My last post mentioned how I love the domestic arts. I really do. There is something so satisfying about keeping a home for my family. I enjoy focusing on the various tasks around the house.

Ironing is not something I find to be a chore. I enjoy the repetitive actions of it. It is refreshing to have a job that is so clearly finished. The shirt starts out wrinkled and with each pass of the hot iron, the fabric smooths.

Cooking, as you know if you have read my blog at all, is one of my passions. I revel in it. It melts away my stress. The other day I was hit with a stunning migraine. I had not had one like that in over a decade. After time in a dark room and some medication, I was feeling a bit better, but it was not until I started dinner that I could feel the last of the migraine go. Standing there over the cutting board, creating matchsticks out of the carrots for egg rolls, mincing the onion for the fried rice, I could feel the layers of the headache peel away until I was refreshed. Mixing up scones, forming breads, the culinary arts are an escape for me. When cooking or baking, I have to focus on what I am doing or risk ruination of the food. It is living in the moment.

Gardening is peaceful. Outside with the sun shining down or the breeze ruffling by, hand digging in the dirt, I am connected with the earth, helping provide foods for my family.

Even mundane chores like laundry and sweeping are enjoyable for me. They are repetitive, simple, freeing. It is like knitting stockingette stitch in the round - simple tasks to occupy the hands while the mind roams free.

Now, life being as it is, I do not always have the time to be the homekeeper that I want to be, which can be stressful, but for me, most of the time, the domestic arts truly are a pleasure.

Another day of rain here means no homeschool gym for us today. Instead, it is an afternoon to warm a mama's heart. Isabella learned how to shape a baguette properly and did a stellar job for a child. Now the girls are camped out with two of my cookbooks trying to decide what type of cookies they should make. At least they started off talking about cookies. I hear them mentioning pies and sticky buns at the moment, so we will see what they end up doing.

After the baking is done, I think the sewing machine will come out so that Abigail can make some bag holders she promised relatives. She is excited about her developing sewing skills.

I love the domestic arts, so it makes me happy to pass the skills on.

I have been photographing the children lately. I have not been able to capture an image of Isabella to match with the rest of the set yet, but hopefully I can soon.

The weather was raining today, so we are hoping that April showers bring May flowers holds true soon. Yesterday, though, we were able to work outside and in the gardens. The compost piles have been sifted through and turned for the spring, with wonderful rich compost spread over the garden beds. We had so much ready this year that some went into the outdoor chicken run. The chickies have been having a field day scratching through it for insects and treats.


Simon is getting the hang of walking on the uneven ground outside finally. At first the vastness of the outdoors seemed to scare him, but now he is enjoying being out there. He complains if the older children are out and he cannot go as well. I am hoping he will not have his older brother's love of eating dirt, sticks and rocks.


When I was clearing the leaves out of the front flower bed, I was thrilled to spot countless ladybugs under them. After seeing nothing but Japanese beetles in recent years, or so it feels like, the plethora of ladybugs was fabulous.

Breezes play melodies of light on petals
Each note calling to birds, bees, and lady bugs to linger awhile
Drink in the nectar and radiance of spring.
~ excerpt from Promise of Spring by Ann Winter

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. ~ John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

The situation in Texas with the fundamentalist LDS church reminded me of this quote. I find it can be applied to all sides of the evolving struggle.

Polygamy, when all parties enter into it freely and with full awareness, is no one's business but that of the the people involved. Period. Polygamy is not the issue here.

Abuse is never acceptable. Unfortunately, the church sects that practice spiritual polygamy also are structured in a way to give absolute power to some members, the men. There are some men who can embrace what they see as the right religious path, a fundamentalist religion the embraces spiritual polygamy, without entering enter the realm of abuse of power. These men and the women who freely consent to this life should be left alone to live their lives and raise their families.

The problem is the men who become corrupted by the power given to them by their religious path. They may start out with noble and wonderful intentions, but along the line, they become corrupted by power. Forced marriages? Not acceptable in our country. Underage marriages? Not acceptable in our country. Any sort of abuse - physical, verbal, emotional or the other kind (that I do not want to type out because I do not want my blog to pop up in a google search for that term)? Not acceptable in our country.

The problem is also in the people in the government who are corrupted by power. Do they have documented evidence of abuse? What right do they have to forcibly remove and separate over four hundred children from the only life they know? If they have documented, clear cases of abuse, they have every right to do so. But do they have the evidence? This mysterious girl, their informant, is no where to be found. What right do they have to lie in order to separate children from their mothers? Do they have evidence the mothers are abusing these children? If so, why return the mothers to their home or offer these women places in battered women's shelters? If not, why separate them? Why only separate mothers of children over age 5? What is so special about that arbitrary age? If the mothers should not be with the children, if there is a real reason for the separation, why can the mothers of younger children stay? Does the government have evidence to back up its claims of abuse or are the official becoming corrupted by power and using this power in a Nazi-esque display of power that should never happen in our country?

Finally, the media. Absolute power is given to the media in our society and it has corrupted. What is the real story here? It is a story of possible abuse on a large scale or is it is story of religious and personal expression? These people have every right to dress how they see fit. There are many women in this nation who wear dresses and have long hair for religious reasons who are not members of this sect. There are countless women who wear dresses and have long hair for other reasons too. Raising children in a strongly religious home or without TV or in an intentional community is not the story here. These people are not automatically guilty because they are living and raising families in a way that is outside the mainstream in our country. Report on the real story - the allegation of abuse, the lack of proof given to this point and the violations of civil liberties of the people involved in the debacle.

If it emerges that there was a large scale pattern of abuse in this community, then the government will have acted correctly in stepping in, but I will still question the treatment of the women and children removed from the community. If concrete evidence of abuse does not exist, it will not actually matter because of the way the media has handled the situation. These people are now guilty of something, anything, in the minds of much of the American public simply because of the way the mainstream national media has handled the situation.

There are few things as sweet as a baby giggling in his sleep.

The snowdrops and crocus are up, finally. Winter is holding on hard this year. Other springs, we have had daffodils by now. I am always so happy to see the little spots of color in the flowerbeds. When I was out taking photos the other day, I smiled to see the determination of spring's flowers. The crocus obviously was under too many leaves, so it grew straight threw a hole in one of them.

Oh there are so many wonderful quotes about spring, I hardly know which to use. The first for its beauty, the second for its humor and the third for its truth:

“The splendor of the rose and the whitness of the lily do not rob the little violet of it’s scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its lovliness.” ~ Therese of Lisieux

“Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush.” ~ Doug Larson

“The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.” ~ Henry Van Dyke

Have you heard? The country is facing recession! Ack! Ack! The sky is falling! Check out the blaring headlines and listen to the news stories!

Bleh.

Why is it when the people who study these things ask people in the US about their opinion of the economy, many people say that we are facing economic downturn BUT when asked about their own personal finances, things are peachy keen jelly bean? Seriously, I was reading up on this phenomenon recently. People are worried for the economy in record numbers, going back to 1993 rates. However, the same people's personal finances are doing just fine and they are not facing any issues in their work or housing. Where is the economic downturn? Where? The media talks about it constantly, but if things are as bad as they are saying, more people in the US should be seeing more difficulty in personal finances.

The media has a lot to answer for. Sensationalism and hype have replaced accurate recording of facts. News morphed into news and commentary which morphed into commentary with a little bit of news tacked on.

I am sick of it.

Between TV, radio, internet, newspapers and magazines, people can mainline news all day long. The glut leads the news anchors to talk, talk, talk, crossing the line from reporting to commentating. Turn it off. My request for the media: Get back to straight news in reasonable amounts. Turn off the live news feeds, figure out what the actual story is before reporting on it. Relearn to the fundamentals of journalism and apply them.