I have to say I had many reservations about McCain for a long time, but little by little, he starting to win me over.

Dear Mr. Luse was the first person I thought about when I heard about this.

So what am I going to do? Well, I just mopped the kitchen floor with the joy of knowing it will stay clean for more than 10 whole minutes, and I scrubbed the kitchen trash can knowing no little person is going to throw something sticky away in between the kitchen bag and the can for a few days. I am sewing some lunch bags for Rosey Posey and Posco for school next week, and UPS just dropped Archbishop Chaput's book off on my doorstep. Tonight I am going to bake one, count them, only one calzone for supper (which is barely cooking at all) and hope it doesn't send my blood sugar sky rocketing (which has also become an issue as of late-but I am tired of complaining, I have 5 months left to complain on this blog about that). I might even go to breakfast on my own one day.

It's so weird that there was a time in my life that I started out as one person. Can't remember...

If you were asked to name the technologies whose proliferation inadvertently threatens the human race, what would you include? IEDS? Assault rifles? Nuclear warheads?

Add this one to your list: the sonogram machine...

Eberstadt explains that there is a "slight but constant and almost unvarying excess of baby boys over baby girls born in any population." The number of baby boys born for every hundred baby girls, which is so constant that it can "qualify as a rule of nature", falls along an extremely narrow range along the order of 103, 104, or 105. On rare occasions it even hovers around 106...

...Yet in a number of Chinese provinces--with populations of tens of millions of people--the reported sex ratio at birth ranges from over 120 boys for every 100 girls to over 130 boys for every 100 girls. Eberstadt notes that this is "a phenomenon utterly without natural precedent in human history."

One commenter to the article notes:

I've said it over and over again, those 30 million Chinese men WILL find mates. If they have to invade India, Iran or wherever.

HT:This One Goes to 11 by Margaret Cabaniss

One common complaint was of a family member who at one point in her life discovered QVC and before she knew it was deep in credit card debt. She later remedied the problem and cut up her cards, but the topic comes up every now and then in family circles. When I think about my relative, and where she was in her life, I could easily see how she made such a mistake. I said so last time the topic came up: "you know, if I didn't have a bunch of kids and I had time to watch QVC, and had disposable income, I could see myself doing the same thing." Of course my family's reaction was simply "oh yeah, of course you would!" as opposed to putting themselves in our relative's shoes.

But it's true. I think there are a ton of really stupid things I would do if I didn't have children to force me to be more responsible and gain perspective. Or be healthy. Another trait that runs in my family is perfectionism and OCD. I will not at all claim I am not OCD, not by a long shot. But having a bunch of littles, four of which are boys in a row, and the various pets, germs, spills, and diapers will cure you quickly. Before I freaked when everything wasn't clean and spotless. I kew we'd get bugs, or diseases or a random social worker would stop by and say "You have children here? In this house with two spots on the white area rug?!?" Today I just tell them make sure they don't use the couch cushions to build their forts when company comes, so no one sees the crunched up Goldfish crackers underneath them.

Although dirt is not limited to little boys. Yesterday I had my daughter in a white t-shirt and pink capris. The second she got out, she hopped and giggled, and rolled on the ground. Back and forth and proceeded to roll under the van. My three year decided to help her by doing what any three-year old would do, he started prodding her with a stick under the van (I think the giggles coming from under the van were too much for him). My neighbors came home from Dollar General or Wal-Mart or where ever it is they go to look on in horror as my toddler rolled and giggled. I had the sudden urge to say "neighbor's kid" but I knew that wouldn't hold water since they were my neighbors. I was a responsible Mommy. I sat on the porch and yelled (quite forcefully, mind you) "Hey You, Fredegar! Stop poking your sister with a stick when she is rolling around under the van!" Actually my husband was only two feet away and he retrieved her right away, so I was really not as neglectful as I sounded.

When she emerged she was blackened with dirt, her little white t-shirt and her little pink pants. Another time, i would have required some sort of tranquilizer. These days "oh well, that's why God gave us pre-treater,"

I think everyday there is another reason having children gives me a better sense of perspective.

A new Planned Parenthood clinic in a minority neighborhood of Denver should be taken as an offense, affirmed the archbishop of the city.

Archbishop Charles Chaput said this at a prayer vigil and march at the site of Planned Parenthood's new clinic in a primarily Latino and African-American suburb of Denver...

"Planned Parenthood is the largest single provider of abortion and family suppression services in the United States," he explained. "This facility in this minority neighborhood should offend every African-American and Latino family, and all of us, because every child lost to abortion here subtracts one more life, one more universe of possibilities and talent, from the future of this community. […] The business of Planned Parenthood is the prevention of the future -- and business is good, and very profitable, at the expense of this community."

HT:The Curt Jester

moar:

My husband called and got the same lecture-I think the woman taped it and replayed it from the last time. But thank you Dear Husband, his reply was something like "well I don't give a crap, I need those records." He called the next day and got more attitude. So we decided on Plan B. we called the County Health Office and asked about having the kid's shots redone because by the time these people get off their posteriors...County Health said that idea was fine, it shouldn't hurt them medically and just get a note saying they got their first round of shots...First i called our brand new family practitioner. Another problem,he doesn't do immunizations. He prefers patients 5 and up because he doesn't have enough pediatric patients to keep immunizations around.

Sooo, I call the local pediatrician (there are two, and one happened to be my previous landlord, so we refuse to go to him). We explain the situation, they say "fine", just change your insurance. I did. I called again and explained to make the appointment. OK, no problem. Yesterday was the appointment. When I get there, I explain the kids are new patients because the receptionist seemed baffled by my lack of records. We are waiting and the other four kids with me, especially the two youngest are not behaving, they are commotion making, and one of course had to have an "accident". When the receptionist called my oldest two in, I asked her if they could just go in as I had all the smaller children, and explained again what they needed-their first round of shots for school as we cannot locate their records, and a note to the schools stating they got their first round and will continue to get the rest of their immunizations.

The doctor refused to give them their shots because they didn't have their records. But while they were in the office, he gave them a lecture about what's wrong with home schooling: "Does your mother know physics? Does she know calculus? I'm a doctor and I don't even know physics and calculus. That's why you need to be in school." Are you freakin' kidding me?

My friend says I really need the t-shirt that says: " please comment on my life. i need your judgment"

I thought I must have been wearing the shirt, but my friend pointed out that since I home school, it is not legible. If I had the shirt, I would seriously wear it at this point.

Yesterday, when I told my husband this story, he called the doc's office in NJ back and yelled at them some more, so they should be faxing the records over today.

Update: The doctor did fax over the immunization records. That is done. There was trouble deciding what grade to put Rosey Posey into because the home schooling contact person at the School Board would not return my calls. My husband went to the school and complained. The guidance counselor called right back today, put her in 10th grade and even said to Rosey Posey over the phone "there should be no problem because you home schoolers are always advanced."

Now I am hearing the middle school is worse than the public. A friend of mine is getting me an application for the local Catholic school (which is supposedly one of the few orthodox Catholic schools in the diocese) for tuition assistance. I wasn't going to put them in the Catholic school because we cannot afford it. My friend said they give out so much assistance to non-practicing Catholics, she would rather see people from families like mine helped out and to spread a genuine Catholic atmosphere in their parish school. What a nice compliment. :)

I know that sounds horribly judgmental because I cannot truly read a person's heart. But I live in the diocese of Albany. The Albany area is something like 60% Catholic, yet we are closing Churches at phenomenal rates. In meetings with the Bishop he cannot resist (after delivering some new heterodox policy or another Church closing), talking about going back to our "Irish Catholic families". My husband said he would go to work, and everyone would be Catholic, yet he would be the only one abstaining from meat on Fridays during Lent...or go to Mass on Sundays...and was jabbed at for having more than two kids.

And again, I do not think this is limited to "Irish Catholics". My family is Italian and it is the same thing: they go to Mass, have statues of saints in every corner, make Novenas, yet criticize every name I pick for a child ("Francisco Augustine? Where'd you get a name like that?"), are quick to say God doesn't exist when life becomes a little difficult, and oh gosh, how they ride me hard for the number of children I have. They actually do not differentiate between Italian customs and Catholic ones. Sunday Mass is a place to socialize and exchange gossip more than it is where you get graces and instructions in ultimately how best to get to Heaven.

My mother in law does the same thing-she thinks customs that are actually Puerto Rican in origin: "October is special in Puerto Rico, Puerto Ricans take out their rosaries and wear them around their necks." Oh. I didn't have the heart to tell her that October is a month dedicated to Mary to Catholics throughout the world because she was honestly trying to connect to me on my level, which is something she rarely, is ever, does.

So getting to the point, I came across this Inside Catholic by Deal Hudson about why Obama picked Joe Biden as a running mate-because he thinks we Catholics are "cultural" and that will win back any Catholics lost in Saddleback:

Our Church is no longer a place where telling a few “Pat and Mike” jokes and stories about Notre Dame football or Georgetown basketball can take the place of basic Catholic beliefs.

That kind of Catholic identity was born out of the age of assimilation when many Catholics, immigrants, or descendants from immigrants achieved the American dream of college and a home in the suburbs.

John Paul II, and now Benedict XVI, led American Catholics away from their infatuation with secularism and the culture of death it espouses. True Catholic identity, they reminded us, is established by embracing the Church's view of life, marriage, and the family, positions particularly despised by secularists and leftists.

It never occurred to me before that my own revert experience had a lot to do with the evangelization efforts of JPII. It totally makes sense. But all these I thought the Church was just waiting there for anyone who wanted to scratch below the surface of their cultural Catholicism. Of course it was, but this is part of a larger plan. It also brings me comfort to see the cultural thing is an old, dying trend. People should not be dismissed from Church communities on the basis of not growing up in a parish. Nor should we embrace a pro-choice candidate for simply being "one of us". But it's not like I was going to vote for Obama for being black either.

HT:Catholics Against Joe Biden

Here's the catch: according to Dree and Bree, Bree's house is haunted. Every once in a while Dree comes home with tales of odd lights or shadows. Last weekend apparently was quite and adventure for the two girls with all kinds of spooky events. Dree relayed them to me the tale in the hopes I would believe her. I did because similar things have happened in my grandmother's haunted house. So I did what any Catholic mother in my place would do-I handed her a St. Benedict medal to keep with her if she is worried.

Bree was absolutely baffled that a medal with an exorcism prayer exists, and even worse, that Dree's mom just happened to have one handy. (I don't know, I think my mom has a wooden chest under her bed with all kinds of stuff like that...)

According to Dree, the conversation went as follows:

Bree: so did you tell your Mom about the incident with the ghosts at my house?

Dree: Yeah

Bree: Well, what did she say?

Dree: Um, nothing much, she gave me a St. Benedict exorcism crucifix.

Bree: silence...A what?!? What is that and there is such a thing?

Dree: explains to her what it is etc...

Bree: Well, what makes it special?

Dree: Well, it was blessed by a priest.

Bree: And what makes him special?

Dree: Well he was ordained.

Bree: What does missing body parts have to do with it?

silence

Bree: Um, ordained doesn't mean "missing body parts" does it?

Dree: No, Bree no.

Well, that's done with. All parents and grandparents down. Not a single congratulations. Just anger form people who take as little interest in our lives as possible in the best of circumstances. I'm beat.

But the absent mindedness-this is ridiculous! I tried to sew the simplest top for my daughter today, and what a fiasco I got myself into! It was going to be a nice Sunday project and a surprise for my daughter. I think the stupid thing had like 7 steps total or something like that. First I couldn't thread my serger. I just sat there staring at the dang thing looking at the arrows wondering what to do next. Then the instructions might as well have been in Greek or upside down. I kept getting the steps wrong. Normally, I have been sewing long enough that I've seen the steps so many times before, so they need not be scrutinized too carefully. For example, I don't have to read how to hem a skirt, or even need the instructions to tell me that is the last step. But I made the dumbest mistakes. I kept sewing the wrong pieces together when I totally knew better and wonder "why on earth did I do that?" Then I went to press the interfacing onto a piece of fabric, but had it upside down, so I only succeeded in getting it stuck to the ironing board. I was like in this perpetual state of dysfunction.

At the time it was frustrating, now it is almost comical.Today I learned a valuable lesson: if I am going to sew for fun these days, realize that is all it is going to amount to: fun , but don't expect anything to be worn...unless it is out of revenge.

I wish someone would have explained that to me right then and there. I am guessing when I went inside and asked my 13-year old to watch her while I spoke to my husband...he sort of didn't, and didn't want to tell me...I don't know. That's the only explanation that makes sense about how this all happened, how she got back up the steps and on our property without a peep, and was playing where I left her, within the time frame...who cares. I am grateful she's OK and no social workers will be knocking on my door . I am not letting her out again...without a leash. This job is hard.