Not Everything Has To Be A Contest

I tell my 5-year-old fairly regularly that not everything needs to be a contest. He's very competitive. He knows which kids at school are "ahead" of him in their homework books. He knows who is further along in their computer program. I talked to his teacher about it last time we had a parent/student/teacher conference, she said that there are 22 kids in the class and only 5 or 6 (I can't remember for sure) are girls, and the boys are extremely competitive with each other. She said it's something they're working on at school, and encouraged me to continue working on it at home.

Well, here is something that isn't going to help. My Mr. and I are having a contest of sorts to see how long we can make one tank of gas last. This isn't entirely fair because he drives into salt lake for school at least twice a week, so maybe it's not so much that we will be competing with each other, as we'll just be trying to each do the best we can. I've walked to pick up my kindergartner from school every day so far in the past two weeks. My Mr. does drive him to school on the way to work (it's been to cold to walk so far, and since the time change we've had a hard time waking up early enough to walk (it takes me nearly 30 minutes to walk the 1/2 mile to his school these days, I have to go very slowly). Lots of excuses. After the baby is born we'll see about walking to school (I need to find a group of kids for him to walk with- he just seems so little to be walking to school without me!).

In other news, my 3-year-old has sat on the toilet three times this morning. Right now he's in there reading his books. Nothing has happened yet, but I'm hoping.

Go Canada!

One of my Canadian friends mentioned how, in their federal budget, there will be extra fees attached to the purchase of new "gas guzzling" automobiles, and rebates on purchases of fuel efficient vehicles (not just hybrids either).

Hooray for a government that is getting it right! An article I found on the CBC Website says that it will hurt families who don't have a choice when it comes to smaller vehicles. I find it hard to believe that families HAVE to choose SUV's. Our minivan doesn't get the best mileage in the world, but it is not too much worse than a regular sedan.

It makes me glad to see a government holding those who want to drive large vehicles that waste resources financially responsible for their excess instead of trying to punish people who can't afford to drive new cars, which from what I can understand is what the Tailpipe Tax would do.

I would agree that imposing higher taxes on cars with higher emission levels would be good for the air, perhaps people would be more careful about taking care of their cars and driving cleaner cars, except that it seems to me, that people who drive older cars do so because that's what they can afford.

The Nicest Walmart in Utah...

According to an article in todays Tribune, the nicest walmart will now be in Cedar Hills (if it is approved). I thought Centerville was going to have the "nicest Walmart in Utah". I guess that was before they were allowed to swap cultured stone for the original plan of Farmington Rock.

Watch out Cedar Hills...

Here's a little snip from the Trib article...."It captures that colonial look well, which is a challenging thing for a building like that. The building is more attractive. . . . I think it looks great." Wright agreed, saying Cedar Hills is getting the nicest Wal-Mart in Utah.

Motivation

Over the weekend, I attended a youth leadership conference in Logan with my city's Youth Council. During the conference (and this is the 3rd one I've been to now), we get to hear some really good speakers. My favorite from this year's conference was Mike Schlappi. He was accidentally shot by his friend when he was a teenager, and paralyzed from the waist down.

He has taken a horrible experience and used it to accomplish amazing things. He was on the US Paralympic Basketball team for 4 olympics, and he presents an amazing story to motivate those he speaks to.

In past years there have been other speakers that I have found to be similarly amazing, people who go through horrible things, but use those experiences to do more with their lives than those of us who have things pretty easy and just continue on day to day doing what we always do.

It really makes me wonder about motivation. What makes some people step up in the face of adversity when others retreat? What makes ordinary people decide to do amazing things? What would I do if I were to face any extreme challenge in my life, and why would I need to wait until then to make a difference in the world?

Where much is given, much is required. I know what it feels like to hurt, but my life has been pretty easy. I've never been hungry without knowing where my next meal would come from. I've never really felt like my life was in danger. I have a comfortable life, so what do I need to do with it? I try to be involved in good causes, I am trying to be more patient with my kids, and do things with them to give them healthy childhood experiences. I guess it's difficult to say whether our everyday actions are "amazing" or not, at least short-term. Maybe our goal should not be to accomplish amazing things, but to not waste the time we have. I can sit and come up with excuses about why I should rest and not do anything all day long, or I can do something with my kids to teach them to serve others.

In for the long haul...

Several months ago, I discovered gdiapers and posted about them on my blog. I decided that they would work great with cloth inserts instead of the flushable inserts, and that not only would diapering the new baby be more earth-friendly, but it would also be more budget-friendly.

Since then, my fear of cloth diapering and my Mister's lack of enthusiasm over the idea (will I have to change the poopy ones?) kind of sent me back to the do-nothing-different approach, which meant disposables because I can buy them at the grocery store (or costco) and that is much easier than buying something online (I hate paying for shipping).

A few weeks ago my sister gave me a baby gift which included a starter set of gdiapers. If I had those, it would be silly not to use them, so pushed into action, I ordered 2 dozen prefold diapers and a couple more covers (and I got free shipping! Ha!).

I also ordered a toddler-sized cloth diapering package, since if I'm washing cloth diapers for one baby, I might as well wash cloth diapers for two-plus I'm hoping that my three-year-old will decide that it's uncomfortable to actually feel wet and decide the toilet isn't so awful after all.

I've been researching cloth diapering ever since the first package of newborn-sized covers arrived in the mail, and I've learned that you don't necessarily have to dunk and swish in the toilet (a huge plus in my book). Newborn poop "washes out like yogurt" (good to know, but I might not be making yogurt anymore...) and there are these cool flushable liners that you can use for solid-food-eating infants....

My Mr. is an easy going sort of person, and recognizes a good deal when he sees one. We've been spending approximately $30/month on diapers for the last three years (double that if you count child #1). That is $1080 spent on diapers. That we throw away. We figure for cloth diapers, we will spend approximately $350 total. I've already spent about $175 but that is on small sized diapers and the biggest sized diapers we will need, so I think the $350 is being generous. That's $730 difference! Imagine what I could buy with that! (My Mr. is imagining motorcycle stuff, and we'll let him imagine whatever he wants as long as he changes plenty of diapers)

Smart and Business-Minded

On Sunday, my 5-year-old was busy building something with his K'nex (His are similar to what is shown in the link). He built a nice set of dumbbells. After he had them all lined up nicely, he got out his piggy bank and set it up nearby. Then he went around the house recruiting customers.

For 25 cents I had a nice workout with very light weights, and the privilege of watching my son "make money". I think he'd open up the gym for anyone who was interested, so come on over.... My Mister's comment was that he takes after my side of the family (we generally don't like working for other people).

This morning while we were brushing teeth, my 5-year-old said, "mom, the black thing in your eye is called a pimple".

"I think you mean a pupil."

"Oh, yeh, a pupil... and when you are in the dark it gets really big, and when you shine a light in your eyes, they get really small."

It always surprises me a little bit when he spurts off information that he didn't learn from me. Now that he is in school it is happening more and more often. I'm having a hard time with the idea of having him gone all day when first grade starts next year (august 29th, and he can't wait). It's enough to make me consider home schooling him, just to keep him close to me. I won't though. He's having a great time in school. I'll have to be satisfied with our great discussions about pimples and whatever other information he decides to share with me.

Terry Wood and Divine Strake Fallout

Paul Rolly Reports in the SL Tribune:

Divine Strake fallout? Watch for KTVX, Channel 4 co-anchor Ruth Todd to disappear from the air within the next few days. Her contract expires this week and, reportedly, it won't be renewed. In a few weeks, according to rumblings among TV news types around town, the other Channel 4 anchor, Terry Wood, will be demoted to weekends.

Why?

The scuttlebutt around town is that KTVX's owner, Texas-based ClearChannel, went into a tizzy over the station's editorializing against Divine Strake, an idea that came out of the administration of George W. Bush, a particular darling of the redder-than-red owners of ClearChannel. And does it matter that the administration finally caved to public pressure and canceled the megabomb test just outside Utah's borders?

Apparently not.

I hope, if this indeed is what is happening that ClearChannel gets inundated with complaints. For your convenience, here is their contact information...

Corporate:
Clear Channel
200 East Basse Road
San Antonio, TX 78209
Phone 1-210-822-2828

Communications:
Lisa Dollinger
1-210-822-2828
lisacdollinger@clearchannel.com

Clear Channel Website:
webmaster@clearchannel.com

Television
Station Listing
Email: cctvinfo@clearchannel.com
Phone: 1-210-822-2828

Odds and Ends in the Kitchen

I sewed the valences and got them up (although they somehow turned out to be different lengths, so I'll have to fix that at some point). We shopped around for several hours looking for things to decorate with, and I think it turned out pretty good.

I'm not big on fancy "decor" so part of me feels a little funny in there still. I'm sure I'll get used to it, and eventually it won't feel like I'm sitting in a (very small) home-show dining room.




Now we just need to get the cabinets all finished.

One Day

If you work hard, you can change a lot in just one day... Sanding and scraping to get rid of the sand on the walls (never dump sand into paint for texture, I don't know what the previous owners were thinking!)...then dark paint first...
Next, the lighter paint which is "ragged off".
Finally, the wall board and trim.

Just a little more to finish up on monday...

Do you have your documents?

If you look hispanic anyway, you might need them with you at all times.

With HB 105, state and local police officers could take on some new immigration responsibilities.

When my Mister was on his mission in Peru, he had to carry his passport (or "documents") with him everywhere he went. Is that where we are headed? Will anyone who looks remotely hispanic have to worry about proving to any police officer they run into, that they are indeed citizens of the US?

This bill will make people who are not here legally even more unlikely to report crimes than they already are, and it will put extra strain on state and local police officers who should be spending their time protecting the public from CRIMINALS.

We're putting putty in a sieve. These petty little attacks on other human beings are not going to solve our immigration problems. Why in the world hasn't the federal government done anything about it yet?

Progress

This morning my three-year-old ran in to the living room and said "I want to poop on the potty" I was so excited, usually he just wants to wash his hands. We ran to the bathroom where I noticed the smell.

He had just pooped in his diaper. Bummer. At least he's starting to make a connection. He knows he gets a treat if he does something on the toilet, so he'd climb down, look in the toilet and climb up again.

It's progress.

Here he goes again...

Does Rep. Donnelson really think all of his bills to make life more difficult for illegal immigrants will make them go home?

According the this Salt Lake Tribune article, Rep. Donnelson wants to take away their ability to drive legally. Is it going to stop people from driving? Of course not, we'll just have that many fewer insured, trained (as far as you can call utah drivers education "training") drivers among us.

Another good idea by Mr. Donnelson!

Fighting Naps

Sometimes we all just need a nap. Ten minutes ago this little boy was throwing a huge tantrum. Nine minutes ago he was grudgingly climbing into his bed to have a nap because he needed one. Five minutes ago, he came upstairs to tell me he was done napping. Two minutes ago he fell asleep on the couch.

Life is hard when you are 5 1/2.

More Abortion Discussions

I've been having lots of discussions about abortion lately. People have strong views on it, so it can get to be a fairly intense discussion. There are a few things that I have not been able to resolve in my mind, until recently, maybe (I'm still working on it).

Abortion discussion from The World, According To Me

And discussions from Jen's Green Journal

It's interesting to think about being pro-choice and anti-abortion. I'm not sure where I fit in there yet. I've always felt like I couldn't say I was pro-choice or pro-life. (that's why I just say pro-responsibility).

The thing that I have been thinking about lately, is that people use the killing a life argument, but they want to include the exceptions for health and life of the mother and rape and incest. A life is a life no matter how it was created, so being against abortion based on the "killing life" exception doesn't make sense to me. However, even a very tiny fetus moves, and looks like a small person. I had an ultrasound with my current pregnancy around 12 weeks. It looked like a little gummy bear and he was waving his arms.

I believe that Heavenly Father will work things out and that an aborted fetus has not lost its "chance" for a body. I can't see Heavenly Father punishing something so innocent for the choices of its parents.

I think we have to learn to be responsible with out bodies and the choices we make. We know what can happen when we have sex, so to be responsible, we use some form of birth control if we don't want to have children, but we go into knowing that having sex can lead to pregnancy so we must take responsibility for the results of our choice.

I know that if I touch a hot oven I will be burned, so it would be irresponsible of me to not use a hot pad to take something out of that oven. I have to be careful to avoid the undesirable consequence. It would be irresponsible (and ridiculous) of me to touch the oven and then be angry that the oven burned me, because I knew that ovens were hot.

I think women should choose to be responsible (although I realize that some people veiw abortion as a responsible choice).

So in LDS views, is abortion a sin because it is murder or because it is being irresponsible with a power that should be sacred? I'd tend to go with the later, but like I said, I'm still trying to figure out how to view the issue consistently.

You don't deserve it...but we might force it on you.

Excerpts from the Salt Lake Tribune:

As expected, state lawmakers Wednesday rejected a proposed constitutional amendment intended to provide access to affordable health care for all Utahns.

"Proper health care is essential to the pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the citizenry," McCoy said. "Some of us don't live quite as well as we should. But at least we should be coming to the conclusion that we need to create a system where people have access to affordable, medically necessary care, in spite of themselves."

A Salt Lake Tribune poll in January found that 67 percent of Utahns supported amending the Utah Constitution to declare affordable, accessible health care a basic right.

But Kelly Atkinson, Director of the Utah Health Insurance Association, argued that the amendment would put the state on the hook for a massive bill. "Should that be the public policy of the state?" Atkinson asked. "Is health care a right? We don't think so." Health care might be expensive, Atkinson said, but those uninsured Utahns who need treatment can get it in emergency rooms.

Some members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee also balked at the prospect of providing health care for Utahns who don't take care of themselves - including smokers and the obese.

The bill failed in a vote along party lines.

Despite that defeat, low-income advocates still hope legislators will put some of the state's $1.6 billion surplus toward health care for poor Utahns. They offered a pumpkin pie to House Speaker Greg Curtis with just a sliver cut out - representative of funding for health care programs. "If he and the governor can partner to save soccer, they can put away some money for health care,"

67% of Utahns favor access to health care for all, but our politicians are not listening to us. Who are they listening to? Apparently to Kelly Atkinson, director of the Utah Health INSURANCE Association. I wonder why they are against affordable health care for all? What does it cost taxpayers for all of the uninsured Utahns to get care at emergency rooms? What a joke.

I find it amusing (in a sad, pathetic way) that the same newspaper has an article about a bill that would "force all Utahns to purchase catastrophic health insurance for themselves and dependents - policies tied to huge deductibles and health savings accounts - or something better." The bill was pitched as a "way to stop the uninsured from freeloading and forcing everyone else to pay their health costs."

After all, all those uninsured Utahns are uninsured because they aren't responsible.

Buyer's Remorse (The Costco Version)

I just put two wild-thing boys to bed. I'm hoping they stay there and maybe even fall asleep before morning. To settle my nerves I had a (small) dish of vanilla bean ice cream with too much chocolate syrup. It was good, and relaxing, and I'm feeling much better (although I am shivering under my blanket and may need to go warm up my heating pad).

The bad news is that the ice cream is almost gone. And there won't be any more until March. The problem is Costco. I allow myself one "big" shopping trip a month and other trips are only for things like milk (and maybe some sort of fruit or lettuce or something like that, but that's it, really!). This month (I actually went January 28th and decided to count it for February since I had already been in January) I spent way too much. It's a common problem with shopping at Costco. It's nearly impossible to get out the door with less than $100 worth of groceries (unless you only buy milk), and it is much too easy to spend quite a bit more than that.

The last trip, I (and my Mr) spent nearly the entire month's grocery budget. Then Winegars had a case-lot sale of sorts (which I find impossible to resist) and there went the rest of the grocery budget. My Mr. has challenged me to make it through the entire month without buying anything else but milk. That means once the current jumbo-costco-sized bag of lettuce is gone, no more salads. Sadly, that also means no more ice cream.

The good news is that from our recent food-shopping-sprees, we are well stocked and since this is a short month, we'll probably survive. I need to make yogurt though (and some hermits) so that I don't feel too deprived.

Go have some Ice Cream

The last few days of warmer weather are making me excited for spring. (Punxsutawney Phil said it will be an early spring this year!) I've been watching the front flower bed for the first tips of crocuses to pop up through the soil. I'm feeling the need to go to the garden center to pick up some pea seeds (I have to plant them before my neighbors do, you know- and now that I'm thinking about it, the new raised bed in the front yard that didn't get bulbs planted in it last fall would be a great place for peas- then pumpkins...).

My blog has been fairly well consumed by politics lately, so I thought it would be nice to have a post about something else.

Spring is wonderful all by itself, but spring also means that summer is coming, and what does summer mean (besides fresh tomatoes from the garden)? Ice cream! I can eat ice cream without shivering under a blanket. I suffer, because I love ice cream, but summer is much nicer. Here's a picture of the then-two-year-old enjoying an ice cream cone in the backyard last summer.

Health care for children, Medicaid not top priorities

I'm so glad that our legislature keeps busy with "message" bills. What would they do without those? Hmmm, maybe talk about things that would actually improve life for the residents of Utah?

An article in today's Tribune says that funding to expand CHIP is likely to only get half of what Governor Huntsman wanted.

What will it take to convince our government to stop wasting time and money on morality bills (and I'm all for morality) when we have children and families who don't have access to health care.

Access to quality health care for all SHOULD be a priority, shame on our legislature for thinking otherwise.

Choice

It's amazing what happens when you take some time to think about something (really, I encourage everyone to try it!). I was thinking about what might happen if elective abortions were suddenly made illegal in Utah.

I think that there would be a lot of desperate women who really feel like abortion is their only choice seeking other methods of ending their pregnancies. I'm not using this as a justification for allowing abortions, but I think before we make something illegal we need to think out the consequences of doing so.

M.A. commented in my earlier post on the abortion bill that ideally people would always be conscientious and responsible, but that real life doesn't always work that way. I don't know what the statistics are on abortions in Utah or why women seek an abortion, but obviously there must be women who feel like it is their only choice. I'm disgusted that there are still insurance companies who will pay for drugs like viagra but not birth control.

So, it seems to me, that before we go banning something, we ought to work a little harder to reduce demand for it. Spend the 2-4 million dollars on education and health care reform so that all women in utah know what their options are, and that those options are accessible to everyone. Reduce the demand for abortions, give women options and information, then talk about challenging Roe vs. Wade.

Until all women in Utah have some basic level of sex education and accessible options for pregnancy prevention, banning abortion would only shift the procedure into a much less-safe black market.

Weightier Matters and the Abortion Bill

I remember reading this article by Dallin H Oaks when I was a student at USU. It has stuck with me ever since. I used to feel really conflicted about the abortion issue, after all, shouldn't a woman be able to choose? It's her body.

Yes, she should be able to choose, and she can. Aside from rape and other circumstances where the choice has been taken away from her, a woman can choose whether to have sex or not. A woman can choose to use some form of birth control. It should not come as a surprise to any woman that having sex can result in pregnancy. If it does, then we need some major education reform in Utah (either in the home or in schools, I'm not picky). It would be nice if males had a more direct consequence from having unprotected sex. They don't though, and using that as an excuse for a woman to avoid responsibility for her choices is ridiculous.

Somewhat as a side note, I learned something new recently. On my gardening/composting discussion forum (obviously we talk about other things too) someone posted an article about a woman who was arrested after she had taken the first part of the Morning After Pill. The jail's nurse for whatever reason did not allow her to take the second pill. I don't think the original story had anything to do with moral objections by the nurse, but on my discussion forum, that's how it was brought up. I didn't know anything about the morning after pill, although I did do some reading about RU486 in college. I had always assumed that the two were the same. I was wrong, and I think a lot of people make the same assumption. The Morning After Pill (also known as Plan B) is not an abortion drug. It prevents pregnancy much in the same way that birth control pills and IUD's do (and it is supposed to be available at pharmacies without a prescription for women over 18 years old). Anyway, back to the main issue- I just thought this was interesting.

Abortion is a responsibility issue, not a choice issue.

That said, I'm not sure how I feel about the bill to ban abortions. I'm glad to see that the bill includes the exceptions that it does, but I'm unsure about the financial cost of defending the bill. Who decided to change it from the original trigger bill anyway?