Let me be clear

I started this blog to help me be certain to not be misunderstood when trying to convey concepts about which I am passionately opinionated. I feel I am a reasonable person and I can usually explain my position fairly well when given the time and space to do so. However, if I do not have the time or space I have a bad habit of just spewing out snide remarks which can often be inflammatory or offensive in ways I hadn't considered. This is a place I have room for growth.  I haven't kept up on this blog, because when I was pregnant I was not so much passionately opinionated as constantly enraged (I'm a lightweight when it comes to hormones), and I felt it best to keep that to myself. After that, of course, I simply have too many people to care for and no time for blogging.  I'm using this format today to make a personal announcement to family and friends because it is one with which I anticipate a lot of descent, disapproval, judging and high running emotions, so I want to ...

Today I am thankful for gratitude. I spent too much of my life thinking, if this happened or if I had this, then I would be happy. The largest part of my gradual awakening that's led to true peace and happiness in my life is learning to be truly grateful and satisfied with what I have. I love this painting of Christ, the only one I know of where He's smiling. Because we think of Him as a man of sorrow, most depictions are of Him with a stern or sad face, indeed He dealt with very serious things. In most of the circumstances we read about in the scriptures, He was probably not smiling, but because He perfectly exemplified how we should behave, I know He always had a grateful heart. And because great joy always follows true gratitude, I imagine most of His mortal life He looked like this, and still does now. "And for this cause ye shall have fulness of joy; and ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fuln...

Now here's where things get personal and I take some real social risks, because many of my friends are involved in the type of things I'm about to rant about, but for those who are not, I feel it's a necessary public service to warn against a destructive but tempting influence which everyone will encounter at some point. For simplicity's sake I'm going to use the term "pyramid scheme". I know people love to argue about this term, mostly because they want you to join up with their pyramid scheme and the term "pyramid scheme" has negative connotations (for good reason). So, when I say this I am talking about any endevour that requires you to sell things to your friends and put pressure on them to do the same, regardless of any other factors. So, it seems harmless enough, a friend invites you over for an event. Maybe it's a spa party or a chocolate tasting or a jewelry party, or some equally tempting social event. Of course when you spend ...

I am not by any means an expert in the field of nutrition or fitness, but because I recently lost some weight, many have been asking what I've done to achieve this. So I'm sharing what I've learned so far in my journey. Feel free to comment with any questions. The picture at the top is the worst I could find, it was taken in the spring of 2008. I was 225 pounds, ten pounds lighter than my all time high. The picture below I took yesterday, last time I weighed myself I was near 180, I've still got some to lose and a lot more toning to do, but the picture's very flattering since most of my weight is in my legs. I have struggled with being overweight and obese off and on for the past 6 years. Most of the reason for this was 3 very physically debilitating pregnancies in that time which prevented me not only from exercising, but in the case of the last one, from really moving at all for fear of fracturing my pelvis or dislocating a joint or otherwise damaging some vit...

Recently I re-posted a picture I saw on Facebook , not because I agree with everything that it asserts, I've looked into similar groups as the one circulating this, and they are clearly one of the collapse the system types, but because I thought it was a funny way to state what I've felt for a long time. In the ten years I've been of voting age, I've never voted. Now when I say that usually I get some hysterical response ranging from mild indignation to flat out rage. People say things like, "if you don't vote, you don't have the right to complain." which makes a cute bumper sticker, but it's actually complete nonsense. I mean, I've never been to a polling place before, do they stamp a card on your way out that says your first amendment rights are renewed for two years? Even people with whom I was a few minutes earlier engaged in heated debate with, who had accused me of destroying the country with my views, insisted I HAD to vote. I don...

Life is hard. This is a fact, has been since the beginning of time. According to my belief system, it's a necessary factor for fulfilling our purpose on earth. I've been interested in survival and self sufficiency for sometime, and I had the impression that it would be somewhat easy to live off the land on things you could gather and hunt, but as I have begun to do this ( urban foraging and dumpster diving ) as a way to stretch our family budget, I've realized how very difficult it is, even in a climate rich with diverse and plentiful wild food, to collect enough to even make a tiny difference in our food budget. This is why we see cases of starvation like Chris Mccandless and others who entered the wilderness unprepared for what it actually takes to survive. This is why when human beings lived solely off of hunting and gathering, it took entire communities every waking hour to collect, process and and prepare enough food for everyone to just barely survive. Some cu...

(based on a true story) Me: I think I'm in the mood for show tunes . Pandora: I've got show tunes ! Do you like the phantom of the Opera? Me: I love the phantom of the opera! Particularly the title song. *thumbs up* Pandora: Did you know there are 85,934 versions of this song? Me: Well it is a long running Broadway show so I would assume there are a lot... Pandora: Do you like this version of the phantom of the opera? Me: It's lovely, but I did just listen to that song, so I think I'll skip it. Pandora: No problem. Do you like this version of the phantom of the opera? Me: Yes, it's fine, but again, I just listened to that song. *skip* Pandora: Ok . Hey do you like this version of phantom of the opera? Me: I won't even dignify that with a response. *skip* Pandora: I'm sorry, you have used up all your skips for today. Would you like to upgrade for $36 a month and skip as much as you want? Me: Ah, I see what you did there. Look, I am very...