kitchen politics

what i think of sarah palin

doristheblade — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 07:04:17 +0000

sarah palin- bashing seems to be as common amongst christians as it is amongst unbelievers. and of course, since i am conservative politically and religiously, i am expected to love and defend her. don’t get me started on liberal christians who jump on the “sarah palin is an airhead” bandwagon. come on! think for yourself! so. the truth? i don’t know much about her. i think she has awesome political solutions, and who cares if she appears as smart as obama? so far as his being “smart” is concerned, it hasn’t helped this country or economy one whit. so what do i think of her? honestly, i think she should be at home raising her children. it is admirable that she is pro-life and had a “big” family and stable marriage. but in my opinion she should be with her children the majority of the time, instead of off in politics. her daughter’s out-of-wedlock pregnancy would likely not have happened if mother had been vigilant over her home and had been present. we can’t control everything our children do, of course, but with mother there, involved, and constantly guiding, the chance of teen pregnancy is obviously much lower. i think she has skewed priorities. that if God has called you to be married and if He should decide to give you children, you should be fully sold out and submitted to that task. not only is that the way God has designed families to be from the beginning of the world, but you can change the whole world by the attention that you give to mothering. (call me back woods if you will, but it’s the truth.) that being said, there are times when God uses women leaders to get things accomplished simply because there are no men taking the proper initiative. (see the story of deborah in judges 4.) (interesting side note that one of the weenie men in this passage was named “barak.”) hmmm… so men, step up to the plate or put on a bra and panties, because this woman has more balls than most!

five verses

doristheblade — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:39:50 +0000

recently i dug through a box of memories and found in my mother’s old purse a few verse-memorization booklets. i remember my mother using these, flipping through them on errands or in the car, and reciting “do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth!” i got them out and set them aside, and when i opened the first one to get started on my own memorization, a cannonball struck me, for these vulnerable words were the heading of the uppermost verse, the last one she had flipped to for comfort and encouragement: “Assurance of Salvation.” with 1 John 5:13 staring out at me. there were three of these booklets, one with one clear pocket, and two with two clear pockets each. and here is where i will remember the five last verses of my mother’s heart, a strong, amazing woman, but dying of breast cancer:

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” 1 John 5:13

“God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.” Hebrews 6:10

“‘though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,’ says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” Isaiah 54:10

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6

“Turn to me and have mercy on me, as you always do to those who love your name.” Psalm 119:132

goals

doristheblade — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:40:53 +0000

Well it looks like I am not a goal-oriented person. i have gotten so inspired by emilie barnes and her organization skills as outlined in “survival for busy women,” but i had a great realization this evening as i started in on my 3rd home made chocolate chip cookie (my secret recipe!): i am not cut out to be a CEO and probably not even one of those type A moms, either. Sure, my long-term goal is to be healthy, but let’s face it, I am not going to break that down into daily mini-goals on my calendar. because it will say things like “no cookies today.” And my weekly shopping list will have reminders like : “don’t buy sugar. Don’t buy chocolate chips.” i have a secret recipe!!! of course i have to keep sugar and chocolate chips on hand, just in case! am i way off? let’s be goal-oriented about writing. there we go. give me a cookie and a laptop. i am SO there.

“cesar’s fine catering”

doristheblade — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:56:28 +0000

i love it when business owners put their entire business name in quotes. it’s as if they are not sure they can take themselves seriously!

disservice to women

doristheblade — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 05:31:23 +0000

“Worst of all, it is women who usually have to do, usually alone, all the dirty work of the kitchen and household, work that is unimportant, hard, tiresome, and soul-destroying.”

-Vladimir Lenin (Russian founder of the Russian Communist Party, leader of the Russian Revolution of 1917. 1870-1924)

what a horrible, sneakily twisted way of looking at women and the family. i became outrightly indignant at first reading of this quotation. this sentence sums up the thrust of the feminist movement in the last 50 or so years, and highlights in such a clear way what is wrong with modern feminist thinking.

i am sure dear vladimir lenin had great intentions, but if he really wanted to make women feel better about their lives, he need have looked no further than a word of encouragement. to think that taking women out of the primary calling that God has obivously given them–wifehood, motherhood, and home management–putting pants on them and sending them to a factory, would make them feel fulfilled, would restore their destroyed souls, was a grave error in reasoning. what a disservice!

women are amazing. as my old pastor used to say, “traditionally the wife was the one who stayed at home because she had the uterus.” can’t argue with that one. women are the BEST at what they are built and called to do. but that doesn’t mean they don’t need supportive and loving men, and the whole of society, to come alongside and uphold them. as a reaction to male chauvenism and superiority, i understand those women for getting confused and grumpy, wanting a change, and feeling like breaking out of the degradation, falling for all the lies. but i want to make clear that the dissatisfaction they were feeling was directly from the evil one, and is part of the human condition. it wasn’t something derived from the nature of household work. what could be more valuable and fulfilling than raising up little lives?

valadimir lenin’s ideas were the problem, not the solution. look at where that line of thinking took lenin’s nation. not exactly a happy, thriving society. you think it a shame that women do household work alone? well help them! they are feeling that their work is unimportant? affirm them, encourage them! sure, the work is hard and tiresome. but most things in life that are worth it ARE hard and tiresome at times. that doesn’t entitle you to just opt out. i find this to be a sad pattern in the liberal line of thinking. it plants a seed in the people that they “deserve more,” they deserve something different. then it’s used to make a huge power grab before they know what hit them. in reality, we don’t deserve anything. and yet we have free forgiveness of sins. that is the message of change he should have been preaching.

can/should women be politicians, truck drivers, business people? sure! they are great at it! they can be pretty much great at everything (except being dads). but the primary calling is to the home, and women should never expect to find fulfillment outside of it if they haven’t found fulfillment within. the true issue here is lack of God, finding joy in him, and submitting to what he has called us to. i myself am tempted to become a politician, or at least a professor! but you can bet that it’s going to be after i raise my family. and should God will that i raise children into my 50′s and 60′s… so be it. i welcome it! i will be a darned old female senator, and i’m cool with that. thank you, God, for counting me worthy for this beautiful, dirty work!

these say it all

doristheblade — Fri, 22 May 2009 07:22:21 +0000

these and tons more stickers can be found on cafepress.

insights on art and God

doristheblade — Mon, 11 May 2009 07:12:10 +0000

a great and clarifying sermon we listened to tonight as office cohorts, Feldenkraising/ business-plan writing side by side. the insights gave my spirit some new windows.

http://realityla.com/Media/Audio/2009-04-19-Creativity_Under_God-80kbs.mp3

the Christian’s lead

doristheblade — Mon, 11 May 2009 07:07:06 +0000

Have come upon a couple of highly interesting blogs recently; below is an example of a post that may have made me wrestle for a day or two.

stigma, at pedro’s perambulations

I find that many Christians take their perspective of love and tolerance from the world’s current philosophies and then extract pieces of scripture to justify their position. The Christian should not be so impressionable. Love can always be accomplished without compromise of the Word, and the Berean must stand for and upon the entire gospel.

biz journal 3

doristheblade — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 05:55:49 +0000

i realized one thing: i am horrible at goals!

at first i filled out an entire worksheet wrong because i apparently failed to absorb the difference between goals and objectives. i was supposed to write two personal goals and two business goals, and only after i had filled the whole thing out with minor objectives (this is easy!) did i realize these things were supposed to be major planning-ahead type of things. EVIDENTLY not my strong point. first i had to go to long’s and buy some white-out, as the one i found in the bottom of my office supplies drawer hadn’t been used in so long that the whole brush part had fallen off and i was left holding a crusty stick. so once i whited-out my entire worksheet, i sat down to begin anew and think of GOALS now, goals. not just a silly thing like clean your living room! well honestly, the personal goals were relatively easy: teach german to my children. exercise regularly/get fit. both of these can be broken down into several steps, or objectives that i will need to go through in order to accomplish the greater goal.

then the business goals: here i sat, completely stumped, and it is so frustrating because i honestly don’t HAVE any business goals, or i really don’t know what on earth i am supposed to be putting down here. right now my only business goals are to: 1) know how to start a business and 2) make enough money to sustain the family and help us get out of debt. these can’t really be broken down into objectives any more than this class is already broken down: once i am through this class, i will have learned how to start a business, and i will have a business plan which i can then implement to make more money. RIGHT? i didn’t wanna half-ass the worksheet, but that is honestly the best i could come up with right now. there is the artist’s brain attempting to fit into a business mold.

i was really inspired today, however, by the remembrance of proverbs 31. i was reminded that the Lord honors hard work and hard workers. providing for one’s own. the proverbs 31 woman is a great mom, as well as a business woman! she sells cloth–her own business–makes money, and with that money, gets into real estate. she is awesome! and she never loses her kids along the way. indeed they rise up and call her blessed. this speaks to the power of the mother being present with the family. but as an admonition and a warning to myself, i can’t “coast” through all of this. the lady rises while it is still night and works her butt off. amen, amen.

one more thought before i close the journal for the day, since we are in the middle of watching our government approve a huge, pet project-filled liberal bill that will weaken our economy even further–SOB! geez, what were people EXPECTING when they voted for obama! now some are lamenting that the bill is going to stifle funding for “the arts.” no duh. and funding for charities, and funding for businesses that drive the community… hm! not to worry, the messiah will step in and give you a bunch of programs and borrowed money and steal your soul while he pays your mortgage. exactly what he wanted all along. i heard that some woman told obama she needed a home, and the guy flicked his wrist and GOT HER A HOME. what is he, a king? why don’t we go begging at his doorstep and tell him we need a home too? is he going to buy everyone a home who says so? sheesh. where was i going with this, i perceive this is no longer business journalling…

oh yes! i observed at the wev office there was a poster on the wall that was rosie the riveter except it said something like this: “nancy pelosi! a woman belongs in the house…as a speaker!” are. you. serious. i am baffled that these wev people would hold up nancy pelosi as a rolemodel when her agenda is exactly what is going to make it hard like programs such as theirs to keep existing! wev runs largely on donations from the private sector. when the rich start getting taxed so much that they pull back their funding… when pelosi and obama get their way… we will see what kind of a role model she will be to people who are trying to keep business alive. their ideals are diametrically opposed. they’re not even going to see it, i bet you. like the obama religion is going to blindly adore him while he leads us into depression. i suppose this isn’t the “rodel way” of speaking positively about the place that is going to give me this great business education, but this is a journal where i am writing what i truly believe. and yeah, i’m not afraid to say what i really think about it. political correctness and liberal walking on eggshells is not for me. i am not the nonconfrontational mouse i used to be. how is that for an “affirmation!”

biz journal 2

doristheblade — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 06:08:54 +0000

yeah, i am actually supposed to journal on this stuff for 15 minutes a day! it is indeed nice to have a class assignment to journal. now i HAVE to make time to blog!

in my reading from the curriculum today, there was a lot of talk about being specific. specific business vision, specific goals, specific objectives. knowing your market, how much money you need, etc. i am seeing here that specificity (which i don’t think is a real word) is something that has never come easy to me in life, and it may be because i tend to be indecisive. these two, actually, most certainly go hand in hand. for example, if you give me a blank apartment or room, i will have the hardest time envisioning the best way to decorate it to make the most of its potential. i would be hard-pressed to decide if it should be decked out in urban style, farmhouse style, art deco style, or what have you. and then to decide on specific color schemes and furniture pieces? aah! but if you give me multiple views of the room completed in various styles, or even show me specific choices in colors, furniture, lighting, etc. , i will have no problem deciding which i like better than the other. it is just the blank canvas that makes my brain freeze. too many possibilities. so in regards to business, yes, i have several different ideas that i could see going for. i am just unsure of the specifics of each and how it would fit or not with our lifestyle and family goals. what if i went for one business idea, only to realize 20 years later, that i really should have done another one?

but another big theme in the reading today was the idea of “affirmations:” things you specifically tell yourself in order to counter and overcome your fears. re-trian your thinking, and re-train your brain. so here is what i should be telling my self instead of worrying about making the wrong choice: “i know our lifestyle and family goals. i am smart and intuitive about which things we should or should not invest in. i care about where God wants us to go, and i know He will be leading us. i know i will make the right choice. being in this class will give me a whole wealth of new skills, and i know it will be worth it. i am excited!” see? i can do this.

the worksheet today also encouraged us to talk about some fears (countering them with affirmation, of course!) and let me tell you honestly what my greatest fear is in starting a business: the fear that i will be working on this business at the expense of my children. i believe so strongly that i should be at home, engaged with their development, and focused on them, that i fear a business start-up would not be compatible with this. then i will have to make a choice: should i power through and miss their early years in order to make more money and be able to help pay their college later? (it’s for their own good!) or should i stop the business process and be their mom 100% in order to focus on their early development, and trust God that if we are to be poor for the rest of our life, so be it? pray that he would bless my service in motherhood, and provide for us on some other way? there is a dilemma i have often come to in my faith: i don’t know what faith really IS, or it is difficult for me to discern what is fleshly and what is done in faith: i KNOW faith is not always simply sitting there and praying while your family starves, but i also know that God is enough, and that he DOES provide, and that he is NOT always pleased with man’s efforts to get ahead in the rat race or think that we need everything that other people in our society have. i would like to be a good steward in taking this class and make sure i am doing my best to be available and ready for His leading. but i am not 100% convinced that this wasn’t just an “ishmael” for me: that i am being hasty and trying to take things into my own hands, esp. when i don’t even have the money to pay for tuition… it is so hard for me to extract these things, that i suppose for now i will just do what i want (take the class) and pray that God will make all things beautiful in His time.