Out of the Mouths of Babes

C walked in on us talking about M's surgery tomorrow...

"Daddy's having surgery?"

"Yes, remember? They have to fix his throat."

Silence...thinking...

"Are they gonna cut his head off to get to it? Will they stich it back on when they're done?"

Bad Blogger

Yep, that's me, a bad blogger! It's been a bit overwhelming lately keeping up with C and work, let alone, the basics such as the house, laundry, etc. , which still need to get done. The good news is I have a happy, healthy child and work is going well and balanced. The bad news? My house needs a serious cleaning and decluttering! If baby steps count, then let's count that I got the pantry cleaned out today and the grocery shopping done. It's the little victories I have to savor these days!

Spring is in full bloom here and absolutely beautiful! This has inspired me to hopefully turn my black thumb with houseplants into a green thumb. So far, we have 6 new houseplants and they are all still alive and well- yeah! Yes, it is the little things. We are also getting ready to tear off the old deck and replace it with a new one (the work is never done), and this has forced us to look at the backyard with a fresh set of eyes. The bad news? Our huge shed will need to be moved and a small tree taken down. The great news? We think we may have enough sun on one spot to FINALLY plant a garden! So, by summer our goal is a new deck, some grass growing in the backyard, and a veggie garden. To get things started, I planted about 150 seeds in starter packs this weekend...lots of work, but hopefully, full of rewards. My goal is to use some to start our garden and others will be Mother's Day gifts, grown with love. And I'm so excited that my Nana will be visiting for Mother's Day this year, so she can take some plants home for her garden as well.

Photos to come soon; in the meantime, happy spring!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

C and our neighbor were playing outside on this beautiful day, and C asked if they could come inside to play a game. I said no, that it was nice out and we were staying outside. The boys pushed the issue and I told them no again, that it was nice, we were staying outside, and C could not have friends in to play since he's not cleaned his bedroom or his playroom, to which his playmate replied...

"Doesn't C's maid clean his room?"

Me: "C doesn't have a maid; he has to clean his own room."

"Oh, well I don't have my OWN maid; she's my mom's maid, but she still cleans my room."

Me: "I don't have a maid."

Neighbor looked at me like I was out of my ever loving mind and says...

"Well, sometimes my mom cleans my room. I bet you could clean C's?"

Nice try.

1910 or 2010 and the Cult of Catholicism

Thanks to modern technology, news travels in a nansecond, versus weeks or months. Today I was on the ever popular Facebook for a few minutes and an openly gay friend of mine posted an article about a woman who was denied access to her dying partner, because they were gay. Regardless of my, or anyone else's, opinion on the topic of homosexuality, shouldn't you have who you want by your side when you are on your deathbed? To me, sexual preference has nothing to do with basic common decency. I appreciate my friend sharing this article and enlightening a broader base of the discrimination that continues, even if the major media outlets are not shining a light on it.

From that article, I saw a link to another article that made my head spin. Two children kicked out of their school, a Catholic school, because they have "two moms." How is that for loving others through Christ? No offense is meant to my Catholic friends and family, but the Catholic church has always mystified me in how they consider themselves followers of Christ. I cannot find a Biblical basis for purgatory, praying to Mary, confession to a priest, all of the non-Biblical rules from Vatican II, burning folks at the stake, praying to saints, not encouraging reading the Bible but instead diluting and brainwashing a perversion of the good book via the homily, and the list goes on...back to the kids kicked out of their school. Hmmm...did they kick out the kids whose parents are divorced? What about the parents using birth control- did those kids get kicked out too? What about those who eat meat on Fridays during Lent? Aren't all of these also "sins" in the Catholic church? Now we are delineating some sins as more aggregious than others? I was always raised a sin, is a sin, is a sin and let he/she who is blameless cast the first stone. So, the Catholic church continues to sexually abuse children, but letting two kids stay in school because they have gay parents is out of the question? Really?! This was shockingly eyeopening to me that this prejudice exists today- are we in the early 1900s? Such a sad state of affairs.

And the current Pope? He's rumored to have ties to a Nazi background and while he condemns capitol punishment for rapists and mass murderers, he continues to refuse to condemn the Uganda death penalty for being gay bill. Lest we forget the words of Pastor Martin Niemoller:

"THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

THEN THEY CAME for the Catholics,and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.

THEN THEY CAME for meand by that time no one was left to speak up."

Our Life in Pictures

The Thief in the Night

Usually, I sense that things are going in the right direction, as they "should" be, but 2010 has been a dark start that continues on. Never have we been so surrounded by death and honestly, I just cannot process it all. January brought us the death of our 14 year old nephew and February was the death of a family friend that was like a sister to Mark. March brought the death of a high school classmate (died while breastfeeding her newborn), another classmate that went missing during the earthquake in Chile, then the death of another classmate (cancer), the death of C's "Grammy's" dog, and now our neighbor is very ill in critical care, with a sweet wife and two little kids at home. In all my life, I've not experienced a three month period with such loss and sadness- what gives?

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Told to me by an adorable 4 year old at C's party today:

"C is my boyfriend...he just doesn't know that yet."

And so it begins!