Reality check

I have recently taken a big step back from a lot of television watching. In fact we have actually turned off television service at our home all together. I have been content to purchase what shows I am still willing to watch on itunes and then I don't have to deal with advertisements for other shows that I don't feel are right or filthy advertisements that bombard you at every commercial break. I am not saying this so that you look at me and think how strong I am. I am not strong at all. It is tempting to get bored and pull up something totally inappropriate on the Internet and rot my mind with it. It is only by God's strength that that influence in my life has severely limited my tv watching habits. This being said, one of my favorite programs is "19 kids and counting." I have always admired a family that raises their kids with a biblical worldview and are actively training their children to have a servants heart. If this means that that family is willing to have many children, I am very happy that they have made that decision and I pray that God continues to bless and lead their lives. The first time I was aware of families that had this desire was when I was younger and my Mother's cousin and his wife were having a child nearly every other year. (it seemed) After talking to my Mother this past summer I believe they have only had 9 or 10, but still that fact brought up the topic of overpopulation in the world with some folks in my life that had objections. Last Thursday I was on face book and because I am a fan of "19 kids and counting's" show page I had a post on my news feed about the latest episode. I usually do not read the comments thread under the post but for some reason i did that day. There was comment from a young man accusing the family of overpopulating the world and being like Andrea Yates ( a woman who could not cope with her life and decided to kill her children.) After feeling sad over such a viscous attack. I quickly realized that this family walked into this reality TV show knowing that there were going to be people who didn't understand where their hearts are and would judge them with a set of standards that the world believes is true. There are approximately 3,700 abortions each day in this country (the equivalent of the loss of 9-11 every single day.) I have heard that the birth rate in the United States works out to an average of 2.3 children per household. I have heard that in order for population growth you need 2.5 per family. Based on information that I heard from Summit ministries a year ago Europe is at an average of 1.3 per household and a society that is considered dying out is one with a birth rate of less than 1.5. Most of Europe is around that figure. So what is the harm in one family having 19 kids? No harm at all as far as I am concerned. In fact, my personal feeling is that I would rather they have that many kids than have some people who can't be responsible for the one that they have brought into this world and have no time or desire to raise it.Our foster care system is flooded with kids that have parents that don't care enough to live a life that is dedicated to raising their children. That is just my argument to the whole overpopulation subject. That is my two cents. Thank you for listening to me vent.   

I need organization, my house feels like it is swollowing me!

I returned home from a summer away from my home and realized that the house, even though we may have spent a total of three weeks actually in the house all summer, was in great need of organization. Bags, chairs, school supplies, and many other things just dropped here or there because we weren't here long enough to actually clean up more than dishes or things that would make a bad smell before we came back the next time. Most times we drove the 3 1/2 hours home on Saturday night only to turn around and drive back up after church on Sunday. Now I am getting that organizing bug. I looked at my living room last Wednesday and decided that there had to be a better system for the school supplies than just having books and boxes of manipulative's, etc. littered all over the floor. I started pricing shelves that I could put books and baskets on so that I could get most of it up and in an orderly place. The local store had the cube organizers, that you buy fabric boxes for, on sale for $40! That was nuts in my opinion. At the most there was only six cubes and I couldn't see paying that much right now. Today I got the bright idea to stop at Family Dollar to check what they had. Guess what? A six cube shelf was $25 and instead of paying $6 for one fabric box, I paid $5 for a package of three. Now I do understand that the $40 shelf might be a bit deeper than the on I bought but you know, I'm okay with the difference. Anyway this is just the start of my organizing endeavor. Stay tuned for more to come.

The new shelves are still pretty full but at least no books are on the floor anymore and we have easy access. ;)