Is it too much to ask for?

I live in a big city. With lots of people. With escalators. Why can’t I find a small umbrella stroller with a basket for carrying packages? And titanium wheels on ball bearings? And possibly a jet engine? Oh, and doesn’t cost a lot because I don’t want to keep it forever?

A behemoth stroller would be nice  but it is completely impractical for our life. Ashlyn is three and doesn’t need a stroller most of the time. It’s great to have when we’re doing our marathon sight-seeing days though. In doing my minimal amount of research I haven’t found a small stroller that has good wheels and a place for stashing bags. I’ve looked at jogging strollers but those things are pretty big. I need something that’s going to fold up into the size of a toothpick in order to get on and off the buses and metros easily. Not to mention to actually fit in my car.

And so the quest continues. If you know of a stroller that fits these qualifications please, please, please tell me of it. I’ll name ours after you.

  • lightweight
  • cheap
  • good wheels for steering on uneven pavement/gravel/grass/people’s feet
  • storage area because we all know why people really use strollers
  • high enough handles or push bar because I’m tired of being the only person short enough to push ours around
  • folds up very compact–people can be pretty unaccommodating in small public spaces
  • self-propelled–I’d be willing to pay extra for this. Who knew that every single place you’d try to steer a stroller would be uphill?

Thank you very much!

Baptism!

Reagan was baptized on Easter Sunday! I was certain I would be a complete mess watching her, it is such an emotional ceremony. I think that if I had been in the audience instead of helping her get ready “back stage” I would have been doing the ugly cry. I held it together though.

Baptism is nothing more than an outward expression of an inward faith. It is a step of obedience in following the will of God in our lives. It is not even necessary for salvation, but being the traditional physical symbol of having faith, it makes baptism a tear jerking, awesome event to witness. For me at least.

For years Reagan has claimed to accept Jesus as her Lord and Savior. She has not always understood the symbolism of baptism and has been afraid of getting dunked in the water. Finally, several weeks ago she came home from church saying that she wanted to be baptized on Easter.

And so it happened:

We’re such proud parents!

The next get rich quick smarties

The whole sky-is-falling mantra of Al Gore in relation to global warming is taking a turn for the landfills, thankfully. There are plenty of people still worried about climate change and how humans affect it. Whether the climate change is anthropomorphic or a God-ordained event, I am going to help do something about it! For only $20, that you send to me (I do accept PayPal), I will plant a tree in your name and you will feel good knowing that your horrible carbon dioxide emissions have been offset! Now, I will not write your name on the tree, attach a plaque with your name to the tree, put a plaque with your name in the ground, or do anything except speak your name as the last shovelful of dirt gets placed around the trunk. To do any of the former would be to harm that beautiful arbor.

So remember, send your money to me! You cannot do this on your own. In our new society where the bigger man has to tell you what you are doing wrong, make you feel guilty for it, then tell what is good for you, it would just be better if you sent your money to me and I planted the tree for you. You wouldn’t do it right in the first place. Don’t even think about planting the tree yourself and then sending that $20 to an organization that provides fresh water or medicine to the desperate people in Africa or Haiti.

**********
Tongue firmly in cheek for that one. You can all rest assured that I haven’t jumped off the deep end. I did receive an email today that is very similar.

Hi Vicki,

just stumbled over your blog https://notsosahm.wordpress.com – nice work!

I am part of a young team in Germany, working for an initiative called “Make it green!”. Our goal is to contribute our part in reducing the carbon footprint by raising awareness of the severe environmental damage caused by carbon emissions . One of our activities is to raise awareness of the carbon emissions resulting from the use of the internet – specifically of blogs. A blog with 15,000 visits a month has a yearly carbon dioxide emissions of 8lb. To neutralise these emissions we have created “My blog is carbon neutral” buttons so bloggers can demonstrate that they care about the environment and the carbon footprint of their blogs. We present them a small but nontheless worthy solution to contribute to environmental issues. Our idea is to show possibilities to make a contribution to protect the environment.

To find out how you can participate please visit http://www.iwillnotprovidetheiraddresshereandgivethemfreepress.com

And how do we actually neutralize your blog’s carbon footprint? We are planting trees in cooperation with the Arbor Day Foundation in Plumas National Forest in Northern California for our project to neutralize the carbon footprint of blogs. Thousands of wildfires burned down many national forests over the past ten years and 88.000 acres of Plumas’ were destroyed by two fires in 2007. To help replanting we need the support of bloggers all over the world! For every participating blog we plant a tree. One blog – one tree.

Why do we do this? We are a German based company called XXXXXX, which provides advertisement brochures of local stores online to help consumers search for specific products and find good deals in their neighborhood. This reduces the amount of brochures printed and so the project helps the environment by reducing unnecessary paper in mailboxes. An American on average receives 41 pounds of junk mail per year. This has the same carbon footprint as burning six gallons of gasoline.

We’d be glad to plant your tree! Help us and show that you care! Every tree counts!

Best wishes from Germany,

Christin

“Make it green!”-team

Wow, I’m flattered that they assume my blog gets anywhere near 15,000 hits per month. I am not flattered though that they take me for a fool. I do not believe in carbon offsets or anything else to be anything but a money-making scheme for the rich people who are pushing harmful climate change down our throats so they can become richer (I’m looking at you, Al Gore and the Cap & Trade insanity). I have nothing wrong with capitalism. I do have an issue with fraudulent people trying to pull one over on people who care about their environment.

The web address that I link to up there is an article that actually says “[a]s more Americans try to offset their carbon emissions”. Where is their statistical data that proves this? “More Americans” is a subjective term that is used to portray an image of thousands upon thousands of people involved in this. I don’t buy any of it and I’m not buying into it.

I care about my environment and I’m not going out of my way to destroy it. I take steps to conserve it (as opposed to preserving it). I recycle. A lot. Nearly a full lawn trashcan is filled with my household’s recycling every Wednesday morning (Arlington, VA recycles up to a #7!). But I’m not going to give up my Durango. It’s great for getting lots of people around in one vehicle. I do my laundry on one day to reduce the amount of loads I run. I use soap that doesn’t have phosphates or whatever seeps into the ground water. I use every part of the animal after Du kills it and brings it home (just seeing if you’re paying attention). I refuse to feel guilty about blogging and am not going to be made to feel responsible for OTHER people accessing information on the internet, of which my blog is rarely part of that.

Individually, I am taking steps to conserve my environment and yet still live. And I am going to trust you that you are doing the same without having to pay someone else to get rich off of us.

By the way, when are we going to start fining the cows and termites for farting? Their carbon monoxide emissions are downright stinky.

Oh, and I see emails like the one I received as being the next form of “Hello, my name is Roger Fillmore, Esq., based out of Nigeria. I need to send a billion dollars to your account and you can keep most of it”.

Speaking about motherhood is SO traumatic! (according to Duke)

Yet Another Case of Campus Discrimination

Duke stops group from using Women’s Center

Duke University cancels motherhood eventwhen pro-life group participates

Click on the title above to read the articles.

“We had a very strong reaction from students in general who use our space who said this was something that was upsetting and not OK. So based on that, we said, OK, we are going to respond to this and stop the program.”

Since when has motherhood become something too “traumatic” to discuss? Yes, motherhood is often difficult and can have traumatic moments. But, why can’t those be discussed? Because to discuss motherhood implies that someone made the choice to become a mother?

This is more than just the motherhood talk, though. This is an attempt to stifle free speech, and particular view points, on a campus that obviously values certain ideals above others. Some students were upset at the organizer’s viewpoints (Mr. Liccardo never states how many students complained to him), viewpoints that are a valid counterpoint, and they successfully managed to convince a university “committed to free speech” to prove that they believe free speech only belongs to those whose mouths speak the majority opinion. Duke’s action belies their supposed commitment “free speech” and being “welcoming  to discordant viewpoints”.

Furthermore, have students become so self-centered, so egocentric, that they cannot stomach someone presenting challenging or opposing views? What happened to the actual mind-broadening, deep intellectual thinking that is supposed to go on at liberal arts universities? Continually, not only Duke, but universities and colleges across the nation are proving that instead of being mind-broadening and challenging, they are pigeonholing and brainwashing.

There comes a point in time where a thinking person has to stop and say he or she has had enough. The radical left and radical feminists no longer (and have not for a long time) present logical and viable philosophical ideas for people living in a realist world, the real world. Maybe “opposite world”. They are as inane as “opposite world” sounds.

Isaiah 5:20

Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.

Sinead’s at it again

I opened up the Sunday paper today, rifling through the various sections, looking for the parts that might catch my interest. Travel and Metro are usually the only ones I spend any time on. I glance through the headlines, throw out the sports and hold my breath as I flip through the Outlook section. The Outlook section is an opinion/editorial section and I rarely agree with anything the Washington Post would print. It highlights new books though so I usually squint my eyes as I search for the latest literary helpings.

Today, though, the top article’s title caught my attention as I was beginning to flip: “Time to hear Pope Benedict’s confession“. My eyes scanned over the first sentence drawing me into the article. As I did the name of the author caught in my peripheral vision. Did it say Sinead O’Connor? As in the bald singer from the early 90s who tore up the picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live? I kind of snickered, feeling compelled to read now, wondering what vitriol I would encounter.

Instead, I came away from reading the article completely in agreement with her. O’Connor was well-spoken, rational and plainly stated her case. She even included an explanation as to why she tore up the Pope’s picture. Would I have done that? Given my background and personal experience with the church, no. Due to what she experienced as a child, and what the general Irish citizenry encountered, and the hypocrisy that is so poisonous to her today I can understand her motivation.

As someone who is not a Catholic but a believer in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit I am concerned with the allegations of sexual abuse rampant throughout the church system nowadays. It is hitting the Catholic church the hardest but everyone from Baptist ministers to Jewish Rabbis are being accused and found guilty.*

The Reformation came about because of the Catholic church’s abuses of power. Holding the purse strings in one hand and the outcome of men’s souls in the other. People such as Martin Luther wanted to get away from the heavy-handedness of the Catholic hierarchy and back to a more real, honest worship of Jesus through a complete understanding of the Bible.

I think the Catholic church is at another crossroads. For Bishops and possibly even the Pope to desire to cover up sexual abuse in order to save face for the Catholic church as a being, an institution, is reprehensible. To devalue the church member in order to overvalue the office, especially concerning sexual sins against children is completely non biblical. Jesus loved children. Would He want sins committed against them to go hidden, unpunished? Vengeance is His, whether there is retribution on this side of Heaven or not.

O’Connor only condemns the Catholic church because growing up in Catholic Ireland she felt that “we Irish endured a brutal brand of Catholicism that revolved around the humiliation of children.” Hers was a personal experience. The blame, as one can find doing any amount of research, extends far beyond the Catholic folds.

What struck me as well about her article was never mentioned outright. Hypocrisy. There is hypocrisy that many in the world today see within the CHRISTIAN church. O’Connor is picking on the sexual sin of abuse of the Catholic church because that is what is making headlines and where she felt the pain, but what of the sin of divorce? The sin of premarital sex? The sin of pornography? All of those are rampant in every denomination of Christian churches and the hypocrisy is making it downright impossible to make unbelievers believe that there is anything special to be had with a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And that’s the problem. The Catholic church is concerned with appearance whereas the Protestant churches just don’t care. When we as Christians begin to care again about God’s will as the basis for having established religion then we will begin to do the right things by the victims.

I rambled a bit more than what might be necessary, but I felt a connection with O’Connor that I didn’t expect to feel. I in no way intend to bash the Catholic church any more than I would criticize my own Protestant churches for their shortfalls. I don’t dislike the Pope as a person and feel that he has no control over these Cardinals’ and Bishops’ and Priests’ behaviors. He does have a responsibility, just like every Christian on God’s green earth, to make sure the followers of Christ are taken care of and that our evangelistic efforts would not be impeded by rampant sin of any kind. In short, I was impressed with Sinead, based on what I read, and wanted to state so.

*It’s not the religious position that makes the man sin; the sinfulness is already in his heart, going unchecked by himself or unpunished by his superiors. We should not blame the Christian church for creating monsters, we should blame it for harboring them.

Cherry blossoms and Chinese

The cherry blossom trees around D.C. were given by the city of Tokyo in 1912. Over 3,000 trees. They’re all in full bloom right now and today was the kick off of the National Cherry Blossom Festival.

The Kite Festival was part of the day’s events and we headed there first. Why we didn’t think to bring a kite is beyond me. Something learned for next year. It was neat to see all the kites flying around the mall area, although you won’t be able to tell from any pictures I took. For some reason I didn’t get a picture with a bunch of kites in it.

I did get a picture of Du and Reagan and Ed doing cartwheels among the kite flyers (this was later in the day).

A friend from high school emailed me this morning letting me know she and her family would be out there. I’m sick that we didn’t get any pictures together, but Lauren, we enjoyed meeting you and your family there and walking around, even for the short time that it was. We did take pictures of each other’s families.

We then met up with some other friends and spent the rest of the day with them. We headed to the National Building Museum where the opening ceremonies of the Festival were being held. Had we known we would have gotten there sooner because they had a lot of kids crafts to do. We got there right as the craft tables were closing up though.

National Building Museum

Japanese ballerina

After the opening ceremony we decided to head into Chinatown for dinner. There is no Japanesetown or I guess we would have gone there to stick with the whole Cherry Blossom theme…

New Big Wong. Hmm.

My fortune in the cookie:

“Life is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think.” I like that.