Abortion

Here is an article my friend, Angie, told me about.

If you didn't already know, on a scale of the most evil things in this world, I think that abortion (especially late term) ranks up there with rape and child molestation. While all of these sins are indeed forgivable by our gracious heavenly Father, I have a hard time with it myself...in fact I would find it 1000x easier to forgive a mom who had an abortion than the "Dr" who performed it.

I feel a huge rant coming on so I'll stop while I am ahead.

Milk

Several years back, when Winn Dixie was still in NC, we had a great thing going. The dairy department guy would save expiring items for dh and we'd get milk for $1 a gallon and cheese for a song. Yogurt and biscuits and sometimes even eggs were included. When Winn Dixie closed our grocery budget took a big hit. Dear husband asked at several other grocery stores about their policy and the stores HAD to throw away items that had reached their expiration date even though if you bought them they still have a shelf life of at least a week..longer if frozen. They HAD to because they got some kind of credit with their distributor that was worth more to them than selling it "mark-down."

Yesterday, dh was picking up 6 gallons of "mark-down" chocolate milk at Sav-A-Lot. The dairy dept. manager saw him and asked how he was going to drink all that milk. Dh explained that we have 9 kids and it would be gone within the week. The manager's face lit up and asked if he often bought mark down milk..even on its expiration date.. and dh explained that we buy it whenever we find it and if we can't drink it within a week, we freeze it. The manager said that he'd save milk for us and sell it to us for $.99 a gallon!!!! Normal price here is between $3.69-$3.99 a gallon! Woo hoo! Thank you God for Mr. Sav-A-Lot dairy department manager! We easily drink a gallon a day, more if we have chocolate milk to add in.

Choices

I like shopping in a store called Sav-A-Lot. It is much like Aldi in that they are cheap and your choices are limited to their brand. I can fill a cart and be back to the van in about 20 minutes. At WalMart, that is how long I wait in line!




I LIKE not having so many choices. Does that sound silly? Having a choice between 5 different brands and 4 different sizes of spaghetti sauce means I have to read the labels to make sure I am making the healthiest choice and use my calculator to make sure it is also the cheapest per ounce..and then, if the cheapest is not the most healthy, I must stand there and weigh cost vs nutritional value. Oh no! I have coupons! Now I have to determine if it is cheaper to use this coupon here or wait and use it up north 25 miles where they triple...Ugh. Can't do any of that with kids along or early in the am when my brain is not yet awake.

Traditions

I have tried to institute traditions over the years, but the ones that have "stood the test of time" are the ones that have just developed naturally along with our family.

• getting our tree a day or two before Christmas, husband dear getting it into the stand, and me decorating it with the kids.
  
• kids get to choose their meals on their special day.
• The kids and their dad getting me an ice cream cake at Dairy Queen for my birthday
  
• eggs for lunch after church on Sunday (none of us like this tradition)
  
• going to Golden Corral when Grandma and Grandpa come
• going up to NY to visit family each summer
• S'mores around the campfire with extended family at the Pond
  
• celebrating reading accomplishments with cake!
• screaming a 'BIG BYE' when we leave someone's home or they leave ours
  
• having a family meeting to announce pregnancies
• Pizza on Fridays ( my husband and I both came to our marriage with that one)
  
• the newest one which I hope continues, Con-Grad-Firmation parties every other year celebrating the Confirmation and Graduation of 2 kids.

Wow. That is more than I thought we had!
Happy happy.

What happened to Bill?

"WHAT??" I choked out when I walked into the living room this evening to hear McCain say that as the president he would have the government buyout the mortgages of regular people who could not pay...

Get out of my personal affairs Mr. McCain! I respect your character, but "SHUT UP!"
(uh oh, I just said the sh- word! Don't tell my kids!)

I know that I keep ranting and raving about this whole election thing, but my husband doesn't appreciate me yelling a the tv while he is trying to listen, or worse yet, yelling at him..when he didn't do anything wrong!

First of all, the president can actually do very little besides make suggestions and VETO or SIGN INTO LAW legislation that the Congress has already wrangled over. The President does not get HIS budget passed, he can submit his ideas to a committee just like everyone else...it never comes out the way it went in.

As for voting records, here is my take..if it were me...The original Bill may be something I think would be a good, right and salutary law. If 17 different legislators (or 88) had to add on their own personal amendments to the Bill before they would sign, I do not know what I would do. The original Bill might "trump" in my mind all of the amendments and I'd still vote for it..but what if one of the amendments was something I could not stomach..I'd have to vote "no" on a Bill I originally supported! So now the facts are completely distorted because I'd veto a bill that I really support because of something buried in the mice type that Joe American knows nothing about.

Why can't they just have bare, naked Bills??? Oh wait that was the last president, never mind.

Perspectives

Last Thursday was library day. As usual, I pick some books for the little guys and they pick some for themselves. The littlest chose Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. My skin prickled. I remembered that I hated that book, but for the life of me I couldn't remember why. It was not about the artwork, for that is perfectly lovely and inviting. Then I read it aloud to them.




The basic story is....if you have alot of something and someone who has none asks you for it, you should give it to them or you are selfish and should be shunned.

WHAT?

Maybe there is something wrong with me, but I teach my children they are NOT to ask other people for their stuff...that is coveting. If they choose to ask anyway, they have no right to expect that person to give anything to them. "No" is a perfectly acceptable thing to say.

Bill Gates has a bazillion dollars. I do not. I should ask him for some of his money because I have mere pennies in comparison. Oh..and if he says no, I get to tell everyone he is a greedy, selfish man and no one should be friends with him anymore.

The Bible says to be content with what He has provided for you. (for He didn't HAVE to provide you with anything at all..you do NOT deserve any of His gifts.)

Oh and this also relates to the agenda of those who think it is unfair for some to be rich and some to be poor and so they should make sure the wealth gets redistributed.

My 14 year old daughter told me I should relax, that it is a book about sharing.

I lose everything.

When my dear husband proposed to me and gave me my beautiful ring, I was scared to death. I was not afraid to marry him, to leave my parents' headship, to leave the only state I'd ever lived in and move half way across the country to go to the sem..even though I didn't yet have a job lined up. No. I was afraid I'd lose THE Ring.


I have lost or broken every piece of jewelery I have ever owned..that meant something to me. I could list them, starting in third grade, but that might take too long.

Then we get married and I get another pretty ring. I think it took less than 3 months to almost lose the diamond..making the bed of all things. The setting was pretty high and our bed next to the wall and the ring scraped it as I was pushing down the blankets. (I know there are those of you reading not believing that I have ever made a bed so, just trust me, ok?) I felt one of the prongs securing the gem had pulled back. I took the ring to the jeweler and he said there was nothing wrong. I made him look again and he found the problem and fixed it. I actually told him to lower the setting so it wouldn't happen again. I also had him solder the rings together as well as it annoyed me that they spun independently of each other. (It would have stayed prettier if I just stopped making beds...hmm I should have thought of that sooner)

SO on to 3 months later. After a long day at school for both dh and I at school, we were sitting at a meeting with other future pastors and their wives. Dh asks where my wedding ring is. I hadn't even noticed it was gone! I began to tremble and tears welled up in my eyes. Dh wasn't upset at all! What was wrong with him? I tearfully apologized that I'd lost the ring! I knew this would happen..I am so sorry!

What?? He was handing me the ring....confused as to why I was crying....

My ring had fallen off while I was sleeping. Dh (my dear sweet man) thought I'd left my ring in the middle of the bed to say "I love you!" and so he carried it with him all day long.

Things haven't changed much..in the last three weeks I have lost two checks worth $115 dollars, my camera with James' 3rd birthday pictures on it, receipt and rebate form worth $150 and a credit card. Oh yes, and let's not forget I lost my cellphone. I did find the checks (right after I got the two people to write me new ones) and I went back to the store to get the receipt and rebate form reissued AND I canceled that credit card.

Over the years, I have learned that most things are not worth the time to look for because they will show up in some very odd place I wouldn't have looked anyway...so months later I will find whatever it is. Anymore, with so many living in our house, someone has probably seen whatever I have lostsomewhere..OR if I offer a reward it will be found within the day..oh except Library books. How do we lose them??? I always end up having to pay for the dumbest ones.

You know the parable Jesus tell of the woman who searched her whole house for the lost coin? I am glad that God doesn't just wait for me to just "turn up" I am glad that he doesn't think it is a waste of time to seek ME out and save ME when I am missing.

(Yes, that is a picture from our wedding.)