My Reader

This will be a quick post after my rather lengthy last one. I just wanted to announce that my son is officially reading. Yesterday after school, he read an entire book all by himself. Yes, it was a very simple "Bob book", but he did it. In fact, he read 3 books. I think he was a little embarrassed that I was so excited, but I am so proud of him. He even called and read a story to Grandpa over the phone. It brought tears to my eyes. He is so precious.

A Splendid Review

I recently finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Wonderful book. I can't say that it was a happy and joyful book. There were moments of joy, but there was a lot of heartache. Most of our American schools don't have much of a world education, it seems to me. We tend to stay mostly focused on our history (and we're not very good at that anymore), and just brush over the history of other countries. Fine. I'm all for our country, even as messed up as it is. We still enjoy a lot of freedoms that we do take for granted that people in other countries couldn't even dream of. A Thousand Splendid Suns tells just such a story. It really was beautifully written. The overview that it gives of an average life in Afghanistan is just amazing. It wasn't always an official Islamic state like it is today. Women were not always oppressed like they are now. Things seem to be slowly getting better, but change takes time. I don't want to go into too much detail other than to say, go read it for yourself. I also enjoyed The Kite Runner by the same author. It has some of the same insights into Afghan culture that Splendid does, but it is a completely different story, and it deals more with where Afghan and American cultures meet. Also a very good book. Go read it.

Speaking of other cultures...recently I got an e-mail from a friend that essentially called me racist. It bothered me. I don't believe myself to be a racist person. I really do believe that we are ALL God's creations--each and every person on this ever shrinking planet. Do I believe we are all God's children? Not so much. I'm not into this whole politically correct "what I believe is true for me, but if you want to believe something else that is true for you" thing. It is completely contradictory. That belief would negate both beliefs, in my opinion. There is only one way to heaven. Another friend of mine, Jesus, said, "I am THE way, THE truth, and THE life. No one comes to the Father except by me." Period. He didn't say, "I am one way." THE way. That's it. What does any of that have to do with racism? My dictionary defines racism as "the assumption that one race is biologically superior to another." Like I said before, we are ALL God's creations. All people were created equal. I'm struggling here to find the words that I feel adequately express my feelings about all this. Let me back track a minute. Next Tuesday is election day. I always vote--always. I believe that it is part of my responsibility as an American citizen to vote. I encourage everyone to vote. I know that not everyone will vote the same way that I do, but that's how the system works. We all put our voice in and in the end the one with the most votes wins. I believe this election is probably one of the most important elections of our time. I am not so naive to think that any one candidate is perfect. But we do have to look at the whole big picture of what each candidate represents, and we have to look at specific issues that are important to us. I am going to back track even further here for just a second. Several years ago when Bill Clinton was having an affair with Monica Lewinski, I remember watching the news (which I don't normally do) and hearing the interviewer ask people on the street if the extramarital affair affected Bill Clinton's presidency. It shocked me to hear people say that it didn't because "that was his personal life" and somehow "his personal life is completely separate from his political life." How does that happen? Was Bill Clinton somehow superhuman and can just turn off parts of his brain? I don't think so. In other words, what we do in our personal life affects all areas of our life. Another example on the other end of the spectrum is the BTK killer from a few years ago. That man was a serial killer, but during the day he had a job and a wife and went to church. Are you telling me that these things were unaffected by his hobby of murdering people. Probably not. Fast forward to today and next week's election. There are some serious questions raised about Barack Obama. I am not against this candidate because he is black, or because he lived in Indonesia, or because his grandmother lives in Kenya. I am against him because he wants to take all my money because he thinks I'm not smart enough to handle it myself. He wants to handle it for me. I will readily admit that I have made some huge mistakes with my money. If you've read any of my past blogs, that is pretty apparent. The point is that they are my mistakes. I am now working hard to rectify them--because I can. I am not and did not ask for the government's help to fix my mistakes. To ask or expect them to is foolishness. We all need to take responsibility for our own choices. Speaking of choices, Barack Obama supports abortion and partial birth abortion, at that. It makes me literally want to vomit to even think about it. In a partial birth abortion, the doctor partially delivers a live baby, then sticks scissors into it's brain and scrambles them up until the baby is dead, then finishes delivering it. When I found out I was pregnant with my son, my husband and I were not planning to get pregnant. Many people could have easily justified an abortion of my baby by saying we were not planning that pregnancy, or that I had a very ill father to take care of and we couldn't afford to have a baby. There were any number of reasons that I could have chosen not to have him. But we chose to have him. He is a creation of God. He is a blessing. He is not perfect, but he is precious. I can't even begin to imagine not having Aidan. By choosing to support abortion, I would be saying that I know better than God. I can do a better job controlling and planning my life than the creator of the universe can. Really? Probably not. I know women (dear friends) that have had abortions. Here's what I know about that. The Bible tells us in Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God. ALL things work together for good to those that love God. It doesn't say all good things. ALL things work together for good to those that love God. God can use anything for good. With that I will wrap up my rambling rant for today. I hope that I have made some sense today. I'm not here to change your mind, just to express my opinion. This is my blog. Have a great weekend.

Multilingual

My 3-year-old, Breanna, is multilingual. She speaks English very well, I must say. She knows a few words of Spanish, thanks to Dora the Explorer. But she also has a language all her own. It's not like a very young child that is just learning to speak and they just say the words funny (ie. milk is mik). Breanna has a whole language of her own. She translates for us and remembers the words! It's really funny. The other day, as we were driving down the road, she and Aidan were playing red light, green light in the back seat. "Sonto!" she said to him. "Sonto!" she repeated. Then she translated for us, " Sonto means stop, Bubba." Of course it does. She makes up the funniest little names for her babies and ponies when she's playing, too. Names like Kiranaly, and Kirsha are the norm for her world. Somehow I need to tap into her little brain and harness that creative language energy. Hmmm... That is my new goal. I would like to write a book. I think I've mentioned it before on here. I'm still waiting for my final inspiration from God as to the subject matter. I've had several ideas, but nothing yet that I am just soooo excited about. Maybe I'll just have to have Breanna help me. We'll see. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, we are learning to speak Breanna-ese.

Super Sweet Boy

My son is so sweet. He likes to do things for me. If you've ever read The 5 Love Languages of Children, you will know that children cycle through the 5 different love languages until they settle on the 1 or 2 that feel best to them. Last night was an "acts of service" night. I was trying to help him with his first school fundraiser (which by the way, if I happened to miss your e-mail address, go to www.abcfundraisinginc.com, click "shop our online store", and enter Aidan's ID# which is can8940. Thanks!). Upstairs, I heard him doing something, but I couldn't tell you what. Then he hollers down the stairs at me, "Mom, come up and see. I have a surprise for you." I'll admit I was a little nervous. Often these surprises consist of taking every cushion, pillow, and blanket in the house and making a fort. This time happened to be different. He had not only set the table with silverware, but had gotten out 3 bowls, and scooped them with appropriate amounts of stew (that Grandma had made for us--THANK YOU!!!), and set them by the microwave to be warmed. Then he even got 3 cups for us and put juice in all of them. It was so cute! I actually totally appreciated it because we were heading out the door to go to AWANA's. I just really enjoyed his pride in doing a random act of kindness--especially while Daddy is at work training in another town. Such sweetness!

A Little Change

You might have noticed a little change to my blog. Yes, I put a huge Dave Ramsey button on it (scroll to the bottom of the page). I put it there because I care about all you wonderful readers of mine--okay, it's maybe 10 of you, but I still care. Click on the button. Have a financial reality check. Make the changes you need to. And remember, if nothing changes, nothing changes. Have fun!

The Big 6

I can't believe it. Seriously. Aidan is 6 years old. That makes me over 30 now. (What's a girl to do?) He turned 6 last Thursday. I'm a little slow on the blogging, but I'm here now, aren't I? He was so cute with all his mixed up emotions. He was so excited because it was his birthday. Yeah! Birthdays mean presents. He was totally bummed because Daddy was out of town for work training. (Daddy was really bummed, too, by the way, but he did get to be here for the party.) Even his teacher could tell that he was really bummed. Poor kiddo. He made it through, though. We went for "special" ice cream (aka Coldstone Creamery!!!) before we ate dinner. Now that is a birthday treat if I have ever heard of one. Now he has told me (a couple of time now) that he is scared to be a grown up. I told him that it's okay to enjoy being a kid because being a kid is just so much fun! Now it is back to reality. School and playing with the new toys. He is waiting for one more gift, though. For his birthday, several of his friends chose to pitch in for his new big kid bike. He looks gigantic on his "old" one! Daddy is gone this week again, so we he gets back we will go pick out his new bike. Fun, fun, fun! Thank you to all of you that helped out with that. He is really looking forward to it!