I am MAD…no really more disgusted with the American people

Let me preface this by saying I am not some survivalist nut with an arsenal of AK47′s in my basement. I am a middle class working mom who is worried about the future for her children, grandchildren and generations to come.

I am sure if I hear the words “gun control” one more time today I will indeed vomit. The shear ignorance of the majority of American’s has finally pushed me to my limit. I must speak freely……..

If any of our founding fathers or mothers could speak to us now…they wouldn’t!!! The people who scarficed their lives, struggled, froze and starved to found America, to start a new FREE life. Freedom to worship, freedom of speech, the RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS!!!!

 United States Constitution

Amendment 2 – Right to Bear Arms. Ratified 12/15/1791

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

It was so important to them it was the second amendment only preceded by freedom of speech/religion.  

Why do you think that the right to bear arms was so important to them? Did we all sleep through high school history?

If we, the citizens, have no guns then we have no power. We then live in a dictatorship where our basic rights and freedoms will be eroded to suit the whims of our captors. What do you think the citizens of Iraq, Afghanistan, China, and the many other oppressed nations would do if you said to them every citizen is going to be given a handgun and you are free to use it for your own protection. Do you think they would say “oh no thanks, we are don’t want to increase the gun violence”? Please.. there would be line for days. Do you think the Tienanmen Square incident would have happened if Chinese citizens were allowed to bear arms? We have heard many times from many innocent Iraq’s that they do not support the Taliban or the old oppressive dictatorship but had no power (no weapons) to do anything about it. 

Furthermore I think that if every sane, non felon American over the age of 21 where required to own a gun we would see a drastic decrease in violent crimes. I think we often forget the thousands of violent crimes that happen daily that don’t involve guns. Are those ok just because there is no gun involved or no one gets shot? So it’s ok to be violent, to hurt others as long as you don’t actually use your gun? Rape all you want, stab, beat, run over with a car but please just don’t use a gun. Again the monumental stupidity overwhelms me.

Personally I would feel much safer in this world if I knew everyone owned and hopefully carried a loaded hand gun. If I were attached and I couldn’t get to my gun I would think hey somebody around here has a gun and will get this guy before he hurts my kids or someone else. Also don’t you think a lot of criminals would stop and think hey perhaps I shouldn’t try this I will probably get shot and die. Sure there are those desperate or crazy enough to try anything but again if we all have loaded guns would it really matter. The criminals are not going to stop no matter what. The crazy ones are still going to be crazy enough to kill no matter what. So why not defend ourselves and let them know it is not ok to hurt others – we will shoot you. And honestly folks do we want another criminal in jail to support? Do we want the crazy ones and the truly bad folks producing children? Remember genetics? Oh I know most of you are gasping right now but lets just for once be honest. Also lets not forget that the majority of violent offenders will commit violent crime again and again when is enough enough?

I do agree there should be some limits on automatic assault weapons like AK47′s but not a ban, just reasonable limits. For example you must buy from a licensed dealer who registered the gun and does a criminal check prior to you actually getting the gun in your hands. But there will always be a black market for guns just like prohibition of alcohol. You CAN NOT get rid of the guns. It is impossible. All you can do is take away what little defense the citizens have against those with the ability and desire to acquire guns. And ultimately one bullet defeats any gunman. One bullet fired from any gun is all it takes. It is simply an issue of training and marksmanship nothing really to do with the weapon itself.  Rock, paper, scissors handgun beats AK47.

I have even heard the “ban the guns” morons (yes I am really pissed) say that even if students/teachers had had guns they couldn’t have stopped the most recent massacre at Virgina Tech. Now seriously you think that if one of lets say 40 people had had a gun that no one could have shot and wounded or killed that guy enough to end his spree. People CAN YOU HEAR YOURSELVES TALKING???? And if that is the case then why do you care who has a gun. If they are that useless then why worry about them? My 76 yr old grandmother who has never shot a gun before could have taken that guy out. Granted she may have been shot in the process but how many other wounds and lives could that have saved? I read about the Holocaust survivor who heroically used his body as a shield. Do you think if he had a gun that guy could have continued on his spree? And really people lets focus these sprees are really a mere drop in the bucket of violent crime. They just hit home hard because of the enormity of the event as they should.

Other cultures often refer to Americans as spoiled toddlers and I have to agree with them. So America I say to you, wise up, think and research before you scream and demand stricter gun control or bans because you just might get. And when you wake up and realize you don’t want it it will be too late. Look at the countries in our world today whose citizens have no guns. They are all under dictatorship in one fashion or another. Most are severely impoverished due to corrupt government and many are just plain scary places due to violence and terror rained down by those with the guns.

STOP……..THINK… before it is too late!
To conclude my ranting and just for the record - in the immortal words of Charleston Heston “They will have to pry my gun from my cold dead hands!”

A great family recipe for salmon…..

A friend recently shared a great recipe for salmon cakes with me. I tried it and everyone at my house loved it from my 16 month old up. It will become a regular so I thought I would share it.

Now you may be asking why salmon? Well everyday it seems we hear more and more about the benefits of the omega fatty acids found in fatty fish like salmon and tuna. Most recently strudies have shown signifiant link between poor omega 3 intake and increase in alzehimers disease. So I am trying to make sure we all add more to our diet but especially my kids. There is also the fact that I try to foster the love of many different foods and encourge my kids to eat a large variety of flavors.

Salmon Cakes

1 box of Stove Top Stuffing flavor of choice (I used cornbread)

1/2 to 1 cup of mayonaise or  a half/half combination of mayo and sour cream

12-16oz of salmon ( I found some wonderful salmon in a vacume sealed package near the canned tuna, it was very fresh tasting)

Make the box of Stove Top as directed. Mix stuffing, salmon and enough mayo and/or sour cream to hold cakes together/moisten well. Shape mixture into cakes. Pan fry in small amout of oil just until warm through and golden brown. Makes about a dozen average sized patties. 

Some happiness….

I find I have so many things I want to write about I just don’t know where to start. It seems so much in my life has been hard and negative lately I just really don’t even want to address it. So today I thought I would share some of my recent happy moments.

I feel like the main words I say to my children during any given day are please don’t, no, stop, ect. I know they need to discipline but I am simply sick of saying no!!!! So I have randomly started saying yes to some of those crazy toddler requests and it feels WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!  For example the other day Aidan asked me for cookies for breakfast and I could tell by the look on his face he knew the answer would be no, so I said sure just today. He couldn’t believe it, the wonder and joy on his face nearly brought me to my knees. Then when I actually gave him the cookies, well let’s just say I will never forget that expression on his face. It brought me pure joy much more than those cookies did him I am sure.  And then a couple of nights ago Vivian just didn’t want to go to bed alone, she was in a cuddle mood. I try hard to follow good sleep practices for the kids, and she would have gone to sleep if I had followed the routine, but really I just wanted to cuddle her too. So I held her and rocked her until we fell asleep together in the recliner where we slept until 2am when I woke up and laid my beautiful peacefully sleeping daughter in her bed. I would really be happy to do that every night.

I am also really enjoying blogging. I have found many others who have similar experiences in life as I do and it has helped me find new ways to cope with my own difficulties. I have found myself laughing more often than not and taking away a lot of inspiration from others.

Vivian is begining to speak more clearly the last week or so. Now I can understand a lot more of her words. She has very polietly thanked me and blessed me several times in the past few days. Very precious. She is also becoming a little more of a mama’s girl. Now I know she really still is a daddy’s girl at heart but I really was beginning to think she didn’t care if I was around or not. I am starting to feel much better about that.

It’s consignment sale season and I really love buying girl clothes!!!!! They are all so very cute. Poor Aidan hasn’t gotten many clothes yet. The bigger they get it seems the worse the boys clothes are but I have found him a couple of really cute things. I have two georgeous coordinating outfits for them to wear for spring pictures which I think I will have made next week. I just can’t wait. They are both adorable and take beautiful pictures. I’ll attach one below just so you know it not just my mother’s opinion.

I took my grandmother to buy new shoes and everyone made it home unharmed and no one was arrested. You can’t know how happy that made me unless you know my grandmother…..just trust me it was a miracle.

My husband is always sharing news tidbits and funny stories with me that I really enjoy and I have been trying lately to find some things to share with him too. We are sort of in a who can find the better story contest and it has been very entertaining.

All in all I have many things to enjoy each day. All too often though the difficult things, aggrevation and required tasks find ways to take over and push the joy to the bottom. I am making a purposeful effort to stop that from happening. Each day I  am trying to stop frequently and find some immediate joy to share with someone I love even if it is just for a minute. And if I loose sight of that goal I can just come back here and be reminded. Again…I am loving blogging.

                                                                                      

                                                                                     

Ripple Effect

Yesterday was the worst day I have had as a mom. Really in perspective now I can see that there will probably be many more days in the future to take over the “worst day” crown but for now yesterday is reining. I, like the most of us, have been through some extremely difficult times in my life. I have had to overcome many obstacles and continue to work daily on many ongoing issues with my family. I thought there was nothing I couldn’t find a way to get through with God’s help. Well yesterday evening I let someone who really should have no power in my life push me over the edge. Literally, over the edge. I was seriously planning to take my perfectly normal, wonderfully bright three year old child to see a psychologist today. I knew it was an emergency and I had to get him in today. Then I started thinking perhaps I needed to go to, hey we all need to go even my 15 month old because obviously I am such a bad mom and human being that I have damaged us all beyond repair. I seriously wondered if the local psyc hospital could put us all in a room together for treatment. Yes I was broken. I had truly for the first time in my life completely lost it. I have complete and total faith in God. I truly believe in God all things are possible, but I was so far gone I couldn’t even think to turn to God for help. But God knew, he felt my pain, and sent me help. I finally came to my senses enough to realize I needed help. I had to call someone. I called a good friend who is very honest and supportive. I figured at least she could drive us to the psyc hosptial as I was sure I was not even competent to drive anymore.

In less than a five minute conversation her voice of reason had me back to functioning status. She is really wonderful with issues like this. Later last night I read her most recent blog post and my perspective was completely renewed and restored. I have let an issue that should have never been an issue completely take over mine and my families lives for the past two months. It has to do with preschool, yes preschool. It just sounds really stupid now that I am typing it but anything that effects your children is just traumatic to your parenting confidence and hurts your heart. After reading her post I realized how many more important things I could focus my energy on, how much more fun I could have, how many more wonderful conversations I can have with my family and friends, how many kind things I could be doing verses wasting my energy and efforts based on the lack of knowledge on someone else’s part

Now I am back, better than ever and determined to make only positive changes in my situation from now on. It also made me realize just how much of an effect we can  have on each other. We don’t stop to think that our actions kind or not effect not only those they are intended for but many others along the way. Others we had no clue could even be effected. Thank you mamadoggylove for casting the stone that started the ripple that led to Kristi’s post. Thank you Kristi just for being you! You can visit Kristi at Dying Arts

Lessons I’ve learned already today…..

Well it is only 4pm and I have as usual learned several lessons already today. I thought perhaps I would share those with the rest of you who may not have already had the opportunity to experience these.

* Your husband will never see the true humor in any blog posts that makes you laugh so loud that you wake him up at 2am

* 15 month old girls are like cats….they have servants not parents, they understand everything we say only pretend not to at their convenience, prefer to be held in your lap than entertain themselves long enough for you to use the bathroom, will scratch and bite if rubbed the wrong way

* No matter how hard you try you will never convince a 3 year old that the world is not ending if you go to McDonalds and don’t get a toy

* People who are hard of hearing often use that as an excuse to ignore information that they do not want to address

* It is far better to let your 3 year old think the bottle of personal lubricant he found in the night stand is “spoiled hand sanitizer” as he assumed no matter how sticky it makes his hands

* And my favorite today….the day your son asks you to marry him might be even better than the day your husband asked you (but don’t tell your husband that, especially on the day you woke him up at 2 am laughing at a blog)

Just imagining what else I might learn today has me excited and more than a little afraid! No matter what happens in a day you can choose to learn, grow, laugh and make the best of it. What did you learn today?