Guess What?????

I have a BEAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't suck as a gardener!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooo hoooo!!!!!!!!

And in honor of my new label as a "small-minded" woman, I have a new poll up on my sidebar! (And no, it's not for me. A friend is over at my house at the moment, asking for your advice.)

Obama in Action - Part 2

Part 2 - Whose Christianity?

Obama has been getting a LOT of flack for the statement below. Today I'd like to chat about it.

And even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson's, or Al Sharpton's? Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is ok and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount - a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application? So before we get carried away, let's read our bibles. Folks haven't been reading their bibles.

To me, Obama is raising a valid point here. Christians all across this country have a variety of beliefs. The Bible has of course stayed the same, but our practice, the way we apply it to our lives, has not. There is a VAST spectrum of beliefs held by Christians across the USA. Baptists, Amish, Pentecostal, Methodist... Often these groups are found arguing about if the others are even "saved"! We practice a variety of types of Christianity in every area... some drink alcohol, others consider even a sip to be sin. Some rarely even attend a church service, others consider missing even one service to be a sin!

My question for today is:

If we DID base the laws of our society completely on the Bible, what do you think would happen? Would you stay here?

Obama in Action - Part 1

Today I stumbled upon a transcript of Obama's speech at the Call to Renewal conference. I decided to make a little mini-series here on my blog focusing on his speech, because it was SO amazing.

Part 1 ~ Bridging the Great Divide

"In other words, if we don't reach out to evangelical Christians and other religious Americans and tell them what we stand for, then the Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons and Alan Keyeses will continue to hold sway."

I'm so glad that the Democratic party is reaching out, and discussing faith. I'm glad that they are offering an alternative to the rut of divisiveness our country has fallen into.

So how is Obama proposing that we bridge the divide? By talking about issues in a way that everyone can agree on. Take, for instance, his opinion on abortion:

"I think that we should put more of our tax dollars into educating poor girls and boys. I think that the work that Marian Wright Edelman has done all her life is absolutely how we should prioritize our resources in the wealthiest nation on earth. I also think that we should give them the information about contraception that can prevent unwanted pregnancies, lower abortion rates, and help assure that that every child is loved and cherished.

But, you know, my Bible tells me that if we train a child in the way he should go, when he is old he will not turn from it. So I think faith and guidance can help fortify a young woman's sense of self, a young man's sense of responsibility, and a sense of reverence that all young people should have for the act of sexual intimacy."

I love how Obama is planning to do EXACTLY what the Christian leaders want to accomplish (save babies from being aborted), in a way that EVERYONE can agree on!!! I love how he has found a new approach to an age-old issue. I love how he is bringing the government (preventing under age pregnancies through education) and faith (preventing underage pregnancies by lowering risk factors that lead to underage sex) together to work towards a similar goal.

What do YOU think about all this?

What's Up, Buttercup?

So you're probably wondering what I've been doing...

Well, aside from the basics.. (the car is FIXED!!!!!!!! Made my first crock pot meal, had my first real fight with James, had my first make-up sex with James - and YES, it IS all it's cracked up to be!!!! lol, visited my mommy, hung out with Kim and Jakey)... I have been:

Attempting to transplant a Hollyhock plant from my mom's house. So far, it is not going well lol


Admiring the growth of my green beans... and if you look close, do you know what you'll see?
A BLOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! From each of these blooms will come a green bean!! *beyond excited*

Taking wierd pics of the awesomely cool flowers growing in my yard...
And making a stockpile of things to sell, either on my Etsy site once I get it up and running, or at local craft fairs... and my current obsession? BABY BIBS!!!!!

This is my work table, filled with bibs in process and 3 that are ready to sell already! :) I'm learning so much from making them, and having a TON of fun in the process. So far I've only done ones for girls, but once I use up these yarns I'll switch and do some for boys. FUN!!!!! :o)

So.... what have YOU all been doing???

They should put warning labels...

On movies like the Bucket List.

We watched it today, and I'm currently sobbing like a child. I didn't know it would impact me that deeply... and I think I would have been okay... had it not been for the woman giving her husband a lemon swab.

And it all came back to me... my dad in the hospital bed... the beeps of monitors all around... and me, giving my dad swabs of water because they were afraid to let him drink out of a cup.

Grief is such a wierd thing... a stabbing pain coming at the most unexpected of times.

Nerds 'R' Us

*~*Today a coworker noticed that the statement "I before E, except after C" does NOT apply to the word "freight." WHOA. That blows my mind.*~*

I've become freakishly obsessed about Biology this week!. I got a book from the library about Biology in general, plus one on DNA... This is what happens when I read books written by Robin Cook. Since the first chapter is about basic chemistry needed (somehow) to understand biology, I've been playing on chemistry sites online... and found Chem4Kids! SO SO SO cool... and it has sister sites for other types of science and even math!

Sometimes I wish I could go back to high school and somehow manage to overcome my emotional and concentration issues... and go into the medical research field like I sometimes dreamed of. (I daydreamed of lots of things, lol... not just one career) Now as an adult I'm looking for ways to increase my knowledge of Science, so maybe a door will open for me to use it.

Maybe if I get prego, I can give my kiddos a passion for science! Maybe one day I'll end up doing work with "my kids" (kids ministry in an impoverished city near here) again, and can tutor them! Maybe a new path will open up... one I can't anticipate. Be that as it may, I can't build my life around "maybe"s and "one day"s... so for now, I'm just letting my inner geek run amuck causing mass chaos and destruction....

So stay tuned for more wierd chemistry and biology websites... or possibly for me to become completely distracted and loose interest! lol

Abandonment

Time and time again, as I allow myself to feel and examine my emotions, I come back to that word. Abandonment.

This seems to be a theme in my life. I think it really hit me when my parents split up at the age of 12. My dad had been my knight in shining armor as a child, vowing to vanquish anyone who hurt me or tried to take me away... but when Mom and I packed up our boxes to move, the only response from him was when I found a card in his trashcan... it read "Daddy, I love you." with cute little crayon drawings. That basically summed up our relationship from that point forward. We had occasional visits from him... usually him wanting to "say goodbye" before he commited suicide. *eye roll*

At the same time, my mom was working a lot of long hours... my grandparents had their own lives to deal with (Grandpa was going blind)...

And I felt so abandoned.

I see this being repeated in my mind even today. When I have serious discussions with James, I fear he'll leave me. When I make a mistake at work, I worry I'll be fired. When I don't hear from a friend in a while, I wonder what I did to make them leave me. I feel like I'm always waiting to do that one unforgiveable thing... the one that will make the other person walk away and never come back.

I see all this... but I have no idea how to overcome it. How do you shut off (or circumvent) something ingrained so deeply?

How does the garden grow?

At the moment, the garden is growing GREAT!!!! Not only do I have morning glories:

And the newest bloom, my very first blooming cosmo of the year:

But I also have green beans:

Isn't it crazy how tall and bushy they're getting???

And MUCH to my surprise... when I went outside last night, I discovered that after two months of waiting for them to sprout... I have pepper plants!!!!!!

Two different sets of them, in fact!!!!!


I know I planted four types of peppers... cayenne, cerrano, jalapeno, and umm... maybe bell peppers? I dunno. I'd given up on them ever coming up, after waiting all of this time! I was so surprised!

I also have carrots coming up here and there in the back, and some cherry tomatoes... I'll make sure and take pics of those later. I'll also have to take new pics once I get the garden area weeded and the peppers and cherry tomato plants thinned out.

How about you? Do you have a garden? Anything cool growing in it?