"the omnivore's dilemma" by michael pollan

this book is amazing. i think it is going to be life changing. i love it! it's energized me. well, it's enlightened me. we'll see how energetically i put into motion all that i've learned. local meat markets/farmers here i come. i think that historically this book will be right up there with the greats. you just watch! i'm only half-way through the book. i'll write more when i've got the whole picture. to be continued!

a moment of clarity

i had a breakthrough this morning. i was reading a bit of my friend lauren's blog. she was talking about love and babies. this is the comment i left on her blog. this is maybe the most clarity i have ever had on the subject.

"i think one of the best things about the love you have for your new baby is the unexpected connection with the old love you have for family members. there is this new person who has bits and pieces of your loved ones. sometimes you see your cousin in an expression, then your great uncle, then your second cousin, in just seconds. most of the time my baby looks like my dad. it is like i can go back in time and hug my father as a baby. if that makes any sense. when jack laughs he sounds like my great aunt. and to me, that is like magic. or the best kind of ghost."

vaccination

vaccinations scare me. shooting dead or living virus cocktails into tiny little babies is scary. the rate of autism in baby boys terrifies me. i have heard that in mn it is one in one hundred. that is too much!!!!!!!!!! i would just want to die if jack suddenly didn't know me anymore. it would be like child-alzheimers. so, i had opted to NOT vaccinate. but, you know, that is kind of like playing russian roulet. and i hate gambling, especially with my child's life. also, who trusts the fda? tainted pet food and tomatoes? we can't even trust our pet food? so how can i trust vaccines? ever eaten those "wow" doritoes? the ones back in the day with olestra? the fat wasn't supposed to stay in your system. great! down side? anal leakage! my point, i am paranoid.

well, i do believe that there are some vaccines that are worth it. so, yesterday, at a whopping 24 1/2 lbs., and 13 months, jack received the polio vaccine and the tdap (tetnus, diptheria, pertussis (whooping cough)). one in each thigh. i had to hold his upper body down and look in his precious little face as he cried in pain. it was really hard. it is hard to be a mommy. it is worth it.

prince caspian

prince caspian was lovely. not as great as i had built it up to be, but great. i love a movie where (spoiler alert) the trees kick butt. yes! lord of the rings didn't even quite go there. they should have. they must have run out of time or they would have i suppose.

hey, i read a critque where the critic didn't get why the telemarines had spanish accents. if you PAY ATTENTION to the end of the film you will understand perfectly why. it is so simple i wonder he didn't get it. c.s. lewis was no dummy. he was brilliant in fact. i may have to go and read the chronicles again. i have them all in one giant book with a huge picture of "aslan"'s head on the cover. soooooo good. the book, not the cover.

wall-e

i had my doubts. i almost didn't go. i am glad i went. believe the hype. wall-e is great. wall-e was so endearing he reminded me of my baby boy! that my be a stretch for you, but for me, not so much. jack and wall-e are so similar. they both are small and unsteady. they both emit little burbles and squeaks. they are both sweet. end of arguement. my son is a robot.

by the by. the premise in wall-e that the earth could be covered in garbage is, i believe, false. no way would the land lovin' liberals ever let that happen. in a world where we have to protect the forests so that a little owl is not killed, but human babies can be aborted every day... well, the land is safe. never gonna happen. not that i believe it should. i am just saying it won't.

supercross

march 15 i saw a supercross! our friend doug got us free tickets. it was just doug, dan, andy, and i. we left jack for his first sleepover at my parent's house. the supercross was at the "metrodome" in the cities. it was a great one. the races where very exciting. there were a lot of crashes, and upsets. it is so exciting when racers are battling for position. (i know some of you might be in wonderment that i actually like this sport, but i do.) at one point chad reed was 2nd and he just fell off his bike. he managed to make it back to 7th place. i will be posting picts when i get them, but here is a scan of my ticket. woo.

i almost caught a tee that was shot in the crowd. i wonder if i got on tv. also, i got to do the wave at a televised event. that's pretty cool. what wasn't cool was the view dan and i got of a hot pink thong from a few rows down. we saw EVERYTHING. none of that pantie was in that chick's jeans. we also saw a lot of crack from another girl. i swear, i saw so many hoochies that night. and BABIES! lots of babies younger than jack! one was wearing a very cute little jersey and riding pants... and it was so cold. and the kid didn't hardly have hair. BAD PARENTS. made me very sorry for the little guys.

read any good books lately?

i just finished "middlemarch" by george eliot a few weeks back. wow. it was written in the 1700's by a woman using a pen name. i must admit, i did skip a lot of background description to get through it. it was as thick as a phone book. it was a great moral contrast between two as-different-as-you-can-get women. to make it even more clear -- one was blonde, one was brunette. etc. if nothing else, i am glad i read the book because it made me appreciate the great marriage that God has given me. it's a big bad world out there and marriage is a fragile thing. i am really in love with dan and he's in love with me and that's a blessed thing. and might i add, we are committed to loving each other. i think that is very important.

"the golden compass" atheist propaganda for kids

just in time for Christmas... a gorgeous atheist's movie. i just can't believe it. it looked so amazing in the previews. i was wondering what it was all about. thanks to a quick forwarded e-mail from my mother i found out. it is so wrong when adults focus their attacks at children.
i had an atheist teacher in 11th grade for my advanced placement english class. he ridiculed the Bible by stating that it was written, and i quote, "by a bunch of shepards" (correction -- by a doctor (luke) and an adopted grandson of a pharoh (moses), just to name two.). i was so upset by the statement and the curriculum (ernest hemingway was a pig. "madame bovary" by gustave flaubert was even more disgusting, possibly, and offended me in a big way.) that i dropped that course (in which he told us he guaranteed us an "A".) to go back to the regular english class. and the "guidance" councelor NEVER ASKED ME WHY! looking back i am amazed. i did eventually have to take that teacher for my 12th grade english course, but the class was a lot less secular. thankfully that teacher has now retired.
and let me tell you, i am going to seriously get to know the teacher's that jack has. no one is going to teach my son lies as if they were the truth. they had better get ready for a grillin'.
which brings me to the subject of public school versus Christian school. i know that both schools crank out good and bad kids... i just think that what matters is that jack would get extra Bible teaching, and NO EVOLUTION CRUD. he wouldn't have to learn the maddeing differences between neanderthals, and "lucy" and what a missing link is... what a waste of time and energy. any thoughts on the subject? i went to public school k-12 and to a Christian college.