Paprika App

Highly recommended by my Move More Eat Well leader, Cathy Zielske, this app sounds definitely worth pursuing.  Get it here.

"Equal" Rights

For almost my entire life, abortion (with some restrictions) has been legal in my country. I have always been vocal about how I feel regarding this issue.  If you don't want to get into a knock-down, drag-out argument with me, it's best not to even start the discussion, as I will not let it go.

To those who argue that this is a "women's" issue, consider your hypocrisy.  You fight for equal rights, but for whom? Your argument allows that women are more important than vulnerable children.  Your very nature should be to PROTECT children, not destroy them.  However, your alleged needs (wants) are supposed to trump the rights and needs of a little human.

Oh, but "it's" not really a "human?"  Tell that to someone who has dealt with infertility issues.  Tell that to someone who has seen the human, the size of a piece of rice, ALIVE in a sonogram after trying like hell to conceive.  The argument is a lame one, and one that absolutely cannot be proven.  You may say it cannot be disproven, either.  So, if we can neither prove nor disprove the "life" aspect of conception, how irresponsible is it to allow the procedure?

Recently, the Komen Foundation has pulled its funding for Planned Parenthood due to the fact that it is under investigation for using federal funding for abortions.  This has some people pretty angry.  I am angry, too.  I am angry that killing children seems to be OK, and that now some people think that Komen should lose its funding because of this move.  The arguments have been based on the money from Komen paying for cancer screenings gotten via Planned Parenthood. But, wait... with national health care, I thought that things like breast cancer screening were going to be "covered." I mean, that's what I was told when I listened to the rhetoric involved in that discussion.

People are lumping this into a purely political move.  As if no one in their right minds could possibly make this decision.  As if no one but lunatics would actually be anti-abortion...I mean, anti-woman...oh, wait... I AM a woman...And I am anti-abortion, not solely because my church tells me, or that it's a political move, but that I truly in my heart and gut believe it is WRONG and our society should be ashamed of itself in allowing it.  I am ashamed of the Democratic party...a party whom I joined because they were supposed to be for the underdog, for the marginal, for the minority.  Yet, they have grown into anything but that platform.

Hold an infant for an hour.  You'll understand what I mean.  Or talk to someone who can't get pregnant and deals with a desperate yearning to have a child.  Maybe you'll get it.  How about mandatory sonograms for those considering an abortion so that they can REALLY give informed consent?  Yeah, I didn't think so.

On Grey's Anatomy and Reliving Traumatic Experiences

One of my general rules of life has been: Face it.  In life, there are shitty things that happen.  Avoidance does not make them go away.  Facing gives them less power.  But I think my theory has its holes.

When I was younger, and I was sure the Winter Warlock or Bigfoot was outside my window waiting to snatch me up (second story window in the city...talk about irrational), my way of "facing" that was to close my eyes tight until I fell asleep.  If my eyes were closed, whatever was out there could not touch me.  Or at least that was my logic.  And it worked.  Morning came.  I was safe.

However, there are bigger things in life that happen, and deeper wounds that I really think, rather than "facing" them to become calloused to the pain, I might need to start avoiding.

I think I should have turned this week's Grey's Anatomy off when I saw what was coming, but I figured "facing it" would be healthier.  For the last few seasons, Grey's has been fairly jolting and heavily sad.  There was an episode where a newly pregnant Meredith watched a gunman shoot her husband and then had a subsequent miscarriage.  This gunman had gone on a frightening rampage through the hospital.  I was pretty shaken by that episode.  Being in a profession that has "intruder plans," the idea of people going on shooting rampages is, alas, part of what could be any teacher's reality.  So, that episode was brutal on my emotions.

In this week's episode, a family was in an accident.  All of the adults in the car passed away.  One after the other.  First the grandmother, then the mother, then the dad, leaving the three children orphaned.  The oldest child was celebrating her 18th birthday.  She watched each of these persons in her life die.  Her father was on life support and his organs were slowly shutting down.  She had to decide to take him off life support.  It was at that point that I COMPLETELY lost it.  From the decision to her watching her father take his last breaths without a respirator, I was a mess.  It was not a "therapeutic" feeling.  It reopened a wound, and it felt awful.  So, my theory of facing things that are difficult really did not work out too well in this situation.

I know in life I cannot avoid stories that involve the ends of people's lives, and not every "death" scenario makes me have this type of reaction.  However, I am not sure intentionally exposing myself to storylines that take me down an emotional road that caused me decades to deal with is entirely necessary.  Live and learn.

Winter Break, Day 12

What a weird day, weather-wise.

• Got up and worked on some Move More Eat Well printouts. Realized that my printer software and I need to come to terms.  Lots of wasted cardstock.  Ugh!  The good news is that I got in my 100 sit ups/push ups while the printer wasted my (Bazzill white orange peel) cardstock.
• Did Zumba on the Wii with Kim.  
• Went out into the elements.  We actually had snow showers today. Max looked outside and thought it was foggy.  Snow was blowing around, the temperature dropped, and everything got slick.
• While out in the elements, I was in major pain.  My foot was a hot mess, and there was no stretching that could get me out of this one.  Finally, I came home, ate lunch, and lay on the bed with a heating pad wrapped around it for about an hour.  That actually was just what the doctor ordered.
• I wrote out my Christmas thank you cards and dropped them off in the mail.
• We had The Fresh Market chicken, twice baked potatoes, and (I had) corn souffle.  I started tracking my food intake on Lose It (online and app) just to get an idea of what I was shoveling in my mouth and to keep me accountable (or more than I was, which was not at all).  We shall see.  I did NOT like the scale's reading this morning.  I sure am physically active, so gaining a bit more control of my food intake will be good.  Also, mixing up my workouts will help.
• We watched Pawn Stars and American Pickers.  Love those guys!
• Now, I will be working a bit on my One Little Word project.  I took this photo, which I will be using for the first part of the scrapbook.  I need to put on the overlay (a slight frame that goes with the rest of the design) and then it shall be done.  I also took a photo of Max and I (posted below the one of me).  Love it.  Used my iPhone and Camera+ actions, hence the grain.

Winter Break, Day 11 - Welcome 2012!

Today:

• The boys and I went to see The Muppets.  So glad we saw it before it was out of the theaters.  They really seemed to enjoy it. I enjoy that, with the exception of one bathroom visit, Max now sits through entire movies without much of an issue. We have come a long way since Up! :)

• After a delightful Wendy's lunch (Ignatius' favorite), I took a bit of a nap.  Scott decided to play Mike Holmes and start ripping apart our basement.  What? you say?  But JoLynn, your basement was not completely finished.  Indeed, you are correct.  After almost 20 years of marriage, I realized that one of the golden rules of marital bliss is sometimes you ask questions, and sometimes questions will not help one understand any better.
• I also watched my first video for my MMEW scrapbook journey.  Really good stuff.
• Upon waking and inspecting the lack of walls in my basement, I did an hour of Wii Zumba, did my 100s (push ups and sit ups) that I re-committed to, and de-Christmased, to a degree.  The tree is still up, but that is the job of Destructo-Man.

Pondering the putting away of Christmas, I have to say that taking down the tree on New Year's Day is quite symbolic. I looked at the ornaments from the many years, thought about those years and events that occurred in them, and packed them away yet again.  Some of them were good memories, and some of them stunk.  But they all shaped our history and living through them shapes our future.  That's all I have to say about that.

New Year's Eve - Winter Break, Day 10

Ten glorious days off.  How fantastically awesome.  For whatever reason, I am thoroughly enjoying this break.  Perhaps documenting the days is proof that they really are not "flying" by--that every day has the same 24 hours?  Who knows?  But I'll take it.
Today:

• Got up.  Cleaned the basement a bit after McDonalds oatmeal and an English Muffin.  
• Used my Zumba Fitness 2 for the Wii for the first time with Kim.  I really liked it.  I like "real" classes better, but when "real" classes are not an option, this is a viable alternative.
• Cleaned up and headed to Meijer, what I will label as a "zoo."  We were there Tuesday morning and it was dead.  Man I wish I could work from home, so leisurely Tuesday morning Meijer visits were in the realm of doable.  There's always my "breaks."
• Took some photos for our new "adventure," Move More Eat Well 2012.  I also printed out some of the things we needed for the album.  We needed a photo of the shoes that would be "moving us," and of, well, us.  Here were the money shots:

• We attended church, where, for whatever reason, I kept getting choked up.  It happens every now and again.  Songs usually.  We sang lots of Mary songs, including Hail Mary, Gentle Woman and What Child Is This?  Heck, even Father Luke got teared up during the Eucharistic Prayer.  Don't know what happened, but he's had quite a year of changes and loss, so I can only imagine which emotion took over.  He's such a good guy.  We are blessed to have him with us.
• We had some homemade pizzas when we returned.  I will confess, that's my favorite kind of pizza.  However, a bit of cheese fell to the bottom of the oven--enough to cause a puff of smoke--then causing a cranky Scott (he felt I should have gotten the cheese off the 425 degree one bottom, despite it's immediate melting--and, eventually, causing the smoke detectors to go off (thus amplifying Scott's discomfort with the whole situation).  The pizza still tasted great, however. :)
• Ignatius was invited to see the new Mission Impossible movie at 8:30, so he was dropped off at the theater to meet his friends and a set of parents.  And thus, an Asperger's/teenager moment.  So many things to pack into one social story, as, typically, he goes to the movies with one of us.  How to pay for the ticket?  Do not forget that the money needs to go toward Steak N Shake afterwards.  When at Steak N Shake, you will have to tip.  Here's how you figure that out.  So there I sat, watching my "prepared" son go in to the theater without buying a ticket.  As I exited my car to help, I saw he came back out to the ticket booth, so I did not enter.  I know he has to figure all of this out by himself...I could at age 14 with little dilemmas.  I was not Ignatius.  He survived and enjoyed the evening.  they decided not to go to Steak N Shake, so that portion of the preparation was unneeded.  Next time we're out somewhere, he will be determining the tip. 
• Watched the ball drop in NYC at 11 after sharing a bottle of Spumante with the man and watching some marathon on BBC America.  Max was sound asleep in his martial pajamas.  It was kind of nice.

On to 2012!  And more Winter Break!

Winter Break - Day 9

A rainy Friday...the last Friday of 2011!  On today's docket:

• Lunched and crafted with my pal, Ann.  Check out our creations!
• Had some dinner from Noodles & Co. with the boys.
• Caught up on blogging, Facebook, and doing the pre-class assignments for the scrapbook projects coming up.
• Watched American Pickers with Scott.
• Played a multitude of Words with Friends and Hanging with Friends.

Can't believe tomorrow is the last day of 2011.  This year went by really quickly!