Borg Obama

From Gary Bauer's report last night:

"Obama went for months with a bizarre explanation of why he wouldn’t wear a flag lapel pin. There is the bizarre photo of Senators Obama and Clinton, along with Gov. Bill Richardson during the playing of the National Anthem. Richardson and Clinton have their hands over their hearts, while Obama is standing there looking ambivalent. There is Obama’s now infamous statement in San Francisco dismissing the values of most Americans who, in the candidate’s own words, “cling” to faith and guns out of bitterness. And there is this comment Obama made to the Chicago Reader in 1995, as his political career was taking off:

“In America, we have this strong bias toward individual action. You know, we idolize the John Wayne hero who comes in to correct things with both guns blazing. But individual actions, individual dreams, are not sufficient. We must unite in collective action, build collective institutions and organizations.”"

As a Star Trek fan, that last sentence really stands out to me. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be assimilated into a collective.

"I am Obama! Resistance is futile!"

A country necessity- the mudroom

Today the temperature was 75 F, and so I cleaned out our mudroom. Everyone who lives in the country ought to know what a mudroom is. It's the place where you supposedly keep everyone's muddy boots, instead of putting them on the newly mopped kitchen floor. That's where you keep all the odds and ends of gardening, empty boxes, extra garbage and bottles and cans to be recycled. But mostly, it's full to the brim of coats, hat scarves, mittens, and jackets. And today I packed them all away. I may regret it, because it's supposed to freeze again this weekend. We'll just have to go without! Because I packed them all away and they are NOT coming back down. In our case, the mudroom also holds the wood bin so we don't have to keep running outside all winter long to get wood to keep us warm. That would be worse than having to use an outhouse instead of having indoor plumbing! Besides all that, we have a small oven in our mudroom so we don't heat up the house during the summer, since we don't have AC either.

Someone is coming to look at our business tonight. It would be wonderful if our business would sell before our house... Last Sunday we went to look at houses in a really nice neighborhood on the outskirts of Omaha. If we have to live in town, I would want to live in a neighborhood like that one. There was more space than usual. We are still hoping to build our own house in the end, though.

Good or Bad?

Late last night we heard that two close friends of ours were in a bad car accident when two young people didn't stop at a stop sign at a blind intersection on a country road. The mother is is critical condition with head injuries(She's at UNMC in Omaha), and the daughter is reportedly not physically hurt. We are keeping aware of the situation and Mom and Dad will visit them soon, depending on how serious Mrs. P's condition is as the day goes on. I know this sounds like a sad and terrible happening, but what does Romans 8:28 say? We know that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. And I hope and pray that He might use this "accident" to bless this family with spiritual growth, especially Mrs. P, and use them to be witnesses to others.

I have always been a careful driver, even though I don't always stop at country intersections during the winter and spring when the corn isn't blocking the view. Now I will be even more careful. There have been so many young people killed driving on country roads in our community, just from driving too fast on gravel roads or going through stop signs.

Tomorrow will be better...

Finally school is over for the day and the boys are playing outside! They did get on my nerves today. Boys are naturally fidgety and noisy, and they had more trouble than usual concentrating on schoolwork today. While they cleaned up after lunch I cut up an old dress that had stretched out elastic and re-made it into a skirt. Now I am looking up recipes on google for lentil casserole so I can go make dinner.

This morning I read a book called "Tomorrow Will Be Better" by Zdena Kapral. It is a very moving and well written story about the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. Reading books like this one is how you can really learn about history!

Yesterday was an interesting day-unfortunately, not a day of rest.

We had lunch with some old friends who are going through a hard time with family situations. They are really gracious people and very hospitable, and we agree on many issues, for example politics and the war. After lunch I shared a little about my trip to NC and I mentioned that I am looking for something to do now, and our hostess told me I ought to leave home, to be on my own and to do “my thing”. At least I am past people telling me I need to go to college! Now I just need to get out of the house away from my family and do my own thing! If only people understood: I do want to pursue my interests, but I love being with my family and I don't want to live away from them for long periods of time. Being away from my God-given support system is not healthy.

After that we went to look at two houses that had their good points, but it's not likely that we would seriously consider buying them. Next we went to look at the only straw bale house in Omaha. The owners are catholic and have eight children- a really neat family. The house itself is obviously unique. While we were there another couple came to see the house as well, and the husband turned out to be from Scotland. What an interesting day! We visit a straw bale house and meet someone from Scotland.

Is YOUR house ready to show?

It most certainly is not. With so many people living in one home, the three levels of our house cannot possibly all be clean at the same time. It is not humanly possible. We are trying to pack what we can now, and that makes the house even messier, with stuff lying around in stages of indecision and half-packed boxes. One room we have been trying to pack is the guest room. We have accumulated in the guest room closet enough costumes from other countries to set us all up for a costume party. What else do you do with clothes from other countries? We are going to have so many books to pack, ohhhhhhh. There is a bookshelf in pretty much every room in our house. We have an estimated 1000 books in high school history alone, so maybe we have about 5000 books total, but that's just a guess. Anyway, it's a lot, and I don't want to get rid of any of them. And guess what- our favorite book sale is in two weeks!

Cute boys are fun to kiss

...as long as they are your younger brothers.

Well, we thought we had a possible buyer for our house and business, but after Mom and Dad got together with them on Friday we saw that it wasn't possible because they didn't have any money to PAY for the house and business. So we are back to square one, advertising our business. I am less and less not looking forward to living somewhere else, namely the city.

Yesterday I had all four boys with me at the business and home school co-op all day while Mom, Dad and Jen were away. Whew! I am teaching an art class at the co-op this month, so that makes it busier too. Today I went with Dad and Caleb to the St. Benedict Monastery to help out at a Christian men's conference. There wasn't much work for me to do, but it was good to be with the other Christian ladies helping out there, and the food was great! The monastery itself is beautiful.
So we are all worn out from being away, emotionally drained after thinking about selling, moving and deep Christian things.