Lay All Your Love On Me & Flashback to 1982

Another scene from Mamma Mia (I'm on a you tube kick). It's sooooo Dirty Dancing/Grease/Pirate Movie! SO fun and cute! By the way, I can't think of a musical that has ever disappointed me. I even loved Newsies.



And First Love, from THE PIRATE MOVIE. Were my sisters and I the only ones who loved this movie? If you've never seen it, there's plenty to appreciate for sure. You won't believe the cheese or Kristy McNichol. And it's Christopher Atkins from The Blue Lagoon! I just gooled and found out he's not The Greatest American Hero like I always thought. Ha!

So here's to one of the greatest musical memories of my childhood. I loved her white dress, her hair, the horses, the heartthrob with the blond curls and the way he looks at her (me). The ultimate preteen fantasy. This was totally gonna happen to me as soon as I got boobs. But I did not so much love the nasty kiss (unlike two other girls I know). I'm so glad this generation of kids has High School Musical. Enjoooooooy! I promise, you've never lived 'til now.

ABBA FOREVER!

Maybe it's the autumn chill, but I cannot stop listening to this song! When all is said and done, all I have to do is dig up some old ABBA videos, and I'm good as new! Ha!

Here's to ABBA and Happiness! Oh yeah.
Look at her sparkly green dress!



AND Pierce ugly singing this song, in Mamma Mia the movie, makes me sooo happy! I wish life were a musical, full of family and friends singing beautifully or badly without a care, circled together under trees glowing with twinkly lights, tables of fantastic food, and love love love.

Here She Comes!

Quaking Aspen in winter (Image credit: darkmatter [flickr])

Winter.
Wisdom and rest.
Long dark nights to make the light shine brighter.
Welcome, welcome!


© Ron Chapple Photography Inc.

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

-Robert Frost

This was my faaaavorite poem throughout my teen years, thanks to The Outsiders. Suddenly this Fall, I find myself reciting it in my head, constantly. It used to depress me, which I loved, drama queen that I was. Now it makes me happy.


Stay Gold Pony Boy!


Sundancing in the Summer...until next year, farewell my friend!

Happy Autumn! Don't miss the GOLD.

On A Lighter Note...

Pleeeeeease watch! You'll laugh, you might cry, and you'll definitely feel the LOVE! And it's under 5 minutes.


Hallelujah! Yay for the universal love language of dance and YAY for a guy with a great idea!
Don't you just love it?!

The True Duty of Patriots: Be Informed & Speak Out

Any wrong can be justified in the name of God, the role of women in the home, or the importance of family (see article below). What about the role of men in the home? We need women in the workplace, and in the political landscape, as much as we need men at home. Men should have less demands by women to make more money, and more demands to be home with their families. What do I see destroying home and family? It's NOT going to be gay marriage, or more women having careers. It is materialism. The quest to be "at the top" is replacing hard work in hopes of having plenty, with desires for an overabundance of things we don't need. It sends us out shopping rather than tending a garden or reading the headlines, and keeps families from frolicking together and hosting fabulous dinner parties. It is breaking our sense of community, for we seem to have less time for others, and more time to hit the new Wal-Mart. So I don't want to see gay people or working mothers be scapegoats any longer. We have real problems to solve, so women do your duty and practice your right that brave women fought so hard for. Let's be informed and teach our daughters to do the same. Let's speak up!


“No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots."
—Barbara Ehrenreich

Argument Against Women's Suffrage, 1911
Prepared by J. B. Sanford, Chairmen of Democratic Caucus

ARGUMENT AGAINST SENATE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT NO. 8

Suffrage is not a right. It is a privilege that may or may not be granted. Politics is no place for a women consequently the privilege should not be granted to her.

The mother’s influence is needed in the home. She can do little good by gadding the streets and neglecting her children. Let her teach her daughters that modesty, patience, and gentleness are the charms of a women. Let her teach her sons that an honest conscience is every man’s first political law; that no splendor can rob him nor no force justify the surrender of the simplest right of a free and independent citizen. The mothers of this country can shape the destinies of the nation by keeping in their places and attending to those duties that God Almighty intended for them. The kindly, gentle influence of the mother in the home and the dignified influence of the teacher in the school will far outweigh all the influence of all the mannish female politicians on earth.

The courageous, chivalrous, and manly men and the womanly women, the real mothers and home builders of the country, are opposed to this innovation in American political life. There was a bill (the Sanford bill) before the last legislature which proposed to leave the equal suffrage question to women to decide first before the men should vote on it. This bill was defeated by the suffragettes because they knew that the women would vote down the amendment by a vote of ten to one.

The men are able to run the government and take care of the women. Do women have to vote in order to receive the protection of man? Why, men have gone to war, endured every privation and death itself in defense of woman. To man, woman is the dearest creature on earth, and there is no extreme to which he would not go for his mother or sister. By keeping woman in her exalted position man can be induced to do more for her than he could by having her mix up in affairs that will cause him to lose respect and regard for her. Woman does not have to vote to secure her rights. Man will go to any extreme to protect and elevate her now. As long as woman is woman and keeps her place she will get more protection and more consideration than man gets. When she abdicates her throne she throws down the scepter of her power and loses her influence.

Woman suffrage has been proven a failure in states that have tried it. It is wrong. California should profit by the mistakes of other states. Not one reform has equal suffrage effected. On the contrary, statistics go to show that in most equal suffrage states, Colorado particularly, that divorces have greatly increased since the adoption of the equal suffrage amendment, showing that it has been a home destroyer. Crime has also increased due to lack of the mothers in the home.

Woman is woman. She can not unsex herself or change her sphere. Let her be content with her lot and perform those high duties intended for her by the Great Creator, and she will accomplish far more in governmental affairs that she can ever accomplish by mixing up in the dirty pool of politics. Keep the home pure and all will be well with the Republic. Let not the sanctity of the home be invaded by every little politician that may be running up and down the highway for office. Let the manly men and the womanly women defeat this amendment and keep woman where she belongs in order that she may retain the respect of all mankind.

J. B. Sanford, Senator
4th District.

Received by Secretary of State Frank Jordan on June 26th, 1911, for publication as part of a voters' information manual. Document is currently filed in the California State Archives under: Secretary of State Elections Papers, 1911 Special Election.

Educate a Girl, Educate a Community...

These are the words (paraphrased from an African proverb) of my new hero, Greg Mortensen. I just finished the incredible book written about his work, Three Cups of Tea. That a simple mountaineer would care enough to remember children he met on his trek down after a failed attempt at climbing K2, from an impoverished mountain village in Pakistan, is unbelievable to me. To these children who knelt on the cold ground barefoot, scratching numbers and letters in the dirt with sticks, without a school to shelter them, he promised he'd be back to build a school, without knowing how he would do it, only that he must.


This book should be required high school reading.

For more than a decade, he's been doing more to fight terrorism than war ever could. To children who have seen bombs falling in their own backyards, Greg Mortensen arrives offering books. One man willing to enter dangerous war zones, has meant that the children of Pakistan and Afghanistan have less reason to enter the walls where extremist hate is the only thing taught, and more reason to believe that America is on their side.


Mortensen's schools don't force western ideas on the children,
but teaches them a balanced secular education that honors
their culture and faith.


"I've learned that terror doesn't happen because some group of people somewhere like Pakistan or Afghanistan simply decide to hate us. It happens because children aren't being offered a bright enough future that they have a reason to choose life over death." -Greg Mortensen

This video is only 5 minutes long. It's worth it!




A genuine charity that will actually
make sure your money goes where
you intend it to. Pennies for Peace

Hallelujah for heroes, and books!

Party's Over!

Time to hit the child-rearing books again. I've been the biggest slacker ever! And it shows in my household conditions (just ask my mom) and my kids' behavior. I've been letting them run wild all summer. They have free reign of the house and toys, no schedule, stay up late, the older two have not had a nap in months -other than the occasional car conk out, and ALL whine, fight, hit, yell, and cry waaaay too much. I'm going crazy because I've let them be crazy, and now that school has started it's time to reintroduce the magic of routine to my kids, and myself.

My kind of routine is no routine. I love to wake up having absolutely no idea what I will do with my day. I like it to all be a mystery with no expectations because then, I'm never disappointed! I've noted, however, that this makes kids anxious, cranky, and more inclined to misbehave. I actually followed the wise advice of these books once (consistently anyway) about two years ago, for a couple, maybe three weeks. I was amazed. We were all happier. With order came peace, many quiet moments throughout the day, and busier children (busy in a good way) who did not have time to squabble or whine at me. I looked forward to planning their days every night and would go to bed excited, instead of dreadful for the morning. I felt so creative and in control! Only problem was, like most tasks, I had a hard time following through.

After summer vacations, one loooong vacation from anything that even closely resembles a parenting book, and plenty of crazy, twirly, unexpected treat-filled days, I'm ready to try, try again. I'm going to let calming Order have it's season mid-September through May, and dedicate Wild, carefree, crazy days to summer!

Anyone want to try this strategy out with me? I need all the help I can get! Tomorrow is my first day of 1/2 hour t.v. MAX (okay maaaaybe an hour), storybook times, room/play alone times, sibling play time, special alone time with mommy, NAPS (or at least a good long quiet time), and of course free play time for all that imagining (and for me to have a break, but with children well attended to and happy to have mom leave them alone for a while).

Are there any better books about raising the most quiet, well-mannered, lovely, yet still imaginative and independent (but not too independent) children, that I should know about? This way is hard! But so far, the most sound advice I've come across -as far as keeping my house presentable for the impromptu visit from a neighbor and me from looking like this:



Wish me luck!

Veggie LOVE!

To market to market, to NOT buy a fat pig. Ha ha! I'm off to market to try this almost vegan diet for a week. I love finding new vegetarian recipes because it makes me feel like my options are endless. Meatless eating can be every bit as interesting, creative, and satisfying!

Uploaded on July 21, 2007
by citlali* lite

Ann Marie (one of my very favorite bloggers!) has guest-blogged a great essay about food! Here is her post that will give you a link to it. Please take a few minutes to read. A week-long menu with recipes and a grocery list accompanies inspiring advice about nutrition and food preparation. You just might be tempted to eat a little less meat, but don't think this is only for Vegans/Vegetarians! It'll make you feel like being more creative with your veggies this fall and make the most out of the farmers markets! Be healthy, eat beautiful food, and feel soooo good!

So I'm trying it. Who's with me? Anyone up for the challenge?

Love Is Not Love: Oh Willoughby!

Spoiler warning! Do not read if you have not read Sense & Sensibility or seen the movie!

Remember Marianne's heartbreak in Sense and Sensibility, the "OH Willoughby!" scene? In my younger days, after each experience of being made a fool by "love", I would recall Marianne and watch her in this movie, this scene, and it would ease my heartsickness. I was Marianne, crying out to Willoughby in the rain, quoting her Shakespeare, utterly shaken! (Dramatic I know, but dramatic is what I am!) It made me feel better! After these "Willoughby" mishaps, all you really find out is what love isn't. Then you must pick up and keep on searching. Shakespeare, Jane Austin, Kate Winslet....all my heroes!

Shakespeare knew true love! One of my favorite sonnets (all because of this movie):

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.

Here's my favorite actress, in my favorite scene, from my favorite movie, from my favorite book! Love is not love....that looks on tempests and is never shaken!

Stormy Weather!

We're loving it! Lazy in pajamas and watching one of my favorite movies. It's fun that the kids are old enough to enjoy it with me! I loved it as a kid, but now I get to appreciate Christopher Plummer's dreaminess (ooooh how I love it when he sings -wonder if that is really his voice?) and the sweet romance between him and Maria!


my heart will be blessed with the sound of music...


When you know the notes to sing,
you can sing most anything!


Then when Maria wants to take her vows and not go back to the Von Trapp's:
Maria, these walls were not meant for people to shut out their problems, you must face them.
You must live the life you were meant to live.


Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could...


What else does the Reverend Mother say?
That you have to look for your life.

For here you are, standing there, loving me
whether or not you should
(Jackie, I included this picture just for you! Hee hee)


And my very favorite part.

Edelweiss, Edelweiss every morning you greet me
Small and white, clean and bright
you look happy to meet me
Blossom of snow may you bloom and grow
bloom and grow forever
Edelweiss, Edelweiss
bless my homeland forever

The Captain finding his music again, ooooh!



Liesl's dress is soooo beautiful! This whole film is. Yay for music!
What are you doing this fine Labor Day?