This and That

Hi all. I was out sick yesterday. Every now and again everything catches up and I just have to rest for a day. Anway, I've got a few things on my mind. To start with, my husband and I have been participating in Disciples in Mission, which is a Lenten discussion group. It's basically an opportunity for people to get together in an informal setting and discuss religion. We're doing it with our friends the Loras, who are our neighbors around the corner. I invited some other families to participate, but they decided to pass. So we meet once a week during Lent to go over certain readings and answer accompanying questions. It probably sounds really Holy Roller, but we're enjoying it. Probably because we feel very comfortable talking to the Loras about all of this stuff. As we've been talking, it's been making me realize how dissatisfied I am with work in general. I'm not complaining about it because I've got a pretty good set-up. I only work the hours my daughter is in school, which is something I know a lot of other parents wish they could have. But the more we talk, the more I understand I'd feel more fulfilled if I could volunteer more at the school/ church. Perhaps that will come to pass as my husband and I pay off our debt, which is really our primary financial goal right now. I don't regret the choices we've made or anything, but there's just another added insentive to keeping the eye on the prize, as they say.

After my husband came home from work yesterday, we watched this show called the Gastineau Girls, which is on E!. I've never seen this show, only the commercials for it, so we were sitting there watching and I swear to God it made me sick. If you don't know what this show is about, it's basically a reality show that follows the lives of a rich and overly-pampered mother-daughter combo living la vida loco. What made me sick is that these two have all the time and money in the world and the best thing they can think to do with their lives is run around from store to store buying such essentials as doggie booties and picking up men in hair salons. Now I know you're wondering who am I to judge what other people choose to do with their lives, and really, I'm nobody to judge. We're all free to make our own choices, but it just seems like a shame to me. Maybe it affected me particularly because I've been thinking more about what I can do to make life just a little bit more hopeful for those around me. I don't know. But I got angry watching these chicks drop cold hard cash for cashmere sweaters for their dogs and act like this was something important. I don't want to come off sounding like Mother Teresa or anything, because I'm not an overly altruistic person. I'm really not. I truly only feel sympathy for children when it comes to being in distress because kids have no choice about the circumstances of their lives. Once you're grown, you determine theoutcome of your life and people in desperate situations probably contributed to it in very significant ways by making bad decisions, and I figure if you got yourself into it, you can get yourself out. Which is not to suggest you can't seek help from others, it just means the you've got to be the person spearheading the salvation for yourself. Don't put the responsibility of it in someone else's hands.