Had lunch with my dear friend, Erin, today at McAllister's (great place)!  Love those kind of friendships where you can be completely 100% yourself and that person will still love you anyway. 

The girls really enjoyed their time painting 'pottery' ($1 plaster animals from Michaels), and they turned out super cute. 

After a rough start, Josh worked hard today and got caught up in history and literary analysis.   Yeah!

Had Mom and Dad over for dinner and made a new recipe: Sweet & Sour Chicken.  I'm not sure why I seem to try new recipes when having people over.  Sometimes it works fine, but sometimes it's a disaster.  It was actually pretty good even though it was quite a bit of work - well, more work than I like to do for dinner :)  Most of the kids had double and triple helpings, but of course, a couple didn't like it at all - and so it goes. 

That time in the evening when I feel like I can 'let go' is wonderful!  Sat on the couch and felt really good about being able to answer some questions on Teen Jeopardy especially since I usually can't answer even one question on regular Jeopardy. 

Thinking about and praying for Bishop D'Arcy and the mother of another dear friend who found out today that she has cancer.  These kinds of things always remind me that my complaints are ridiculous, and I truly have so much to be thankful for. 

I enjoyed my rummaging trip this morning with Christine even though I didn't find one thing on my list.  I did find a few things not on the list and had a gift certificate to pay for them with!  Thanks Mom C.!  Will have to continue the hunt for mirror, end table and lamp somewhere else.

School was just average; nothing too exciting today, but tomorrow we have some 'pottery' to paint to go along with our studies of Venezuela...more to come.

Our weather has been unusual...snow and below freezing temperatures and then rain and 60 degrees today only to have an arctic front hit us tomorrow with 2-4 inches of snow by Thursday.  Weird!!

We had a nice, quiet weekend.  Eric and I went out to dinner at The Vine on Friday night and saw Argo afterwards (great movie!). 

Saturday Josh went with Hunter to the Thrill of the Hill in Buchanan.  They built Mt. Rushmore out of snow for a competition and enjoyed their day. 

The rest of us drove to St. Joe, MI to see the lighthouses and piers covered in ice.  It was painfully cold but worth the frozen fingers to see it up close. 

Today, we went to Mass at Corpus Christi, had lunch and the girls helped make some awesome chocolate chip/butterscotch cookies.  Josh was busy working on math trying to get caught up in the new school.  We were supposed to go tubing tonight with the homeschool group, but the weather had other plans.  The next date is in two weeks, and hopefully the freezing rain will stay away next time.

I am gearing up for a busy week. We host art this Monday and I still don't have a project planned. Arise workshop on Tuesday evening, along with a new Reins of Life volunteer sesssion for Sarah and Josh that same day (I wonder how that's going to work...).  Meeting Christine Tuesday morning for some shopping rummaging.  We haven't done that in a while.  Dinner with Mom and Dad Wednesday and Winterfest in New Buffalo on Saturday complete with sleigh rides.  Looking forward to it!

Also looking forward to adding more content to the blog.  I should have started this a long time ago.  Will add a homeschool section, one for recipes, favorite books and movies, etc.!  Goodnight!

Manti Te'o had the opportunity to tell his side of the 'fake girlfriend' story Thursday on Katie Couric's talk show.  All I really feel like saying about this is "it's none of our business!"  I blame the media from day one.  As soon as it was published that he had suffered two heavy losses in one day (within hours of each other) the media wouldn't leave it alone.  He already was a great story: ND football player, smart kid who is so upstanding and responsible, great family, doesn't hesitate to talk about religion, but when the deaths became the story, the media couldn't let go.  Every time there was an interview, that was the first thing the interviewer asked about, "Manti, how have you been handling the tragic events you've had to deal with and still stay focused on carrying your entire football team every game?" Give me a break!!  They are always trying to get the tears, the heartfelt story as if they were the first one to get the big guy to really open up. 

We all (well I guess I can't say that with certainty, but I'm willing to guess 'all' is an appropriate estimation) have done things in our younger days that we regretted later.  That's part of growing up.  That's why the word 'naive' was invented, right?!  It's a good thing none of my mistakes was ever made so public - no one would have cared! Yes, I believe he was that trusting.  Yes, I believe he was that caring about someone he hadn't met yet.  Yes, I believe he thought it was weird to tell his parents that he never met her, so he lied.  Why be so critical of his actions when they are very typical of an average 21-22 year old young man? Why not be a little more critical of the people behind this kind of deceit in the first place?  Why isn't Katie Couric going to interview Ronaiah Tuiasosopo? Maybe she could offer him a job; he obviously needs one. 

Women in Combat

The New York Times reports today 'Pentagon is Set to Lift Combat Ban for Women'.  In these times of equality for all and suggestions that you can do anything you want, I feel that I need to share our new family motto (which is so fitting right now).  By the way, this saying has been used so many times the kids can finish it off once I start it: Just because you can.....doesn't mean you should.  Just because you can put a hole in your earlobe and then conduct a science experiment by seeing how big you can make the hole, doesn't mean you should.  Oh, there are so many things I could relate this to nowadays, but I'll try and stay on topic.  

Ironically, I am currently reading a book about Lady Almina, 5th Countess of Carnarvon (Downton Abbey fans, pay attention!) who so bravely started a hospital in their castle to care for the many wounded soldiers returning from World War I.  Since the war didn't start until 1914, it is somewhat surprising that she said this in 1911.  To the Newberry Unionist Women's Association, 

     

     "In the dark ages, which are not very far behind us, we used to be called the weaker sex.  We never were, and we never shall be weaker in our patriotism.  In this as in all similar matters we are neither inferior nor superior, but only very different and I am convinced that we shall do most good to our country and her cause if instead of imitating men we endeavour to widen and perhaps enrich the spirit of public life by being simply ourselves."

Over 100 years ago, I believe Lady Almina hit it right on the head!  Incidentally, the New York Times article states that a retired 3-star General , Jerry Boykin, had this to say, “the people making this decision are doing so as part of another social experiment.”  It is difficult to understand that any woman, as a child, sat around thinking they wanted to be a soldier when they grew up (at least for more than one day).  It is disappointing that we continue to have these debates about what women can do as always being compared to what men can do.

soldiers in training...?...

We teach our son, as best we can, to be a gentleman as I know many families have done and still do.  How does front line combat effect these gentlemen who are fighting next to women?  I believe it will change the entire dynamic of the group of people that set out to do a very specific (and often life-risking) task.  My hope is that people will accept the fact that men and women are different, neither is superior or inferior;  each one can do the things that God intended for them to do and those things should be embraced instead of challenged.