Vote YES on Prop 4!!

In California, there is yet another Proposition on the ballot advocating for parental notification if a minor is going to have an abortion 48 hours ahead of time, with the option of consulting another family member if there is a case of parental abuse. Here is a letter I wrote regarding this issue:

A line in Roland Nyegaard's recent commentary against Prop 4 proves that its opponents are not primarily concerned with women's safety but rather with keeping abortions unrestricted. He said that young women may not involve her parents in this life-altering decision because "she may not want to disappoint her parents or maybe fears the consequences." Disappointment? Consequences? Prop 4 opponents keep telling us this is about potential abuse, harsh treatment, force, or abandonment! This proves that they know most parents certainly offer nothing more harsh than disappointment and will ultimately act in the best interests of their daughters out of love and concern. Why should good, loving, non-abusive parents have their rights robbed from them because the abortion industry wants no restrictions on their procedures. And we must not forget that this industry makes a lot of money on the unguided, uninformed choices of these young women, a disconcerting fact that gets lost amidst the lies we continue to be sold.

Regarding a woman's safety, I have had minor medical procedures that were considered safe, and know many who also have. Complications arise frequently with even the safest of procedures and can cause much physical pain, and this includes abortions. How scary to think someone's beloved daughter would possibly endure this with her parents left unaware of the situation with no rights on their side.

I also find it disgusting that Prop 4 opponents care more about unrestricted, money-making abortions than they do about young women potentially making these decisions under the influence of dominating boyfriends, or worse, their own molestors. Vote YES on Prop 4!

A refresher

For those of you who happen to come by here and wonder on the satus of my family, we are now one Gorgeous Redead, one Philothea Rose, one 10 year old Mini-Me (that is, my hudband's little clone), my Too-Cool-for-Words 9 year old son, the 7 year old Sweetness, my 5 year-old Angelface, my 2 year old Little Man, and my 10 month old Pretty-Pretty. As you can see, life has treated us well these past couple of years. And believe it or not, after being pretty frightened to be having #6, I have definitely settled into the possibility of #7 in the future, although GR says he's too old and too tired. Needless to say, God's will be done.

A bit of inspired reading

Love this post from crazyacres.

Hello, again....

Not sure if this post means I am returning to blogging. Just thought I'd give it a whirl.

So, since my last post I have had my sixth child, my husband is finally in his "career", and we are in the process of being one of the many people out there currently trying to buy our first home after waiting almost a decade for the outrageous housing market to crash (which many said would never happen). I thank God for granting us the virtue of patience throughout our first decade as a married couple.

In this past year my husband and I have joined a group called Teams of Our Lady, a phenomenal ministry for married couples. This has given us the incredible spiritual renewal and refresher we needed. The teams meet once a month for a meal and prayer, and throughout the month work on different endeavors intended to strengthen a couple's spirit and marriage. I definitely have experienced the fruits of this group and highly recommend it to all married couples who have this organization present in their parishes.

I still love TV, books, and yard sales. I am currently working my way through Roots by Alex Haley, as I vowed this year to be the year of the thousand pagers. I made it through the LOTR trilogy, finally! I also have been introduced to Dorothy L. Sayers, and Lord Wimsey certainly made his way into my heart, although no one will ever supplant Poirot.

And yes, I am anxiously awaiting the season finale of Lost, and am also looking forward to the fall when some new faves will be back, mainly Pushing Daisies and Chuck.

I changed my template and therefore lost some of my sidebar favorites. I will probably be keeping it simple, if I really do make a return to the blogsphere. Although I'd love to urf around and catch up with some of my favorite reads. My reason for leaving was always summed up by stating: how can I blog about the vocation of marriage and motherhood if being on the computer so much takes away from that vocation?

And sure enough, as I write this, I've already shoo'ed my 5 year old daughter away twice so I could finish "just one more paragraph." Typical.

That's the way we all became the Brady Bunch.....

Well, maybe not the Bradys, but our own bunch for sure.

For anyone who may still check in here, keep us in prayer as we have learned we are expecting again. This makes baby #6, which if it is a girl would put us as 3 boys and 3 girls. But I am getting ahead of myself there.

This happened a bit sooner than we wanted it to, but let's just say I got back from a weekend trip away from the family and Gorgeous Redhead and I missed each other a bit too much. However, I loved the way a friend from the Catholic mom message board put it when she wrote, "You took a chance on God, and He's taking a chance on you." God must really trust me, although for what reason is still a mystery to me.

So yes, we are happy, because bringing life into this world and having a large family has always been more important to us that some of the more convenient or practical things in life. But we will definitely have our work cut out for us. We have to begin researching and going through the process of buying a new van or SUV, whichever we find to be best for our family. We also will probably need to move more furniture around, and if it is a girl, buy a whole new set of baby clothes.

But after the initial shock of that pink line in the left window, I began my usual stress-fest and was up two nights in a row wondering how we would be able to do it. But then the second night I felt God's hand upon me and heard His voice. It was really more of a kick-in-the-pants rather than a comforting, soothing voice. He said: "So, you're stressed. Well DO something about it. You feel overwhelmed? Get down on your knees and pray for peace. If you need a new car, then start researching your options and get one! You feel too busy, then cut back on some obligations and get your Rule together to make things manageable. You feel nervous about being tired? Then get those vitamins and schedule those naptimes! But don't sit there and wallow in your stress! You will be OK, but you have to trust in Me and do your part."

So the past couple of days I have tried to take that to heart. And I do know we will be OK.

It's not really the baby I am scared of, because I love infants and feel comfortable with my capabilities as a mom of a newborn. It's more the exterior stresses that get me nervous. But I also know from experience that the times I have been scared or stressed during a pregnancy, that by the time the baby comes I am so overjoyed and hopelessly in love that I actually begin to feel guilt that I could have been fearful or stressed about such a wonderful gift.

And come to think of it, the two times I felt this way about a pregnancy, they turned out to be girls....

Maybe God allows these feelings as a way to prepare me for the drama and emotional roller coaster ride these precious females end up taking me on.

On hiatus (well that's kind of OBVIOUS!)

Wow, it has been almost 3 months since my last post. I have actually come on a couple of times and have begun to type another post, but I get busy or distracted and leave my computer. The posts remain unfinished.

So I have been attempting to get my act as a wife and mom together this summer. It hasn't happened as I've liked. This summer has been very busy and full of some unexpected issues. Nothing bad. But it's been a lot.

I have begun to read "A Mother's Rule for Life" in an attempt to get my daily life to reflect my intentions of being a faithful wife and mother. The book has been great for me. I think I will combine some of its techniques with the Flylday philosophy, and hopefully I can get a "rule" of my own implemented.

However, I have felt very called by God not to devote too much time to online activities, and I feel I have been excessive in this area in my life for the past couple of years.

One of the main reasons I started the blog was to have an outlet, but also to practice writing. You see, I always wanted to be a writer, but wanted to be a wife and mom more. This blog was a great way to get some of my writing itches out, but one thing I realized this past year and a half was that if I am going to focus on writing, it needs to be in the area I am truly interested in, which is more towards creative writing and storytelling. So maybe if I come back to blogging it will be in that vein.

I haven't spent much time online this summer so I haven't perused my usual stomping grounds either. I hope to do so, but I will not be contributing to my own blog regularly. I'm not deleting it because I love it too much and may want to refer back to a post or discussion in the future. However, (oh, dare I say it...) y'all can take me off your blogrolls for now.

Gosh, is this really that hard to type out? I just gotta do it. I gotta retire the blog. Hopefully it will be temporary until I can get a routine down pat and then slowly begin inserting recreational extras into my days, especially once all the kids are in school full-time. But, for now, I must say good-bye. Or at least, "until next time".

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about! LOST!

The Lost season finale was awesome! Best TV finale this season.

Here's my thoughts (do not read on if you don't want to hear my theories in case they are right!)

-First of all, Penelope writes to Desmond that he has someone who truly loves him... "and you have HER." If I were writing about MY love for Desmond, I would say, "and you have ME." NOT "HER". Maybe Penelope and Des have a daughter? Or is there some other "her" out there?

-My theory....

I think Penelope is looking for the PLANE! Because think about it.... the plane disappears and no one knows what happened to it or the passengers. Family members back home are probably flipping out. So maybe Penelope knows and loves someone on the plane and hires people (because she's got the love and money, like she said earlier in the show) to try and find the plane. The two Portuguese (they were speaking Portuguese, right?) guys go looking everywhere, and then detect a electro-magnetic occurence (aka, when Locke was stuck under the door and the numbers ran out before "Henry" got to the computer). So, they realize something is up and think it might have to do with the plane and let Pen know. Then, it happens again, and they detect where it is coming from and call Pen to let her know they "think they found it", aka the plane. So the question then is, WHO on the plane is Pen looking for.... her twin sister LIBBY! (clued in by "The Bad Twin" manuscript Sawyer has been reading that he got off the plane). So, whose the "bad" twin? And how is the Dickens' book "A Mutual Friend" keying into this?

And by the way, there was a photograph in the background of the plane the two Portuguese guys were on. Anyone catch that? Looked like a brunette...

And what was up with the snow? If my theory is correct, then maybe they are looking for the plane in the Antarctica region? It couldn't be the North Pole if it was an Australia to L.A flight.

-Another theory I read on a message board says that maybe the boat can't get anywhere because of the magnetic field... it keeps pulling the boat back. Maybe the boat Michael and Walt are sailing away on has something to counteract this?

-So if Michael follows the compass and is guaranteed to be rescued, and the three get away from "The Others", couldn't they get the other boat and go the same way and escape? I guess "The Others" know nothing about Desmond's boat?

-So, "Henry" looks like he might actually be "HIM", the leader. And we know the second-in-command is named "Tom". Anyone have any recollection of any "Tom" in the orientation videos? And I can't wait to find out why he has a fake beard. No one else seems to feel the need to put on fake facial hair.

-And, based on what was revealed about Jack's dad a few episodes ago, I am still thinking Claire is Jack's sister.

-Hopefully the season 3 premiere will quickly let us in on whether or not Locke, Eko, and Desmond are dead or alive, and we will see Sayid, Jin, and Sun come to the rescue. And we BETTER find out at some point what is up with Walt and all his super-powers.

-But did you all catch that when it came down to the last moment Jack, Kate, and Sawyer think they may have together, before the bags are put over their heads, Kate is only looking in Jack's direction? But after I mentioned this, G.R. told me he thinks they were looking at each other and nodding, as if a plan is about to be executed....

This will be a long summer!

And now, a word from Tom Hanks

"People who think things are true might be more dangerous than people who ponder the possibilities that maybe they are and maybe they aren't."
--Tom Hanks, ibid.

Actually, what is more dangerous are those who deny that there is absolute Truth in an attempt to justify the fact that their actions, beliefs, sentiments, and choices may not be up to par.

What is more dangerous are those who fall back on the old "it's all relative" line and never draw a line defining where relative morality ends and Truth begins. If there is no line, then there is no such thing as "evil" or "wrong". Anything becomes permissible. How far can we seriously go with that kind of viewpoint?

What is more dangerous are those who deny things are true, because if things aren't true, doesn't that then lead to the conclusion that everything is a lie? Where would we go from there?

I wish some people would take the time to ponder the full meaning of their words before opening their mouths to speak such nonsense.

I really hope Tom Hanks isn't going to continue misspeaking in such a way, for I would hate to see him go the way of Tom Cruise in my esteem.