I've had extra weight hanging around for quite a while now. Okay, since Abigail was born. It was never enough to get me motivated to do anything about it. I put on another 10 lbs last fall and winter and that was it. I started working out and watching my portion size, caloric intake and fat calories in February. I've lost 19 lbs so far. Woohoo! I have another 20 I want to lose. I have been doing Nordic Track for 45-50 minutes a day (30 in the a.m., 15-20 in the p.m.) and a Pilates intermediate workout in addition to my normal walking everywhere, gardening, etc. To be honest, I'm really enjoying the exercise and the stength I'm feeling in my stomach muscles. I've never had a strong abdomen, so this is really cool. I was wearing a size 12 (honestly though, they were tight), and now I can easily fit into size 10. The one pair of skinny size 12 pants I didn't wear all winter because they looked awful one me? I can now pull them off without unbuttoning them!

We joined the Y this weekend, something for all of us. The kids can do their programs at a *much* lower cost if we are members. Around here, the Y is the only real place for soccer, gymnastics, swimming lessons year 'round, etc. They also offer homeschool swimming and a homeschool gymnastics during the day time, instead of having everything in the evening hours. Abigail has mentioned many times that she'd like to take gymnastics, and Isabella would really like to try soccer in the fall. I'm excited about their fitness center. It's newly remodeled and pretty nice for a town this size. The Precore (sp?) machine is too fun. I've been doing 35 minutes on that the last few days and enjoying it a lot. I have also been trying to figure out exercises for my triceps (getting those saggy mom arms, ugh), so the tricep machine is too cool. Luis is thrilled to have a place to swim laps all year, and he really likes to do free weights. So, even though it's $50 a month, we'll definately get our money out it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7184763/

I knew that there were some families like this, but I had no idea it was considered the norm these days. Reading about these people's lives was horrifying for me. I cannot imagine a world where my children's lives are that scheduled, a world where my family interacts so little with each other, a world without free time for imagination, play, long walks and conversation. There are times when I feel my kids are doing too much. For us, that means art once a week, play group twice a month, science club once a week, homeschool gym once a week (fall and spring), girl scouts once or twice a month (depending on girl). We eat dinner as a family every night, even when it means eating at 4:50 to make a 5:30 girl scout meeting. It's maybe once a month that we don't eat together. The kids have hours outside every day in spring, summer and fall, time to just be kids, to play hopscotch, ride bike, play superheros and run back and forth with the neighbors' kids. I didn't think my reality was that different. The two next door neighbors are also at home moms. The kids run around together, and we all keep eye out. It's not unusual for my kids to play next door for a few hours, then her kids come over here or go on a walk with us. They all have time to just be.

We were at the library the other night, wasting an hour while Abigail was at her Brownies meeting. I was talking with the children's librarian about various things. She's probably in her 50's, a really neat woman and fun to talk with. I told her some story about Vincent and the goofy things he does; she asked me to keep on telling her these stories because they give her hope. She said that she's noticed kids don't have as much imagination these days, that they play differently and interact with the world differently than they did in years past. If the lives of the families portrayed in this article are even remotely like the norm, then it's no wonder children are out of touch with play, imagination and family interaction. I hope this article was sensationalist, that the children studied in LA are not the norm for the US. I hope that most of the kids out there have large sections of each day to just be kids, without orchestrated activities, TV, video games or electronic media.

Now that I'm not tired, I can explain the last post more coherently. It was a cohesive thought until blogger ate half of it.

We live in an extremely Chrisitian community. There are about 30 various Chrisitian churches in this town of 10K, incuding a fair number of them fundamentalist or conservative Christians. The Christian culture is very strong here, almost overwhelming. The court house on the square downtown plays music year round; in December that music is Christmas carols, not just secular ones, but also religious ones. There was a huge upset a few years ago because someone complained about the fact that a monument to the ten commandments was in a public park. The city sponsors an Easter Egg hunt. This is a very Christian town.

Compounding this is the fact that the homeschooling community here is dominated by conservative Christians. I'm talking about the kind of Christians who feel that Catholics and Lutherans aren't real Christians (not just my impression, but that of some Catholics and Lutherans I know too). We have our core group of homeschooling friends, but we cautiously guard our religious beliefs from others in this community. We were asked to stop attending a dance class when I simply let it be known that we were not Christian. We left our 4-H group because it was overtly Christian. Abigail came back from a Girl Scout Thinking Day activity having learned "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands". When Isabella joined Daisy Scouts, I checked with the leader if they did any religious content, and was told "well, this is a Christian organization". NO, according to Girl Scouts International IT IS NOT.

So, while members of the conservative Christian community may claim they are under attack, that their values and beliefs are being banished from our society, from the perspective of someone outside of the mainstream, I can say it's not true. The Christian culture is everywhere in our society, from the obsessive coverage of the Pope issues (would it be covered so much if it where the Dali Lama or a Muslim leader?) down to the way that store clerks assume they should wish me a Happy Easter and people think I'm happy to hear "I'm praying for you" (when I haven't asked them to) or have them tell me "Jesus Bless You".

Honestly, I wouldn't even mind these biases so much if there even the slightest bit of fair trade on this. If the media covered other religions as obsessively as Christianity. If conservative Christians could accept that other people have a right to believe in other religions. If the courthouse here played traditional Jewish songs around Passover, Islamic ones for Ramadan, etc. If people who felt it was okay to share their religion with me wouldn't judge my family for being Pagan, wouldn't ostracisize us due to their unknown biases.

I always listen to NPR while exercising. Tonight the show was about the judiciary and whether it's under attack from the Judeo-Christian religious right and Congress, or would activist judges simply being properly treated through an impeachment process. One thing really struck me. One person advocating judicial impeachments kept referring to "people of faith". He kept saying that the "people of faith" were fine until activist judges started removing prayer from the schools, the Judeo-Christian Ten Commandments from courthouses, making abortion accessible, saying s od om y is legal and allowing gay marriage. I find this use of the term "people of faith" used to describe those who oppose these court decisions to be unbelievably conceited and insulting. I am a person who has a great deal of religious faith. I am not, however, someone who believes in the Judeo-Christian god. I want prayer out of the schools and the Ten Commandments off of public property. I believe that gays should marry and the goverment has no business creating laws regarding the s ex life of consenting adults. Don't use the term "people of faith" unless you mean to include people of ALL religious faiths.

While I am on this topic, the Pledge of Allegiance annoys me to no end. Specifically, the inclusion of the words "under God" is irritating to me. These words were added in the '50s during the Cold War as a way of seperating the US from the "Godless Communists". First, I see it as state-sponsorship of religion. Second, if the US wants to acknowledge a higher power, who gets to pick which one? Why must it be "God" rather than the name of another diety such as "Buddha", "Allah", "Goddess" or whatever? Why isn't it just "One nation, under {insert diety name here if desired}, indivisible with liberty and justice..."? So many children are forced to say this in public schools, and that just makes me sick. Sure, it's called voluntary, but how many kindergarteners are going to tell their teacher that they don't want to recite this because their family doesn't believe in God? How many seventh graders are willing to withstand peer pressure and the idea of being perceived as different because they don't want to say the Pledge or the word God? It's voluntary%


ARGH. This post was a lot longer, but somehow part disappeared in publishing. I'm too tired to recompose it. Surfice to say there was more ranting about the Pledge as well as complaints about people claiming this is a Christian nation founded by Christians, and I gave this link.

After months of introspection, I am ready to talk again. Winter is for hibernation for many species, and I tend to hibernate mentally over the winter months. Spring is well sprung, and I am ready to emerge from a winter's sleep.

The garden is well planted already this early spring. I made a serious attempt to start my own seedlings inside this year, and it has paid off. I transplanted the broccoli outside last week, and all survived. I even have 6 extra plants to share with my neighbor. The tomatoes are growing well downstairs, along with peppers, eggplants, lavender and basil, all awaiting warmer early summer weather. In the garden outside, I have so far planted my carrots, lettuce, spinach (180 plants, OMGosh!), radishes, beets, peas and potatoes in addition to the broccoli. I've gotten serious about my gardening this year and making the most of our limited space. Successive crop growing is a must for us, and the spinach and radishes will be done just in time to clear out that bed and plant the sweet corn. I'm growing both bush peas (progress no. 9) and trellis ones (sugar snap) this year to compare yield and decide which type to continue with in future years. This is the first year for potatoes, so my expectations are very low. It seem to take a few years for me to get the hang of new veggies. I have big goals for the garden this year, and a second chest freezer to fill up with produce for the rest of the year. I really hope to grow enough broccoli, spinach, carrots, beans, beets, tomatoes and grapes (for jelly and juice) to put away enough to last us most of a year.

The dwarf fruit trees are going in this year too. I'm definately getting two for pie cherries, and then either two apple or two pear. Maybe both apple and pear. I haven't decided that yet, but need to in the next month.

We are doing pretty well otherwise. Abigail is 7 now, a reading fiend, music nut and goofy girl. Isabella is 5, with a gap in her smile now that she has lost two teeth. She's still an interesting one to parent, a combination of spunk and caution, outgoing and introvert. She's so totally me, oh bother. Vincent is two and a half. He is totally Luis as a child, which is unbelieveably frustrating sometimes. He's so smart and stubborn, a good problem solver, and totally impish. We've been debating speech therapy for him, as he is definately delayed in his expressive speech, but undecided at this point. His speech is improving, and he has gained a larger number of new words in the last few weeks. He's really improved in the last month, and we are thinking he's probably just a "late talker", rather than in need of actual therapy.

So, I'm back and hopefully will be posting here much more regualarly again.