Thursday, February 22, 2007

Beautiful guest or terrible pest?

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The monarch you see here fluttered into our camp shortly after we had enjoyed a birthday cake for my son T.J. It originally landed on my husband's sleeve as you can see in the second picture. After that it started going after chocolate frosting on fingers of the boys. It spent the better part of an hour seeking out chocolate on my son Caleb's hands. As it found each spot it would dip its little mouth onto the chocolate it found. It was also fascinated by my husband's shirt. The only thing I can wager on that one is that my husband had gotten hot and sweaty. The minerals from his sweat would attract the monarch as well because they look for such things in all sorts of places. After what seemed like ages we finally got it settle in some nearby trees, but I really had to work at shooing it away.

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Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Evening Skies are my Favorites








I love to get pictures of the sky and since I work at night I mostly get sunsets that are stunning. At least to me. Both of these pictures were taken a few months ago, but as per work and family life I have not had much time to post. I will work on that now that I have asked for less hours at work. I will be out of pocket for work Thursday, Fri., Sat. and Sun. I hope to post again on Monday, but as I have a tough schedule Thur and Fri it will most likely be on Tuesday before I post again!

Enjoy and many blessings!

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

A Stress Relief!

Tumbling Bears!
Check it out! FUN!

CENSORED - scrotum - but its okay to say "nut sack"!

Recently it was brought to my attention that a word has caused the ban of a book in school and public libraries. The book is called "The Higher Power of Lucky" and written by a children's author and is "age appropriate" for the normal learning ability of a 5th grade 10 yr old child. The word is scrotum - an appropriate term for a male genitalia body part.

O.k., consider this and this is something I have heard often.
An educated man is a dangerous man.
And the average American has the education of a 5th grader. (Ah, the wonder of our government..... )

Much of this post is about the power of words, morality and education. If you are offended by the title then move on. Comments that slander will be deleted. Comments that offer constructive criticism will be considered but not necessarily responded to.

This is just another fight of someone trying to make a name for themselves -- Oh, we saved the world from religion, choices and education! But that is for another time.....

Censorship over a word....
Librarians making a name for themselves....
What will be next??

Cats and dogs living together peacefully???

Because our culture has made "sex" a bad word this is the kind of stuff we have to live with in our blessed country.

Scrotum: the external pouch that in most male mammals contains the testes.
Testes : two egg shaped objects located in the scrotum of a male animal.

Sex anatomy education for a Librarian that wants to censor this book --

What's a scrotum? (as stated from the average child of say 10 yrs of age or less)

Boys have a pouch near their boy parts that contain testes which is part of what makes them a boy.

And if a girl asks, "Why don't we have a scrotum?"

"You do not need one. You know you are made different so instead you have ovaries which are inside your abdomen."

Sounds pretty simple to me... and age appropriate. They don't need to know what's there above and beyond that, or what the purpose is.... unless you think that the learning ability of the child is where they will understand what you try to tell them!

Oh MY GOD! SEX in A Book for CHILDREN!

The New York Times posted this about this book and word scrotum -- you can read it here.

Yes, I understand that children are going to understand different things at different ages. The older they get the more they begin to understand so long as they are taught as they grow. You teach colors, numbers, names, age, letters, shapes, and fingers, toes, ears, mouth -- oh wait, those are body parts..... CENSORED! Seriously though, if you teach children about the world around them - just the basic facts -- and not what you believe to be right and wrong - its about building an understanding of language - what words mean and using the right word for the right object.

My 16 yo son made a comment to a girl a few years ago that was sexually inappropriate -- he repeated something he had heard a senior class mate say. He did not understand the context of what he was saying and he nearly got expelled. In response to what he did we have encouraged him to come talk to us about things he's over hearing other people say, that its o.k. to come and ask us, "what does '____' mean?" *fill in the blank with what you think is not appropriate* We let him know we would not be mad at him for repeating it to us because he needs to understand what it means and why repeating it is going to cause him trouble. Or if what he's hearing he doesn't know the meaning of he can come ask us and we can teach him what it means and how to use it in proper context so that he doesn't get in trouble or look foolish. He is able to pronounce words of all types so therefor he should be able to understand what those words mean.

Now, then, instead of censoring our culture any further by encouraging ignorance of the meaning of words and the objects they are related to, teach the words -- and offer sound morality. Instead of censoring a book because its got a word in it, mark it with something that shows what age group its intended for. Let the parent make the choice if they want to do a lesson on anatomy that the youngster will understand.

I just had another thought -- age appropriate is exactly what? I know adult age people with the mentality of a "normal learning 5 yr old" - but stopped learning beyond what a "normal" 5 yr old can learn. My best friend works with a 14 yr old that cannot learn beyond what a "normal" 6 month old can. So what is "age appropriate" them. Or should it be learning ability appropriate?????? Oh the fights that can stir up!!!!!

Librarians out there censoring for my children.. shame on you! It's my job to teach my children about the rights and wrongs of this world. It's my job to decide if a book is age appropriate for my children. If YOU want to let me know there is a word in a book that will require me to teach my children about anatomy then by all means when you see the children's rated book in my stack of literature to check out then tell me! But DO NOT CENSOR FOR ME! I will make the choice of what is truly appropriate for my child to learn based on what I know the child's ability to learn is.

Another problem I thought of. Here in America what do you think of when you hear the word "rubber"?

Me?

Based on what I understand about our culture and what I know we are taught -- its another word for "condom".

In Britain, its another word for what an American would refer to as an eraser.

In America "a rubber" is slang - and generally because of our "sexuality training" -- its derogatory! In Britain "a rubber" is a tool you use to remove lead pencil markings from paper and other objects!


Let me think - the "normal average age of a 5th grade child with appropriate learning ability" is 10 yrs old. My youngest son will start kindergarten after he turns 5 yrs old because his birthday -- so in effect he will be 6 for 1st grade, 7 for 2nd, 8 for 3rd, 9 for 4th, and viola -- 10 for 5th grade!!!! Ah, the blessings of an education to deduce that little tidbit of information, and to have the ability to tell you all about it! In big words no less.

And while we are at it , let the librarians censor all those books out there that show murder and rape and anything else that is doing the world an injustice from the shelves of our "public" libraries! And trust me I have read an "age appropriate" book that had

*gasps*


murder, rape, kidnapping, death and many of the other acts of life that can be construed as "wrong" from a public library. Would I let my 10 yr old read that book?? Most likely not, but then its a good possibility that he's not going to be interested anyway!

I am being sarcastic. Do you understand what "sarcastic" means? Even my 5 yr old understands what "sarcastic" means. Not a Webster definition of it, but a definition on his level of saying something in a mean way because you are mad or hurt. Better yet, I say BAN IT FROM BOOKS! Sarcasm is bad bad bad!


Many blessings to you .... no sarcasm and no censorship.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Friday.... nonsense

Hello again!

Yesterday was an interesting day. It started out like a normal going to go pay bills, run errands kind of day.

My first stop gas and kerosene. So far so good. Next I drove clear across the county -- I have to pay my phone bill over there. I went in and payed the bill. Came out and a fella in a small black truck towing a trailer was over at the drop box. O.k., no biggie -- except for one notable thing. He was in an awful dang hurry. Rushed his little truck and trailer right out into the intersection without so much as batting an eyelash that I was on the street he was going to cross. And off he went, darting as fast as he could through intersections and around traffic. One word - dangerous. I mumbled to myself that I certainly hoped he didn't get hurt or hurt anyone else with this obvious reckless driving.

Next stop - insurance. Which happens to be not so very far from the phone company. Lucky me huh?

As I am making my way down the main road way who do I happen to see on the side of the road? You guessed it -- its the little black truck hauling the trailer guy. And he's managed to over heat his little black beast that he was so desperate to get rolling so fast.

My thoughts on this -- I wished that this guy remained safe and that those around him would be safe even though he was being so careless. And what I got for my efforts was him being stuck on the side of the road!

Poor fella..... Now maybe in the future he will chill out on that little engine.

Many blessings! Remember to think positive about those whom are reckless and you may find your answer very quickly.

And this is a true story!

Thursday, February 15, 2007

It's me again....

so, things once again have been crazy for me. I have not had much time off and I am praying about it. Seems if I want something bad enough praying works better than asking. And just let me point out that praying a prayer of thank You for _____. You fill in the blank actually works better than asking for it in the first place. So, I will be praying for less working hours -- that I am home at least three nights a week.

There is plenty going on. My husband has been working long days at the new racing shop he is at and he loves it! I have started playing around with materials/crafty stuff to make some butterfly's. I already learned how to manufacture the material to get nice clean wings done.

The boys are in school as they should be. My littlest one will begin potty training soon. He's starting to show interest in going potty on the potty chair. YAY!! Soon no more diapers! And I hope that I don't have to raise my grandkidlets!

Tomorrow?? I hope to get pictures posted. And to clean out the camera as it is due for it... just another thing to add to my growing list of things to accomplish and get. I went shopping today and I already have a list a mile long.

And now my favorite bloggers list for this week --
Chrystal's Blog is well worth reading and a giggle a mile a minute.
The Pioneer Woman - Ree recently had a photo contest and she got a zillion hits. She's alot of fun to read too. And I recommend catching up on the last week of posts so you can get her DELISH recipes for Lasagna and Chocolate cake!

Hope you are having a blessed week, keeping warm and safe!