Temperature Blanket - The Beginning

 I decided to make a temperature blanket this year. So far, so good. 

And this…

Mike Huckabee had this in his email this morning. 

Read. Understand. 

Scott Adams, best known as the creator of the DILBERT cartoon strip but also a bestselling author, trained hypnotist and professional prognosticator who predicted (like us!) Trump would win in 2016, made some interesting points about January 6 in his Thursday podcast (Episode 1615) of “Coffee With Scott Adams.” Worth quoting at length, so we will:

“...There were a ton of people there who didn’t even know they were breaking the law because the fences were down before they got there. They were just...protesting. So if you’ve got a President who is presuming without the benefit of a trial that these people were there for insurrection, you have put the assumption of guilt on citizens from the highest office in the land. The highest office in the land, the President, just put the assumption of guilt on a bunch of people --- some of ‘em were guilty, some, some. But most of them, not so much. Most of them were trying to do what they thought was preserving democracy, by postponing the certification until some audits could get done.

“Now, of course, when the fake news reports about it, they act like the idea was that they’d just take over and change the government. No demand like that ever happened. The only demand was, ‘Can you give us a few days to audit some suspicious stuff. That is PROTECTING the republic, at least in the minds of the people there.”

Also this: “We’re giving the states the presumption of innocence when they’re not giving us an auditable election. That’s backwards. The presumption has to be that the election is corrupt if you can’t audit it. That doesn’t mean it is...[but] the government has to prove they’re not guilty. They’ve gotta open the books.”

Darn right.

...............................

Last but certainly not least, this: “...You are in the middle of a massive brainwashing operation. I don’t know the degree to which it is organized, but it looks organized. It looks as if the whole January 6 thing is to keep Trump out of office and to keep Trump supporters and Republicans in general demonized by keeping that story in your head. Because it creates the situation where Democrats can do anything to Republicans, ‘cause dammit, those Republicans deserve it --- look at them and their insurrections!”

This!

This was from a Daily Wire post. It was originally a tweet written by Allie Beth Stuckey that was supported by many including Candace Cameron Bure. She says it! 

The idea that the biggest threat to democracy comes from the right is nothing more than projection. With all the institutional power in the world, leftism consistently seeks to limit free speech, religious liberty, the right to self-defense, medical freedom, & so much more.

Take a gander at the world right now and see where people’s rights to work, travel, and move freely are being trampled on. See where parental rights & the rights to free speech & worship are being constrained. Are these right-wing nations? No. They are “progressive.”

In a nation where a girl is praised for cutting off her breasts & calling herself a boy, & a man can become the “first woman” to do xyz because he now goes by Sally, but a person who won’t bake a cake for a gay wedding has his life ruined, our biggest problem ain’t conservatism.

We have been warned by intellectuals for decades that the Christian nationalist fascist state is imminent. Not only has it never come close to fruition, but we have become far more secular, & our views have become more liberal over the years, especially over the last 10.

As we’ve polarized, the left has moved much farther to the left on every issue than the right has moved to the right. In fact, on gay marriage & immigration, Republicans have moved to the left.

And as the left, and the country in general, has moved further to the left, they’ve become extremely intolerant of others’ views. This study shows how overwhelmingly more tolerant of people’s opposing political opinions Republicans are than Democrats.

94% of a Republicans saying they’d be friends with someone who voted for the opposing candidate, vs 64% of Democrats, doesn’t exactly support the idea that Republicans are the ones intent on conforming others to their views.

Are there conservatives & professing Christians who want to implement a Christian theocracy? Sure, even though there is no Biblical directive to do so. But more likely is that Christians, just like secular progressives, think their value system is a good basis for society.

Every law speaks to a worldview. The question is, which one? Nothing is neutral. Christianity has offered a foundation for laws in the West that have, over time, accomplished more freedom & flourishing than any system in history. Secularism has a much more oppressive track record

So, if you’re scared for the future of democracy, look at those in power actually taking away people’s freedoms. If the only “freedom” you care about is the right to kill a child, and the limitation of that freedom is what you consider authoritarian, then evaluate your worldview.

Snow!

Yesterday we had our first snow of the winter. It was heavy and wet and simply lovely - if you didn’t have to go out in it. 

We also had our first snowblower catastrophe of the season - this time it’s a chunk of wood caught in the impeller. 🙄 We will let it dry and then attempt to whack it out of there…hopefully before the next snow that is due here on Friday. Note: it happened after the driveway was done! Woo! 

We had a bell rehearsal last night in town for our community group because we have a concert this Saturday. It was so much fun to get back to it! Mr and I are singing as well. The soprano, who is simply wonderful, won’t be with us this coming weekend. 😳 That leaves me on my own… I did ok! The DOM at Emmanuel will be singing with us this weekend, so I feel much more confident. The bell group was very supportive and told me that I did really well… I guess I can sort of sing! Who knew?! 

New Year!

Happy New Year! 

What did we do on New Year’s Eve Day? We cut, split, and stacked firewood… yes, we did! 

Mr is our log maker

This tree was enormous!

This is what we started with…

LLB and I split those logs

The panorama of Ladybug’s Lumberyard. 

That’s a lot of logs for the wood stove! 

 

Six Feet

 A friend of mine shared this on her FB page. I have borrowed it to save it here. 

Read. Understand.

Stop cutting 6 feet off your parenting. 

By Shannon Sedam

A few years ago we were at soccer practice- I have never forgotten this  moment. The kids were told to run around the field, go to the corner and make their way back to the center. The first few kids did it correctly, but they all quickly started cutting the corner. When my son got to the point where kids were cutting, I yelled out "all the way to the corner! Do it right! We aren't cheaters!" 

One of the kids fathers looked at me and goes "geez, it's only 6 feet." 

I didn't say anything at the time. I shrugged it off and sat back down. But his comment has literally stuck with me for years now and I've always wondered "would you cut 6' off a wall if you were building a house? 6 inches? 6 centimeters?" 

No. You wouldn't. You're going to do your best to build that house exactly to spec. You aren't going to say "oh, well, this board is 6 feet short, too bad-we'll make it work." You're going to go out and get another board. Why? Because cutting corners on that home causes structural integrity issues. Cutting corners means you end up with a lopsided house that can't be trusted to provide you shelter in storms. 

I've been volunteering at the school on Monday's. There are 45 kids in the club I work with. It's terrible. Absolutely horrible. I love volunteering, I love working with my sons class, but I've never seen anything like this before. These kids are mean, nasty, and disrespectful. They have zero accountability. They scream, they run, they don't listen, they don't follow directions. They aren't quiet when the teacher talks. They have no respect whatsoever. 

The problem is the lack of parenting. The problem is, these parents think it's ok to cut 6 feet off their job. Do you realize you are raising an adult? Not a child? We don't raise children, we raise adults. It is your job to teach them to be decent people. It's your job to teach them what is right and what is wrong. It's your job to teach respect and responsibility. (Don't even get me started on the kids that have zero idea how to clean up after themselves.) 

When you choose to take a short cut on parenting, you are choosing to cut that 6' off that wall. You are messing up the integrity of your child. You are teaching them that it is ok to be lopsided and not put in full effort. 

As a society we need to stop cutting that 6'. Don't let your child cut 6', because then the next one thinks it's ok, and then the next. Then we have an even bigger problem. 

Stop cutting 6'. Stop letting your child cut 6'. The era of children being raised right now is not a good one. Something needs to change. 

I could go on further, I could write an entire book. But I know most people don't even read this much at all (that's another thing, bring back books!), so I'll stop here. Just please, stop cutting 6' off your parenting. Your child needs a solid foundation, solid walls, a solid roof if you expect them to become decent people.

Time ticks on…

 I cannot believe that it is almost New Years! I had every intention of writing here for Christmas, but that didn’t happen. I got involved with a bunch of other things. Shocking, I know… 

Let me catch you all up. 

LLB arrived on Christmas Eve with her pie pans and her pie recipes. She made two amazing pies: Chocolate mocha mousse pie with Kahlua whipped cream - amazing as always and Angel-food pie - light and fluffy and it tasted like angel food cake only lighter! 

We went to church that night and sang in the choir - we all did a fine job even if we weren’t as angelic sounding as we’d have liked. 

The next morning brought pie for breakfast and presents! Santa was very good to all of us - we certainly are blessed. We got to chat with #1 and Yellow Rose for a few minutes. Her family spent time with them at their house and it seems they enjoyed what we sent. 

LLB got a wooden submarine model in puzzle form which we attempted to put together while drinking Bloody Mary’s and mimosas. The submarine is adorable and we did an admirable job considering we didn’t realize glue was required and how many thousands of pieces the thing actually had! 

This week has been relatively quiet. We helped our new priest get and stack some firewood and clear some fallen trees from his yard. It was fun to spend time and help a friend. Yesterday I did some laundry, and helped a different friend work on organizing her craft space. Today I made some biscotti, made a meatloaf for dinner, made some cheese crisps for tomorrow night, and I started a lap blanket. 

Tomorrow we are spending the day with the wood splitter and chainsaw taking care of some of the fallen trees down by the street. It is supposed to be 60 degrees - perfect weather to be out in the yard. Then for New Year’s Eve, we will head to a friend’s home to celebrate - no worries, I suspect we won’t make midnight and will be home and in our feet pajamas before the ball drops! 

As the New Year approaches, we are thankful for all the blessings we receive, our health, our family, and our dear friends. We pray for a healthy and safe new year for all.