Super Cool Moms

Last night was our second Moms Night Out for our homeschool group... and boy did I need it. Things have been, well, busy around here lately. It seems that every time I turn around there is another event, party, or errand that needs to be done... and while I enjoy being busy, I also like breathing... and I feel that lately I have done more gasping than actual breathing.

Anyway back the moms group last night... what an amazing thing, sitting in this great little non-chain coffee bar, sipping a fozen mocha thingy of wonderfulness, and chatting about everything under the sun with some really delightful women. There is really something cool about not having to worry about talking about homeschooling (that is why we are all there for cryin' out loud), your faith, being a young person with more than one child, having three kids (and still wanting more), keeping house, NFP and NFP friendly dr.'s... the list goes on and on. Gosh, it was just what I needed to recharge my batteries.

And the icing on the tasty cake... the sweetest little 4 month old baby girl that had one of the most beautiful baby smiles I have ever seen!!!!

Gladiolas

The gladiolas are beginning to bloom! You wouldn't believe how super easy and low maintenance these are. And the colors are just so vivid. They seem even brighter this year, since we've added bone meal to the soil. The yard looks great too (although it needs to be mowed in the below photo - if it would just stop raining for 15 minutes that would help...) Needless to say, we are totally winning the unofficial best-yard-on-the-block rivalry!

Mr. Pres.

Is he not the coolest! I'm sitting here watching his press conference, which is my favorite way to watch him. You get a glimpse of his real, TEXAN personality coming out on his answers to press questions. He is usually right on the edge of really letting them have it for asking stupid or repeated questions. And when he cracks a joke (like the BH configuration) no one is laughing... I think it is because no one there is actually listening to what he is saying, they are just trying to come up with the next 'most important question' to ask him.

I think it would be so cool to have dinner with he and Laura... to really hear him!

You go President BUSH!

The Pill

Ackha (that would be me clearing my throat)
Bang (that would be dropping my soap box on the floor)
Squeak (that would be me stepping up on to the soap box)

Continue at your own risk!

FDA approves period suppression pill

If you know me, then you know that I think The Pill is EVIL and stupid! Well, thanks to the drug companies and the FDA, they've taken stupid to a whole new level.

The pill [Lybrel], manufactured by Wyeth, is the first designed to put off periods altogether when taken without break.

The pill isn't for everyone, an FDA official said. About half the women enrolled in studies of Lybrel dropped out, said Dr. Daniel Shames, a deputy director in the FDA's drugs office. Many did so because of the irregular and unscheduled bleeding and spotting that can replace scheduled menstruation.

Okay... so if I'm following this right, at least before you knew when you would have menstruation... now it is a surprise? And this is better?

"Women who use Lybrel would not have a scheduled menstrual period, but will most likely have unplanned, breakthrough, unscheduled bleeding or spotting," Shames said. The bleeding can last four to five days and may persist for a year, he later added.

And what about those accidental pregnancies while on The Pill:

However, since Lybrel users will eliminate their regular periods, it may be difficult for them to recognize if they have become pregnant, Shames said.

Oh, and then there is this:

"Over time she will experience markedly less bleeding episodes or no bleeding episodes," said Dr. Vanessa Cullins, vice president for medical affairs at Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc.

And we all know that Planned Parenthood is only looking out for the best interest of women (huge amounts of sarcasm rolling off the keyboard). Oh, and has any body done any research to find out why a woman menstrates and if stopping that process is considered healthy for her body. Oh wait a minute... you don't really need to do any more research when you have people like me whose body doesn't function and all my doctors telling me that I have to get my body menstrating to be healthy... damn, I get so confused!

"For women in that situation, I certainly can understand the benefits of taking these kinds of medications, but for most women menstruation is a normal life event — not a medical condition," said Elson, who researches the sociology of gender and medical sociology. "Why medicate away a normal life event if we're not sure of the long-term effects?"

THANK YOU!

In recent years, as the hormone content of birth-control pills has dipped, failure rates have climbed. The FDA is considering whether to establish an acceptable failure rate for the pills. In January, a panel of agency advisers said less-effective birth-control pills should still merit federal approval if they promise other benefits, including improved safety.

Wow... they just admitted that in print... not that I've heard any drug company own up to that. But isn't it said that the general public looks at pregnancy as a failure, I guess this is the world we live in!

Backwards

My sweet and special little Snookie just can't seem to figure out right from left or front to back... he knows the words and he can point to them, but when he puts on his clothes his shorts are always on backwards and his shoes are on the wrong feet.

And like any mother, I have my highs and lows on this... I mean I work with him constantly to get these things right and yet when the time comes he simply does his own thing. Bobcat and Bubba nevered seemed to have this much trouble, so I'm not sure what the deal is other than he really just doesn't care that it feels all wrong...

My sweet SNOOKIE!

My favorite color

What Your Favorite Color Pink Says About You:

Blissful --- Content --- Romantic Idealistic --- Expressive --- Artistic Funny --- Quirky --- Individualistic

What Does Your Favorite Color Say About You?

Catechesis

We have made it a family tradition to read the daily gospel and recite the creed with the boys for 15 minutes of catechesis before bed time. As you know, in a three-year cycle of daily mass reading, we cover nearly all of the bible, so it's a logical and simple way to get them familiar with scripture, and honestly we are learning and re-learning an awful lot ourselves. They've got the basic prayers down pat (Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, St. Michael), so we alternate between those and the Nicene creed. We want all of the boys to begin commiting it to memory so they can participate more fully in mass. And also, how time flies, Bobcat will be seven and approaching his fist holy communion in less than a year. So we discuss the meaning of the gospel reading, and discuss one or two lines of the creed, explaining what all those big words mean.

Tonight, of course, the gospel reading was about the Ascension (happy feast day to you all). After the reading, we do a quick quiz. One of tonight's questions was, "When will Jesus come back down from heaven, to the earth?" The answer we were looking for was, at the end of the world. Here are some of the answers we got first:

Bubba's guess: on Easter Sunday. Good guess, son, but that was when he rose from the dead.
Bobcat's guess: On Christmas. Another good guess, as the creed states, "...He came down from heaven, and was born of the virgin Mary." But, that was when he first came, not when he will return again.

It seems that all of our Lord's comings and goings from earth are easy to get mixed up. Both of the above answers were good enough and said with such enthusiams that we did promise a penny as a reward (with which to buy some skittles from the candy machine in the kitchen). So, at this point, Snookie is all excited about the prospect of earning his own penny, and when he gets that way, he'll throw out just about any answer in hopes of getting lucky. A lot of his guesses are entertaining, but this one was completely unexpected. His guess:

Jesus will return on Mothers Day!

Um... no, that doesn't even appear in the creed... but it was the first thing that came to his mind. He did earn a penny for a good effort, though!