: "I saved my savings, I saved $10,000, I saved $20,000." One guy told me last night, "I saved $350,000 because of you. I would have lost $350,000, but you know what? I was listening to you and something in my gut said, you know what, you better take that seriously. I did, and I got my money out. While everyone else was saying, oh, no, stay in, oh, no, invest more." You pray on it. Don't take my word for it. You've got to do your own homework, but you must understand the people in the media, they don't get it. The people in the media, they are not looking at the bigger picture.

You know what, for so many people in the media, their agenda is either liberalism or on the other side I believe their agenda is the parties, the Republican party or the Democratic party. And for those that don't have an agenda, it's just a job, man. It's just a job. I'll tell you why I'm in it. Because believe me, I don't want to be in it. I've told you before I'm ready, man. I'm ready to go live in the side of a mountain, you know, and have a farm and raise some cows and, ooof, all the stuff I swore I never wanted to do, I want to do it. I just want to raise my kids and just have a nice life and just lead a normal life. That's what I want to do. I ain't doing it because I know what time we live in. And if you know what time you live in, you've got to do the hard things. And just because of the times we're living in, let me be very clear on what those things are. If you hear any message other than "Be a peacemaker," if you hear any message that leads you in any direction of hatred, you're on the wrong path. It's a new day, gang, and you're about to enter a new world. Yesterday's thoughts I don't believe apply. What you thought your life was going to be like in five years, I really don't believe it applies anymore. That doesn't mean you stop. I'm still planning on all kinds of things for the next few years. I'm still planning on doing these things and that thing. We're working on projects and we're doing everything because you know what? As I said at the beginning, I hope to God that I'm wrong, and with God's grace and with Americans being Americans and Americans really saying, "Okay," without the tragedy, because this tragedy comes, whatever it is, God help us all, it is going to change things in the blink of an eye, if we can just be those September 12th people, before the tragedy. We're going to be fine. We're going to be fine. But we are so fragile right now, and I don't care what they tell you. They ain't preparing for another Hurricane Katrina. The Pentagon is deploying 20,000 troops inside the U.S. for domestic security. I'm sorry, but I'm trying to figure out how that one works exactly, and that's not Barack Obama doing it. That's George Bush doing it. How exactly are we deploying those troops? Are they under the President's power? Because I don't want George Bush or Barack Obama, I don't want Ronald Reagan controlling the troops inside the country. You don't do that, period. The federal government does not deploy troops for domestic security. The governor does it with the National Guard. They answer to the states. You cannot allow them to have that control. If our federal government, God forbid we get our hands on a dictator, God forbid -- and I know people said to me ten years ago, "Oh, Glenn, we'll never..." gang, we're on the eve of it. I'm not saying it's Barack Obama. Hell, it could be Sarah Palin in four years that does it. But I'm telling you we're on the eve of fascism. And if you give these people power now or in the next two weeks, the next four years, the next eight years, I'm telling you, you get the wrong person in there and you get a crisis situation and that person can grab power. And it is what many people have wanted to happen since Mussolini was in office. A benevolent dictator. Because capitalism, this republic doesn't really work. Read the words of some former Presidents including Wilson and FDR that everybody loves so much. Prepare. Prepare your heart and prepare your mind and prepare your children. Know what you know, know who you are and know that it is essential that you're a peacemaker today.