I want to be educated when I grow up...

I hadn't been to visit the Segullah blog for a long time. This is what I found. I love it!

"Who Do You Want to Be Today?

A few years back, when my three kids were nine, seven and four, I hit one of those turning points. A demarcation. I lived in Minnesota at the time, in a school district where summers were looooong, and I remember sitting at my computer one hot July day, looking out the window at my kids running around on the lawn, completely independent. They no longer needed me to tie their shoes or wipe their bottoms, rock them to sleep or buckle their seat belts. In many ways, it was a time to celebrate my own independence. Finally, I had some air to breathe, a little corner of quiet. Sleep. Oh, the sleep! It was everything I’d been yearning for.

Yet.

Yet I felt unsettled, unmoored by my impending freedom. For the better part of the previous decade, I’d been a mom of little kids. Sure, I’d done other things while they were small, but in many ways the tying and wiping and rocking and buckling were the actions that defined my days. Defined my life. The future was yawning (and I was well rested), which begged the question:

So what was I gonna do now??

What I did was get pregnant again. Halfway through my third child’s kindergarten year, we welcomed our caboose—our fourth and final child—whom my husband called our “hobby baby.” He’s been darling and fun (and crazy and exhausting). But this post isn’t about babies. It’s about choices. It’s about that time in your life when you stand on the dividing line from one phase to the next and find yourself wondering who (whom??) the heck you are supposed to be.

Perhaps it’s my age—I’m thirty six—but I feel like recently I’ve had an abundance of conversations with women my age about how to handle the next phase. The “kids are all in school . . . now what?” conversation. And inevitably, in almost every conversation, somebody says this:

“I want to (fill in the blank) but I’m afraid . . .”

I want to go back to work, but I’m afraid the other stay-at-home moms will judge me.

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Vote for Life

I saw this video on Candace's Blog. One of Ryan's friends said that the election should be pretty clear for LDS voters. The church stands for life and marriage between a man and a woman. Shouldn't our votes be for those who stand and support those two things?


I thought this ad was right on target! I hope the Catholics and other Christians will get out and vote for life!

This Was a First for Me!

If you know me very well . . . which most of you who read this do, I am almost never late for one thing . . . school, and never when there is a test. But this morning I was running just a bit late. I couldn't get my hair to work right this morning, so I spent a few more minutes on it than usual. Then I had to take Dan to work because the truck is in the shop. So these two things had me running just about five minutes later than usual.

No big deal. I would be to school on time. So I grabbed my shoes out of my closet, threw them on, and rushed out the door. After driving Dan to work, I glanced at the clock and knew getting to class on time was going to mean speeding (just a little) and speed-walking across campus. I zoomed into the parking lot, into a stall, jumped out of the car, and realized two things. I didn't wear socks (which isn't unusual), and one of my feet was colder than the other. I looked down at my racing feet . . . and my shoes didn't match!!!! I had one black leather loafer on and a brown leather clog!!!! There was not one thing I could do about it. I had a test that I had to get to and had exactly 5 minutes to walk 3 blocks to my class.

My eyes were tearing a bit from the cold, but then I started laughing! I had tears streaming down my face as I hurried to class in my mismatched shoes. I looked around and there weren't many people walking to class. They were already in class. I thought, "no one will notice." I called Tessa knowing that she was between classes too, and told her of my silly situation. She thought it was very amusing. Unbeknown to me, we were walking on an intercepting path while talking. When we ran into each other, she looked at me and said, "Oh, mother!" We laughed for a few seconds together, and then had to run. As I waved good-bye to her, she laughed and said, "One shoe doesn't have a back and the other does! How did you not notice that?" There were several people around at that moment, and all I did was laugh harder.

I got into class about one minute late, and had to gather myself so that I could concentrate on my test. I was really thankful that I only had one class today in which I had to remain mismatched. My test took twenty minutes and I was out of there almost as fast as I had gotten there. I laughed on and off all morning. I hope that my testing went better than my dressing!

Our Country is in Crisis. Let us join in prayer.

I found this on Anne Bradshaw's blog and think it is a great idea! Please spread the word.

"ONE MINUTE EACH NIGHT"

“This is the scariest election we as Christians have ever faced and from the looks of the polls, the Christians aren't voting Christian values. We all need to be on our knees.

“Do you believe we can take God at His word? Call upon His name, then stand back and watch His wonders to behold? This scripture gives us, as Christians, ownership of this land and the ability to call upon God to heal it. I challenge you to do so. We have never been more desperate than now for God to heal our land. This election is the scariest.

“2 Chronicles 7:14--'If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.'

“During WWII, there was an adviser to Churchill who organized a group of people who dropped what they were doing every night at a prescribed hour. For one minute, they prayed collectively for the safety of England, its people and peace. This had an amazing effect as bombing stopped. There is now a group of people organizing the same thing here in the United States of America and our citizens need prayer more than ever.

“If you would like to participate: each evening at 9:00 PM Eastern Time (8:00 PM Central, 7:00 PM Mountain, 6:00 PM Pacific), stop whatever you are doing and spend one minute praying for the safety of the United States, our troops, our citizens, for peace in the world, the upcoming election, that the Bible will remain the basis for the laws governing our land and that Christianity will grow in the US.

“If you know anyone who would like to participate, please pass this along. Someone said if people really understood the full extent of the power we have available through prayer, we might be speechless. Our prayers are the most powerful asset we have.

"Please pass this on to anyone who you think might want to join us.”

Diet and Health

In the past I have read extensively about weight-loss and dieting. I have probably read well over thirty books since I was in high school. Almost everything that I have read addressed what to eat to be thin. I've learned basically that a person has to burn more calories than he eats to loss weight.
But being thin doesn't guarantee health. To have true health, a person must eat nutrient-dense foods, and enough of them to get an adequate supply of those nutrients. Sometimes this conflicts with eating to be thin. Recently I have lost 13 lbs doing what I know to lose weight, exercising almost daily and counting calories. But I know that I don't necessarily get the nutrients I need everyday from my food. So I take good whole food supplements and hope for the best. I think there has to be a better, more natural way.
My father has just read a new book called The China Study. He is has been eating a vegetarian diet for the last eight weeks. The book promotes eating whole grains, vegetables, and no more than 10% of one's diet in meat, and no dairy products. It includes comprehensive research and several double-blind studies. The evidence in the book is intriguing, to say the least. My dad has lost another 6 lbs eating as much as he wants of the "right" foods. He had already lost 30 lbs in the last year other ways. This diet is almost opposite of The Atkin's Diet in which he use to try to adhere a few years ago. He feels so much better! His blood pressure is down and instead of dragging around he has energy. The thing most interesting to me is that the principles in the book go hand in hand with The Word of Wisdom (Doctrine and Covenants 89).
I have yet to read it. He bought me a copy of the book, but I have been so busy that I haven't taken the time. It sounds like the diet, as written in the book, would supply the necessary nutrients to acquire true good health. I'm a bit intimidated by it. Totally changing the way I shop, cook, and eat would be difficult at best when my habits are so different. But what are the rewards? My family would eat better and be healthier just because I would constantly have fresh food around, even if they didn't eliminate all that I would.
I need to find the time to read the book and incorporate the ideas. Maybe I'd lose the last 5-10 lbs that I would like to, and be even healthier than I am now.