Love in a Hopeless Place

Image courtesy of Newtown Photo Memorial Project.

How do you tell your children about the deaths of children in their age range? Can you reconcile this atrocious theft of innocence for an entire community with the idea of a God who cares, and is just and good? How many parents like me have likewise hid their tears and sorrow for strangers if only so their own children won't be frightened?
The massacre at Sandy Hook School has impacted so many. I live in CT. Somewhere deep in my heart, I always felt my kids were safe, if only by virtue of living in a tiny state. Tragedies like the loss of these precious kids happened in the great land of Elsewhere. Not here. Not to ours. Evil was for places like New York, large cities so unlike any here.

Standing up for Santa

Belief in the big red guy is a rite of passage for many American kids.

Growing up, I never really gave Santa a second thought. He just was. Once I became a parent, it also never crossed my mind for even a moment to not share the magic of Santa with my own children. It wasn't until a few years ago that I even realized that there are people who are against letting their kids believe in jolly old St. Nick for a whole multitude of reasons.

Life After RNY: the 2nd month

MonkeyMan and I, taken in November '12. See how my legs are crossed? I couldn't do that 3 months ago.

The second month after my WLS was the dubbed the Month of NSVs in my house. In the WLS community, we talk about our scale-related goals and victories, but we also talk about our non-scale victories (NSV). When you're disappointed with the numbers on the scale, NSVs are a fabulous way to remind yourself just how far you've come.

Is there truly a "War on Christmas"?

This gem has been circulating around Facebook lately.

It's December, a lovely time of year to celebrate many things: the birth of Christ, the miracle of God's provision, the change of the seasons, the strength of one's culture and heritage, the hope of rebirth and renewal, amongst many others. I should also add that many of our country's non-believers enjoy a robust holiday season as well, full of joy and meaningful traditions. In America, roughly 76% of adults identify as Christian in faith. That statistic is why I have such a hard time with the media-hyped "war on Christmas".

Life after RNY: the 1st month

Post-op bruising, 4 weeks out.

Just a small warning for my more sensitive readers: this post contains a frank description of the first month of recovery from my laproscopic RNY gastric bypass surgery, as well as photos of an open surgical site infection. This is also a very long post because, well, I'm long winded. Proceed with caution.

It's now been a little more than 2 months since I had weight loss surgery. I'm finally (FINALLY!) feeling back to normal. I can now say that I am so glad I did this. If you'd asked me last month, I would've burst into tears and told you it was my biggest regret to date.

What A Beautiful Life!



The Princess at 12 weeks gestation. Sorry for the blurry picture of a picture.

The Princess at 23 months.

My friend's daughter at 9 weeks gestation.



Miss N at almost 1 and a half.


 

I don't think I've done a post on my change of heart from pro-choice to pro-life. It's a difficult and heated subject to talk about. The overwhelming majority of the people I know are very passionate about it regardless of which side their personal stance falls on. In my opinion, abortion affects us all. I have no idea about the actual stats on it, but I'd imagine most people either know someone who has had an abortion or has had one themselves. This post is not about judgment. It's about my private struggle that lead to me believing all life has value.

Homeward Bound

Found on Pinterest. This spoke to my heart.

My husband, kids, gerbils, and I live in a small Northeastern state. I am the only one out of our bunch to have lived anywhere else but this place. I was born in Mississippi, and moved here when I was about 7. Although this is now home, it no longer feels quite that way. You see, Mr. P. and I have a dream.