What is normal?

Another one of those days. I got some sewing done yesterday and that was pretty wonderful. The only reason I stopped is because I had to feed my family and once we were done eating and the table was cleared off, there just really isn’t enough light to see what’s happening on the ironing board so I didn’t do more. There were no laboring mamas so I didn’t go to the hospital. It was super cold so I did bring in some wood and start the fire. I actually did that before Amena got home from school.

Once everyone was in bed, I worked on my doula homework. I’d been concentrating on getting books read but I’ve read all the books I have so I figured it was time to move and get something else done. That was fun.

This morning I watched a video of Marco Rubio. It appears that Democratic Senator Tom Harkin recently went to Cuba and had some glowing reports about what he found. Rubio, Republican Senator, gave a speech in response to these reports. Among other things: “He cited a poll, ‘More Americans want normal relations with Cuba.’ So do I — a democratic and free Cuba. But you want us to reach out and develop friendly relationships with a serial violator of human rights, who supports what’s going on in Venezuela and every other atrocity on the planet? On issue after issue, they are always on the side of the tyrants. Look it up. And this is who we should be opening up to? Why don’t they change? Why doesn’t the Cuban government change? Why doesn’t the Venezuelan government change?” (Becker, Kyle. "After a Democrat Praises Cuba, Marco Rubio Blasts Communism Like No U.S. Politician Since Reagan | Independent Journal Review." Independent Journal Review. N.p., 25 Feb. 2014. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.)

Well, wouldn’t we all like to have normal relations with other nations? That just seems like something any average, ordinary person would want. It seems to me, however, that those who are screaming that we need to be friends, so to speak, with nations like Cuba, are the very same people who are screaming that everyone has to accept their points of view and those of us who don’t are bigots, racist, and a plethora of other negative things. It seems to me that in a very real sense, those who think we need to have ‘normal’ relations with Cuba in spite of the fact that Cuba is ‘a serial violator of human rights’ are violating the human rights of those who live in the country.

You want to know what is really interesting? We are part of the UN, like it or not. The UN has a document called The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I am not a big fan of the UN.  But I dare you to read the document and tell me that in our own country, none of these rights are being violated. Go ahead. Read.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

PREAMBLE

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4.

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6.

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7.

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8.

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10.

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11.

(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.

(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.

(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14.

(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15.

(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.

(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16.

(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.

(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17.

(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.

(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18.

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21.

(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.

(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22.

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23.

(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24.

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25.

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26.

(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27.

(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28.

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29.

(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.

(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.

(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30.

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

("The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UDHR, Declaration of Human Rights, Human Rights Declaration, Human Rights Charter, The Un and Human Rights." UN News Center. UN, n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.)

I really like Articles 18, 19 and 20.

Have a great day!

Mundane

Well, another day I wasn’t going to write in because nothing much happened.

I got some mending done that I’d been putting off for at least a year; probably longer.

Emily West came over with her baby and cut out the dress she’s working on. They’ll be back tomorrow to cut out the lace. That baby is sure cute! The boys and Amena all love her. Seth and Joseph really like to play with her and got to yesterday.

I got some cutting out accomplished.

For this particular pattern, I added ten inches to the bottom. I have these lovely quilting rulers that I use for all these things and not one of them is quilting.

The service activity went well but Cedric found it boring. Amena and Cedric went with the Trivett’s and on the way back, the car broke down. I took Seth and Joseph and picked up Linda and we went to the car. A nice man had stopped and let everyone sit in his van to keep warm (because it was anything but outside). Everything was arranged to pick up the car and the people and I took off with my crew.

While I was at church with Seth and Joseph, I had an interview with President Nally and began work on organizing the file cabinet.

Pretty darn exciting day.

Besides cold, we had a beautiful sunrise.

Today it is cold. About 10 degrees cold. The house is cold. I’m thinking about bringing in some wood because it’s so cold. I need to give the goats hay, too.

Have a splendiferous day! 

Islands and Idiots, Dollars and Doulas

Good morning! It’s cold outside this morning and it’s grey and it’s not a particularly pretty day. I spent some time looking at pictures and watching video that I took in Idaho and it was particularly pretty and I think I’m homesick for an ideal world in which there is real winter and less humid summers and everyone I love is there. I also looked at some that were taken not long after we arrived in Massachusetts and although Daniel is there, Joanna isn’t. And Daniel’s birthday is a week from today and I really miss him.

And I wasn’t going to write anything today because I didn’t do much yesterday other than knit (the shawl will be done today!) and watch NCIS during the day and in the evening I went to the Meet the Doula night which was really nice. Seth and Joseph got their homework done. Amena fell asleep almost as soon as she got home because she stayed up all night doing the homework she’d neglected to do during the previous nine days of no school.

This morning I got lunches ready for Amena and the boys and ate a yogurt for breakfast. Included in lunches for today were yogurts. I decided that I wanted more than a cold yogurt (which was blueberry and very tasty) because it’s cold. So, after eating the yogurt and looking at pictures and watching videos, I decided I wanted some hot chocolate and a grilled cheese sandwich. While I was making those things happen, I was thinking.

Paul bought a whole bunch of yogurts yesterday. They are the individual size and the children love them but they say ‘light.’ That means, in this case, that they are sweetened with sucralose. I asked Paul this morning if he realized they were ‘light’ and he did not. He apologized and I’m quite sure he will never buy those particular yougurts again. This brought to mind something about shopping. Some people only see dollar signs. This bread is $1.00 a loaf, that bread is $4.00 a loaf. Because this bread is only $1.00, it must be better because it doesn’t cost as much. Not so, I’m afraid. Paul shops by price, which is usually a good thing. When it comes to some things, however, it isn’t so good. I don’t care if this bread only costs $1.00 (by the way, I prefer homemade bread and very rarely actually eat bread from the store), it is full of white flour, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial this and that. The $4.00 bread is whole grain (which can be tricky), is sweetened with honey (a whole other conversation), and has nothing artificial in it. When I make bread, I usually make one of two kinds. One has flour (whole wheat that I know really is whole wheat), honey, salt, yeast, water, egg, milk, and oil. The other has flour (I have to admit using some white flour in this one), yeast, water, salt, and beer. There is more to it than just the price.

And that brings to mind cheese and lunchmeat. Paul likes to buy the ends from the deli at Market Basket. The price can’t be beat and sometimes you get some really good stuff. However, I don’t care if this cheese is normal $7.00 a pound (the most he pays for ends is about $1.00 a pound), it’s American which to me isn’t even cheese. When there is Swiss, I’m happy. And the lunchmeat. It’s all over processed and I wouldn’t even pay the $1.00 for it. I don’t care if this bologna is normally $9.00 a pound. It’s nasty and no one in their right mind would eat it. Yuck!

Paul loves to shop the discount racks. Sometimes you find some really good deals there (shin guards for $4.00 once—what a steal!) He even buys Kitty food. Recently he brought home two boxes of individual serving size cans that had been marked down. One box said that two cans were missing and the other said there were 11 of the 12 it should have. Well, you really have to look closely. Even though these boxes were taped up, the first one actually had four cans missing and the other box, which I just opened today, had three missing.

You have to be careful that you really are getting a good deal.

Another thing that I was thinking about was islands for idiots. Someone posted on Facebook a day or two ago that she’d like to have an island for idiots (not her terminology but you get the picture). I had to laugh because the idiots she’d like to send there are ones I would get along with pretty well. My idiot island would probably include a lot of people like her. As my thoughts continued along this path, I thought that there should probably be three islands: one for Democrats who the Republicans know are crazy, one for Republicans who the Democrats think are nuts, and one for the rest of us who don’t fit in either category.

Have you ever noticed how people always have stories to tell about where they work? Some of them are really funny. Joanna said that yesterday she made some hot chocolate for a woman. After the woman tried it, she asked if she could get a Sprite instead because the hot chocolate was “too chocolaty.” How the heck can hot chocolate be too chocolaty? And older man came in, Joanna guessed in his 60’s, who ordered chicken strips. Joanna asked if he’d like something to dip the chicken in. He asked what was available. Joanna said, “Honey mustard, barbeque, and ranch.”

“What,” he asked, “exactly is ranch?”

How do you describe ranch to someone who has never had it? It’s kind of like attempting to describe salt. I suggested saying, “Well, someone went to a ranch. . .”

At Meet the Doula night last night there were three doulas, three pregnant mama’s, two partners (one had to leave her husband home watching her two boys), Karen, and Paulette when she could be. There was one doula on and about five hundred women popping babies out. Busy place last night. Anyway, Karen and Paulette are really wonderful and have a lot of really awesome birth stories to tell. I love listening to them. Once the pregnant people were gone, we learned about hemorrhages. Mostly how to identify risk factors in order to help prevent and then to know what happens in the actual event of a hemorrhage. It was quite interesting and in spite of the fact that I’ve done a lot of reading and have attended classes regarding hemorrhages, I learned some things. Two that I thought were particularly noteworthy are that in the case of a VBAC, the force of vomiting can cause uterine rupture and when a woman has had an epidural, she isn’t going to feel anything that would clue medical personnel to the fact that she’s had a rupture but she often will feel pain or discomfort in her neck, shoulder, and jaw.

 Well, that’s all for today. I need to get on to other things. Like folding clothes and finishing a shawl.

Have a terrifical day!

Perspective

Good morning! It is a lovely day out. The sun is shining, the temperature is nice (remembering that it is still winter and there is still snow on the ground), boys are outside waiting for the bus, and Amena did not miss the bus. Not a bad start to a day or a week.

Saturday I did some reading that was quite interesting. Elder Russell M. Nelson said, “The aging process is also a gift from God, as is death. The eventual death of your mortal body is essential to God’s great plan of happiness. Why? Because death will allow your spirit to return home to Him. From an eternal perspective, death is only premature for those who are not prepared to meet God.”

That gives some food for thought. If death is premature only for those not prepared to meet God, then babies and young children are probably the most ready because they most recently came from Him. Our view seems to be, “Oh, the poor child, he/she had so much potential.” With an eternal perspective, don’t we all have eternal potential?

When I think of the deaths in my own family, we’ve really experienced a somewhat large gamut. We have Papa, who was 85, down to Daniel, who was 14, and in between Robert Lee, my dad, Uncle Mick. “Death is only premature for those who are not prepared to meet God.” I’m pretty sure Papa was ready. I’m pretty sure Daniel was ready. I’m pretty sure my dad was ready. I wasn’t close enough to Robert Lee and Uncle Mick to have an opinion if they were ready or not but in some way, they must have been.

Death is the flip side of the same coin as birth. Each is a passage to a new realm. When those we love die, we grieve. We miss them. Our lives are forever changed by them. When we are born, are there spirits who grieve for us because they miss us? Did we forever change the lives of those with whom we lived? Believing as I do, I think that in that existence we knew more of the eternal perspective than we do in this one. Because of this, I think that while there are those who miss us, they know that one day we will be together again.

I believe that. If I didn’t, I would lay down right now and die. Actually, if I didn’t believe that, I would have never gotten up from that hard table in the emergency room in Sioux Falls—with the death of Daniel, my life would have been over. But it isn’t. Life goes on, even in this sphere of existence, and one day I will be with Daniel, and my dad, and Papa, and all those who have gone before.

I am afraid this is going to be yet another relatively short post. While there is much that I could write about, there is little that I really want to. Sooooo, have a fantastical day!

544 Word Day

Good morning! It’s a lovely sunny day until you look at the ground and see the ice and slush. Yuck.

Yesterday was an interesting day. Actually, most days are interesting, depending upon how we look at them. Yesterday  morning we had Rachel and Sarah. They left around noon. Sarah first and then Rachel. Neither of their parents wanted to brave the ice in the driveway (I don’t blame them—I am not overly fond of ice in the driveway either). Then Amena was invited to a birthday party in Hardwick.

I needed to get gas and Joanna had given my $25 for gas but I figured I had enough to get Amena to the birthday party and then I could get gas either on my way home or when I went to pick Joanna up. I looked at google maps for directions and thought they looked alright. Then I used the GPS and what fun that ended up. It told me to turn on a road that is not maintained so we had to keep going and ended up driving in circles. That was a blast. I was about ready to give up but didn’t and we ended up being very close to where we needed to be.

On the way home I took another route that took me through Gardner so I got gas then. When I got home, Zak was here. He was going to take Joanna’s tire off. I showed him where the jack is and we found a star wrench but he couldn’t find the key for the lug nuts. Then it was time to pick Joanna up. Joanna hasn’t seen the key since she took it to Ray’s when he was working on her brakes.

I left shortly after 6:00 to pick Amena up. I wasn’t going to go the same way so I took off in the direction I wanted to go and made the GPS catch up with what I was doing. It worked and I got there and their driveway was a bumpy sheet of ice. Fun. It wouldn’t have been too bad if I’d’ve been able to park up by the house but there were something like four vehicles there already so I had to maneuver up the hill. I used the vehicles for hand rails.

The family of the girl whose party it was has goats and cows and an awesome wood cook stove in the kitchen. Maybe I should clarify; the goats and cows do not live in the kitchen, only the wood cook stove does. I would so love to have one like it.

I did get home later than I wanted to which kind of limited where Paul and I could go out to eat. We dropped Cedric off at the West’s because the Young Men were congregating there and playing video games. We ended up going to SS Lobster which was the way it always is—dirty tables that you have to wash and excellent food. We were going to pick Cedric up on the way home but when we stopped, it turned out that most of the YM were staying overnight so Cedric wanted to as well.

And that was the day, more or less. Have a great day!

Unnamed

Good morning! Yesterday morning it was beautiful outside. Today it isn’t so because yesterday we had ridiculously warm temperatures (in the 40’s for crying out loud!!!) that melted the top layer of snow and revealed the ugly brown stuff that had been plowed up. YUCK. Did I say yuck?

I had to take Joanna to work in the morning at 7:30 and then I had to go pick Amena up from Trivett’s at 9:00. When I was on my way home from dropping Joanna off, the roads were still pretty slushy and the turn onto Pitcherville Road was somewhat slick. When I was on the way back from picking Amena up, it was not as bad. When I went to pick Joanna up at 3:30ish, the roads were mostly clear. Even parts of Pitcherville were clear. Joanna had to go to school at 6:00. I decided to let her drive herself because Amena had Rachel and Sarah coming over and because the car was getting low in gas and I didn’t want to use more than we had to.

At some point after Joanna left, Sarah and Rachel arrived, and the time Paul got home just a few minutes before Joanna, I looked outside and the ground was white again. Then by the time Paul got home, it had turned to rain so it was slush. Yucky, man! It’s still winter.

I think today is supposed to be warm again. Yuck. It’s still winter.

In other news, Cedric feels much better. He was better yesterday but content to sit/lay on the couch all day. Today he’s been up and about more already than he was all day yesterday.

Right now we have a house full of sleepy people in spite of the fact that the boys and I are awake at the table and Paul is awake in the shower. There are three sleeping girls in the living room and a sleepy Zak and a sleepy Joanna. I only had to tell the girls once to be quiet. It is true that I could have told them again but I didn’t feel like getting up so I didn’t. Once I was ready to sleep, I slept, and I don’t know if they continued making noise or not. Seth told me that they woke him up at some point.

Today is Friday. I am glad. I thought for a while yesterday that yesterday was Friday and I wasn’t ready for that so I’m glad that today is Friday. Amena has been invited to a birthday party in Hardwick this afternoon/evening so I’ll be going there to get her there by 2:00. It’s over at 8:00 but I want to be able to go out with Paul so I’m going to pick her up early unless she can make other arrangements.

And that is all for now. Have a fantastic day!

Quiet Day

Good morning! It is a beautiful sunny day out this morning. However, it is supposed to get up into the 40’s and that is going to mean melting. That means sloppy mess and that means yuck.

The service activity we were going to do last night was postponed to next week due to snow. The roads in Fitchburg were really bad I guess and the church we were going to clean was not comfortable with asking people to be out. Since the roads should have been better by 7:00, it was decided to have mutual as usual.

I left Cedric and Joseph home watching NCIS and took Seth and Amena. I was hoping that there would be another YW leader there so that I could go home and be with my sick child. I was out of luck with that one. Because we were watching a movie, I really wanted to start on time but that didn’t happen. In spite of the fact that Amena and I were early, we got started late. Jerusha Peterman arrived very late and I thought, “Yay! I can go home!” But those thoughts were quickly dashed because she said that the roads were horrible and there was freezing rain; she was going to find the bishop and tell him about the roads, make sure that Megan, Christina, and Shawn had a ride home, and go home. She did. In the meantime, Diana Chunn arrived with popcorn. She said the roads were slushy but not bad.

Anyway, the decision to go home early was made and after watching less than half of Despicable Me 2, we left. We were home by 8:30, the boys were in bed by 9:00. Amena spent the night at the Trivett’s and I had to go pick Joanna up at 9:30. Quite frankly, I think I would have rathered just to stay home.

In the mail yesterday I received an unexpected package. I saw that it was for me and thought that it must be the movie I’d ordered so I began opening it. There was a lot of bubble wrap and then three objects wrapped up carefully. Christmas ornaments that I painted many years ago. Try 34 years and three months ago. What a lovely surprise! Thank-you, Auntie Deb! I actually remember painting them.

I don’t have anything else of great import to report.

Have a great day!