WobLog: Lisa's Posts Archives

Homeschooling Moment

We almost always eat pancakes or waffles on Sunday before church. This morning, feeling a bit whimsical, I placed two pancakes beside each other on my plate, like eyes, and then a strip of bacon like a mouth. The kids found this hilarious. Inspired by the muses, I then stacked the two pancakes and asked the kids, "Who am I now?" Alex yelled out, "Cyclops!" and the kids burst into laugher again. Shortly after that, Alex exclaimed, "Mom, you're going to eat Polyphemus!"

This Homeschooling Moment has been brought to you by the Ancient Greeks.

Posted by Lisa Roberts at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Low Mass?

We worship using the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (also known as the Traditional Mass, or the Latin Mass) at St. Margaret Mary in Oakland. We are blessed enough to have a High Mass every Sunday, so this is the form we're most familiar with. Sometimes when we go to Mass during the week, we'll attend a Low Mass. The most obvious difference is the lack of a choir for the Low Mass, or, if you're our children, you might say the most obvious difference is that the Low Mass is shorter.

We very rarely attend the Ordinatry Form of the Roman Rite (also know as the Novus Ordo Mass.) In fact, we pretty much only attend when we travel, so the kids aren't very used to this form of the liturgy.

This past Sunday, while traveling, we attended a Novus Ordo Mass. Only someone who has been to both Masses can appreciate how different they can be, depending upon the manner in which they are celebrated. This particular Mass was celebrated in a very modern way.

This was not the first time we've gone to Mass in this particular church, and in the middle of this Mass, my five year old son, Alex leaned over to his grandmother and said, "Do they always have Low Mass here?" Grandma managed to stifle her laughter and replied, "Yes."

Posted by Lisa Roberts at 9:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Now for a bit of fun...

Look at me! I'm Yoda! Nice that being short finally gets me something... Your results:
You are Yoda

Yoda		79%
R2-D2		78%
Obi-Wan Kenobi		77%
Qui-Gon Jinn		67%
Princess Leia		64%
Padme		63%
Luke Skywalker		61%
C-3PO		61%
Darth Maul		60%
Chewbacca		58%

Wise and all knowing you are…yes.
Tall, dark, and handsome?
Not so much I'd say.

(This list displays the top 10 results out of a possible 21 characters)
Click here to take the Star Wars Personality Quiz

Posted by Lisa Roberts at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Pregnant and in the Kitchen

But not barefoot. My feet just don't handle that so well anymore. Alternate blog title? Pop goes the Jar Lid!

It's that time of year when the plums start to ripen, and my thoughts turn to plum jam. Luckily we have a friend in a nearby town who always gets more plums than he can use. Ever eager to help, I take them off his hands for him, and to make sure he always has "more than he can use" I always send a couple jars of jam his way.

Tonight was a little sad though. Usually Don helps me "can" the jam so we can have it all year, but since he's out of town, I had to do it alone, excepting a brief interval when both kids rose from bed just before I began ladling steaming hot jam into the jars. They were so impressed, I decided to let them stay up till that was done. I was also forced, due to an over-full schedule and ripening plums, to work on jam till 10 tonight instead of doing it tomorrow.

The thing that really brought a pang to my heart was when the jar lids began their characteristic "pop," indicating they had sealed. This always brings a smile to my lips, since it means everything went well, and I still smiled tonight. However, Don always calls out the number of each jar as it seals. "One!" Pause, pause. "Two!" Sometimes minutes will go by between jars sealing, but he never fails to call them out. I counted the numbers in my head, and smiled to think of him, but it wasn't quite the same.

Posted by Lisa Roberts at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Holy Smoke!

We attended a Solemn High Mass at St. Margaret Mary in Oakland. Monsignor Wach, Prior General of the Institute of Christ the King and Monsignor Schmitz, the U.S. Provincial for the Institute journeyed here from the recent ordinations in Saint Louis. Since Monsignor Wach and Monsignor Schmitz traveled overseas to visit our church, the kids and I figured we could make the trek, too, despite feeling a little under the weather. We were well rewarded with the beauty and abundant graces of the celebration. At one point, so much incensing had happened that Alex cocked his head, squinted at the altar, and proclaimed, 'I can't see! It's all gray!"

Both kids also commented on the extraordinary beauty of fading sunlight flowing through the stained glass windows and filtering in colored beams through the rising incense. In addition to the myriad graces present at the old Mass, it is also always a feast for the senses.

Posted by Lisa Roberts at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CDC Off Center

Senator Tom Coburn issued a 115 page report on fiscal abuse at the Centers for Disease Control. This report details a stunning variety of fiscal waste, including funding a transgender beauty pageant to fight AIDS and hosting $45 million worth of conferences, some of which included prostitutes, protests, and beach parties. And now the director of the CDC, Dr. Gerberding, is saying she can't continue to run without an additional billion dollars.

Perhaps she should take it from the prostitutes?

Posted by Lisa Roberts at 8:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's a Wonderful Life

I knew it would get hot today, though not as hot as it has been, so shortly after I rose I flicked on the TV and did the standing poses in Raquel Welch's Total Beauty and Fitness tape (available on amazon.com in VHS for a mere $42!), which is my favorite yoga routine of the 9 or so I have tried. I don't know for how much longer I will manage these poses, since I'm 5 months pregnant, but so far a few minor modifications have sufficed. (Note that I don't do the floor postures since I'm too far along in the pregnancy for that any more.)

Don called from overseas just after I finished exercising, so I talked with him a bit while planting a few more cucumber seeds (bugs just ate two of the smaller ones) and observing the three bush bean plants that had just pushed their little heads above ground. Don and I said our goodbyes, as hard as that was, and went on to separate tracks.

Refreshed and ready to go, I plunged outside with kids in tow and proceeded to build the last two tomato cages I needed, using chicken wire and green metal stakes. I only garnered two scratches from the chicken wire, which is pretty good, and got the tomatoes, now a bit large, ensconced into the cages. However, venturing into the garden reminded me of those pesky weeds I'd been meaning to pull, so after making and eating breakfast, I trundled outside again to pull weeds, stopping first to transplant a zucchini to a different spot in my yard. Looked over at the bush beans to notice that they were already taller, and then I proceeded to weed two and a half rows in the peppers and beans while helping Alex with questions about his phonics workbook. No, I don't homeschool on Saturday, and I'm actually on break right now, but Alex has decided that he does homeschool on Saturday, and he is not on break right now, thank you very much!

Finally ready for a break myself, I took a shower and then the kids and I walked downtown to the Farmers Market where I was reconfirmed in my view that our town's market is, essentially, a racket. Prices, in general, matched those of the grocery store, and we were there within 20 minutes of closing time. But we enjoyed walking through, and then walking home. Total time of nearly non-stop walking? About 45 minutes, so not a shabby bit of walking after yoga and weeding.

Once we reached home I did a little yard work out front -- probably 10 minutes -- then went in to make and eat lunch. At one point I took something outside to the trash and checked my beans again. Now three more beans had poked their heads up, and the original three had unfolded and had their first true leaf. I can't wait to see what they look like tonight! It's like a speeded-up film! On the way back into the house, I pulled a few radishes, and the kids and I ate them.

So now the kids are in "quiet time" and I am reflecting on what an amazingly full day I had already managed to have by two o'clock. Whew! I'm beat! What a full, enjoyable day this has been so far!

The only thing that would make this a truly wonderful life would be to have Don home here with us. We always miss him like crazy when he's gone.

Posted by Lisa Roberts at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

See, I Told You So!

Okay, okay. I'm not supposed to say that. At least, that's what I repeatedly tell my kids. But I did tell you so.

World News Daily recently published an article revealing that Judicial Watch has studied adverse reaction reports to the new HPV vaccine, Gardasil, which the California Legislature was earlier trying to make mandatory for all 6th graders, and found some serious problems.

Judicial Watch found 1,637 adverse reactions, of which three were deaths of the person vaccinated, and 18 involved death or malformation of the fetus of pregnant women who had been vaccinated. Other adverse reactions included paralysis, coronary problems, and severe breathing problems. All told, Judicial Watch logged 371 serious reactions. (It is important to recognize as well, that most people in the medical field believe that adverse vaccine reactions are vastly under-reported.)

According to Judicial Watch, ""Side effects published by Merck & Co. warn the public about potential pain, fever, nausea, dizziness and itching after receiving the vaccine. Indeed, 77 percent of the adverse reactions reported are typical side effects to vaccinations. But other more serious side effects reported include paralysis, Bells Palsy, Guillain-Barre syndrome (a disorder in which the body's immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system), and seizures." Of the 42 pregnant women who were vaccinated, 18 had either spontaneous abortion or fetal malformation.

Now, if this vaccine were protecting people from an illness with a high fatality rate, it might be worth the risk involved to receive this drug. However, given that HPV is a sexually-transmitted disease -- that it, it is behaviorally transmitted -- to vaccinate all girls in the state of California because they might someday get HPV and might someday after that develop cervical cancer is insane. Of the 20 million cases of HPV in the U.S., 10,000 cases of cervical cancer develop every year. HPV is not a sentence to develop cervical cancer, and Gardasil is not a prevention for cervical cancer. In addition, it now looks like the vaccine will only "last" four to six years, so it will require frequent boosters, with the attendant risks at each vaccination.

You might not think three deaths is that significant. (Indeed, I don't know the total number of vaccinations given.) But if this were your little girl, being given a vaccine she doesn't need to keep her healthy, would you think her death was insignificant? This is another lesson in the need for parents to think for themselves and do what they decide is right rather than hand over their responsibilities to doctors or the government.

Needless to say, our daughter will not be receiving this vaccine.

Posted by Lisa Roberts at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AB 16 is now even worse!

Awhile ago I urged any Californians reading this blog to contact Assembly members to advise them to vote against AB 16, the bill that would add the new HPV vaccine to the list of vaccines required for school entry.

AB 16 has been completely restructured. After resistance to the initial version, the bill has been rewritten to remove the responsibility for determining which vaccines to require from the legislature to state public health officials. This means, basically, that the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) would essentially mandate the vaccines required in our state, and voters would no longer have any leverage through the legislature to influence the process. Voters would be "written out" of the process by the referral of vaccine issues to faceless "officials" who have no accountability to the people.

And it gets worse. The typical language allowing for Religious, Medical, or Philosophical exemptions to vaccinations is being replaced by parental "belief," a vague term with no constitutional standing. This could easily be overturned if challenged later, essentially removing a parent's right to refuse a vaccine.

Removal of the medical exemption also implies there are no medical reasons to exempt and makes doctors the enforcers of government policy. They are left with no legal responsibility for preventing vaccine injuries and deaths. Removal of the religious exemption tramples deeply held religious beliefs opposing vaccination or the use of certain vaccines, and it denies the right to religious freedom. The exemption for philosophical or conscientiously held beliefs has greater legal standing than undefined parental "beliefs."

This is very bad legislation that makes it seem like the legislature has either decided they aren't brave enough to tangle with the issue so they'll pass it on to bureaucrats, or it makes it seem that they don't think they can pass the bills they wish to (a la the HPV vaccine) so they'll get their agenda passed by force.

So if you are a Californian, please contact your Assembly member and voice your opposition to AB 16.

Posted by Lisa Roberts at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oppose AB 1236

The California State Assembly is at it again, offering us another bill we need to oppose. This one will be debated on April 25th, and it goes under the name, "Compulsory School Attendance; Kindergarten Readiness Program." Proposed, essentially, by the California Teacher's Association, the bill reduces the age of compulsory education from 6 to 5, requiring kindergarten, which is not currently mandatory.

However, as commented on by universalpreschool.com, which is against this bill, 94 percent of California's five year olds are voluntarily sent to private or public kindergarten by their parents, with others being enrolled in charter school home study programs. The other 6% are kept at home and/or are homeschooled by their parents. Therefore, mandating kindergarten won't result in vastly greater numbers of children attending conventional public school. There is no need for unnecessary legislation and associated costs to mandate Kindergarten. Ah, but that's not the entire thrust of this bill. It gets worse.

The state says "all of California's children should have a full-school-day-kindergarten experience." So, it isn't just that all children must attend, now it is that they must attend for a full school day. The costs for this are more than just monetary. Basically, the government, which distrusts parents, wants to pull children away at younger and younger ages for longer periods of time.

This becomes even more evident with the "Kindergarden Readiness Program," which would start the push for universal preschool.

We need to resist this bill. Young children should preferably be with a parent, not a government nanny who can mold the child into the "perfect citizen." It is always through the children that regimes try to grasp and maintain power. To protect our children and our country, we need the freedom to make our own choices about education and to keep our children with us during their most formative years.

Posted by Lisa Roberts at 9:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)