Home news update

Hi Y'all,

Well, I'm off to go camping this weekend til Monday night, but my dh will be here sleeping. We have a baptism to attend at the rather unholy hour of 7:30 am followed by breakfast, then off we go into the mountains of WA tomorrow. Hooray! We're meeting several other families up there for s'mores and camping for two nights, and lots of time at the lake. Today is packing day.

We also bought a car. YES! We have two cars now! It has been six years since we had two healthy, working cars. This is beyond cool. My husband has a 2010 Prius III now, and that gets 50 mi/gal. on his long commute to work and back. And now I can go where I want, when I want. Finally!

I really don't want to pack. But I guess I'd better. Time almost to start the day. Oddly, it's 7:15 and only one child is up, and it's not the youngest. Only on days when I'd like to get in that room, of course. Oh, wait, I hear another one! Time to make breakfast!

Have a super weekend!

Obama's birth certificate

Strange how this just doesn't go away. Obviously he proved his citizenship to SOMEONE, or paid them off, in order to become president. But I don't know why he won't make this go away. He writes folks off as kooks instead of explaining it. I know I have to prove more than this just to drive 3 hours north of here... to Canada with my kids.

Current status report:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=101892

Fatherhood post

Happy Father's Day!

We need more "real men". Please father your boys as such!

If your children don't see their father, find someone nearly equivalent to fill in the gap!


http://donotbediscouraged.blogspot.com/2009/06/thoughts-on-fatherhood.html

I got a blog award.... but I have to work for it!

Holly, at Scattering Agates, has awarded me my very first blog award. Awwww.... :) Thanks, Holly!

Holly and I went to college together and she has a blog I need to check to ground myself once in a while. Really good reflections on falling down, getting up, and trying harder in the Christian-Catholic life as a wife and mom. Holly likes mine, because she likes the material, but it's not really her style to post it. So we help each other out!

So, these are the rules from what she posted:

If I sent you the Honest Scrap Blog Award, here are the guidelines:

1) Say thanks and give a link to the presenter of the award.
2) Share "ten honest things" about myself.
3) Present this award to 7 others whose blogs I find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged me.
4) Tell those 7 people that they've been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving it.

Ten Honest Things About Myself:

1. I love being Catholic and cannot imagine giving it up. Ever. World Youth Day 1993 has something to do with that.
2. Honesty is one of my favorite attributes. Fairness is another one. And yes, I am a Libra. If you want to see me mad, do something really unfair.
3. I never thought I was going to have more than, say, three kids. But I have to say, five doesn't look that much harder, and I'm glad we're going there.
4. My home is really California, strange a place as it is. But since my ultimate home is Heaven, I can call WA my home, also. Sorry, Oregon, you never really were home to me.
5. I love my husband dearly, and am very, very glad I married him 10 years ago on July 10th.
6. I always love my family, but sometimes I don't like them very much.
7. I vascillate between lazy and frenetic cleaning periods at our house. Maybe that's why it looks like a tornado went through it most of the time.
8. I'm thankful for being close to dirt poor at times, and for all our woes we have gone through, because I have learned what it's like to be poor and also how to manage my money before I have any (thank you, www.daveramsey.com). God knew I needed to learn that a few times before I got it right, and so I thank Him. It is only on reflection that one sees the hand of God.
9. I am enjoying these next ten years or so to the fullest, because I can foresee another stage of life that is not nearly as fun -- high school/college aged children and aging parents. It will be more difficult, and my life is so good right now, I want to enjoy every single moment.
10. My family fits surprisingly well into 967 sq. ft. They even like each other. Most days.

Ok, now for the seven other blogs:

The Common Room
http://www.heartkeepercommonroom.blogspot.com/ It was the first, and the best. I check it every day.

The Pioneer Woman
http://thepioneerwoman.com/ So much good stuff, and reminds me of my childhood on a ranch. Not nearly as big of a ranch, but I do get it when a cow's uterus falls out. Been there for that one!

The McKillip Klan

http://www.mckillipklan.typepad.com/ This family is one I corrected papers for a while back, and we became friends. They are a neat family, on a farm in Colorado. They've been having an AWFUL weather year, so please pray for them and their mom's sanity!

Stoney Creek Digest
http://culbreath.wordpress.com/
We met through a recommendation from the first blog, and then last year we met in person. I don't always agree with Jeff, but he sure does make you think. His family is loverly, and we dearly enjoyed our meeting. They took us to our first Latin Mass in Chico, CA of all places. Let's just say Chico State is not known for it's Masses! And since it was nearby, I just thought that was funny.

Gladdest Hours

http://houseofgallus.typepad.com/cedarsandroses/
Suzanne is a lovely person in person, too! She focuses on the Liturgical Year, and how to celebrate it. It's just wonderful. Her site has soooo many links, you could be there all day.

Who Says 8 Is Enough?
http://bouffard11.blogspot.com/
I adore this blog, but don't check it as much anymore. She's just amazing. Watch the video of how their family came to be. It's partly by birth, partly by adoption, and she keeps basically a scrapbook online. It also links to lots of other blogs, many of which are about adoption, christian families, and multiples. The slideshow at the beginning is a must, did I mention that?


Sardonic Catholic Dad
http://sardoniccatholicdad.blogspot.com/ This guy reminds me to have a sense of humor. Seriously, I love this blog, and it's good for the guys out there. I think the next baby makes an even dozen kids. He lives in NJ, I think. He's very honest, and that's a nice thing to see in a PC world. So funny, it might be sinful.


Now I have to contact all these people?? Holly, why, oh why did you do this to me? :)

Have fun, peeps!

Defending Anti-Catholic free speech

Urr, you say???

Well, it was a good article, that makes a good point.

http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6254&Itemid=48

What I've Been Reading

I really should name a new blog that name, but I think what I will do instead is just start doing that as often as I remember. The problem is that I read at night, and I blog in the morning. But I will start with one quote from a Little House on the Prairie book.

It's the last one -- The First Four Years. It takes place in the late 1800's, when Laura and her husband Almanzo "Manly" Wilder, were first married. She had said she'd not marry a farmer because she was tired of the constant state of not knowing if they'd survive from year to year. She was 18 when they married. They had a little girl, Rose, and then a boy, who died when he was weeks old. She was never able to have more children, and Rose did not have any children either, it turns out.

In any case, there is a part of the book where they are made an offer of a herd of sheep. They figure it's a good investment, because you can always sell wool, they have a place to graze them, and they are working with a relative who will keep an eye on them. It does turn out well, but get a load of the reason why the owner of the sheep sold them in the first place! I cracked up!!!

Cousin Peter came one Sunday to tell Manly and Laura that Mr. Whitehead wanted to sell his sheep, a hundred purebred Shropshires.

A presidential election was coming in the fall, and it looked as though the Democrats were due to win. If they did, Mr. Whitehead, being a good Republican, was sure the country would be ruined. The tariff would be taken off, and wool and sheep would be worth nothing. Peter was sure they could be bought at a bargain.

They ended up splitting the cost with cousin Peter, at two dollars per sheep, and wool nearly paid for them the next year. In addition, the sheep all had lambs, and the herd nearly doubled in size in one year.

I think I'd call that a wise investment, and proof that fear is not good for anyone.

California Farmers

Thanks to the Common Room and Ragamuffin Studies blogs, we have the following video. This is very, very important.

Putting a whole huge area of CA and of the US out of business over a minnow, whose endangered species status sounds questionable? I think the Ragamuffin blogger is right. She brings up some very good points about evolution and politics. Smart lady.

We're all connected.