Quote of the Day

"My heart is cracking!"

-Caleb Taylor, out of breath while running laps around the house during morning break.

Gun safety is very important, very.

Well I normally don't like to post things with questionable language but this one I just couldn't resist. I like #2. I think I can relate to that. I do resent the hippy remark in #10.

The recent college shooting reminded me: I'm glad we don't live in a state where the only people who have guns are the criminals. Ciao, IL: since I've left you I've never looked back. (well, I do like Chicago)

While the cat's away..

My Mom wanted me to take her on one of my masochistic walks yesterday so that meant my Dad
had to volunteer to stay with the kids. This is the state I found them in when we returned,
Jesse on the floor and Anna and Caleb on my Dad.

It's a donkaphant..

We'd hum on election day instead of crying our brains out if a song were President. I prefer humming to crying, but that's just me.

After browsing the website for Ron Paul's congressional opponent in the 14 district down in TX something dawned on me: People want the government to be their church. Since they aren't getting much from their church, they look to government. Take Bush's faith based initiatives for example. The government actually takes YOUR money and gives it to a karate group (for example) that goes around sharing a quick version of the gospel along with their 20 minute or so karate show. Yes it's true. I say a version of the gospel because there is no accountability for these groups as to whether they are even adhering to Biblical doctrine or not. You may wonder what's wrong with this but let me ask one question: How will you like faith based initiatives when Obama is President and increases spending in these initiatives to further the spread of Islam? If President Bush would like to give money to help others and give them the gospel, GREAT- please do it with your church or you own money, Pres. Bush! He actually has a desire that most of us Christians have or at least ought to have. But, Mr. Bush don't take my money to do it. The government should not be involved in charity. See Davy Crockett on welfare and charity: http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig4/ellis1.html

Anyways, this is nothing new. "Conservatism" has become a feel good religion and it's god and standard are emotions. This false conservatism rightly believes that Homosexuality is bad so it then goes on to believe that we need to have the government involved in licencing marriage. (Marriage is between God and man). Conservatism wants to defend out country. (again, bravo!) This means tightening our borders and making sure we have troops here should our country be attacked. But, instead we invade other countries while our borders stand wide open. "Conservatives" should be more thankful to Clinton for starting this pattern, after all, Clinton paved the way for Bush's arrogant imperialism. We would do well to look back to our founding fathers when they said: "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations – entangling alliances with none."

The Pack

Sweet. This is much easier than when I was blogging before. Prepare to be assaulted with images, video, all kind of fun things. This is rad. Yes, I will say that because it's my blog.
So this is Caleb, 3.. Jesse was 4mo. and Anna was a new 6 when we took this pic at Thanksgivin'. I'm growing Caleb's hair out again.. and Anna has just informed me that ponytails make your head look oval. (and yes, that was with tears so it's not a good thing apparently to have an oval head) Jesse is his same jovial self, but with more peach fuzz now. And more teeth, six of them.

Breathe Easy

Well it's been quite a long time since the last post. I know everyone has given up on me. You can all rejoice now, break out the champagne, savor every word of this long awaited post. They may even name this a holiday...The Day Melissa Returned to Blogging. Ok, I'm really rusty at trying to be funny so I'll spare you.

Let's see the last time I wrote, Jesse and I were arguing about the time of day: He insisted that night was really day while I tried to tell him "no, when I go to sleep you go too". Let's see,
then he was born, kicking and screaming mind you. He was in no hurry to leave the oven. Now he's six months, soon to be seven and when I think back as to what I have been doing it goes like this: Wake up feed children. School Anna. Feed children. Do laundry. Feed children. Nap. Feed children, go to bed and then feed child a few times in the middle of the night. Yes... that's been the last six months. Now I can add blogging to "feed children". In reality, we have been a little more productive lately. We are forging through school, did some work on the Ron Paul campaign, taken a couple trips to D.C., I'm back at the gym, Jesse's finally eating solid food, and Josh and I are getting back to being able to spend a little more time together again. I have even found time to make new friends. (I know, it's shocking that anyone would want to be my friend) One of those friends is why I am blogging again. She rightly knows that I won't start back up unless she endlessly nags me. Call that a faithful friend.

I have a new picture of the kids to post but of course because my skillllz are on the down, I don't remember how to post it. I will go reacquaint myself with the intricacies of blogging and be back next time with a picture. (and more interesting commentary) I'm too tired to think.

blog it down

Checking out my previous entries, these posts have been WAY to long! Perhaps I should Blog it down a bit instead of up.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Christ Matthews host the GOP debate the other night. The highlight of the evening was when he "seriously" asked if it would be good for America for the Clintons to be in the White House again. He really tried to emphasize his seriousness, but of course everyone laughed at him, and Mr. Mitt even said "you have got to be joking!"On a serious note, Ron Paul was the real deal. It is quite the day when a strict Constitutionalist ends up looking like a freak at GOP presidential debate. He was the only candidate who mentioned the constitution that evening.


While you are waiting for more posts to show up.. treat yourself to a trip to www.redbluenation.net.
Here you can check out what the Queen of England REALLY does in her spare time. Snuggle up with some priceless moments from Pres. candidate Mike Gravel while you are there too!

Off to bed, just in time to engage with Jesse in our nightly wrestling match. I think he is starting to discover that there is just not much room left in his world. If our in-utero wrestling matches are any indication, Caleb is going to have quite a match in a couple years. Anna will have to develop the talent of being one that makes peace! Eight more weeks hopefully and he can stretch out in his very own bed, as will I.

Fox News Network: CLEAN UP!

One of my favorite talk show hosts: Laura Ingraham, has addressed in a big way the problem with the sleaze on the Fox News Network. There is quite a bit of momentum forming to contact Fox News and demand a better moral standard! Here is my letter to Fox News. Everyone, send a letter to Fox, it will only take a few minutes!!!

Dear Fox News,

Like so many other millions of viewers,I have been overjoyed to see the rise of a "Fair and Balanced" Network such as Fox.
I hope you keep up the investigative reporting and your commitment to the truth. It is what made you number one. The people who made you number one are comprised of people in this country who are committed to the truth and integrity our nation was founded on.

The people who have given you your success for the most part are fairly conservative people. The "T-Warriors" as Bill O'Reilly calls them are getting quite fed up with all the trash they have been seeing on your network lately. We don't mind hearing stories about a congressman's sex tape scandal (just to throw an example out there), but when you show the footage of the actual sex tape it comes across as being very sleazy and unprofessional. Throughout the day you are constantly showing sexual images of women. Bill O'Reilly is perhaps one of the worst offenders of this. His soft-porn footage he likes to constantly roll is an affront to the conservative people he likes to attract. How a society regards it's women and children is a good indication as to what direction the society is headed for. Showing these images constantly degrades and sexually exploits women and the gifts they were given by their Creator.

It usually happens that when a show or network has to stoop lower and lower just to get a story or an edge over their competitor, they are running out of ideas or their creativity is shot. I sincerely hope this isn't the case with Fox. I am speaking with more and more people who are fed up with this trash we get assaulted with when all we want is to hear the news. Your network cannot continue flooding my house with these images and so I, like many others are tuning you out. If you doubt where your customer base is coming from, I would love to see you run an online poll regarding this issue.

I appreciate your time and consideration,
Melissa Taylor

Immigration and Teddy

I have been having a great time listening to the Laura Ingraham show. She's hilariously smart and not a shill for anyone, unlike Rush or Hannity. Here is something she had on her show about Teddy R. and his comments on Immigration in his State of the Union speech. What has happened to conservatism?

TEDDY!!!

Our present immigration laws are unsatisfactory. We need every honest and efficient immigrant fitted to become an American citizen, every immigrant who comes here to stay, who brings here a strong body, a stout heart, a good head, and a resolute purpose to do his duty well in every way and to bring up his children as law-abiding and God-fearing members of the community. But there should be a comprehensive law enacted with the object of working a threefold improvement over our present system. First, we should aim to exclude absolutely not only all persons who are known to be believers in anarchistic principles or members of anarchistic societies, but also all persons who are of a low moral tendency or of unsavory reputation. This means that we should require a more thorough system of inspection abroad and a more rigid system of examination at our immigration ports, the former being especially necessary.

The second object of a proper immigration law ought to be to secure by a careful and not merely perfunctory educational test some intelligent capacity to appreciate American institutions and act sanely as American citizens. This would not keep out all anarchists, for many of them belong to the intelligent criminal class. But it would do what is also in point, that is, tend to decrease the sum of ignorance, so potent in producing the envy, suspicion, malignant passion, and hatred of order, out of which anarchistic sentiment inevitably springs. Finally, all persons should be excluded who are below a certain standard of economic fitness to enter our industrial field as competitors with American labor. There should be proper proof of personal capacity to earn an American living and enough money to insure a decent start under American conditions. This would stop the influx of cheap labor, and the resulting competition which gives rise to so much of bitterness in American industrial life; and it would dry up the springs of the pestilential social conditions in our great cities, where anarchistic organizations have their greatest possibility of growth.

Both the educational and economic tests in a wise immigration law should be designed to protect and elevate the general body politic and social. A very close supervision should be exercised over the steamship companies which mainly bring over the immigrants, and they should be held to a strict accountability for any infraction of the law.

Buchanan says it all

Well, I must admit, I have fallen oh so far behind in my blogging. Too much snot to wipe, too much refilling of humidifiers, too much cleaning up wet 3-foot long pieces of toilet paper. Really, does it have to take 3 feet of toilet paper to blow your nose once? It must for a 5 year old, specifically one named Anna. Oh, the sickness hasn't been that bad. We haven't had the flu here in almost 3 years. Now, some of you will be SHOCKED, but I did resort to the use of a drug during Caleb's bout with this flu. Anna managed to make it though with the herbs, but Caleb needed a little more help. Robitussin (is that even how you spell the thing?) is great for a little kid who's up gagging and coughing his brains out all night. Hum, it's great for the mom too. One night he woke up choking with his chest closed and wheezing, emitting that all too familiar bark a sea-lion would make. All you can do there is wrap them up and take them into the freezing night air. Does a croup wonders! We used to do this with my brother when he was little. By the time you get them to the hospital, the cold air in the car helped get the inflammation down a bit. Assuring Josh of my cold-air method was a little difficult in the middle of the night, but we all made it through. Sitting on the front porch in the pitch black, holding the little, wheezing, fever ball in my arms at three in the morning made me think. Now, the thinking wasn't all that deep, I had just gone through several days of this with Anna, so I only thought one thing. Is this worth it? I could be in bed right now, snuggled and warm, sleeping the night away, in a nice quiet house. Instead I was sitting outside holding a little kid in the freezing night air as he slept on my shoulder. The differences aren't all that striking on paper, but while I was sitting there the former seemed like heaven. I began thinking: who is raising future husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, statesmen, inventors, artists, preachers, mentors? The reality is, mothers are. Mothers who sit up with these people when they are little and can't even tend for themselves. Sometimes parenthood seems very ideological, very noble, very fulfilling, but I, for one, really forget sometimes about all the grunt work that is involved. Doesn't every noble accomplishment come only after years of grace, work, tears, persistence? I guessed it did. So I took my little preacher (that's what I call him) back into the house and we sat the night out. Of course I'm exaggerating, and I know people with 5 or 10 kids have it way worse. And, the worse is probably yet to come for me. Having said that, these nights were still difficult to my comparative easy life and it was nice to rejoice in the "heritage from the Lord", even when the heritage is 2 years old and keeps you up all night.

One other quick note. I have been looking into the Horton/Kline "two kingdom" view. It is a view that I'm afraid just utterly cripples the impact Christians could have on a culture/society. Andrew Sandlin has written a great article on it you can find here: http://www.natreformassn.org/statesman/01/retreat.html I guess the next question is how prevalent is this view in the reformed church? Mr. Sandlin suggests it's increasing in popularity. Hummm... any thoughts? As if anyone still reads my forgotten blog. hehe

Lastly, this is a very well written article by Pat Buchanan, one of my favorites. Conservatives seem to forget about him when Republicans are in power. And on a side note, what's up with Bush not pardoning these 2 border patrol agents? (http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2007/jan07/07-01-03.html) For all the conservatives who looooove Bush, there must be some reason for this madness!!!

Read on for Buchanan's article:

The Ideologue

by Patrick Buchanan
January 24, 2007 Churchillian it was not. Yet the State of the Union seemed a success if Bush's purpose was to buy time from Congress to wait and see if his surge of U.S. forces into Iraq might yet succeed.

But when Bush started to describe the ideological war we are in, one began to understand why we are in the mess we are in.

"This war," said Bush, "is an ideological struggle. ... To prevail, we must remove the conditions that inspire blind hatred and drove 19 men to get onto airplanes and to come to kill us."

But the "conditions" that drove those 19 men "to come to kill us" is our dominance of their world, our authoritarian allies and Israel.

They were over here because we are over there.

If Bush is going to remove those "conditions," he is going to have to get us out of the Middle East. Is he prepared to do that? Of course not. Because Bush, believing the problem is not our pervasive presence but the lack of freedom in the Middle East, is waging his own ideological war to bring freedom in by force of arms, if necessary.

"What every terrorist fears most is human freedom -- societies where men and women make their own choices."

Very American. But the truth is terrorists do not fear free societies, they flourish in them. The suicide bombers of 9-11, Madrid and London all plotted their atrocities in free societies. From the Red Brigades, who murdered Italy's Aldo Mori, to the Baader-Meinhoff Gang, who tried to kill Al Haig, to the Basque ETA, the IRA and the Puerto Rican terrorists who tried to assassinate Harry Truman, free societies are where they do their most effective work.

Stalin's Russia and Nazi Germany had no trouble with terrorists.

"Free people are not drawn to violent and malignant ideologies," declared Bush. Oh? Explain, then, why 70 million Germans, under the most democratic government in their history, gave more than half their votes to Nazis and Communists in 1933? In every plebiscite he held, Hitler won a landslide. In the year of Anschluss and Munich, 1938, Hitler was Time's Man of the Year and far more popular than FDR, who lost 71 seats in the House.

During 2006, free Latin peoples brought to power anti-American Leftists Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and Rafael Correa in Ecuador, and came close to electing their comrades Ollanta Humala in Peru and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico.

In the free elections Bush demanded in Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq, the winners were the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, Hamas and Shia militants with ties to Iran.

If a referendum were held in the Middle East on the proposition of the U.S. military out and Israel gone, how does Bush think it would come out?

"So we advance our security interests by helping moderates, reformers and brave voices for democracy," said Bush. But how many of those "moderates" -- Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, Kuwait, the Gulf States -- are ruled "by brave voices for democracy"?

Our Islamist enemies would likely endorse unanimously a Bush call for free elections in all those countries, as elections could not but help advance to greater power, at the expense of our friends, those same Islamist enemies.

What is Bush doing? The America that won the Cold War said ideology be damned, we stand by our friends.

"The great question of our day is whether America will help men and women in the Middle East to build free societies," said Bush.

But if we bleed our country to give the men and women of the Middle East the freedom to choose the society they wish to live in, are we sure they will not choose a society where Sharia is law? In liberated Afghanistan, popular sentiment was behind beheading that Muslim who converted to Christianity.

What leads Bush to believe everyone wants to be like us? Is it not ideology?

To characterize "the totalitarian ideology" we confront, Bush quoted Osama bin Laden: "Death is better than living on this Earth with the unbelievers among us."

This is the true mark of the true believer. But did not the Spain of Isabella want the "unbelievers" removed from "among us"? Did not Elizabeth I feel the same about Catholics?

"Give me liberty or give me death!" said Patrick Henry of the Brits remaining in this country that Brits had founded. "Live free or die!" is the motto of the great state of New Hampshire.

This is the heart of the war we are in. Americans believe in freedom first. Millions of Muslims believe in Islam first -- submission to Allah. We decide for us. Do we also decide for them?

Perhaps the best advice we can give our Muslim friends in the Middle East is the hard advice Lord Byron gave the Greeks under the Islamic rule of Ottoman Turks:

Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not,

Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow?

Past bedtime!

Even if it is past my bedtime, I haven't posted in FOREVER. Christmas is coming soon though and it's only getting a little busier. We do have a piece of news though, I found out that God saw it fit to answer Anna's prayer she has been praying every night at the dinner table for months and months. A third Taylor tornado is on his/her way! We are all stoked, but that still leaves the fact that battling sickness is an every day affair. I'm thankful for my mom bringing meals and for eating at the other Taylor's sometimes on Sundays. It's a blessing to have family around to help with things like this! The due date should be the first of July. I'm hoping it's on the 4th so that the little one gets fireworks for a birthday present every year!

A dear friend, Shalice who lives in Chi-town, is getting married in the spring! Josh has given us the blessing to go to the wedding so I'm jumping up and down at the opportunity to see some friends I haven't seen in forever it seems! I only wish he could come.

Well, a boring post this was, better grab a glass of wine, I want you to associate this blog with pleasant feelings, not feelings of boredom, monotony, and sluggishness. hehe : ) More later, I promise- but I can't promise it won't be boring again ! : /

St. Elmo

St. Elmo
I have to write to say I just finished a great book: St. Elmo.. by one of the greatest writers of the 19th century, Augusta Jane Evans Wilson. This book was the number 3 seller of the 1800's.. only Ben Hur, and Uncle Tom's Cabin sold more copies. She is a true southern lady. Society at the time of the book was on the brink of the women's suffrage movement. Here are some passages I HAVE to share from the book. These are spoken by the heroine of the book: Edna Earl, and are directly related to the things we face in our country and culture when it comes to women and their vocation.
"... I think sir, that the noble and true women of this continent earnestly believe that the day which invests them with the elective franchise would be the blackest in the annals of humanity, would ring the death-knell of modern civilisation, of national prosperity, social morality, and domestic happiness; and would consign the race to a night of degradation and horror infinitely more appalling than a return to primeval barbarism." She continues: " God, the Maker, tenderly anchored womanhood in the peaceful, blessed haven of home, and if man is ever insane enough to mar the divine economy, by setting women afloat on the turbulent, roaring sea of politics, they will speedily become pitiable wrecks. Sooner than such an inversion of social order, I would welcome even Turkish bondage; for surely utter ignorance is infinitely preferable to erudite unwomanliness."
The next passage deals with women who aspire to things contrary to the vocation God has put them in:
" I do not believe that 'all men are born free and equal;' and think that two-thirds of the Athenians were only fit to tie Socrates' shoes, and not one half of Rome worthy to play valet and clasp the toga of Cato or of Cicero. Neither do I claim nor admit the equality of the sexes, whom God created with distinctive intellectual characteristics, which never can be merged or destroyed without outraging the decrees of Nature, and sapping the foundations of all domestic harmony. Alow me to say, sir in answer to your remarks concerning learned women, that it seems to me great misapprehension exists relative to the question of raising the curriculum of female education. ... Erudition and effrontery have no inherent connection, and a woman has an unquestionable right to improve her mind, ad infinitum, provided she does not barter womanly delicacy and refinement for mere knowledge; and, in her anxiety to parade what she has gleaned, forget the decorum and modesty whithout which she is monstrous and repulsive.

Now we get to the juicy part:
" Does it not appear reasonable that a truly refined woman, whose heart is properly governed, should increase her usefulness to her family and her race, by increasing her knowledge? A female pedant who is coarse and boisterous, or ambitious of going to Congress, or making stump speeches, would be quite as unwomanly and unlovely in character if she were utterly illiterate..... A woman who cannot be contented and happy in the bosom of her home, busied with ordinary womanly work, but fancies it is her mission to practise law or medicine, or go out lecturing, would be a troublesome, disagreeable personage under all circumstances, and would probably stir up quite as much mischief, while using ungrammatical language, as if she were a perfect philologist."

How things have changed! You couldn't be caught DEAD saying or writing these words today in mainstream America, or many Christian churches...
now remember, these aren't my words but certainly are words to ponder, and quite interesting!!!

Roosevelt, Caleb Taylor, and the moon.

I have to blog this for posterity sake. This is a classic example of a 2 year old's self-centerdness and his attitude that the world is at his fingertips. I think in some respects, if we adults had the attitude that we could really do or accomplish anything we really wanted to, the world would be different.

The sun sets and there stands Caleb, looking up into the evening sky. Eyes wide and head thrown back, he catches the moon in his gaze as it hangs in the heavens above him. "There's the Moon!" And as he yells, he throws up his hands and reaches in faith to touch it. Teetering on the tips of his toes with wild hair and a beaming, wide grin, he exclaims "I can't reach it!" I only wish I could take pictures of moments like that.


On another subject, I found this piece by Theodore Roosevelt on "American Motherhood" from March 13,1905. This may be one of the best things I have ever read or come across. It's a long post, but you will find yourself feasting on this great President's words. I imagine any person in the spotlight today, let alone the president, would be shot for proclaiming such "radical" ideas. This doesn't just address motherhood but all of society.
enjoy...

In our modern industrial civilization there are many and grave dangers to counterbalance the splendors and the triumphs. It is not a good thing to see cities grow at disproportionate speed relatively to the country; for the small land owners, the men who own their little homes, and therefore to a very large extent the men who till farms, the men of the soil, have hitherto made the foundation of lasting national life in every State; and, if the foundation becomes either too weak or too narrow, the superstructure, no matter how attractive, is in imminent danger of falling.

But far more important than the question of the occupation of our citizens is the question of how their family life is conducted. No matter what that occupation may be, as long as there is a real home and as long as those who make up that home do their duty to one another, to their neighbors and to the State, it is of minor consequence whether the man's trade is plied in the country or in the city, whether it calls for the work of the hands or for the work of the head.

No piled-up wealth, no splendor of material growth, no brilliance of artistic development, will permanently avail any people unless its home life is healthy, unless the average man possesses honesty, courage, common sense, and decency, unless he works hard and is willing at need to fight hard; and unless the average woman is a good wife, a good mother, able and willing to perform the first and greatest duty of womanhood, able and willing to bear, and to bring up as they should be brought up, healthy children, sound in body, mind, and character, and numerous enough so that the race shall increase and not decrease.

There are certain old truths which will be true as long as this world endures, and which no amount of progress can alter. One of these is the truth that the primary duty of the husband is to be the home-maker, the breadwinner for his wife and children, and that the primary duty of the woman is to be the helpmate, the housewife, and mother. The woman should have ample educational advantages; but save in exceptional cases the man must be, and she need not be, and generally ought not to be, trained for a lifelong career as the family breadwinner; and, therefore, after a certain point, the training of the two must normally be different because the duties of the two are normally different. This does not mean inequality of function, but it does mean that normally there must be dissimilarity of function. On the whole, I think the duty of the woman the more important, the more difficult, and the more honorable of the two; on the whole I respect the woman who does her duty even more than I respect the man who does his.

No ordinary work done by a man is either as hard or as responsible as the work of a woman who is bringing up a family of small children; for upon her time and strength demands are made not only every hour of the day but often every hour of the night. She may have to get up night after night to take care of a sick child, and yet must by day continue to do all her household duties as well; and if the family means are scant she must usually enjoy even her rare holidays taking her whole brood of children with her. The birth pangs make all men the debtors of all women. Above all our sympathy and regard are due to the struggling wives among those whom Abraham Lincoln called the plain people, and whom he so loved and trusted; for the lives of these women are often led on the lonely heights of quiet, self-sacrificing heroism.

Just as the happiest and most honorable and most useful task that can be set any man is to earn enough for the support of his wife and family, for the bringing up and starting in life of his children, so the most important, the most honorable and desirable task which can be set any woman is to be a good and wise mother in a home marked by self-respect and mutual forbearance, by willingness to perform duty, and by refusal to sink into self-indulgence or avoid that which entails effort and self-sacrifice. Of course there are exceptional men and exceptional women who can do and ought to do much more than this, who can lead and ought to lead great careers of outside usefulness in addition to--not as substitutes for--their home work; but I am not speaking of exceptions; I am speaking of the primary duties, I am speaking of the average citizens, the average men and women who make up the nation.

Inasmuch as I am speaking to an assemblage of mothers, I shall have nothing whatever to say in praise of an easy life. Yours is the work which is never ended. No mother has an easy time, the most mothers have very hard times; and yet what true mother would barter her experience of joy and sorrow in exchange for a life of cold selfishness, which insists upon perpetual amusement and the avoidance of care, and which often finds its fit dwelling place in some flat designed to furnish with the least possible expenditure of effort the maximum of comfort and of luxury, but in which there is literally no place for children?

The woman who is a good wife, a good mother, is entitled to our respect as is no one else; but he is entitled to it only because, and so long as, she is worthy of it. Effort and self-sacrifice are the law of worthy life for the man as for the woman; tho neither the effort nor the self-sacrifice may be the same for the one as for the other. I do not in the least believe in the patient Griselda type of woman, in the woman who submits to gross and long continued ill treatment, any more than I believe in a man who tamely submits to wrongful aggression. No wrong-doing is so abhorrent as wrong-doing by a man toward the wife and the children who should arouse every tender feeling in his nature. Selfishness toward them, lack of tenderness toward them, lack of consideration for them, above all, brutality in any form toward them, should arouse the heartiest scorn and indignation in every upright soul.

I believe in the woman keeping her self-respect just as I believe in the man doing so. I believe in her rights just as much as I believe in the man's, and indeed a little more; and I regard marriage as a partnership, in which each partner is in honor bound to think of the rights of the other as well as of his or her own. But I think that the duties are even more important than the rights; and in the long run I think that the reward is ampler and greater for duty well done, than for the insistence upon individual rights, necessary tho this, too, must often be. Your duty is hard, your responsibility great; but greatest of all is your reward. I do not pity you in the least. On the contrary, I feel respect and admiration for you.

Into the woman's keeping is committed the destiny of the generations to come after us. In bringing up your children you mothers must remember that while it is essential to be loving and tender it is no less essential to be wise and firm. Foolishness and affection must not be treated as interchangeable terms; and besides training your sons and daughters in the softer and milder virtues, you must seek to give them those stern and hardy qualities which in after life they will surely need. Some children will go wrong in spite of the best training; and some will go right even when their surroundings are most unfortunate; nevertheless an immense amount depends upon the family training. If you mothers through weakness bring up your sons to be selfish and to think only of themselves, you will be responsible for much sadness among the women who are to be their wives in the future. If you let your daughters grow up idle, perhaps under the mistaken impression that as you yourselves have had to work hard they shall know only enjoyment, you are preparing them to be useless to others and burdens to themselves. Teach boys and girls alike that they are not to look forward to live spent in avoiding difficulties, but to lives spent in overcoming difficulties. Teach them that work, for themselves and also for others, is not a curse but a blessing; seek to make them happy, to make them enjoy life, but seek also to make them face life with the steadfast resolution to wrest success from labor and adversity, and to do their whole duty before God and to man. Surely she who can thus train her sons and her daughters is thrice fortunate among women.

There are many good people who are denied the supreme blessing of children, and for these we have the respect and sympathy always due to those who, from no fault of their own, are denied any of the other great blessings of life. But the man or woman who deliberately forego these blessings, whether from viciousness, coldness, shallow-heartedness, self-indulgence, or mere failure to appreciate aright the difference between the all-important and the unimportant,--why, such a creature merits contempt as hearty as any visited upon the soldier who runs away in battle, or upon the man who refuses to work for the support of those dependent upon him, and who tho able-bodied is yet content to eat in idleness the bread which others provide.

The existence of women of this type forms one of the most unpleasant and unwholesome features of modern life. If any one is so dim of vision as to fail to see what a thoroughly unlovely creature such a woman is I wish they would read Judge Robert Grant's novel "Unleavened Bread," ponder seriously the character of Selma, and think of the fate that would surely overcome any nation which developed its average and typical woman along such lines. Unfortunately it would be untrue to say that this type exists only in American novels. That it also exists in American life is made unpleasantly evident by the statistics as to the dwindling families in some localities. It is made evident in equally sinister fashion by the census statistics as to divorce, which are fairly appalling; for easy divorce is now as it ever has been, a bane to any nation, a curse to society, a menace to the home, an incitement to married unhappiness and to immorality, an evil thing for men and a still more hideous evil for women. These unpleasant tendencies in our American life are made evident by articles such as those which I actually read not long ago in a certain paper, where a clergyman was quoted, seemingly with approval, as expressing the general American attitude when he said that the ambition of any save a very rich man should be to rear two children only, so as to give his children an opportunity "to taste a few of the good things of life."

This man, whose profession and calling should have made him a moral teacher, actually set before others the ideal, not of training children to do their duty, not of sending them forth with stout hearts and ready minds to win triumphs for themselves and their country, not of allowing them the opportunity, and giving them the privilege of making their own place in the world, but, forsooth, of keeping the number of children so limited that they might "taste a few good things!" The way to give a child a fair chance in life is not to bring it up in luxury, but to see that it has the kind of training that will give it strength of character. Even apart from the vital question of national life, and regarding only the individual interest of the children themselves, happiness in the true sense is a hundredfold more apt to come to any given member of a healthy family of healthy-minded children, well brought up, well educated, but taught that they must shift up, well educated, but taught that they must shift for themselves, must win their own way, and by their own exertions make their own positions of usefulness, than it is apt to come to those whose parents themselves have acted on and have trained their children to act on, the selfish and sordid theory that the whole end of life is to "taste a few good things."

The intelligence of the remark is on a par with its morality; for the most rudimentary mental process would have shown the speaker that if the average family in which there are children contained but two children the nation as a whole would decrease in population so rapidly that in two or three generations it would very deservedly be on the point of extinction, so that the people who had acted on this base and selfish doctrine would be giving place to others with braver and more robust ideals. Nor would such a result be in any way regrettable; for a race that practised such doctrine--that is, a race that practised race suicide--would thereby conclusively show that it was unfit to exist, and that it had better give place to people who had not forgotten the primary laws of their being.

To sum up, then, the whole matter is simple enough. If either a race or an individual prefers the pleasure of more effortless ease, of self-indulgence, to the infinitely deeper, the infinitely higher pleasures that come to those who know the toil and the weariness, but also the joy, of hard duty well done, why, that race or that individual must inevitably in the end pay the penalty of leading a life both vapid and ignoble. No man and no woman really worthy of the name can care for the life spent solely or chiefly in the avoidance of risk and trouble and labor. Save in exceptional cases the prizes worth having in life must be paid for, and the life worth living must be a life of work for a worthy end, and ordinarily of work more for others than for one's self.

The woman's task is not easy--no task worth doing is easy--but in doing it, and when she has done it, there shall come to her the highest and holiest joy known to mankind; and having done it, she shall have the reward prophesied in Scripture; for her husband and her children, yes, and all people who realize that her work lies at the foundation of all national happiness and greatness, shall rise up and call her blessed.

Luther, rock climbing, beer and homeschooling

Well, I can't believe summer is gone. No more garden produce (well I still have to plant garlic) no more swimming, no more casual days, (well it's still kinda casual here) no more Caleb running naked outside while he's learning to potty train : )For some reason that makes his uncles nervous but I think they chalk it up to incorrectly thinking and always stating that I am a hippie?

We did have a joyous summer none the less. I would have to say the highlights of the summer are too numerous to talk about here. I have pulled the kids into hiking more this summer/fall and it has improved their character and taught them more about God's creation. We were introduced by our lovely cousins from Utah to rock climbing and now the addiction runs deep. Here is a pic of my first climb! And, if you look at the bottom you will see many children running around. Anna prefers to boulder with no ropes, just my hands behind her so I can catch her when she falls. Caleb enjoyes throwing rocks down the mountain and watching them fall. Can you blame a little boy? Oh, and picking the pokeberries till their blood drenches his fingers is his other activity at the rocks. We have decided to build a climbing wall this winter. What a great way to stay active when all is dreary outside! The picture was taken at Crescent Rocks, just right here on Mount Weather. The best spot we visited was by far Elizabeth Furnace.

School with Anna has begun and I just loving getting into the routine with her and her books, not to mention the violin. Little ones making music must bring such joy to their Creator! Caleb incessantly follows everyone around asking "what is that, what is that, what is that". He's nosey and has to be involved in EVERYTHING.

October is upon us and Anna is full of questions about why we are not doing halloween. Explaining this to a 4 year old is quite difficult. She is not satisfied with simple answers! I decided to try and host a reformation day party. Beer for the adults...candy for kids (shocking, I know). And, a fun game with quotes from our Reformation Fathers! Maybe we will end the evening by watching the movie: Luther?

Our church's search for a pastor continues. Please keep Covenant Christian Church in your prayers. Only the LORD can send the right teacher/shepherd.

It's time to wake up the GOP

Amen and Amen and Amen! Republicans need to wake up. Let me remind you, listen to any of Bush's state of the union speaches and you will hear a socialist speaking for at LEAST the first half of those speeches. Tragically, even with the GOP, The question is NEVER: " should the government be involved in this?" but "how much should the government be involved in this?" Can someone answer the question as to WHY the government has grown, why spending has increased, and why public education programs have also grown with the GOP controlling all of Washington for who knows how long! (In reality you could say it's been more than 10 years!)

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Reagan architect declares war on GOP
Viguerie says withhold money, stop calling yourself 'Republican'

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Posted: August 8, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Richard Viguerie

WASHINGTON – One of the architects of the Reagan Revolution is calling on fellow conservatives to withhold support of the Republican Party establishment – including most GOP incumbents in Congress this year.

In "Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause," Richard Viguerie, the man who invented the idea of using direct mail as a means of going over the heads of what he considered to be a biased establishment press, says it's time for radical action to save the Republican Party from itself.

His plan includes the following actions, which would spell bad news for the GOP in the 2006 midterm congressional elections and in the 2008 presidential election:

• Withhold financial support from Republican committees and most Republican incumbents.
• Withhold support from all 2008 presidential candidates.
• No longer call yourself "a Republican" but rather a Reagan Republican or a Reagan conservative.
• And work for wholesale change in Republican leadership.

While not advocating GOP defeat, Viguerie says conservatives should not fear the loss of Congress in 2006, since the biggest gains usually follow a defeat. He points to 1976 when Gerald Ford's loss made possible Ronald Reagan's victory in 1980 and to 1992 when George H.W. Bush's loss made possible the Republican congressional victories in 1994.

Viguerie helped transform American politics by pioneering the use of direct-mail fundraising in the political and ideological spheres. Dubbed by some as the "Funding Father of the conservative movement," Viguerie motivated millions of Americans to participate in politics for the first time.

In his new book, Viguerie shows federal spending under the Bush administration has grown five times larger than that during the second term of the Clinton administration, painting the president as a traitor to his party.

Viguerie compares spending by the federal government, adjusted for inflation, during the Clinton years vs. the Bush years. In Clinton's first term, federal expenditures rose 4.7 percent. In his second term, they rose 3.7 percent. In the first term of the Bush administration, however, spending rose 19.2 percent.

"If ever there was a case for divided government, here it is," writes Viguerie. "The lesson for many Americans is that today's Republicans cannot be trusted with the keys to both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government."

No matter how you slice it, Viguerie says, Bush makes Clinton look like a spending piker by comparison. For instance, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University in New York keeps records that show how much the federal government spends on average each year for each person in the country.

When this standard of measurement is used, the comparison between the two administrations is even more pronounced.

Cumulative growth in federal expenditures, adjusted for inflation, during the Clinton years actually shrunk by 1.1 percent. Yet, in the Bush first term, it rose 15 percent.

"During President Bush's first five years in office, the federal government increased by $616 billion," Viguerie writes. "That's a mammoth 33 percent jump in the size of the federal government in just his first five years! To put this in perspective, this increase of $616 billion is more than the entire federal budget in Jimmy Carter's last years in office. And conservatives were complaining about Big Government back then! How can Bush, (Dennis) Hastert, (Bill) Frist and company look us in the eye and tell us they are fiscal conservatives when in five short years they increased the already-bloated government by more than the budget for the entire federal government when Ronald Reagan was assuming office?"

Running the race

Paul talks about us running the race. He says in Hebrews:
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."
I don't think I have fully appreciated these words or understood what they really mean. All that running and training last summer helped, I think, in showing me what this means and how it feels. I've started to apply that training and the things I learned during it to strengthen my faith, my calling as a wife and my calling as a mother. Life can get tedious, that's for sure! Faith can wane, frustrations can boil over, we can begin to loose our focus on the King. But, if you think about running the race... there are days when we kind of coast, we don't go uphill or go downhill. In my running I have found these times the most difficult. There is no rush or challenge because you are not going uphill, there is no break, or "high" when you aren't going downhill. Keeping up the pace when the road is flat is the most difficult. There are so many distractions: Discontent, lack of faith, lack of joyous thanksgiving, bitterness, idleness, pursuit of other things to fill us up so we feel like we are taking a "break" from running the spiritual race, these are all things lurking during the straight and flat part. These are also the times I think God can do a WONDROUS work in us. Learning to be content with the typical day, typical vocation we find our selves in and really, really working in that with all our heart for the Glory of God can bring great satisfaction. We begin to see the Lord taking hold of every part of our life when we submit these little things to him.

The kids have been such a blessing to my walk. Praying with them daily, throuout the day, singing and teaching them hymns and songs, memorizing scripture with them, being in the Word constantly, has caused a revival of heart! It's amazing the accountability I feel knowing that I have to teach a little one or two how to run that race. They have drawn me closer to the Word and the Lord more than I could have ever imagined. Maybe that's one of the purposes God has in those cute little rug rats : )

Highlights for journaling sake:
Anna continues to battle (she's winning) sucking her thumb. Got to get to Chuck-E-Cheese
She has finished the first two songs in the Suzuki violin book! Suzuki has been great for improving listening skills and work ethic. "You vill play thiz and you vill likee iiit!"
Josh finished his first week since we've been married where he has run more than me! I'm slacking off! I hope we can get into biking more this fall again. We have talked a bit about taking a river trip in Alaska.....if I can ever save for that canoe. Anyone want to buy an electric guitar? I have one for sale.
Caleb loves to command: "can I have some of that please", "I want up NOW, please", "blankie probably downstairs" and if he has a little gas from all that fruit he is quick to say "bump" maybe that's what that feels like, a bump... LOL off to bed.

In Christ Alone

by keith getty and stuart townend

In Christ alone my hope is found, He is my light my strength, my song;
This Cornerstone, this solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace, when fears are stilled, when strivings cease.
My comforter my All in all, here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone who took on flesh, fullness of God in helpless babe! This gift of love and righteousness scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on the cross, as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied, For every sin
on Him was Laid; here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay, Light of the world by darkness slain.
Then, bursting forth in glorious day, up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory, sin's curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death, this is the powr of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He re-turns or calls me home, here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand!

hummm

A nice quiet afternoon is here and so I must pounce upon it and write another entry for my blog. A thousand things are screaming at me: laundry, more cooking for tonight,

Garden planning in the fall, finishing my real-estate book, planning the Great Books

Curriculum for the fall, well I’m sure there are more things but this is why I find it hard to keep up with this blogging thing. Did I mention laundry? I have a bone to pick with whoever invented the internet, it steals my time.

What a fantastic week this turned out to be! ( you can see I’m greatly in need of a thesaurus! ) Caleb’s 2^nd birthday was celebrated on Saturday. We also had our wonderful friend, Mr. Andrew Sandlin (www.christianculture.com) come and visit us Sunday afternoon. Poor Andrew, we had a great time picking at his brain with all our questions.

I had a brief meeting this week with Heather Clayton, and we are going to begin putting some guitar and piano together! Now, convincing Heather to get a bit funky with her beat, or get the groove on will be a challenge (she knows : ) ) but I think we will eventually get there! Now the grand finale of the week: my potatoes are ready for harvest! I know, it’s a boring life but there is nothing like taking those potatoes out of the soft, dark soil and seeing the fruits of your labor right before your eyes.. and tasting them in your mouth.

Mr. Sandlin’s sermon Sunday morning made me realize something and posed a somewhat scary question in my mind: Why are reformed people afraid of Jesus? His holy name is just not spoken with the kind of fervor, love, fanaticism, and frequency one would expect from such a fanatical group. Yes, we’re fanatical but maybe our fanaticism is more directed at Calvin and the Westminster Confession. Sometimes there is an akwardness in speaking about Jesus, we don’t want people to think we’re charismatic or baptistic or something. But, if we speak not the name of Jesus, then what do we have to boast in? Surely I have been guilty of boasting in theology, or a church father, or a modern day writer. This is not all bad, but boasting in Jesus Christ and his work on the cross, AND the resurrection trumps every theologian, every preacher, every man-written book that has ever existed or ever will exist. I love theology, books, and Godly preachers, but our, the church’s, zeal has to be about one thing first and foremost: Jesus Christ, who is alive and living in every one of his precious children. So, to quote a totally hip euro: “How shall we then live?”…. as a church, as a preacher as a nation, as fathers and mothers, as husbands and wives, as children, as artists, as scientists, as teachers, as disciples to each other, as……..well I do need to go finish that laundry.

summer love

I can't believe it's June. I have been behind in my blogging and I know you all are just dying to read another post. Can you hear the sarcasm dripping thickly? This summer has been going wonderfully. Anna has started violin and every Tuesday we make the trek to Winchester to grocery shop, partake in violin, swim and garden. I decided to put a garden in at Josh's parents house. Judy has more than enough space and is generous enough to share as much as I need. What a blessing it has been, both as a space to grow some food and as an object lesson for Anna and Caleb. They can see how the Lord must provide food through rain and sunshine, heat and bugs. Anna can't believe that Jesus created all those vegetable plants and friut and that they have been growing all over the world since Adam and Eve. To think how large the plants must have been, thriving in the glory of living in a world with no sin. Caleb enjoys helping to mulch the potatoes and dig in the empty beds, making sure no weeds are able to come up and show their faces to him.

Sunday we heard a sermon on Job. I must say it cut me deep. Job had great wealth, many children, and such a comfortable joyous life. When Satan came to the LORD and wanted to test Job, surely he thought Job would "curse God and die". But when Job heard the news about his cattle, children, and servants (all his wealth and family) and how they had been destroyed......."Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he FELL TO THE GROUND AND WORSHIPED. And he said: Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD. (Job 1:20-21)

When I have come to difficult situations there are times when I think woe is me. The fact that I would do that is sad.. to see what Job went through and how he fell to the ground and worshiped God when we sometimes can't accept God's plan in our lives when it comes to small things is tragic. I am thankful that despite having nothing good in me, not even the ability to call on the name of the LORD, He called me to be his child. Now, we are his children and he demands a holy life from us, set apart from the world, and one that is glowing hot with the gospel of Christ!
Taking dominion always, with our thoughts and actions, teaching our children in the way of the LORD, this is my prayer.
Psalm 32: Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; But he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteour; and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

Snow fall softly

Snow fall softly now. I am ready for your fluffiness to envelop me. Wind, rain and the gray colors of winter are here. I suppose the trees are still lookin' a bit spiffy but let's ignore that, I'm in a poetic mood. I want fluffy snow. That being said...Thanksgiving is almost here. We had a meal at my parent's house last Saturday with my parents, Travis, Erin and Herb. Our turkey and it's accesories were scrumptious. It's nice to enjoy and remember how our country began back with that first meal in 1621. God has done wonderful things for our country but how fast we forget them.

It's interesting to note that the Pilgrims did not like the Church of England. Thus, they left it and became the separatists. Whatever the reason, be it right or wrong, they were independent thinkers, people who were guided by their convictions and desire to live a life in the world but not a life that was of the word.

People have so many misconceptions about Pilgrims (puritans). We think for instance that they wore drab, unfashionable, boring clothes. We think that the puritans were against sex. The list goes on and on but I just picked out these two things. I think it's easy for Christians today to forget what the puritans stood for and really lived out. We like to put on our pietistic faces, dress in ultra-conservative or unfashionable clothes, look down on others sins and think how righteous we are in these works. The puritans were anything but unfashionable. Granted, the women's bellies and boosoms were probably not falling out of their clothes but they were fashionable and well dressed. They didn't go around in drab black clothing, that was just for Sundays. They dressed in the clothes and styles that were popular then: colorful clothes, powdered wigs, fancy coats and shoes. How about the Puritans and their view of sex? An influential Puritan leader said that sex was "one of the most proper and essential acts of marriage". There was a case of a Puritan woman complaining to her pastor and then to the whole congregation that her husband was neglecting their sex life and the church proceeded to excommunicate the man! Thomas Hooker wrote: " The man whose heart is endeared to the woman he loves...dreams of her in the night, hath her in his eye and apprehension when he awakes, museth on her as he sits at the table, walks with her when he travels...She lies in his bosom, and his heart trusts in her, which forceth all to confess that the stream of his affection, like a mighty current, runs with full tide and strength."

So, let's be like the Puritans..let's live in the world. On the surface the Puritans looked like anyone else you may see walking around (um, except for the Indians, and for the fact that they were in the wilderness of America alone.) but talk with them and look at their families, their way of living, their ordering in the home, the way they educated their children, their Sunday activities and you would see a stark contrast between them and the world they lived in. Oh, and most of this stuff I brought up is from a fantastic book: WORLDLY SAINTS: The Puritans As They Really Were by Leland Ryken. It's a fantastic book sure to inspire and encourage everyone in their faith while living in this world.