For lack of anything better to update with, mainly because I don't take the time to write anything down lately, here are a few things I've been puzzling over lately. The only very serious ones are the last two, and the least serious is the first.

1. Why do all the tribes visited through the stargate speak English, or else have the powers to learn it almost instantaneously? The obvious answer is that it would be dreadfully tedious to spend an entire episode establishing communications, but then it follows: Why bother having a linguist who speaks 26 languages around when even the Mongolians and the Norsemen speak English fluently?
(I told you it wasn't very serious)

2. Why do pregnant women fuss about not being able to see their feet? All one has to do is lean over a little bit, or else prop them up, and I'm sure one's feet really aren't all that attractive at this point, anyway.

3. Why do fanatical madmen insist on quoting Scripture and believe they're chosen of God to complete some completely anti-Biblical mission? Thinking here particularly of John Brown, although there are others, including the less fanatical, who seem to believe that they alone are the righteous of the earth, and the rules can bend for them.

4. And the one that isn't a question, but I've still been thinking about- what a blessing it is to grow up in a large family, around large families. For multiple practical reasons that keep bombarding me ever since I got married. Mostly related to being able to watch children grow up, knowing, more or less, how to take care of them, and being able to have an idea of how to train them. Having little brothers who like to help in the garden is nice, too, as well as being a reminder of how much patience little people sometimes take.

Firearms Refresher Course

I recieved this as a forwarded email and thought it was worth passing along- but I don't like forwarding email, so here we go.

"Those who hammer their guns into plowshares will plow for those who do not." -Thomas Jefferson

1. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.
2. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.
3.Colt: The original point and click interface.
4. Gun control is not about guns; it's about control.
5. If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?
6. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.
7. Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.
8. If you don't know your rights, you don't have any.
9. Those who trade liberty for security have neither.
10. The United States Constitution (c) 1791. All Rights Reserved.
11. What part of 'shall not be infringed' do you not understand?
12. The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others.
13. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday.
14. Guns only have two enemies; rust and politicians.
15. Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns, no peace, no safety.
16. You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive.
17. 911: Government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer.
18. Assault is a behavior, not a device.
19. Criminals love gun control; it makes their jobs safer.
20. If guns cause crime, then matches cause arson.
21. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them.
22. You have only the rights you are willing to fight for.
23. Enforce the gun control laws we ALREADY have; don't make more.
24. When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create slaves.
25. The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.

If I were one of those technologically advanced types, who didn't find it challenging enough simply to run a bare bones blog, I'd seriously consider taking pictures of my messy sewing area. It was grey and damp yesterday, if not really cold, so I stayed put in the house, and sewed for several hours on my quilt. And made some good progress, if I do say so myself. I'm wondering if that's why I'm up early today- can't wait to get started again? Hm. It's so nice to have the sewing machine upstairs, though. It's warmer than the basement and has better lighting. I also set up the table we've been borrowing from the fire station for the past month or two up in the living room, so I'm not getting down on the floor to do all my cutting and trimming. (Hey, if it's here, you might as well use it!) Pure bliss. Ok, not quite...but then again...close enough. :)

It's a Small World, Especially in Iowa

On St. Patrick's Day- almost a week ago, I know- we, that is, Jordon and I, and three of Jordon's siblings, took off for Des Moines for the "Homeschool Day at the Capitol" which is put on by NICHE. We missed out on most of the activities, other than a speech by one of the HSLDA people...I think he was with HSLDA, anyway, warning us about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, we did get to spend a lot of time going up and down stairs, trying to track out Senator and Representative, and running into all these homeschoolers we knew, or that knew us, and almost getting a tour to the top of the capitol dome. Which would have meant more, and steeper, steps. (As a side note, the stairs at the capitol are kind of annoying, unless you take them two at a time). We caught up with the first of our lawmaker's near the replica of the battleship "Iowa", and incidentally, also near the table that had free punch and a huge box of cloverleaf cookies. Every time a group of little people went by the box's contents were largely reduced, and I was puzzling over how long that one box would last...until I noticed five empty boxes off to the side, and then I stopped worrying about it. So the four younger Caves, including myself, drank punch and conversed among ourselves while Jordon talked to the Hon. Chuck Soderburg about matters of state. The Hon. Randy Feenstra was a bit harder to track down. Long story short is that Jordon and I got to cross the Senate floor by ourselves (with permission from the Sergeant at Arms) to try to catch him coming out of an Education meeting. After much standing around, meeting people from WIT who Jordon used to know, and who were also there to lobby Sen. Feenstra, we found he had escaped us once again (not that he was purposefully avoiding us, but if he had been, he would have been doing a good job). We finally found him when we were almost ready to go, and had a nice little chat, in which the younger Caves actually participated, however little. I still don't think anyone in power was completely buying Jordon's theory about relieving property tax burdens on people who didn't have children in public schools, though. They were more for giving refunds after they took the money. Homeschoolers are just weird after all- they want themselves and their money left alone. It was actually Sen. Feenstra who offered to take us out onto the dome...which would have been fun, heights or no. But his key didn't work. Eventually we bid farewell to the place, (not to all the people we knew there- that would have taken too long to hunt them all up) and wended our way homeward. And that was that day...did I mention 4-6 hours in the car?

Since my husband went and posted the link to this blog on facebook last night as a way to keep in touch with people, I suppose I'd better post something a little more edifying than last time. And we'll try to keep random posts like that one at a minimum.

To sum up our life in the past 6-7 months:

Jordon still works at DenHartog Industries, loading trailers. We haven't come up with a fancy name for it yet, that makes it sound like he needs a ph.D. for his job. Oh, well. He at least has a friend who works there as well, albeit in a different department, so if he's late getting home I usually figure that he's talking to Matt. Yesterday, though, was a different story. The car locked him out, and he had to get a ride back home, and then back, with a second set of keys. It's the second time the car has done that, and we're not sure if he hits something accidentally upon exit, or if it's the car going haywire on us. He's also still on the Fire Department here in town. So that takes him out on a couple Wednesday nights a month, as well as at random times...like the middle of the night.

We're expecting a baby on May 30. Or around May 30, since due dates are more intelligent guesses than anything. We keep calling it 'he', because that's more personal than 'it' which gives rise to people constantly asking if we know what we're having. Which we don't. So now Jordon has taken to calling him 'Sam'. As short for either Samantha or Samuel. I don't know if that helps the confusion much, though. I won't bore you with the details of expectant motherhood....actually I'm feeling pretty good lately.

And people are always wondering what I do at home all day...It depends on the day. There are usually dishes. And laundry, sometimes. It's a bit different to go from 2-3 loads of laundry a day (with my family) to about three a week. But since I do it all, (for the sake of argument, Jordon will help fold it occaisionally) and can't rope younger siblings into helping with it, I won't complain. And then there's sewing, and all the other handicrafts I enjoy...and baking when I get sick of that. I still tend to bake/cook for a lot of people, but then Jordon can have left overs for lunch, instead of ham and cheese sandwiches all the time. You would think that I'd have tons of time on my hands to read, but that's actually the thing I have to make a concentrated effort to do. And Sam isn't even running around yet. Hm.

Tonight we're going to attempt cheese making for the first time. We were going to try that last week, but things got busy. Whether it was going to Sioux Falls or Jordon's EMS classes in Sioux City, who knows, but we didn't get it done. So I shall have to have the kitchen spotless when Jordon gets home. Apparently cheese is easily contaminated. I almost asked him whether he wanted me to bleach the counters.

Well...

I must admit, I was pretty sure this blog was going to be shorter lived than most. It was my own fault of course, but still...

After much trial and error I finally figured out how to sign in to my account again. This would have been easier if I didn't hate giving out information, even to blog sites, and insist on using out-dated email addresses. One might then be able to get confirmation emails and prompts...miss-remembering one's user name doesn't help either.

Other than that, I only had a random thought or two.

1). I wanted to post to shock people. It's a rare occurrence and a statement someone will surely be more than willing to concur with.

2). I was thinking that the only reason some songs can make it anywhere, in spite of utterly predictable and sappy lyrics, is a catchy tune. How else can you get by with 'Love, love changes everything....how you live, how you die...etc. etc.'?

3). It's awfully nice to be able to have the windows open in March.

4). It's a lot easier to eat chocolate chip cookies than it is to eat broccoli. Why can't cookies be good for you?

5). And since I need to stop killing time before attacking the rest of my to-do list, Good-Bye.

This is what the swords were really for.

Although, I think this works, too.

What is Jared doing...? Hm. Brotherly affection, it appears
More brotherly affection- be sure your sins will find you out.
Yes, the boy is as mischievous as the smile.
So is this one...
And then our loyal crew changed the entire gym around again, while people were going through the receiving line, into the reception set up- They were good- we'd barely finished sending everyone through, and they were calling people back in to eat- after all, what's a celebration without food?

And even though we had all those nice chairs, there are always those who think outside the box.



I'm a sucker when it comes to cute, smiling little boys...which is a good thing, considering how many little brothers I grew up with.