My afternoon with Jane Austen, Lori Smith, and Caleb

Mom took the boys to the skating rink this afternoon for some rollerskating with the home school group(socialization, you know), so Caleb and I have been home alone together for almost two hours now. I predicted when they left that Caleb would hardly say two words to me at a time, and I was right. We've both been sitting on the couch all afternoon, reading. I started and finished “A Walk with Jane Austen”, by Lori Smith, and while I was sitting on the loveseat reading, laughing, and relating, Caleb was across the way on the other couch reading the Bible and Chemistry and who knows what in absolute silence.

Anyway, I would like to introduce you to my latest favorite website, Jane Austen Quote of the Day, “Daily wit and inspiration from Austen, compiled by Lori Smith, author of A Walk with Jane Austen”

I really enjoyed Ms. Smith's book- it was very open and honest, a great girl book. I loved it, and you should all read it!

Usually when I start reading a book like this, I have to finish it, and so when I finally do finish it hours later, I have to go work fast to make up for lost time. So, I'm off to make dinner as fast as I can.

Welcome to the Marchioness

Welcome to my new blog! I've styled it around Dickens works, with the title coming from his story "Old Curiosity Shop". I have imported all my old posts from my old blog, and so now "The Frazzledsister" has come to an end, and "The Marchioness" is beginning. Over the winter holidays of 2008/2009, I read almost all of Charles Dickens novels, such as Nicholas Nickelby, Barnaby Rudge, Old Curiousity Shop, Hard Times, David Copperfield, Little Dorrit, and most recently Domby and Son. Those that I haven't read I have seen the BBC TV productions of, like Bleak House, Martin Chuzzlewit, and Our Mutual Friend. I enjoyed them all so much that I thought I would use those stories to embellish this new blog. If my life were half as sad, mysterious, and exciting as Dickens' novels are, I think this would be a very popular blog, but my life so far has really been pretty normal. When I wrote on The Frazzledsister I didn't really advertise my blog(especially to Church people, especially during the political season) and I didn't post very personal things, for fear of someone I knew getting mad at me. I think my writing suffered because of it, and I hope on this blog to be a little more open. In the past year(It seems like it was a hard sort of year) I have gotten to know my peers at church a little better. After being members of the church for three years, finally I know more people and am more comfortable with them. Those young Ron Paul fanatics I thought were so militant, weren't so bad as I thought- or maybe they've just recovered. I still don't feel as though I have any really close friends there, like Anne of Green Gables and her "bosom friends", and maybe I never will, but at least we're all on speaking terms! So please, new readers, and even fanatical politicians from Church, feel free to comment, but don't all attack at once!

I can now legally drink alcohol.

I can now legally carry a concealed weapon.
But really I can't afford to. And so far, I haven't tasted any alcohol that I've enjoyed. When you think about it, if we trust/expect eighteen-year-olds to be able to vote for leaders for our country and state, if we expect sixteen-year-olds to be able to drive safely and correctly and not kill other people through stupid driving, why can't those kids be able to decide whether or not they should drink or carry a gun? Unfortunately, most sixteen and eighteen year old American kids today aren't responsible enough to be driving or voting, but I don't think government restriction will make them any more responsible. Most likely it will do the opposite.

Oh well! I had a pretty good birthday. It involved chocolate, high-speed internet, and the BBC production of "Bleak House". So sad! We're eagerly awaiting the last CD from Netflix. Our anticipation really gets dragged out with our current Netflix plan. During the middle of the movie a bat flew right into our living room and startled us all! Dad had to kill it (which was too bad) while we all hid in the bathroom. So there you have it! My birthday.

Thanksgiving food

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm in the mood for truffles, so I'm off to try this recipe:

1/2 C. butter, softened
2 1/3 C. confectioner's sugar
1/2 C. cocoa
1/4 C. whipping cream
1 1/2 t. vanilla

Cream butter in large mixer bowl. Combine 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar and the cocoa; add alternately with Cream and vanilla to butter. Blend well. Chill until firm.

Book Review: “My sister’s Keeper” By Jodi Picoult.

Our local book club picked this book to be “book-of-the-month”. It’s a provoking book, and I think Mrs. Piccoult meant it to be. I have to say, I DID NOT LIKE IT. I emphasized that because in all the reviews I read I found nothing but flattery and praise for Mrs. Picoult’s “beautiful, heartbreaking, controversial, and honest book.” Please, does anyone else NOT like this book? “Known for writing novels with provocative themes centered on family conflict and difficult moral choices, Jodi Picoult presents the story of a child whose sole reason for existence is to assure a genetic match for her terminally ill sibling.” You’d think with such “provocative themes” more people would disagree with her books! In talking about morals and ethics, none of the reviews seem to address what IS right and wrong. Mrs. Piccoult doesn’t seem to address it clearly herself. I think she does it fairly subtly. I feel like the whole book was meant to be propaganda.

In short, the story line of “My Sister’s Keeper” is this:
“Conceived in vitro, 13-year-old Anna Fitzgerald has decided to sue her parents to stop them from using her as "spare parts" for her older sister, Kate, who suffers from leukemia. After years of having her bone marrow and blood used to keep Kate alive, Anna now refuses to donate a kidney and strives for her own personal freedom. She hires lawyer Campbell Alexander to represent her, even as her own mother, a former civil defense attorney, fights her in court.”

These are the main issues in the book:
• A “Designer Baby”. Basically cloning. Is it possible? Is it legal? Biblical?
• A minor donating blood, bone marrow, and maybe even a kidney. Possible? Legal?
• Parental rights. Anna has to sue to get her parents to stop taking her body parts? Possible?

Probably the biggest issue I feel Mrs. Piccoult is arguing against is Parental Rights. In her story she portrays it so that the reader feels that the parents should have absolutely no right to make decisions in their daughter’s life, because in the story they are, in a way, abusing her. I think what a lot of people would take away from this is that parents have too much control over their children’s lives. I feel that’s what Mrs. Piccoult wants people to understand from this book.

I am totally for parental rights. God put parents in charge of their children’s welfare. The idea of no parental rights comes from the liberals, saying government should be in charge of all children. I received this email in response to some questions about medical laws and parental rights:

“It is against federal law for parents (or anyone) to force children to donate blood or any other form of human tissue. According to The National Health Act 61 of 2003, Section 56(2), human tissue can not be taken from a person without written consent from the PERSON. The minimum age of consent is 18; anyone under 18 cannot donate organs or tissue. I'm not entirely sure about blood donations. According to the Human Tissue Act 65 of 1983 section 18(aa), a child the age of 14 can consent to donate blood (with a reliable witness). I highly doubt that blood or tissue would ever be taken from a child without their consent, except for the gravest circumstances.

Therefore the premise of this book is rather far-fetched, and I'm not sure it can be rationalized. Federal law often requires parental consent for minors undergoing medical operations not so that the parent can control the child, but so they can protect him! If a child does not want an operation, the parents are there to back him up. If the doctor wants to force something on a child that the parents believe is harmful, again they are there to protect him.

Honestly, the entire premise actually verges on child abuse. This girl was 'created' simply to meet someone else's needs which means that her human rights are not being preserved. Is it not abusive to create a specific baby simply to take from it for the sake of someone else? In my personal opinion, the conception of this child constitutes sufficient child abuse that the parents would no longer have rights to that child.”
(As far as I can tell, “designer babies”, basically cloning, is not yet possible on such a level)

The Red Cross says that to give whole blood, platelets or plasma you must:
• be at least 17 years old (16 for whole blood in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska with parental consent)
• weigh at least 110 lbs.
• be in good health
Those younger than age 17 are almost always legal minors (not yet of the age of majority) who cannot give consent by themselves to donate blood. (Each state determines its own age of majority, which can be different for different activities.).

And as far as kidney donations go:
“In 2004 the FDA approved the Cedars-Sinai High Dose IVIG therapy which eliminates the need for the living donor to be the same blood type (ABO compatible) or even a tissue match. Since medication to prevent rejection is so effective, donors need not be genetically similar to their recipient. Most donated kidneys come from deceased donors, with some coming from living donors.”

So it wouldn’t really be necessary to take a kidney from a minor, and it’s not legal for minors to donate blood or organs. The whole story seems to be totally unrealistic, not at all based on truth, and an attempt to sway people’s minds against Biblical principles. I wish people really would think about these issues, and not just digest the latest novel on the shelf and then base their worldview on it.

We learn from our mistakes. Hopefully.

A mistake we made was to allow an eleven year old to campaign with us. He was our youngest volunteer, and he would just not stop talking. I'm not in any way close to saintly when it comes to patience with younger children, and so when it was my turn to take him in my car, my already frazzled nerves gave way and I told him and everybody else in the car(though they couldn't hardly talk anyway) that we were going to have a moment of silence for everyone who had died in car accidents today, and that moment would end when I said it did. It worked for a little while.

The next day, he was in a different car. Mistake! I should have kept him with me. The driver of the car accidentally locked her keys in the car. While they were waiting for help to arrive, this boy without the driver's knowledge, tried to pick the lock of the trunk by sticking leaves and sticks in the lock. So when the driver did finally get the car keys, the car's trunk wouldn't open, and all their literature for distributing was in the trunk. It was one big mess. I feel really bad for the driver of the car, and I hope they can get their trunk fixed without much trouble.

District 39 is now a better place to live

Thanks to those who voted Beau McCoy into office.

The Campaign for Beau McCoy:

We left early Saturday morning- no one should have to get up as early as we did, but we had to get to Omaha by 7am. Saturday, our first day, we had about twenty volunteers going door-to-door doing lit drops and some sign waving at the big intersections during rush hour. That evening a few of us did phone calls and when we stopped making calls at 7pm(There was a football game starting then) we were all worn out. But the dollar theater is right next to the Republican office, and the temptation to see "Wall-e" was too much to resist, so we went to see that and didn't get to bed until late. Our hosts graciously took us to church on Sunday and we tried to rest up, but it's hard to do that when you're in someone else's house. Monday morning we were back at it again, with more sign waving and lit drops. We had about ten people on that day. Tuesday- the big day- was unreal. By this point Jen and I were wearing down from lack of sleep, lots of exercise, and the stress of organizing the volunteers. We had roughly twenty people that day, and we did even more sign waving and lots more phone calls. Not as many lit drops, though, because it almost wasn't worth it at that point. The weather was a campaigner's dream, perfect temperatures and sunny. Tuesday was the only day we had weather trouble. It was very windy, and that slowed us down a bit. We quit sign waving at 7pm and then headed over to the victory party. And this time it actually was a victory party, because sometime around 10pm the governor called and congratulated Beau McCoy, District 39's newest State Senator. Whew! I know we had a part in this victory, and I am so glad he won.

We went back to our host's house and tried to sleep, and eventually exhaustion took over and we did get some rest. Next morning we left to go home. Kind of anti-climatic. The rest of the day was spent re-adjusting to real life, thinking, wait, we won- and now it's over? Aghhh! And we were all still pretty worn out. Jen and I talked about the campaign and all the mistakes we made, and how we would like to do it better next time, but now we have to wait two whole years. We feel like we made a lot of mistakes. The fact that we are now looking forward to having a liberal Democrat in the President's office makes me feel like we need to do even more work, starting now, to get Christian men into office.

So there's how we spent our days leading up to the Election:
Doing action-packed and educational volunteer service.