Mom, you are disgusting

I should be doing about a dozen other things besides updating this blog. But, oh, well.

When I was a small child, visiting my dad, the food choices were either exotic or low class- depending on how you look at these sorts of things. One dinner which Jason and I enjoyed immensely, was sardines lined up on a piece of buttered bread. Yummy. Sometimes dad would go to this very particular butcher, and have the highest quality sirloin ground up. We would go home and dad would mix it with various things, shape it into patties, place it on wheat bread with thick sliced onion and plenty of freshly ground black pepper, and voila! Dinner was served. I never thought anything about what I ate, except that I was always hungry and I enjoyed everything.

Occasionally, I get a hankering for a nice tin of sardines, bathed in oliver oil, lined up neatly, and waiting to be a tasty snack. Also, steak tartar, or pickled herring, smoked oysters, mmmm. All a culinary delight to me, and an object of scorn and disgust to my picky offspring. I guess I should have served them up such things when they were Vivvie's age. Maybe it isn't too late to work on Vivian. I do have a leftover sardine here.....

Another day

I'm rather overwhelmed to say the least, and at a general low point. My girlfriend brought me dinner for the family yesterday. It was really great. In the big bag of dinner items, there was this amazing layer bar about 3 inches square, with a thick buttery graham cracker crust, coconut, chocolate chips, and then walnut halves across the top. I hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch because I wasn't hungry. And looking at this bar, I still wasn't hungry but I decided to take a little tiny taste....which was followed by another little tiny taste, and then a bite, until only half the bar remained.

Oliver watched me take a bite from the very back of the suburban and said,"mom, what are you eating?" To which I responded," A little taste of heaven." Oliver thought about this and said," Well, I want a little taste of heaven!"

I thought Jon only had one class remaining after this semester, but it turns out he has two classes. Some weeknights he won't get home until 10pm. Joy.

Charles has been saying a lot of funny things, but whenever I sit to hastily type out the stories, they leave my mind entirely.

I haven't been home cleaning, cooking, shopping, organizing, etc., for a Saturday in months. I think the last time may have been pre-June of this year. Jon and I decided that this Saturday, we would forget that hundreds of babies will be slaughtered and 5 people will actually care enough to go out to the abortion mills--in order to get our household into some semblance of order. With this decided, I looked at my calendar for Saturday. I had already committed to being at a community event in Atlanta from noon until about 6pm. Sigh. Well, at least we'll have the morning.

I LOVE people who call me and keep me on the phone "solving" all my problems. "What you need is a house keeper....what you need are volunteers to make phone calls everyday....what you need is someone you can train to take your place half the time and give you a break....what you need is a secretary..." These type of people should be gathered out of the general public and put on an island together. They'll all sit on the beach talking about what they need and die of starvation 10 feet from the coconut trees.

The nice thing about being at rock bottom is that you can only go up. I really thought I was going to get a flat tire yesterday, just because it seems like a good time for everything to go wrong. I didn't get the flat tire, which confirmed in my illogical state of lowness that I truly am at the bottom.

Thursday with Gloria

Gloria is a mother I talked out of abortion at Atlanta Surgi-Center (although according to DHR, Atlanta Surgi-Center stopped performing abortions in April when they gave up their ambulatory surgical license) in early August. Yesterday, I took her to Hosea's Feed the Hungry to get a supply of food and some coats for her children. Gloria has 8 children at home.

When I was in the parking lot, Afemo and his wife Elizabeth (daughter of Hosea Williams) drove up. I had met them at a CareNet fundraiser dinner a few weeks ago when I served as greeter with their daughter Juanita. Afemo was very nice, and said he would come and speak with Gloria personally, and make sure that she was well cared for.

After an hour, Gloria's two youngest children were getting restless and hungry, so I went and got some fried chicken and biscuits. Well, I couldn't exactly bring fried chicken into a room full of practically homeless people waiting for food assistance, etc., so I asked Gloria and the children to come outside. We settled in at the back of the Suburban and I helped Tayman (nickname) with his food, etc. Afemo came out to make sure we weren't leaving. Gloria was still waiting to be seen, so Afemo talked with her about her situation. Afemo is a professional actor, and Gloria recognized him. She was so pleased that he cared about her and her family. Then he took her hands and said he wanted to pray for her. I joined the circle, and he prayed this amazing 15 minute prayer. It was very moving. I had tears running down my cheeks and then my nose was running- which is rather awkward when you are standing in a prayer circle. Do you drop hands and wipe your nose with your sleeve and then hold hands again? And won't that seriously gross out the person stuck holding your hand? That and all the other obvious questions began to surface. I regrouped without dropping hands. :-) After Afemo was finished praying, he stuck around and chatted for a few minutes, and I thanked him for taking the time to pray for Gloria.

This cute wee black man named BJ handles security over there. He's nearly 70, and a friendly, energetic chap. He was very pleased to meet me because I'm a friend of Shealita, who rescued BJ from a horrendous living situation. BJ brought the two little boys some match box cars and fall jackets. Tayman was talking to everyone like a little magpie by the time we left. He was very happy.

When I took Gloria home, she was encouraged and ready to move forward. Things are tough for her. Her mother died when she was 12. She got pregnant a year later and dropped out of school. Her father died that year as well. Her grandmother took Gloria and her sister in, and cared for them as best she could. Gloria doesn't have a support system, no education and no job. She feels like she's at the mercy of her surroundings. My greatest hope for her is that she will recognize how God is working in her life, and that she will rest upon Him for salvation. Her life is going through great changes, and she is getting help and support now, all because, by God's grace, she stood in a parking lot at Atlanta Surgi-Center in the blazing hot sun, and chose life for her baby.

That's it?

When I'm finished with prolife activism, abortion is outlawed, and I'm once again working on a history degree, I'm going to write a book.

Chapter one: Fundraising- which will in fact be a very short chapter. Mainly because since getting started in this work, I've done several fundraisers for other organizations/people, and none for myself. Quite frankly telling potential donors to write a check to you personally just seems sketchy. But I didn't want to take time to become an organization, get a board of directors, file a 501(c)3, ad infinitum, because that would take away from I want to be doing- saving mommies and babies. The bottom line is, no money, no nothing. So the Bank of Jon Hodges, where I have been withdrawing funds, has officially dried up. I think it's past dry. And filing a 501(c)3 costs...you'll never guess.....oh, you did guess- money. $1,000 clams. So I joined Prolifeunity as National Director- but the founder and President thinks like me in one respect- he would rather be saving babies than raising money with his prolife activism hours.

Well, I decided we had to get an EIN so that we could at least get a business checking account, and have checks made out to Pro-Life Unity. What a concept. Expecting it to take vast amounts of time, and at least some expense, I was happily disappointed. From the moment I called the IRS, until I left the bank, checking account accomplished- it was about 1 hour and 33 minutes. Why didn't I do that sooner!! Oh, and the best part. The fee was one I could afford- $0. I can now take checks made out to Pro-Life Unity!

I'll discuss chapter 2 later.....

No more

Things I will no longer be buying at Trader Joe's: Sourdough baguette and 3 Layer Hummus. I have NO self control on the hummus. The pkg, containing 12 servings, is nearly gone, and was purchased yesterday afternoon. Not good. I'm going to jump on the trampoline right now....

Charles' Toad

For anyone who is interested, Mrs. Street discovered that Charles' toad was in a horrible state of dehydration. Charles had put the toad in about 1 inch of water, and I had ordered him to put him the toad in a dry bucket, which he did after some argument with me. Well, it would appear that toads cannot drink water- they absorb it through their skin. Oops! Fortunately, Mrs. Street is very talented when it comes to toad rehabilitation and the toad is now very happy and rehydrated.

Just a plain old update

My plans for the afternoon fell through. I spent about an hour in the morning attempting to orchestrate going to Bowen Homes, checking on Gloria and taking her clothing and a boatload of food. I decided that I was going to need some help in providing these things, as I've become a poor prolife activist. After several calls around town- calls I had been making last week as well- and checking on the possibility of an escort down to Bowen, I made a dreadful discovery. Gloria's phone number has changed! I decided to scrap the outing until Thursday, wrote Gloria a hasty note saying "Please call me!" and decided to be a plain, ordinary mother this afternoon.

I went to Trader Joe's and bought some basics, along with some three layer hummus. If you like hummus, you'll adore this stuff. It is this fabulous creamy texture with a burst of fragrant herbiness- not sure that is a word. I got some mini or baby hot house cucumbers...mmmmm. I've decided this is my new indulgence, but it's low fat and low calorie! Which means I eat about 3x as much. I'll go jump on the trampoline a little more tomorrow.

I took the kids to buy pumpkins. They decided it would be better for each kid to pick his own pie pumpkin(the small ones) rather than buy one ginormous (new word) pumpkin. After a few moments I noticed that Gabriel would select a little pumpkin, give it a careful look over, and then toss it to the ground. Fortunately, they weren't tossed far, but I did nip that behavior in the bud. After pumpkins were selected, we headed for the car, where we quickly realized, as the toxic fumes filled up the cab that Gabriel had loaded his pants while pumpkin hunting. The car was full of bookbags, lunch boxes, abortion signs, a case of fetal babies, stroller, and backpack carrier, and I did not relish the thought of clearing out the back to change his diaper- especially in light of the fact that the parking lot at this church was small, hilly and hugely annoying. So into his carseat he went. I was totally grossed out, but Gabriel didn't even seem to notice.

When we got home, I ordered Jonathan and Caroline to clean out the car- which was trashed in the fullest sense of the word. It's too bad GM doesn't make the Suburban with a front window that lifts open- I could open the back and the front, and then use a blower to get everything out of the car.

Jonathan has been making dreadful grades in Science: C's! It's ridiculous. My mother never helped me with so much as a spelling list in all my years of school, so I was annoyed that Jonathan was not learning the material on his own. This past week I decided to "bite the bullet" and sat down with him, read through the entire chapter, and went over all the questions. I've been through 7th grade science once, and I would prefer not to go through it again, though I know that I'll be doing it 6 more times. Ugh. He made a 100% on his test today. I'm a bit rueful about that. I made a 100% on his test today. I'll be happier when I have nothing to do with the whole process- except looking over his homework and signing the assignment pad. Oh, in case you're wondering, I don't teach Jonathan science. He attends the Great Oak Academy for that class. Clearly if I were teaching it, I wouldn't expect him to get it on his own.

Vivian is currently in constant pajamas. I gave away all of Caroline's clothes after Oliver was born, believing that we were finished having offspring. So there are no hand me downs in the attic for this child. She has three sleeper PJ's, one that fits, and two that I'm squeezing her into. I decided to go to Goodwill to buy her a winter wardrobe, but Jon didn't want me to do that. He feels that Goodwill should be reserved for really poor people. I feel that Goodwill should be reserved for really frugal people. Jon would prefer that I go to Macy's and get her winter clothes. So I'll do that, just as soon as my fabulous $25 off $100 purchase coupon is in date. I have a couple of those coupons, so that should be good. And it will be nice having Vivvie look adorable, since she is our dolly. I'm tempted to stop by Goodwill on my way to Macy's just to see what I'm missing out on.
The boys need some pants. All the pants have been in constant use since Jonathan first donned them as a young chap, and they're worn out. Holes in the knees, missing snap parts, and a general grunge look. I think that I will check out Goodwill for pants for the three middle ruffians. I just flipped through the latest Landsend catalog and I'm guessing it would cost about $2,000 to buy my offspring a winter wardrobe from that catalog. A single set of PJ's for $30!!!! That is insane. The clothes are adorable and well made, but $30 for one set of PJ's? I still can't get over it. Add the robe and slippers, and you're looking at $100 a kid- provided they only have one set of jammies. I have decided that Target is not an option for buying clothes for my children. Their stuff does not last more than 2 weeks. The pants get holes in the knees faster than my dry cleaned suit gets chocolate or blood on the pants compliments of Gabriel or Vivvie.

That's it for this update except that I'm having a very nice glass of Merlot from Aldi's. For Aldi's $4 a bottle wine, it is rather good.