Clean water? Sounds good...

This is not normally a political blog. It is not becoming a political blog. But politics intersects with life, so here it is. (And rest assured, I have another post in the pipeline with cute pics of the kids and some warm fuzzies for your soul.)

So the Clean Water, Wildlife, Cultural Heritage and Natural Areas Amendment sounds good and all. What's more Minnesota than clean water and wildlife? And that's all we hear about is the clean water part: lakes and streams. Maybe the wildlife part.

But arts? With an election in two days I was starting the research on the parts of the ballot that I don't hear attack ads on every second. Seriously, I tried to watch some of the news last night and for several commercial breaks, every commercial was a political attack ad. I'm sick of it.

And the ads for this amendment aren't much better. The one side is, "Who wouldn't want to pass clean water on to our kids?" And the other side is, "Don't you realize it sounds nice but will make your taxes go up?"

This all misses the point.

First, there's a sales tax increase. A Constitutional Amendment is not a place for a sales tax increase. Good grief. That's the job of the legislators we send to the capital.

Second, this isn't just about clean water. There's also clauses in here about funding money into the arts and cultural heritage. Again, I'm sorry, but a Constitutional Amendment is not the place for that. A bill on the floor of the Legislature where our elected representatives can hash it out is the right place. Putting it on a Constitutional Amendment where there's little public debate and no one is talking about anything besides clean water is low down dirty rotten.

I'm tired of the games. At this point I'm not holding anybody faultless. It's just a general comment. Things like this get me though. There's too much power; too much money.

I saw a bumper sticker the other day.

"Peace is inevitable. Why not now?"

Has anyone looked at the human condition lately? War and chaos are inevitable. Men exploiting other men is inevitable. Anything else takes a whole lot of work, cooperation, vigilance and the grace of God.

-N

Trunk-or-Treat

Last night we did Trunk-or-Treat at church, followed by a showing of The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything on the big screen in the Upper Room. Deacon actually saw the movie once in the dollar theater with Gma Pam, but still was a little freaked out in a couple of intense parts. Roman on the other hand had only seen the little clips included with the PWDDA VBS this summer. He freaked out in a couple of parts.

SPOILER

At one point later in the movie, as it's building to climax, Larry the Cucumber as Elliot gets swallowed whole by a giant mechanical dragon. Roman jumped up onto his chair, eyes wide, finger tips digging into his cheeks, "Oh NO! ELLIOT! They got Elliot!"


SPOILER

(Elliot survives.)

Okay, maybe it was a little intense. But they both did sleep fine last night.


Here are the Trunker Treaters




Link was quite impressed with "that puppy in the window."



-N

When The Baby Goes Out with the Bathwater

If you've been following my twitter (which, yes, I am still get a lot of eyerolling over twittering. Can he not get that I HAVE NO ADULTS TO TALK TO ALL DAY?! I am secretly glad that Todd has been here for the last week just because I feel like at least I have some back up even if he is just here to work on the basement.)

Ok, that was some major run on sentencing.

So, if you have been following my twitter you know that I have been decluttering. I threw out a stack of note paper that said, "Wise Men Still Seek Him" on the top of it. My 2nd grade sunday school teacher, Bruce Fixen, gave that paper to me when I was in 2nd grade. Yes he did. And I still have it. But now I don't. Aren't you proud of me for recycling it? Or do you want to cut all ties with me because I am such a loser in the first place?

Anyway, I put a large stack of stuff out for lupus the other day. My neighbor had brought some stuff down too, so it was quite a large stack.

My lawnmower was also sitting out.

They took that too.

We didn't want them to.

Actually, that is not quite true. Our lawnmower was inherited from the past owners of our house who had gotten it second hand from someone else. So we have had it for 4 1/2 years and that, I am sure, was only a fraction of its life. I have wanted a new one for 4 1/2 years but it always ends up on the bottom of the "to be purchased" list.

So when we were setting the stuff out for Lupus, Noah said, "you aren't going to move the mower, are you? You secretly want them to take it. Don't you?"

And I laughed and said, "I am not intending for them to take it. But lets just say I wouldn't call and demand it back if they did."

And then we both agreed that they would never take it because it is old, rusty and falling apart.

But they did.

And we are glad.

He Is Serious About His Fists

Mary, Did You Know?

Yesterday Deacon and Roman started a new game: Baby Jesus.

Deacon came into the room with his construction eye protection on and a blanket over his head. He was claiming to be Mary, the mother of Jesus. Good thing we are not Catholic, or that might be enough to get kicked out of the church.

Roman was Joseph.

They wanted to wake up a teething Lincoln to be Baby Jesus. They thought he would be perfect for the role.

A screaming, sleep deprived 18 month old didn't seem like perfect Baby Jesus material to me.

So I gave them a doll in a pink dress.

They took turns holding the doll and exclaiming over how cute he/she was.

They needed a manger.

I gave them my precious basket that they are not allowed to play "Baby Moses" with to be the manger.

Suddenly, now that the forbidden basket was the manger, Joseph transformed into Baby Jesus.

Baby Jesus kept forgetting he was human and would frequently meow. In my basket.

They were now short a Joseph, so Deacon moved over to that role and I became Mary.

I convinced Joseph that after giving birth to a 3 year old half cat/half human I was very tired and needed to nap. He was to be in charge of Baby Jesus.

He suggested to Baby Jesus that they go out shopping for a new blanket for the manger.

Baby Jesus didn't want to go shopping so Joseph suggested he just stay home with Mary. (thanks, Joseph!)

Joseph asked Mary what time his volleyball games were that night.

Baby Jesus started climbing on Mary and Joseph came over and laughed and said, "Mary, did you know that your baby Jesus has a sticker on his butt?"

And so the parody was born.
(Incidently, to spice things up today, and since Noah was home, Noah and I were Joseph and Mary, Deacon was Baby Jesus and Roman was Baby Jesus' Kitty Cat. "Jesus" named the cat Roman, clearly named after the Roman soldiers that would one day crucify him. Now that is irony.)

Parody of Mary Did You Know.
(by the way, this is a great song to parody because you can just shorten/lengthen any words as you sing to make them work. It is just the nature of the song.)

Mary, did you know
That your baby boy has a sticker on his butt?
Mary, did you know
That your baby boy doesn't want to go shopping?
Did you know
That your baby boy is going to ruin your manger
This game that they created
Will soon annoy you

Mary, did you know
That your baby boy wants to play computer
Mary, did you know
That your baby boy turned the TV on again
Did you know
That your baby boy just threw a spoon in the toilet
And when you kiss your little baby
You've kissed a creation of God

Oh, Mary, did you know?
The boy will run
The boy will jump
And the boy will do it again
The boy will leap
The boy will dance
Just because he can

Mary, did you know,
That your baby boy dove right down the stairs
Mary, did you know
That your baby boy just landed on his head
Did you know that your baby boy wants a kitty cat
This little boy whose screeching
is your precious son


Mary, Did You Know is one of my favorite Christmas songs.

I think it is a powerful testimony and recap of Jesus' work on earth.

But as a mother now, I think about those things as I rock them, as I play with them. What will they be? What will they do?

Someday maybe I will hear:

Julie, did you know
that your little boy always comforts others
Julie, did you know
that your little boy is a friend to everyone
Did you know
That your little boy spreads joy whereever he goes
This child that you are raising
Will one day raise others

Julie, did you know
That your little boy gives what he can to people
Julie, did you know
That your little boy calms everyone's tempers
Did you know
That your little boy stands up for his brothers
And when you kiss your little boy
You've kissed a child of God

Julie, did you know?
Your boy will watch
Your boy will listen
Your boy will live in Heaven
Your boy will teach
Your boy will learn
The story of the Lamb

Julie, did you know
That your little boy knows who Jesus is
Julie, did you know
That your little boy shares salvation with his friends
Did you know
That your little boy never laughs at others
This little boy you're teaching
Is being used by the great I AM.

Anti-Pet Mom

I just noticed that The new family of 5 just became 6...kind of. Little Christian, their 3rd child was just born a couple of months ago and now they got a darling little dog named Jack!

It almost made me want a dog.

But then I remembered.

I am an Anti-pet Mom.

I don't like the way dogs lick. (remember my orange prison jumpsuit...I would have to wear it constantly if we had a dog).

I don't like the way cats lurk.

I don't like the way hamsters would totally get out of their cage and run all over my house and I would not know if they were dead or alive or crawling over me as I slept.

I don't like the way mice would either be accidentally killed by my children or released by my children.

I don't like the way fish require remaining in the water to live.

I don't like the thought of cleaning up more dog poop, or cat poop, or bird poop, or hamster poop.

I don't like the way that some little varmint chewed through one of the fuel lines on Noah's car. I hope it died of diesel poisoning.

And don't get me started on frogs, snakes, toads, rats, guinea pigs or regular pigs. Or cows.

I don't like animals particularly.

But Jack is really cute.

And I think I may want a dog.

And I would name it Diesel.

Because Noah won't let me name a human child Diesel.

But they do it in Europe.

Someone stop me. Please.

Things I Applaud: Frugality

I have always been tight with my money. Every since I was a little kid. I liked to have a lot of it stored up in the bank. I still do. Noah, on the other hand, likes to spend money. I will say, "if you were not married to me you would still be living in your parent's basement with a lot of expensive toys!" and he counters back, "if we hadn't gotten married you would live in a small apartment with a million bucks in your mattress!"

And those statements, although maybe slightly exaggerated, are in essence the way we work. I buy generic everything, he likes to think that brand name sugar probably tastes better. Thankfully, over the 8 years that we have been married he has at least conceded on most of the grocery items.

Now, I am not a big couponer/deal hunter. I do not have the patience and time and temperment for it. I just have certain policies that I follow, things like I never spend more than $20 on a pair of jeans for myself (I know, to some of you that sounds way excessive, and others of you are looking down your noses at me.)

But I am, as Noah calls me, a poor snob. That means that I am very impressed with people who brag about how little they spent on something and not so impressed with people who brag about how much they spent on something.

Here is my friend Becki at her wedding. Her wedding dress was $7. And that was when her sister Rachel bought it for her wedding. So technically, it was like $3.50.

And she looked beautiful. And she and Matt got married. And the dress was white. What more matters?

Anyway, with the economy the way it is, and people losing jobs etc. I have been thinking a lot more about being content with what I have, being responsible with what I have been given, and being more Heavenly minded about what I spend.

2 weeks ago when I thought Noah might lose his job, I started realizing just how much money we waste, even with my frugal nature. Just how many things I desire that I don't need, just how many people throughout the world have nothing when we have everything.

Now, I am still not ready to give up the dream of having a few acres to let the kids run wild on, or a large room to have guests over in. Nor am I giving up the dream of repadding my kitchen chairs...but it does mean that like Kim , you will still find me digging out the hand-me-down snowpants and being really happy when I get to use my $10 Kohls cash to get new sunglasses, 9 pairs of jockey underwear and a tank top. Go 90% off!