My blog

On November 29, 1839 Joseph Smith went to the White House to meet with President Martin Van Buren. It had been a terrible stretch of years for the members of the new church in Missouri. They had been denied the right to vote, beaten in the streets, dragged out of their homes and killed despite surrendering. Certainly mobs were a problem, but even more egregious were abuses from the state militia, and from the police, because those were the people who should have protected the saints. Joseph Smith and several other church leaders had been wrongfully imprisoned for months on end. He met with the president with hope for relief but was sent home empty-handed. The saints tried to get justice through the court system and were denied. Joseph appealed to Van Buren a second time who rebuffed him with the words, "Your cause is just, but I cannot help you." ( historyisnow ) Five years later Joseph Smith was dead, murdered in police custody. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of La...

Handsome Bryce goes to work at an office, I stay home with our three kids. The main difference between our day jobs is the sympathy we get from others. Imagine you were talking to Bryce and he described his workplace like this: "Wow, today a guy at work just started screaming and crying because 'the milk is too cold.' When I suggested he should calm down he roared at me, like a bear. Later he peed all over the bathroom and clogged the toilet. When I was unclogging the toilet, for him, he laughed at me and told me my bum is big. I said, 'That's not very nice' and he yelled that I hurt his feelings and ran off to get in a slap fight with another coworker." If Bryce said this you would fall out of your chair in horror. You would say, "Holy Jalapenos! How do you survive working with such crazy people?" You would feel pretty much obligated to give him some kind of baked goods to try and salve the abuse he has to endure daily. But what do I get? "...

Tis the season for elections and gorilla assasinations. People are suddenly vocal about feelings, mostly on Facebook and blogs. It is also a time of sharing articles that describe how you feel about issues. I love that Facebook and blogs let people connect, debate, and share ideas. I don't love that those same tools can alienate and insult your loved ones. So before you click "Share" and type, "YESSS THIS!!!!" or "I'm just going to leave this here..." ask yourself: Is this a straw man argument? A simple definition of a straw man comes from Wikipedia : "A straw man is a common form of argument and is an informal fallacy based on giving the impression of refuting an opponent's argument, while actually refuting an argument that was not advanced by that opponent." A simpler definition comes from me: "A straw man is an argument that attacks ideas that you claim your opponent has, but actually...they don't think those things at all...

So literally her whole life, until recently, McGirlie has been babbling nonsense at me. One day, the nonsense babbling stopped abruptly, and she shifted to saying things that have actual meaning and need an actual response. Unfortunately this shift did not coincide with a shift to readily-recognizable-English. Also unfortunately, I didn't catch on to the shift right away. I feel kind of like the last kid on the playground to find out about cooties, or the last adult in the world to get a smart phone...wait... Anyway, the other day I was serving no-bake cookies to the kids and McGirlie kept saying, "Izzih'ot? Izzih'ot?" instead of eating her cookie. I responded in full-on exuberant baby-talk, "Yeah cookies! Yummy cookies!" and she just kept saying "Izzih'ot?" It took a while, with me babbling nonsense at her, before I realized she was asking if the cookies were hot! I am pretty sure this is how it looked from her point of view: So Mama made ...

A while back, there was a big stink about some fitness blogger lady who posted pictures of her super ripped body, her three kids, and the caption, "What's your excuse?" I don't really know what the deal was with all that because I mostly only read headlines. But I thought a bit about that headline. I don't have a super ripped body, I can think of a few excuses to explain why, but the thing is I don't actually feel like I need an excuse. I think it's great that this lady is super fit, that is her priority. I'm sure she does all kinds of great things with her family and job and makes time to work-out, but she doesn't do the same things that I do. I only workout in moderation because I need time to paint beautiful pictures, refinish furniture, read with my kids, read with my handsome husband, steam clean my floors, fix my TV, proofread essays, wash a hundred dishes, etc. They are not excuses, they are priorities. And thus, my "Theory of Constant ...

Seriously. What the haaaaack?

yaaaaaaaay

The past few trips I have taken to the post office have made me realize that my life is just like a Disney movie: First, this happened. On the next trip I broke out the leash for the first time. On the next trip I decided to leave the kids at home. I also decided I was going to save $3 by fitting my stuff into a cheaper USPS box. Can you be banned from the post office?