One Lazy Day (For a Stay-at-Home Mom)

I feel like being lazy today, so I'll take my coffee to the computer and watch some YouTube. Of course I need to feed kids and start a load of laundry first. The kids are watching TV; they're occupied and not trying to kill each other, to the computer!

Since I'm on the computer anyway, I should print off some homeschooling worksheets. Of course the printer has randomly given up working again, so I have to un-install and re-install it first.

So, now that I've sat here a while, printing, watching videos, and drinking my coffee, I should get up, take care of my mug and use the bathroom. While trying to set my mug on the dirty dish counter, I realize the counter is too full, and the dishwasher is half loaded with dirty dishes. I might as well load ans start it. Kids! Bring me your dishes from the living room!

Right, now that that's done, I was heading to the bathroom. Oh, look, the washer's done. I should transfer that load real quick... and start the next one while I'm here... OK, heading to bathroom. There are 2 baskets of clean laundry in my room; I'd better empty one so I'll have it for that load I just started in the dryer.

So, finally made it to the bathroom, checked on kids... back to the computer. OK, reheat some leftovers for lunch, and then back to the computer.

Since I printed all these worksheets, I should make use of some. I'll have the kids pick a couple to do. Hmm, that laundry should be done by now, better go empty the dryer and transfer that second load, then sort out the clean stuff... I'll fold it later. Back to being lazy, except I want a soda... which emptied the bottle, so I should rinse it and throw it in recycling. Might as well get those cans from the counter while I'm at it. Now that I'm at the computer again, I should really pay bills online, and check my e-mail, and update the calendar... and serve dinner.

Back to laziness for a while. Until I notice that it's nearing the kids' bedtimes. I should get them started on getting ready, and take care of some of the clean laundry, at least the hanging stuff. Of course we can't get ready for bed without a crisis or two, but they eventually get to bed. After some alone time, I eventually head to bed too, but on the way I notice the dishwasher that needs emptied and the basket of clean laundry that has yet to be folded. I can put that off until tomorrow, though, because I feel like being lazy today.

One Pro-Lifer's response to "5 Things Pro-Choicers Wish Their Anti-Choice Friends Understood"

I recently came across an article entitled "5 Things Pro-Choicers Wish Their Anti-Choice Friends Understood," which you can view here. Now I can't speak for everyone who calls themselves Pro-Life, just as I'm sure the original author does not speak for all in the Pro-Choice community, but the following is my response.


"1. We want fewer abortions too."

I didn't think this was a common misunderstanding, but if it is, it could be related to some of the signs at protests and some of the articles written by members of the pro-choice movement. I've heard "abortion without apology" and #shoutyourabortion. How is encouraging women to be proud of their abortion going to help lower abortion rates? As for "let’s take the steps we can to limit the number of unplanned pregnancies: accurate education, access to birth control, and access to affordable (or free) health advice and care," I absolutely agree. It is possible to work toward lowering unplanned pregnancy rates and outlawing abortion at the same time.


"2. We Are Pro-CHOICE, Not Pro-ABORTION"

So if someone wanted to legalize theft, you wouldn't call them pro-theft? If you're for something being legal, then you're supporting it. If you want abortion to be legal and socially accepted, then you're for it. Why would you be offended at being called pro-abortion anyway, if there's nothing wrong with abortion?


"3. Banning Abortions Doesn’t Prevent Them"

I've never understood this argument; it is beside the point. Outlawing murder doesn't stop ALL murders; outlawing theft doesn't prevent ALL theft. That doesn't mean either of those should be legal. Outlawing abortion would greatly reduce the number of abortions and allow prosecution of those who perform them anyway. Also, outlawing abortion is not the only focus of pro-life groups. Take the Feminists for Life, who focus on giving women considering abortion real help with whatever situation led them there.


"4. We Think You Shouldn’t Call Yourself ‘Pro-Life’ If You Don’t Support Children"

Agree. What's your point? Just because someone is active against abortion, doesn't mean that's all they ever do with their time.


"5. We Wish You Would Stop Being So Damn Glib"

I ABSOLUTELY agree. Shaming and attacking (verbally or otherwise) women who have abortions or anyone who supports abortion is cruel and useless. Although most of us against abortion do not hate those who have had one, it unfortunately seems that some of the loudest in our group do. I want anyone for abortion and/or who has had an abortion to know that most of us bear you no ill will, but simply hope to change your opinion if we can. I also want any fellow pro-lifers to understand that being cruel has no place in the pro-life movement.

"Using pat platitudes doesn’t add anything to a complicated and necessary discussion. And treating the issue of abortion as if it has an obvious, foregone conclusion is insulting to everyone’s intelligence. We’re better than that." Still agreeing. People may be pro-life or pro-choice for a variety of reasons, and we certainly haven't reached a consensus on the issue.


Also, if the choice in question is the choice to end the life of a human being, born or not, then I suppose you can call me "Anti-Choice," because I'm certainly against THAT "choice."

Super Heroes Birthday Party

My son wanted a super heroes theme for his 6th birthday party, and I thought I'd share some of the things I did for it. I started with Pinterest: my super heroes birthday board.



For the decorations, I used a lot of bright, basic colors, and my son's favorite heroes. I printed off Avengers letters from this site to make a "Happy Birthday" banner, and heroes faces from Google images to put on the banner of triangles. I buy cheap party supplies, such as streamers and banners, used, or when they're on sale, and keep them on hand, so I already had some brightly-colored decorations that would work well with the theme. I also had some spiral ribbon decorations already, so I printed off some comic-style exclamations to hang from them and used these as well.

I also made a simple, bright orange cake, and used brightly-colored tablecloths.

Also, at a kid's party, you need activities. We made masks and capes at the party:

 I used foam sheets and ribbon for the masks, and you can print a template for them here.

Here is the tutorial for making the capes, which are made with plastic tablecloths, ribbon, and tape.


The kids enjoyed making their outfit and then having their photo taken "flying" over the city, which only required a blue sheet and some construction paper.

The kids also caught the Joker (my husband) and tied him up with streamer, which led to a scavenger hunt, where the clues were written on joker cards.

We also set up an obstacle course in the back yard, and had a ball toss into a hulk box like this one, but I didn't get pictures.

Another fun part was the pinata, for which I wrote another blog entry here.

Last, but not least, are the invitations I created. I made good use of Google image search, and an open source version of MS Paint.

Making a "Bomb" pinata

My son wanted a bomb pinata at his 6th birthday party, so I decide to make one. I'd never made one before, but I saw ideas online and found this how-to.

So, I followed the directions, and made a ball-shaped paper mache base. I didn't do a whole 10 layers, as the blog suggested, but I don't remember how many it was. I just went until it felt stiff enough:

 My hole for removing the balloon and adding the candy turned out messy, but it worked:

I decided to re-enforce the hole that I put a rope through, so that it wouldn't fall apart as soon as I hung it:

After filling it with candy and making it more structurally sound, I started covering it with crepe paper. I started near the middle, making a line of glue, and then attaching the paper to it, rotating until I reached the end, and then started again from the middle to work my way to the other end:

I did a Google image search for a "Boom" that my son liked, printed it off, and glued it to the pinata:

He was pretty happy with the final result, and all the kids at the party enjoyed taking a whack at it.

Adventures in Gardening with My Brown Thumb: Part 1

Growing up I never did much gardening. I'd occasionally help my mom with her garden, but I was never responsible for any plants myself. I've managed to keep a few house plants (barely) alive, but hadn't really tried to grow anything. Last Spring (2012) I made my first attempt. I planted some basil and oregano seeds in egg cartons in my East-facing kitchen windowsill (how I wish I had a South-facing window) and moonflower seeds in a container in the back yard.

My herbs outgrew their egg carton pretty quickly, so I transplanted them into something a bit larger. They didn't do to well in it either, though and eventually all died without ever getting big enough to get any use out of. In hindsight, I think I didn't have enough dirt for them, and I'm not the best at remembering things like watering plants. The moonflower on the other hand, was a success. It gave me one beautiful bloom, before going dormant in the F
all. This was the first (and so far only) time I've grown a mature plant from a seed. I had plans to plant around a couple of trees in my front yard, but I only got as far as putting up a border and half-prepping the soil. This year I'm trying to do a bit more.

So, Spring 2013 is here and I'm once again attempting to grow things. My husband got me a nice window-sill sized pot for growing herbs. They started growing, but weren't doing great, so my husband decided to move them to a west-facing window in the afternoon where they'd get more sun. Of course it was just my luck that the cardboard we'd taped up to block sun in the top of the window (yes, redneck, I know) fell down right into my pot of herbs, pretty well finishing them off. I continued to water them for a few days in case there was any chance of recovery, but to no avail. I also got the kids each a flower seed in a ceramic egg, but they never even seemed to start growing. I've weeded out my moonflower pot, but can't tell yet whether it will make a comeback.

I finally tackled the flower bed along the front porch of my house. There was a redbud tree (about 3' tall) growing in my front flower bed, too close to the house, and a dead tree (about 5-6' tall) in the back yard, so my husband and I removed the dead one and transplanted the redbud into its location. Three small bushes were already there when we moved in and I'm leaving them alone. There was also mint, which is nice, except that it was bent on world domination. I transplanted some of the min into a container, and tred to remove all the rest that I possibly could. I also dug up the first 4 inches or so of ground and pulled out any large rocks I found, which included a decent amount of concrete which must have escaped the forms when the porch was poured. We then put down weed fabric and some decorative things, and I finally got around to planting some strawberry plants today.

My in-laws have a lot of garden space, so I've started a fairy garden over there and hopefully the kids will be growing things over there too. I'll post updated and photos as I get around to it.

My Take on "The Toilet Seat Debate"

Do a Google search for "toilet seat debate," and you'll get over 500,000 results. Someone even designed a toilet that will automatically close the seat when it is flushed. My response is: "Seriously, does nobody have a freaking LID on their toilet?!?" Men AND women should be closing the toilet lid BEFORE flushing. This is such a stupid debate. That is all.

The Abortion Debate: How we agree, how we disagree, and why I'm confused.

When debating the ethics or legality of abortion, there's one thing I just don't understand. There are plenty of things to disagree about, and I try to see the other side of the argument as best I can. There are many tough situations to consider, and conflicting ideas about what defines a "person," who has a soul, and whether viability should be an issue. There are so many little things to consider, so I expect there to be much disagreement, but I also see a lot of agreement across the line between the pro-life and pro-choice sides.

Let's start with where we agree... The pro-life side wants to end abortion in all or most cases; the pro-choice side want abortion to be safe, legal, and rare. I think ending abortion and making it rare are compatible goals. We should be working together to eliminate the things which drive women to abortion, especially those who don't really want to abort. We can work on legislation to help prevent coerced abortions, whether a woman is being threatened by a boyfriend, or bribed by her parents. We can work on helping single mothers go to college or work. We can help to give women a safe refuge from abusive environments. We can promote education about sex, pregnancy, and abortion. Together, there are so many ways we can help women and reduce the number of abortions. Another thing we agree on is the safety of women. As long as abortions are happening, both sides can agree that we want the woman to be safe. An abortion clinic should not be exempted from the health and safety regulations which govern other medical facilities. Abortion clinic workers should not be enabling abusers. If we really tried, we could create legislation together to protect women, without fighting. We all want women to be safe, and the pro-life side should be happy to protect women "in the mean time," while still working to end abortion all-together. Most of us probably also agree that infanticide is unacceptable, that treating women like crap doesn't solve anything, and that we will never agree on everything.

So now the bit where we disagree... Obviously the pro-choice side wants abortion to be legal, and the pro-life side wants it to be illegal. It's not that simple though; even the line between pro-life and pro-choice is pretty blurry. Some want to outlaw abortion altogether; some want exceptions only when the mother is in danger; others want to also have exceptions for rape, incest, and maybe other things; some people want to allow it up to a certain point, whether that's when there's a heart beat, when there's viability, or at X weeks; others want it "safe, legal, and rare" for anyone at any point; there are even a few who think it should be so readily available that it can simply be another birth control method. Speaking of birth control, there's another thing we disagree on, especially within the pro-life side. Some people think all kinds of birth control are fine and good; some think only certain types are ok; a few believe the only acceptable reason to have sex, is to make babies. Some of these people want to legislate these beliefs; others think it is their moral decision, but not a legal issue. Another disagreement which is not split along the life vs choice line, is whether men should even have a say in the abortion issue. Probably the biggest issue on which we disagree, though, is the definition of "Personhood." What makes a person? Does one have to be able to breathe? Live outside the womb? Have a heartbeat? Look like a person? Have unique DNA? Have a soul? How do you know if someone has a soul? Then, if it is a person, other issues arise. What if the baby will die or likely die shortly after birth? What if they are or will be in pain? Is a "mercy killing" an acceptable lesser evil? I have my own opinion, but there is no clear scientific answer to many of these. I can see the argument to disagree with my opinion on these points.

As I said from the start, there is one thing I just don't understand. Now if I have informed myself well enough to form an opinion, and I can understand where the other side is coming from on many of these issues, how can I be confused? I am confused because there is one simple fact, which most of us learned in high school biology, that is still debated by some: that a new life begins at conception. Now you can argue that a new human life does not equal a person, or that an embryo is less valuable than a born baby, but to say that a human embryo is not a human life simply makes no sense. Science has already pinpointed the starting point of a new, unique, living organism, and it makes no sense to argue with this.

In case you've been wondering, I am pro-life. I think abortion should only be legal when it is medically necessary to save the life of the mother. The law should also allow women to get life-saving medications and/or procedures, even if it endangers their unborn child, without fear of punishment. The only methods of birth control I have a problem with, are the ones which can cause abortions; I think men have just as much right to speak about abortion as women do; I believe that if our society took better care of women and babies, the "need" for abortion would be reduced; I think we need to simplify adoptions, as well as open up the chance to adopt to more people, such as single people, and gay couples; and I think that it's better to work together to make abortion rare, than to simply fight about whether to allow it at all.