Cute kid bits:

Taryn learned how to make lego sheep and forms them by the dozens. Yesterday Rob inquired about the extra long lego pieces on their backs. Apparently they are capes because they are "super sheep".

When Ashlin finds a feather, she tells everyone it's a "piece of bird."

Today was a fairly guilt free mothering day. I stayed calm in discipline, and I did lots of things with my kids: a play date, the library and the school yard. I say guilt-free because I feel majorly guilty if I don't get out and do things with my kids, escpecially in summer. I still remember reading something on the internet from a mom who said she tried to get out with her kids every day no matter what the weather. My reaction? Guilt. Hmm, I don't get out every day. In winter I don't even get out every week. I'm depriving my kids. I am not a very good mom. Never mind that I have no idea if this woman ever faces 40 below temperatures. Never mind that she may not have ever felt a sore back or a migraine. At that moment, her statement became a standard that I failed to live up to.

Silly, I know. I'm trying harder to just do what works for me and my family and forget about what others say (you know, outside of God and the Bible and all that). Today, during our play date my friend said she didn't let her kids watch "Caillou" anymore (or as Rob calls him, the little bald-headed mutant) because her daughter was picking up on some of the bad attitude bits and taking them on as her own. My instantaneous reaction? I let my kids watch 'Caillou'. Maybe I shouldn't. Luckily I've learned enough to reevaluate that as soon as it popped into my head. My kids don't have the same reactions. If they did, I would do the same thing. Slowly but surely I'm learning to let reason, not guilt, be my guide. (And the Holy Spirit of course - when I actually understand him - if I understand him. But that's another post.)

I was reading this morning Adrian Plass's take on Matt 5:42: "Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you."

Plass was approached by a "habitationally challenged" individual for money, and Plass gave him five pounds, saying, "I give you this money trusting that you will put it to the best possible use." The man replied, "Well, actually, I was thinking of having a drink." "Precisely," Plass replies, "that's exactly what we would have done with the money if I'd kept it. Goodnight to you."

Made me recall Michael Coren's column where he condemns the tax cuts the Ontario government was making on the grounds that we all know that the rich will only spend this extra money on imported brandy.

I've been uncomfortable with giving money away, and I know many others who feel the same. The grounds for this is often based on the concept of "good stewardship". I presume this comes out of the parable of the talents, and what I read in there is that God is dissappointed in us holding back rather than taking risks and giving. Yet "good stewardship" is used as an excuse to hold back and not give.

Yeah, people use money for vices. So do I. Yeah, money can end up in criminals' pockets. Is it possible that even this could come to good for the sake of the kingdom?

Truth be told, the directive of Jesus seems pretty straightforward, and outside of the stewardship excuse, what it really comes down to is that I'm afraid. I'm afraid that if I give my money for others' wants and needs, that there won't be enough for my wants and needs.

Incidently, Buechner on communion:

Unfermented grape juice is a bland and pleasant drink ... [but] it is a ghastly symbol of the life blood of Jesus Christ, especially when served in individual antiseptic, thimble-sized glasses. Wine is booze, which means it is dangerous and drunk-making. It makes the timid brave and the reserved amorous. It loosens the tongue and breaks the ice especially when served in a loving cup. It kills germs. As symbols go, it is a rather splendid one.

Sitting in church this morning while sipping my java (lovingly brewed by hubby just before leaving), I was eyeing the communion ready to go up front and thought, "We should have communion with coffee because of it's life giving properties."

I may not be so far off. If Jesus had come to our society in this time, I think the last supper would have been bread and coffee. Wine seems to have been a very common drink when he walked the earth, there are quite a few references to it. Wine makers were probably as common as Starbucks. At the last supper, he was not giving them a drink they thought to be special, but one quite ordinary, and giving it unique symbolism.

Think I can get the church to change over?

 I wrote the following just before the last federal election. Sent it to newspapers, but no one touched it. So here it finds a place to be heard...maybe:


"A woman’s right to choose."
Now that the subject of abortion has once again reared it’s head in the latest federal election we hear that phrase bleated over and over again by seemingly mindless sheep following their politically correct shepherds. ""A woman’s right to choose. Baaaa. A woman’s right to choose. Baaaa."
I find it quite repugnant that an important philosophical and moral debate has been reduced to a cute catch phrase.
A while back someone was trying to change my position on abortion. I asked her if she knew what a D&X abortion was. She said no. I asked her if she wanted to. She said no. That is the mindset that plagues much of the pro-choice worldview. It is one that trumpets slogans but averts it’s eyes from the realities of the situation.
The terminology used is one of the most blatant examples of this. Terms have been coined, such as "products of conception" and "uterine contents" that mask the true nature of what an abortion does. We rarely talk this way when we want to have understanding of what is growing and thriving in the womb. You don’t hear parents tell their children that mommy has a product of conception inside of her. Nobody says, "Oh, my uterine contents just kicked." These terms conjure up images that do not match with the reality of what the unborn look like and how well-developed they are.
But terminology is employed to distort truth. While we can argue endlessly of whether of not these little ones (this is what "fetus" means) are truly people, we cannot argue that they are indeed human (they have the DNA to prove it).
Abortion kills a human. That is not an opinion, that is a fact. And as thinking and feeling are not suddenly bestowed on a child in the birth process, abortion kills humans who experience fear and pain in the process. We don’t even allow our pets to be put down in such a heartless manner.
Abortion creates the ethical dilemma between one’s right to control her own body and another’s right to live. Society desires to ignore the latter side of the equation and pretend that abortion is only about the former. The reason the "right to choose" has won out is not because of any moral or philosophical superiority. It has won out because the unborn are unseen and cannot speak for themselves. It has won out because, like Gollum with the ring, "We wants it." We are not comfortable with the dilemma, so we pretend it doesn’t exist. But it does exist. It is morally inexcusable to only consider one human’s rights, especially when the cost to the other human is so high. It is extremely disrespectful to women to mask this dilemma in rhetoric rather than encourage them to consider the moral implications of their decisions. And it says very little of us as a society that we do little discussion of this with thoughtfulness and intelligence, acknowledging all the facts that are involved in the issue. Instead, we resort to endlessly chanting slogans that sound nice.
The one way the dilemma can be resolved and both humans’ rights upheld simultaneously is for women to choose to let the unborn live. Yet we are hesitant to encourage this as the best option. Women are frequently not given the full facts of the nature of the unborn and the possible physical and emotional repercussions of abortion. Waiting times or mandatory counselling are seen as an affront to women’s rights. Women who release for adoption are encouraged to carefully consider their options and the possible negative consequences. There are waiting times to help them make sure they are making the best decision for them. Women who abort have no such legal protection. Abortion is treated simply as a medical procedure and the relationship with the one within is ignored.
I think women deserve better. I think they deserve to know the truth about the unborn and about abortion. I think they deserve to have people who encourage them to wrestle through the moral issues rather than gloss over them with abortion rights semantics. I think women are strong enough to be challenged to make decisions that benefit more than just themselves. I think society should quit sticking it’s head in the sand, stop spouting platitudes and face up to what abortion is about. It’s not as clear-cut as a simple right to choose, and it’s time we stop pretending that it is.

"Herpes are an accident," Taryn said to me.
Where is my 4 year old learning about STDs, I'm wondering.
I question her in a calm, I'm not alarmed sort of way, and can see on her face she is totally confused.
"No, when Ashlin pees, they are accidents."
Aaah - toilet training commentary.

11 pounds down!
This is from what I weighed following Conor's birth after giving myself a couple of weeks to lose the excess fluid. It's 27.5 pounds down from where I started this up and down journey almost 2 years ago.

Yesterday, when I was again feeling stressed out by the state of my house and toilet training Ashlin I remembered what has really worked for me:

Fun.

Somehow I've gotten through life while knowing very little about having fun. I'm always in a mindset of, I'll do something fun when (we can afford it, when I'm finished my tasks, you name it) and I put off fun until I think I deserve it. I never seem to deserve it.

So when Rob came home I told him we're all going out for ice cream tonight, to heck with the money situation. I'm tired of being concerned with money. Jesus didn't seem to be. We went to DQ and I had a Pecan Mudslide, my craving of choice when I was preggers with Taryn (Yes, I can lose weight and eat ice cream - that's been another key to success - moderation, not deprivation).

On the way back we both suddenly saw something blue peeking up above the trees as we crossed Chief Peguis. It was a hot air balloon, getting ready to take off. We quickly diverted into Kildonan Park where we thought it was situated but then saw it rising into the air before we could get closer. Then, we saw 2 more balloons readying for take-off. We parked and walked closer, the kids seeing for the first time how big those things they've seen in the sky really are. They flew low right over us as they gained altitude up and to the north. We could stare right up into the interior. It was so cool.