Bday Party

We're having Chloe's bday party next Saturday. I really don't want to give out candy bags. It just occurred to me that last year we forgot to give out the candy bags, and no one notice. I guess it isn't a big deal after all.

I was going to write about something to replace the candy that isn't going to cost a lot of money. But hey, the lack of candy went unnoticed last year!

That was easy :)

Another Quiet Christmas

It's so nice to be in the minority. Christmas doesn't stress me out! I don't see the point of celebrating if you're not really celebrating, merely enduring. Our Christmas was nice. Mom came over on Xmas eve, we went to Church, ate tamales when we got home, watched Nestor The Long~Eared Christmas Donkey, and The Little Drummer Boy, and opened presents at midnight!

The next day, we slept in, had breakfast, Mom went home, and we played with our presents. Pete & Rose came over at 9.30pm, we had coffee, tea & sweet potato pie. Mmmmm!

It's so nice to have a spiritual family. I love & miss my blood family, but there's no drama here with our friends. And we don't have to drive all over L.A. county to see everyone!

On a different note, we're trying to estimate our tax refund. We would like to buy a new car, I've been looking at Land Rovers :) With all the interest we've paid this year, we think our refund will be really nice.

I've been finding so many interesting stories about cancer. I will try to post them soon.

Gardasil HPV Vaccination Info

I'm *always* suspicious of vaccines. But I was especially suspicious of this one. Why the push to get such young girls vaccinated against HPV? If they get it from boys, why not vaccinate the boys instead? I've heard recently, that "they" are going after boys soon.

I've been hearing a lot about mandatory vaccinations, and all I have to say is that
the day vaccines become mandatory in this country is the day I leave!


NewsTarget) Archived documents discovered at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's website reveal the agency knew in 2003 that HPV infections did not cause cervical cancer. Despite that knowledge, the FDA has continued to support the use of the Gardasil vaccine in compulsory vaccinations programs like the one announced in Texas earlier this year.

The FDA's own press release from 2003 admits that, "Most women who become infected
with HPV are able to eradicate the virus [without intervention] and suffer no apparent long-term consequences to their health... most infections are short-lived and not associated with cervical cancer." (Source: "FDA Approves Expanded Use of HPV Test," March 31, 2003, www.FDA.gov)

Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, an independent consumer health advocate who opposes compulsory vaccinations, has unleashed a volley of multimedia files designed to expose the scientific fraud behind Gardasil vaccines while educating the public about the real health risks that may be associated with HPV vaccinations. His special report, "The Great HPV Vaccination Hoax Exposed" is available now at: http://www.newstarget.com/Report_HPV_Vaccine_0.html

Adams has also created a 10-minute YouTube video highlighting the scientific fraud behind HPV vaccinations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK97CHQZhq0



Adams has also posted a 45-minute audio report on the HPV vaccination fraud. It's called the Health Ranger Report and features a detailed discussion of the evidence showing the scientific fraud and fear mongering that's powering Big Pharma's mandatory vaccination push in America today. The program is available for immediate download as an MP3 file at: http://www.NewsTarget.com/podcasts/HRR015_HPV_48.MP3

In addition, Adams participated earlier today in a fast-rising podcast show called Real Health with Dr. Steve which features multiple guests in a fast-paced, information-rich format. The show is now listed on iTunes and can be accessed directly at: http://web.mac.com/drsteve720/Site/Podcast/Podcast.html
(The Adams interview on HPV Vaccinations is found in show #11, which was not yet posted at the time of this story, but should appear within 2-3 days.)

http://www.newstarget.com/022405.html

Finally, Adams joined nutritionist Jonny Bowden and Sugar Shock author Connie Bennett in an unrelated (but very entertaining and educational) audio show today. The Sugar Shock BlockTalkRadio show is available for live listening now at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/stopsugarshock

These are all part of Mike Adams' efforts to educate the public on the truth about mandatory vaccination programs, which he says are deceptively marketed and based on "scientific fraud."

###

Christmas

I celebrate Christmas. I don't celebrate the season. I don't celebrate the Solstice. I don't celebrate Yule. I celebrate Christmas.

My daughter was born on 4th December, but we're not having her birthday party until 5th January. Is the fact that she was born in December a reason not to celebrate in January? We've even had a bday party for her in August! Who really cares? The point is we're celebrating her birth. I know that Jesus wasn't born on December 25th. He probably wasn't even born in Winter at all. I don't really care when He was born, but I and lots of other Christians take this day to celebrate His birth.

"We Christians" didn't decide to take this day & move it closer to a Pagan holiday to try to "Christianise" it. Some other Christians who are dead by now, did. I don't know who they were, or if they were even real Christians. I think they were Catholics, but I'm not entirely sure. Catholics are a lot different from other Christians.

If you don't celebrate Christmas, then don't. I really don't want to hear your arguments for why I shouldn't celebrate Christmas. I don't tell you why you should.

I would love to see stores wishing everyone a happy holiday season, and not with a general "happy holidays" sign in the window. How about "Happy Hannukah" next to "Merry Christmas" and "Blessed Solstice"?

Look for another post like this one around Easter time...

Tamales

We're going to make lots of tamales today! We need some for tonight's Xmas party, plus our regular 100+ Xmas tamales :)

*reminder ~ put beans to cook as soon as this entry is posted*

Troy made the chicken & red chile last night, & sliced the green chiles, I made the masa, sliced the cheese & soaked the husks, Chloe chopped the olives. Annika helped Troy & I with everything.

I don't know if we're going to make sweet ones this year. Or potato ones, no one has mentioned them. Though Troy *did* buy a big bag of potatoes...

We did some shopping yesterday. Troy wanted his gifts to come from the thrift shop, so he got 2 pairs of jeans, and a nice shirt for under $10! Maybe we should do all of our shopping at the thrift shop!

Today's weather is perfect...grey, rainy & windy <3

Greenies

I'm so tired of all these supposedly 'green' people telling me that they buy [expensive] green cleaning products. When I say I use vinegar, baking soda & lemon juice, they say "Oh..." or sometimes "Those don't clean well enough". Well, if they think those things don't clean well enough, they're just not trying very hard, or they're going for a sterile environment. As we all should know by now, humans are meant to live in sterile environments. We NEED to be exposed to various germs in order to build up our immunity to them.

I wonder if these are the same people who are for vaccinations?

Troy distracted me, so I can't finish this rant :p

10 Days

10 days till Xmas Eve!!!

We have some extra money coming in tonight, so we'll finally be able to do some shopping. We know that Xmas isn't about presents, but it sure is fun to open them :)

We'll be making tamales next week, that's always fun!! A lot of work, but fun. This year, we'll probably give out the extras to the homeless people that we normally give burritos to. We had loooooooooaaaads left over last year, and they ended up going in the trash :( I felt really bad, but after being in the freezer for a couple of months, well...they get icky.

Speaking of burritos, we're having a BP party on the 23rd, just have to work out the time. I'm excited!

Active Management

"No woman who has experienced or witnessed or read about our careful, gentle management of third stage would agree with the standard "active" management."

— John Stevenson

I cannot add to that :)

What Are The Odds..

...that this would happen in U.S. hospitals?

"Qualities inherent in safe, loving childbearing experiences must be recognized as the global rights of all women."

— Leilah McCracken

Drama

"Unfortunately we live in a society that is addicted to drama, and the mainstream media continue to help satisfy the addiction with their sensational stories about birth."

— Linda McHale and Barbara Nobel Schelling

Not only satisfy, but encourage. It seems that our culture thinks if a birth is not dramatic, then it is abnormal. Nothing to talk about. What? No interventions? How boring. No being "rescued" by the doctor? No respiratory team awaiting your just born child? DULL.

When a woman talks about the natural birth of her child, people are bored. They say "Oh, that's good", and that's about it. But when you have interventions & surgery, that's when they're listening & that's when they're full of questions & comments.

Sad.

Forfeiting Birth

"I am amazed to have been a midwife from the era in which women marched in the streets, demanding normal births without medication, to a time when they expect an epidural as soon as it is allowed in labor, even planning elective cesareans and giving up the gift of birthing their children altogether."
— Katherine Jensen

It is appalling to me that so many women are so eager to bypass labour & vaginal birth. Labour isn't only there to get babies out. Labour is there to squeeze fluids from the babies' lungs, so they can take their first breath properly.

Epidurals do far more than block pain. They decrease the power of the uterus. Without that uterus pushing the baby out, the baby can't take an active part in his or her own birth. People fail to realise that babies don't just lie there, being pushed out. They actually manoeuvre their way passed the various structures in their mothers' bodies.

I know too many mothers who have never experienced labour. Yes, it hurts. But it serves a purpose. If it didn't, it wouldn't exist!

I think elective c~sections are INSANE!! When else would a doctor perform elective, major, abdominal surgery? Besides tummy tucks? Abdominal surgery is a serious thing, and very, very risky. I do not understand why women would choose this route.

Our culture is overly fearful of pain, and overly consumed with convenience. Western women are afraid of labour, because it hurts. Western women are afraid of vaginal birth, because it hurts. And yet, they're not afraid of the pain & risks associated with major abdominal surgery.

I don't get it.

Proof Of Dental Visits

Something new for parents of public school kids in California this year. Proof of dental visits! Now in addition to providing vaccination records, parents must provide proof that their children go to the dentist regularly [or sign a waiver]. Why? What's the point? Cavities aren't contagious. Just another invasion of privacy.

I can understand vaccination records to a point, but dental records? Someone please explain this to me.

My conspiratorial mind thinks it's just more leverage to take kids away from parents. If the school doesn't think your kid goes to the dentist often enough, hmmm...is that neglect? What else are the parents 'failing' to do? Let's call CPS for an investigation!

Your Hands

"Take a look at your hands. Have they been the hands of God to someone, brought life and healing, ministered love and peace?"

— Jennifer Hal

I Love This

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List
From Secular Homeschooling Magazine, Issue #1

1 Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is — and it is — it's insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?

2 Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts.

3 Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.

4 Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.

5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.

6 Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You're probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you've ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.

7 We don't look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.

8 Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.

9 Stop assuming that if we're religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.

10 We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.

11 Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn't have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don't need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can't teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there's a reason I'm so reluctant to send my child to school.

12 If my kid's only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.

13 Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky.

14 Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.

15 Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don't get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I'm one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else. [MR's note: To Cheryl, the therapist I had before Judy, my present one, this one's for you!]

16 Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.

17 Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.

18 If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.

19 Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child's teacher as well as her parent. I don't see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.

20 Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.

21 Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she's homeschooled.

22 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids.

23 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids.

24 Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.

25 Here's a thought: If you can't say something nice about homeschooling, shut up!

What A Month!

Sister & nephews went to Mom's on the 10th, spent the week there, then went home. We miss them very much.

It's been a bit of a struggle getting back into our routine. Not only did we have visitors for a month, I had 4 Tupperware events, then GLJ came to town! Then Thanksgiving, then GLJ again.

Today we had a regular day of school, and now we're listening to Christmas music & making decorations.

MIL asked the girls about their schooling schedule, which I found odd. She never asks about their schooling. Apparently, Chloe said that we hadn't had school in a while, which caused MIL some concern.

The thing non~homeschoolers don't understand is that we can go a while without having school. Homeschooling is a lifestyle, not something we do between certain hours, Monday through Friday. We do have standards that the children must meet. They must complete their lessons. If they don't do it by the end of the school year, we can stretch the school year. They can do their school work on weekends, holidays, whenever. There really is no cause for concern if we miss a few days.

Anyway, it's lunch time, so off I go!

Nearly A Month Has Passed

So, that garage cleaning project didn't go so well. We worked on it for an hour. One day. That's it. I need to buy more shelving so we can get the boxes out of the way.

My sister & nephews have been here for about 3 weeks, and they'll be here for 3 more!! It's been lots of fun.

We've not been able to do much school work, but we'll make up for it. I love the flexibility of homeschooling!!

Garage Of Doom

This week's homeschooling project is CLEANING THE GARAGE! A huge job, but nothing an hour or 2 per day can't fix.

We need to get more shelves from IKEA or CostCo. I can't work out how all this stuff fit in our old house, considering we didn't have a garage then!

If I could find the camera cable, I'd take before & after photos. That, and if I wasn't so embarrassed of the garage's current condition.

Better get started.

What A Project!

This week's homeschooling project is painting the house. The first room we did was the dining room. The color was way too bright. I can never pick the right orange. Hey, that's almost punny. Pick the right orange. Heehee.

The orange I choose was darker than the previous orange that we used at the old house. But still too bright! So we sponged over it with chocolatey brown, left over from the old house. We also used it to cover up the too bright orange at the old house.

Getting the dining room right took 3 days. We did Annika's bedroom [pink] in a couple of hours, and today we're starting Chloe's room.

Oh boy.

She doesn't just want one color. She wants a meadow scene on a sky blue background. With horses & squirrels & flowers & grass & a big tree. And a sun wearing sunglasses. On the ceiling, she wants deep, dark blue with a moon & stars. Drawing is NOT my talent, but I'm going to try.

We've spent about $150 on paint & supplies. Troy thinks we can do up the whole house on under $1000, I'm not so sure. That's counting curtains [we have 29 windows[, or at least fabric for curtains, bookcases, shelves, and all the other stuff we need for the house...

Cymraeg

I don't know if I'd mentioned that Welsh is part of our curriculum this year.

Chloe is amazed at how much Welsh she knows, considering she knew not a word 5 weeks ago. She's starting to mix things up, though. In her regular schoolwork, she's putting F's where she should be putting V's. She's been calling Troy "Pysgodyn", and since she likes to make fun of how white he is, she says "The pysgodyn is wyn", and sometimes says it properly "Mae'r pysgodyn yn wyn" [the fish is white]. At night is when she really starts using her Welsh.

Everyday, I remind the girls to use the Welsh words they know instead of the English ones, but they forget. And so do I :p

Annika does well in Welsh, but she's a lesson or 2 behind Chloe, and she gets more wrong answers. She can understand, though, and when I'm listening to Welsh music, she can pick out some words, and then asks what the lyrics are.

I'm soooo tired *yawn*

Frustrated

I really, really, really have to finish the midwifery course I started last year. It's only 4 weeks to complete, why can't I do it? Why has it taken me so long to WANT to complete it? I'm not very good at forcing myself to study!! I wish I was. Where did all my dedication, focus & determination go?

It would be easier [and cheaper] for me to do the course from home, if I would do it, but the in~class experiences I had were so amazing. But, my car is going to break down any day, and gas prices are ridiculous, driving 2 hours to San Francisco every weekend just doesn't seem logical.

Oh, and speaking of driving, I drove the other day! It was a short distance, 5 miles at most, and only slightly nerve~wracking. I felt a tiny sense of freedom. Was it enough to cancel out the anxiety that I did feel? Hmmm...

When I finish this course, then what? I don't have $12,000 to take the full 3 year course. Or even the $5,000 to pay for the first year. Scholarships & grants for midwifery [unless I want to be a certified nurse midwife, which I don't] are not easy to come by. I've only heard of one woman who got a grant, and it was "only" $3,000.