I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun. ~ Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn....my FAVORITE actress! I love her! I certainly don't always agree with what she said or how she lived her life, but she was an amazing actress and always told people exactly how it was or what she was thinking; something I wish I was capable of (I always sit by in silence).

Yesterday we walked around outside and cleaned up the yard a bit. We also pegged out our veggie garden, where the hen house is going, the woodpile, and some trees we're going to cut down. Now I have to start ripping up the sod and preparing the soil: FUN! Fortunately the garden is not that big...maybe 8x10. We're hoping to get a start on our hen house in the next couple of weeks.

We're still waiting on the contractor to get back to us on the fencing. We decided we're going to bite the bullet and just do it. It became very obvious yesterday that it was necessary. I got home from work and took the dogs out, on their leash, in the backyard. We were out there a few minutes, when I looked toward the street and noticed a male pit-bull standing at the end of my driveway. He didn't do anything, but I right away put the girls back in the house, then went out front.

The neighbors had gotten a hold of him; no idea where the owners were. Later that evening, while driving to church, we saw another stray a couple blocks from our house. These are the 3rd and 4th sitings of unleashed dogs in our town in the past few weeks. With chickens in our yard and the girls out there (and kids someday) I want to know that they're all safe. We will be going ahead with the fence.

Tonight, I'm planning on playing soccer with my sister and her friends. That's more fun to me than 40 minutes on the elliptical. I also feel frustrated with the gym: I pay $40 a month and I haven't lost a pound after 3 months. I don't really have the extra $40 and I think I want to start back with my pilates DVDs: I always feel like I get more out of those.

"There can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country." Theodore Roosevelt

I know many people don't approve of hunting and don't see it as anything more than a bunch of rednecks out with guns and beer. Yes, there are people out there who for them, that is what hunting is. It is an instance in which the minority are giving a bad reputation to the majority.

For the majority of TRUE hunters, hunting is about conservation...about spending time in nature and understanding it's needs and help it. Hunting has been an activity that we, as humans, have partaken in since the very beginning. It is a way for populations to be kept in check, particularly in our world where the ecosystem is so dramatically affected and unable to balance itself.

I grew up with a father who hunted and who had guns in our house. Growing up we wouldn't have had meat on our table without my father's hunting. To me, my father is a true hunter in every sense. He is the person who will spend the entire day out just watching and waiting, who leaves nature better than when he arrived, the man who if he shot...but did not kill...(my father rarely misses a kill in one shot) would track his prey all day and for many miles in order to ensure they animal did not suffer unnecessarily.


Tonight Matt, Kate and I all took the first session of our hunter safety course. In all honesty I have no desire to go out hunting and shoot an animal. I am taking the course for safety...to educate myself on hunting and on handling firearms.

One of the questions that was asked (this was a group of adults and kids 10+ years old) was what would you do if you found your child and a friend "playing" with a gun without supervision or permission. Every parent was adamant that it would not be accepted and they would be disciplined. To many people this is the biggest concern with firearms: Accidental death and injury.

I honestly don't know what my father and mother did, but we knew we were to NEVER EVER to touch my father's guns or ammunition. The fear instilled in us from little kids has carried in to our adulthood: Neither me, my brother, or sister will go near my father's guns without his express permission. I believe it can be attributed to his taking us hunting with him when we were younger (I was 3 the first time I went out). We weren't sheltered from the power of a gun. We saw the deer alive, as well as dead: Knowing that the gun did that.

My only hope for the future is that I can instill the same fear and respect for firearms and archery equipment in my children that my father did. I'm sure, especially with his help, we will.

"It isn't the stork, it isn't the stork, it isn't the stork at all!" lyrics from Once Upon a Mattress

Little bit of background on the title. These lyrics are from a song in Once Upon a Mattress (OUAM) in which the mute king is trying to explain the birds and the bees to his son...the son isn't that bright and isn't really getting what the mute king is trying to say. IF throws this line into a WHOLE other light:

I emailed my T-TTC sister (via TheNest) and we were talking about how this (having a baby) shouldn't be as hard as it is, here is an excerpt from my email:

The whole thing is absurd! This isn't how having children is supposed to be!
It's supposed to just "BAM!" happen…

I know what you mean about "Let me just be pregnant already!" Last night, I was having one of those aching moments (I think part of the reason for sitting on the couch). I just wanted to be pregnant…to go upstairs and look at the "nursery" room and have it all set up, to pick out clothes and shop for this little person, knowing that soon we would be holding our child. GRR!

I read on somebody's blog the other day, what will they say when Jr. asks "Where did I come from?" "Well, you came from a lab…" It really is like the old concept of the stork…but a lot more complex.

It isn't precisely 'the stork', but for some of us to get pregnant it takes: a TEAM of doctors and nurses, a slew of drugs and needles, repeatedely displaying your privates (external AND internal) to strangers, possible someone to donate missing elements...all in the hopes that eventually you will get those two lines on a pee-stick, and 9 months later to pop a healthy, beautiful baby (or two) out. Sounds like a whole lot to go through for something that teenagers manage to do quite easily.

If it were a matter of putting in a request to the 'stork' and having him/her drop a bundle down the chimney I'm more than willing to foot the bill for that. Honestly though, how are any of us who go through all of this ever going to explain to our kids where babies come from! It's an entirely 'foreign' thing we're going through here. I guess the simple answer is...God.

This whole thing is undoubtedly a leap of faith. Will it be all for naught? Or will we eventually be parents? (preferably before we're broke and living in a cardboard box over a sewer grate). GOD PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THE ANSWER IS! I PROMISE I WILL NEVER SWEAR AGAIN, AND THAT I WILL VOLUNTEER MORE, AND DO WHATEVER ELSE YOU WANT ME TO DO! (Do you think bribing will work?)

On the other hand would we want children to be aware of how difficult it is sometimes to get pregnant? Not that they're like us and think this whole thing is as easy as it sounds in our Sex Ed/Health classes, and not that they think it's REALLY hard and don't bother protecting themselves.

Doing what is right, when what is right is not easy...

Deut 23: 15-16
15If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand him over to his master. 16Let him live among you wherever he likes and in whatever town he chooses. Do not oppress him.

"The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right. ~William Safire "The New York Times"

You're probably wondering why I am bringing up the topic of slavery and doing what is right. Last night I finished "The Sugar Camp Quilt" (Jennifer Chiaverini). This is the second book in the Elm Creek Quilts series in which she discusses the abolotionist movement and the underground railroad.

The plot of this book centers around a family who discovers a secret and decides to follow suit, in trying to help slaves escape to freedom. It discusses the risks they took and the things they experienced. Yes, it is a work of fiction, but it did make me think. Would I, could I have done what those brave people (runaways and station-masters alike) did?

It's hard to know how we will respond to a situation, until we are in that specific situation. We all would like to think that we would be brave and be willing to sacrifice our own security and that of our families to do what is right.

What all of those people did was beyond amazing. They knew no more than they needed to and were willing to risk everything (their own freedom, their homes, their property, their families etc) to do what they believed, beyond a doubt, was right.

What the slaves did was inconceivable: Running from what they knew, not knowing what they would receive...not knowing if they would be found, if they would be betrayed, re-enslaved, taste freedom, die. That they managed to walk thousands of miles to their freedom, trusting only on the goodwill of others.

I believe, beyond a reasonable doubt, that slavery is wrong. No person has the right to own another, and to treat them however [poorly] they see fit. I don't believe I'll ever know whether I could do what those brave men and women, blacks and whites, did. I would like to think I could.

Issues with Easter

Happy Easter!
I love Easter: I love rejoicing in the resurrection of our Savior. Of course all the Spring flowers and colors certainly help. The one thing that has started to bother me more and more is the commercialism that Easter suffered. To me, Easter is a religious holiday. I can understand Christmas being commercialized (I don't like it, but I can accept). Holy Week and Easter are based on only one thing: The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus.

To the majority of people Easter is nothing more than an excuse to eat too much, dress the kids nice, hype them up on sugar, bunnies, and hard boiled eggs, and give people tulips and hyacinths. They really have no clue, or desire to know, what it's truly about. It's just another holiday to them.

I think this is one of the great things about Judaism. It isn't nearly as commercialized as Christian holidays. I don't know if it's because it's not as "mainstream" of a religion. I wish, to a certain extent, Christianity was that way: Does that make sense? That we could have a holiday, like Easter, and not have it profaned by the Wal-Mart's and Hallmark's.

At work on Friday, there was one person walking around (The Pain-who I know is not by any stretch of the imagination a Christian) wishing everyone a happy Good Friday: There is nothing happy about Good Friday...it is a somber day. It's the day that Jesus is scouraged, beaten, brutalized and crucified for US, for our salvation. This is just an example of the oblivion people have in regards to Easter. Will we do baskets filled with candy and eggs with our kids....sure we will, but it certainly won't be the main event of the day.

For those of us who know, and understand, Easter: HAPPY EASTER!

The Resurrection 1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7'TheSon of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " 8Then they remembered his words. 9When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

"Have we changed our hopes for fears, and our dreams for plans?" ~ Shakira

Last night I had typed up almost an entire post, 45 minutes worth of typing, only to have the computer flip-out and delete it, and at that precise moment before CTRL+Z the page to auto-save. Lovely! There’s something to be said for paper and pencil. At least that way I don’t have to worry about the paper having a glitch and erasing the whole thing. And yet…here I am retyping.


Things happen for a reason though. The post I had typed last night was really nothing more than a ramble, with no central thought or idea. It wasn’t until last night Matt came to bed and announced that he was in the midst of a quarter-life crisis, that I realized what it was that I was writing about. We go through our formative years thinking, or rather knowing, what our lives should be: Graduate high school, go on to college and get the degree, land the job and the marriage, setup house and have a family.

The steps are all the same, but somehow they don’t seem to have turned out the way we anticipated. At 13, I wanted to be a pastor: At 14, a veterinarian: At 16, an architect: 17, a photojournalist for National Geographic: 18, ….? I graduated college with a B.S. in English (BS is right). Throughout all of those years, the one thing I ultimately wanted was to be a published writer and recognized for my work: The “One Original Idea”, which John Nash was always seeking. Needless to say, I’m still searching.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my life and I’m happy where I am, but it’s nothing like I expected: My expectation: to be single, traveling the world, photographing far off places and writing about them for a well known publication. To affect the people who came in contact with my work.

Obviously this hasn’t happened. It was replaced by something else: Completely different, but just as good.I went to college, got a job (not at all the one I dreamed of), got married to my high school sweetheart, bought a house in the town where we grew up, and tried starting a family. Here’s how it all went awry: I planned on staying at my job only until we got married, that was 2 ½ years ago, then it was only until we had kids, we’ve been trying for 2 years. I’m still at the same job.