Thursday, December 8, 2011
Crazy Hair Day
Colors
My children have color issues. They have to HAVE the color they want all the time, but they aren't necessarily consistent.
A long time ago, Ruth liked green. She had to have her dishes and crayons and such be green. Then she decided yellow was a better color. Everything needed to be yellow. Until, her friend told her that yellow was an ugly color. Of course, she could not have anything yellow at that point.
A few months later, Kate turned two and loved blue. Kate had to have everything blue. Blue, clothing, blue dishes, blue crayons, and markers-- nothing but blue. After a couple of days of Kate having to have everything blue. Ruth declared that it was not fair because she liked blue too. Now Ruth had to have EVERYTHING blue. Every morning there was a war over the blue sippy cup. Eventually, I just bought all blue dishes, extra blue paint, crayons, markers, etc., and mainly all blue clothes for both girls-- not that easy. This settled things except Kate switched back and forth on which was the best shade of blue.
About a year later, Ruth decided blue was not the only color. She liked all of the colors. When people asked Ruth what her favorite color was, Ruth would respond, "rainbow". Nice. Now I had to have rainbow things around to avoid the "wrong color breakdown".
As Johnny got older, he decided all colors were good to like. Ruth did not like this. "All of the colors" belonged to her. Eventually, Johnny settled for black, brown, and green, but he always had to have blue dishes. At least he would wear multiple colors of clothing without much trouble.
When Adam came of age. He chose yellow. Everyone was okay with this because it did not infringe on anyone else's color choices. Later, Rachel chose pink. We were good as long as some one didn't set the wrong color of dishes at the wrong person's seat at the table.
Over a year ago, we began having color problems again. First Anya chose pink as a favorite color. Rachel was miffed. Pink was HER color. However, Anya didn't care about what Rachel thought. She liked pink. Anya had to have all pink clothes, all pink dishes, all pink crayons, and any available pink food. Rachel rebelled. She no longer liked pink. Rachel had to have everything blue. If you gave Rachel anything pink, she would have a "wrong color breakdown". Kate was unhappy again because Rachel was taking HER color. Kate was 11!
At the same time, Adam started kindergarten with a whole slew of yellow shirts. After about 3 weeks of kindergarten, Adam decided yellow was not his favorite color anymore. Adam had a to have blue. So now, I had 4 kids that would cry if they did not get blue dishes. I had to buy more dishes (I had to anyway, but still.)
Now, one year later, Anya does not like pink anymore. If you give Anya anything pink she will have a "wrong color breakdown". So what do you think? Rachel suddenly likes pink again. If you do not get Rachel the pink plate you are in trouble. Anya now has to have yellow or green. Most of our yellow and green dishes had become cat dishes because no one else would eat from them.
We have had one more change too. Since Adam has been home schooling, guess what? He likes yellow again. Only this time, he does not call it yellow. He calls it "gold".
Indeed, my kids have color issues. As a child, when I would do something that bugged my mom, she would say, "I can't wait until your kids do this to you." I haven't felt that much, but, I won't mind my grandchildren getting revenge for me on this issue.
A long time ago, Ruth liked green. She had to have her dishes and crayons and such be green. Then she decided yellow was a better color. Everything needed to be yellow. Until, her friend told her that yellow was an ugly color. Of course, she could not have anything yellow at that point.
A few months later, Kate turned two and loved blue. Kate had to have everything blue. Blue, clothing, blue dishes, blue crayons, and markers-- nothing but blue. After a couple of days of Kate having to have everything blue. Ruth declared that it was not fair because she liked blue too. Now Ruth had to have EVERYTHING blue. Every morning there was a war over the blue sippy cup. Eventually, I just bought all blue dishes, extra blue paint, crayons, markers, etc., and mainly all blue clothes for both girls-- not that easy. This settled things except Kate switched back and forth on which was the best shade of blue.
About a year later, Ruth decided blue was not the only color. She liked all of the colors. When people asked Ruth what her favorite color was, Ruth would respond, "rainbow". Nice. Now I had to have rainbow things around to avoid the "wrong color breakdown".
As Johnny got older, he decided all colors were good to like. Ruth did not like this. "All of the colors" belonged to her. Eventually, Johnny settled for black, brown, and green, but he always had to have blue dishes. At least he would wear multiple colors of clothing without much trouble.
When Adam came of age. He chose yellow. Everyone was okay with this because it did not infringe on anyone else's color choices. Later, Rachel chose pink. We were good as long as some one didn't set the wrong color of dishes at the wrong person's seat at the table.
Over a year ago, we began having color problems again. First Anya chose pink as a favorite color. Rachel was miffed. Pink was HER color. However, Anya didn't care about what Rachel thought. She liked pink. Anya had to have all pink clothes, all pink dishes, all pink crayons, and any available pink food. Rachel rebelled. She no longer liked pink. Rachel had to have everything blue. If you gave Rachel anything pink, she would have a "wrong color breakdown". Kate was unhappy again because Rachel was taking HER color. Kate was 11!
At the same time, Adam started kindergarten with a whole slew of yellow shirts. After about 3 weeks of kindergarten, Adam decided yellow was not his favorite color anymore. Adam had a to have blue. So now, I had 4 kids that would cry if they did not get blue dishes. I had to buy more dishes (I had to anyway, but still.)
Now, one year later, Anya does not like pink anymore. If you give Anya anything pink she will have a "wrong color breakdown". So what do you think? Rachel suddenly likes pink again. If you do not get Rachel the pink plate you are in trouble. Anya now has to have yellow or green. Most of our yellow and green dishes had become cat dishes because no one else would eat from them.
We have had one more change too. Since Adam has been home schooling, guess what? He likes yellow again. Only this time, he does not call it yellow. He calls it "gold".
Indeed, my kids have color issues. As a child, when I would do something that bugged my mom, she would say, "I can't wait until your kids do this to you." I haven't felt that much, but, I won't mind my grandchildren getting revenge for me on this issue.
Monday, December 5, 2011
You Know You Needed To Gocery Shop When...
- It is Christmas time and your 3, 5, and 7 year old children are sitting together looking at the grocery add and alerting you to all of the food that is on sale.
- You finally go grocery shopping for a few things, and like it is Christmas your children cheer: Yeah, bread that squishes! Yeah, oranges! Yeah we have chicken and bananas!
I Am Starting to Wonder...
if I know what causes it. The night, I woke up with the burnt apple crisp, I couldn't get back to sleep. I kept thinking, "my period should have started 2 or 3 days ago." For me, that is a BIG deal. I remembered that I had a pregnancy test (expired?) from one and a half years ago when I bought a duel package to test for Joshua's pregnancy. So at 4 am, when I couldn't sleep, and was shocked that I had to "go" for a second time that night, I closed myself into the bathroom, and took that test. At first, I breathed a sigh if relief-- one pink stripe. I set the test down and cleaned up. As I was leaving the bathroom, I glanced at it again, and there were two very bright pink stripes.
What????? I thought we were suppose to wait this time. We were using condemns. I start to wonder, "Other people have asked me, but do I know what causes this?"
I wasn't going back to sleep. I went downstairs to pray, to think, and to read. Then I crept back into to bed, asked my sleeping husband if he was awake (Duh?) and then told him my little story. Now, my sleeping husband was awake.
Three days before this, I had some spotting. (I thought my period would be bugging me the next day.) The day after, I had a lot of cramping. Maybe, this will be a miscarriage? I have had spotting and cramping with a miscarriage and with a full pregnancy. I don't feel particularly sick. But I have had sick pregnancies and non sick pregnancies. I never felt sick with my two miscarriages. It's too early to tell.
How am I feeling? Well, I know without a doubt this is the will of the Lord. And THAT is comforting. If I have a baby about 18 to 19 months after Joshua, I know that is the will of the Lord. If I have a miscarriage, I know that the Lord wanted me to go through that at this time.
I also feel humbled that the Lord would entrust another little soul to me at this time. I feel anxious about how we can even possibly pay for this baby. I feel tired just thinking about 9 months of another pregnancy. I feel sad that I will not be able to go to girls camp with Ruth and Kate. I feel sorry that I finally lost my 20 pounds that I wanted too, and was hoping to tackle the last 10. I feel like well, I am 36 and my biological clock is ticking. This may be my last opportunity. I feel like I can do what the Lord requires.
I know, as with every pregnancy, I need to trust in the Lord and His plan for our family. So I will. The entire day after the burnt apple crisp night, the words from Come, Come Ye Saints kept coming to mind.
What????? I thought we were suppose to wait this time. We were using condemns. I start to wonder, "Other people have asked me, but do I know what causes this?"
I wasn't going back to sleep. I went downstairs to pray, to think, and to read. Then I crept back into to bed, asked my sleeping husband if he was awake (Duh?) and then told him my little story. Now, my sleeping husband was awake.
Three days before this, I had some spotting. (I thought my period would be bugging me the next day.) The day after, I had a lot of cramping. Maybe, this will be a miscarriage? I have had spotting and cramping with a miscarriage and with a full pregnancy. I don't feel particularly sick. But I have had sick pregnancies and non sick pregnancies. I never felt sick with my two miscarriages. It's too early to tell.
How am I feeling? Well, I know without a doubt this is the will of the Lord. And THAT is comforting. If I have a baby about 18 to 19 months after Joshua, I know that is the will of the Lord. If I have a miscarriage, I know that the Lord wanted me to go through that at this time.
I also feel humbled that the Lord would entrust another little soul to me at this time. I feel anxious about how we can even possibly pay for this baby. I feel tired just thinking about 9 months of another pregnancy. I feel sad that I will not be able to go to girls camp with Ruth and Kate. I feel sorry that I finally lost my 20 pounds that I wanted too, and was hoping to tackle the last 10. I feel like well, I am 36 and my biological clock is ticking. This may be my last opportunity. I feel like I can do what the Lord requires.
I know, as with every pregnancy, I need to trust in the Lord and His plan for our family. So I will. The entire day after the burnt apple crisp night, the words from Come, Come Ye Saints kept coming to mind.
Why should we mourn,
Or think our lot is hard?
Tis not so.
All is right.
Why should we think
To earn a great reward?
If we now,
Shun the fight.
Gird up your loins,
Fresh courage take,
Our God will never us forsake.
And soon we'll have,
This tale to tell.
All is well,
All is well.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
A New Kind of Potpouri
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Saving Our Boys
Today you hear statistics about how 60% of women are college educated while only 40% of men are. How boys are failing in school; how teachers teach toward girls, and boys are just left behind. Then there is the problem of video games, and pornography available everywhere.
I meet a lot of amazing women who are beautiful, intelligent, and successful. Yet, they are not married, even though they would choose to be so. Where are the men? Birthrates are still around 50/50 in the United States. Many of them are on the computer, addicted to video games and pornography. They are stuck, and they do not know how to escape.
Today's surveys have found that even among Christian men, pornography addiction is about 50%.
Neuroscientist and researcher Dr. William M. Struthers researched why, and wrote a book called, Wired for Intimacy: How Pornography Hijacks the Male Brain.
Struthers writes, "The simplest explanation for why men view pornography ... is they are driven to seek out sexual intimacy... Satisfying this drive is pleasurable. Sexual intercourse and the naked form of women are enjoyable, as designed by God to be." He continues, "The male brain is built like an ideal pornography receiver, wired to be on the alert for these images of nakedness... the images of sexuality grab our attention, jumping out and hypnotizing a man like an HD television among a sea of standard televisions."
All types of media, know this to be true. We cannot drive down the highway in our city with out being faced with billboard sized women in bikinis. We cannot go to a grocery or department store with out seeing magazines full of nearly naked, and sexually poised women. The internet is very dangerous. Adds with women practically naked or top naked pop up unless there is a good way to block it. Even then, pornographic images get through. The pornography industries is a billion dollar industry. And it is killing our boys.
Through his neurological research, Struthers has found, "As men fall deeper into the mental habit of fixating on these images, the exposure to them creates neural pathways. These Neural paths become wider as they are repeatedly traveled with each exposure to pornography. ...They become the automatic pathway through which interactions with women are routed. Every woman they come into contact with is objectified, undressed and evaluated as a willing (or unwilling) mental sexual partner."
What this means is that the more pornography a boy or a man views, the more his brain changes and the more addicted and the more trapped he becomes by his own brain.
Struthers said that saying "my brain made me do it" is not an excuse for sin.
He continues, "A man with a properly oriented conscience and filled with the Spirit values the image of God in women and has trained his mind to take sexual thoughts captive."
So what is to be done? I do not have a good answer. In our home, we monitor the internet, and use child protection software. We read our children's books or at least look through them before handing them over. We do not allow barbies or any other immodest girl toy into the house. We use a Clear Play DVD player and even then we are very careful about what movies we watch. We talk about pornography. We talk about what to do if something pops up on the computer. We talk about what to do if a friend shares pornography. Our daughters warn the boys to look away if there is an immodest image while we are out. We teach about the atonement.
Still, I know that my boys and my husband cannot completely avoid pornography. They need to know what the are up against. Yesterday's world was a tough place for girls. Today's world is a very dangerous place for boys.
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