Category Archives: Politics

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: February 22, 2016

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY February 22, 2016

Outside my window… dark and in the low 50’s. It hit 71F this afternoon which is nice… but I still want some rain.

I am thinking… about what I have on tap this week. I’m *STILL* flattened from Saturday’s events.

I am thankful… that Saturday went off almost perfectly without any problems. For those not aware, I flew down to Ontario, met my twin brother at the airport (he had flown in from Tacoma) took a taxi to get the U-Haul truck, and found out upon arriving that they had given away our truck. We ended up having to take Uber from Ontario to Pomona, pick up the truck there, head to my in-laws’ house in Claremont, pack up my stuff, and drive the truck back up to San Jose. The U-Haul sitch stunk but it was what it was and they gave us a $50 credit which was way more than we needed for the Uber ride. I’m glad I got the extra time with Sean (my brother) as we don’t see each over very often and it was some good one-on-one time.

In the kitchen… Dad found me some *interesting* Tofurkey sausage so I had that for dinner and it was pretty good.

I am wearing… my Run for the Little Flowers shirt and black capri sweats.

I am going… to try and get to bed early tonight. Saturday still has me flattened.

I am wondering… about who will get the nomination from each party… and why we can’t just skip to that right now!

I am reading… Accidental Saints by Nadia Bolz-Weber and Calmness by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III.

I am hoping… to get caught up on everything this week.

I am looking forward to… coffee on Thursday with Rebecca.

I am hearing… Dad watching TV.

A Daniel story for today… the little monster had a wonderful time playing Legos with Uncle Sean while I was at church yesterday. This warms my heart.

Around the house… the usual sorting/packing/painting.

A favorite quote for today…

Drama llamas beware!

One of my favorite things… iced vanilla lattés with whole milk. Easter cannot come quickly enough!

A few plans for the rest of the week: calls, coffee dates with friends, sorting slides for my parents, and whatever comes up for the kid.

A peek into my day…

If this video doesn’t make you smile, I doubt you have a soul.

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

7 Quick Takes: Ruminations from My Hurting Brain

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Update on my fast. I’m still loving pita and hummus (and usually some carrots) for lunch and I’ve been doing tofu dogs and tater tots for dinner the last few days. I think the biggest thing is reminding myself that I could totally cheat when nobody is looking and have a frappucino but… I’m doing this to draw nearer to God at a time when I’ve got a lot of hard things going on in my personal life and said frappucino will still be there on Sunday. 🙂 I’ve fallen a couple times and had a few M&M’s (also known as “Daniel’s bribe to take his meds”) but that has been it.

— 2 —

CDC study in my backyard. OK… Palo Alto isn’t quite my backyard but… I knew some students at Palo Alto High School and Gunn so I feel like I can weigh in on the fact that the CDC is doing a study on teen suicides in Palo Alto. I could probably tell the CDC something that will save it money: I would put money on some of the suicides being caused by the insane pressure to succeed at both schools. Stanford University is local, it’s a wealthy school district so these kids have all the advantages in the world (hence, no reason why they don’t achieve magnificent things), and there are stories in the local paper about some student who gets a perfect score on the index for admission to the engineering program at Cal. They make my suburban high school (which is similarly high-pressure and which sends usually 10-20% of each graduating class to Cal) look like a bunch of slackers.

— 3 —

*facepalm* Maybe it’s just me but… WHAT ON EARTH POSSESSES PEOPLE TO TAKE A BABY DOLPHIN OUT OF THE OCEAN AND PASS IT AROUND FOR SELFIES?!?!?!?!?!? My brain hurts now…

— 4 —

Dying. If you don’t follow Honest Toddler on Facebook, you’re missing out on gems like this. I’m dying of laughter only because THIS IS MY KID AND IT’S ALL TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

— 5 —

Bravo, Apple. Considering that I am a PC person and the only Apple product I own is an elderly iPod Nano, I’m kind of shocked that I’m praising them but I love that they are saying “no” to the FBI request to create a backdoor into the iPhone. It shows a commitment to their customers and their privacy.

— 6 —

THIS. I’m loving the 8 signs that you love legalism more than Jesus and I’m seeing myself in my early convert days in this piece.

— 7 —

A thought on the debate over who should replace Justice Scalia. Maybe we should wait, out of respect for his family and loved ones, until AFTER the funeral and burial before we descend on his Supreme Court seat like a pack of hyenas?

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

7 Quick Takes: Pretend This Has A Cool Title, OK?

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Customer service shalom. This is a fabulous article on receiving customer service with grace. (HT:Thomas) I’m wishing that it had been around when I was a barista during the summer of 2000 as there were some pretty nasty customers that came into my Barnes and Noble.

— 2 —

Prayer request. Please keep the family of baby Aiden Hall in prayer. Aiden was the nephew of one of my church kids from Minnesota and was born last month at 29 weeks because of his mom’s preeclampsia and weighed in at 1 lb 14.2 oz. (Does this sound somewhat familiar?) Anyway, baby Aiden started having seizures this morning and passed away this afternoon. Please keep parents DJ and Lisa and big brother Liam in prayer as they deal with this heartbreak.

— 3 —

Celebrating life as well. In better news than the last take, Agnes had her baby!!!!! She is a serious cutie pie too. 🙂

— 4 —

For Ash Wednesday This Week. Rachel Held Evans posted a chapter from Searching for Sunday on ashes. I recommend reading it even though Ash Wednesday was yesterday.

— 5 —

*facepalm* In the “Trending” column on Facebook are articles on how state Medicaids are having to ration Hepatitis C medications because of the cost. Huh. Other first world countries don’t have this problem. Guess why? BECAUSE THEY REGULATE THEIR PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES!!!! Tell me again how deregulation is a good thing. I dare you.

— 6 —

Lent update. We were talking about Jesus being tempted in the desert today at the lectionary Bible study and we got into a big discussion on food. It was a good reminder that my hunger pangs last night were something that Jesus went through when Satan was tempting Him. It also brought to mind Laura’s post on how to fast like a grown up. (A reminder: Laura won the right to pick my Lenten discipline so I’m keeping a cheater version of her fast.)

— 7 —

Valentines for Daniel’s class. As soon as I get these posted, I’m off to create some Valentines for Daniel’s class at school. If I was actually being a cool mom this year, I’d do something from Living Locurto like last year. Instead, I’m putting address labels with hearts onto bags of Mott’s® Medleys Fruit Flavored Snacks and calling it good. #slackermom

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

7 Quick Takes: The News From Here

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Temperature afghan progress. I’m slowly but surely catching up and if I could drag myself away from Cross-Stitch World, I’d probably be making it more quickly. Maybe if I get home from choir in time, I can do some more work on it…

Progress as of today.

— 2 —

Concerning Donald Trump. I read two interesting articles concerning Donald Trump in the last few days. The first one was Matt Walsh: The Primer for Trump by Leticia Adams. The second was Donald Trump and a Tale of Two Gospels by Rachel Held Evans. I recommend both of them, not because I hate Matt Walsh and adore Rachel, but because I found them to be well-written and compelling.

— 3 —

Simcha! Simcha Fisher knocks it out of the park again with why she decided to stop homeschooling and finally got rid of all her homeschooling stuff. I’m not anti-homeschooling by any stretch of the imagination but she talks about keeping the stuff out of fear that she was making the wrong decision and that public schooling would ruin her kids. Fear isn’t a valid reason to make decisions and her kiddos are doing fine in their public and charter schools.

— 4 —

Oh thank heavens! After having to fight to get Daniel’s ADHD meds for the last three months, I finally have an intake appointment and psychiatrist appointment with a group that will do medication management for him. The difference between him medicated and him unmedicated is like night and day, so this was definitely a worthwhile fight for me.

— 5 —

Daniel story. My parents’ cat Jethro was in a fight last week and developed an abscess that wasn’t draining so he was at the vet on Monday and Tuesday where they eventually had to put him under anesthesia, open the abscess and drain it, and put stitches in. He has a lovely cone of shame to wear and my mom and I are having to clean the area and medicate him. Yesterday, Daniel wanted to look at pictures on my mom’s phone and my mom told him he needed to wait, using the words “first cat then phone.” (“First ____ then _______” statements are an ABA thing.) Daniel’s response: “Cat bye!” (Translation: “Take a flying leap, cat! It’s my turn.”)

— 6 —

Prerequisite weather take. I was hoping to go for a long walk tomorrow morning but it is looking like we might have rain. Oh well… I can work on entering receipts for taxes instead, I guess.

— 7 —

New Year’s resolution progress. One of my New Year’s resolutions was to get my prayer life back to normal. I’ve had some long drives this week for various things and it has definitely given me an opportunity to pray! Now if only I could get that integrated into my normal day…

— Bonus —

Pick Jen’s Lenten discipline. The raffle ends next Friday so come on over and enter! All that you have to do in order to enter is leave me a comment with what you would choose for me. Previous winners are allowed to enter again. *coughcoughcoughKellycoughcoughcoughBethAnnecoughcoughcough*

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

{five favorites}: Miscellanea (LVII)

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#5Faves

One

Days when I have enough time to crochet. I’m only 13 days behind right now and I’d probably be caught up already if I hadn’t started my temperature afghan in a stitch pattern that was time-consuming. #crocheterproblems #temperatureafghan

Two

This man. A Kenyan Muslim man who was shot while trying to protect Kenyan Christians in an attack on a bus by Al-Shabab died today from his injuries, a month after the attack. He was truly a hero and his family hopes that his death will inspire Kenyans to live as one community regardless of religion.

Three

Sleep. I am not getting enough of it these days due to a certain young man who has decided that 1 a.m. is a superb time to wake up, party, and demand milk or cheese. He also intensely dislikes hearing the words “no” and “go back to sleep”. Hmph!

Four

The idea of voting for the president in the style of the TV show Survivor. I broached this idea in a thread on the Facebook of one of my younger cousins. Basically, every candidate would be split into teams (let’s mix up members of the political parties for fun), live communally, participate in legislative challenges that would show whether or not they actually grasp basic governmental/legislative/judicial knowledge, and then the country gets to vote one off each week. Who knows? We might actually end up with a president that everybody likes and who actually knows what they’re doing. 😉 (And yes, I *LIKE* President Obama and I’m suggesting this… though it’s mostly to knock blowhards like Trump and Hillary out of the race.) #Bernie2016

Five

Pesto bagels with garlic shmear. This is my happy food from the local bagel shop. It doesn’t pair well with coffee but it makes an interesting lunch.

Go love up Ashley and the others.

7 Quick Takes: Temperature Afghans, Chuck Jones, and Why I Don’t Homeschool Daniel

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Temperature afghan progress. My yarn finally arrived yesterday and I did all the calculations on how many to chain for the correct width for this pattern. Let me tell you… it’s so much easier to chain 402 stitches in groups of 16 than it is to count to 400 and then have to put stitch markers in various places! (Don’t worry — I just counted to 16 every time and then counted the stitch markers, 25 in all, plus the two extra chains for turning.) I’m in the part I hate most right now (the first row) but when I’m done with that, things will be a lot easier!

The chain last night with stitch markers:

The chain with stitch markers.

The first row (yarn is Herrschner’s 2-Ply Afghan Yarn in “Forest”):

Row #1

What I have left to do on the first row:

What I have left on Row #1

— 2 —

Beep-beep! I did not know that Chuck Jones had 9 sacred rules for every episode with Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. This explains *SO* much.

— 3 —

The immigrant experience. Reddit users were asked what the most pleasant surprise they experienced when they came to America as immigrants. Here are their answers.

— 4 —

A political sign I can stand behind. Godless in Dixie shared this on Facebook and it cracked me up!

Anyone but Trump 2016!

— 5 —

To the twits who give me a hard time for not homeschooling Daniel. Seriously, I still get people asking me why I don’t homeschool Daniel because he’s autistic. For the last time…

#1: I don’t have a degree in education with specializations in special education and rare conditions. I believe that whoever is teaching my kid needs to have a 4-year college degree in the subject and the specialized knowledge to do so. (Most of the people I know who turned out brilliantly from being homeschooled were that way because their parents had college or graduate degrees which gave them the mindset and skills to teach them well. I’ve also seen some people come out almost completely illiterate when the parents have barely a high school diploma and decide that it’s enough to be able to teach their children.) This would apply even if Daniel was neurotypical — I’d still send him to school because… I DON’T HAVE AN EDUCATION DEGREE.

#2: I have the patience of a Marine drill sergeant. Can we say “not a good combination with a kid who does not respond to conventional tactics”?

#3: I am a serious introvert and already am pretty taxed by the amount of intensive time I spend with Daniel and what that time constitutes. You can’t give what you don’t have and if I don’t have some Daniel-free time to myself to recharge (even if that means I’m working a 9-5 job outside of the home), I have a really hard time being the mom I need to be. I’m good with spending time away from my kid — it means I get to miss him a little bit and it makes the time we do spend better.

— 6 —

For those who love to read. There’s a reading group over at Liturgy of Life and it looks interesting. I’ve got too many balls in the air to participate but I wanted to put it out there for those who are interested.

— 7 —

Because Geraldine is AWESOME. For those who are into yoga and fitness, go read this. You will die laughing.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

7 Quick Takes: Epiphanies This Week

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Paul Ryan and the Republicans’ attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. My thoughts are here. They are longer than a Quick Take so they are a separate post.

— 2 —

Prayer Request. My friend Amy has a rare and nasty pregnancy condition called placenta accreta. Tomorrow, they will be doing a c-section to deliver her baby boy as well as a hysterectomy to save her life because of the placenta issue. It’s a serious surgery and she is very much “standing in the need of prayer” as the old song says. Please pray for her safety in surgery, that they can make her comfortable during pre-op, and that her recovery goes well. Please also pray for her husband and four kids at home.

**UPDATE** They delivered her son at 9:07 a.m. CST and he was able to go straight to the nursery. They finished surgery 4-5 hours later and thankfully did not have to do any repair work to vital organs. She required 32 units of blood and they’re hoping to be able to get her off the ventilator, out of surgical ICU, and onto maternity soon. God willing, and she continues to recover well, she’ll be home in 3-4 days.

— 3 —

Twitter and the sitch in Oregon. Someone on Twitter came up with the hashtag #YallQaeda for the militia members holed up at the national park building in Oregon and some of the tweets regarding it just slay me. The tweets on them forgetting to pack in sufficient rations are even better.

— 4 —

Bhutanese refugees. Did you know that there are a number of Bhutanese refugees in Iowa? Yeah, neither did I. Apparently, more refugees came here from Bhutan in 2012 than any other country. (Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is the current leader.)

— 5 —

No more scampi for me. Apparently, indentured and enslaved workers fuel the Thai shrimp industry and the US imports half of the shrimp produced by Thailand. As much as I love my dad’s shrimp pasta, I’m going to have to either forgo it or find a source for peeled shrimp that meets my ethical standards.

— 6 —

Temperature blanket update. Herrschners finally shipped my yarn (stupid holiday weekend!) so God willing, I will have it by next Thursday and can start catching up on the blanket. I also need to do lovely things like calculate gauge so that will probably be a project over the long MLK Day weekend.

More ideas for patterns are here and here; and there is a tutorial for the whole temperature afghan concept here.

— 7 —

#OneWord2016 At Epiphany Eucharist on Wednesday, we were invited to select a decorative star from somewhere around the sanctuary and on the back was written one word. This word would be ours for purposes of prayer and meditation for this year and I’ll use mine for #OneWord2016 purposes. The word on the back of the star I chose: “direction”. For those who know me, this is a relevant word this year. Look for more posts on the subject once I’m done with SSI appeals and fighting with Medi-Cal.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.