Ladies, If you want a reason to praise the Lord for your weekend, go over and read about Veronica’s.  I know I’m thanking the Lord for laundry this morning.

Right now, my mackerdoodle is playing with her two most favoritist non-relative children in the world (translation, Terri’s daughters ,Becca and Bethany.) in their classroom at school. I am waiting for my first class to start, so I am sitting at their elementary sized table (knees around my ears) blogging. Terri is sitting across the room doing some sort of computer related project. The tap-tap-tap of the keys are providing a background percussion for the happy sounds of playing children.

It is a snapshot view into the role of technology in contemporary culture. I think I’ll go send Terri a facebook flair from within the same room. Just to make the anti- “Norman Rockwell” moment complete.

There are a lot of snazzy, alliterative titles for weekly blog events out there.  There’s Wordless Wednesday, Thursday Thirteen, Frugal Friday . . . and many more.  I’ve been thinking that I want to begin posting some of the crafts I made over the summer, but I’ve got two dilemmas.

The first is that Michelle at  Scribbit posts really cool crafts.  I have NO DESIRE to post my crafts on the same day that she posts hers.  It would be like displaying a cheap rhinestone at Tiffany’s.

The second, is that I can’t think of an alliterative title.  I was thinking of “Too many hobbies Tuesday” or “That’s Crafty Thursday” (which should be “That’s a Cheesy Title.”) or . . .

So I guess I’m just going to post some crafts periodically and you’ll know it’s a craft because it will have things like pictures.  You know, of the craft.

If any of you have a great craft title, let me know.

On the heels of reading Queen Bee’s guest post over at Rock’s in My Dryer on being the parent of an only child, I am faced with this article out of the United Kingdom. Here’s the tagline:

After four years of research, the TV news presenter has proved what he instinctively thought was right: larger families are happier, healthier, better adjusted – and deeply discriminated against…

When it comes to families of any size facing discrimination, I am doubtful.  I have heard my entire life that the family is under attack, but from whom?  No where in North America is there a one child policy.  No women are forced to work against their will by government regulation.  It is still legal for a man and woman to marry, have as many children as they want and even beneficial in most cases to do so.  No companies are refusing to hire married people and parents.  Parents with children are not barred from any public buildings, or forced to enter through a separate entrance.  Married couples aren’t protested against.  In North America, no one has woken up to a brick through their window because they are married and have children.

The author of the article cites examples, including theme park family passes admitting 2 parents and 2 children, and an author complaining that because of her large family she was made to feel freakish.  While unfortunate, it’s certainly not discrimination.

This author is not a believer, so my thoughts, while sparked by his article, are certainly not applicable to it.  Within the church, however, the same attitude pervades.  Christians are called to fight for the family, march for the family, vote for the family.  So why hasn’t anything changed in 20 years?  Because the family isn’t the point.

I just lost a bunch of people with that.  Please come back and read the rest.

The family isn’t the point, the gospel is.

The gospel can make men want to lead, and women want to submit; it can make men want to commit, and women want to remain pure.  Only the gospel can change culture, only the gospel can convict of sin, only the gospel can make a family more than a group of sinful individuals.  God works through Godly families that are centered not around themselves, or their size, but around the gospel of Christ.

We’re fighting the wrong battle, folks.  We need to be preaching the gospel that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.  That’s the main thing.  That’s the correct perspective.  That’s the only thing that will save our families, our churches and our culture.

Our church fellowship has a meal after each service. I find it a challenge to come up with something to bring each week. Sometimes I hit a success, but mostly it’s just a nothing-to-write-home-about crock pot offering. But today I outdid myself.

It was a dish I had done before - Chicken and broccoli in a dijon/chicken broth gravy. Just before we left, I added raw egg noodles. By the time we ate, there were no noodles in the crockpot. They had completely dissolved into the gravy. Jonathan took one bite and took the crockpot off the table. It was completely inedible.

I have no idea what caused the noodles to dissolve in such a short time! I have no illusions about my bare adequacy in the kitchen, but even I can usually produce something edible. My consolation is that there was plenty of food on the table. This would have been MUCH worse had it had happened as the only entree with guests at the house (hello? Dominoes?) but still, it’s embarrassing.

I can’t be the only one with a public cooking disaster, can I? Please, make me feel better and share yours. Mom, what about your deviled eggs?

The Wild Goose Chase book draw turned out like this:

So the book is on the way to Roberta.  Thanks to everyone who entered.

There are some things you just don’t think about until you have children.  One of those things, is the level of abuse everything in your home must survive.  It isn’t that the mackerdoodle is deliberately destructive . . . okay, it isn’t USUALLY that the mackerdoodle is deliberately destructive, it’s just that she’s learning and exploring, and that means she doesn’t understand cause and effect.

For instance, she didn’t understand that a cheap “good enough for now” curtain rod can’t handle the full weight of a 21+ pound little girl, trying to reach the giant moose painting.

Fortunately,  it gave me the excuse to buy a sturdier, (and also prettier) curtain rod that matches the ceiling fans and light fixtures.  Target is a marvelous place.

So to sum up: One cheap curtain rod + one active toddler = one nice new curtain rod for mama.

Lately I’ve had a lot of this question: “So, now that you have the one, would you like to have another?”  meaning children of course.  If you know even a small part of my story, you’ll know that our 12 year wait for our mackerdoodle was not a choice on our part, and for the same reasons the question of whether or not she has a sibling won’t be either.

I don’t know what the Lord has planned, but I can tell you that the longing of my heart and arms is filled.
The Lord has granted me the desire of my heart, and any other addition to the family would be overflowing blessings.

I bring it up because Queen Bee has posted a guest post over at Rocks in My Dryer regarding being the parent of an only child.  It resonated with me, so I thought I’d link to it.  Let me know what you think.

Want to win a free book? Follow this link to my review and leave a comment.

I’m exhausted, because last night I stayed up to watch Hillary Clinton address the DNC in Denver. I listened to the entire speech and now I’m tired. So what am I doing? I should be going to bed, but instead, I am listening to Bill Clinton’s speech and making my own campaign poster.

That can’t be normal, can it?

Anyway, if you want to see my campaign poster, (Melissa, I think you and Brian might like this one) and/or find out my impressions on the conference so far, you can find that by clicking here, where I now blog about politics.  I may even bring back Freedom Fridays over there where most of you don’t have to be bothered by my less than mainstream ideas, and the Badger’s comments on them.

*******We now return you to regularly scheduled mama blogs********