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Earlier this week I posted a baby quilt (leftover from Lyd's yard/craft sale)on CraigsList. After getting no hits and seeing the alarming amount of baby stuff listed, I reposted under the arts and crafts section yesterday. Today I had two hits. One suggesting another website that she thought the quilt would sell well on, and the other was very strange. The lady said I must be either desperate for money or looking for a job so to contact her. I deleted her e-mail. I'm not looking for a job and we're trusting God to do His part in providing adoption funds for the Wells while trying to do ours. I just wanted to sell a quilt! Between all the horror stories coming out about CraigsList and the recent article on human trafficking in North Carolina in Bobby's recent law journal, the last thing I want to do is reply to an e-mail from someone who thinks I'm desperate. That was more than a little creepy.

a month long vacation

It's not uncommon for people in Europe to get a whole month off for vacation. Now, I know people who here who get four weeks of vacation, but I imagine if any of them tried to take them all at one time they would be looking for another job! Yet, at this moment, the thought of a month-long vacation sounds very appealing.
I know there would still be laundry and cooking to do, but could you imagine 3 weeks of reading, sleeping, sewing, walking, and writing at either the mountains or the beach? (Yes, I know I left a week out, but you have to reserve some time for stuff around the house!) How fabulous would that be?
I think growing up on a traditional school calendar spoiled me quite a bit. It doesn't matter what job I've been in, come summer time I feel like I should be at home, working outside and reading books. Unfortunately in adult life it doesn't happen that way. In some ways I think children who are in year-round schools have a better understanding of how the real world operates as far as schedules are concerned. They won't have to adapt to the year-long work mentality.
But seeing as how there won't be a month-long vacation, I'll just hunker down and snatch a few vacation breather moments here and there. And just think...in 2 weeks I'll actually have breather moments every single day! Whoohoo!

wonder and thankfulness

My heart hurts for the people of Iran and their turmoil. In the 2000 US presidential election, I feared our country could very well be headed the same direction. I think everyone breathed a sigh of relief when 2004 ended without much contention. But it also makes me stop and think about how truly dramatic and impressive our democratic republic and its transfer of power is. So many times we hear of murder, civil protests, hunger strikes, military abuse, police brutality and voter fraud when we hear of nations during election time. I think of Belarus, and how one of the last three presidential contenders was found dead on a dark road, and the other was mysteriously imprisoned two weeks before election. How can a prisoner be a president? Is it any wonder their President stayed in office? While I didn't vote for Obama and I'm not crazy about many of his policies, I am still very proud of our country and its peaceful transition of power. I was thankful the Bush's exited with integrity, didn't vandalize and demean the White House like its earlier predecessors did, and for the most part have refrained from criticizing the current administration. If I were Bush, I'd have probably come out and said, "Uhhuh. Told you so." after Obama reneged on his promise to close Guantanamo. But we never heard a word from the man.
I have never witnessed people dying in the streets after an election. I have witnessed panicked poll officials when we had missing ballots, and I witnessed their dedication and integrity as we counted, recounted, and counted again to ensure the total, and we refused to sign off as if everything was okay. What does that say about our nation?
I like to think that our nation will always have a peaceful transfer of power. Yet I fear as we continue to "every man do that which is right in his own eyes" that peace will slowly erode. For as we eliminate absolute standards, we will eliminate the very principles that give us orderly transfers of power.
For now I am thankful. But I also wonder how many more election cycles will occur before such a news story as Iran will be the US.

so it took ten years

Yesterday at lunch my mother-in-law started teasing me about my pathetic little garden. And for the first time in ten years, I was actually able to TRULY laugh and not just put on my pretend smile. Maybe it's because I don't expect my garden to fall into "true garden" status, but I just hope for enough fresh produce for the summer. Maybe it's because I know she's right, AND I also know where she's coming from. Or MAYBE after almost ten years, I have arrived where mother-in-law jabs (and yes, hers are innocent and well-intended with love) no longer bother me.

My in-laws lived through the Great Depression. My mother-in-law still has her family's ration book from WWII. One of my father-in-law's favorite sayings was "Hard times are coming. Better be prepared." I can still hear him saying it. Bob would duct-tape his worn-out tennis shoes together to wear in the garden or when tending to cows or fishing. He saw no point in ruining good shoes for dirty work when his modified old ones worked just fine. He also firmly believed in planting extra crops in case some of them didn't "make." His garden filled about an acre, and filled not only his freezers but his children's and others as well. Despite what all the experts say, he never rotated his crops because he said they grew well where they were, so why change things?

Then there's me. I didn't use RoundUp on my garden area before tilling this year, and I only tilled it once. It has five rows (one of which has yet to produce anything), and grows more grass than produce. My whole "garden" could be placed on about 1/2 of one of his bean rows. When my mother-in-law saw it, the grass had not been weeded in 2.5 weeks. The grass was so bad that our yard boys couldn't tell where my garden started and mowed down my two watermelon plants. And between the wild rabbits and grass, my cabbage heads are still the size of an orange.

HENCE, I weeded this weekend. It's time to pull the snow peas up, retill, and plant something else. We've only had a few servings from them this year, and I probably won't plant them again next year. Somehow we've had two corn plants come up right outside the garden (I have NO clue how they got there). Everything else is woefully small and sad. (especially after seeing Dad's garden last week!) But I've enjoyed what little time I've spent out there. And there's still hope of it being productive later in the summer. Perhaps I'll be able to salvage part of it after all. And if not, I can chalk it up to lessons of what not to do next summer.

I am thankful I refrained from extending it further. Can you imagine how pathetic it would be if I actually had more to tend?

Fannie Farmer I'm not. And neither do I have the museum-clean expectations of other generations for my house. And for once I'm actually okay with that. I may not be tomorrow, but today I am.

Slugs or tomato worms, anyone?

modern dilemma

What would you do if you took your child to a place of amusment, entered the women's bathroom with your daughter, and saw a person whom you weren't totally sure was a female? How would you react, and how would it make you a feel?
An aquaintance recently approached Bobby wanting to know how to deal with a situation in which a customer had recently had a sex change operation. At first the person used a private restroom in the building, but then began using the women's bathroom. Other customers are very uncomfortable and have complained. He wanted to know if he would be guilty of discrimination for telling him to steer clear of the women's bathroom.
Personally, I think if "it" refuses to wear a wig and dress like a woman, then there should be no question about which restroom to use. And I would most certainly be complaining if someone who appeared to be a man was in the same restroom as me.
The saddest thing of all, is that if Obama gets his way, Christian business owners will have no choice but to allow such practices to happen. Should a homosexual apply for a job, they couldn't not hire him or her based on the immorality. It will be interesting to see whether or not our Constitutional right that prohibits government from stopping us exercising our religious faith will be enforced or if it will be squashed like a bug.
I never dreamed in my lifetime we would be faced with such situations and dilemmas, but they are occurring more every day. Some days I feel like digging in my heels and fighting. Other days I long for a cave in the mountains where I can live out my days alone. Unfortunately for me I'm not much of an outdoorsman.

Fiddler on the Roof

on the one hand....but on the other hand.....TRADITION!

I've been thinking about that scene from Fiddler on the Roof lately, as the Father had to decide just how low he was willing to lower his standards. But there's one basic principle the play left out which bothers me: Scripture.

We have a lot of traditions of man which we follow. There's a lot of things that are not clearly spelled out in Scripture. But there are many things that are (or at least spoken of derogatorily enough that in my not so humble opinion it's clearly not a good thing).

When forced to make the painful decision on whether or not to accept his daughter's marriage to a non-believer, the father resorted to the fact that he had to uphold tradition. And that bothers me. Why didn't the playwrights or screenwriters have him revert to Scripture and the Judaic law? The only answer I can come up with is that deep down people recognize the sacredness of spiritual writings. Had the father said, "The Scripture says this is wrong" and proceeded with the historical precedents of people who had done such things and suffered for it, the ending would have had a totally different feel.

But tradition? We all have traditions, and traditions can change or morph over time without anyone suffering for it.

I'm finding that as I age there are more principles that are harder to hold. I'm also finding it harder to keep my attitude in line when faced with such situations. I want to be like Daniel in the foreign land and gracefully maneuver my way through the darkness which surrounds him. Yet so many times it seems my light only creates chaos to the darkness around me instead of the welcome glow I desire. ON THE OTHER HAND, this can be good, for it forces me to re-examine myself AGAIN to see what I'm lacking, which is often painful to see.

And so I struggle in this world. I struggle to live according to the principles I find in Scripture, to abstain from certain things and yet at the same time to live peaceably with all men. And those two commands don't always easily mix.

mmmmmmmmmmmm

Up until 2 months ago, peanut M&Ms were one of my favorite candies, followed by the peanut butter M&Ms. Then for some strange reason things got a little wonkie and my jaw resorted back to middle school days and began popping in and out for no reason. And the least little things, like taking big bites or chewing anything "meaty" tends to aggravate it. So when the chocolate urge strikes, I now resort to Reese's cups. Can you tell I like chocolate and peanut butter? But then I ran across a coupon on Sunday's paper for this:

Now, I love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, with grape jelly being the best and strawberry coming in a very close second. But somehow the thought of peanut butter and strawberry something being surrounded with chocolate does NOT appeal to me in the least little bit. I never ever thought I would say this, but for the first time in my life I read a description of M&Ms and said, "EEeeewwww!" Bobby finds this funny. He thinks as much as a like chocolate and nuts, that adding strawberry to it would be delicious. Somehow I'm just not so sure.

SOOoooo....who wants to be the first to try them and give a report? I think I may have even saved the coupon.