It is snowing again. I think we have at least another 5 inches and it's still coming down.
Very beautiful this morning. The only thing to hear is the wind, no one has stirred yet. PERFECT.
I have a barn and cows across the way from me, and this morning the little calves are running around kicking up their heels. Their poor mothers, from this distance, look to be up to their knees in snow. Every time one of the calves frisks by the cows look at them as if thinking "Crazy kid. I remember when I could kick up my heels.....". Then one of the calves will nurse for awhile. The cows just stand there. I guess they could if they wanted to....the snow isn't THAT deep yet.
I love, love, LOVE days like this when you don't have to get out and have everything you could ever want right here at home.
I am going to try a white chili enchilada casserole today.
Hope you take the time to BE HOME while you can. Sometimes God makes it impossible not to. :)
Jan 23, 2011
Jan 21, 2011
Get real
http://www.punditandpundette.com/2011/01/baby-boy-so-big-he-could-walk-me-to-bus.html
If you haven't seen this article, you should.
It is horrible. It is graphic. It is almost, ALMOST, incomprehensible to me.
It makes me sick and makes me feel hopeless for our country.
The easiest thing to do is to stop the problem.
On TV when I see teenagers talking about what they think we should do about teenage pregnancy, (Let's stop right there: WHY are we asking teenagers what they think? Are we not giving them more credit than they, perhaps, are due? Is this not like asking the fox how he thinks the henhouse should be guarded? Contemplate this question.) and the interviewer asks "What about abstinence"?, (Let's stop again to contemplate whether this is, indeed, a common sense, affordable solution that anyone can accomplish) the teenagers get a flat eyed, arrogant expression on their (still forming, round cheeked) faces and say "That's not realistic".
Now, let loose and laugh, all you people with children, laugh and laugh and laugh. I did. Every time I saw it, and I saw it 4 times. Once for each child I had. Of which I planned exactly 1.
I would refer these teenagers to generations of women AND men, who, from the dawn of time, have had to face the reality that action A would have a very good chance of resulting in consequence B. And those were just the MARRIED ones!! These teenagers could ask their parents, grandparents, friends, neighbors, why, they could even ask a priest (!) and they would get the same story from anyone who has ever given birth, found themselves pregnant, or known someone who has.
Yep.
I think that a responsible adult would tell them the truth and NOT sit there and listen to the drivel they come up with to excuse themselves from taking responsibility, as if it made any kind of sense.
I think a responsible adult would say "Get real, people."
Here is another good article with some history on abortion since Roe vs. Wade:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/257640/truth-about-abortion-robert-verbruggen
If you are inconveniently pregnant or know of someone who is, please consider adoption.
I almost always know at least one couple who would give anything to have a child. LOTS of people know couples who want a child. At least consider it. It would be a realistically good choice. A true win-win situation as close to "no regrets" as it is ever possible to be in this world.
If you haven't seen this article, you should.
It is horrible. It is graphic. It is almost, ALMOST, incomprehensible to me.
It makes me sick and makes me feel hopeless for our country.
The easiest thing to do is to stop the problem.
On TV when I see teenagers talking about what they think we should do about teenage pregnancy, (Let's stop right there: WHY are we asking teenagers what they think? Are we not giving them more credit than they, perhaps, are due? Is this not like asking the fox how he thinks the henhouse should be guarded? Contemplate this question.) and the interviewer asks "What about abstinence"?, (Let's stop again to contemplate whether this is, indeed, a common sense, affordable solution that anyone can accomplish) the teenagers get a flat eyed, arrogant expression on their (still forming, round cheeked) faces and say "That's not realistic".
Now, let loose and laugh, all you people with children, laugh and laugh and laugh. I did. Every time I saw it, and I saw it 4 times. Once for each child I had. Of which I planned exactly 1.
I would refer these teenagers to generations of women AND men, who, from the dawn of time, have had to face the reality that action A would have a very good chance of resulting in consequence B. And those were just the MARRIED ones!! These teenagers could ask their parents, grandparents, friends, neighbors, why, they could even ask a priest (!) and they would get the same story from anyone who has ever given birth, found themselves pregnant, or known someone who has.
Yep.
I think that a responsible adult would tell them the truth and NOT sit there and listen to the drivel they come up with to excuse themselves from taking responsibility, as if it made any kind of sense.
I think a responsible adult would say "Get real, people."
Here is another good article with some history on abortion since Roe vs. Wade:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/257640/truth-about-abortion-robert-verbruggen
If you are inconveniently pregnant or know of someone who is, please consider adoption.
I almost always know at least one couple who would give anything to have a child. LOTS of people know couples who want a child. At least consider it. It would be a realistically good choice. A true win-win situation as close to "no regrets" as it is ever possible to be in this world.
Jan 20, 2011
Bricks in the wall
Both halves of the grand finale were thrilled to have another snow day today. I was pretty thrilled also, and left instructions for the driveway to be cleared. I left detailed instructions for them to wear boots, coveralls, hats and gloves and told them to get it done while the sun was shining.
When I got home at noon it wasn't done. The sun was shining brightly, and I left detailed instructions for them to wear boots, coveralls, hats and gloves and told them to get it done while the sun was shining.
I called from work at 2 pm and it wasn't done. I left detailed instructions for them to wear boots, coveralls, hats and gloves and told them I was getting tired of telling them to get it done while the sun was shining.
When I got home at 5 it wasn't done.
SO, I fired some lasers out of my eyes and asked why it wasn't done.
The youngest baby said the oldest baby had told him to do half of the driveway because that's what the oldest baby did last time and I was happy!! The oldest baby said the last time he just did half of the driveway and I was happy!! Then the youngest baby fired off his favorite attack, which is "WHY DON'T YOU EVER GET ONTO THE OLDEST BABY!!!!! YOU ALWAYS BLAME ME". And I said "FOCUS, GRAND FINALE! FOCUS!!" And I gave them detailed instructions to wear boots, coveralls, hats and gloves and told them that it was really cold now, so to hurry as much as they could before they got frostbite or something that would be a terrible burden for me to deal with in addition to my other daily duties.
The driveway is done. Sort of. Probably.
It's dark now, so it's kind of hard to tell, but while I may have *technically* won this battle, I do not think I won this battle. At least not in the way I was imagining.
Which is the point of my post tonight.
You have to pick your battles, of course. But the biggest part of being a parent in repeating, repeating, double checking, triple checking, and making one last swoop through to make sure you haven't forgotten anything. It's pretending as though things are going to happen when you know in your heart that these things are not going to happen exactly the way you have pictured.
It's acting as though they have done what you asked them even when they haven't, and praising their effort rather than focusing on their short-comings.
When my kids were little and refused to pick up their toys I would do it with them. I would make them do it.
......I am still doing that, and with the Grand Finale I have been doing it for about 11 years.
Will it ever pay off? Who knows. Not me. Sometimes I wonder if I'm having any affect at all.
It's all I can do sometimes, not to throw dishes and break things. The only thing that keeps me from doing that is the certain knowledge that if I did, I would just have to clean up the mess. Oh sure, the kids might help, but it wouldn't be a stellar job. Someone would get glass embedded in their foot and we'd have an emergency room charge on top of me losing my mind and breaking all the dishes. And that's enough to stop me.
At least so far.
Being a parent is doing the same things, repeatedly, without thanks, praise, ackowledgement or compensation for years with only the hope of them ever paying off. Building walls, one small brick at a time. Chinking away ceaselessly with no end in sight.
The thing is, that's all right. You just keep on keeping on.
It is kind of hard not to keep repeating things, but eventually, if you get old enough, they will forgive you for that.
And I know that, eventually, the Grand Finale will have little argumentative ones who need to be reminded (4 times) and double checked.
Which makes it completely worth it.
Winter seems to drag on, doesn't it?
In 6 more weeks it will almost be spring!
When I got home at noon it wasn't done. The sun was shining brightly, and I left detailed instructions for them to wear boots, coveralls, hats and gloves and told them to get it done while the sun was shining.
I called from work at 2 pm and it wasn't done. I left detailed instructions for them to wear boots, coveralls, hats and gloves and told them I was getting tired of telling them to get it done while the sun was shining.
When I got home at 5 it wasn't done.
SO, I fired some lasers out of my eyes and asked why it wasn't done.
The youngest baby said the oldest baby had told him to do half of the driveway because that's what the oldest baby did last time and I was happy!! The oldest baby said the last time he just did half of the driveway and I was happy!! Then the youngest baby fired off his favorite attack, which is "WHY DON'T YOU EVER GET ONTO THE OLDEST BABY!!!!! YOU ALWAYS BLAME ME". And I said "FOCUS, GRAND FINALE! FOCUS!!" And I gave them detailed instructions to wear boots, coveralls, hats and gloves and told them that it was really cold now, so to hurry as much as they could before they got frostbite or something that would be a terrible burden for me to deal with in addition to my other daily duties.
The driveway is done. Sort of. Probably.
It's dark now, so it's kind of hard to tell, but while I may have *technically* won this battle, I do not think I won this battle. At least not in the way I was imagining.
Which is the point of my post tonight.
You have to pick your battles, of course. But the biggest part of being a parent in repeating, repeating, double checking, triple checking, and making one last swoop through to make sure you haven't forgotten anything. It's pretending as though things are going to happen when you know in your heart that these things are not going to happen exactly the way you have pictured.
It's acting as though they have done what you asked them even when they haven't, and praising their effort rather than focusing on their short-comings.
When my kids were little and refused to pick up their toys I would do it with them. I would make them do it.
......I am still doing that, and with the Grand Finale I have been doing it for about 11 years.
Will it ever pay off? Who knows. Not me. Sometimes I wonder if I'm having any affect at all.
It's all I can do sometimes, not to throw dishes and break things. The only thing that keeps me from doing that is the certain knowledge that if I did, I would just have to clean up the mess. Oh sure, the kids might help, but it wouldn't be a stellar job. Someone would get glass embedded in their foot and we'd have an emergency room charge on top of me losing my mind and breaking all the dishes. And that's enough to stop me.
At least so far.
Being a parent is doing the same things, repeatedly, without thanks, praise, ackowledgement or compensation for years with only the hope of them ever paying off. Building walls, one small brick at a time. Chinking away ceaselessly with no end in sight.
The thing is, that's all right. You just keep on keeping on.
It is kind of hard not to keep repeating things, but eventually, if you get old enough, they will forgive you for that.
And I know that, eventually, the Grand Finale will have little argumentative ones who need to be reminded (4 times) and double checked.
Which makes it completely worth it.
Winter seems to drag on, doesn't it?
In 6 more weeks it will almost be spring!
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