The State of Parental Rights in America

Ever since this DVD arrived in the mail, I have been excited to watch it. I have many Vision Forum DVDs, CDs and even a few cassette tapes from back in the day. I am never disappointed. This afternoon I sat down with my family and watched this timely message from Don Hart. As usual, I am most impressed! As an attorney, Don Hart not only gave all the evidence from a constitutional and legal standpoint concerning the assault on parental rights, he also gave a resounding wake up call to all Americans on our slow march to socialism and government control. It was eye-opening and scary.

I chose this DVD because I knew the topic of the illegal and immoral seizure of the FLDS children would be discussed. There were many details I did not know and it made the whole situation all the more chilling. Really, any parent in the United States today must hear this message! Our parental freedoms are at stake!!

If you are interested in these DVDs, they are part of a new 5 DVD collection called Reclaiming the Culture. Also, on Doug's Blog, there is a $25.00 off coupon for a purchase of $75.00 or more good through May 30th. Quite a deal!

Thank you, Vision Forum, for your continued bold pursuit of justice and holiness amid a perishing world.

A new baby!

Can you find our new baby? Look close...

Here. I'll give you a better look. All together now... "Ohhhh!" "Ahhhh!" Isn't he just the cutest little thing you ever did see?? Here is our 9 week old kitten which we aptly named Buttermilk. He looks just like a tall glass of buttermilk. Our pastor's cat had kittens and, because we simply do not have enough animals at our house, we decided we would bring this one home with us. He's so sweet I could just eat him up!

Last night when we first got home, Buttermilk was not feeling the love. He was saying he'd rather get away from the room full of scary people. Especially the scary toddler people who like to kiss kittens square on the lips over and over again. He found safety amongst the books.

But today, as you see above, he has come to love his new bed and he's pretty happy with the buckets of love being showered upon him. OK, 'pretty happy' might be too strong a word. But, there's a certain wild eyed baby boy that's running behind him squealing, "Wuv Kee Kee!!" who is definitely pretty happy with his new Buttermilk.Don't worry, Buttermilk, I'll save you.

Social Networking

I am so 'with it', 'hip', 'cool' and/or 'totally awesome'. Are any of those phrases still in use today? I hope so or I'll look rather 'out of it', 'luke warm', and/or 'completely dweebish'. You may or may not have noticed that I don't do as much writing on the blog as I once did. There is a perfectly wonderful explanation for this. I have an addiction a healthy admiration for facebook and twitter. It's a wonderful thing! I have reconnected with 126 of my favorite high school friends, long lost extended family, former and current church friends, old friends, new friends and the checkout girl at Publix. What's not to love?!

So, if you are just dying to know what I had for lunch or where I plan to go in the afternoon on any given day, you can follow me on Twitter (see my sidebar and below) and/or 'friend' me on facebook. I am doing most of my writing there these days.

That's not to say I am leaving this old blog behind. It's my family scrapbook. It's where I tell my funny baby stories, harrowing encounters with garden snakes and joyful descriptions of everything else... all the things I can't fit into 140 characters or less. But, really. Blogs are so last week. And, I'm a girl on the cutting edge.

There are graduations... and then there are graduations

Yesterday, I had the privilege and honor of attending the graduation ceremony of our much beloved friend, Sherlock. Sherlock's father stood at the podium and spoke of what a blessing his son is to him, what a delight he is to his mother and what a gifted and godly young man he is becoming. I couldn't agree more. Sherlock, there are very few young men like you. You are a rare jewel in Christ's kingdom.

It is not every graduation ceremony that focuses, not on academic achievement, but on spiritual maturity. It is not every graduation that a young man's father stands before him with Scripture opened charging his son with the responsibilities outlined for him in God's Word. It is not every graduate that sits at the feet of his pastor as he exhorts him to strive not after fame and fortune but after the very heart of God. No, there are not many graduations like this graduation.

I am humbled to be part of a congregation that is not afraid to place the Word of God before us as our standard. I am humbled to know families like Sherlock's family, who boldly step away from the traditions of man and embrace the old paths. I am humbled and challenged to watch this next generation on the precipice of the rest of their lives with more knowledge and understanding of the Lord than I had in my first forty years. What a bold witness they all are, not just to me, but to a fallen dying world.

Sherlock, thank you for including us in your ceremony. You are as a plant grown up and bring glory to your Lord, your parents and all who know and love you. Well done!

I couldn't speak on Sherlock's graduation without including a picture of his cake. You thought I made that, didn't you? I'd like to leave you with that impression. But, alas, this cake was made by a someone else. With skills. :-)

With love, The Roly Polys

Another necessary observation

Last night I attended my nephew's high school graduation. Suddenly graduations are piling up with many of our friends graduating their children. We have seven graduations this year. Wow.

The fact it's May and that means there are lots of graduations is not what's surreal. The surreal part is that I'm not the one walking across the stage accepting a diploma or watching my friends do the same. The surreal part is I'm a perpetual member of the audience watching my children and my friends' children do it. As usual I am surprised I'm old enough to have a grown up child. I'm even more surprised that everyone I know (and many I have known since we were teenagers) has grown up children.

Here are some things I observed last night amidst family, friends, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

1) Children get younger and younger at high school graduations every year.

2) Since one of the graduating boys (who I have known since he was missing his front teeth) joined the Marines this week, I am old enough to be the mother of a soldier defending me and my country against Al Queda terrorists. I am also old enough to be the mother of a soldier that carries and knows how to use automatic weapons. Just think on that for a minute.

3) My nephew, who is not even my oldest nephew, is sporting a sassy looking goatee. The baby boy I remember from just yesterday is certainly not old enough for facial hair. I'm just sayin'.

4) Most of my friends were graduating their second, third, fourth, etc. child. Most of them were not graduating their first. Like me, the first graduation has come and gone and we're now on to graduating our younger children. Which, for some reason, correlates to me feeling older. Why is that?

5) At 9:30pm, I'm barely conscious and ready to fall into bed. At 9:30pm, high school graduates are ready to paint the town and meet up at IHOP around 2am for breakfast. I used to be able to do that. I used to be young once.

As you can see, my mid-life crisis is ongoing. When will I come to grips with my elderliness? Only time will tell.

Congratulations, Zach, on your high school graduation!! You make your old decrepit elderly favorite aunt proud!!

Serious Summer Readers

Yesterday. Just yesterday I enrolled both Hannah Banana and Cindy Lou in our local library's summer reading program. You know the drill. Read this many pages, get a ticket, redeem ticket for cheap plastic trinket which will quickly become yard sale fodder. These reading programs, though, are the bees knees to two little girls who get simply giddy for cheap plastic trinkets!

For Hannah, it's not about the reward, it's about filling up each and every line on her reading form. I keep telling her she doesn't actually have to read 84 books. They just put 84 lines so you'll definitely have enough room or to fill up the page or for children reading simpler books or (insert other explanation here). This doesn't do it for Hannah. Because there are 84 lines, she will read 84 books. 84 long chapter books. Because she's Hannah and that's how she rolls.

Cindy Lou, on the other hand, is all about the reward. We enrolled early so we could get a free cookie from the library coffee shop. Only the first 150 kids got that! Score one for Cindy Lou already! She's already deciding exactly how many pages she has to read to earn the three inch pink sparkly stuffed pony. The girl's got goals. You have to give her that. She's already read AN ENTIRE BOOK! Helen Keller with 180 pages, done. She's now on to Sarah, Plain and Tall. She'll knock that one out by dinner time.

Oh, and did I mention that for every 500 pages read, you get entered into a drawing at the end of the summer for a new bike! My girls are after that bike. And, I dare say, they'll have the most entries in the bowl at this rate.

Read, girls! READ!!!

The view from the garden

(pictures courtesy of Hannah Banana when she swiped Mom's camera one afternoon without asking... tsk, tsk, girlfriend!)

A necessary observation

On the 18th of May I should be poolside slathered in my Hawaiian Tropic Dark Tanning Coconut Oil (remember when sunscreen was for sissies?) with a good book baking like a lobster, the scent of chlorine permeating the air....

Not sitting next to my space heater in my purple fuzzy socks and warm woolen mittens.

Thank you and good night.

How to deduct 10 years from your life in 5 easy steps

1) Hold your mildly ill baby in your lap and prepare for a quiet evening at home.

2) Watch in cold blooded terror as your baby boy begins to have a seizure right in your lap. Be sure to note the stiff arms, drooling, and the eyes rolling back in his head.

3) Feel your blood pressure orbit as you watch paramedics rush into your living room and grab your limp unresponsive baby and begin to work on him.

4) Ride in the back of an ambulance going 87 miles per hour through traffic as all the cars pull over so your baby can get to the hospital. While trying to keep from having a panic attack, answer every question known to man as the ambulance attendant fills out paperwork including the city where you were born. Do not expect to have any clue where you were born under those circumstances.

5) Hold a screaming baby for two hours as a battery of scary tests are run to find even scarier diseases.

To add a year or two back to your life, praise the Lord when they tell you your baby had a febrile seizure which is very common and harmless. It is not very common or very harmless to the psyche of the mothers of the world, however. For the abundance of gray hair this incident will cause, I recommend Miss Clairol.

(Update: Noah is still sick today but no more seizures. We saw our regular doctor this morning who ran more tests. He assures me that though there is the slightest increase in risk that the baby may develop a seizure disorder, for the most part these seizures are very benign to the baby. But, not to the parents who have weak hearts and constitutions. Said parents also plan to never sleep again. Thank you to everyone who has called, come by, and emailed. Y'all are the hands and feet of Christ!)

Motherhood. It ain't for sissies!

Gardens and Roly Poly musings

I thought you might enjoy a few new pictures since things in the garden are changing by the minute. Here is our persimmon tree full of future persimmons.
From plain dirt boxes to this in two short weeks.

Remember my little bitty kale plants? Look at them now! That's broccoli on the last row.

Here comes the squash!

And the basil...

And the pickling cucumbers. Do I know how to make pickles? Absolutely not. That's on my list of 'Things to Learn Pronto'.

Now here is a problem that I'm having. There is some critter eating my seedlings. Every single leaf of my seedlings. In fact, the critter has completely decimated my watermelon seedlings! I've been trying to figure out what the critter could be and I finally figured it out. Roly Polys (or is it Roly Polies? Or Roly Poli?) I have never seen them eat plants but upon further research I have found that they do, in fact, devour seedlings leaves and roots. I can attest that this is true. The question is, how do I get rid of them in a nice toxin-free, organic way? Suggestions anyone? I want some watermelon this year!!

Here are my turnips without showing the Roly Poly mangled under leaves. They look great from the top.

Roly Polys don't like lettuce. Thankfully.

My okra is starting to come up. This is Cajun Horn.

Here is my corn. There are four stalks planted here and I plan another bed for some succession planting. This bed will have a 'Three Sisters' garden. I've always wanted to try that!

Dang Roly Poli!

My beans and peas are a favorite target of the Roly Poly. This is the first of three (so far) succession plantings. Hopefully this rain will slow down and the Roly Poly population will come under control.

The tomatoes look fabulous and they are growing like crazy. It thrills my salsa loving heart to see this!

And, last but not least, look at those blackberries!!! Also, look at those thorns. I think Mr. P is going to rue the day I chose the Kiowa over the Thornless. It's all about flavor, honey!

There it is! How is your garden growing? Mine is full of hope, promise and Roly Poli. One of these things is not like the other. One of these things just doesn't belong. Can you tell which thing is not like the other, before I finish this song...

For my mother

Mother Mine

O Mother mine, if I can be

To little ones who look to me,

A mother half as sweet and wise

And tender; if they but surmise

That in your likeness I have tried

To grow, I shall be satisfied,

Mother mine.

~Author Unknown

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!