Thanksgiving Girls

Since 99% of holidays for us are spent in our home or a relative's home eating, laying around, playing outside, napping, spitting up, sometimes even camping etc. I prefer to dress my girls for comfort. However, my mother in law loves buying them dress-up holiday clothes (which Eve LOVES!). So our compromise is for her to buy the girls clothes, I take their pictures and then back to play clothes. 

Here are my Thanksgiving Girls!

 Not bad for 2 squirmies & 1 sickie

Chillin'

Noomers

Temperance

Playing Patty Cake with the babies' feet

Noomi & Eve

Army Wives

I've been watching (addicted to!) the Lifetime show Army Wives. I was excited for the new reality show Married to the Military to start and after watching 2 episodes I was pleasantly surprised to see the shows are pretty similar.

Most of the wives on Married to the Military talk about representing their husbands well and how their roll of Army wife and mom is so important because their husbands are fighting for our country. They're passionate about it! They watch the things they do and say as to not disrespect or dishonor their husbands.

Unfortunately, I've seen firsthand how this line of thinking isn't continuous among all military wives and I know not all civilian wives live lives disrespectful of their husbands.

I asked myself, "Why isn't this line of thinking more common among all wives?" I completely understand the special calling of putting your life on the line to protect and defend your country. But even though my husband isn't risking his life on the front lines, why should my devotion to representing him well be any different? Why is it OK for me to act unbecomingly and say things that would embarrass or disgrace my husband just because he totes a wrench or a pencil and not a grenade or an M-9? Doesn't that mean that our level of respect for our husbands and our positions as their wives is contingent on what they do for a living or their "service"?

What do you think? Do servicemembers and people who put themselves in harms way for others deserve more from their spouses? Should more respect, more honor, more understanding, more tolerance and more patience be expected of them?

My Big Girl

Eve had a trophy day at gymnastics today. The kids got a trophy and then they got to take their friends and family around the gym and show them their "tricks." 

Eve was so excited to have Big Sissy there to see her! Even though she didn't have a clue what a trophy was or why she got one, Eve was thrilled to be the center of attention. 

She is the youngest kid in the gym. At 2 1/5, she has a 3 and 4 year old in her class and keeps up with them step for step. Her Coach has been teaching her things that he usually saves for the 4 and 5 year olds. I couldn't be more proud of her! 

Mail & Coupons

Go through my mail with me. Today I got 3 magazines. 
1. Nurses.com - "Oh yeah, I AM a nurse!"
2. JcPenney Catalog - "Humph, when do I ever shop?"
3. Parents - "I'm too busy actually being a parent to stop and read this!"

So I've been wanting to start couponing. Even though I watch the shows, I have no desire to compulsively stock pile mouth wash and tampons in my garage. I just want to save money on the stuff I'm already buying. I mean REALLY save money, not just like $.39 every week on OJ. My goal would be to cut my grocery budget in half - at least!

I'm probably over thinking the whole process and making it more complicated than it really is but any tips would be very appreciated!

Responsibility

Before you go home tonight and turn on Fox News or CNN or MSNBC or whatever your news station of choice is, listen to this podcast. 
http://www.ibethel.org/sermon-of-the-week?referer=email


I don't mean for this post to be political. I mean for it to be religious. Not really. :o) 

I've held the belief for a while that the church should be taking care of people and not the government. In a world where this is completely counter cultural, I know this idea will probably be poo-pooed on by believers and non-believers alike. I believe the church should be the entity that clothes and feeds and cares. 

My thoughts on this lately:
This theory has a huge hole in it considering so many people's bad perceptions of the church. (A whole other  post!)

People these days have been ingrained with the mindset that it's okay not to work and let the government take care of you. It's okay to be lazy and not take care of your family. It's okay to not ask for help. It's okay to take handouts.

How do we come back from that? In that podcast he talks about helping the poor. What does that mean exactly? Help someone who "gets fired from their job" find another job when what they really want to do is collect unemployment? Provide someone food when they, again, don't want to work and just want government assistance? 

I believe people are, for whatever reason, reluctant to receive help from the church (or anyone) but more than willing it from the government. Why? I don't believe that's the government's job. The Lord told the church to care for the poor ... not to mention each other. Is it the government's job to pay for you to not work when you hit 55 or 60 because you've "earned it?" When did the responsibility for our own lives get put on the government? If I want to quit working when I hit a certain age then I need to be financially responsible so that I am able to do that. Allow me to point out, however, that back in the day people worked until they were physically unable to work anymore. 

I don't really have answers ... yet. But this has been heavy on my heart for weeks and I'm confident I'll hear from the Lord on it.