Not a fan of Obama, but a fan of really??

I may have had just about enough of using photo ops for judging a man's ability to be President.  All of the interested parties are doing it though.  Republicans have pictures of Obama's photo op gaffs; Democrats have pictures of Bush's photo op gaffs.  They happen not because a man is mentally unfit but because he is human and the photographers are not paying enough attention to the staging.  

It is unjust to compare a man to a man as well because not all men were raised the same the way. 

You must judge a man's fitness to be in office based upon who he is as a whole; not who he is compared to other men.  

This is a biblical judgment.  II Corinthians 10:12--For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

Fellow Believers, use just judgment and not the emotional dregs in making your decisions.

I home school my children.  Let me tell you about that a little.

1. I do not teach that the world is flat.

2. I do not teach the sun revolves around the earth

3. I do not teach that every term not found in the King James version of the Bible is "of the devil."

Modern science is NOT an enemy. 

Not the easiest decision

My friend does a lot of things for a disabled lady and when the going gets tough, I help her out.

Our disabled lady is in a foster care home right now and has been for five months or so.  Her husband is disabled and is in a different foster care home.  In the meantime, she has been paying rent on her apartment so their cats would have their home.  It was the best she knew to do for them.

Tuesday, my friend showed me a picture she had taken of one of the kitties, and we decided that Lady needed to make a decision about what to do for kitty and that we would meet at her care home Wednesday to discuss it with her.

Friend called me and told me she was going to stop by the apartment before we met to see if she could get a better photo of kitty.  When I arrived, she called me into her vehicle to see the new picture.  This picture showed that Lady no longer had a decision to make.  Kitty had to be in care immediately.  It was now just a matter of telling Lady the hard stuff in the middle of a lot of other hard stuff.

Oh mercy.  We left her a very grieved woman, but before we left to take care of kitty she gave permission to euthanize if that was best. 

We got to the apartment and got kitty into the pet carrier, but not before I saw how much worse the kitty was than the picture showed.  I took her to the vet who wasn't really thrilled about having her and Vet kept mentioning about other cats scheduled for surgery and she couldn't do anything but give her antibiotics.  What?  Automatic surgery? Really? How about just looking at kitty and telling me what your opinion is about her outlook?  Isn't that an option?  (I do not like that Vet.)

Kitty's prognosis was pretty grim so I had to make the call to have her put to sleep.  I called my friend with the news and a short discussion about money sources ensued.  She called Lady and I gave the go ahead to put kitty to sleep. 

If I never have to do that again for someone, it will be way too soon.  I woke up a couple of times in the night thinking that maybe I had made the wrong decision.  Well, after talking myself down from doubt, I do know, in the corner of head, that I did the right thing, the compassionate thing.

It's hard enough when you have to choose to euthanize your own cat.  Let's make it worse by leaving a disabled woman grieving for her loss and wondering if she was the reason kitty had to die.

Ugh.  Sometimes, compassion is very rewarding; sometimes it stinks.

Celtic Woman: LIVE

Celtic Woman came to town.  We were able to get tickets to make sure that Tabitha would have something she would never forget.  If you aren't familiar with Celtic Woman, let me show you my favorite.  This one is sheer fun to me.  To see it live last night was amazing.  If you have never seen their pixie fiddler, watch her antics here.  The lights, the sound, the performance, and the spirit were well worth the money.  The pure joy of my daughter made it priceless.  

Parents, take your kids to something amazing that they will never forget. 

Spring!

I think we had an extremely wet winter.  I think March was incredibly wet.  The snow that fell the first day of spring was disheartening.  We'd wanted that snow in February when life was dragging and in need of a change.  

But now it's April.  We had an Easter weekend full of sunshine.  The sun was delectable and we ate it up.  Then the rain came back to us. 

If you knew how utterly weary I was of the rain and cold you'd understand the depths of my despair when the drops began to fall.

Then, I took a deep breath and smelled it.  I smelled Spring.  There is a beautiful difference in the smell of Spring rain.  It's refreshing.  The winter rains drag on and have nothing special to commend them.  The spring rain smells like life.

Another hunt

We are on a house hunt.  We need some acreage for the dogs.  Lugnut is simply not a people person.  He needs some distance from the neighbors.  We've tried rehabilitation, but when he seems to be making great strides, he suddenly takes a huge scary leap backwards.

I want a laundry room.  A real laundry room with space in it to work.  Yes.  That'd be lovely.  I also want a real mud room where the dogs can sleep away from my washer and dryer.  I want a kitchen that is appropriate for dealing with meals with a large family and I'd like it to open into the dining room so that I can stage what's going on and monitor progress.

We want an extra bedroom so that we can split the girls up and maybe they can keep their bedrooms neater.  Or at least we would know who the real slob is.

We have looked at several homes.  Most of them have been serious disappointments.  One of them we all loved, but they got an offer on it.  So, we wait.  And we keep looking.  Somewhere out there is the place where we can finish raising our children.

And have chickens.  And maybe a couple of goats.

The Hunt

We have an epidemic here in this house.

Rats.  We have no idea how many.  We see the damage.  The rubber strip on the bottom of the garage door has been chewed.  Dog food bags have been decimated.  The dogs going insane around the outdoor fridge when mother rat is up in there somewhere.  And the insanity of when they know she's at the hole under the slab.

Then, there are the snap traps licked clean of peanut butter AND bacon in spite of the lightest trigger ever set.  Then, we bring in the glue traps.  Baited with irresistible bacon, we catch the one from the garage. The dog food bags are left alone.  We seem to smell victory.

But alas!  The dog food bags are attacked again.  We wonder how many more there could be.  Rod moves stuff around the garage to look for the entry point and we find a huge, disgusting mess.  Unfortunately, it is ten pm and I'm not going to clean it up until the next day.  Thankfully, by the next morning, most of the work had been done for us.  The critters had been very busy.  

I set a glue trap in front of their hole.  It snags 3--yes, count them, 3-- juveniles.  One escapes before Rod can get the trap out.  I set another glue trap down, but I nail it into the dirt.  I catch 3 more.  This is a total of 6 juveniles.  I set the next glue trap out and nail it down.  I check it later, and it has been pulled in to the hole and covered in dirt.  Those sneaky demons.  

I take a trip to the feed store and get 2 pounds of poison.  I set 1/4 of the first pound down in front of the hole; I set the second 1/4 in front of the garage entry point.  Both are taken.  I set a third 1/4 down and it disappears.  For good measure, I put one more 1/4 pound of bait in front of the hole.  Of course, being greedy little things, they take it.

Then it becomes a waiting game.  I set a few bits of dog food outside the hole.  It disappears.  I set a few more out the next day; they too disappear.  Today, five days after the original  1/2 pound of bait, I set a few pieces out.  Six hours later, the pieces sit where I tossed them.  This, to me, is a very good sign.  

I'll not congratulate myself, however, until I've dumped some bacon at the hole and that stays uneaten.