Category Archives: Books/Magazines

7 Quick Takes: Admissions That Will Make Me Lose Readers

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7 Quick Takes

I’ve been pondering the idea of doing this for awhile. Here are seven admissions that will probably cause me to lose readers. None of these are open to debate — they’re things that are part of me or decisions I’ve made after careful consideration and consultation with professionals.

–1–

I take birth control pills. I can see the Catholic readers from Jen’s site fleeing as well as some of my readers who are staunchly anti-contraception. Before people start lecturing me on the state of my soul, I should probably explain a few things. Firstly, I mainly take them because my PMS is so severe that it can land me in bed during that week. After Daniel’s birth, I also started having hot flashes and dizzy spells. The pills moderate out my hormones so that I can be functional. Secondly, me pregnant is *NOT* a good thing. I would be on bed rest for 9 months and that’s not a viable option at the moment with Daniel needing so much of my time and care. I’m married to someone who works insane hours so I’m pretty much it as far as the person who can take care of him, arrange his therapies, and verbally abuse argue with insurance/SSA/Medicaid. Lastly, having a huge family is not a good choice for me with the fibromyalgia — the fatigue and pain make keeping up with Daniel hard enough. I know the risks of being on the Pill and with my (thoroughly Catholic) doctor’s help in Montana, we found one that had the fewest side effects for me. I also go in for my exams like clockwork so I’m at least being monitored.

–2–

I would rather pull my fingernails AND toenails out with pliers than vote for any current Republican candidate. The idea of Sarah Palin as president makes me want to repatriate myself to another country… like maybe Afghanistan. Michelle Bachmann is just as scary. None of the others are any better and because I live in California, I live in fear of almost putting the state up on eBay (Meg Whitman) or selling it to HP (Carly Fiorina). The only positive for the loser who represents my district in Congress (Dan Lungren) is that he’s put forth a bill to make it a felony to shine a laser at a plane.

–3–

I honestly want to vomit or throw something at the TV whenever John Boehner or Mitch McConnell (especially him) come on. Maybe it’s just me but I think that it’s positively ludicrous to have two white men who are independently wealthy and will have fat government pensions upon leaving Congress decide my healthcare needs and how important Medicare/Social Security are. I’m seriously praying that Obama wins in 2012 because it’s the only shot I feel like I have to get adequate medical coverage when companies stop being able to discriminate in 2014. I also have a kid who receives SSI and Medicaid and without those, we’d be up a creek without a paddle. All those therapies cost money and we couldn’t afford them if we didn’t have government help. I also just feel like Boehner and McConnell don’t give a rat’s butt about the people that actually *NEED* the services they want to cut and are just playing partisan games.

–4–

I hate summer. Where I live, it can be in the 90-100 degrees F range easily and I just don’t want to go outside when it’s that hot. Additionally, I’m fair-skinned and I burn if I even think about the sun. I’d be better suited to the Pacific Northwest than the part of northern California where I live. Unfortunately, this weather can stretch into October so I have at least another three months of hell before things hit a reasonable temperature.

–5–

I think that Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose-Driven Live is a piece of pop culture crap. Many people swear by it. I’d prefer to swear at it. It’s pop culture drivel like Joel Osteen and it does positively nothing for my faith. I tried reading it and had to stop at Day 32, by which point my copy was beaten to a pulp from me throwing it across the room multiple times a day.

–6–

I can’t stand the sound of kids crying or whining in church. This makes it doubly hard with Daniel because he’s at an age where he isn’t going to sit still and he wants to pick up everything, shred papers, and crawl down the aisle. I simply can’t keep up with him most of the time and I feel like people who tell me that they don’t mind the screaming are lying to make me feel better. Thus, I’m not making it to church much these days. (I’ve also had personal illness, family emergencies, and other things preventing me.) I’m going to talk to my church ladies this Wednesday to find a solution for this.

–7–

I have no desire to see the Harry Potter movies. I’ve read all seven books multiple times and seen the first three movies. It bugs me when the movie doesn’t follow the plot of the book which made movie #3 an annoyance to me.

(For more quick takes, go see Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.)

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: June 27, 2011

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY June 27, 2011

Outside my window… icky and hot. They’re claiming it’s only 80 but I don’t believe them.

I am thinking… about the new SSI mess (the idiot at SSA faxed Daniel’s Medicaid to the wrong county) and about the meeting with Easter Seals this afternoon.

I am thankful for… the nap I got this morning.

From the kitchen… my own turkey sub.

I am wearing… a coffee-colored polo shirt and khaki capris.

I am creating… this entry.

I am going… to Trader Joe’s for more basil plants and probably Target for snail bait.

I am reading… Quiverfull by Kathryn Joyce. Yep… ploughing ahead even though I skipped the majority of chapter 8 because I didn’t want to hear about people advocating the proof-texting of Biblical verses as an excuse to beat and kill their wives.

I am hoping… we can get this SSI mess sorted out soon.

I am hearing… PBS kids in the living room and Daniel eating Cheerios next to me.

Around the house… I had to move stuff out of the bottom drawer of our filing cabinet because Daniel was going after it.

One of my favorite things… ice-cold Capri Sun juice packs.

A few plans for the rest of the week: therapies for Daniel and heading to my parents’ house on Friday for the long weekend so Jon can organize his study.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing… the hands of Daniel, me, and Jon

3 hands.

Hosted by The Simple Woman’s Daybook

Utterly Repulsed

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I’m reading Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement by Kathryn Joyce and it’s proving to be an *interesting* read. I knew a number of people who were raised in this environment, several of whom (Elizabeth Esther and Young Mom) who are now blogging about the damage done by people in that movement.

Chapter 7 is on Michael and Debi Pearl of No Greater Joy Ministries (not linking them for reasons that will become obvious) but focuses mostly on Debi’s advice on “submitting to one’s husband”. The Pearls are known most widely in the media for their child-abusing manual To Train Up a Child which has been linked to several cases in which people beat their children (some only babies) to death under the influence of the Pearls. The chapter touches briefly on this but mainly focuses on Debi’s psychopathic advice to women.

Here’s an excerpt. (**WARNING** Reading this may be a trigger for abused women.)

A woman who writes to complain that her husband’s TV-watching is exposing the family to bad influences is warned that the social circle for divorced women with children is painfully small and that the job they’ll be forced to take will leave the kids in the hands of a fornicating baby-sitter. Other single mothers, Debi suggests, end up with bad haircuts and cheap clothes, pooling resources with other divorcees and becoming lesbians; they live in fear of eviction and violence from their exes and are only courted by men who aim to molest their children. When they get breast cancer, Debi writes, there will be no one around to care for them, and it’s all because they got high and mighty about the TV. “Listen to me, young mother. Do not play the fool. You don’t know how bad it can get.”
–p. 96

I kid you not. I almost vomited up what I was eating when I read that. I read it to Jon and he had the same reaction. What kind of psychopathic crap is that?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
It gets better as Debi admonishes women that their submission involves “reverencing” one’s husband — monitoring their food/drink at dinner (to refill their cup or plate), being present for any and all sexual duties the husband requests, and blaming women if their husbands’ eyes wander. (They’re apparently not catering to their husbands enough.)

She also advises women who are being physically abused by their husbands to try and love them back to the Lord. She tells the story of a woman whose husband stabbed her in the stomach when she was expecting their third child and how she told her to leave her husband if she *had to* but instead to “wage an all-out campaign to win his heart by refusing to bring the stories of his abuse to their church or her family again, reverencing him by keeping his ‘flaws’ hidden.” (p. 101) Apparently, her fellow psychopath-by marriage — I mean husband is ignoring his role as a mandated reporter (which is the law in all 50 states if he’s a pastor) because this kind of abuse cannot be kept from the police. In fact, most states have domestic violence laws that would require the woman to press charges. But anyway… WHAT KIND OF GOD DO THESE [insert unmentionable word] PEOPLE PEOPLE WORSHIP THAT CONDONES A MAN BEATING HIS WIFE AND EXPECTS HER TO TAKE IT JOYFULLY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? It sure isn’t the God I worship — that’s for darn sure! It’s a completely anti-biblical attitude. The oft-quoted passage in Ephesians 5 states “husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church?? for we are members of his body.” (Ephesians 5:25-30, NIV)

Add in Pearl’s admonishments against having female friends (apparently isolation and loneliness breed desire for one’s husband) and you have a worldview where women are essentially the property of their husbands and forced to depend on them solely for emotional support and physical well-being. (Keep the women isolated and they won’t cry “ABUSE!!!!!”) According to the evil Pearl, “when God puts you in subjection to a man whom he knows is going to cause you to suffer, it is with the understanding that you are obeying God by enduring the wrongful suffering.” (p. 101) Yeah.. I personally would be divorcing the [insert unmentionable word] and getting massive alimony as well as a restraining order and sole custody of my children. Again… WHAT KIND OF GOD DO THESE [insert unmentionable word] PEOPLE PEOPLE WORSHIP THAT CONDONES THIS CRAP?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Pearl is apparently not the only so-called “religious authority” spouting this crap. James Dobson is also guilty of this (surprise surprise) as is John MacArthur who only advocated women leaving their husbands for a limited time “while the heat is on” but with the intent of returning when the violence has cooled. (pp. 102-103) Dobson is a grade-A moron (listing the reasons is another post entirely) so it doesn’t surprise me that he believes that women “seek abuse for the ‘moral advantage’ that a black eye gives them as a ‘martyr’ in the relationship.” (p. 102) MacArthur, however, surprises me because he’s relatively well-liked in the evangelical community so I guess I assumed that he wouldn’t be so deluded as to think that it’s completely acceptable for a man to beat his woman for not submitting.

If the rest of chapter 8 is like this (the idiocy of Dobson and MacArthur), I may have to skip the rest of the chapter. I honestly can’t stomach this as it goes against EVERYTHING I believe with regard to God being love and how I should be “submitting to my husband”. It’s this kind of garbage that gives ammo to atheists and others to claim how hateful Christianity is.

If you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to go puke again from disgust.

7 Quick Takes Friday — Randomness

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7 Quick Takes

–1–

The family remembrance for Erik was wonderful. We had a liturgy from the Jewish Book of Prayer and my brother and I read “The Road Less Traveled” by Robert Frost. While Erik had spent some of his time being hyper-Calvinist, he would not have wanted a formal funeral and I think he was fairly anti-religious toward the end. It was meaningful for all of us and I learned a bit about Erik that I hadn’t known.

–2–

Erik’s ashes will be interred at the family plot (or what is rapidly becoming the family plot) at the pioneer cemetery in Pedee, OR later this year. I’m acquiring a small stuffed lion to be buried with him because he was a Leo and loved lions. If I can’t make it, I’ll give it to my mom to take it to the interment.

–3–

Medi-Cal LOST the paperwork that I hand-delivered to them. There are few words that can describe my angst and rage. Social Security is saying the same thing about the stuff I hand-delivered there. It’s maddening.

–4–

We’ve made some food discoveries with Daniel this week. I was having some Kraft Deluxe Mac n’ Cheese (the stuff with the Velveeta-like cheese sauce) and Daniel was mugging me for it. I finally started doing the “one-bite-for-me-and-one-for-you” thing with him. Yesterday, he was mugging my mom for some of her quiche. (Apparently, he doesn’t have the allergy issues with eggs that I do.) Today at the church picnic, I kept him busy while I ate by passing him pieces of Trader Joe’s Gnocchi alla Gorganzola. It’s definitely progress.

–5–

I keep having a craving for Hawaiian pizza (pineapple and Canadian bacon) from Round Table. I grew up on it so it shouldn’t be surprising that I’m craving it. It’s still the best pizza I’ve found locally. (Pizza My Heart in Santa Cruz will always have a special place in my heart with their pesto pizza.) I just wish I could do the ordering online.

–6–

I’m reading God’s Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America By Hanna Rosin and it’s pretty interesting. It’s about Patrick Henry College and how it was founded to raise up a generation of young people to enter government and take it back from the liberals… or something along those lines. If you’ve read The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose (which I also *HIGHLY* recommend), you’ll like this one.

–7–

I’m reading God’s Harvard on my NOOK. It was a gift from a family friend while Daniel was in the hospital that was designed to keep me occupied during the large amount of downtime I had. With a generous gift certificate to Barnes & Noble from my mother-in-law for a birthday present, I’ve been able to put some books on there that I’ve always wanted to read and figured that it would be good on long car rides where I wasn’t driving — certainly easier than taking a whole tote bag of books.

(For more of this, head to Conversion Diary.)

7 Quick Takes Friday — 7 Mystery Authors I Discovered in the Last Year

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7 Quick Takes

I thought I’d share seven murder mystery authors I’ve discovered in the last year.

–1–

Leslie Meier: Writes about the adventures of Lucy Stone, a newspaper reporter in Tinker’s Cover, Maine.

–2–

Tamar Myers: Writes about the happenings of Magdalena Yoder, a Mennonite innkeeper in Hernia, Pennsylvania.

–3–

G.A. McKevett: Writes about the delightful private investigator Savannah Reid in San Carmelita, California. (She’s also a Facebook friend and interacts with her fans.)

–4–

Mary Daheim: Two series of note — one follows Judith Flynn (an innkeeper in Seattle) and the other follows Emma Lord (newspaper editor/owner in Alpine, Washington). The Judth Flynn ones (the Bed & Breakfast mysteries) are silly and the Emma Lord ones are a little more normal.

–5–

Denise Swanson: Writes about school psychologist Skye Denison in Scumble River, Illinois.

–6–

Livia J. Washburn: Writes the Fresh Baked mysteries about Phyllis Newsom and her housemates in Weatherford, Texas.

–7–

Katherine Hall Page: Writes about rector’s wife/caterer Faith Fairchild in Aleford, Massachusetts.

(For more of this, head to Conversion Diary.)

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: April 11, 2011

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY April 11, 2011

Outside my window… sunny and a little chilly at the moment.

I am thinking… about the paperwork stuff I need to get done this week.

I am thankful for… my family coming up yesterday for Daniel’s 2nd birthday.

From the kitchen… pasta bake and cupcakes.

I am wearing… charcoal gray shirt and capris.

I am creating… this entry.

I am going… to Target later.

I am reading… I Sold My Soul on eBay by Hemant Mehta.

I am hoping… I get a nap today.

I am hearing… Edda mewing and Daniel moving in his crib.

Around the house… cleaned stuff up yesterday. I want to try and organize the closet this week.

One of my favorite things… Daniel’s singing and purry kitties.

A few plans for the rest of the week: SSA tomorrow and getting paperwork done.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing… Daniel yesterday.

Daniel yesterday

Hosted by The Simple Woman’s Daybook

What I’ve Been Reading

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Recently my reading list has been the following:

The PennDutch Inn mysteries by Tamar Myers — all but the last three are fairly good. The next to last one was meh and the last one was definitely not worth the paper on which it was printed. Seriously… she was tying up loose ends and got a little weird.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly — recommended by my friend Molly and was worth reading. It deals with an 11 year old girl in Texas at the turn of the 20th century and her discovery of science and the encouragement of this by her grandfather while her mother would rather have her pursue the domestic arts.

The Mighty Queens of Freeville by Amy Dickinson — I’m not done with it yet but it’s definitely a good read. Amy talks about dealing with her divorce when her daughter was young and how she keeps returning to her hometown of Freeville, New York. She’s definitely not having a pity party (which is good — she’s a nationally syndicated advice columnist) and the title refers to the generations of women in her family who have been there and done that and thrived. Amy is also a frequent panelist on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me and that was how I’d heard about her book.