WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - MY HUSBAND, RICK

In honor of Rick installing my new kitchen faucet (what a man!)... here are a few pics I love...

TUESDAY BLOG REVIEW - Cake Wrecks

It's Tuesday, and that means it's time for another blog review! Today I'm going to send you to one of the blogs that I check daily because I need a good laugh! It's called Cake Wrecks. This blog shows cakes that are complete wrecks - ugly, awful, what-were-they-thinking, wrecks. It's absolutely amazing that these cakes were ever made! I love Jen's sense of humor, and her husband, who posts frequently, is every bit as funny. My favorite day on Cake Wrecks, though, is Sunday. On Sundays (called Sunday Sweets), we get a real treat, because that is the day we get to see some beautiful, yummy, sweet, I-wish-I-had-that-cake, cakes. You'll love them.



So, go and visit and then come back and tell me if you like the sight, k?
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

CHECK OUT THIS COOL THING...

Guess what exciting thing just happened? My nephews' foundation - The Four Of Hearts Foundation - just delivered a wheelchair to a 3 year old little boy named Moises, and a walker to Norita, who is 20 and had polio. Both live in Guatemala! They had the help of Steve Allen, who is in Guatemala this week, working with Hershey Smiles. He is a new friend of the foundation, and he made these cool shirts for the board members. He is wearing one, and delivered one to Moises and Norita along with their chair and walker. Here are some of the heart-warming pictures...

Steve Allen delivers a wheelchair to sweet Moises - from the Four of Hearts Foundation

Another delivery from Four of Hearts - Steve gives a walker to Noira!

Can I just say how proud I am of these teenage boys?! Their sights are set on helping the kids in Guatemala and they are moving forward. If you are interested in helping or donating to their cause, just click on this link http://www.four-of-hearts.com/and it will take you to their website, where you'll learn all about Four of Hearts. I know you'll be impressed, too.

Friday Freedoms: The Pledge

Ayn Rand: "Social gains", "Social aims", "Social objectives" have become the daily bromides of our language. The necessity of a social justification for all activities, and all existence, is now taken for granted. There is no proposal outrageous enough but what its author can get a respectful hearing and approbation if he claims that in some undefined way that it is for "the common good."

I just watched this video on Youtube. Please take a few minutes to watch it:



Just a few words about this video... This is scary stuff, folks. Notice how these celebrities draw you in (just because of who they are, to start with), and then start pledging things that on the surface sound ok. We should do this - we should do that... etc. Then, after they've all pledged to their ideas, they ask "what will you pledge?" - making it sound like if we don't pledge something, we are bad people. Then, after piling all of that crap on us, they actually pledge to SERVE THE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNTRY!!!!!!!! What? Last time I checked, HE serves US (can you say "public servant"?!). Wow. So, after my kids and I watched this video, Michael (19) ran to get the book, Anthem, by Ayn Rand. As he was looking something up in the book, I was googling "pledge" and "Hitler". Here's what I found...

The Fuhrer Oath: "In taking the Fuehrer Oath, the German Army swears allegiance not to the Republic, not to the flag, not to the constitution, and not even to the office of the head of state, but to Adolf Hitler personally who has now attained absolute power over the German people."

Hmmm. That sounds kind of familiar, don't you think? "I pledge to be a servant to our president, and all mankind."

Ayn Rand (from the book "Anthem"): "We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the grace of our brothers, we are allowed to live our lives. We exist through, by, and for our brothers, who are the State. Amen."

"What brought it to pass? What disaster took their reason away from men? What whip lashed them to their knees in shame and submission? Worship of the word "WE".

FYI: This Tuesday, in our schools, they will be showing a speech by President Obama to all schoolchildren. Apparently, at the end of the speech, they'll be showing this video. I will not allow my children to watch either the speech or the video in school. All this is, is an attempt to indoctrinate our children with their ridiculous ideas.

Another thing I found about the Hitler youth - they said this Pledge of Allegiance:

"I promise to do my duty in love and loyalty to the Führer and our flag." That's awfully close to what Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher said: "I pledge to be a servant to our president..."

"But I still wonder how it was possible, in those graceless years of transition, long ago, that men did not see whither they were going, and went on, in blindness and cowardice, to their fate. I wonder, for it is hard for me to conceive how men who knew the word "I," could give it up and not know what they lost." Ayn Rand, Anthem

I just want to challenge all of you: do not sit still and let our freedoms dwindle away. Use your voice and actions to stand up for what is right. Take control of teaching your children what they need to know - don't let the State do it. In closing, here are a few more words from Ayn Rand...


"The greatest guilt today is that of people who accept collectivism by moral default; the people who seek protection from the necessity of taking a stand, by refusing to admit to themselves the nature of that which they are accepting; the people who support plans specifically designed to achieve serfdom, but hide behind the empty assertion that they are lovers of freedom, with no concrete meaning attached to the word; the people who believe that the content of ideas need not be examined, the principles need not be defined, and that facts can be eliminated by keeping ones eyes shut. They expect, when they find themselves in a world of bloody ruins and concentration camps, to escape moral responsibility by wailing: But I didn't mean this!"

Book Review - The Remarkable Farkle McBride

For Thursday's book review today, I thought I'd review John Lithgow's The Remarkable Farkle McBride. Yep, you read that right - this cute kids book was written by John Lithgow - the actor. C.F. Payne is the illustrator. The reading level is ages 4-8.

The book starts out by introducing us to the musical prodigy, Farkle McBride - no matter what instrument he tried, "his musical passions were unsatisfied"! Throughout the book, we find Farkle playing instrument after instrument. John Lithgow's gift with words mirrors, in some ways, Dr. Seuss in Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? As Farkle plays the violin, we can hear the sounds... Reedle-ee, Deedle-ee, Deedle-ee Dee! The flute is next... Rootle-ee, Tootle-ee, Tootle-ee, Too. My son, Alex will guess this next instrument... Vroom-pety, Doom-pety, Doom-pety, Doom (trombone). This continues through the rest of the book, as Farkle tries to find an instrument he likes, until he realizes that he can put all of the sounds together! One day, the conductor of the local orchestra catches a cold and Farkle must replace him... can you guess what happens? "So he took the baton and he gave the downbeat, And KA-BOOM! the foundations were shaken by glorious music, bombastic and sweet!"

I love this book - the rhymes are genius, and the illustrations superb. And the best thing of all - there's a surprise on the last page. A huge four-page fold out of the entire orchestra. On the inside of the front page, C.F.Payne (illustrator) says: "My gratitude to Maestro Jesus Lopez-Cobos and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for their help in producing this artwork."

How fun that these illustrations are of real musicians! I think you and your kids will love this book! (Click on the picture of the book above to go to Amazon.com and buy a copy.)