back in the pink

oy. It's been a weekend, let me tell ya! We went down to San Diego for a wedding and afterward we went dinner with friend at the California Pizza Kitchen. I was the only one to get a house salad...and I was the only one who ended up getting ILL!

At first I thought it was the salad, food poisoning, but after three days of "recycling" food and then some, I guess it was indeed just a flu. Low grade fever, CHILLS, and lots of harsh "ralphing", "tossing my cookies" or whatever euphemism you choose, achy, stiff neck and joints, and MAN!--- I changed the diagnosis!

Today I feel much better, still stiff, but I think that is just the arthritis kicking me in the knees. So wahooo! Good to be back!

umm, WHAT?

While sitting in traffic the other day I noticed this truck in front of me. Someone skipped out on Catechism a bit early. Amazing.

My head was spinning with the images before me. Was this person serious? (Imagine the back windows open! Hail Mary full of bow-chicky-bow-wow.) Hope this guy doesn't expect Mary to do him any favours...prob'ly not gunna happen.

How does he explain this to his mothers or sisters? Or Gramma? Oy.

I don't care what religion you are, this is disrespectful on too many levels.

Got Kids? Call Mom!

Real Mom has a great post today. Seems yesterday a case went to the supreme court. You can read about it at CNN and also at the WOW blog. To summarize, a 13 year old Jr. High student was strip searched while at school, without the notification of her parents, without being told what was about to happen. Her suspicious behaviour? Another student who had been caught with two Ibuprofen tablets revealed (lied) that she had gotten her "illegal" pills from Savanna Redding.

Savanna had never had any disciplinary action or negative reports in her file prior to this incident. She willingly allowed school officials to search her locker and her backpack, and then they asked her to remove all of her clothing so they could search through the clothes. She was not allowed to change in a private room, but had to strip in front of two female employees, then she was asked to show her breasts and also the inside crotch of her panties.

Nothing was ever found. There are no reports as to what disciplinary action was taken against the other young woman who accused Savanna. Savanna was told to put her clothes back on and go on with her day.

NPR has Savanna in a current day interview and the Why Homeschool blog has several interesting posts dedicated to the discussion.

The Denver Channel backs up the idea that your children have zero rights under the law. There, two 13 year old boys were asked to drop their pants and fully expose their under shorts while in a full school lunch room because two lunch ladies accused them of stealing money that was eventually found right where it was supposed be...in the cash drawer.

Remember Whitmore High School? The 20 or so kids in Michigan who were detained in a PE room and strip searched looking for money that had been stolen...you guessed it without finding anything.

Do you recall Rancho Bernardo High School in San Diego, CA? This is where the female students attending their high school prom were told to lift their skirts to prove they were not wearing thongs. This required them to show both front and back of their panties before they could enter and enjoy the evening. That action was appalling enough, until you find out the proof was had in view of both female and male teachers and some other students.

Back in the day one of my best friends had a daughter with a serious blood disorder (similar to what our son had, but different). Her daughter was under medical treatment and observation, and she had bruises all over her body. One morning the 5th grader was met at the curb and scurried into the school office. There she was met by school and county social workers who literally interrogated the 5th grader the entire school day- without mom or dad being called. At the end of the school day when mom showed up to pick up her children, she was arrested for child abuse. All of her children were taken into protective custody and separated into different foster homes. It took three or four days until doctors could convince the state officials that the bruising was due to her medical condition and not because of beatings.

Her daughter needed several years of therapy to heal from the messages the social workers had implied over the 8 hours at school. Things like her mother's punishments (time out and restrictions) were not normal parenting but rather her lack of love and abusive. The other children were also traumatized, being separated and isolated for days.

In our local schools, lockers have been removed because a group of ten or so kids were found with pot on campus. Not in their lockers, but on campus. Instead of removing the kids from the school and sending them to the school a few blocks away- the school designed to help kids who were having trouble, the board decided that all lockers were places to hide drugs, which means all the lockers would be removed; and coincidentally the kids stayed at the school.

A few years ago we all gave up specific civil and personal rights in effort to be more nationally secure, to feel safe, to keep the bad guys at bay. The problem with that is that we willingly gave up those rights without a second thought as to how they would or could effect us personally down the road. We continually heard the argument of "Well, if you haven't got anything to hide, you don't have to worry." If you aren't talking to, or e-mailing a terrorist, why should you care that your phone is being tapped? If you are patriotic why should you care if water boarding is a legal method of gathering information? Because eventually it does get down to you.

Explain to your daughter that if she has nothing to hide it it won't matter if she is required to strip to prove it. Tell your son it's o.k. to drop his pants for everyone in the lunch room to see to prove his innocence as well.

Your children have no rights. You have to teach them what to do. You have to protect them.

Because of personal anecdotal experiences -some described above- I chose to be the anti-policy mom. The rebel mom who put her foot down against school uniforms and then some. (As a person who worked in the schools I could tell you hair raising tales of what parents allow their children to wear in public.) The real point is that those same parents are the ones who will "opt out". There is small print in every school policy that says "School uniforms are mandatory! unless you don't want to comply, then just sign this release." Instead of reprimanding the specific child and enforcing the normal dress code, they ignore the few and make the whole wear a uniform. It's easier than dealing with unruly parents.

I was the mom who instructed my kids to not open their mouths -ever- if they were brought into a school office, not until I got there. I trained them to ask to call mom first,and they did. And I answered. I went down and met with angry and puffy faced administrators when my kid messed up- or not. (There is an incident where one of the kids was actually accused of "passive resistance"...I was a proud momma at that point! Better to be passive than to be abused.)

All of these problems could be better handled if we took the hard road instead of the easy way out. Ms. Redding would not be going through public humiliation years after the fact if one sensible head would have stopped and thought how to better solve the dilemma: Call Mom.

The boys in the cafeteria? Detain them in an open office and: Call Mom.

Catch a few nasty girls who showed off their slim nickers at the last dance? Ban them from all upcoming dances, enforce the existing dress code, and: Call Mom.

Rowdy teens suspected of stealing money in gym class? Separate them. Detain them. and Call Mom.

Potheads on campus? Detain and Call Mom first and the Police. If found guilty expel them from school and send them to alternative education.

let's refocus people : )

Ok. Check out this cutie pie: he's adorable...and check that hair! wow. He seriously is just a bundle of goodness and light.

And the beat goes on.

speaking of surprises....

I don't want to make a fuss, just kind of a "FYI" moment:

Thor has been called to be our Bishop.

That is all.

Carry on.

Don't you just love surprises?

Wow. Talk about an entrance! This little guy decided he would surprise everyone and arrive three weeks early...and we are so glad he's here!

At 6lbs. 5oz. this 19 1/2 inch blessing made his presence known yesterday afternoon. He has a great set of lungs, lots and lots of curly brown hair, and evidently his daddy's need for constant feeding.

Mommy is beautiful and doing well. Daddy has turned into a worker bee. You see, the night before the little guy decided to come, Daddy and Mommy signed the final papers for their new house. Daddy had moved in their bed, linens, 3 towels, 2 cats, a litter box and 1 roll of toilet paper; helped his wife to bed, slept a few hours and left for work.

Baby boy kicked boxed his mommy's "water" (trying to get breakfast one assumes) and there ya go. So while baby and mom hang out at the hospital, daddy will be moving in the rest of their things and hoping to set them all in the correct place.

Oh, and for anyone interested... we think the baby shower is still on for Saturday; we just have a new centerpiece!

My Blue Heaven

An Apostle's Easter Thoughts on Christ

Natural Dye Easter Eggs (repost)

Aren't they pretty?

All you need are eggs, vinegar, alum, and your veggies!

Chop the veggies, cover with water, bring to a boil. Add alum and boil 10 or so minutes. (My pot was large so I added 2-3 tsp.) Add vinegar (I did 2-3 Tbl.) and turn off heat and cool. Add eggs and bring to a boil again for about 10 minutes. Shut off and let the eggs cool in the liquid.

I strained the liquid and put it in a smaller bowl and let the eggs cool and dye for a few hours.

My colours were a tad different than on the video, who knew? I still think they turned out cool.

The one up front is more periwinkle than blue or lavender (whole beets), the ones with the stripes and scrolls were supposed to be red, but came out more rust (red cabbage), the sage and olive greens came out fabulous and quick! (red onion, no alum, vinegar) Bright yellow (yellow onion with turmeric powder) were also very fast, almost immediate. The tutorial says you can get green from spinach, um no, not in my house. They came out perfectly white. grrr.

I made the stripes by using electrical tape, and the scrolls by painting the eggs with rubber cement, which actually the longer it sat in the solution, the more it was eaten away...just a heads up.

All of the dyes were much more intense before I rinsed them in water and dried them. Tip: PAT them dry, if you rub, the dye rubs off to a pastel colour.

All in all this was a really cool and interesting project. I am not sure a mom with a couple of kids would want to do it though. LOTS of funky fumes from the veggies. Seriously bad ones from the cabbage...ack! Also it took a lot more time than I remember.

That said, it is MUCH better to use the natural than the chemical dyes, but there you go.

Purple Haze

... quite rightly!

In the Pink!