Tuesday 5: Big important things!

It has been a couple weeks since I last posted, so I guess I should do a little bit of writing. It's that Tuesday 5 time again!

1. I am still going through a bit of the winter blues. I don't mind winter, but I would prefer to get a boatload of snow at least once this year! The one time we were initially projected to get a huge snowstorm, it all went north of us and we got nothing but a trace. Boo. I miss the snow. I love being out in it, the look of the pristine lawn of snow before anyone walks on it, and the way a city shuts down in silent reverie. It is so lovely. Come back snow, I miss you!

2. So my stepdaughter graduates 8th grade this year and she goes to school in a small town, as she mainly resides with her mother. We went to an 8th grade parents' meeting a week or two ago to go over graduation, the 8th grade dance, some fundraisers, and the 8th grade trip to an amusement park.  The kids want their dance's theme to be Royal Ball and they are going to wear formals. Are you kidding me?! It's 8th grade! Not only that, but the parents are talking about spending gobs of money on decorations and a DJ. They even made statements like "This is my child's 8th grade dance, of course we are going big! The school isn't paying for it, so we can do what we want!" Okay, I understand that this is a milestone in a child's life, but it isn't high school. Plus, the K-12 is all in the same cluster of buildings, so they aren't even physically moving anywhere. Back in my day, (yes, I am legitimately using that phrase) the only decorations we had were a few streamers and balloons on the refreshment table and we wore regular dresses, nothing fancy to our dance. Oh, and THEN, they started talking about how maybe they should do a glow in the dark theme and have the kids' hands get painted with it so they could see who got too handsy on the dance floor *tee hee* Oh isn't it so funny to sexualize our 13 year olds?! *wink wink* It's nothing we didn't do back then. Except uh, no, we didn't do that. Anyone who had "boyfriends" in junior high went to the movies and held hands and maybe kissed a few times, but I KNOW our parents for the most part encouraged modesty and self-respect. Ugh, sorry for the tangent, but that really disgusted me. Am I a prude?

3.  Today is Fat Tuesday y'all! Mardi Gras! I am thinking about what to do for Lent this year. I am sure you are all supremely interested, right? Well, I am thinking of abstaining from all pop and alcohol this year and adding some prayerful activity. I am terrible about following through on the prayer stuff though, so I am going to start small and maybe do a rosary once a week and maybe 2 religious books over the course of 40 days. What are you doing? Any more, simple ideas for me?

4.  Is there anything quite as rage-inducing or perhaps frustrating as the election cycle in the U.S.? I think you are hard-pressed to find something worse in that respect. If the super mysoginistic, and bankruptcy-loving Trump wins the nomination, this country is far more selfish than I originally thought. It's sad how successful he is in using fear and loathing to his advantage and disguising it as frankness.

5. Speaking of loathsome politics, Hillary Clinton is pretty despicable as well. So much history of shady dealings and outright lying and basically saying anything anyone wants to hear just to garner votes. The worst part is that Gloria Steinem, someone who considers herself a groundbreaking feminist, basically said the reason young women (under 45, that's me!) are flocking to Bernie Sanders is because all the boys like Sanders. Whaaaa?!?! So women like Bernie because we are too stupid to think about issues and just go where the cute boys are. Wow. Just wow. Not to be outdone, Madeline Frickin' Albright stated her "jokey" motto that she has said (according to her) many times in the past. "There's a special place in hell for women who don't support other women." So now I am supposed to vote for Hillary because she and I share the same gender?! How is that not the very opposite of what feminism stands for? It's truly appalling that women are actually considering her.

I know, I know, people have very different ideas of what they want a president to be like. It's great that there is so much attention focused on electing our next leader. However, I would encourage everyone to do some digging and not just vote for someone for superficial reasons. This is important and yes, your vote does mean something. It's too bad we don't take up a grass roots movement for an intelligent person that's not worth tens of millions of dollars or more!

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Totally Random Tuesday 5!

1.  Schools around here are getting a day off tomorrow for the cold.  Okay, look, we live in Kansas and yes, it's supposed to be cold tomorrow, but really?  A day off for the cold?  I don't recall ever getting a day off as a kid because it was too cold.  Do I not remember my childhood correctly or what?  This is strange to me, because while I understand there would potentially be children hanging out at bus stops in the cold, I also think that we live in Kansas and we should be better prepared for the cold already.  I mean, I wear long underwear under my work slacks because I have to walk a block and a half into work and yeah, it's cold!  I don't know...I guess I'm getting to be an old fogey.

2.  What has happened to families volunteering with the church?  I know I've said something about this before, but I am literally the only woman under 40 actively involved in my church's Women's Fellowship.  My parents volunteered all the time when I was a kid and we either went along to help out or stayed at home while they did whatever it was.  I feel sad that our society focuses more on overbooking our children with activities or spending every waking moment adoring them than on being a better example for them.  Don't we all want our children to have a giving heart?  How will they learn if we don't lead by example?

3.  I filled out my calendar for 2015 the other day and came across my father-in-law's birthday.  I didn't know whether I should write it down or not, since he's gone.  Same with he and my mother-in-law's anniversary.  It made me sad.  I wrote them down anyhow, because they are important dates, but I wish Ernie was here to celebrate his special day with everyone instead.

4.  My husband is trying to quit smoking.  He's been doing pretty well, but he has to have crutch cigarettes every now and again.  I'm hoping those will stop soon as well.  I can't wait until his smoker's cough is finally gone!  Please pray or send positive vibes his way.  He needs any help he can get.

5.  Our church's Schola Cantorum (children's choir) was invited to sing at the Vatican's Mass for the feast of the Epiphany next year.  They get to perform for the pope!  That is amazing and so very cool!  They performed at our Women's Fellowship meeting tonight and they were beautiful.  I'm so excited for them.


Have a great week everyone!!