Balancing Act

I haven't been doing much writing in the past few months, because I went back to work. Not doing anything in my field, but it is necessary to take whatever possible to keep the household running. I think I forgot how difficult it was to keep the house clean, cook and take care of the family all while holding down a job. I work the odd ball shift of 6:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., which makes it even more difficult. I am sleeping during the day and awake while everyone else is sleeping. My days off are spent cleaning and running errands. So, I have very little time to myself to spend on writing and much of anything else. 

We are still here, the world didn't end in 2012

Well, the world didn't come to an end, because in the year 2013 I am sitting here writing about surviving the end of the world. There is nothing wrong with being prepared. I wasn't one of them on the day the world was supposed to come to an end.

I have put some deep thought into the correlation of the world coming to an end and our current society. You have to ask yourself, "What has become of the United States?" from time to time. What has our society become?

As I look back, I think about how our generations that was children of the 70's and 80's took life in stride. We graduated high school, went to college, got a job, got married, bought a house and started a family. Life strolled on the financial path with a few bumps in the road without too much struggle. Our generation could quit a job one day and find a better job in a week. Life isn't like that anymore. Today if you lose your job, it may years before you find another one. You worry about what you will lose along the way.

There are several reasons we are in this situation today. For example, our government did not make the right decisions concerning overseas trade and allowed the American people to be outsourced. Forcing millions of people out of work while our jobs are sent over to overseas countries. China's middle class is rising while the middle class of America is falling into the trenches.

Technology is replacing people. We love our technology, but we don't think about how many jobs the technology has replaced. It was a time coming, but our government did not prepare us for the time that technology would replace people. Maybe the government will understand when the question if asked in terms they may understand. What do we do with all the surplus people the policies we pass will put out of work?

Crime is at an all time high, neighborhoods are abandoned and filled with homes that have been either vandalized with graffiti and have become rest havens for criminals to do their dirty work in or they have been burned down and are a danger to the neighborhood children. Maybe your neighborhood doesn't look that today, but there are plenty that do.

Millions of families who have lost everything they own and can barely afford to feed their children or worry about if they will be able to keep the heat on in their house during the winter months.

The quality of our children's education has fallen as schools lay off teachers and schools are shut down.

No, the world hasn't come to an end just yet. Some day our children's children will be reading about how our life was during this recession. Just as we read about the Great Depression. This is a recession that will make the history books. But, I am curious why they are still calling it a recession. I think we have passed a recession a long time ago.

My theory which has nothing to do with the Mayan Calendar, is that we are going to experience a new way of life. The wheels started turning long before December 21, 2012. It all began when millions of Americans lost their jobs, their homes, cars and struggle to survive. We are entering into a new way of life, a new way of life that is going to be much harder. The cost of living has risen while the American household income has gone down. It is becoming a society where America's Middle Class is disappearing.

So, if you are reading this in the year 3012, this is what our life was like in the year 2012. People were more worried about if they were going to be able to give their children a Christmas dinner or put presents under the tree or maybe just worrying about where they would sleep or if they could even feed their child that day.

Meet Ruby

We finally decided to get Max his baby, one that wouldn't be leaving him. We found our adorable little Ruby Thursday. We have Max, so we named her Ruby after the kids cartoon Max & Ruby. The name fits her, she is a little gem. 

Max loves any little animal. Whenever they leave him he get's upset and won't eat, so we decided to get him a little friend for him to watch over. Since, we brought him little Ruby, he quit chewing on his feet. Wheaten Terriers were used to herd, watch and guard the sheep and farm animals. So, we thought maybe part of his anxiety problem is he doesn't have any animals to watch. So, we got him a little kitty cat to watch over and protect. 

Sex Reassignment Surgery for Inmate

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Mark Wolf ruled that prison inmate Michelle Kosilek, who is serving life in prison for murdering his ex-wife in 1990, would be permitted to have the sex reassignment surgery on the tax payers. His attorney argued Kosilek is suffering from a mental illness, referred to as gender- identity disorder. Wolf ruled denying the surgery would violate Kosilek's Eighth Amendment Rights by denying him adequate care for his mental illness, gender identity disorder.

Kosilek strangled his wife Cheryl and dumped her body in a car at the Emerald Square Mall, north of Attelborough Massachusetts and then fled to New York state before being arrested. Kosilek was convicted of First Degree Murder in 1993 and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Judge Mark Wolf feels the tax payers owe Kosilek a $20,000 surgery as treatment for his disorder. Now any person  who is not in prison and who is working and contributing to society who also has the gender identity disorder and wishes to have the surgery can not have the surgery unless they have the money to pay for it. Sex reassignment surgery is considered an elective surgery according the insurance companies. The usual treatment is hormone therapy. Before Judge Mark Wolf decides he wants to waste the tax dollars of working citizens to make history, he needs to start with the people who are not in prison who wish to have  the surgery and can not afford to pay for it.

In my opinion, prisons are just given way too much in prison. Kosilek had no regard or sympathy for his wife as he choked the life right out her and dumped her body like it was trash. Prisons should only have the absolute basics in prison. Cable television, computers and internet access which is a huge mistake, because they give the prisons access to the outside world which defeats the purpose of them being in prison and now a judge says they should be allowed to have sex reassignment surgery as treatment when honest hard working individuals doesn't have that right because they don't have the money to pay for it. Judge Mark Wolf that is bullshit!! How about giving that $20,000 to the poor hungry children in America who are starving? Well jeez whiz, that would actually make too much sense. Wolf should be yanked off the bench and stripped of his rope and gavel for that ignorant ruling.

The reason I am disturbed by this ruling is because there are so many people who need help, losing their homes, starving, children without adequate food and clothing  or shelter and are working so hard just to  keep their head of the water and this judge wants all of us to pay for a $20,000 surgery for a prisoner who is serving life in prison for murder, who will never travel outside the prison walls to ever be a productive contributing member of society to attempt to repay his debt he has forced upon the citizens of the United States. 

Does a prisoner really need cable or internet access while they are in prison? Now a person on the outside can not have cable or internet if they don't have the money to pay for it. There are children who go to school that need computers and the internet, but don't have it because their parents can not afford cable or internet. It drives me ballistic to hear prisons have more rights than us on the outside working and being a productive member of society.

Yes educate prisoners, but do it by giving them a books, make them learn the old way, teaching them their Three R's if need be. Treat them for their illnesses and give them therapy for their disorders. But, do not give them rights the average person on the outside doesn't have, then tell us we have to pay for it.

Here is a few questions for you, Judge Mark Wolf. Where do you plan on putting Kosilek after he has the surgery? Legally, he would have to stay with the males. His gender at birth was a male. He lived as a male the majority of his adult life. Are you going to force the women who are prison to live with a man who killed his wife? What about the psychological damage that may be caused to women in the prison who may have had similar experiences in the past, but survived? Wouldn't that be considered causing undo psychological harm to another human being and Judge Mark Wolf and Kosilek should be held to the same laws as everyone else. What if he decides to strangle another woman? On the other hand, if you put him back in with the men, he will just be used as everyone's toy, if he already isn't. So, here is the really big question "How is that ruling in the best interest of him, the tax payers or even other people in prison. No matter how Judge Wolf  tries to justify his ruling, he can't. His ruling was made with very little common sense or research. Continuing with psychotherapy and hormone therapy would have been the appropriate ruling in the best interest of Kosilek and everyone involved or burdened by the judge's ruling.

Max's New Baby

All weekend we heard a whining outside and we didn't know where it was coming from. Yesterday, the hubby went outside to check and see where the whining was coming from and discovered a baby squirrel in the back yard. Max had been wanting to go outside a lot and would not come in the house for hours at a time. He was laying in the grass in the same spot.  He was watching his baby. The only time we heard whining was when he was inside. The baby squirrel was calling for him. Max, our dog loves any kind of baby. He will watch it and protect it. He loves just about any animal smaller than him. He will take it on as his baby if they let him. He does the same thing anytime my parents bring their little Maltese over or our friends bring their little rat terrier over. He will share his food and water and the little dogs can do anything to him and he will just lay there and let them walk or climb on him or even pull his hair trying to get him up to play. When ever they make a sound, he will run to them to check on them.  

We called someone from the local wildlife rescue and found someone to come and pick up the squirrel. Max went crazy when he saw the woman holding his baby. He was jumping and whining, trying to get outside to his baby. She said, he could come out and say goodbye to his baby. He went straight to the baby squirrel to sniff it and he tried licking his baby. She said we could name the baby since we found it. We decided to call him Max after his adoptive daddy. He sat on the living room couch looking out the window watching her pull away with his new baby. Poor Max, he lost another baby. 

ABC's of Relationships

After my most resent question from a reader regarding relationships, he inspired me to create my own blog talking about the basics of relationships. I thought, why not? I have plenty of life experience of bad past relationships and I have a BA in Family Life Education, so naturally I am curious about what does make relationships work? Read more..

Sanity is essential.

Everyone has their own way of escaping from reality for a few minutes and just breathe. As a mother if you don't do this you will lose your sanity and your ability to be rational. Yes, this is true, it has been scientifically proven that you must take a break to just be alone to breathe or you will lose all common sense before your job is completed as parents.

I have a couple of ways I do this. First, one of my favorite ways to lock out the world for a few minutes is to lock the bathroom door, open the door to my room, turn on some blues music loud, turn off all the lights and lay in the bathtub soaking in Epsom salts with the candles lit to fill the air. But, not before letting the tweenies know, that it would be in their best interest not to disrupt me while I take a bath. Yes, i am guilty of trying to escape from my family at times. I admit, I have a tendency to take too many baths.

One of my other favorite things to do other than sit on the ocean and watch the sun come down is sitting outside own my swing, just relaxing in front of the fire drinking a cup of hot tea. It is so relaxing and I don't have to be alone for this one. I even enjoy my quiet time I spend in front of the fire with my children.

One thing I love to watch in the dark is a fire. No, not a burning house, I am not that demented. I like tiki torches, fire pits and soft lighting. Here are some pics of my sanctuary.

My patio, with my antique umbrella that actually shields the sun
and rain.  This was made in the U.S.A.!!!  This has been used as my work space a lot through
 out the week. I surrender the house and seek shelter outside.

The perfect fire to stare into as my thoughts drift off and I am able to sanely
return to my family. 

My favorite swing. I have done a lot of thinking on this swing.

Don't be ashamed if you have a secret hide out to regain your sanity in. It is essential to your mental health and your child's opportunity to grow up to be a healthy productive member of society.