On this Friday the 13th, let's get away from all the scary movies and bad times.
One of my favorite songs ever is "It's A Great Day To Be Alive" with Travis Tritt.
Recently I think I've forgotten that life theme but today I'm determined to make it my banner again.
World Recession:
The other day on the radio show with Dave Ramsey he asked the audience for people that refuse to participate in the country wide, and soon global wide recession, and My husband and I looked at each other and said, "we're not participating!!" And we're not. We're not worse off than we were a year ago.
I have lost one of my jobs, my weekend job has been laid off for the last two months, but my boss says they might let me come back if business picks up. I have two other jobs anyway and they bring in a little bit of money every month, and my husband after years of long, hard work finally got promoted, and to see the the relief in his eyes are more worth than anything.
We have lost some money in the 401K but I didn't have that much there to start with so it's not bothering us that much.
Family wise:
I'm not very happy with Erik's school as you as readers well know by now, but Erik said the other day that he's having a little bit more fun at school now and summer is almost here, and if we're staying here in AR I'm considering Home Schooling for the fall.
Not knowing if we're moving or not is hard on me, but I've come to realize that what ever happens we're happy, we love it here, and we would love it somewhere else.
Living so far away from my parents is very tough. My dad is in poor health and every time the phone rings at a weird time I freak out and thinks something have happened to him.
But I get to talk to my parents every day on the phone. What if I was an early immigrant from Sweden in the beginning of the 1800? When they left their home country it was to never ever return. The only way of communication was with letters that could take months and months to reach their destination.
Even though the plane tickets to go over there are outrageous expensive I can go with in a couple of hours if something would happen.
I stopped for coffee this morning and remembered the news the other week of what people in Starbucks drive through were doing and decided to do the same, pay for the following car's coffee. Hopefully that made his or her day a little brighter.
So my challenge for myself and for you the reader is to start count our blessings in these hard times and hopefully we can turn all the negative news we hear every day back to every day being "a great day to be alive, and know the sun still shining when I close my eyes"
My iPod's loading some Travis Tritt right now...
Friday, March 13, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Paul vs Women
Even in my most intense bible thumping days I had problems with Paul.
The guy HAD to dislike someone didn't he? He started off being against every Christian and persecuted them to his fullest, and when he was turned around by the bright light out on the gravel road he stopped killing Christians but he had to start at least verbally assault some people, so he picked women.
I don't care that much any more but the last couple of days it has caught my attention how horribly wrong he was in his descriptions on women, and if you bring it to the point kind of assaulting Christ even.
Let me explain.
But before I do, this has nothing to do with men hating, feminist propaganda, or any thing of that sort, just a plain notice of every day family life and also a salute to all the wonderful women I work with and see in my surrounding.
Also, it has to be said that my husband leaves it up to me to take care of a lot of things, not because he's lazy but because I'm better at it, as I leave things for him to be in charge of that he's better at. Sometimes it feels like I'm very much better at a lot of things, but in the end of the day he takes care of me and I would not be without him!
Since I live in the center of the Bible Belt I find it even more confusing that families live in a dynamic so totally in collision with Paul's teachings.
Paul claims women are the weaker vessel. Maybe if you count muscle mass, but that would be the only category women are weaker than men.
Here more than any where I've lived before are women in charge of almost everything. The women I work with are super women.
They have the full responsibility over the family, the checkbook, the house maintenance, home work, after school activities, shopping for every day needs for not just herself, but for husband and kids.
She's in charge of planning vacations or recreations.
Her day start before anyone else in the family and ends way after everyone else have called it the day.
And if that wasn't enough work to do at home, she's also helping out with the "man's responsibility", putting food on the table, by working outside the home as much or more than the man. If the woman of a family would vanish the whole family would go extinct with in days.
Paul also uses the picture of the family to describe the relation between Christ and Church. He says Christ is the head of the church as the man in the head of the family...
That's what I think is almost insulting Christ...
The guy HAD to dislike someone didn't he? He started off being against every Christian and persecuted them to his fullest, and when he was turned around by the bright light out on the gravel road he stopped killing Christians but he had to start at least verbally assault some people, so he picked women.
I don't care that much any more but the last couple of days it has caught my attention how horribly wrong he was in his descriptions on women, and if you bring it to the point kind of assaulting Christ even.
Let me explain.
But before I do, this has nothing to do with men hating, feminist propaganda, or any thing of that sort, just a plain notice of every day family life and also a salute to all the wonderful women I work with and see in my surrounding.
Also, it has to be said that my husband leaves it up to me to take care of a lot of things, not because he's lazy but because I'm better at it, as I leave things for him to be in charge of that he's better at. Sometimes it feels like I'm very much better at a lot of things, but in the end of the day he takes care of me and I would not be without him!
Since I live in the center of the Bible Belt I find it even more confusing that families live in a dynamic so totally in collision with Paul's teachings.
Paul claims women are the weaker vessel. Maybe if you count muscle mass, but that would be the only category women are weaker than men.
Here more than any where I've lived before are women in charge of almost everything. The women I work with are super women.
They have the full responsibility over the family, the checkbook, the house maintenance, home work, after school activities, shopping for every day needs for not just herself, but for husband and kids.
She's in charge of planning vacations or recreations.
Her day start before anyone else in the family and ends way after everyone else have called it the day.
And if that wasn't enough work to do at home, she's also helping out with the "man's responsibility", putting food on the table, by working outside the home as much or more than the man. If the woman of a family would vanish the whole family would go extinct with in days.
Paul also uses the picture of the family to describe the relation between Christ and Church. He says Christ is the head of the church as the man in the head of the family...
That's what I think is almost insulting Christ...
Monday, March 2, 2009
Who's Raising Our Children?
As all of you following my blog know, I'm not very happy with the school system. I'm not a Republican or a Democrat. I like the conservative view of government and I favor a liberal view on social and lifestyle issues. I want government out of my wallet and every day life which includes mine and everyone else bedroom!
So don't come and holler at me and tell me "yeah, it's because it's a liberal at the White House" or it's all "that moron W's" fault, when I tell you what I'm about to say now.
I strongly believe it doesn't matter what label is on the guy or gal at the White House no more, I think they serve a bigger agenda that is not for them to question. But back to what I was about to rant on today...
At the "not" State Of the Union address the other week one thing Obama said made me jump. He was talking about the school reform and he said as a promise, that America again will have the best education program for our children from their birth to they graduate from College.
Did you see something worth jumping for in that sentence? If not you're almost lost already I'm afraid. He said FROM THEIR BIRTH...
Today I was listening to Ed Schultz show on the radio. A very progressive voice in the other wise very conservative clutter of talk radio. I don't really know what the topic was but he was talking about the new Secretary of Education. Don't ask me what her name is, I have no idea, but he was saying that he knows why Obama picked her, they are on the same page when it comes to reform for the education system... And again if you read my blog you know I'm a big supporter of education reform, but probably not even close to the same kind of reform they are talking about.
He said that the kids need to spend more time at school learning, way more time than now. Saying adults just get 2 weeks off per year, why should kids have all that time off, they should be in school longer and the parents get to see their kids during the weekend.
I know what he was trying to get to, we fall behind every year to the Asian countries when it comes to education, so I know his intentions were good, he wants more learning to take place. But what he doesn't understand is that the way he promotes learning is what's going to bring us down as a people.
We need less school not more, way less school.
The less of government involvement in our families, the better.
Fellow parents, we need to be on alert here, good intentions are not always leading to good results.
We all remember when Kindergarten was voluntary, half day, coloring fun, right?
Now they are promoting universal Pre-K. Again sounding good, but is the result really that great.
I once joked about it and said, Before long the government is going to snatch the baby the second you push it out, but I'm telling you, the joke could become reality soon if we're not on alert.
I sometimes get wrapped up in conspiracy thinking, and hopefully that's all that there is, but I'm not so sure this time.
My husband and I were talking the other day about what you really need to know,what school really need to teach a child. The first things are easy, reading, writing and arithmetics... but after that?
Is it really important to know when the Boston Tea Party took place or is the WHY the Tea Party took place the important?
History is always important or you're doomed to repeat the mistakes again, but can you function as a citizen without knowing when Columbus sailed the Ocean blue?
We as parents can teach our children the basics, the know hows to make it in every day life, can't we? We don't need 7.5 hours of school time every day to make that happen. We all could totally home school our kids till they reach the age where they know what they want to do in life, and when they know what interests them. Then we send them to school for what ever they want to learn. I'd guess that time will occur at different time for different children but I'd guess sometime around the age of 12-14.
Does school do something more than teach our children, does school also form the kind of citizen the government want? Does school instead for teaching our children, dumb them down?
I heard someone on the radio saying, for the first time ever we now have raised high school kids totally unaware of the world around them. If they have their cell phones and IPods you can take every right away from them and they won't even know it, and even worse, won't even care.
Is that the goal of government interference in our children's life at an earlier and earlier age?
and what are we going to do about it?
So don't come and holler at me and tell me "yeah, it's because it's a liberal at the White House" or it's all "that moron W's" fault, when I tell you what I'm about to say now.
I strongly believe it doesn't matter what label is on the guy or gal at the White House no more, I think they serve a bigger agenda that is not for them to question. But back to what I was about to rant on today...
At the "not" State Of the Union address the other week one thing Obama said made me jump. He was talking about the school reform and he said as a promise, that America again will have the best education program for our children from their birth to they graduate from College.
Did you see something worth jumping for in that sentence? If not you're almost lost already I'm afraid. He said FROM THEIR BIRTH...
Today I was listening to Ed Schultz show on the radio. A very progressive voice in the other wise very conservative clutter of talk radio. I don't really know what the topic was but he was talking about the new Secretary of Education. Don't ask me what her name is, I have no idea, but he was saying that he knows why Obama picked her, they are on the same page when it comes to reform for the education system... And again if you read my blog you know I'm a big supporter of education reform, but probably not even close to the same kind of reform they are talking about.
He said that the kids need to spend more time at school learning, way more time than now. Saying adults just get 2 weeks off per year, why should kids have all that time off, they should be in school longer and the parents get to see their kids during the weekend.
I know what he was trying to get to, we fall behind every year to the Asian countries when it comes to education, so I know his intentions were good, he wants more learning to take place. But what he doesn't understand is that the way he promotes learning is what's going to bring us down as a people.
We need less school not more, way less school.
The less of government involvement in our families, the better.
Fellow parents, we need to be on alert here, good intentions are not always leading to good results.
We all remember when Kindergarten was voluntary, half day, coloring fun, right?
Now they are promoting universal Pre-K. Again sounding good, but is the result really that great.
I once joked about it and said, Before long the government is going to snatch the baby the second you push it out, but I'm telling you, the joke could become reality soon if we're not on alert.
I sometimes get wrapped up in conspiracy thinking, and hopefully that's all that there is, but I'm not so sure this time.
My husband and I were talking the other day about what you really need to know,what school really need to teach a child. The first things are easy, reading, writing and arithmetics... but after that?
Is it really important to know when the Boston Tea Party took place or is the WHY the Tea Party took place the important?
History is always important or you're doomed to repeat the mistakes again, but can you function as a citizen without knowing when Columbus sailed the Ocean blue?
We as parents can teach our children the basics, the know hows to make it in every day life, can't we? We don't need 7.5 hours of school time every day to make that happen. We all could totally home school our kids till they reach the age where they know what they want to do in life, and when they know what interests them. Then we send them to school for what ever they want to learn. I'd guess that time will occur at different time for different children but I'd guess sometime around the age of 12-14.
Does school do something more than teach our children, does school also form the kind of citizen the government want? Does school instead for teaching our children, dumb them down?
I heard someone on the radio saying, for the first time ever we now have raised high school kids totally unaware of the world around them. If they have their cell phones and IPods you can take every right away from them and they won't even know it, and even worse, won't even care.
Is that the goal of government interference in our children's life at an earlier and earlier age?
and what are we going to do about it?
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
I Want A Big House Too!
OK, We've been in our house for 5 years exactly.
I remember when we came up here from Louisiana to house hunt and we came to see this house the very first day.
I couldn't believe my eyes.
We lived in a little over 1000 sq ft, three beds 1 bath so this new house was like a mansion to us. Right over 2000 sq ft, 4 bed 2 bath and on 1.5 acre, it was HUGE!
Of course the bathrooms was not in top shape and the kitchen was kind of old. All doors and trims in the house was dark green but we didn't see any of that, we were just absorbed by the space.
And we could afford it. I had spent hours and hours with a calculator, making budget after budget to see how much we possible could afford and this house was within the limits.
We were able to get a mortgage with a very good interest on it and we locked it up for 30 years.
During our 5 years here we have never lived over our limits, we have never been to Disney World or other fancy vacations, but we've been on small trips and been able to save money to go visit family in both Michigan and over seas in Sweden.
Because we've been living within our means we refinanced last spring to a 15 year mortgage with even better interest and looked forward to paying the house off within a 10 year period. Our kitchen, bathrooms and upstairs carpet scream for our attention and I'm trying to save up money so we can fix all those things this year.
Why am I telling all this?
Because I don't need to be bailed out, and now all of a sudden because we've always lived within the boundary's, we are supposed to bail out the people that I've looked at so man times with envy, the people in big fancy houses, with their big fancy cars and big fancy vacations.
Why? Why should I be punished now and forced to pay for other peoples miss behavior?
Don't you think I would have wanted to but a house much bigger and in much better shape than the one we bought?
Don't you think I would have wanted all the toys and gadgets they have?
But guess what, we couldn't afford it, so we didn't buy it, and damn it, we don't want to pay for any one else either.
One thing that I have always thought is great with the American mind set is that you are responsible for your actions good or bad.
What happened to that mind set?
Why are all of a sudden people not responsible for their own actions?
Why are we bailing out banks that have so greatly miss calculated with theirs and others money?
Why are we supposed to help people that went over their heads with houses they could'nt afford?
If you got a sub prime loan with crappy interest that means you were not supposed to get a mortgage to start with, your credit was bad or you you just did'nt have money enough.
Let's be honest and true to who we are, let everyone be responsible for their actions and let's help each other out in any voluntary loving way possible.
But don't take our money that we've been so good managaing and distribute them to people that are no good with money.
I remember when we came up here from Louisiana to house hunt and we came to see this house the very first day.
I couldn't believe my eyes.
We lived in a little over 1000 sq ft, three beds 1 bath so this new house was like a mansion to us. Right over 2000 sq ft, 4 bed 2 bath and on 1.5 acre, it was HUGE!
Of course the bathrooms was not in top shape and the kitchen was kind of old. All doors and trims in the house was dark green but we didn't see any of that, we were just absorbed by the space.
And we could afford it. I had spent hours and hours with a calculator, making budget after budget to see how much we possible could afford and this house was within the limits.
We were able to get a mortgage with a very good interest on it and we locked it up for 30 years.
During our 5 years here we have never lived over our limits, we have never been to Disney World or other fancy vacations, but we've been on small trips and been able to save money to go visit family in both Michigan and over seas in Sweden.
Because we've been living within our means we refinanced last spring to a 15 year mortgage with even better interest and looked forward to paying the house off within a 10 year period. Our kitchen, bathrooms and upstairs carpet scream for our attention and I'm trying to save up money so we can fix all those things this year.
Why am I telling all this?
Because I don't need to be bailed out, and now all of a sudden because we've always lived within the boundary's, we are supposed to bail out the people that I've looked at so man times with envy, the people in big fancy houses, with their big fancy cars and big fancy vacations.
Why? Why should I be punished now and forced to pay for other peoples miss behavior?
Don't you think I would have wanted to but a house much bigger and in much better shape than the one we bought?
Don't you think I would have wanted all the toys and gadgets they have?
But guess what, we couldn't afford it, so we didn't buy it, and damn it, we don't want to pay for any one else either.
One thing that I have always thought is great with the American mind set is that you are responsible for your actions good or bad.
What happened to that mind set?
Why are all of a sudden people not responsible for their own actions?
Why are we bailing out banks that have so greatly miss calculated with theirs and others money?
Why are we supposed to help people that went over their heads with houses they could'nt afford?
If you got a sub prime loan with crappy interest that means you were not supposed to get a mortgage to start with, your credit was bad or you you just did'nt have money enough.
Let's be honest and true to who we are, let everyone be responsible for their actions and let's help each other out in any voluntary loving way possible.
But don't take our money that we've been so good managaing and distribute them to people that are no good with money.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Idiots vs Chimps
I heard a story about a pet Chimp that went crazy yesterday and almost killed his owners best friend. I wanted to read some more about it because Chimps have always fascinated me. So I sit down at the computer and google "killed Chimp".
I read along for a while and then I stumble on a New York Post cartoon published in today's issue.
http://www.nypost.com/delonas/delonas.htm
Two police officers just killed a chimp that's laying in it's own blood on the ground and the police says "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill".
I can't even describe how my thoughts flew back and forth in my mind while I looked at the picture.
Is this an American Newspaper, 2009? Nazi Germany 1939 would not have been that surprising, but today, here in the US? Two white police officers, just killed the president portrayed as a Chimpanzee?
I know that the motherland is filled with people that think white is prettier than black. I know also that some call blacks monkeys, but I always thought I knew who they were. Racists are single minded, inbred, uneducated folks that know what happens in the world even though they've never been outside the county limit.
But now they have a friend at New York Post. God knows what idiot reads (oh, forgot, they aren't that good readers, but they can look at the pictures, right?) the cartoon and the picture sparks a something inside of him or her? What if we'll have a assassination attempt or two in the next couple of days?
A year or so a Danish newspaper got in trouble for posting cartoons of Muhammad. A large portion of the Muslim world got upset.
If the normal freedom loving people in this country have any back bone at all I hope to see a uproar against racist propaganda like this, actually not just us here in the US. I'd like to see the whole western world voice their disgust.
And by the way, the poor Chimp that totally went crazy yesterday, was stopped by a bullet. I hope this will push for legislation banning keeping apes and monkeys as pets.
I read along for a while and then I stumble on a New York Post cartoon published in today's issue.
http://www.nypost.com/delonas/delonas.htm
Two police officers just killed a chimp that's laying in it's own blood on the ground and the police says "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill".
I can't even describe how my thoughts flew back and forth in my mind while I looked at the picture.
Is this an American Newspaper, 2009? Nazi Germany 1939 would not have been that surprising, but today, here in the US? Two white police officers, just killed the president portrayed as a Chimpanzee?
I know that the motherland is filled with people that think white is prettier than black. I know also that some call blacks monkeys, but I always thought I knew who they were. Racists are single minded, inbred, uneducated folks that know what happens in the world even though they've never been outside the county limit.
But now they have a friend at New York Post. God knows what idiot reads (oh, forgot, they aren't that good readers, but they can look at the pictures, right?) the cartoon and the picture sparks a something inside of him or her? What if we'll have a assassination attempt or two in the next couple of days?
A year or so a Danish newspaper got in trouble for posting cartoons of Muhammad. A large portion of the Muslim world got upset.
If the normal freedom loving people in this country have any back bone at all I hope to see a uproar against racist propaganda like this, actually not just us here in the US. I'd like to see the whole western world voice their disgust.
And by the way, the poor Chimp that totally went crazy yesterday, was stopped by a bullet. I hope this will push for legislation banning keeping apes and monkeys as pets.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Living in The Natural State
Today it was about 48 degrees when I dropped the kids off at school and went to my school where I teach.
It's February, it's considered winter, even though the vast majority of kids never have seen enough snow to build a snowman or have a snowball fight, we have the unit winter on the program. The kids make snowmen craft and other very unfamiliar things to bring home to their parents for them to smile and be excited about but as soon as the child turns around get tossed in the trash can, and who can blame the overloaded parent, really?
Well that's one of the reasons I'd like to go live in a state where the four different seasons are present.
Here's an other reason:
As I said it was about 48 degrees this morning. Kind of cold, right, maybe you should wear a jacket or coat? Nah, not in the Natural State. Are parents just such outdoorsy villains that they think 48 is equal to 98? If you look at the way they send their kids to school you may start to wonder.
The elementary school were my son attends have the policy that they go out for recess if it's 32 or over. I can consider that a fair rule even though I think back and realize that I would never have had a recess in winter time where I grew up if the same rule had been applied there, but that's a different topic. But when it's slightly over 32 and I drop my son off in the morning dressed in a warm coat, I see other kids come out of their cars dressed in short sleeve shirts and one day I even saw a boy in shorts!!!!
Are some Arkansan moms that much friskier and hard skinned than I or are they just brain damaged?
I don't know.
Today at the school were I teach we didn't go out for recess because some thought it was too cold and some kids just had light jackets... wimps!
I who had had coffee and some candy for breakfast (just telling to show the high IQ I possess) and was on a sugar rush like never before got in to a rant about when in the world we should go out.
The window for outside play is somewhere around 55- 85 degrees, anything over or under that prevents any outdoor activity if we should go by my colleague's, who I love very much, standard...
Let's dress according to the temperature. To check, look at the thermometer and then ask yourself if it make sense to have the same outfit on when it's 95 as when it's 45.
And then, let's get outside and play!!!!
It's February, it's considered winter, even though the vast majority of kids never have seen enough snow to build a snowman or have a snowball fight, we have the unit winter on the program. The kids make snowmen craft and other very unfamiliar things to bring home to their parents for them to smile and be excited about but as soon as the child turns around get tossed in the trash can, and who can blame the overloaded parent, really?
Well that's one of the reasons I'd like to go live in a state where the four different seasons are present.
Here's an other reason:
As I said it was about 48 degrees this morning. Kind of cold, right, maybe you should wear a jacket or coat? Nah, not in the Natural State. Are parents just such outdoorsy villains that they think 48 is equal to 98? If you look at the way they send their kids to school you may start to wonder.
The elementary school were my son attends have the policy that they go out for recess if it's 32 or over. I can consider that a fair rule even though I think back and realize that I would never have had a recess in winter time where I grew up if the same rule had been applied there, but that's a different topic. But when it's slightly over 32 and I drop my son off in the morning dressed in a warm coat, I see other kids come out of their cars dressed in short sleeve shirts and one day I even saw a boy in shorts!!!!
Are some Arkansan moms that much friskier and hard skinned than I or are they just brain damaged?
I don't know.
Today at the school were I teach we didn't go out for recess because some thought it was too cold and some kids just had light jackets... wimps!
I who had had coffee and some candy for breakfast (just telling to show the high IQ I possess) and was on a sugar rush like never before got in to a rant about when in the world we should go out.
The window for outside play is somewhere around 55- 85 degrees, anything over or under that prevents any outdoor activity if we should go by my colleague's, who I love very much, standard...
Let's dress according to the temperature. To check, look at the thermometer and then ask yourself if it make sense to have the same outfit on when it's 95 as when it's 45.
And then, let's get outside and play!!!!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
A Silly Smile On My Face
Today I met an old friend of mine on Face Book. We used the chat function for close to an hour and when I had to rush off to pick up my son from school, my five year old asked me in the car: why do you have that silly smile on your face mama?
I started to laugh.
I had just been going back in time, remembering the "good old days".
My friend was back in the days a master of sarcasm and he had kept it up pretty good I have to admit. I on the other hand, felt like I had slacked off but since I don't speak much of Swedish anymore, I guess I can blame it on lack of practice.
Anyways, I had a great time on FB with my old friend and I felt so uplifted and happy afterwards, and I don't mind having a Funny Smile on my face at all.
Thanks Andreas!
I started to laugh.
I had just been going back in time, remembering the "good old days".
My friend was back in the days a master of sarcasm and he had kept it up pretty good I have to admit. I on the other hand, felt like I had slacked off but since I don't speak much of Swedish anymore, I guess I can blame it on lack of practice.
Anyways, I had a great time on FB with my old friend and I felt so uplifted and happy afterwards, and I don't mind having a Funny Smile on my face at all.
Thanks Andreas!
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