Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.
Month: February 2010
Teaching: Love is Tough (Part One)
Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.
If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.
Let’s get started:
If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page, their YouTube Channel, or follow them on Twitter.
Thanks for reading.
(Comments have been turned off. The information is here to inform and bless you. God granted you the gift of free will – take it or leave it).
More from Write From Karen
For Men: Five Rules to Have a Happy Life
I found over this over at Crazing Working Mom and thought it was pretty timely, given Mr. Woods’ public apology today.
For Men: Five Rules to Have a Happy Life
1. It’s important to have a woman, who helps at home, who cooks from time to time, and has a job.
2. It’s important to have a woman, who can make you laugh.
3. It’s important to have a woman, who you can trust and who doesn’t lie to you.
4. It’s important to have a woman, who is good in bed and who likes to be with you.
5. It’s very, very important that these four women do not know each other.
– Tiger Woods
So tell me, readers:
Aloha Friday: To Kill or Not to Kill
Aloha! Kailani is the brain-child behind this fun Friday meme. If you feel inclined to answer my question, please post your answer in the comment section. Sound fun? Of course it does! Want to answer more questions? Hop over to An Island Life and play along!
(Please feel free to answer the question below, even if you’re not playing Aloha Friday!)
My question:
For an all-expense paid, one week vacation anywhere in the world, would you be willing to kill a beautiful butterfly by pulling off it’s wings? What about stepping on a cockroach?
My answer:
Aargh! Trick question! If I say yes to both the butterfly and the cockroach, I sound cold and ruthless. But if I say no to the butterfly and yes to the cockroach, am I saying that only beautiful creatures deserve to live? (And for the record, I squash cockroaches – no qualms. I’m just playing devil’s advocate here).
I’m going to be selfish here – I would definitely squish the cockroach and I’d probably kill the butterfly.
It’s all expenses paid to anywhere, folks. Let’s be real here.
I wouldn’t feel bad about the cockroach, but the guilt from the butterfly just might ruin my vacay.
You?
(My questions are hard, right?? hehe)
Jail Bait
The only time I listen to “regular” radio is when I’m taxiing kids to and from school/events (well, I listen to talk radio in the afternoons, but that’s a different post) and I always enjoy Thursdays because our local station has a pretty prominent and popular attorney slash judge on their show giving out free legal advice.
I always love listening to what he has to say and then try and give out my own “legal” advice to the caller.
And I mean “legal” in the loosest term. (I used to aspire to be a paralegal way back when – actually, I would STILL love to be a paralegal, truth be known).
This morning, I turned it on in time to hear a mother calling in concerned about her 19-year old son dating a 15-year old girl. She was concerned because she was afraid that at some point this girl might call “foul” and accuse her son of rape or some other inappropriate behavior and considering she’s a minor and her son wants to go to college to become a teacher, any sort of accusation at this point in his life could, well, ruin his life.
It was as if I had called in to that show. Not that my sons are dating a 15-year old girl, or any girl for that matter (as far as I know – Ack, let’s not go there, kay?), but I’ve often wondered what I would do or how I would react in a similar situation.
I mean, what could you do? The boy/man is 19 and legal – parental rights have expired – at least on the “you do what I say or else” level.
But don’t you wonder what the parents of the 15-year old girl is thinking? I mean, I don’t have girls (thank the GOOD LORD above), but I’m pretty sure if my 15-year old daughter was dating a 19-year old boy, I’d have something to say about it.
And at the very least, working to make sure that she’s never alone with him.
But let’s be realistic – we can’t be with our kids 24/7 (even though some of us try – and you know I’m talking about YOU). And there would come a time when they were alone and … uh … things might happen (i.e. sex for those that haven’t had their morning coffee yet) and then what? I mean, I really feel for the boy here because let’s go down that what if road, shall we?
What if they have sex. And then afterwards the boy does something, or says something, to make the girl angry and because this is what girls/women do whenever they feel like they’ve been “scorned” she seeks revenge by spouting off something about being date raped or whatever and *POW*, the boy is in serious dog doo.
OR, let’s say the “kids” have sex and she becomes pregnant. Even though she consented, she’s now embarrassed and the parents are angry and she changes her story to the sex was NOT consensual in order to shift the blame and hopefully dilute her humiliation and *POW*, the boy is up to his neck in dog doo.
Really, the boys/men can’t win here, don’t you think? And I would think this even if I didn’t have boys. Actually, I’ve always thought this, even when I was a teenager. (Because yes, I really think like that. I’m old beyond my years, I guess).
In essence, the lawyer told the woman there really wasn’t any legal action to take. Her son was considered an adult and though he advised her to talk to the girl’s parents and caution them on the precarious relationship, there wasn’t much she could do. He did urge her to talk to her son and warn him of the possible dangers of dating an underage girl, that even a hint of uncouth behavior could ruin his chances of becoming a teacher but … ?
Even though I agree with him, and I hear him, the whole situation frustrates the control freak in me. Though I pray (dear God, I pray) nothing like this ever happens to my boys – young “love” happens. You remember how everything is so DRAMATIC and URGENT and PASSIONATE at that age, right? Anything you tell kids in the throes of young love goes in one ear and out the other.
Situations like this keep me up at night.
The boys, of course, heard all of this exchange with me in the car. And of course, I used this as an opportunity to talk to them about finding themselves trapped in the same situation. It was all “hypothetical” of course, but I hope that my boys caught my inference and realized that they could find themselves in a similar situation.
The solution? Don’t date girls under eighteen.
Sounds easy, right?
I wish.
At any rate, I hope they were listening because this stuff? Is pretty serious and speaking as a woman who used to be a young, hormonal, dramatic teenager? Can happen all too easily.
I don’t think girls, women at large, truly understand how much power we hold in our hands. We have the power to ruin someone’s life with just a few (false) accusations.
I don’t want to scare my boys off women in general, just dating girls under eighteen.
More from Write From Karen
Kitchen Saga: Live Blogging
11:37 a.m.
The kitchen is empty and ready to demolish. We have moved everything into the dining room and there it resides, in huge boxes.
Here is one last a shot of the kitchen before the demo.
We’re going to try and salvage the counter tops so we can use them while we wait for the Quartz counter top to get here.
If the guy is still here by the time I pick the boys up from school, I’m taking them to the library so they can avoid most of the dust. I think all of this tile dust has been getting to them – they are congested and feeling a bit under the weather.
This living out of boxes for a week is going to be … challenging.
11:45 a.m.
I apologize for all the kitchen talk – I realize this is probably pretty boring. But I’d like to document this so we can look back, heave heavy sighs and say, “Remember what a PAIN IN THE ASS that was?!”
11:52 a.m.
I can hear the cabinet guy sighing pretty heavily in there. I wonder if he’s getting frustrated? I mean, really, how can he not? That’s got to be pretty tedious work. I mean, we’re taking out tile and I’m not even doing most of the grunt work and I want to scream.
And the pounding begins.
12:15 p.m.
Just had lunch with Kevin.
The cabinet guy found some stuff in the cabinets above the fridge. Oops! How embarrassing!
Kevin is now helping the guy carry out the counter tops. I’m so glad he came home! I don’t think … well actually, I KNOW I couldn’t help carry those out. They’re heavy!
1:27 p.m.
Oops. The guy had to turn the breaker off that juiced the hood above the range and that also happened to be the same breaker that keeps the DSL box and router on so … I was without Internet for a bit.
Cabinets are half gone. The guy pointed out a couple of holes in our wall, they were behind a cabinet and we didn’t know they were there. He wanted to make sure we knew about them so we couldn’t blame him.
It also looks like we’ve had some mice living in our cabinets at some point – there are tell-tale signs and a few tufts of insulation lying about. Kevin won’t be happy to see those holes. In addition, the floor under our sink had rotted out, so that will have to be replaced too.
It’s a good thing we have some time to do these repairs before the tile guys get here on Monday.
1:39 p.m.
I’ve been spraying Windex and Pledge everywhere. But every time I get one area clean, I turn around and it’s dirty again. It’s like I’m at war with the dust.
And I’m going to win, dang it.
And this is probably the most I’ve vacuumed in … well, ever.
1:54 p.m.
Okay, he’s working on the other side of the kitchen now. I wonder what he finds behind THESE cabinets.
Let’s go for nothing, shall we?
2:00 p.m.
The walls are vibrating and cracking – I’m going to choose to believe this is normal.
And I’m dying for a drink of water but I’m too shy to go in there and get some water from the water cooler. I could drink tap but ….
PSHAW! Right!
2:15 p.m.
Afraid to look … afraid to look…
2:24 p.m.
I swear, half the wall just came down …
Okay, not really. But it felt like it.
Maybe an earthquake?
Seriously, I’m afraid to look …
2:41 p.m.
I hear sweeping. Do I dare hope he’s almost done?!?
3:41 p.m.
And … it’s done.
If you look at the lower right-hand corner, you can see those two holes. You can also see that the floor under the exposed piping needs replaced.
It’s so WEIRD not having cabinets anymore! And it’s going to be a challenge working around that, er, little inconvenience this next week(s).
Next? The guys will finish taking up that backboard, Kevin will patch the wall and replace the particle board and this weekend we’ll move out the fridge, the range and the washer and dryer so the tile guys have a clean slate to work with on Monday.
Whew. Thanks for sticking it out with me. I promise not to mention the kitchen again for a few days at least. 😀
Wordless Wednesday: Goggle Series
Here’s a picture of my husband, and my oldest son, Dude, wearing the same pair of goggles.
Write From Karen 