What We Have Here is a Failure to Educate

For those of you who know that I am an educator, you’re probably thinking this blog post is going to be about slacker students, No Child Left Behind, or the state of our educational system in the United States, but it’s not.  This blog post is about birth control.  Over the past few weeks, I, and many of you, have been closely watching the debate over the Health and Human Services decree that all employers must provide free birth control and serialization coverage for all of their employees despite the fact that Catholic and other religious employers are morally opposed to providing these services for their employees.  In the case of Catholic organizations, they are prevented from providing these services as a matter of Catholic doctrine–the very core beliefs of the Church.  I want to be up front about a couple of things here:  I’m a Catholic, I’m a Liberal, and my husband and I practice Natural Family Planning (NFP). Read more »

Trading Places

To paraphrase Mark Twain, rumors of my death as a blogger have been greatly exaggerated.  I know it has been nearly a year since I last wrote, which isn’t an uncommon occurrence for me; however, the circumstances under which I put my blogging on hiatus—actually, in this economy, that circumstance isn’t so uncommon either.  Due to my husband’s job loss in March 2011, we have traded places.  Thankfully, this trade didn’t involve any kind of Freaky Friday body swap.  (I don’t think Matt could handle the PMS and I prefer to have two eye brows.)  This trade involved a move halfway across the country, which resulted in me becoming the sole earner and in him becoming a stay-at-home dad, for the time being.  While this trade has been stressful, and at times, not ideal, we have learned quite a bit about ourselves, each other, and our marriage. Read more »

The Three Most Important Lessons My Mother Taught Me

It’s important to learn how to take care of yourself. Mom made sure that I knew how to cook, clean, and sew.  From the time I was nine until I was sixteen, I was in 4-H where I learned how to boil an egg, sew a skirt, and arrange flowers.  By the time I was in high school, I was an accomplished seamstress.  But I remember those first few projects–and what a pain in the ass I was about completing them.  When finishing my first sewing project, a purple flowered skirt that I still have up in the attic, I desperately wanted to hem it on the sewing machine because it was so much faster.  Mom insisted that I use a needle and thread and do a blind stitch.  I remember it took what seemed like forever, but in reality took maybe an hour in total.  Today I can blind stitch a hem in about ten minutes.  Because I participated in 4-H, I also learned other important skills such as public speaking and how to perform in front of an audience, which has served me well.  I often have to speak in front of people and as an English instructor, I have to be able to think under the pressure of my students’ scrutinizing eyes. Read more »

The “New” Seven Dirty Words

During a time when the majority of George Carlin’s Seven Dirty Words can be heard in everyday language as well as on basic cable, with the exception of the dreaded c-word, it is incumbent upon us to come up with a new standard of decency.  Leave it to those ever clever Republicans to do just that.

Below are the seven words that seem the most offensive to the GOP:

7. Liberal: has become such a dirty word that even liberals are backing away from it.  For example, the president has labeled himself a  “pragmatic progressive” and not a liberal.

6. Global Warming: “Drill, baby, drill!”  Of course, they don’t believe in global warming because if they did then they’d have to do something about their oil and gas campaign donors.    Besides that, regulation, whether it is for the environment, banking, or food and drugs, is probably dirty word #8 to the GOP. Read more »