Raaannnddooommm Thursday?!

It's Rannnndddommm Tuesday!

OH, wait, dang, I missed it!

Ok, we'll just skip the clicky button this week, but I need to get this post out.  I was away at a work retreat and neglected my posting duties.  At the very least, I need to get in one post a week.



Ok, here goes, a vomiting of what's on my brain matter:

Have to share an FB friend status.  Too funny.

FB friend #102 Has been kidnapped by her bed! Don't worry though, I should be able to break free in the morning. If not, please DO NOT pay ransom!!


Ok, just saw a news bit.  In Wisconsin, the legislature is working on passing a bill to fine $1000/day schools that continue to use a Native American mascot or name for their sports and school.  Apparently, Wisconsin is the state with the most mascots that use race based names east of the Mississippi.  I'm not sure what to think.  On the one hand, if Native Americans find it offensive, we should remove them, but if they don't have a problem or if they find it to be honorable, then should they all be removed?  I don't know how to land on this issue.  More here or here.

So, I'm driving down the road today.  I don't like to talk much about religion.  Much of that due to my upbringing, we just really didn't talk about it openly.  I went to church and Sunday school when I was young.  My early life was spent in the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ.  The second portion of my at home life was spent in a Congregational Church.  Part of my adult life with very young children was spent with United Church of Christ.  For the most part, I believe, most of these organizations are what you would consider more "liberal" whatever that really means.  Our move to a smaller town created somewhat of a dilemma for our little family.  I would like for my children to attend a Sunday school, but I want to be sure the church we attend is open minded and does not use religion to put down groups outside their belief systems.  The other thing I like, and maybe I put too much stock on this, is for Sunday school to occur during the sermon.  Seriously, is that too much to ask?  The one church we finally chose to attend in this town was actually because at first, they had Sunday school during a church service.  You know, they have the opening, some prayers and then the children's sermon, then the kids head to Sunday school before the offering and actual sermon.  To me, being an educator, I feel this is the best way for children to learn.  They are in an age group where they can play and learn at their level.  When our children were very young, the UCC church had Sunday school lessons based off the same lessons and Bible verses read to the adults and the sermon preached.  Brilliant.  That made sense to me.

Alas, the church we chose, just like all the other churches in town, went to Sunday school in between two services.  Our attendance dwindled precipitously.  I just can't stand the torture of taking my children to a sermon.  They are bored, bug me and neither they, nor I get anything out of it in the end.  The last time we were there (when my in-laws visit, when we HAVE to go to church because they think we're seriously bad if we do not go), not only did our children still have to sit through the church service, but we were greeted with an advertisement for a Christian movie before the service started.  And I read in the bulletin that the Sunday school was "Singing and Cinema."  I do NOT want my children watching crappy "Christian" videos for learning.  They get enough video crap all the time.  And the movie advertisement was just too much for me.  I do not want to go back there.

However, that leaves me with the problem of still not finding a church I am happy with.  There are no churches around here that have Sunday school during the service.  I do not like making my kids sit through a service, nor do I feel I need Sunday school.  I did Sunday school when I was a kid, okay?  I think I'm set and if I feel like reading the Bible, I will if I feel like it.  I also do not want to have to drive to another town 30-40 minutes away, just to get to a more populous area that might have the denomination and type of service that more closely fits what I'm comfortable with.

So the idea hit me as I was driving to work today.  How about a HOME SCHOOL Sunday school?  And I started getting serious about these thoughts.  People don't send their kids to schools because they don't like how things are done there or what beliefs are taught in schools.  Why can't I keep my kids at home on Sunday and give them age appropriate lessons with my religious belief system because none of the churches fit what I want? (which, really, I think means I will share about other religions and beliefs and let them know why I believe the way I do)  So, I'm thinking I'll look up Sunday school resources for Disciples of Christ or UCC beliefs and work it from there.  Anyone have any connections or suggestions for good Sunday school materials?  That may be tricky.

However, I think the not going to church will not work for our in-laws, so I'll have to think about that one.  Wish me luck proposing this to Mr. Wild.  Though maybe he'll see the logic in it.  I feel my children will benefit knowing the basics of Bible stories that are batted around conversations, TV, and news pieces, because, like it or not, our culture is Christian based.  And maybe some of those stories will give them a chance to think about consequences of actions whether good or bad, the blessings of forgiveness, and the rule of doing to others as you would want done to you (which I think works for anyone no matter where they come from).

You may wonder where all this came from.  An acquaintance of mine is asking other people about their beliefs, as she's trying to define what's good for her family in regards to religion and it started me thinking about mine and my family and our struggles to instill something in our children while we as parents are still not quite sure about where we stand (I think I'm stronger in some convictions than Mr. Wild.  The belief system he was raised in fell apart when he went to college and met other perfectly nice people that didn't fit into his parents' world view.  He hasn't been able to reconcile his new views with the old belief system that still clings to him).  I think it is something we all struggle with in different ways.

Random Tuesday, Random Tuesday

Say the title of this post like "Taco Tuesday, Taco Tuesday."  That's what I hear in my head.

If you don't like my gibberish, I'm sure you can find more at the Un Mom!  Tell Keely I said hi.

New thing I learned today at exercise.about.com.  You can't "tone" your muscles.  What you are really wanting to do is define your muscles.  Which means you have to lose weight.  And maybe build some strength.  You can't use lighter weights and higher reps to get lean defined muscles.  You should lift weights and lighter weights at higher reps gives your muscles endurance.  But to get that lean, defined muscle look, sigh, you do need to lose weight.  The good news is, I'm doing cardio and lifting weights for strength, which is two out of three things recommended.  As I get older, stronger muscles and stronger bones are important.  And I'm lifting for most of my major muscle groups (I'm avoiding anything with knees at the moment, they are making a funny popping feeling).  The bad news is that I'm not on any diet.  At my last dr. appt. they said, "Good, your weight is steady."  Which is higher than I would like it, but I guess the good news is it hasn't gone up.  I am thinking about what I eat, and I know I do not eat enough vegetables or fruits.

Which leads me to the fact that I think I want to join a produce co-op.  Last year I tried growing my own tomatoes.  They were okay, but I've had better and I think the pots they were in were not big enough to produce good plants.  I'm thinking a locally grown, variety of vegetables, forcing me to make something with them, forcing me and the family to eat them, might help bring my veggie intake up, bring down the processed fried stuff and cut back on the excessive meat and meat fats, that I might be able to drop that ten pounds I want to drop.  You'd think ten pounds would be easy, but it is the hardest thing.  Though, I'm not trying really hard, but I feel I shouldn't change my habits too much, or I won't be able to maintain the diet that will maintain my weight at a lower level.

Ok, so who has been to the Harley-Davidson museum in Milwaukee?  I have!  It's pretty cool, state of the art, lots of shiny vehicles (ooo shiny!).  I have imagined myself a closet motocyclist.  I would not be adverse to riding one (with a helmet on, I don't care about helmet hair).  The best part?  (click this and scroll to the bottom) They had a huge room with a movie screen showing the open road and archive Harley footage and about 10-12 different makes and models of Harley cycles.  This is where I could partly live out the fantasy.  I was like a kid, trying nearly every one.  I should have had my camera just to get a picture of me on a motorcycle, for once in my life.  I feel I'm a sleek-type rider, maybe something like this.  Huh, bet you never would have guessed I was closet biker wannabe.  But not the long distance, wide ones, with the leather and the long haired guys (ew).  I'm more into something sporty.  I might even like a sporty bike better than a sports car.

It snowed last night and this morning.  Last night, in the head lights, the world was all sparkly.  Not so much on this gray morning.  Did anyone check with Phil?  Did he see his shadow?  I have to go look that up next.

Thanks for stopping by!

So Random

Click on the fugly button for more randomness:

I don't know what to prattle on about.  Yesterday the children had the day off from school.  "Records Day."  I guess teachers need time to input the grades into the computer.  Yeah?  Well, we put the day to our advantage.  Two appointments for dear Andrew, orthodontics and eyes.  Good news, we only have to crank the bar 12 more times and they're done spreading his upper jaw.  Also good news, his eyes didn't change, even though the school nurse was pestering reminding me that I had to get him into the eye doctor to check on his 20/40 vision they tested on his eyes.  The eye doc was was not very complimentary about school nurse eye testing.  Oh, well.  She can get her paper back.  Andrew only has to wear the glasses for distance, not all the time, as he sees fit.  He's also starting to use the sling for his broken arm less and less.

Have to vent.  So it was 22 degrees out this morning, but my dear Mr. Wild was whining about how cold it was that he couldn't get out of bed and go to the gym.  This would have been fine, except he bumped around in the bed from 4:30 until 5:40 when I got up to go to the gym.  Getting up at 5:40 was my plan, but not at 4:30 when he wakes up and bumps around because he can't get back to sleep.  When I finally yelled suggested he get up and use his energy on exercising, he whined about how cold it was.  I was mad that I was awake until the alarm went off.  Went and took my aggressions out on the gym.

Question for people: Is it just me, or does it seem age appropriate clothes for your children are often too wide around?  My children are tall enough for the sizes that are for their ages, but when I put the clothes on them, they are too wide around.  My son's medium sweatpants, while long enough, he says are too big around his waist.  Dear Willa, she was trying on swimsuits and they were all TOO BIG AROUND.  WTH?  If we tried on the one pieces, the one size down wasn't long enough shoulder to crotch and the next size up, while long enough, kind of hangs on her.  I thought swimsuits  were supposed to fit snug.  Good thing boys' suits have drawstrings in them usually.  You might wonder why don't I try the bikinis on her then, no worries about the length.  Yeah, well, all those were too big around her rib cage to stay in place correctly, or the smaller size had triangles so small I was embarrassed.  It's not just swimsuits, but I am worried.  Are there so many overweight kids out there that the average size clothing has to be made wider now to accommodate the most children possible?  Maybe not, I only went to one store, but we tried 6 suits on to find something to fit.  We didn't have this problem with toddler/preschool clothes.  I don't know.

That's it, that's all I have.  Check out Un Mom for better randomness.

So Random!

Yup, it's Tuesday!

IRONY
So, I was thinking about this irony.  My two children were playing rock, paper, scissors.  Though, not how you would think. They were each sitting in front of one of the two computers in our office.  Playing on their Webkinz.  Playing the Rock, Paper, Scissors game against each other, on-line.  Which they were having loads of fun and exclaiming to each other as they won or lost.

I was thinking about how nice it was that they were playing together.  Then realized that they weren't playing "together."  Is this the future of our world?  It was good and bad all at the same time.  They could have sat down on the floor together and played with their hands.  Laughing and hollering as they went.  I pointed this out to my son and then he said, "But you get Kinz Cash for playing on-line."  Ah, I get it now.

ANNOYANCE
Who else has this problem?  You use a bar of soap in the shower and it gets so small.  Are you of the camp where you can take that small piece, get it wet and squish it to the new bar of soap you get out?  Or the camp that it is so small you can't bother with it, but you also can't quite throw it out.

My pet peeve, my husband cannot make himself work with keeping the small used up bar of soap squished against the new larger one until they meld and soap up like a regular bar.  He always slides off the small used up piece and cannot keep it attached, which doesn't seem that hard to me.  So he puts the used up pieces on the shower shelf until there's lots of used up pieces in my way.

Does anyone know of a product that you can put all your used up pieces in and then soap up with it?  Bars of soap are not an issue for me, because I don't use bars, I used body wash.  I tried to get Mr. Wild to switch to body wash, but he still thinks the dry feeling of soap means his skin is clean.

PANIC
Too much to do.  Not only do I have to rethink life for my son with a broken arm, but I need to sort out my spring break in Phoenix.  Hotel rooms seem to be on a sale, so I need to get that done NOW.  Also need to sort out our rental.  I guess it's not that much panic, just need to get it done.  Like Feris Bueller says, "Life moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop to look around once in a while, you might miss it."

WHAT'S NEXT
Time to move on to more writing topics.  Probably starting two more books. And maybe I should work up some short stories.  Like I need more things to do, like a hole in the head.  But, then again, it uses my creative side of the brain.  I need some flow in my life, and this might be the way to do it.  Also need to read more books.  I think I might check out the book version of "The Vampire Diaries."  Guess the show is taking off, so, I want to see if the books are as good as the show.  See what kind of inspiration I can get for more writing.

POSITIVE
Already looking forward to spring.  You'd think, being a midwestern gal and staying staunchly midwestern, that I like the winter weather.  I do for about a month.  Then it's like, spring get here already.  But if there wasn't really winter, then I'd miss the spring, the change into summer (no matter how freaking, hot and humid it gets), and then the fall, the season I adore the most with blazes of color.  So I'm imagining sunny days, walks to the park or downtown, going out with the gals to the local bar or a downtown restaurant during warm weasther (I think I owe a few round), short skirts, nice sandals, a reason to get a good pedicure.

ANNIVERSARY
Number 15 is coming up.  Right during my busy work season in mid-July.  We didn't do anything really special for 10, so I feel we should get away.  But when, where and how are questions that come to mind.  What kinds of special things should one do for 15?  It seems like a celebratory worthy milestone.  Maybe not as grand as 20 or 25, but still.  Thoughts?

How's that for random?  Check out the Un Mom for more!