HippieMommy

posted by amanda on Jun 21

Colorado - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is something that has been driving me nuts for as long as we’ve lived here. What is with this state’s pronunciation? Everyone says it different! After a few long, heated debates with fellow Coloradans, I decided to look it up.

For all of you people out there who are as confused as I am, apparently the appropriate pronunciation is “Call-uh-rad-oh” That sounds so dorky. I’m a “Call-oh-rod-oh” girl myself, which apparently means I pronounce it like a Canadian

Apparently Nevada had the same problem and altered their license plates to set people straight. They say “Nevăda”.

posted by amanda on Jun 19

Thanks for all of your support and patience. So far so good

posted by amanda on Jun 14

For those of you who are looking for GCM answers, here ya go

GCM has been taken offline by the company that co-locates their shared server. GCM has gotten too big and was using other people’s resources. That’s what has been causing the errors. The co-locating company finally got fed up with it and shut off our permissions to the site until we can find a solution.

Basically the only solution is for GCM to get its own server, but that is going to cost money. Jeri has set up a fund for us to donate so that she can afford to move GCM to its own server. We saw that this day was coming, but were hoping that it had a little more time.

So if you want to donate, here’s the link. Jeri is looking at a cost of about $100 a month plus a one-time setup fee of $40. My husband and I talked about it, and we want to set up to give monthly. I’ve talked to a bunch of other GCMers and we’re thinking that if we can just get 50 people to do $2/month, then that’d cover it. That’s just the cost of a 2-liter of soda and when you work out the price per hour… well, its a good deal!

We’re also planning on doing a larger one-time donation just to get everything going

I’ll keep ya’ posted if there is any new news.

PS NO DATA HAS BEEN LOST FROM GCM. Don’t worry about that - its all there, we just need a new server that can handle all of us accessing it at once.

posted by amanda on Jun 8

In case you just crawled out from under your rock
ABC News: Senate Rejects Amendment on Gay Marriage

My recent reading of Dumbing Us Down has really shaped my thoughts on this ban. The whole book has changed the way that I look at legislation, but the last chapter was what really made me start thinking.

As I shared yesterday, Gatto asserts that when you order change in behavior then what actually happens it that people appear to change and yet they harbor a huge amount of resentment and end up exacting vengence in a way far worse than if you had allowed the community to change outside of legislation. He backs this up with data about racism, patriarchy, drug use, and alcoholism.

I was thinking back on his theory today as my dh and I talked about the gay marriage ban, and I couldn’t help but agree with Mr. Gatto. Any way that I played out the scenario, it still wouldn’t really accomplish its set “goal”.

So here are my thoughts. I am assuming one big thing here: that it is almost exclusively (or at least a majority of) Christians who are in favor of this ban. My responses are what I would say to any fellow Christian.

1. If the ban were to pass and gay marriage was banned.
Would anything really change? Gay families would still be living together. The sin would still be happening. Even if the ban were somehow able to stop homosexual behavior (which is pretty ridiculous to even assume) then it is still a “bass-ackwards” way to solve the problem of sin. How many times do Christians tell people that they don’t need to be perfect to come to Christ? How many times are we told in the Bible that we can’t expect people of the world to live sinless lives? We all need God’s grace, and we are given it “while we were still sinners.” The change in life comes after salvation, not before.

What about Christians who are homosexual and would wish to get married?
I don’t think this would change anything either. As the band Hangnail says in their song “No Name Yet” (a song about abortion, btw)

Those man-made laws don’t mean a thing

It doesn’t matter what man says - what matters is what God says. If Christians are already choosing to sin in this area, do you think a man made law will change it?

2. If the ban doesn’t pass
Is marriage really threatened because there isn’t a ban on gay marriage? If you want to protect marriage, maybe we should have a ban on living together. Maybe a ban on sex outside of marriage would help. Some Christians would probably like a ban on hand holding. That leads to sex… don’t you know?

So really I think this ban is irrelevant no matter what eventually happens. We can’t change people’s hearts by force, and if we want to ban sins, then we’ve got a long list to get going on…

posted by amanda on May 22

Could someone please comment or email me and explain why in the world everyone uses blogrolls… I have a perfectly nice linking system, and yet I’ve noticed that there is a bit of a sub-cultural issue where people only want to link to me if I blogroll link to them I’m feeling blackmailed What makes it so great?! Is it seriously worth it? Will you blogroll me if I blogroll you?

posted by amanda on Apr 29

I decided to switch my skin for a little while. The old layout looked too fall-ish for me, but I’ll probably bring it back (or something similar) after summer is over

posted by amanda on Mar 19

http://www.paperbackswap.com/

Ooh, I’m having such a fun time shopping for new books and getting rid of the old twaddle and books that were given to me by my MIL (In her defense, I don’t think she believes them anymore either…)

So it works like this… you sign up and list 9 books. They give you 3 credits just for listing. After that, each time you mail a book to someone, you get 1 credit. 1 credit buys you 1 more book. The shipper pays the shipping costs and when you order a book you get it for completely free. To ship it you print out the book wrapper on your printer, and that includes the mailing label, so you don’t have to buy an envelope or anything. It tells you how much postage to put on there, so you just slap it on, throw it in the mailbox, and voila!

Out of my listed books, 5 have been requested, so I’m well on my way

Plus I’m having fun filling up my wishlist

posted by amanda on Feb 18

I realize that this is far from being a reality… it is just a training program for bus drivers, but it makes me sick to my stomach. I am not a believer in homeschooling due to fear, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that these kinds of things make me more sure of my decision to homeschool.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,185274,00.html

Financed by the Homeland Security Department, school bus drivers are being trained to watch for potential terrorists, people who may be casing their routes or plotting to blow up their buses.

This quote is describing a possible scenario that they are training for

…terrorists monitor a punctual driver for weeks, then hijack a bus and load the friendly yellow vehicle with enough explosives to take down a building.

Schools are the kind of target that terrorists want, Beatty said: a place where an attack could have huge symbolic impact and lead to mass casualties and spectacular images.

It really makes me sick to my stomach. Why would anyone want “spectacular images”? It is so screwed up and so disgusting. How would that achieve any goals? Its revolting.

posted by amanda on Feb 16

Rawr.

Yesterday my friend, Candice, and I went to Barnes and Noble to try to decide which book we should use for our Bible study group. Our choices were Grace-Based Parenting by Kimmel, Heartfelt Discipline by Clarkson, and Families Where Grace is in Place by VanVonderen. I was hoping to flip through the books and see which one would be the best fit. Barnes and Noble obviously had different plans for us.

They offered none of these books. Not one. These are books that are getting national attention, even being mentioned in the Washington Post and in prominent Christian counseling publications, and yet they are not even available for people browsing at the bookstore.

Even more upsetting was that Babywise sat there, facing out, and in prominent display. While most books had their binding facing out, Babywise had the privelege of having the cover facing out, making it much more likely to be picked up.

Its so infuriating. Why in the world would they give prime real estate to a book that the AAP has come out against and that was written by a man excommunicated from the church and yet they do not offer these (better) books? They easily could’ve made space just by turning Babywise the other way. I think I need to write a letter.

posted by amanda on Feb 2

Nice combination, eh?

Tonight the kids and I made up a batch of cupcakes. I was inspired by the ones that Oprah had on her show. I had to dive through the grocery store shelves to find the last of the old Duncan Hines mixes, because they were milk-free. For whatever reason, Duncan Hines decided that they just absolutely must add milk to all of their mixes, and I’m devastated. They were the only brand that I could buy if I needed a quick mix cake. Boohoo. Luckily I was able to grab a bunch today, but now I’m going to have to do something similar to Elaine on the “sponge-worthy” Seinfeld episode.

I’m not truly having anxiety, although I am uneasy as our life is moving in unexpected directions. My dh is looking for a new job. He and his current employer had initially decided that he would work for them from home until it was no longer working for them. Well, its no longer working. He’s looking for a new job and they’re looking for a replacement. Everyone has been open and up-front, which is good, but it is still stressful. He has applied for a few positions that look really good. Please pray for us if you have some spare time. We’d really appreciate it. He’s worked for this company since the day that he graduated college, so this is our first time in this position. No horror stories, please!

In other sad news, dh and I went skiing/snowboarding (that was the good part) and while he was skating (meaning he only had one foot strapped in), he somehow managed to twist his knee pretty badly. He injured his MCL and probably his ACL as well. He has an MRI tomorrow to see if he need surgery. Poor guy. Snowboarding is his release. That’s how he relaxes. Now it looks like he’s sidelined for the rest of the year. We had no idea it was this bad. He even came down the mountain after he injured it and was going up in the tree sections and doing jumps. I think we were both pretty shocked when it started swelling and then when the sports doctor said how bad it was.

I hope to update more often. The combination of starting school, looking for a new job with dh, and his possible upcoming surgery have been keeping us pretty wrapped up.

Oh, and one last thing… my kids won the lottery to get in to our local Charlotte Mason / classical school. I’m not sure how I feel about it. I really think I want to homeschool, and I thought they’d never get in, and that would be confirmation. Now I’m really unsure. I guess I better wait until we find out whether or not we’re moving for a new job before I make any real plans, but still…