Spring Break and Spring

It's spring break and I havn't posted a darn thing. And spring break is almost over.

How are things?

School is going far better than I thought it would. My best subject is psych, where I'm currently earning slightly over 100%. Next is math (math?????? you say? yes, math) where I earned 115% on my last test and am otherwise pulling a strong A. Human services is going well, and it's an absolutely fascinating subject. I've got a strong A there as well. The only place my A is looking a little anemic is English. My prof spends most of the class period caressing Poe's work with his words and showing us YouTube videos of bombings in Iraq and George Carlin performances. Oh, well. At least I now have good reason to think of Kenndy's assassination as a massive conspiracy. So my time in that class hasn't been wasted.

We've heard a tiny bit on Man's med-boarding. He was contacted by the VA so they could begin to assess what degree of disability he's experiencing. His pain is at an all-time high and it's driving him nuts by degrees. Your continued prayers are appreciated.

Princess is doing well in class. She has been reinstated in the advanced math class, earns top marks in every subject, and has developed a hardcore fascination with Michael's. It's nice to see that at least one of my kids inherited their Oma's love of art. We recently did some self service on the bikes and have taken a few family outings around the neighborhood. I'm pretty proud of how my calves are looking nowadays after hauling the little girls around in a bike trailer. Princess likes the bike riding as long as we keep it to relatively level surfaces, but does well even with some fairly tough hills.

Tag is doing well, and learning to read (finally!). He went from being less than interested to "hey, don't read that for me, I've got it" seamlessly, it seems, and does most of his homework on his own now. He is still making friends all over the neighborhood and is universally liked. He's loving the freedom that better weather gives him and takes advantage of that freedom often.

Pebbles has the most complex personality of all of the kids, alternately quiet yet goofy, observant and interested and able to pick up most things and do well with them. She's getting closer to "pink-school" in the fall. We're trying to decide when to get her a real bike, but I worry that when we do she'll find ways to disappear with frequency. Her latest love is in drawing faces with googly eyes and monster mouths.

Freida is amazing. Her personality has hit overdrive, coming level with Tag's in so many ways. She plays with her voice like he does, has similar facial expressions and occasional volume levels, and is very good at communicating her wants and needs. Her language has really blossomed and she is suddenly interested in being understood perfectly. This leads to some frustration on all sides but it's nice when we finally figure things out. She also loves to draw but her mediums are walls and legs.

I've been sick again. The last few weeks I've developed an intolerence for any level of fat or chocolate consumption. It appears that I have some serious acid reflux which isn't entirely controlled by medication. If I'm not better in a month, I'll have to get scoped and otherwise investigated for digestive disorders. My major depression over this is that I'm now being treated for two different diseases associated with obesity and I'm only in my 20's. I guess this is a good opportunity to make some positive adjustments. Onward and upward.

So, there's the H news. Thankfully nothing too exciting has been happening but we've managed to have some fun. We planted some seeds, the kids and I, which began sprouting after a shocking three day. Most of the packets told us that it would take two weeks to see sprouts. The girls picked out some really lovely flowers, Tag is looking forward to his watermelons, and I'm drooling over my future tomatoes, zucchini, and herbs. The sidewalk chalk gets used almost every day, we've grilled a half dozen times since the weather improved, our frisbees are getting a good workout, and I think I'm in love with spring.

For a moment, it feels a little like peace. But, Pebbles just played ring around the rosy with a box of cereal so I need to go supervise the cleanup. -sigh- Peace. ;)

Glenn Beck.

Glenn Beck asked us all to leave the LDS church.

Not in so many words, but that was the jist of it. Selected quotes:

Last week, the conservative broadcaster Glenn Beck called on Christians to leave their churches if they heard any preaching about social or economic justice because, he claimed, those were slogans affiliated with Nazism and Communism.

Even Mormon scholars in Mr. Beck’s own church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said in interviews that Mr. Beck seemed ignorant of just how central social justice teaching was to Mormonism.

The controversy began when Mr. Beck said on his radio show: “I beg you, look for the words ’social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. “Am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!"

Kent P. Jackson, associate dean of religion at Brigham Young University, said in an interview: “My own experience as a believing Latter-day Saint over the course of 60 years is that I have seen social justice in practice in every L.D.S. congregation I’ve been in. People endeavor with all of our frailties and shortcomings to love one another and to lift up other people. So if that’s Beck’s definition of social justice, he and I are definitely not on the same team.”

Mr. Barlow said that Mr. Beck’s comments were particularly ill-timed because just this year, the church’s highest authority, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, issued a new “Handbook of Instructions” to church leaders in which they revised the church’s “three-fold mission” and added a fourth mission statement: care for the poor.

This should also give pause to many LDS folks who think that the word "socialism" is tantamount to slavery to big government. They want gay marriage to be banned, but won't support a program that helps lift the poor from desperate circumstances? I understand that we want people to choose to help the poor on their own, making the choice individually and in an amount of their choosing.

Why, then, is it ok for a global ban on gay marriage to occur but a global health care system for those who can't afford it such a violation of free agency? Either let the people choose for themselves, or don't. Either let people choose to marry their homosexual partner and let people choose to help the poor, or make laws that ban gay marriage and lift the poor. It's ironic that Christian conservatives are so vocal about their freedom to choose but feel that someone else's freedom to choose ends precisely when it violates Christian values. It seems they only want freedom to choose what they think is right. It's a hypocritical attitude that has rendered countless generation helpless to think entirely for themselves in the face of dogma.

Mistakes and bad choices are how we learn. Of course that doesn't give us the excuse to do any less than our best, but sometimes our best is awfully darn lousy.

A big "thank you" to those Christians out there who do practice the core beliefs of Christianity -- love, patience, forgiveness, and freedom to exercise the opportunity of repentance.

Growing up

There's a kid in Psych class who had bushy, messy hair. Think Jim Halpert:


That hair was always in his face and hanging in his eyes until this past Monday when he walked into class. I could barely recognize him, he looked so clean cut and combed. You know how some people look like they have brown eyes until they get a hair cut? This kid was one of them and his eyes were such a clear blue that I couldn't help but stare for a moment. He noticed so I said:

"Wow! Nice hair cut! Who knew you had blue eyes? In fact, you're quite good looking. Don't you think so, C?" My classmate looked a little bewildered at my comments and started laughing.

"What?" I said. "He's a cute kid, and I'm an old married lady. No harm in saying he's good looking."

The kid in question (I think he's about 10 years younger than me) gave a charming half grin and blushed.

A couple of days later I was in the computer lab when I happened to go up to the printer for my notes when he suddenly popped up out of nowhere for his own notes.

"Hey," he said. "Do you know about this assignment?"

I gave him a clear, bold look, told him what I knew about the assignment, and, for the first time in my life, I watched an instant crush form on someone's face. It's a minor one, but he got that puppy dog look, gave his little half grin again, and couldn't quite look away.

It was so cute! Being an old married lady sure can be good for a chuckle. I've always preferred older men, though.

Hectic

Things have been busy lately. Busy enough that I felt dizzy all weekend until I sat on my rear for a few hours Sunday afternoon and just knitted and watched whattheheckever was on Hulu.

Yesterday, Princess asked me in a sort of plaintive tone "mom, you said we'd be going to Michael's some time. When can we go?"

Her teacher talked to me a couple of weeks ago and said that she had been acting very distracted in school, forgetting her homework, and having episodes of crying in the classroom. This all began when I started school, which of course coincided with that accident.

I walked away from that meeting determined to do something to bouy her spirits, something that would help me spend time with her and otherwise give her a skill with which she could be happy. She had kind of letting the knitting go after a while due to difficulty with getting the right tension without having the yarn flip off (she was wrapping it tightly enough that I had to break the yarn to get it off of the pegs). So I told her that we could go to Michael's, browse for a long time, and see what we could bring home for her.

Her question struck something deep within me, and I thought about it for about three seconds. "Tonight, right after dinner." Family Home Evening wasn't going to happen anyway, so I made an executive decision to go on an immediate date with my daughter.

I helped her hurry the dishes into the washer and away we went. We had a great time, stopping first at Costco to get her a bathing suit for the summer, then going to WalMart to pick up a couple of shirts that she absolutely loves. Finally, we stopped at Michael's. We got her a very small counted cross stitch project and a small latchhook project, and she used her own money to buy a book where you can use a stylus to scratch at a black page to reveal colored foil, creating designs with the rainbow-on-black look. Also, scrapbook organizing supplies were 40% off, so I got a GREAT DEAL on an organizing thingy that will make my craft room breath in relief. (can't find it online, you'll just have to trust that Raul has a girlfriend now, Siobhan.) It's small but glorious.

And Princess talked. She talked and talked, and I responded and we laughed. She made jokes and her face glowed when I laughed. She told me about school, and about her friends, and about how excited she was about her grandparents to all visit this week. She told me about the colors she loves and the objects she'd like to have some day (usually in reference to things we don't keep in the house because the little girls either scatter them or draw on the walls with them) and, by the time we came home, she looked contented despite how much her feet hurt from all the walking.

We'll have to do that more often.