Nobody is paying attention to the Rebublican presidential nomination race. I get that.

But think about it this way. We have 3 supposed front runners. McCain, who has had a lot of problems internally with his campaign, Guiliani who would lose the socially conservative base, and Romney, who seems the best of those 3. But not real exciting. Then there's Fred Thompson-does he actually plan to run or what? Then there are the real conservatives. The top of these seem to be Sam Brownback who is a very solid social consevative, Mike Huckabee whose statement on life on his site is as follows:

I support and have always supported passage of a constitutional amendment to protect the right to life. My convictions regarding the sanctity of life have always been clear and consistent, without equivocation or wavering. I believe that Roe v. Wade should be over-turned.

Well, that's pretty clear-aye?

The more I learn about Huckabee really, the more I like him. Now what if we actually did get involved on the primary level and got a real conservative voted for the nomination? Wouldn't that be grand?

We can't take Hilary lying down. Come on. One of these two. Lets pick one and go with it.

I love to sleep with my little babies. I love to hear their sighs in the night and to watch them sleep. They are so serious about it, as though this sleep was the most important thing in all the world.

Then they slowly wake up...

And it's time for mischief!

Well, Romney won the straw poll. No suprise there, I guess.

And Huckabee is 2nd, spending a whole lot less money, and Brownback 3rd..

And Ron Paul didn't do too bad either.

But Tommy Thompson's out.

And now we can argue about what it all means, or if it means anything. And wish for a crystal ball. At least I do. Though a friend has reassured me that I don't have to worry about Guiliani. So that's good news.

So, are you paying attention?

"Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!" —Pericles (430 B.C.)

I stole that quote from a fine, upstanding, talented political star/nut. Yes, (for those of you who know) that would be Nathan. :)

Have you heard about the boys who were charged with s*x abuse because of slapping girls' behinds in the hall at school? Yesterday the charges were dismissed and now they have to face misdemeanor harassment charges.

What rot.

It makes me think of when I was a girl in 8th grade. There were a couple boys who had lockers near mine that made my life miserable. The pinched me every time they got a chance. I started taking as many books as I could to my classes in order not to go to my locker. It was humiliating and frustrating.

Fortunately for me (well, at least for this case.) I had a boyfriend who was older and bigger and I appealed to him. So he took the day of school (he was in a different school.) and had a heart to heart with these young men. All they needed was a little enlightenment and direction. They never touched me again and actually by the end of the year we were all reasonably friendly. Amazing what a little understanding can do.

But, as frustrated and embarrassed as I was, were they perverts? Not anymore than any other junior high boy. Should they have their lives ruined by it? Absolutely not. I wouldn't have wanted that then and I wouldn't now looking back. They just needed a little instruction and discipline so they could better manage their male type impulses.

So, here are a couple of young boys, growing into manhood. They are still very young. They live in this oversexed culture where the girls can wear whatever they want to school with no responsibility at all, grocery stores have the most shameful things sitting at the grocery counters, everywhere a person looks! But when a boy responds the way the larger culture is teaching him to look at girls he is stripped down and shamed before the whole community, thrown into jail, threatened with lifetime registry as a s*x offender, his parents get to accumulate legal bills that run up like a thermometer on a hot August afternoon. I feel so bad for these poor boys. Having your fanny slapped in the hall is nothing compared to the humiliation they have suffered.

What I really worry about these types of out of control cases is how these boys will see themselves. If you start to have this notion of "There's something wrong with me, there's something different about me" it seems to me that it can become a self full filling prophecy for them, that it could influence their thinking so that they do have trouble developing normally.

What rot. I hope this DA gets thrown out. You have to wonder how this would have turned out if it hadn't reached the media.

I get so angry at how this culture treats boys.

If you were voting in the Ames Straw Poll tomorrow, who would you vote for?

Well, not to try your patience, but I wanted to try one more time to try to figure out what I did wrong.

So, tell me if that works, okay? It will be the last time.

A couple of weeks ago I had all these blog posts in my head and now they are gone. All gone...I wish I had written them down. Some people seem to be really good at picking up a story here and there amidst the mundane. I'm just good at picking up Legos.

But last night at dinner I noticed all the kids on one side of the table were wearing blue shirts, and the other side was all red. I commented "Hey look, the Republican states and Democratic states!" S and F pointed across the table and said "I get that one for my blog!" We call that 'blogging fodder'. When ever there's a funny story or a news story that makes us mad we call out 'blogging fodder!'

So, that's my fodder for the day.

I changed the setting on the video from private to public on youtube. Could someone see if it works now for me? Thanks.

Roberta-If you can see, might that be your friends daughter in the frilly purple dress? S. thought maybe that was her.

Ahh..There we go. It's fuzzy, but, well..

Well, S. came home from her dance with the glow of a dance well enjoyed. She gets quite the snap in her eye after these affairs. I was right though, that she wouldn't get any pictures of herself. Why get pictures of yourself? She'd rather look at her friends. But some friends caught her with "Illegal Contraband". And snapped a picture to be used against her in a court of law.

As soon as you let them out of your sight they are into mischief. And there is no sense in denying it because the proof is in the can! Not exactly period either. Ah well..

I tried to figure out how to post a short video she made of the "Post Jig" but I can't get it over from Photobucket and YouTube seems to be having problems. Hopefully I'll figure it out later.

So here are some other pictures..
Just to get an idea of the costumes.

They had a pie baking contest. (S. got 2nd in the apple pie category.) Danced until 12:30, slept in tents, tried to cook breakfast over a campfire, and argued about the Union and the Confederates. Most of them are Confederates. But S. stood for the Union and was summarily executed. Rather brutal, wouldn't you say? She had no other Unionist to come to her rescue. Brave girl.

So, are you following the race for the Republican nomination? If Giuliani wins I will cry my eyes out.

Thanks for the sympathy friends. Today was a whole new day. Even though we woke up to cloudiness in our area, I felt a whole lot sunnier! Dh was back to normal and the thing that I tried to talk to him about cleared itself up in a way that I never expected. In a way I think the Lord showed His hand in it so I could know that it was Him and not me trying to fix things. And I can feel a little ashamed of myself for not trusting Him in it, but I am still so thankful!

I just hate it when I make mistakes. I always want to feel like I have done things the 'right' way. I have been so fearful of making mistakes in my life I end up doing nothing. I am trying to correct that, even if it only by trying a sewing pattern with a technique I haven't tried or venturing into a conversation with someone I haven't met (You really old friends, from my old blog, will know that is something.) It took me years to venture into doing a buttonhole! Isn't that funny?

I don't want my children to be afraid of making mistakes like I have been. I hope they don't inherit those perfectionistic tendencies. I hope they know I don't expect perfection, only that they receive correction and try their best. And be able to laugh at themselves.

Today I sent S. of to her Civil War dance. I didn't take pictures of her before she left because the camera was almost out of batteries and she wanted to take it with her. But I forgot to tell her to make sure someone takes a picture of her. Rats. She probably won't think of it. I hope she has as much fun as she's expecting.

I think the rest of us will have a LOTR night since we haven't watched it in a while.

And maybe I'll get to knit for a bit. I am trying to make a sweater for Babykins. Maybe if I work really hard I'll get it done for fall? But I'm making it a bit big, so it will fit him next year if not. I'm not very good at knitting, but it is soothing to clink, clink the needles together. Until a little boy climbs on my lap and makes me drop a stich.

What projects do you have going?

I admit I came to the computer today feeling really blue. A conversation I tried to have with DH last night did not go well, and I felt like I was to blame perhaps for even approaching it. Sometimes it's hard to know when you are giving wifely counsel or just plain second guessing. It seems like lately everything I do comes out skewed. I try to get these mini lap books printed off and I can't seem to get them lined up right. I have been cleaning house all week, determined to get it up to snuff and I tell ya, you can barely tell! And I have a doozy of a cold to boot. Mope, mope.

Sometimes It's hard to pull myself out of the heaviness that I feel over my failure. It's hard to get over being such an idiot. I must continue on because meals still have to be made, the boys have to learn to read, I can't just let things fall into chaos, and whether I agree with His choice or not, I can't deny that God has put me here. There are all these children about to remind me, ya know.

I tried reading my Bible, reading Oswald Chambers, kicking myself in the pants, yaddiyaddiyadda. S. seeing I wasn't feeling well (Sneezing and slobbering all over the place kind of clued her in.) Told me to go upstairs and blog while she makes pancakes. Gotta love the girl. But what to blog about.

What do you do when you're depressed?

Anyway, flitting about the internet trying to find something to help, I starting looking at some videos on YouTube. Sometimes music can find it's way to your heart when words just don't seem to help. And thanks to Amy, I think I can figure out how to put videos on this blog now! (Remember, explaining about html posting.)



Well, this is my theme for the day. I love Rich Mullins.

Off to have a good cry. Or clean the kitchen. One or the other...

I guess it has been a few days...Where have I been? Laundry, dishes, floors, bills, phonics, grocery shopping, doctor's appointment, diapers..You get the idea.

And besides! Everytime I get a spare moment (or at least pretend that I do) one of my kids is checking out facebook or something. How does a mom get a minute on the computer around here!

Oh dear. Now Hubby is home and dinner must be forth coming. I'll try to get back later.