"Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance." —Psalm 16:5-6
Credit to Suzanne's Second Estate for the quote.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Being Mom in a New Year
UPDATE: Formatting changes are in the works! Always fun stuff...also meaning my original post needs updating...my email is now on the LEFT side!So, after Abby goes to bed, occasionally (ok, most of the time), I surf. I used to surf with a passion. Yes, I am one of those people, lol. I even had a program to help me! Called Stumble Upon. I don't use it much these days. I have baby kisses, giggles, and milestones to think about during the day. But in the wee hours of the evening, after her bedtime at 8, I sit in our living room with Brandon and I surf! It is such precious time!
I've recently discovered that there are a lot of mom blogs out there...I mean a LOT. Not just ordinary moms...Christian moms...moms who gave up careers in the outside world to focus on the world at home with their babies. Moms who put the Father and Son first in their homes....and focus on the hearts of their children. These moms blog about sick babies and lost babies, about how they maintain their homes, how they cook, etc. All of these women are linked together in a quickly growing network. If you skip from blog to blog, you can become overwhelmed by the enormity of it.
Well, that said, I too would like to be a mom like these. Which brings me to my blog. I started this thing 4 years ago as a means to get my thoughts out "on paper" during a busy time in my life...the first year of law school. As the years past and life happened, I slacked on it big time! So now I am searching for a new path for my blog...one that shows who I am today and what it is like for me to be mom.
So at some point soon, there will be a massive overhaul of this blog. Any suggestions from anyone who stumbles here are very welcome! My email is in the right sidebar.
Happy New Year everyone!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Merry Christmas!
As my daughter tries to bang on the keyboard while jumping on my lap, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I hope all who chance upon my blog will take a moment to remember the reason for the season. He is the Reason...our Grace, our Forgivness, our Everything. I am so thankful this year for my family...my faithful husband, my joyfilled daughter, and an extended family I adore. They are the reason I smile when I wake up and when I go to bed.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Thursday, October 02, 2008
A moment of reflection....
A Vote Against Rashness
By George F. Will
Wednesday, October 1, 2008; A17
His name was George F. Babbitt. He was 46 years old now, in April 1920, and he made nothing in particular, neither butter nor shoes nor poetry, but he was nimble in the calling of selling houses for more than people could afford to pay.
-- "Babbitt," by Sinclair Lewis
We are waist deep in evasions because one cannot talk sense about the cultural roots of the financial crisis without transgressing this cardinal principle of politics: Never shall be heard a discouraging word about the public.
Concerning which, a timeless political trope is: Government should budget the way households supposedly do, conforming outlays to income. But the crisis came partly because so many households decided that it would be jolly fun to budget the way government does, hitching outlays to appetites.
Beneath Americans' perfunctory disapproval of government deficits lurks an inconvenient truth: They enjoy deficits, by which they are charged less than a dollar for a dollar's worth of government. Conservatives participate in this, even though deficits fuel government's growth by obscuring its cost.
The people can emulate the government because credit has been democratized. Democratization of everything is supposedly an unquestionable good, but a blizzard of credit cards (1.5 billion of them, nine per cardholder), subsidized loans and cheap money has separated the pleasure of purchasing from the pain of paying. Furthermore, the entitlement mentality fostered by the welfare state includes a felt entitlement to a standard of living untethered from savings.
Populism flatters the people, contrasting their virtue with the alleged vices of some minority -- in other times, Jews or railroad owners or hard-money advocates; today, the villain is "Wall Street greed," which is contrasted with the supposed sobriety of "Main Street." When people on Main Street misbehave by, say, buying houses for more than they can afford to pay, they blame the wily knaves who made them do it, such as the "nimble" Babbitt.
Knowing that heat breeds haste, errors and unintended consequences, George Washington praised the Senate as the saucer into which legislation is poured to cool. In this crisis, however, the House of Representatives has performed that function. Republicans, especially, slowed a Gadarene rush to ratify the deeply flawed original bailout legislation.
Voting against the bill -- against putting taxpayers' money at risk in order to clean up a mess that some people got rich by making -- was easy, but not necessarily wrong. The $700 billion figure exaggerated the plan's probable cost but accurately measured something worse -- the enormous enlargement of government's power.
So the joint declaration by John McCain and Barack Obama that Congress should "rise above politics" was mere gas. The legislation touched elemental questions -- the meaning of justice, the parameters of freedom and the proper functions of government. Democrats charge that the crisis is market failure arising from an insufficiency of government, in the form of regulation. Well.
Suppose that in 1979 the government had not engineered the first bailout of Chrysler (it, Ford and GM are about to get $25 billion in subsidized loans). Might there have been a more sober approach to risk throughout corporate America?
Suppose there had never been implicit government backing of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Better yet, suppose those two had never existed -- there was homeownership before them, just not at a level that the government thought proper. Absent Fannie and Freddie -- absent government manipulation of the housing market -- would there have developed the excessive diversion of capital into the housing stock?
The rising generation of thoughtful Republicans was represented on both sides of Monday's vote. Virginia's Eric Cantor, 45, and Wisconsin's Paul Ryan, 38, supported the legislation because they had helped to achieve substantial improvements in it, such as requiring financial institutions to help finance their bailout, giving the Treasury potentially valuable equity in firms revived by public funds, and eliminating a slush fund for Democratic activists. Texas's Jeb Hensarling, 51, and Indiana's Mike Pence, 49, voted against what they considered a rescue model fundamentally flawed because (in Hensarling's words) it "could permanently and fundamentally change the role of government."
It is potentially catastrophic that this crisis comes in the context of a closely contested election and a collapse of presidential authority. Congress should disconnect from a public that cannot be blamed for being more furious about than comprehending of this opaque debacle. The public wanted catharsis and respect for its center-right principles and got both with Monday's House vote. It still needs protection against obliteration of the financial system.
georgewill@washpost.com
© 2008 The Washington Post Company
By George F. Will
Wednesday, October 1, 2008; A17
His name was George F. Babbitt. He was 46 years old now, in April 1920, and he made nothing in particular, neither butter nor shoes nor poetry, but he was nimble in the calling of selling houses for more than people could afford to pay.
-- "Babbitt," by Sinclair Lewis
We are waist deep in evasions because one cannot talk sense about the cultural roots of the financial crisis without transgressing this cardinal principle of politics: Never shall be heard a discouraging word about the public.
Concerning which, a timeless political trope is: Government should budget the way households supposedly do, conforming outlays to income. But the crisis came partly because so many households decided that it would be jolly fun to budget the way government does, hitching outlays to appetites.
Beneath Americans' perfunctory disapproval of government deficits lurks an inconvenient truth: They enjoy deficits, by which they are charged less than a dollar for a dollar's worth of government. Conservatives participate in this, even though deficits fuel government's growth by obscuring its cost.
The people can emulate the government because credit has been democratized. Democratization of everything is supposedly an unquestionable good, but a blizzard of credit cards (1.5 billion of them, nine per cardholder), subsidized loans and cheap money has separated the pleasure of purchasing from the pain of paying. Furthermore, the entitlement mentality fostered by the welfare state includes a felt entitlement to a standard of living untethered from savings.
Populism flatters the people, contrasting their virtue with the alleged vices of some minority -- in other times, Jews or railroad owners or hard-money advocates; today, the villain is "Wall Street greed," which is contrasted with the supposed sobriety of "Main Street." When people on Main Street misbehave by, say, buying houses for more than they can afford to pay, they blame the wily knaves who made them do it, such as the "nimble" Babbitt.
Knowing that heat breeds haste, errors and unintended consequences, George Washington praised the Senate as the saucer into which legislation is poured to cool. In this crisis, however, the House of Representatives has performed that function. Republicans, especially, slowed a Gadarene rush to ratify the deeply flawed original bailout legislation.
Voting against the bill -- against putting taxpayers' money at risk in order to clean up a mess that some people got rich by making -- was easy, but not necessarily wrong. The $700 billion figure exaggerated the plan's probable cost but accurately measured something worse -- the enormous enlargement of government's power.
So the joint declaration by John McCain and Barack Obama that Congress should "rise above politics" was mere gas. The legislation touched elemental questions -- the meaning of justice, the parameters of freedom and the proper functions of government. Democrats charge that the crisis is market failure arising from an insufficiency of government, in the form of regulation. Well.
Suppose that in 1979 the government had not engineered the first bailout of Chrysler (it, Ford and GM are about to get $25 billion in subsidized loans). Might there have been a more sober approach to risk throughout corporate America?
Suppose there had never been implicit government backing of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Better yet, suppose those two had never existed -- there was homeownership before them, just not at a level that the government thought proper. Absent Fannie and Freddie -- absent government manipulation of the housing market -- would there have developed the excessive diversion of capital into the housing stock?
The rising generation of thoughtful Republicans was represented on both sides of Monday's vote. Virginia's Eric Cantor, 45, and Wisconsin's Paul Ryan, 38, supported the legislation because they had helped to achieve substantial improvements in it, such as requiring financial institutions to help finance their bailout, giving the Treasury potentially valuable equity in firms revived by public funds, and eliminating a slush fund for Democratic activists. Texas's Jeb Hensarling, 51, and Indiana's Mike Pence, 49, voted against what they considered a rescue model fundamentally flawed because (in Hensarling's words) it "could permanently and fundamentally change the role of government."
It is potentially catastrophic that this crisis comes in the context of a closely contested election and a collapse of presidential authority. Congress should disconnect from a public that cannot be blamed for being more furious about than comprehending of this opaque debacle. The public wanted catharsis and respect for its center-right principles and got both with Monday's House vote. It still needs protection against obliteration of the financial system.
georgewill@washpost.com
© 2008 The Washington Post Company
Friday, August 15, 2008
NoDak Notes
So, North Dakota is surprisingly beautiful! This is a view from our townhouse. Yeah, it is flat like the movie Fargo portrays, but it is also filled with useful farmland (I swear corn is grown everywhere...!)
Can't wait for the winters...lol...anybody have a sled??
And here is a pic of my cutie pie daughter, who is dozing on my lap right now listening to King George's "Troubadour".
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
And we're off!
So, yeah, I haven't blogged in quite a while! We've been busy I guess...having a baby! This is my beautiful, very sassy daughter, Abigail Grace Storm, born June 12, 2008 at 6:01 pm, weighing in at 6 pounds, 13 ounces.
And now, we are moving to the Great North! My husband got a job in North Dakota (of ALL places, lol!) in the Wind Energy Industry. FINALLY we will be leaving Lubbock! YaY!
You know, I have spent many years picking on Lubbock because of the arrogant people here and the rather ugly landscape. But, in retrospect, I think it is important to note a few positive things: I met my husband at Tech, got married by the JP in the County Court House on 11/20/2006 (we had our ceremony later, on 08/11/2007), we had our lovely daughter here at Covenant Lakeside, and I've met many people who will turn into lifelong friends. So, it hasn't been all bad.
We will high-tail it outta here next week...leaving Lubbock in our rearview mirror. Unlike the song, however, I'm really not sure that we will ever come to regret leaving, but we certainly would regret never having come. There comes a time in everyone's life when it is time to move on, and now is our time. But I know that Brandon and I wouldn't redo the last several years of our lives.
And here she is post bath:
And now, we are moving to the Great North! My husband got a job in North Dakota (of ALL places, lol!) in the Wind Energy Industry. FINALLY we will be leaving Lubbock! YaY!
You know, I have spent many years picking on Lubbock because of the arrogant people here and the rather ugly landscape. But, in retrospect, I think it is important to note a few positive things: I met my husband at Tech, got married by the JP in the County Court House on 11/20/2006 (we had our ceremony later, on 08/11/2007), we had our lovely daughter here at Covenant Lakeside, and I've met many people who will turn into lifelong friends. So, it hasn't been all bad.
We will high-tail it outta here next week...leaving Lubbock in our rearview mirror. Unlike the song, however, I'm really not sure that we will ever come to regret leaving, but we certainly would regret never having come. There comes a time in everyone's life when it is time to move on, and now is our time. But I know that Brandon and I wouldn't redo the last several years of our lives.
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