I am looking for the perfect peanut butter cookie recipe. I don’t want a ton of sugar in it. They need to be moist and a little chewy. It would be best if they had chocolate chips in them.
SO pass this on to everyone you know and then post up your recipe. I am going to try your cookies and then I am going to pick the perfect cookie and send a CD to the “winner”.
Jasmine
I can not believe that we, the American people, have sacrificed so much freedom for the sake of “safety”. I mean gosh darn it! What was USA built on? What is our claim to fame? Freedom! Right? Freedom to pursue whatever it is that we want to pursue right? Freedom to be who we want to be, to make something of ourselves. The USA is supposed to be the place where it doesn’t matter who you were born as but what you do after you are given the name. It is a place of innovation. Of new ideas. Of creativity. Right?
Yeah right. That is what I have to say. Now I am not the militant type. I would actually call myself a pacifist. Now I am not saying that if someone attacked my family blah blah blah… I do not have any idea what I would do in that situation and hope never to find out but for all intents and purposes I am a pacifist. All that to say I am not one of those hole up quick with guns and ammo types. I am not sure I have ever shot a gun in my life. I don’t belong to the Tea Party. I actually think they are freakin’ nuts. I grew up in western MT and we had all kinds of Constitutionalist friends and then some. Not that I don’t think that these parties may have some valid points. Even if you did have some valid points I am pretty sure I would not choose Sarah Palin to voice them… just sayin’…. gosh, did I just see validity fly out the window?
So what is it that I am raving about? That I can’t start a business! Why? Because the inspections it takes and the fees there are to pay and the fact that I can’t even be innovated in how I do it and creative in the way I lay out my building. That I can’t just invest a little and then work my way up. That someone is constantly telling me what I can and can not do.
I am raving about the fact that they want to tell me what I can and can’t do with my body. Where I can and can’t have a baby. That they want to genetically modify my food without asking and then take away the right for people to grow and sell organic and raw products. We can’t sell things. We can’t advertise. We can’t trade things or like the poor Amish. Who the hell does the FDA think it is anyway?!
All I have to say is this. Get the frak out of my business.
Safety isn’t the issue. It’s control. Get a clue.
Too bad that our culture has become so strange about all things that have to do with babies. Seriously. From conception to birth to raising those… what do we call them? Snot nosed brats, angels, munchkins, kids, monsters etc.
Sex is where it all starts. Sex makes babies. Yup. True story. It really does. But there are two sides to this coin for the most part. There are the people that see sex as a “naughty” thing and it needs leather or porn or dirty talk etc. to make it interesting and “hot” and then there are those that say that they “slept with” someone. Well I don’t know about you but when I am having sex there isn’t a whole lot of sleeping going on! I have no idea where people got the idea for either of these to be honest.
And then there is having the baby. Don’t even get me started on that. Women were made to have babies. Trust me. Really. They [are] were. See those hips spread? Oh yeah. Boobs? They aren’t just cosmetic ladies. I don’t know what the whole boob obsession is about but then again that may be that I have been [cursed] blessed with practically no boobs at all anyway. But even my non-boobs get the job done.
And then comes the baby. I couldn’t even fathom the fact that I would put my baby somewhere else to sleep where I couldn’t see, hear and feel every breath from his tiny little body. What if he stopped breathing? What if he made a squeak? What if he were to get hungry? On top of that I was much to lazy to get out of bed, walk somewhere else to get whatever my baby needed and then get back in bed and try to fall asleep again. Much easier to just roll over and stay half asleep. Yes. I am talking about co-sleeping. Now there are a million studies out there. Just recently there was this interesting article from the UK. But I am not going to go in to that. Science has it’s place really but there is a lot to be said about instinct. Science is about scrubbed clean walls and facts and numbers. When it comes to my baby I am about playing in the sand, getting dirty and fostering attachment.
I [slept] sleep with my son still. Sure he goes to bed in his own bed at first now but for the first 11 months of his life I didn’t sleep through one night period. After that slowly slowly I got a night here and there. I don’t actually remember when I started sleeping [mostly] full nights and now there is the occasional night where he doesn’t come to bed with us. Hardly ever happens and I don’t expect him to leave our bed for quite a while longer. Why? He needs warmth and comfort. He wants to feel me breathe now. I can’t blame him. I don’t like sleeping alone either. Not anymore. I am attached. Attached to my husband. Attached to his smell and how warm he is and how he snores.
I find it funny that so many people speak about co-sleeping like it has something to do with sex. Or like it will interrupt sex. HA. I have a guess that the people that are most worried about it interrupting “private time” with their partner have so little sex anyway that it wouldn’t even matter! I mean not that I am going to take a poll or anything but really…. and aren’t all the books and magazines telling you to find ways to “spice up” your sex life with your partner anyway? Time to get creative folks! I like how suddenly intelligent adults when faced with the “problem” of where and when to have sex when they have a baby in the home are suddenly stumped especially since they are probably the same adults that as teens found plenty of ways to make out with or feel up their BF or GF.
The other thing I can’t figure is why the big push to make kids grow up? Really? They are going to grow up! It doesn’t take long. You don’t even have a baby for long. Just a few months. Aren’t there things in your life that you have just stuck through because it was part of the growing process? You knew it wouldn’t last long but it would affect the rest of your life? Well this one will have an affect on yours and your child’s.
Yes. You can “argue” both sides. But what is the point? In the end I am going to have a secure child who is affectionate and caring. In the end I am going to be a secure mother who is affectionate and caring and has soaked up every last bit of being a mother in every stage of life. My son is going to hug me when I’m older. My son is not going to be afraid of showing me affection. Why? Because I wasn’t afraid to give it to him.
I sleep with my son. The weird thing is that I still have plenty of [good] sex. Go figure.
You know what I really don’t understand?
How is that women have it in their heads that they “can’t” have babies? What right do doctors have to tell any woman that she “can’t” have a baby? How dare they threaten that someone is going to die! Like hell they are. OK. So maybe that is a bit extreme.
A very small percentage of women and babies do die. That is terrible. It is sad. People do die. Every day. If it is one of your family members or friends it makes a huge impacts on your life. If it isn’t…. unless they are famous you hardly even notice. Why would you? People do die. It happens. I don’t know how I would (will) deal with it when the time comes for someone very close to me to die. I hope I react in mourning. I hope I cry and scream and spend time in a dark room. I hope I don’t just whitewash it in to something sterile and faceless. I want death to be as passionate as living.
Back to the main point. I don’t care what it is you believe somewhere in there you know that men are work the earth. However that plays out. Going to work or actually getting their hands dirty. They are physically built for that kind of thing. Women too. Women are built to work and work hard. We are built to manage things, no matter if that is in or out of the home. We are good at it. We are also built to have babies. End of story. How do I know this? We are the only ones that CAN have babies! Have you ever seen a man (and I mean a real man) have a baby? No. But doctors would actually have you think that they are “delivering” your baby. Like he is actually rescuing that child from the warm and safe confines of your womb where that child has been nourished for months and months.
I can.
I did.
So can you.
It may sounds depressing but there are some personal heart cries and this is the one that is burried deep inside right now.
On a lighter note. If you feel like going for a run today this is perfect!
“What bothers me the most is when people say that Hillary [Clinton] is a bitch. Let me say something about that—yeah, she is! And so am I, and so is this one [points to Amy Poehler]. Bitches get stuff done…. Bitch is the new black!”
Tina Fey—From Saturday Night Live
Photo: Getty Images
It’s silent.
It’s still.
It isn’t an uncomfortable silence.
Someone has just finished speaking.
Everyone is letting the moment rest.
If someone speaks and someone else interrupts or explains, makes excuses or in anyway detracts from what the speaker just said it sours the moment.
It doesn’t matter what just came out of that person’s mouth.
There has to be somewhere that people are safe to share.
Be authentic.
It’s a comfortable silence.
And then someone else opens up.
Their words gush out like water.
Unhindered and free because no one has placed a stone in front of them to disrupt the flow.
And then everyone is still.
As we let it soak.
And we are filled.
And it’s quiet.
And it’s safe.
To be.
Authentic.
Jasmine
Photo from Paul Krueger
First off I would like to point out that I actually used a photo in my post! I don’t do that very often because I really am not a visual person. I know that a lot of people are but I have never been one to really need pictures to go with words. Words have always been enough for me. Not that I don’t appreciate art or things that are visually interesting. It it just that when it comes to articles, blogs etc. I go for the words. Though I would like someone to make my blog visually stunning! Haha. I just don’t want to have to do it.
Anyway… on to the actual post… which I have also cross posted in part on the AP website. So it says parents and parenting but I am in the post aiming it more at life in general and expanding it to all of us…
We (attempt to) live by the principle that if you want to see something different you have to do something different. Meaning that if I don’t like what I see in society as a whole or I don’t like how families are falling apart on a regular basis or I don’t like how children are turning out then I can’t expect to do the exact same thing as everyone else is doing but expect that somehow it will be different for me.
I think that can be one of the most dangerous traps for us as parents, and as people, can fall in to. We tend to look at the way other people’s lives are and say “Well that isn’t me.” or “That won’t be me! I’m different…” and yet all the time we are saying/thinking that we are living the same way as “those people” are living and our goals are the same goals. Do you think that people with kids that shoot people wanted that for their children? Do you think that the mom who is worn out because her kids run over the top of her wanted that? Do you think that families fall apart because the parents wanted that to happen? Did they take their vows knowing that someone would break them? I don’t think so.
If you want to see something different you have to do something different.
So what does that mean practically? It means that you will have to make decisions based on your family first. Very first. What is good for you all and the surprising thing is for the most part what is good for a family is not what is traditionally touted as good in our culture. We think that it is good that you slave away so that you can buy big toys and a good house and to pay for a good eduction so that your kids can get a good job so that they can buy a big house and the toys that they want and save for their kids education… not that there is anything really wrong with this but doesn’t that seem like a mundane existence? It certainly isn’t what most of us say that we want.
If you want to see something different you have to do something different.
We say that we want genuine relationships with our children. We say we want them to grow up to be curious and creative adults with a hunger for learning. We say that we want to be able to enjoy our teenagers not dread them. We say we want to experience life with our children.
So what are you doing differently so that you can see that come about?
And as for the toilet... well it’s different isn’t it? And you may have caught the writing on the wall…
Jasmine
Buy some rockin’ coffee from me.
Get fit!
Photo used from: Flickr commons.
I was so happy to discover today that after years of bitter, sickening sadness and anger there if finally a list of very difficult things that I can now laugh at; instead of feeling boiling rage or resentment filling my stomach and the bitter taste of bile filling my throat I am now happy to say that it is a chuckle that exits my mouth instead of some vile word vomit.
This chuckle can, and sometimes is a. slightly cynical, b. mocking, c. pitying and d. full on humor and all of that is OK.
What happened to me?!
Jasmine
Need some great coffee?
Want to get in shape this year?
How about learn a bit about community living?
