As a society we are running around, busy as bees. Religious persons often really speak of their busyness (I'm guilty as charged) because we're afraid of being idle when scriptures point to idleness as sinful, or at least as wasting our earthly probation. We seek to be anxiously engaged in good causes, but sometimes we miss the point (guilty as charged, again).
I happened to look up the definition today:
bus·y·ness/
–noun
1. the quality or condition of being busy.
2. lively but meaningless activity.
Did you catch that? Definition #2? Astounding, isn't it. How often do I run around lively involved in meaningless activity? Yes, a lot of my activites are quite meaningful, but I'll sure think twice before I promote how "busy" I often feel (while in my mind specifically not mentioning the hours I waste in trying to wind down from said busy activities).
But here's the thing. Sometimes we NEED to waste time. I don't mean reading or relaxing leisurely activities that refresh and renew, I mean letting the brain just veg on autopilot with any number of sundry mind-numbing activities or lack thereof.
So why are we afraid (ok, why am *I* afraid) to admit to having lost a whole day to reading the archives of someone's blog, or catching up on an entire season of a tv drama in one sitting?
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Bloggerdom
You know you've transferred to a blogger mindset when you think throughout the day, "Ooh, I've got to take a pic of that to post," or "I could write a clever post about this" (ok, ok, maybe not so clever, just humor me, de-lurk, and keep telling me they're clever). ; )
On several different occasions I've meant to blog about this or that this past few weeks. But, school is in full swing, as is scouts, so I haven't gotten to it. I really hope blogging doesn't become something I feel like is just another thing I can't seem to get to. I want it to be something that refreshes me. For now, the following should have been several individual posts.
So. Funny comment. First I'm pleased that Nathan is pulling out scripture stories in sacrament meeting. Then I hear him, whispering quite loudly: "Mom, where's the blood? I want to find the one with all the blood, mom!" as he was looking through the old testament scripture stories, trying to find one of the ten plagues when Pharoah of Egypt tried to have a showdown against God. It took Rob and I a bit to figure out what he meant by wanting to see the blood, and then we quickly found him the part where all the water in Egypt turned to blood, to quiet him up.
Jeffrey on Friday: "What? It's already Friday? The week goes by so fast!"
Me: Depressed that he's already starting to feel that at only nine years old. I don't think I started saying that until high school. Come on, Jeffrey, just enjoy being a kid!
FHE three days before school started:
I think the picture says it all. And you think your Family Home Evenings go badly sometimes? We thought this was pretty funny. Every year before school starts, Rob gives each person a blessing, a special tradition in both Rob's and my family. Since we convinced the boys not to wiggle and be rowdy during the blessings, after each boy got his blessing, he went over to the couch and sat quietly for the next boy's blessing, and promptly fell asleep. First Nathan, then Bryce, and then while Rob gave me a blessing, Jeffrey. What does this tell me? Reverence = Sleep. At least for now. ; )
Polka-dotted FHE:
On a Sunday before another FHE night, Bryce decides he really wants to make cookies with dad, a favorite past-time of theirs. Bryce insists on chocolate chip cookies though Rob can't find any chocolate chips. I'm amused at their non-chippy cookies, but it's just not the same w/out the chips.
Monday evening, while we are playing dominoes as a family, I slip over to the kitchen, find a bag of choc. chippers (I'm so sneaky, heh heh, only I knew where they were), stick a whole bunch of them into the already-cooked cookies, and place them in the oven on 200 degrees to warm them up.
Dominoes + chocolate chip cookies = Polka dotted FHE.
And lastly, gripe of the week: Why does it have to be such a fight to be a parent? You spend enormous amounts of energy convincing your children of expectations that need to be met. It's so frustrating. And sometimes it's things I think they would want to do, and they put up this big fight. Once I make them do something, and they realize it's going to happen, they finally do it, but by then I'm worn out and want to just bite all their heads off. It's with morning routines, evening routines, jobs, running errands, walking to school, doing homework, getting out the door for anything, playing outside sometimes, etc etc. They resist with such consistency, it really wears a body down! They whine, pout, grump, drag their feet, and then half-way through they get into what they're doing, and the thing is finally bearable. In fact, a lot of times, it ends up being fun and gets done quickly. So why all the drama to get to that point?
On several different occasions I've meant to blog about this or that this past few weeks. But, school is in full swing, as is scouts, so I haven't gotten to it. I really hope blogging doesn't become something I feel like is just another thing I can't seem to get to. I want it to be something that refreshes me. For now, the following should have been several individual posts.
So. Funny comment. First I'm pleased that Nathan is pulling out scripture stories in sacrament meeting. Then I hear him, whispering quite loudly: "Mom, where's the blood? I want to find the one with all the blood, mom!" as he was looking through the old testament scripture stories, trying to find one of the ten plagues when Pharoah of Egypt tried to have a showdown against God. It took Rob and I a bit to figure out what he meant by wanting to see the blood, and then we quickly found him the part where all the water in Egypt turned to blood, to quiet him up.
Jeffrey on Friday: "What? It's already Friday? The week goes by so fast!"
Me: Depressed that he's already starting to feel that at only nine years old. I don't think I started saying that until high school. Come on, Jeffrey, just enjoy being a kid!
FHE three days before school started:
I think the picture says it all. And you think your Family Home Evenings go badly sometimes? We thought this was pretty funny. Every year before school starts, Rob gives each person a blessing, a special tradition in both Rob's and my family. Since we convinced the boys not to wiggle and be rowdy during the blessings, after each boy got his blessing, he went over to the couch and sat quietly for the next boy's blessing, and promptly fell asleep. First Nathan, then Bryce, and then while Rob gave me a blessing, Jeffrey. What does this tell me? Reverence = Sleep. At least for now. ; )
Polka-dotted FHE:
On a Sunday before another FHE night, Bryce decides he really wants to make cookies with dad, a favorite past-time of theirs. Bryce insists on chocolate chip cookies though Rob can't find any chocolate chips. I'm amused at their non-chippy cookies, but it's just not the same w/out the chips.
Monday evening, while we are playing dominoes as a family, I slip over to the kitchen, find a bag of choc. chippers (I'm so sneaky, heh heh, only I knew where they were), stick a whole bunch of them into the already-cooked cookies, and place them in the oven on 200 degrees to warm them up.
Dominoes + chocolate chip cookies = Polka dotted FHE.
And lastly, gripe of the week: Why does it have to be such a fight to be a parent? You spend enormous amounts of energy convincing your children of expectations that need to be met. It's so frustrating. And sometimes it's things I think they would want to do, and they put up this big fight. Once I make them do something, and they realize it's going to happen, they finally do it, but by then I'm worn out and want to just bite all their heads off. It's with morning routines, evening routines, jobs, running errands, walking to school, doing homework, getting out the door for anything, playing outside sometimes, etc etc. They resist with such consistency, it really wears a body down! They whine, pout, grump, drag their feet, and then half-way through they get into what they're doing, and the thing is finally bearable. In fact, a lot of times, it ends up being fun and gets done quickly. So why all the drama to get to that point?
Monday, September 15, 2008
Quip of the Year
My dear friend was talking to me in passing. I offered to pick her son up from school because she wasn't feeling well. Then I remembered I had a time conflict. She was very forgiving, and kindly but frankly quipped,
"You think with your heart. Your brain eventually catches up."
I laughed so hard, I nearly fell over, partly because of who said it, my sweet Hindu friend. Plus, this is SO me. In fact, I don't necessarily think. Whatever I do, my brain does eventually catch up, though....
"You think with your heart. Your brain eventually catches up."
I laughed so hard, I nearly fell over, partly because of who said it, my sweet Hindu friend. Plus, this is SO me. In fact, I don't necessarily think. Whatever I do, my brain does eventually catch up, though....
Saturday, September 13, 2008
September 11th
On Thursday Jeffrey's elementary school honored all those who fell on September 11, 2001. The scouts stood together while a color guard raised the flag halfway. Then everyone sang the star spangled banner.
I thought it was a neat morning, and enjoyed the patriotism that was displayed by scouts, students, teachers, and parents. We had 120 scouts participate. Pretty amazing.
Monday, September 8, 2008
First Tooth
Bryce lost his first tooth yesterday during stake conference! *sob* My baby is growing up! And then, to compound my nastalgia for his baby years, he lost another one tonight during family home evening! My little man is now missing his two bottom front teeth.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Why NOT just live and let live?
Traditional Marriage is at a crossroads, especially when activist judges recently overturned the will of the people in California. Please read the links posted on the right side bar of my blog (and posted below), and urge anyone you know in California that supports traditional marriage to vote yes on proposition 8 this November. Please, if you can financially support prop 8, don't hesitate.
Please know that I do not personally condemn anyone who chooses to live a homosexual lifestyle, and I believe that many are born with same-gender attraction. I have read some touching blogs of LDS members who feel same-gender attraction and choose not to act on their feelings even though it means a lonely life in mortality. I see them choose to abstain just as God asks single people, divorced or never been married, to obey laws of chastity. I do not love homosexuals any differently, and in fact go out of my way to show that I care even though we have fundamentally different beliefs. We can accept and love a person without accepting their choices.
So, why not just live and let live?
I feel that homosexual activist groups are making the issue that if we do not accept and condone their lifestyle choice, we are not accepting them as a person rather than allowing us to accept them without accepting their lifestyle decisions. If we do not accept their lifestyle, we are considered bigots/racist/discriminatory. Homosexuals cry "Inequality!," which seems compelling.
Prop 8 is up for vote in November for all Californians. It maintains that marriage is between a man and a woman. This is not a declaration of war against individuals, but a defense of a vital institution.Prop 8 is NOT an attack on same-sex couples and does not take away the rights that same-sex couples already have under California’s domestic partner law. California law already grants domestic partners all the rights that a state can grant to a married couple. Same-sex couples have a right to their private lives, but not to change the definition of marriage for everyone else.
Here are just some of the legal ramifications, including being on a precipice of losing our first amendment rights:
1. Marriage between a man and a woman is the fabric of our society. To deny children growing up in a home with a father and mother whenever possible (I understand there are many single parents and non-ideal situations to which you do your best), is to further plummet already declining moral values in our country, which will have many dire, unintended consequences to the stability of our society. Children need input from both a mother's and father's differing strengths for the best possible development. To be raised by same-sex parents is to teach them that one role or the other is irrelevant.
Even from the religious standpoint of arguing that God has commanded the acting on same-gender attraction as a sin, "Gay marriage" is not bad because God forbids it. God forbids it because it is harmful for us, as a society and as individuals. Even if people don't believe it or know it, God has a plan for us, and family is centered around that plan. Marriage is ordained of God to fulfill the purposes of our creation, including being a sacred mechanism whereby spirits can be housed. Our bodies are physically designed to compliment each other, as are our male and female natures. Strong families are also the fundamental institution for transmitting to future generations moral strengths, traditions, and values that sustain civilization.
Poignantly posted at www.calmarriagedefense.blogspot.com is the following: "Marriage is a social contract because the issues involved go beyond the particular individuals. Unions of a man and a woman produce the future generations on whom the fate of the whole society depends. Society has something to say about that.
Even at the individual level, men and women have different circumstances, if only from the fact that women have babies and men do not. These and other asymmetries in the positions of women and men justify long-term legal arrangements to enable society to keep this asymmetrical relationship viable — for society's sake.
Neither of these considerations applies to unions where the people are of the same sex.
Centuries of experience in trying to cope with the asymmetries of marriage have built up a large body of laws and practices geared to that particular legal relationship. To then transfer all of that to another relationship that was not contemplated when these laws were passed is to make rhetoric more important than reality."
All of this is extremely endangered by the legalizing of same-sex marriage. Co-habitation under any title is not a sufficient reason for defining new forms of marriage.
2. Churches may be sued over and lose tax exempt status if they decline to allow same-sex marriage ceremonies in their religious buildings.
2. Ministers who preach against same-sex marriages may be sued for hate speech and risk govt. fines. California municipal employees are already not allowed to say "traditional marriage" or "family values," due to them being considered hate speech.
3. Religious adoption agencies will not be allowed to place children solely in homes with both a mother and a father, even if this is counter to church doctrine. Catholic Charities in Boston already closed its doors due to the legalized same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.
4. Children in public schools will have to be taught that same-sex marriage is the same as traditional marriage, causing serious clashes between the secular school and the right of parents to teach their children their own values and beliefs.
Urgently important articles/links:
The Divine Institution of Marriage
Proclamation on the Family
http://www.protectmarriage.com/
Please know that I do not personally condemn anyone who chooses to live a homosexual lifestyle, and I believe that many are born with same-gender attraction. I have read some touching blogs of LDS members who feel same-gender attraction and choose not to act on their feelings even though it means a lonely life in mortality. I see them choose to abstain just as God asks single people, divorced or never been married, to obey laws of chastity. I do not love homosexuals any differently, and in fact go out of my way to show that I care even though we have fundamentally different beliefs. We can accept and love a person without accepting their choices.
So, why not just live and let live?
I feel that homosexual activist groups are making the issue that if we do not accept and condone their lifestyle choice, we are not accepting them as a person rather than allowing us to accept them without accepting their lifestyle decisions. If we do not accept their lifestyle, we are considered bigots/racist/discriminatory. Homosexuals cry "Inequality!," which seems compelling.
Prop 8 is up for vote in November for all Californians. It maintains that marriage is between a man and a woman. This is not a declaration of war against individuals, but a defense of a vital institution.Prop 8 is NOT an attack on same-sex couples and does not take away the rights that same-sex couples already have under California’s domestic partner law. California law already grants domestic partners all the rights that a state can grant to a married couple. Same-sex couples have a right to their private lives, but not to change the definition of marriage for everyone else.
Here are just some of the legal ramifications, including being on a precipice of losing our first amendment rights:
1. Marriage between a man and a woman is the fabric of our society. To deny children growing up in a home with a father and mother whenever possible (I understand there are many single parents and non-ideal situations to which you do your best), is to further plummet already declining moral values in our country, which will have many dire, unintended consequences to the stability of our society. Children need input from both a mother's and father's differing strengths for the best possible development. To be raised by same-sex parents is to teach them that one role or the other is irrelevant.
Even from the religious standpoint of arguing that God has commanded the acting on same-gender attraction as a sin, "Gay marriage" is not bad because God forbids it. God forbids it because it is harmful for us, as a society and as individuals. Even if people don't believe it or know it, God has a plan for us, and family is centered around that plan. Marriage is ordained of God to fulfill the purposes of our creation, including being a sacred mechanism whereby spirits can be housed. Our bodies are physically designed to compliment each other, as are our male and female natures. Strong families are also the fundamental institution for transmitting to future generations moral strengths, traditions, and values that sustain civilization.
Poignantly posted at www.calmarriagedefense.blogspot.com is the following: "Marriage is a social contract because the issues involved go beyond the particular individuals. Unions of a man and a woman produce the future generations on whom the fate of the whole society depends. Society has something to say about that.
Even at the individual level, men and women have different circumstances, if only from the fact that women have babies and men do not. These and other asymmetries in the positions of women and men justify long-term legal arrangements to enable society to keep this asymmetrical relationship viable — for society's sake.
Neither of these considerations applies to unions where the people are of the same sex.
Centuries of experience in trying to cope with the asymmetries of marriage have built up a large body of laws and practices geared to that particular legal relationship. To then transfer all of that to another relationship that was not contemplated when these laws were passed is to make rhetoric more important than reality."
All of this is extremely endangered by the legalizing of same-sex marriage. Co-habitation under any title is not a sufficient reason for defining new forms of marriage.
2. Churches may be sued over and lose tax exempt status if they decline to allow same-sex marriage ceremonies in their religious buildings.
2. Ministers who preach against same-sex marriages may be sued for hate speech and risk govt. fines. California municipal employees are already not allowed to say "traditional marriage" or "family values," due to them being considered hate speech.
3. Religious adoption agencies will not be allowed to place children solely in homes with both a mother and a father, even if this is counter to church doctrine. Catholic Charities in Boston already closed its doors due to the legalized same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.
4. Children in public schools will have to be taught that same-sex marriage is the same as traditional marriage, causing serious clashes between the secular school and the right of parents to teach their children their own values and beliefs.
Urgently important articles/links:
The Divine Institution of Marriage
Proclamation on the Family
http://www.protectmarriage.com/
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