Little Miss Inconsistent

 Holy crap, I can't believe it's been over a year since I last blogged! I would do it more often if someone was reading it. 

We are still in the thick of this damn virus. I know 2 people who have died from it. People still refuse to get vaccinated or even acknowledge that it is real. I have lost all patience with them. I had a student tell me he isn't vaccinated and I said, and I quote "Well, that is really stupid." If anyone other than Trump would have been president at the time this all started, it would be over by now, or at least a lot more contained than it currently is. 

Anyway. It is January of 2022 and so far, this year isn't looking a whole lot better than the previous 2. But to be fair, we're only 16 days in. My oldest is a junior. A JUNIOR. How is that possible?? We're talking about colleges and ACTs and all the other stuff that comes with that territory and time is flying by and I haven't completely started to panic yet but it's coming. I can feel it. Uuuuugggghhh. Mainly just the whole paying for it part. 

We start a new semester on Tuesday. Please, Lord Jesus, let it be better than the last one. I had some kids I really, really didn't like. Just stay off your phones and be quiet. That is literally all I'm asking for. I sent more kids to the office last semester than I ever have in my entire time at BVHS. I cannot do another semester like this one. 

Well, this is pretty boring. Eventually I'll move on to actual stories, real writing rather than just life updates. And honestly, I don't know why I bother with life updates since I'm the only one reading this. Ok, done for now. 

Back, again!

 It's been a while. It's hard to keep a consistent blog when I'm pretty sure no one is reading it. And yet, I feel the need to write. So here I am.

It is October. We are in school, there are a lot of Covid cases and kids in masks but people still refuse to get vaccinated. I just got my booster so hopefully we'll all be ok for the foreseeable future. We are cautiously but optimistically making plans. 

And let's just talk about school for a minute, shall we? I now have 2 teenagers in marching band and let me tell you, it is a gigantic pain in the ass. I mean, it's awesome. I'm insanely proud of them and what they have achieved as a group, but every weekend has been taken up by these damn competitions and I am ready for them to be over. All these kids are sick of each other and sick of traveling and sick of smelling like wet wool and it needs to be DONE.

Middle Son is in an extremely dramatic friend group, too, and most of them are in band as well. Help me, Jesus. Too much. It's just too much.

Not that I'm on here very often but I feel like I may need to move to a different platform that might actually get this thing read. I have no idea what that may be but I may have to do some digging. This is very boring so I'm signing off for now. Hopefully I'll write again before the year is over.

Still in Quarantine

I have lost track of what day it is and how long we've been doing this. We're somewhere in May. Our last day of school is on the 22nd, thank the good lord Jesus.

Everything has been canceled. Graduation has been postponed until July and Prom won't happen at all. My son's favorite Irish group, The High Kings, was supposed to tour in America this summer and now they won't be coming back until next year. Just as an aside, if you happen to be reading this, and you happen to like Irish music, check them out. They are amazing, especially the divine Darren Holden.
My friend and I had tickets to Dear Evan Hansen in Chicago in July but that's been canceled, too. All the local pools will be closed and most summer programs have been canceled. This will be one long summer.

But on the upside, we've been having more family dinners together at the table than ever before. We've been playing games together. I finally tried making sourdough bread and I'm pretty good at it. I'd love to say I've been reading and exercising more, but I have not. We're getting through the days one at a time. 

Eventually this will end and I really hope we take some of the good stuff with us. I really want to go to concerts and plays again, but I also want to keep having dinners at the table with my family. It's increasingly hard as our kids get older and more active but hopefully we can make it happen.  More later.

The Longest Months of My Life

Well, here we all are in the same leaky, disastrous boat. We are on day 1,565,259,213 of this freaking pandemic. People are screaming for the country to reopen. Everyone is losing their damn minds. So I need to write.

Here in my state, we have had a huge outbreak at a local business. Someone dropped the ball and there are hundreds of people who now have this thing. They have brought it home to their families and maybe even their neighbors. New cases are popping up every day. But sure, let's open everything back up and if people drop dread, so be it.

I am not in the best head space right now. I find it incomprehensible that some people think this is just a conspiracy to control us. It's even more unbelievable that people are listening to the Huge Orange Idiot over actual doctors and scientists. It honestly feels like we're living in an alternate reality and I'm not sure when we're going to get out of it. I know I need to focus and pray and trust that God is going to take care of this whole thing and whatnot but it just does not seem possible right now. When is this going to just END already?

Honestly, there are some really good things that have come out of this. I love being home, I really do, but this has made me realize how much I love being able to come and go as I please. I miss the movie theater. I really miss Target. I miss being able to make long term plans. Hopefully soon, when this is all over, I will remember all that and not take it for granted again.

Off to grab some lunch. I swear I'm going to be 400 lbs by the time this is all over.

Blogging To Blog

Oh wow, it's been a while. I don't want to let this blog fall by the wayside like I've done before, but man, life gets crazy busy. Still, I need to make time to write, as I sort of think it's what I'm supposed to be doing. Anyway.

Today I had one of my good friends ask me a truly sucky question: Where do I want to be in 10 years? Seriously? Ugh. I don't even like to think about where I'm going to be next week. And since America is such a complete dumpster fire right now, who knows if we're even going to still be here in 10 years?

But the answer is always the same when I think about the future: I want to write. I want to be a writer. I'm pretty sure it will never go beyond this blog, but I guess you never know. I'm not sure who I want to write for or what I want to write about, but I just really like to write, and I think I'm pretty good at it. My friend said I should write a blog for former pastors' kids as she and I both are...that. Those? Yeah, gotta work on the grammar portion. Not a bad idea, although it's a somewhat limited audience.

In the meantime, I'm just writing. We are riding out a horrible winter storm and can't leave the house, so I'm trying to keep from going completely insane. Also, I don't really want to clean.

So I'll try to be more faithful here, and maybe i'll eventually narrow down what I want to write about.

My Thoughts On Politics, or Pretty Much Just Ranting

Up until recently, my family and I were members of a pretty conservative church and we were even on the leadership of said church. So for years, I haven't really been able to speak my mind about certain issues and politicians, and I still don't feel like I really can on much of social media since I am still friends with a lot of those people. But here, it's different. This is my blog and I'll bitch if I want to. And I'll SAY bitch if I want to.

Let me talk about our "president" for a bit. Does anyone else feel like he's just sort of a placeholder? Like, this isn't really the guy, right? He is so completely incompetent and ineffectual, not to mention he's just a huge dumbass that he couldn't have possibly conned people into voting for him, could he? But he did, and he will likely do it again. And just because he has an R behind his name, Evangelicals adore him. I simply do not get it.

This is one of the problems I have with church. Good, kind people that I've known for years love this guy because he says he's a pro-life Christian. Well, I say I'm a panda bear, but that doesn't make me one. The hate and bigotry that spews out of this man's mouth is vile and disgusting, and if a Democrat were saying these things, they would be screaming for blood. Oh, but he SAYS he's a Christian. Never mind that his life shows absolutely no evidence of this. Forget that he still treats people horribly. It's apparently all about what he SAYS rather than what he does or how he acts.

I've heard over and over that many of the things he's said and done were before he "gave his life to God" (which is utter bullshit). My question is, what's his defense now? He calls Nancy Peloisi "crazy", he belittles world leaders and members of his OWN PARTY, he outright lies on camera and supposedly he's given his life to God? Now I'm obviously not a perfect Christian and there is no such thing, but this guy shows no sign of change whatsoever.

I've even heard people and politicians say Trump is "chosen by God", and I believe that's true, although not the way Evangelicals do. Remember that story in the Old Testament where people were whining and complaining that they wanted a king, so God gave them one and everything went to hell? Yeah, like that.

For whatever reason, the Republican party is seen as the moral one because they're pro-life. But guess what? They're not. They're pro-birth, but they are absolutely not pro-life. Any party that is okay with kids being in cages, no universal health care, SNAP benefits and free lunches being taken away is not pro-life, and they should not pretend they are. "But Democrats kill babies!" they scream as their defense. Republicans kill children. They just do it more slowly and painfully. They will scream and beat their breasts and rend their garments over the lives of the unborn but once those babies get here, they don't give a damn what happens to them. "You made the choice to have that baby, now you have to take care of it." Tell me I'm wrong.

I never in my life thought I would call myself a Democrat, but I most definitely do now. Like I've stated before, I don't know a ton about politics but I know I do not want to have anything to do with a party that would embrace a man like Trump. I also believe in taking care of people and if some of my paycheck goes to make that happen, I'm okay with that. I think abortion is horrible, but to completely deny access to it under any and all circumstances is irresponsible. I could go on and on but I think I've made my point.

I'm afraid Trump will win in 2020.  I pray that he doesn't. Our country and our world cannot take four more years of his incompetence.

Here We Go Again

I have attempted to start a blog many times now, and for whatever reason I just haven't been able to keep up with it. Maybe I got frustrated from lack of readers (even though I really wasn't looking for any) or my kids were too little or I couldn't think of anything interesting to write about or whatever other excuse I could come up with. But the truth is, I love to write. I'm pretty good at it. So even if no one reads it, I feel like I should write.

I am one of a handful of Democrats in a state full of Republicans, so while I view myself as fairly moderate, around here I look like a radical Liberal. I am okay with that. I voted straight ticket Republican until the election of 2016, and I will never vote Red again. Never. And I'm sure I will talk about that here at some point.

I'm a Christian, but as my sister-in-law once said, I'm not a Kirk Cameron Christian. I hate guns and I don't think people should be able to own anything other than a shotgun for hunting and maybe one handgun. I think whoever you are, you should be able to get married. Period. No exceptions. I hate abortion but I also get that terrible things happen. I really kind of like to swear. I'm fairly convinced that Trump, or maybe even Pence, is the Antichrist.

There is much more to be said, and more to dive into, and hopefully there will be plenty of time for that. In the meantime, I need sleep.