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Thomas Jefferson: A Film by Ken Burns...

Ken Burns is a brilliant film maker, but his collection of historical "scholars" was worse than pathetic. They want to shoot beyond the mark. They want to make their own careers with their slighting and cryptic comments, their little digs at a man whose boots they aren't worthy to polish.

I've read enough of Jefferson myself to know that while he was a brilliant writer, one whose prose was lofty and grand, his writing was also plain language, more beautiful because it can be understood by all.

Mr. Burns soared when he let Jefferson speak for himself. Thankfully, there is enough of that to make this documentary well worth watching.

I'm always rankled by those who will criticize the founders because they didn't give us back The Garden of Eden, for this is what these "scholars" criticize them for. What generation has solved all of the problems encountered? There has never been a generation of people who have solved so many, freed so many.

When Jefferson wrote these sacred words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness..." and then signed his name to that document. He risked his life. Had he been captured, his death would have been torture most painful and gruesome.

Certainly those words did not make men equal, they didn't make all men free at the time. But, they made freedom possible where it had never existed before. When that liberty took hold, it spread around the world. And, to the extent that the rest of the world has imitated the understanding of liberty and government these men created, is the extent to which they are free. To the extent that their ideas are rejected, even in the country they created, is the extent to which men are enslaved.

And even should the cloud of barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and libraries of Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty to them. In short, the flames kindled on the fourth of July, 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them. Thomas Jefferson - Letter to John Adams (12 September 1821)

Spring Recital Collage...

HERE...

Behind every good man...

You know that saying right? Well, it works both ways. Behind every good woman is an amazing man. Today my husband worked in the yard, put in the garden, took down the Christmas lights, conditioned the cooler, shopped for a Mother's day dinner he's grilling and played with a demanding toddler who wanted to dance, be held on the banister so she could play horse, and generally show dad around the house naming stuff and pronouncing it "pretty" or "smell good" or "ick" (ick would be dinner). He answered 1,000 questions from the teenager w/out once becoming impatient. That's why my daughter is so smart right there.
When I grow up, I want to be just like him. He wonders what I want for Mother's Day. Not a thing.
Love you C.

Bear Lake Bear...

I love these colors. My grandmother decorates her whole house in them. She loves Bear Lake and so do I.

There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart... ~Jane Austen

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Waiting for Superman...

I was lucky. I went to a great school. However, I still had teachers who didn't teach. I had one teacher who would put on a movie and leave the classroom. But, she was one teacher out of eight. I got A's in German, but I didn't learn any. What if you had 6 out of 8 teachers who refused to teach, who were paid the same whether or not they worked.
I admired the NYC approach because they try to put the kids first, but it's awfully costly to the tax payers to side line people and still pay them, not as costly as having classrooms full of children with no real teacher in them.
I kept thinking of the cost to the teachers who come to work, but don't work. Soul killing. In the end, when the unions protect them from being fired, they aren't doing those teachers any favor.
What will it take for us to side line the teachers unions? They are holding the future hostage.
In the proper environment, any kid can learn. I loved Geoffrey Canada's enthusiasm and I'm going to take the time to read some more about him and his ideas. But, God bless him for putting those children from broken cities and broken homes in shirts and ties and teaching them that they CAN do and they CAN learn!
Anyway, I'm rambling, but if you haven't seen this film. It's certainly worth your time.

Fantastic Mr. Fox...

Very clever and lots of fun.

Pink Hydrangea Postcards...

Where there is great love, there are always miracles...

~Willa Cather

130 LB cover stock paper with satin finish

$5 for a pack of 10 cards wrapped as shown .. international shipping available

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Anchors Aweigh!!!

Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty... 2 Corinthians 3:17

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Yellow Bears...

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Christmas Bears...

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Teacher Man by Frank McCourt

I forget sometimes that much of the world is emotionally constipated. A person may care, but they don't know what to say or do. Mr. McCourt has many troubles. Mr. McCourt has lost his family, had a miserable childhood, and little or no faith. He repeats so many instances where he wants to tell someone that he cares or that he'd like to help. He doesn't know how.. until one day he does. That made the book worth reading for me. I really enjoyed it.

There's more too.. I love an Irish Brogue, who doesn't? I listened to Mr. McCourt read this on tape. Fun. There are lots of light parts and lots of sad parts. There's regret.

In his autobiography Mark Twain complains that no one can really write one b/c they simply can't admit what a monster they've been. He's normally right about that. I edit my own journal thinking.. when I'm dead someone will read this, and by then I won't be so stupid, or petty or whatever. But subsequently, only the best of me is on paper. It's not a realistic picture. Mr. McCourt is brave and tells things you won't admire. And, I kept thinking, I would have loved to take his class, but would I want my daughter in it... hmmm? I always want her to be surrounded by people who are strong and sure in their faith, but that isn't realistic. Her faith will have to be strong enough to be around people and care about people who've lost theirs or maybe never had it.

In the end though.. my favorite moral of this tale is... It's a little embarrassing sometimes, but so freeing to tell people you love, that you care, that you're sorry, they are in your prayers, that you are thrilled for their success, that they are wonderful, that you love them.

It's only 10 AM and... Good news and hmmm.

Good news? I have been walking around with only one sock on since last night. I can't decide if I'm warm or cold and while this happened because baby l left a strawberry under one of my feet (which made another pink polka spot in my carpet... :) it seems to work.
More good news... Also, I've been to the SLC post office and back b/c I forgot to pay a bill and it's due tomorrow. The late fee would still be more than the gas, although that may not be true next month. L and I listened to A Tale of Two Cities all the way at full volume.. so it was glorious. L likes to sing the little girl part even though she doesn't know the words. It sounds pretty sweet. And, I love to drive along side the mountains. They are so beautiful to me.
Bad news... I've been in a fight w/ c .. which is a bummer. I always want her to love me and she doesn't this morning. She came in my room crying b/c she has curly hair. "Waaaah.. why must I have curly hair!??" I said very flatly, "You inherited it from me. I've always been very proud of it and happy that I looked different. You are gorgeous and if someone is telling you different, they are a jerk. Go get ready for school." I just can't go there. There are kids whose dad's don't have jobs right now. There are kids w/ no dads at all. There are hungry kids, pimply kids, fat kids, kids that can't read. There are kids with cancer and a kid who's missing one of his legs. All of these kids have to face being different at school. I just can't get all worked up that Heaven blessed my daughter with beautiful curly hair. Can you tell that I'm still bugged? Peer pressure is so stupid. If you have advice... please share because this comes up regularly and I am obviously not getting through.
Even more good news... Guess what? The library has a acquired some new recorded books... Wallace Stegner! Crossing to Safety, which is my favorite, is among the new acquisition!
Even more good news... My dad and I are taste testing powdered eggs. Which means I have to make cookies and see how they turn out. I'm going to copy a cookie I tried at Deseret Book which was sooooo yummy. So that will be fun.

Osama bin Laden...

I'm glad he's gone. I'm grateful to those who brought him to justice. But, I will wave a flag and celebrate in the street only when our soldiers can all come home. Until then, I'll pray for our military and for their families and for peace.

The White Rabbit... in Pink!

I'm having a difficult time getting decent photos of these bunnies

but, nevertheless.. they are in

ThE LoVE BoXES SHoP...

Inside Job...

If you see this film, then you know that de-regulation is one of the main causes of our current economic crisis. I only wish that were true, but it's complete bunk.

Government was not only complicit in this whole deal, but caused much of it by law and regulation. I was enraged as I watched the film makers interview Barney Frank and treat him as a complete innocent, "Barney Frank's talking points notwithstanding, mortgage lenders didn't wake up one fine day deciding to junk long-held standards of creditworthiness in order to make ill-advised loans to unqualified borrowers. It would be closer to the truth to say they woke up to find the government twisting their arms and demanding that they do so - or else." The Boston Globe

In addition, all this began back in the 90's when Herb Moses, a gay activist and Barney Frank's lover took an influential job at Fannie Mae. Herb Moses, "who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie." Fox News

Then Fannie Mae started giving generous campaign contributions to Mr. Frank... but I'm going too long on this. It is important to understand the Frank/Dodd portion of the travesty because it shows that deregulation was not the culprit here. It doesn't decrease the sludge, it just makes it higher and thicker.

Then, the film holds up George Soros as some kind of a saint who warned, but wasn't listened to... complete garbage. I won't go in to George's machinations.. it would take far too long.

The film makes some leftist claims like tax cuts have killed the middle class and kept people out of college. I was laughing at the graph that showed how the price of college tuition had gone up, but it didn't show that wages have gone up also. In addition to that, when America wisely passed the G.I. Bill and granted those who have served a college education, they didn't attend in fancy buildings with air conditioning and plush seats. State Universities have, like everyone else, spent far beyond their means and the expense has been passed on to the end consumer.

Then, comes the worst part of all. In Utah there is no excuse because we are encouraged to be financially responsible, to purchase modest homes etc... and yet the bankruptcy rate in Utah is appalling. Our lack of personal financial responsibility and our greed is every bit as dishonest and irresponsible as the Wall Street bankers... it's just a matter of degrees because when we are financially irresponsible, other people pay. My brilliant friend Marilyn Kline Ackerman had this to say, "If people are "spending" then the economy is healthy, right?............... But, what people were spending was the EQUITY in their HOMES. Or, they were simply speculating on a housing market they thought couldn't possibly ever fail them. Housing prices just go up, right? Wrong." It was a bubble like so many we've seen, only this time it was a big one. And, what makes me really sad about it... The rest of the world is so dependent on our economy and in this the film was right on.. When the economy collapses, it is the poorest who suffer most. In this, our greed has crippled the world.

The scary part... The film ends on a high note. Things are getting better, it's a bummer that Timmy Geithner and company are still in power, but hey... We can regulate, regulate, regulate next time around. Wrong again. The TARP was all that money meant to clear the bad paper off the books, yeah.. well it was never used for that. It was spent on everything else in the world including frogs. All that bad paper is still there. Banks don't know the values on their balance sheets and at some point the piper will have to be paid.

Worse still, as Marilyn puts it, "What we are seeing now is that fewer and fewer entities (countries, mainly) are refusing to absorb our debt. We have had to buy it ourselves. How? Issuing bonds and buying them. How does that happen? The treasury just prints up money (out of thin air, with nothing backing it up) to BUY the treasury bonds that the government "issues". In essence, we create debt, then we print money up (out of nowhere - thin air) and buy our own debt - because no one else wants it anymore (not the Chinese, not nobody). We're toast, as they say. So when we can't pay our national debt - it is because we are defaulting on a loan.......to ourselves."

This, my dear friends, is why I don't sleep well at night. I don't see how there are not rough times ahead. Got food storage?

Turning a Corner...

This morning when I asked my little one to please eat her cereal at the table (she wanted to eat cereal and watch "buzz")... she turned around put cereal and spoon on the table and pulled herself back up into the kitchen chair. And, when I shouted, "Hooray!" she gave me her cute little smile.

She didn't scream, hold both hands out and yell "stop! Stop!" just to make sure that I know she is opposed to rules or any kind of discipline. She didn't squint her eyes and scream, "you! you!" in an accusing way or have a complete fit on the floor.

She obeyed and smiled and everything here is peaceful and quiet. Have we turned a corner? That would be lovely.

I wish all rules were fair and right and made sense. I wish they were consistently enforced... always within reason. It's civilizing to eat at the table .. right!?!

Who knows. I often feel like I'm making this stuff up as I go. I wish parents were kind and thoughtful and never exasperated or just wishing for QUIET and always knew what they were doing! Then kids would be sure to know that their mom & dad just love them and want desperately for them to grow up right and feel the responsibilities for their success and happiness always.

But, before I get too carried away. Deep breath! One triumph on a Thursday is pretty good.

Bless My Ears & Whiskers...!

"I'm late!" We say that around here far too often.

The White Rabbit should be in

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very soon,

unless his tardiness persists...

My Easter Basket...

When I was 30, my mom asked if I would feel badly if I didn't get an Easter Basket anymore... I said, "YES! :( " So a few years later.. I still get an Easter Basket. OK my mom was smart, the stuffies and "most" of the treats are for the kids, but the basket is for me. It's beautiful. So pretty this picture doesn't do it justice and I LOVE it. Thanks Mom! I love you!

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

This little book took a while to tug at my heart strings, which I think reflects poorly on me. I felt there were so many troubles that the character of Billie Jo Kelby was more of a caricature that a character. Then, near the end, after her mother and brother's tragic deaths and Billie's determination to face the war of land and sky against the human population... Billie Jo finds that she has a crack in her heart where their might be a place for a step mother. It was in that crack that I learned to appreciate Billie Jo and her toughness and her ability not just to survive, but to live. She accepts Louise when she realizes that Louise won't replace her mother... "...she knows how to come into a home and not step on the toes of a ghost." And Billie Jo really matures when she learns:

The way I see it, hard times aren't only about money, or drought, or dust. Hard times are about losing spirit, and hope, and what happens when dreams dry up." — Karen Hesse Out of the Dust

If you ever questioned the courage and every sort of toughness Americans are made of... Read this book.