Pansy: April 2003 Archives

Home Schooling Stuff
Today we had a "field trip day." At noon we attended Mass at Historic St. Mary's Church in downtown Albany. This Church is absolutely beautiful. It would have been great except during the Gospel, Fastolph proclaimed "my pee pee's coming out. It's coming out now." My husband who is on vacation this week, went through the Church looking for the bathroom and found it was off the altar. The priest was not happy at all!

We packed a picnic lunch for the park. I packed sushi, and the kids and I pigged out on sushi,wasabi peas and carrot sticks. The kids thought sushi was great until they saw one of the other families had a whole Freihoffer's chocolate cake. When they were offered cake, the kids ran over with pathetic looks on their faces. The look was "Starving Children".

Afterwards we lobbied over home schooling regulations with the Protestant home schooling group. The speakers were all Protestant and afterwards one came up to us, asked us where we attended Church. When we mentioned we were Catholic (there are tow St. Peter's one Episcopal and one Catholic), he told us how much he is working to see inter-faith discussion or something. It was odd because I never met someone who is Protestant and said "Oh, you are Protestant. Well that is OK. We are trying to work with Protestants more and more." I realise I am not adequately putting into words how odd it was when we mentioned we were Catholic.

We then went to The New York State Museum and looked at, um, stuff. You know, stuff in a museum.

No April 29, 2003 could be complete though without Free Ice Cream from Ben and Jerry's! After dessert we came home and had dinner. I am beat.

Oh no, it's contageous!

can't....form...sentences!

You have been my blog partner too long! You are suffering from Pansy Moss Syndrome!

Why Us?
Is there any good reason why mothers/wifes always seem
to be in the middle? You are the one who cares if the
house gets condemned by the sanitation department. You
are the one who is supposed to somehow "know" where
everybody's stuff is, what goes with what (I'm talking
ties, outfits, etc.). You are supposed to "know" how
to cook nearly everything - or how to find it. You are
supposed to know what is in the fridge. You aren't
supposed to need any sleep. Why should you possibly
want to have a shower? As for occasionally having a
thought higher than whether the dishes are done or
Junior has socks, the idea is nearly ludicrious.

What's even better is that it doesn't seem to matter
whether you work outside the house or not. You're
still in the middle. I'm a mystery writer. Writing
time is more precious than gold. Still, where's the
fill-in-the-blank? Is that clean? Nicholas (my son)
has got chocolate frosting all over himself, you
should clean it. What are we having for dinner
tonight?

Don't mind me, I'm just venting. The problem is, that
I'm having all these problems _and I only have one
kid_. I think I'm just inept, so those of you who have
something hard like 4, please don't shoot me.

I'm told, by reputable sources that we are supposed to
work out our salvation via this mess, what we blithely
call our lives. I'm told that we are supposed to
"offer it up".

And I'd snort loudly (and fervently unladylike!) in
response, except when I remember Our Lady, breaking
her heart, standing next to the cross.

~Lucinda Seago

Comparing Race and Homosexuality
Lately I have been seeing a lot of comparisons of race and homosexuality both from the left and the right. Needless to say I am slightly miffed. These seem to be brought on by Senator Santorum's statement and many are comparing him to Trent Lott. I really think this is dumb because Senator Santorum was condemning a deviant behaviour. Trent Lott, if he meant what it seemed he meant (and he did apologise for his statement) seemed to be indirectly (or maybe directly-giving the benefit of the doubt here) backing up segregation.

Segregation defines people by their genetic make-up and treats them differently simply on that basis, and denies that we are all created in the image and likeness of Christ. Sodomy is just, well, a gross action. Don' need to say much more, I don't feel like going there.

Grouping homosexuals up as a minority group is nothing new, especially from the liberal perspective. Everyone loves to have a piece of the "I am the most discriminated against" pie. "My ancestors were slaves.""Mine were killed in the holocaust.""People do not like that I have sex with a man and I am a man." OK, backup. Why do I need to know this first of all? There are religious Catholics I know who are single people. I can speculate that they have been burdened by same-sex attraction, but do their best to live chaste lives. To me they are simply people, not homosexual people. The behaviour is deviant, not the person. I have friends who cohabitate. Am I prejudice against black people because I do not approve when I see black people cohabiting? Or white people? Or non religious people? Caught you on the last one because I have been accused of that a lot. "You are so self-righteous and cannot stand people who are not Catholic like you." Maybe I am self-righteous, but you are not doing right by your children and that ticks me off. (In another time I may blog about how I feel all sexual perversions contribute to our society's disdain for children.)

I am tired of reading first from the right that somehow standing up against certain behaviours is also part and parcel with racism. No one calls it that, but in our efforts to throw out stupid political correctness, we do not have to be "tolerant" (don't do me any favours anyway) or really charitable with people of other races. I am seeing this a lot, but I am at a loss as to why.

I am tired of reading from the left that because people are bigots we have to be accepting of everything and anything in an effort to prove how "tolerant" we are.There is no right and wrong, merely a state of "tolerance" and scented candles. Um, whatever. I'll keep the scented candles though.

God gave us better brains to think beyond this and a greater capacity for charity.

Vote to support Senator Santorum. Thank you to Off the Record for the link.

Catholic Exchange has a good review of What a Girl Wants which is a movie my daughter is dying to see.

A Good Article About Children and the Traditional Latin Mass
Thank you again Jeff Culbreath (just love El Camino Real) for the link.

One of the reasons why we switched from the Novus Ordo to the TLM had to do with our children's religious formation. I mean on a personal note, I was getting flustered and upset every time I went to Mass. The message I was sending to my children was that Church was a place that Mommy got angry. It occurred to me though, besides being angry, how many other messages was I sending my children?

I remember as a child, my father getting us ready to go to Mass and telling me not to eat anything beforehand. I remember thinking "silly Dad, no one does that anymore", because quite frankly at the Catholic school and parish we were attending, no one did. Unfortunately, eating before Mass would not be the first tradition I would reject because "no one does that anymore." I am blessed to have found my way back.

I think it is important to submerse children with as much fullness of the Faith as can be mustered. Children learn from acts, not only words. They are not stupid.

In the end, they may reject the faith. We cannot make decisions for them when they get older. What we can do is give them the best possible foundation to start from.

What is going on in the world?

Last night's Angel made me chuckle
There was a scene where "the Crew" was driving away in Angel's car trying to escape Jasmine. On the way they were listening to the car radio. I do not have a transcript so it is not exact, but the announcer said something like:

In other news, the LA Archdiocese announced that it will taking down it's idolatrous statues and replacing it with images of our glorious leader, Jasmine. Go Catholics!

Now I understand the logic behind that bizarre 8 foot tall statue of "Our Lady" in front of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels.
Update:Victor beat me to it!

I also liked the little news bit on the radio about the Archdiocese of Los Angeles getting rid of all their "false idols" and worshipping only "she who walks among us" ("Way to go, Catholic Church!" says the peppy, brainwashed news reporter). As satire it was closer to the truth than the writers of the show probably know (though I could swear that the new-age goddess/big, bad, evil monster Jasmine was thought up by someone who's been reading their papal encyclicals).

"Losing the Culture War" Teaching Our Young Ladies to Dress as Young Ladies
Jeff Culbreath links to an article that describes first hand the atrocities of young ladies fashion these days.

I mentioned that I know first hand how hard it is to find proper clothing for my ten year old. I have only had luck at Old Navy sometimes and I have a lady who makes the same type of dress for her over and over again.

Alicia in the comments box writes:

My 14 y/o daughter is having trouble finding anything acceptable to wear to church on a regular basis. I can (barely) find jeans and shirts for school, but skirts that are long enough or dresses that leave something to the imagination are hen's teeth lately - she doesn't fit into little girl sizes and she doesn't want to be 'mom-frumpy' either.
I would welcome suggestions. I am about desperate enough to look for a uniform (plaid skirts and jumpers?) outlet online.

This is seriously an issue. My MIL (thank goodness she is not reading this blog) spent a good deal of money purchasing clothes for my daughter at Kids 'R' Us. We had to pack them all up and give them away. My daughter tried to wear two of them (after we put turtlenecks under them) and said she felt to "showy" in them.

I do not only have this problem with my daughter but with myself as well. I am thirty years old, still not in "mom-frumpy" age style (I don't think), but I like to be covered.

Again, getting back to the concept of femininity, why is it for a fashion to be "feminine", it must be trashy? This is why I so badly need to learn to sew.

Fastolph getting ready to blow out his candles

I am still not an accomplished digital photographer, so sorry about the blur. I knew I should have asked my husband to take the pictures.

EWTN Kids
My daughter loves it! Go to EWTN.com and click onto "EWTN Kids" in the upper left hand corner.

It is not overly dull like many attempts to Catholicise children's activities, i.e. "um, yeah Mom, Saints trading cards, sure."

My desk area is getting cluttered with all of these coloring pictures of Our Lady.

Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday Dear Fastolph
Happy Birthday to You

Today is Fastolph's 4th birthday! 4 years is a substantial amount of yearage! I will take a picture of him being Happy Birthday Boy and post it later.

NOW is Un-Freakin' Believable! I would like to say that TSM babies Rosey-Posey and Hambet were born at Connor's age. Rosey-Posey was 8 pounds 1 ounce. I am too much of a lady to say what I think of NOW at the moment.

Thank you again to Mark Shea for the link.

Did I Tell You About Friday's Stations at my local Novus Ordo Church?
I actually did not pay attention. With each station they had a bunch of readers doing impressions of people in the stations. For example "when I met Jesus, he rebelled against tradition by welcoming women..." Oh brother. Speaking of brothers they also mentioned how sad Jesus' mother, brothers and sisters were to see Jesus carrying His cross.

I also did a naughty thing. When we got to the Church, on the telephone pole in front there was a sign "Pray for the Ordaining of Women." (Is that grammatically correct?) Before I even knew it, I ripped it down. Then later I felt bad because someone took the time to staple it there, wrap it up in plastic, and we do believe in freedom of speech. I should pray for them rather then ripping off their signs I suppose. But I was insulted. So there.

Well, after I blogged about the below article I have found Jeff Culbreath, and Mark Shea have blogged about it. Jeff offers some insight. I just worry when I hear something that Vatican is going to do, and the info is not from the Vatican...

A Friend (thanx again Karen) sent me this about SSPX

Pope woos conservatives expelled for rebellion
By Richard Owen in Rome

THE Pope is to heal a breach with rebel arch-conservatives in the Roman
Catholic Church by reinstating excommunicated [sic] followers of the
late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who broke with Rome in 1988 to protest
against the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, including the
abolition of the Latin Mass.

I wonder what this would mean? It would be nice to see this rift healed. But, well, all I have heard about it is this article (know what I mean?)

I never really had a chance to see this movie in it's entirety, believe it or not. I was like 5 when it came out, so it was a major no-no. There are many movies that are Pop Culture Icons that I have never seen because I was small when they came out such as Jaws (I saw it recently), and any of those "Jason" movies. Yesterday I had the chance to finally see it as we sat on the couch and ate rhubarb pie.

I thought the dance scenes were so good, but the story line around the characters was really depressing. I did think the story around the friend with the pregnant girlfriend was interesting, only because the character said he went to his guidance counselor, his parents, priest and all for advice and they told him to get married. Fast forward to 2003 and many people would tell him to get the abortion. What I thought was even funnier was the character asked Tony's brother Frank (the ex-priest) if he thought the Pope would give his girlfriend dispensation for an abortion. Now of course while the idea of this is ludicrous, if you put this in 2003 context, the idea that he would even know what "dispensation" is, or that he would even care to try to get permission is order to stay in good standing with the Church would be nonexistent.

Again, while I never saw SNF back in 1977, it made a huge cultural impact. The
soundtrack is just awesome. (I personally think it is better than the movie). Most of the songs take me right back to that time period. Yvonne Elliman, Tavares, the Bee Gees...

Like I mentioned I was about 5 and we lived in Glen Oaks, Queens. It was the neighborhood that was being terrorised by Son of Sam at that time. Everyone was scared and the grown-ups spoke of it often, although I never knew what they were talking about. I remember my mother telling me one time she took me for a walk to the shops around the corner and was startled because there was a very suspicious man following us in a long raincoat in the middle of a hot summer day. After we passed a few stores, she finally ducked into one and pretended to be meeting someone. It was not long after that they caught David Berkowitz. When they posted his picture on the newspaper, my mother recognised him as the man with the raincoat.

I also thought I was Jewish at the time because we lived in a Jewish neighborhood, I attended public and everyone around me was Jewish. I kind of thought it being synonymous with human or something.

While the music may seem like it brings back scary memories, it was a very pleasant time in my life. There is a lot about the 70's I miss, or maybe it is things about my childhood...

It was such a beautiful day. Mass at our Church is always intimate. What was really nice afterwards everyone left the Church (out of respect for the Blessed Sacrament) and the men all shook hands and wished each other a Happy Easter and the women wished each other Happy Easter also, some with hugs and kisses.

We went to my parents for dinner. I made a rhubarb pie with some strawberries in it. I made it with a lattice top. When I was done, it looked like I should put it on the window sill to cool. I didn't though because I am not stupid, everytime you do that, someone, like an escaped convict or something sneaks up to the window sill and steals the pie.

My mother made a roast turkey breast and lots of veggies. Then we ate my pie and it was so delicious. I never had rhubarb before and was unsure what to expect because it's like, well, a vegetable. I got many compliments on it however. My seventeen year old brother also commented on the fact that it looked like the type of pie you put on a windown sill to cool, but it is a good thing I didn't because people lose more pies that way to Pie Thieves. I told him I was thinking the same thing!

Pope hears confessions on Good Friday

Good Friday
I think today is one of the most solemn and sacred days of the year and should be spent with family in Church, contemplating the death of Our Lord and eating customary Good Friday food at dinner (after fasting of course).
Well, the people who like run the country and stuff do not see Good Friday the same way I do, so my husband has to work. Bummer. I will attempt to go to Stations of the Cross at noon at my local Novus Ordo Church, and hope that the children behave and that I do not burst a blood vessel from some type of heterodox theatrics. Say a prayer it goes well.

In the meantime I will share with you what my Italian family customarily eats on Good Friday. It is something we call "Grass Pies." You take greens, any greens you like, but broccoli rabe is a must, spinach, dandelion and in my parents generation, we added collard greens and even if you have it a green called colalu. In a pot sautee some garlic, a couple of anchovies in olive oil, some sliced black olives and some chopped up hot peppers or crushed red pepper if you like. Add washed (and still wet) greens to the pot and simmer on low heat covered. When the greens are all dark and mushy (in Italian we say "shfat", Ido not know how you spell it though) you put them in in pizza dough. I guess in little rolled out cirles about 8 inches in diameter, put some greens in the middle, fold over and squish the sides together with the tines of a fork to make a little pouch. Now the customary thing to do is take these and deep fry them. I do not-too fattening, so we bake them.

In the meantime here are some Good Friday prayers a friend emailed to me (thanks Karen):

Prayer For Good Friday

"O, my Lord Jesus, I hereby beg of Thee, by the merits of Thy Precious Blood,
by Thy Divine Heart, and by the intercession of Thy Most Holy Death to assist
me in this pressing necessity."

(To be said 33 times for each intention. It must be said during the hours of
12 noon and 3 PM.)

~~~~~~~~~

Prayer for Good Friday

"I adore Thee, O Holy Cross, which has been adorned with the tender,
delicate, and venerable hands and feet of my Saviour, Jesus Christ, and
immured with the Precious Blood. I adore Thee, my God, nailed to the Cross
for me.
I adore Thee again, O Holy Cross, for the love of my Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Amen"

(Revealed to St. Bridget that if said devoutly 3 times on Good Friday that 33
souls would be released from Purgatory. 3 souls on ordinary days.)

Ecclesia de Eucharistia. 'Nuff said!

"It's not easy being..."

Green You are a very calm and contemplative person. Others are drawn to your peaceful, nurturing nature. Find out your color at Stvlive.com!

No Spin Zone
I have been reading the Bill O'Reilly book because I like his show. But when you read his book and dig a bit deeper into his perspective, he is pretty "liberal". He is a pro-contraceptive Catholic and he had the nerve to say Dr. Laura's attiutude that a parent should stay home with their children is "extreme". *Gasp!* How dare he! So I threw the book over the bed into the pile of books I stopped reading because someone said something in them that ticked me off. Gosh I am so "tolerant" aren't I?

In the meantime Bill O'Reilly had me grumbling while I was brushing my teeth and set off a Pansy Moss rant. I am not sure if any of the TSM readers have noticed my "spin" on things, but here it is:
-anti-contraception
-anti-abortion
-pro having a parent stay home with the children when it is possible

These are all major pet peeves of mine and I think they are all the same issue. Children are a gift from God, they are sacramentals and they are blessings not only to the parents but to society as a whole. We do not have the right to tell God when to send His souls, we do not have the right to reject them, we certainly do not have the right to have them ripped up into pieces out of inconvenience.

We have the responsibility to form His souls-to care for their physical and emotional needs. I think in modern America we emphasize physical needs to the point of excluding children's emotional ones. In the blink of an eye they are going to be grown-ups. When they are gone how are we going to answer the following questions:
-What kind of adults have we formed?
-Did I make the most of the time I had with them?
-Did I pass my values on to them, or did I allow someone else's values to fill up their time?

It is ridiculous to me that parents complain how inconvenient children are, inconvenient it is to give them life, inconvenient it is financially to be home with them to the degree that we see in this country. Children aren't supposed to be convenient. Who ever said that? They are supposed to turn your world upside down and change you into responsible person who puts others needs over their own. They are supposed to consume your time! What is a more worthwhile way to spend time then forming souls?

Sorry for the rant. Sometimes I am so frustrated when Fastolph locks me out of the house. Mostly I am so grateful and blessed to be a Mommy and all that emotion just spills over, I have to yell at someone how happy I am. And Fastolph locking me out makes for a good laugh with my husband at the end of the day. I hope I have a ton of these stories when I am old. I do not understand why people are so h__l bent in trying to convince others that happiness in parenthood is a figment of the imagination. It is not.

Yet she shall be saved through child bearing; if she continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety.

1 Timothy 2:15

Weird Weather!
Today is going to be 80 degrees. Just lovely. I am thinking of giving them a homeschooling day off due to nice weather. Not sure yet. Maybe just cover the basics. Anyway, here's the kicker, according to the forecast it's going to snow on Thursday and Friday. No more!

Feeling a bit better
I blogged a little while ago that my energy levels have been down. I was thinking perhaps it was my iron levels. Still not sure, but I made some changes in my diet-mainly more veggies. More exercise and God has blessed us with more sunshine has helped too I am sure. So on days we do not have to stay up all night with the baby's asthma, I have been feeling a bit better.

If I can just kick the coffee, I am sure I would be ideal. I get a kick out of my coffee because it is the only adult thing that is just for Mommy. I need it to remind me I am all growed up.

I need to take some more current pictures
But I am so Sleepy. I ordered some of the Eye Masque from my Mary Kay lady, but she has yet to deliver it. Until then, no pics until I can do something about my Sleepy Mommy eyes.

In the meantime, here is me and Gorbulas from last June. That would make him 4 months old. He looks about the same except bigger with a lot less hair (we cut it).

Gorbulas is doing much better
We brought him for his follow-up. When my husband brought him to the ER last night, they found an ear infection and gave him a one time shot of some super-duper broad spectrum antibiotic. I am not happy about that, My doctor was actually not happy about it either and said it was antibiotic overkill. I do not have a great deal of yogurt in my house and it occured to me I needed some after I came home. Ugh.

My doctor gave us a new nebuliser for the baby. We needed one. Ours is 7 years old and has been through three kids.

I went to Barnes and Noble with my daughter. She picked up a copy of
Mossflower, one of the Redwall series which she loves. I picked up a copy of
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Quilting and Bill O'Reilly's No Spin Zone. I had a hard time finding both, believe it or not. The craft books were in a hidden corner of the store, and the book I was looking for had a middle-aged lady in front of it hopping up over and over again trying to reach a book on a high shelf. I tried nicely to look around her but she wasn't taking the hint, so I scooted under her and snatched the book. I know a big ole "excuse me please?" would have sufficed, but I am weird like that. Fastolph, Rosey-Posey and Gorbulas were with me. With that many munchkins, the idea is to get in and out as quickly and quietly as possible before anyone starts to lose it.

The fact the O'Reilly's book was hard to find is odd because it is a New York Times number 1 best seller, but not unpredictable. It is not a self-help, or New Age book which seems to make the front displays at many Barnes and Nobles.

I have been buying a great deal of non-fiction lately because I feel the need to read it. Things like how-to books and so on. Yet reading it is like watching paint dry. With the exception of some theology, I cannot stand non-fiction. My mind wanders, I fall asleep, I get up and walk around. I still haven't finished Parenting with Grace or Square Foot Gardening or Ungodly Rage...

some other non-sensical things
Since Rosie O'Donnell Has come out of the closet, everyone makes a big deal about her close-cropped hair cut because it's so stereotypically lesbian-esque.

ROSIE'S NEW LOOK -- including this radical short haircut and masculine clothes is too much of a drastic change for Kelli.

Words like "radical," "masculine," and "drastic" are all designed to invoke disgust, fear, and dismay over O'Donnell's defiance of traditional feminine norms.

Never mind that her current look actually resembles most forty-something suburban American housewives.

I actually think it looks much more becoming then her previous "oh-I-have-no-idea-what-to-do-with-this-hair" do of her in-the-closet days. I was thinking that yesterday when I saw her on Nickelodeon "gee her hair looks so much better now."

Man, I am soooo Sleepy...

Thanks to Saddam Hussein for the link.

...because I am seriously Sleepy and I was afraid the grammatical and spelling errors would be compounded by an even more reduced state of brain function. My husband and I were only able to take a few catnaps last night with the baby's asthma attacks.

In the meantime, the baby will not let me put him down. I have a half made bed, I was going to make Jeanetta's Portuguese Muffins because she was kind enough to adapt the recipe to the bread machine. I am just sitting here trying to keep him calm and happy.I have a cute story about last night's dinner...

Peony gave me a recipe for a chicken stir fry dish called "Singing Chicken". The dish is yummy and calls for hot peppers. I love hot peppers. I am not sure if it is just me because I was raised on spicy food, or because I am just not as allergic to hot peppers as some, but I do not really notice if something is really hot.

I prepared the dish with the standard wimpy two chile peppers. I used jalapenos, because again, they are not spicy to me. A good, spicy pepper is a Jamaican Scotch Bonnet (or habanero). Now that's a pepper.

My family did not agree with my assesment that last night's dinner it had a slight "kick" to it. My husband told me his face went numb, my daughter kept refilling glasses of milk, but the two youngest turned red and had their tongues hanging out of their mouth. It was too cute. No I am not into torturing babies with hot peppers, but as a Mom everything babies do is so adorable. The funny thing is (kids after my own heart) they ate seconds.

As usual, good stuff from the Mighty Barrister, but he has some especially good pro-life arguments going on.

Are we having fun yet?
Gorbulas had/is having another asthma attack. We were almost asthma-free for quite a few weeks. He has been teething, then he started with a runny nose, and he had an asthma attack last night. We brought him to the ER. They found an ear infection and gave him a one time shot (which he loved) of an antibiotic. The breathing treatments have no taken effect quite yet. I just got off the phone with the nurse at the office, and there is not much we can do for him except continue with the nebuliser.

He has a follow-up appointment at 4 today.

Please say a little rayer for him.

A Baby's Feet
Algernon Charles Swinburne

A baby's feet, like sea-shells pink,
Might tempt, should heaven see meet
An angel's lips to kiss, we think,
A baby's feet.

Like rose-hued sea-flowers toward the heat
They stretch and spread and wink
Their ten soft buds that part and meet.

No flower-bells that expand and shrink
Gleam half so heavenly sweet,
As shine on life's untrodden brink
A baby's feet.

I hope I didn't sound too meow-meow catty with my comment but I get so frustrated. While Femi-Nuns are fighting for a woman's right to be men, I am desperately holding on to my right to be a woman. Inside the modernist Church, androgyny reigns supreme like some sort of virtue. In the secular world you have dumb-butt (can I say that?) article like this around. "Feminity" has been mistaken and replaced with (please excuse my language, but I do not know a better word) sluttiness.

The Church (the real one) is one of the last strongholds that appreciates the beauty of women. It is our sanctuary and I get annoyed when people try to wash that away.

Pansy likes her gender-so there!

I love being a woman and for as long as I can remember, I have been thankful to God for making me what I am. Not because I feel that being a woman is better then being a man, but the way God made me suits me just fine.

First, I feel so blessed to be able to so intimately be a part of God's creation in motherhood. I love to shop , I like to cook, I like to talk on the phone. I love nurturing my children and taking care of my husband. As a child I liked frilly dresses and tea parties. Now I realise that these traits do not necessarily make a woman a woman, but these are some of the things I have heard "real modern empowered women" scoff at.

I also like men-real men. Non-androgynous, going to the gym, non word mincing, sports playing, works-hard-for their-families men. Again, I realise I described my husband more then every man. But the fact is just as the lines of what makes a woman feminine (revealing clothes and birth control) have been blurred the ideas of what makes a man masculine have been reduced to going to the gym and using women.

Did people always have this much trouble distinguishing gender roles?

Update: I was also thinking about that dopey article I linked above.

All women want to get married. There are more unmarried couples living in America than ever before. The 2000 census reported there are 9.7 million Americans living with an unmarried different-sex partner... Women want to mother men. Women want to mother children and pets. Sure, some women have a salvation complex, but most are annoyed by men who can't take care of themselves...

I know many cohabitating couples and it drives me nuts. One of the things that drives me crazy is the women do twice the amount of work for the men I would do for my husband. Many of the women hold jobs, do the cooking and laundry, take care of the kids. One couple we know, the girl had a C-section on the Saturday before Thanksgiving and was cooking Thanksgiving dinner for his family.Then they do things like shovel the walk, take out the garbage, start and warm up the cars, drop the kids off at school while they allow the men to go out and party because they do not want to be seen as "high maintenance", "jealous" or "nagging".

Jeanetta and CWN blog talk about the prayer service for women's ordination held in the Milwaukee diocese. It makes my stomach hurt.

Walking to the altar Dahlberg held up the bread basket and chalice and said, "This is my body, this is my blood, Jesus said, do this and when you do this, you do it to remember me."

"And yet, they tell me you may not say those words, woman. You may not touch those vessels, woman," she said, adding "men who share intimate relations with a woman" may also not do so.

"You may not wear an alb as a priestly symbol," said Dahlberg, stripping off her stole and alb and tossing them to the ground at her feet.

"Yet the Holy Spirit has taught me and so many others, that they are wrong," said Dahlberg, "so I do stand in this holy sanctuary, a woman called by God to priestly service."

She put the alb and stole back on and declared that she will serve her church as a priest "whenever and wherever people call me to serve."

Oh my gosh, is there a violinist in the background to accompany the Sarah Bernhardt melodramatics? Aside from the heterodoxy, how can you take this seriously?

Along the same lines, the hostess nun of last month's Pastoral Planning meeting (where the Bishop talked about attending "sister's Mass") is receiving an award for "Pastoral Planning"(which I think is giving jobs reserved to priests to laity):

The Ilion native also is responsible for implementing new models of staffing parishes where a permanent deacon or non-ordained person is responsible for leading and administering the parish. Currently, these models are operative in 20 parishes in Albany , Delaware , Montgomery , Otsego, Rensselaer , Saratoga , Schoharie, Warren and Washington counties.

Women and Heart Disease
This month's issue of Shape Magazine had an imformative article about heart disease and women. Heart disease is the number 1 killer of women in this country, yet I think many people (well at least I do) tend to associate it more as a male disease. It was a good reality check for me because my both my parents suffer from heart disease, which automatically puts me at a higher risk.

I wanted to link the article, but could not find it online.

I did find an interesting site, National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease.
Here are some of their facts:

Prevalence:

* 8,000,000 American women are currently living with heart disease - 10% of women ages 45 - 64 and 25% age 65 and over.
* 6,000,000 of women today have a history of heart attack and/or angina or both. Nearly
* 13% of women age 45 and over have had a heart attack.
* 435,000 American women have heart attacks each year; 83,000 are under age 65 and 9,000 are under age 45. Their average age is 70.4.
* 4,000,000 women suffer from angina, and 47,000 of them were hospitalized in 1999.

Mortality:

* Heart disease is the leading cause of death of American women and kills 32% of them.
* 43% of American women, or nearly 500,000, die each year of cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke).
* 267,000 women die each year from heart attacks, which kill six times as many women as breast cancer.
* 31, 837 women die each year of congestive heart failure, or 62.6% of all heart failure deaths.
more...

To highlight some of the tips on heart disease prevention from the Shape magazine:
-Eat good quality fats
-Exercise as much as possible
-Keep weight down
-Reduce stress

Classic Exercise Video Plug
One of my all time favourite execise videos is
Reebok:The Video. This is slightly outdated (1992) because step aerobics is sort of passe, but it still remains my favourite type of work-out.

This work-out is awesome because it is a true step work-out. The rhythm is a slower pace, using a full range of motion to work your muscles as opposed to momentum in some more later dated and sloppier work-out tapes.

The instructor is Gin Miller, who invented step.

No matter how many work-out tapes I get, I always come back to this old classic and always get a decent work-out.

Yesterday my daughter asked me one of those questions
OK, not the one "so how does a baby get in Mommy's belly, but one almost as bad: Am I black or am I white?. You wonder why this question is so bad? I have no idea really how to answer it.
Am I black?
No Dear, you are sort of an orangy-peachy colour.
It may seem like I am being purposefully facetious, but growing up mixed (black and white), and then marrying mixed (Hispanic) these questions make less and less sense. They seem to hold no purpose within our family structure and are labels we need only to fit into the outside world.
Since my daughter asked me this just yesterday, I thought from the Village Voice in Davey's Mommy's blog sort of ironic.

As I get older I have a hard time one wondering why we care so much. Racial lines are increasingly not so black and white (no pun intended) and are getting harder to label. Perhaps it is a small sign that they are truly arbitrary.

I know it is wishful thinking on my part that we will throw them all out and view people as, um, "people". But it makes sense when we have to bend over backwards to make people fit into some category or another, like sticking square pegs into round holes. How do we really benefit from these labels anyway?

I thought this question from Catholic Exchange about why fish is not considered meat was very funny because Posco lectured me last Friday about making fish when we were not supposed to be eating meat.

Light Blogging-Feeling Blah
I am feeling real icky lately. I am wondering if it is diet related, or nursing two toddler related or both. I am so tired and short of breath (and I am not in that bad shape to be huffing and puffing from walking down the hall). I am going to attempt to up some iron in my diet through some extra green leafy veggies.

In the meantime, I am too tired to put my thoughts to words.

I think if I or anyone is real life walked around with eye make-up like this, I think it would look really dumb, trendy or not.

There is a Catholic Exchange article about the Feminist for Life New York billboards here in Albany.
No wonder it's snowing in April. Albany is making news for doing things that are complementary to Church teaching.

No Fair!
Does anyone notice Peony's weather pixie? Not only is she wearing that little spaghetti strap dress, it's 82 degrees there, and 36 degrees and raining here. When she mentioned gardening, I had this image of going out in the rain and cold, digging in mud. No wonder I couldn't relate! And also no wonder why that cat keeps visiting her weather pixie.

"Paging Pansy's Brain! Paging Pansy's Brain!"
OK, this Sleepy Mommy No Brain Affliction is getting really bad. I think it has to do with the fact that I resumed the habit of getting up at 4.30 AM to work-out.

Today I made a pot of coffee only to pour myself a cup of hot water-I forgot the coffee. And William Luse over at Apologia remarks:

who is so cute when she spells "there" "their"

Ack! Well, thank you for calling it "cute".

Fear Factor
One of the subjects Hubby and I do not see eye to eye on is he and the kids love to get together, pop some corn and sit around and watch the detestable show Fear Factor. Last night's show piqued my interest. The competitors were four couples, two married and two who behaved in a pseudo-married fashion.Here is an excerpt from their site that describes what happened

Fear Factor Episode 316
Original airdate: February 10, 2003
This was a special "couples" episode.
In this special couples episode (just in time for Valentine's Day!), teamwork was key. Four couples would be competing for the grand prize and would compete as teams in each stunt. Their first stunt involved a watery contraption that looked like something out of David Blaine's act. One team member would be locked in the upright, Plexiglas box and submerged underwater. His or her partner would have to dive in, unlock the locks and free them. Whichever three teams were able to resurface and snag the Fear Factor flag fastest would advance. The husband and wife team of Ed and Denise were up first. After a good luck kiss, Denise got into the box and was lowered into the water. Once she was fully submerged, Ed dove in and tried to work the locks. While Denise held her breath, Ed unlocked the locks, but hit a glitch when he tried to open the door. He had forgotten to unlatch the latches! Finally, he gave Denise a giant push towards the surface and followed her up. After a brief fumble getting the flag, their final time was 35 seconds. Kyle and Losmir were confident they could cut that time in half! Kyle said he was "super focused," and Losmir hoped he was right as she slowly descended into the chilly water. Kyle fumbled with the bottom lock and then abandoned Losmir as he swam up for air! She frantically gave the signal to quit and rescue divers rushed in to her rescue. Kyle's excuse was that he just started freaking out. Losmir joked that they were breaking up tomorrow. Now, all the remaining couples had to do was complete the stunt to advance. Justin and Vena were next. Once Vena was submerged, Justin dove in. He was quick with the first two locks, but could Vena's lung capacity hold out? Finally, she was free, but the latches were stuck! After seconds of trying to push out - she gave the signal to quit. She emerged with a bloody finger and an annoyed boyfriend. And then there were two…Hopefully, newlyweds (and former lifeguards) Jason and Misty could complete the stunt! Misty took a deep breath just before Jason dove in. He got the first lock and latch quickly, but Misty looked desperate for air. The next two locks went fast and Misty had the flag in hand in thirty seconds! Both married couples advanced to day two!

Ladies, there is a lesson in there for you. Do not a trust a man with your life who will not give you his.

Mommy brain dementia
Wednesdays I strip the boys' bunk bed and wash their sheets. So this morning I stripped their beds and washed their sheets, because well, today is Wednesday...

It didn't occur to me that it was Tuesday until lunch time and when the job was done.