Toonful Tuesday

Are kids worthy of respect?

This is something I've been thinking about lately and just wanted to put out there to share with whoever happens to read my blog...all 3 of you. ***snicker snicker***

Dakota just turned 13. That is a hard age for any 13-yr-old. Because Dakota has always been homeschooled and never gone to public school and because he has 5 much older brothers/sisters and four sets of grandparents he has been around adults his entire life. That's not to say he doesn't have friends his own age, he has several friends he plays with regularly and he has never had any problem hanging out with kids.

The problem comes with adults. He is so used to his family treating him with respect and allowing him to do and think for himself. When we are "out in the world" and I'm trying to teach him things or I take him with me on jobs so I can teach him skills that may be useful later on, it's so frustrating when an adult looks at Dakota and sees a "kid" and forms an opinion like "oh great, a bratty kid to deal with" and is not helpful or completely overlooks him BECAUSE he's a kid! Grrrr, I get so frustrated with this!

Trying to teach him skills of how to ask questions politely and find out information only to be met with a rude, obnoxious adult who quite obviously doesn't want to be bothered by a "child"...just burns me up! Then the next time we are faced with this situation Dakota is scared to ask questions or go pay for something...because of the ignorant adult he had to deal with the previous time. Unfortunately, Dakota is a people pleaser so he takes things like this to heart - it weighs heavily on him, therefore weighing heavily on me. :-(

There have been several instances of this happening lately and I just don't understand why some adults feel like kids are not worthy of the same respect they themselves expect?

Merchandising

I posted about how I got started with Merchandising last year. I've been working more and more the last few months. Currently I'm employed by five different companies and there's never a week I go without some sort of work.

This is the perfect job for me because I set my own hours, pick which jobs I want to work and complete them on my time schedule. Since Greg & I are still sharing a vehicle, this works out wonderfully.

There are a couple of different job boards and websites with a ton of information about Merchandising if you are looking for some side jobs or extra income. You can start your search here:
Volition - read the forums, look at the job listings
NARMS - create a profile so jobs will be emailed to you or just search the job bank
If you have any questions or need more information about merchandising, feel free to leave me a comment.

Debit Card Woes

Image by Neil T via Flickr

I pay the majority of our bills online using my debit card. I do shop online too. I've been doing this for many years and fortunately have not had any problems...until recently. Twice within the last two months my debit card has been "hacked."

Praise the Lord I've changed the way I handle my bank accounts the last six months so I didn't lose any money both times my card's security was breached. The credit union just cancelled my card and issued me a new one both times without me even knowing it (although they did try calling me and couldn't reach me.)

I used to use my debit card for absolutely everything...never carrying cash on me at all. The last six months though I've been paying our bills on payday (online) using my debit card so the money comes out instantly and then I transfer some to savings and pull the rest of the money out of the bank. I have found that we are better able to save from week to week if the money is sitting in a safe place at home as opposed to sitting in the bank where we can see the available amount at any given moment. If we do need to use our debit card while we are out, I just call and transfer the money from savings.

Because of this habit I've started the credit union knew something was up when a very large charge was trying to be made using my debit card and the money wasn't in the account to cover this charge...so they tried calling me and when they couldn't reach me, they declined the charge and cancelled my card. When I returned their call the next day and found out what had happened AGAIN I was so appreciative they had been pro-active in their efforts to prevent me from losing a lot of money and going through a lot of hassle!

Now, I'm on my third card in two months...this time they sent me a keychain card too. Hmmm, not sure if I like this thing yet or not.

World Habitat Day

The United Nations has designated the 1st Monday of October each year as World Habitat Day.

According to the United Nations, more than 100 million people in the world today are homeless. Millions more face a severe housing problem living without adequate sanitation, with irregular or no electricity supply and without adequate security.
I can't imagine what life must be like for the people who have to live in these conditions day in and day out year after year. As I sit here in my comfortable padded chair in my air conditioned bedroom and type this post on my computer, which I can do because I have electricity, cable, etc, I can't help but feel guilty when I think of the children in this picture below...
Look at what they are faced with every day! The sad fact of the matter is this problem is not only abroad...it's right here in the United States! According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (2004) - about 95 million people, 1/3 of the nation, have housing problems including a high-cost burden, overcrowding, poor quality shelter and homelessness. The number of low-income families that lack safe and affordable housing is related to the number of children that suffer from asthma, viral infections, anemia, stunted growth and other health problems.

The Global Poverty Facts are even worse -
According to UN-Habitat (2006) - One out of every three city dwellers – nearly a billion people – lives in a slum. (Slum indicators include: lack of water, lack of sanitation, overcrowding, non-durable structures and insecure tenure.)

By the year 2030, an additional 3 billion people, about 40 percent of the world’s population, will need access to housing. This translates into a demand for 96,150 new affordable units every day and 4,000 every hour. (UN-HABITAT: 2005)

So, what can we do to help?

Advocate - Educate - Donate

Advocate for decent housing for all by submitting a photo of yourself holding a sign that says “It all starts at home” and submit it to Habitat’s photo petition on Flickr.com Habitat’s goal is to collect a minimum of 500 photos to deliver to the White House. Submit your photo by Friday, September 25, 2009.

Urge your legislators to support the Shelter, Land and Urban Assistance Act of 2009. Tell Congress to pass the SLUM Assistance Act!

Educate your community with Habitat for Humanity’s World Habitat Day handbook to learn more about the importance of secure tenure and neighborhood revitalization. Get even more information about the issue of insecure tenure by reading Habitat’s Shelter Report: building a secure future through effective land policies.

Brainstorm ways to get more people involved. Learn from the successes of last year’s campaign, and come up with brand-new ways to celebrate and publicize the important work of Habitat for Humanity.


Donate to be a part of making the world a better place and support Habitat’s efforts. Donate online today!

Brianna turned 18

Greg's daughter, Brianna turned 18 on Saturday. I met Brianna when she was a toddler. Greg and I got married when she was 4 yrs old - it's hard to believe she is 18 now! She is a beautiful young lady.

We have not seen her in a few months and when we got to the party Saturday, she was shocked to see how much Dakota had grown...he's now taller than her. Both her brothers will be towering over her now before much longer! Haha

Happy Birthday Bri....I love you sweetie!

Toonful Tuesday

As Christians, we should be developing in our lives the fruit of the Spirit, those traits of Godly character, so that the world around us can see by our words and our actions that we have been given a new life in Jesus.

Separation of Church and State

Image via Wikipedia

This doesn't happen too often on my blog, but I'm ticked off about this so I'm stepping on my soapbox...it's my blog, I can do that. :-)

Separation of church and state

This gets thrown around so much in the wrong context - it's frustrating when people try to use this as an argument of why there shouldn't be prayer here and there or the Ten Commandments displayed here and there or other nonsense such as this. People, do your homework for goodness sake! There is a widespread belief that separation of church and state was created to keep people from practicing or expressing their religion or beliefs in state/public buildings/areas/functions, etc. This is NOT what this was created for!

Separation of church and state comes from the First Ammendment:

• Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances

The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment prohibits the establishment of a national religion by the Congress or the preference of one religion over another, non-religion over religion, or religion over non-religion.

In essence, what this all means is Separation of Church and State was created to KEEP the STATE'S nose out of people's individual religious beliefs and NOT ALLOW the state/government to make a one-world religion.

You can read more about the laws here, here and here.

Toonful Tuesday

An alternative translation to the word "health" in the verse is "medicine". God's word is good medicine for our total being: spirit, soul and body.

Girls Weekend in GA

I went on a road trip to GA over the Labor Day weekend to visit Tina and my granddaughter, Bailee. I asked my (ex) sister-in-law, Vickie and her daughter Maddy to go with me so Bailee could spend time with her cousin and we could just have a good "girls weekend" away from our guys.
We got in late Friday night and stayed until Monday morning. The weekend went by way too fast. On Saturday we went into Albany to the Riverquarium by Flint River where they were having a birthday bash celebration.
They had lots of activities set up for the kids including train rides, pony rides, bounce houses, people painting faces, etc.
While we were inside Riverquarium both girls had the chance to pet a snake and an alligator.
Their moms were shocked they did this! Both had had the opportunity to do this once before recently and had passed so to see them both of jump right up with no fear and start petting both of these creatures was funny. In fact, we had to say "okay, that's enough" when they were petting the snake...I think the girl holding it was getting tired of the girls petting it. LOL
It was so incredibly hot outside! We let the girls ride the train, ride a pony and jump in a bounce house but then we decided to go inside the Riverquarium and walk around in the ac. This is Vickie and Maddy at the park beside the Riverquarium.
This was one of those squirting fountains where Bailee played after we came out of Riverquarium - Maddy didn't want to get all wet.
After our day out, Tina cooked a great dinner and invited a couple of girlfriends over to join us. She had made a birthday cake for Vickie (which was DELICIOUS!) and we ate and laughed til late in the evening.
Sunday we finished up the weekend by running to Michael's and grabbing a few items to add to my supplies I brought with me and then we worked on making gifts and stamping all day while the girls played in the pool.



We had a great weekend! It was way too short!!

Toonful Tuesday

Fibro Fog

Cover of Fibromyalgia: A Natural Approach

I've posted about my Fibromyalgia before. I'm learning more and more how to deal with it and what my limitations are. The thing about Fibromyalgia is there is a broad range of symptoms and one person might suffer from one or two of the symptoms while another person might suffer from 6-7 of the symptoms. Fortunately the main thing I suffer from consistently is intense fatigue. I don't have a lot of the pains I used to have on an everyday basis anymore...either that or else I'm just getting "used" to them and dealing with it.

Some ladies at my church started a support group last week for chronic pain sufferers. Last Sunday was our first meeting. Discussing symptoms, treatments, how to deal with the aches and pains, fatigue and such with people who understand what I'm going through even when I look perfectly fine on the outside was a tremendous blessing!

One thing I wasn't prepared for was this little tidbit...a woman was discussing some goofy thing she had forgotten to do and she said "Oh I just blamed it on Fibro Fog."

"Fibro what?!?"

Several people looked at me and one lady said "Fibro fog! You haven't heard of that?"

"Well, no actually I haven't."

She continued, "It's an actual side effect of fibromyalgia sufferers. Do you ever forget your words, have memory loss, get confused about stuff...like have a cloudy brain?"

By now the flashing bulbs and alarms are starting to go off in my head because I am REALLY getting excited...."Why YES!! Like EVERY SINGLE DAY!! Is THAT what's wrong with me??!!"

I have never been so excited in my life to find out that I'm not losing my mind. Fibro Fog is a side effect, BUT it is not a neurological condition like Alzheimer's or anything like that. I can work on overcoming it and modify my diet to possibly help. After researching this and learning more about it now I feel so much better.

I can't begin to explain the frustrations over the last 6-9 months that I've dealt with (and Greg has dealt with) because of things I've forgotten to do, or I've forgotten I've already done, or I can't quite find the right words to say...my words get jumbled and I have trouble spelling when I've always been an excellent speller before...to know that this is caused by my fibromyalgia and be able to pinpoint the problem is a freeing feeling. Now I have something to work with towards making my memory and confusion better!

Toonful Tuesday