Is five kids too many?

My biological mom in front, four kids and my Hippie Yippie days

This is about kids, lots of em.  I'm really glad the Duggars came along on TV, if for nothing else, to make me feel better.  I can honestly say I didn't have 19 or 20 of those little bugger Duggars.  Hey, ya get that 'good feeling' where ever you can in this lifetime.

How did I do it?  How did I keep my sanity?  Damned if I know. I guess you can say I raised some free range kids.  I don't recall a whole lot of punishments (although my oldest daughter seems to remember each and every single one of her punishments) but I honestly do not have such a vivid memory as hers.

They all helped, mostly, sometimes, with chores and such.  Speaking of the eldest girl though, I remember she went through a neat freak phase, at 11, again at 19, again at 25 and by 35 I notice it has tapered off a bit.  She used to love cleaning her room, everything in its place, then she would remind me how I needed to crack the whip on the others to clean their rooms.  She found great joy in cleaning the living room and kitchen sometimes too.  She would grab a sponge or dust cloth and shine everything, all the while lecturing us about being pigs that she had to put up with.  I used to laugh and smile and think how the poor other kids were going to be filthy and live in pig sties when they grew up.  I haven't seen any of mine on Hoarders yet, so I guess one person's filth is another person's normal.

I always grew a big vegetable garden and recently my youngest daughter recalled how those fresh vegetables, always tasted so good.  

I wasn't the perfect parent, but guess what, I have met many who were not either.  So as far as being an expert in imperfect parenting, I guess I pretty much was.  Yeah for me!

We didn't have all the video games that so many kids play now, but we did have a kind of Lego logic going on.  I remember my kids talking to Legos, to their favorite dolls and even to toy graders in the dirt.  These days some psychologist would tell me there is something wrong with talking to inanimate objects, but I don't think so.

In the summer, my kids were allowed to be just kids.  No summer camp, no structured junk, just live, use their imaginations and be themselves.  Those were the days.

Now I think about it, maybe I did discipline the kids once in a while.  When my oldest son was in the Army Reserves, he said he was asked by his DI: "Am I being too harsh Kid?"  It was, of course a rhetorical question.  My son told me he replied: "Naw, I have a mom who could put you to shame."  I'm still wondering if that was a good thing or not.  I let it slide since I would never meet that DI in person anyway.  


Happy Mothers Day to one and all!

Where's concern for American casualties?

I get bugged by all the hype in the media and on social sites concerning this 'great gun debate' to the point of nausea.  I suppose it's so easy for the privileged population to sit back and judge, debate and never really get one damned clue to what is going on in America.

When I say 'privileged' I don't mean in terms of money or wealth......I mean just being treated differently, with respect and most of us taking it all for granted.

When the rest of us are treated a certain way, with respect and just being able to do as we like, mostly, we are just fine.  But now, in 2013, usher in the people who are granted even more privilege, the sands shift, now the elite rich want everything we once had access to and suddenly, well we do not like the taste of losing rights and respect.  Pinches, don't it?

Concerning the big gun debate though, many once middle class, start to listen to the lies, the propaganda vomited out by the group called the NRA.  Why?  Well the NRA understands that Americans need to fear someone, something, fear their rights will be removed and guess what? Then Americans will turn on one another.  It takes very little for American paranoia to be whipped up these days, so the NRA understands that to improve gun sales, it has to create fears in people.  How sad the American people are so prone to such lies.  Does the NRA give a damn about my gun rights?  Hell no, it was created to help their rich, gun making friends sell more guns.  Apparently it works.

What bothers me most is this:  The U.S. government is probably the largest arms dealer in the entire world.  They sell guns to any country for money, usually those countries, once armed, turn those expensive weapons on American soldiers.  Did our government think those countries, bands of rebels or just plain international criminal types would show America gratitude for the weapons?  Oh, please!  

The Second line of thinking that bothers me is:  Are Americans so dumb they think all guns will stay legal and stay only in the hands of responsible gun owners?  Please don't try to convince me they do.  Has American education sunk so low?  Has American education failed us so miserably?  By that I mean:  How have people come to be so gullible?  How have Americans lost their power to reason, to use that thing between their ears so much that they will buy anything dished out to them?  Is our stupidity the legacy of just how powerful the corporate selling machine and its bombarding us daily with ads and sales that we are now just indoctrinated with fallacies?  This has to be the saddest state I, or probably anyone, has seen America sink to since our history began.

I saw a news article today about Sarah Palin rallying for 'gun rights.'  This is a woman who stole big money from those who believed in her. through a super PAC, she took her family on vacation on your dime and now has the unmitigated gall to tell any of us what is 'right.'  

The BIG question is this:  Why do you love rich corporations who want to steal every cent you own?  Who wish to leave you in poverty while they laugh at you for being so gullible?  Do you Honestly think that because YOU gave them your Last red cent for their guns, their poisoned food and their ammunition that THEY EARNED it all alone?  Well they've put you out of your jobs and now you show them respect?  Best count the little money you have in your wallet Before answering That question honestly!

If you think you will 'stand up against the government' one day, you better check Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan Before answering that one too.  American troops invaded entire countries, with bigger and more powerful weapons than YOU will Ever own.  Are you this delusional? If so, you are much more far gone in your brains than I once suspected.

We all have to jump in to invade another country, yet we have children dying every day on American soil.  Children suffering from as much PTSD as Any soldier in a war.  WHERE is our concern, where is American help for our own?  So if America is so concerned for rights, so Christian, why are we NOT sending in help to clean up drugs and poverty on our own streets?  Why?  Because Someone of higher privilege is Benefiting from NOT making America better.  People who live in our own midst, people who call themselves Congress and Senate members.  America, get a grip on something I like to call REALITY!

Do I think I will 'get through' to people whose brains are in the trigger of their guns, the emotions in their reptilian bodies or in the barrels of their weapons?  Nope, but I certainly hope they have an ounce of brain left to maybe, just maybe, understand facts not fallacies.  Probably a losing battle, just as lost as any battle those gun carrying people think they could win against the American government.

Why don't YOU look to see just WHO the enemy REALLY is before hating on your neighbor?  You who hate your neighbors are NOT Christian by ANY stretch of imagination either!