Monday, February 21, 2011

A Blogging Miracle

Just thought I'd point out the miracle that has occurred... This month, I have posted FIVE times on this blog, and THREE times on my recipe blog! I hope you were sitting down for that shocking piece of information.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Girls Will Be Boys

Wow.  In light of my pastor's recent blog post about unisex fashion, which in turn inspired a friend's post, this headline JUMPED out at me.

Girl Wrestler Wins After Boy Won't Compete Against Her

An excerpt from the article (you can read the complete article here):
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High school wrestling star Joel Northrup had his eye on the Iowa state championship – until he found out he'd have to compete against a girl in the first round. 

"As a matter of conscience and my faith I do not believe that it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this manner," the statement continues. "It is unfortunate that I have been placed in a situation not seen in most other high school sports in Iowa." 

Northrup's father, Jamie Northrup, is a minister in the independent Pentecostal church Believers in Grace Fellowship, which teaches that young men and women shouldn't touch in a "familiar way," said Bill Randles, the church's pastor, according to The AP.

"We believe in the elevation and respect of woman and we don't think that wrestling a woman is the right thing to do," Randles said. "Body slamming and takedowns, that full contact sport is not how to do that."

Though he gave up his shot at a championship, it's not over yet for Northrup. He was still eligible for the consolation rounds, and he won his first match later Thursday by major decision. 
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Wow. I have to admit that I was blown away by this article.  If you click through to the article, the first thing you'll notice is the picture of the girl wrestler.  I don't want to say too much about this, because although I'm sure the possibility of this girl ever reading my words is slim to none, I'm not fond of the idea of saying something that a teenage girl might read and be hurt by.  But as a mother who is raising my niece to walk the path of modesty and femininity, this picture sickened me.  This is everything that I do not want for my niece.  This is everything that I do not miss about the "old" her, and the old friends of hers.

One of the most interesting things in the past year and a half since my niece and I stopped wearing pants was a period of time when everyone that we saw looked so strange to us.  We went through a period of time in which seeing a woman or girl in pants looked BIZARRE to us (and my nephew as well).  And the most bizarre time of all was last winter when my niece, nephew, and I went to my son's alumni game at his old school (where my niece and nephew had attended the previous two years).  Watching the girls' basketball game felt so unreal to us. After being used to being surrounded by girls at church, the majority of whom dress very femininely and modestly, I remember all three of us being shocked by the way the girls at the school were dressed (even though less than a year before, my niece had been one of them), and how masculine the girls playing basketball looked to us.

But modesty and coed sports aside...

I am so proud of this boy for taking the stand that he has taken!  It's one thing to believe something in theory, and a whole different thing to prove it by living it out... especially when it costs you.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Forty by 40: Update #2


In light of the suffering that a family that we dearly love is going through right now, this post feels somewhat frivolous.  However, I do want to try and maintain some sense of accountability when it comes to my weight loss goal, so... here is my second Forty by 40 update.  (I missed updating last week.)

Total weight lost in week two:  0.5 pounds 
Total exercise completed in week two:  28 minutes  

Total weight lost in week three:  1.5 pounds 
Total exercise completed in week three:  N/A

Total weight loss since January 17th:  7.5 pounds
Total weight left to lose by July 9th: 34.5 pounds
Time remaining in the Forty by 40 challenge: 21.5 weeks

Also noteworthy:  My nephew G is doing Weight Watchers with me, and has lost six pounds!  :) 

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

A Winter Wonderland... Part Three

Parts one and two can be found here and here.

Well, the "blizzard" has come and gone. I still haven't heard whether or not it ended up meeting the criteria for being called a blizzard, but WOW! That was a fun snowstorm to watch. From the comfort of my own home, that is. I don't like driving in the snow to begin with, and trying to drive with that lack of visibility would NOT be fun.  


It's impossible to know how much snow we got. The trusty picnic table still denies that we got any snow at all. The various snow drifts are two and three feet tall. So I've decided to go with the average driveway measurement, which is 10 inches. The menfolk are off of work again today, and have been shoveling off and on since early morning. My car had huge drifts around it, which certainly didn't help.



Vic, does this picture meet the new rule of your photo challenge? He's even wearing a coat!!!  :)


Cold weather sometimes brings out selfishness. Can you see it? Look closely.


Maybe you can see it better here. Look who popped out to see what in the world was lying on top of her! I guess you can't blame a girl for trying to keep warm... no matter WHO had the chair first.


When attempting to stay warm and survive a blizzard, it's best if everyone sticks together.

Well, that's it for now! We have survived the 2011 Blizzard of Oz, and are enjoying our second Snow Day. I hope everyone is safe and warm, wherever you may be!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

A Winter Wonderland... Part Two

Part One of this post can be found here.  I'm continuing this post in an attempt to meet my pastor's photo challenge, although I have no idea how many inches of snow we have gotten!

It's been such a hoot today to watch all the snow falling and blowing all over the backyard ("snowing sideways" is how I would describe it), and to see our picnic table remain basically untouched.  So funny!


And so you can get an idea how big the snow drift next to the picnic table is...

A snow day isn't complete without some father/son bonding...

And lastly, a look at how G will look as an old man!  :)


P.S.  Please note that a miracle has occurred, and I have actually updated my recipe blog!!  I hope to start being much more faithful with posting to that blog... maybe even (gasp) posting every time I cook something that hasn't been posted before!

A Winter Wonderland... Part One

We are in the midst of heavy snow right now, and under a blizzard watch until tomorrow morning, with a prediction of 5 to 25 inches depending upon the part of the city. What the prediction is for my part of the city, I really can't tell! But the bottom line is: Snow, and lots of it. I have no idea how much snow we have here, because it's basically been snowing sideways all day.  Our yard is covered in snow, but our picnic bench is almost completely clear.  It's rather humorous to look outside at a winter wonderland with a naked picnic bench in the middle of it.


We're enjoying a "snow day" off from homeschooling today, and the menfolk are off work as well. We also have a house guest, my brother-in-law, who we picked up on Sunday so that I could take him to his doctor's appointment today. WELL, that didn't happen.  It seems that every time he comes to town, he brings the snow with him, so if you're looking for someone to blame, consider him.  :)  


I'm enjoying watching the snow, and especially enjoying watching our kittens stare at the blowing snow for hours until falling asleep right in front of the sliding glass doors.  I'm very hopeful that nothing will happen to cause us to lose our electricity.  We lose our electricity at some point every year (either during rainstorms or snowstorms), and the fact that we have an extra person with us this week AND that two people in the house seem to have caught some sort of stomach bug... well, I just don't think that losing our electricity would be beneficial to my mental well being.  :)


And now, in the spirit of my pastor's photo challenge, here are two pictures from earlier today of a frosty spider web that I noticed on the outside of our living room window.