Not a song title because this post is important.

I do not like family blogs to be an outlet for political feelings, but I felt this particular post was really important.

Many of my friends and family have been very outspoken about their beliefs about traditional vs. same sex marriage. Most of them are for same sex marriage. I believe we are all entitled to our own opinion. What I take issue with is the anger most of these same friends and family start emitting when this subject comes up. It bothers me that they get so contentious. A very bad feeling comes into the room, and it really depresses my spirit. It affects my children. If they could talk about it without the contention, it would be one thing, but most of the time this is NOT the case.

Because of this I have felt that I need to stand up for what I believe. I have had several friendships with gay and lesbian people. I love them very much. I think they are amazing people and I have been blessed by their friendships. I do not agree with their lifestyle choices, but I love them, and their lifestyle choices have nothing at all to do with whether I love them or not. I make decisions in my life that they probably don't agree with either. There are other lifestyle choices I also do not believe in. I don't believe in living together before you are married, and having sex before you are married. Not just because of how I was brought up, but for personal experiences I have had in my own life. I also don't vaccinate my children. I have researched this and with BJ we have decided that our children can be better "immunized" in other ways. Other people who live together and aren't married, or who vaccinate their children, that's their choice. So why is it different for same sex marriage? Why do I not support it?

Do you really want to know? Or are you looking for a fight? Are you angry already, or do you really care about why I would feel this way? The reasons I have for what I believe about this particular issue are extremely personal to me. I hesitate to share these feelings because they are so personal, and if you are already angry then you will take what I say and hurt me with them. This would feel like a huge betrayal, and I don't know if that is a place I want to go.

So for those who are really interested here you go:

-First of all, from a scientific point of view man and woman were meant to be together. Our bodies fit together in a really special way. Procreation can only happen with a man and a woman. I am not talking about invetro, I am talking about the natural procreation of babies.

-From a psycological view, children deserve a dad and a mom. Men and women bring totally different things to a family. Yes there are bad dads and bad moms out there, I am not talking about them. Yes there are very happy families with just a mom, or dad, or grandparents, etc. And I am not saying that kids can not be happy with two moms, etc. I am saying that children deserve to have a mom and a dad. It is something you can not create in any other dynamic. Single parents can verify that. You just can't make up the difference. I know some women who are so loving, and would make amazing moms who are living a lesbian lifestyle, but to me, as much as I love these women with all of my heart, what the children need and deserve is more important.

-Childrens needs are more important than adults needs, in almost everycase I can think of. I feel this way about adoption too. I knwo you can get so caught up in the weird psychology of international adoption, etc. But what it comes down to for me, is that kids need love, and every kid deserves a mom and a dad. Every kid deserves those two things, and nothing is more important than that. No adults' feelings are more important than that. And maybe if adults would be less selfish, both men and women, there would be a million less divorce in the world, and abuse, and infidelity.

-On a really really personal note(I really hesitate to say this because I have never EVER spoken about this to anyone, except BJ, and only once), my Mom doesn't even know. When I was a child I was exposed to some really innapropriete sexual material. I was really really young, like maybe five or younger, and I started to have some sexual feelings towards other girls. I didn't understand it that way, and I didn't feel those things on purpose, but I had them. Really strong sexual feelings. But at the same time I felt these feelings were extremely wrong. Not because someone told me they were wrong, no one knew I had these feelings, but I knew in my heart, even as a young young child that these feelings were very wrong, and that I had a choice what to do about them. And I chose not to have them. And I don't have them, I haven't had them since. To this day, sexual material in movies and books really bother me. I think that those feelings are sacred and should be shared withing in the bonds of matrimony where they are appropriete and are beautiful. I get upset about crude things because it is just like seeing sexual things as a child, absolutely innapropriete. So when I tell you that I feel that sexual attraction toward the same sex makes me uncomfortable, I am not just saying it to be a prude, or a republican:), or to be religious or whatever. There are deep feelings of wrongness that I feel about it from the innocence of my childhood. And like I said, I have friends who are lesbians and who are gay and I love them, I love some of them millions and millions. But I have to defend what feels right in the very core of me.

So I probably have other feelings about this topic as well, but those are the main ones that I feel strongest about. I am not a great debater. I HATE conflict. I HATE contention. I know someone else could have said all this much better. I know my grammar and spelling suck. This is hard for me to write, and I know it will probably hurt some of my dearest friends, but I have to say it. I have to defend traditional marriage. I have to defend the future of my children. And it does affect other people, it affects the family, it affects future generations. You can't keep this kind of thing from NOT affecting family and other people. This is different than smoking and other things people have had problems with in the past.

I have felt sick to my stomach with anxiety writing this,but please know I am speaking from my heart. And I really need you to know that I will never EVER be on the contentious side of this side of the argument. I may rally and protest, but I WILL NEVER do it with hate, or have horrible, untrue signs about God not loving someone because of their lifestyle choices. I know you can love people and not agree with them. I know it. I don't say things perfectly, so please try to understand what I mean in this post.
love
Clair

"All My Lovin'" OMG8R I love the Beatles....sigh.

Dear Hamakerlove blog,

How I miss thee. I have been so busy with babies with sniffly noses, and trying to get my own energy up, and teaching my class, and doing a ton of schoolwork everyday. Not to mention all the millions of other things on my plate. I do still love you. I love you more than facebook even(I know you were wondering;). Never fear, in the next few months I shall have found a balance in our new family dynamics, with an energy you have not yet known.

All my words,
C.

ps.BJ has started a new blog for his creative writing outlet needs:
www.plausibly.blogspot.com

It is all a bunch of hooey, just in case you were getting those confusing THE PRINCESS BRIDE THE BOOK feelings.

"Don't you know every time it rains....." (for BJ "...maccaroni". Thank you Louis Prima)

Simple Cough Syrup

2 onions chopped up
raw honey(not creamed)

Put the chopped up onions either in a crock pot, or in a glass dish(suitable for the oven) and cover with honey until the honey is about a 1/2 inch above the onions. Cook at a low temperature for several hours, strain, put in a jar and seal and date.

For children take 1/2 tsp as needed(I give this to my kids every hour, while they are awake, when they first get a cough or cold and it goes away within two days max). For adults 1 tsp 6-8 times a day(again at the beginning of a cold or cough I take this every hour while I am awake).

If you catch a cold in the beginning and work with your body to get those germs out you heal very quickly with rest and nourishing food. If you don't get on top of it right away it can take FOREVER. I know because sometimes I am a lazier person than I would like to admit.;D

Honey coats the throat and onions break up and draw out the germs and mucus. The best thing about this is it is relatively inexpensive to make, and it has absolutely no harmful or unknown chemicals in it. And it is very effective in helping a cough. Hurray!
Take care!

(holiday pix and update to come soon....I hope:)

"We Didn't Start the Fire...."

Etsy shop is up!
Seller name:OHMYGATOR!

xo.
Clair

ps.Its my birthday. Happy Julianuary.(It is so sad I have that movie and know what that means.)

Update on Clair's OHMYGATOR! Etsy shop, soon to be opening on a computer near you.

Ok, so it is actually not Saturday night techinically anymore(being about 1:30am Sunday morning), but I have been working feverishly all yesterday and today. I was just going to make three, but decided to go for 6-8 instead, so I am only mostly done with all of them, and not entirely done with any of them. They will be ever so much more impressive if I show them to you completely finished, so I will just give you a quick glimpse tonight, and you can try and figure out what I am making.:)
Cheers!
Clair;)



ps.I will be HOPEFULLY opening my shop next weekend, but I need to take some amazing pix first(and finish them OF COURSE). I will post as I am getting close to my store opening.:D

Viva la Vida

This is BJ.

Clair is gone. She's in facebook. She has finally signed up... clicked the "I ACCEPT" button and signed her life away. She already has 30 friends. It' been consistent: 10 friends an hour so far. We're in the Pacific Time Zone, though, so I reckon some people will be hitting the hay soon. I expect 10 more friends an hour from 10:00 tomorrow AM.

She hasn't figured out how to use all the features yet, or that there is no real purpose. She keeps asking "what is this for?"

Anyway, she kept laughing. She wouldn't have a reason; she'd just be on some page and start laughing. I guess she's feeling this buzz that's become unfamiliar since high school when there were people around all the time, so many friends to choose from.

So doing the math (there's what, 16 waking hours in a day?) she'll have 160 new friends a day for maybe two months before it starts to peter out. Having friends is nice. Having friends on facebook is different. Faceboook admits this in the confirmation for accepting a friend. It says something like "facebook needs to make sure you know this person before you can be friends on facebook." Real life's requirement for friendship is a mutual understanding. Facebook's requirement is: you have to know the person.

This is not to diminish the incredible power and advantage of facebook. If Clair ever comes to me in a moment of insecurity and says"nobody likes me," I'll be able to check her profile and say, "no, you have 10,318 friends, Clair! You're the coooooooooolest!"

Socializing is good. I say go for it. I was surprosed who's on facebook at any given time. I don't have a profile. I'm not saying "yet" either... we'll see. Anyway, I hope you all add Clair as a friend. She's good people.

"Goodbye! Goodbye...goodbye..."-Hello Dolly

So the show MONK has ended.
BJ and I just stayed up late to watch the last two episodes EVER tonight.
IT WAS THE BEST SERIES FINALE OF ANY SHOW THAT EVER HAPPENED EVER.

OHMYGATOR.

It had the most perfect ending.
You can watch it on hulu.com.

the end

and merry christmas:D