tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.comments2011-01-11T15:00:45.142-05:00Christine the Soccer Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01270550419011368834noreply@blogger.comBlogger955125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-74272984931332822792011-01-11T15:00:45.142-05:002011-01-11T15:00:45.142-05:00Howdy-<br />I was searching for images of Christ and was directed to your blog. I love the message you propagate. Keep up the good work, and thanks for the reference for a beautiful picture.Salt Lake Stringshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05042843444322479981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-65638687713939187052010-12-31T16:33:49.626-05:002010-12-31T16:33:49.626-05:00If you do need to clean out the keyboard, <a href="http://www.scrutinies.net/2010/12/seven-quick-takes-technically.html" rel="nofollow">don&#39;t forget to take a photo of where all the keys go before you pop all of them off.</a>Dorian Speedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00350116554824445411noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-74852366408044149392010-11-28T14:33:37.368-05:002010-11-28T14:33:37.368-05:00Here&#39;s a message to Big Girl, from me: a Catholic school girl who deals with the same issues.<br /><br />Big Girl: Boyfriends really aren&#39;t all that they are hyped-up to be. Especially when you&#39;re all twelve. Honestly, they&#39;re just more work! Boys are typically very clingy and annoying. If, by some amazing streak of fate and luck, you find an exceptionally mature boy, do you know what you do with him? Make him your best friend. Do everything together. Make your families friends. Be <i>real</i> friends. For a very long time. That real friendship is the basis for absolutely everything. Dress modestly at all times. If he objects, he&#39;s not a good enough boy. If he encourages it, have him meet your mom. =P A long-term friendship--a REAL friendship--one where you can talk for hours about everything, even inane things like how your day was! and not get sick of the conversation? That is what is real. In the end, if he decides he really loves you and will actually marry you some day, well then, you&#39;re marrying your best friend! If not, you have one heck of an awesome friend.Inkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14436063825172153343noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-75913827363763278122010-11-23T15:04:31.365-05:002010-11-23T15:04:31.365-05:00Wow! Thank you for these posts! I have been thinking about and struggling with these very ideas since my oldest son was born - he&#39;s now 10. I love the reasons you gave to your daughter for waiting to date. And, we&#39;ve had similar conversations about the cell phone as well. It&#39;s nice to read blog posts like this because I have had arguments with other adults about why I don&#39;t think &quot;Twilight&quot; is appropriate for my son or my daughter (ever). Thank you, thank you!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-55912869488221525242010-11-14T15:58:38.978-05:002010-11-14T15:58:38.978-05:00Since I&#39;m not a parent, I can&#39;t really know what it&#39;s like for those of you who are going through all this stuff with your kids. But you&#39;re right on target with everything you said. Twelve-year-olds don&#39;t need to be dating, and they don&#39;t understand that at that age they&#39;re not ready for a serious romantic relationship and that they&#39;re very vulnerable. Besides, relationships at that age usually don&#39;t last long, so having a boyfriend/girlfriend is pretty pointless anyway. <br /><br />And thank you for pointing out the pressures that young guys are under. Your daughter definitely needed to hear that side of the issue as well. When I was in the 9th grade, I was considered weird by some because I didn&#39;t have a girlfriend and didn&#39;t fool around--and that was at age 14/15!!! And you&#39;re right to tell your daughter about how guys are very easily stimulated by what they see and that girls need to be careful not to do things--intentionally or otherwise--that will throw temptations in our faces. Even as a 35-year-old man, I still can&#39;t help but notice not only women but young girls who dress provocatively. And I&#39;m single and never been married but am determined to maintain my purity--but it&#39;s herculean challenge at times! As a college instructor, it was really hard for me to maintain proper focus whenever I had to be around young college girls who, quite frankly, dressed like street walkers! But I digress...<br /><br />Anyway, thanks so much for sharing all of this. I&#39;m sure plenty of parents who, like you, are trying their best to keep their children pure are not alone in their endeavors. And you&#39;re helping folks like me who don&#39;t have kids develop a greater understanding of what Christian parents often have to go through these days. <br /><br />Keep up the wonderful parenting!<br /><br />Evanevanscovehttp://evanscove.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-19907879863648537102010-11-14T15:40:38.193-05:002010-11-14T15:40:38.193-05:00Sounds like you&#39;re doing excellent jobs as parents. Things sure have changed a lot even since I was a child (back in the 80&#39;s). We didn&#39;t have texting and cell phones and email and the Internet, and parents then still struggled with plenty of issues. Now there are new challenges for parents to face. But I commend you for being faithful Catholics and for sticking with your convictions. <br /><br />By the way, I&#39;m curious about homeschooling laws in your state. You mentioned getting a religious &quot;exemption&quot;. Do your state&#39;s laws make it hard to homeschool? <br /><br />Be blessed!<br /><br />Evanevanscovehttp://evanscove.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-70729575706143719932010-11-14T15:19:03.214-05:002010-11-14T15:19:03.214-05:00You and your husband sound like great parents. I have a friend who thinks exactly like you do and is a great mom to her homeschooled kids. Being a parent is really tough these days and not just in the purity section of life. God bless you.Barb Schoenebergerhttp://www.sufferingwithjoy.com/blognoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-49028730370462157422010-11-14T10:23:05.213-05:002010-11-14T10:23:05.213-05:00Good post!<br />I&#39;m a devout Catholic mom and my kids go to public school so in my circle, I&#39;m the odd one out. My daughter&#39;s school is a good school though so we&#39;re lucky. We live in a town with a lot of Mormons and that&#39;s one thing that&#39;s nice about LDS is they tend to lead very clean, family oriented lifestyles even if their beliefs are different. But if I don&#39;t like where things are going, I could see taking them out to home school them. I really worry about the teenage years.Just another suburban mom.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16574404020737651409noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-90353971315083207042010-11-14T10:12:15.231-05:002010-11-14T10:12:15.231-05:00I don&#39;t know if it is the type of school (magnet school for bright kids) but my attractive, popular daughter has not felt the pressure to date, and while she has friends who do, there are plenty of kids who don&#39;t. One think I&#39;ve been happy to see is that she has gone to the school dances (not just the gym sock hops but the big dances like homecoming and winer formal) with a group of friends rather than with a date. Back when I was in school the gang would have paired off and folks would have had dates, even if they were one time things.RAnnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04102249990885174107noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-33721378521212452132010-11-14T09:21:02.620-05:002010-11-14T09:21:02.620-05:00This is a great piece, and as soon as I finish this comment, I am going to ask my wife to come in and read it. Although our daughter is only five and our son nine, we have talked about these issues many times. We have both been public school teachers, although my wife now homeschools, and we are sickeningly aware of the assault on purity at every corner. God bless you and your daughters as continue to lead them in the truth.Magister Christianushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09087270710114392727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-831235478703091792010-11-12T15:28:48.735-05:002010-11-12T15:28:48.735-05:00Thank you for this! My parents started really early with me and my sisters (I think I was three when she started conditioning me -- that&#39;s what it is, let&#39;s be honest). I hope she&#39;ll soon understand just how lucky she is to have parents who care about her so much that they&#39;ll risk being unpopular.<br /><br />Unfortunately, she&#39;ll probably have a friend who has sex, oral sex or another experience in the next few years. I pray A) that this doesn&#39;t happen to one of her friends, but B) that she witnesses the pain in that and seeks the true freedom that Theology of the Body can bring.<br /><br />Whenever I read blogs by you wonderful Catholic moms, I realize just how much I have to learn before I get married and have my own children. Thank you for your early advice!Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13304484454718892120noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-33330844339108044292010-11-12T15:16:44.502-05:002010-11-12T15:16:44.502-05:00This is great to read as the daughter of a wonderful woman who had to come up with answers to the same questions. I&#39;m about to read your Part 2, so I&#39;ll save my two cents for that one!<br /><br />(Virginia love &lt;3)Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13304484454718892120noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-37880770300185315672010-11-11T00:59:58.343-05:002010-11-11T00:59:58.343-05:00My big girl is only 6 right now, but I&#39;ve been asking myself how to protect her purity ever since my conversion 5 years ago. Thank you for sharing your experience and wisdom. It has given me so much to think about!Leslie McCaddonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15474773249388133344noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-68976511841951394012010-10-16T12:56:47.444-04:002010-10-16T12:56:47.444-04:00Thanks for stopping by my blog! I&#39;m heading over to read your post!Kaitlin @ More Like Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02260649249438520187noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-51099662822238229422010-09-22T00:58:50.735-04:002010-09-22T00:58:50.735-04:00Great post! Good for you and the girls too! Raise them to be strong warriors for the faith and to stand up to the PC crowd that are selling our country down the path to sharia law. I am so sick of being made to feel like it&#39;s bigotry to call out islam for what it really is!HEATHERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06324130429322268692noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-41587593304773530112010-09-11T15:01:31.371-04:002010-09-11T15:01:31.371-04:00I&#39;d like to ask you to consider submitting something about homeschooling to the Carnival of Homeschooling. If you are interested, here are the instructions:<br /><br />http://whyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2005/12/where-to-send-your-submission-for-next.html<br /><br /> If this week is bad for you, you are always welcome to submit to future carnivals.<br /><br /><br /> If a &quot;blog carnival&quot; is a new term, this might help:<br /><br />http://whyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2005/12/what-is-blog-carnival.html<br /><br /> Here is the archive of previous carnivals:<br /><br />http://whyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2006/01/carnival-of-homeschooling-archive.html<br /><br /><br /> Thank you for your consideration.Henry Catehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097237237859928969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-82931869513357860672010-08-27T16:54:27.850-04:002010-08-27T16:54:27.850-04:00I&#39;m glad you&#39;ve taken the time to write this comparison. I disagree completely, lol, but I enjoyed the read.<br /><br />Before anything else, I just want to point out that there are indeed middle of the road characters in Atlas Shrugged: James Taggert, Cherryl Brooks, Eddie Willers (perhaps the epitome of the common, middle of the road, man), just to name a few. The main characters are all archetypes, for sure, therefore they are intentionally extreme in nature.<br /><br />I think her idea of depravity is just a different take on the Catholic/Christian idea of the word. Rand&#39;s idea that the most depraced type of human is the man without purpose can easily be compared to the Christianity&#39;s idea of depravity. If a Christian believes that the purpose of life is to follow God and Christ then anyone who chooses not to is, in fact, without purpose. In other words, &quot;the most depraved type of human being is the man who does not believe in God&quot; and &quot;the most depraved type of human being is the man without a purpose&quot; are the same statement seen/said through different philosophical lenses.<br /><br />Men who honor family and commitment are certainly not disrespected in Ayn Rand&#39;s novels. In fact, just the opposite as she encourages man to live up to his own individual principles. Whether or not you believe so, being selfish and being self-absorbed are two different things. I love my family, they are a value to me. When I do things for my family it is not a sacrifice because I am doing something for someone I value. A sacrifice means you get nothing out of the act or, at the very least, what you get from the sacrifice is worth less than what you sacrificed. For instance, you might jump into quicksand to save your child or husband because you value them as much as, if not more than, your own life. You would probably not jump into that quicksand to save a total stranger. Perhaps you would run and call for help and still offer assistance but you would certainly think selfishly about how to act. That&#39;s ok, too, its our nature of survival and value.<br /><br />I&#39;m glad you&#39;re reading Atlas Shrugged as it is incredibly relative to today&#39;s political climate in the U.S. but don&#39;t look at the work on such a surface level. Look into the philosophy of Objectivism if you want to truly understand where Rand&#39;s characters come from. The Fountainhead, which came previous to Atlas Shrugged, is a great intro into the same topics discussed in your current read but are presented in much more basic terms. It&#39;s not nearly as heady and verbose (Ayn Rand knows how to go on and on, lol) but gives a nice preview of what Atlas would bring.<br /><br />At the end of the day, if you think critically about everything you &quot;know&quot; and believe, rather than approach things as though you already have the answers, you open your mind up to a greater knowledge. Thanks for writing this and I hope you enjoy the rest of the book. Ayn Rand&#39;s writings - her novels and her essays - literally changed my life. I&#39;m glad to see people reading her work!jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16882366124001487990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-37481731861433142482010-08-23T22:27:01.436-04:002010-08-23T22:27:01.436-04:00loving the photos. they&#39;re really happy with each other.credit repair lettershttp://www.ezcreditrepairsolutions.com/anatomy-of-a-credit-dispute-letter/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-57563556200729409662010-08-18T12:19:16.247-04:002010-08-18T12:19:16.247-04:00I love the pictures! How sweet. :)Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13828182765416909622noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-67484002380319046602010-07-24T14:27:35.928-04:002010-07-24T14:27:35.928-04:00I also found your blog through the Conversion Diary, I love the picture of the Anne Hathaway house! Also I am a big fan of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, so it was fun to see the sod and Ma&#39;s house. I hope you had a great vacation!Mary @ A Simple Twist of Faithhttp://mbsquared.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-31537983315894455252010-07-23T15:45:41.423-04:002010-07-23T15:45:41.423-04:00Hi there! I found your blog via conversion diary. I noticed that you came through Indy on your vacation. My husband and I live in Indy now ourselves. I&#39;m glad you enjoyed the city; St. John&#39;s is a beautiful church. I&#39;m wondering if you had a chance to make it to Holy Rosary Church? It&#39;s the old Italian parish and they have recently renovated the church, and they have a working communion rail! It&#39;s also a beautiful church.<br />I hope you had a wonderful trip! :)fumblingtowardgracehttp://fumblingtowardgrace.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-86305154961765221712010-07-21T22:16:02.112-04:002010-07-21T22:16:02.112-04:00Rad? There&#39;s a way-back adjective! LOL!<br /><br />It was really amazing. Beautiful stuff.Christine the Soccer Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01270550419011368834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-82925967741142866922010-07-21T15:02:14.013-04:002010-07-21T15:02:14.013-04:00That glass sculpture is rad.Staceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04890790775164491968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-23436460130381633662010-07-04T02:16:07.911-04:002010-07-04T02:16:07.911-04:00Agree with the anonymous above. People who expect to get something, whether it be emotional reciprocation back in return or being taken care of when you becomee elderly, are being selfish.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199993534225416743.post-78593633144125986692010-06-12T00:31:53.590-04:002010-06-12T00:31:53.590-04:00Most of the Maldives islands are about 1.5 meters above sea level, with reefs abundant with various species of marine life. Hence, vacations in Maldives offers diving and water sports everywhere. <br />thanks<br /><a href="http://www.maldivedigest.com/maldives_holidays.php/" rel="nofollow">maldives holidays <br /></a>maldiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07092639742560025103noreply@blogger.com