Support Hobby Lobby!

The HHS mandate kicks in on January 1st.  The owners of Hobby Lobby have been fighting this mandate, because they believe that they should not be forced to pay for contraception for their employees.  The owners have made the difficult decision to pay the $1.3 million dollar per day fine, rather than give in and go against their beliefs.  

Luckily, it appears that they have chance.... on Saturday the seventh circuit blocked the HHS mandate.for a small business in IL... meaning that Hobby Lobby should, logically, be afforded the same protection. There are many expensive and long court battles to come before this will all be resolved.

January 5th has been designated as a day of support for Hobby Lobby.  Stop in to your local Hobby Lobby that day and make a purchase.   If it's not a store you'd normally visit, rest assured-- their Christmas clearance and cheap home decor aisles will have something you'll want.  Hobby Lobby happens to be one of my favorite stores, and this was long before the HHS mandate came up!

Read more here: Support Hobby Lobby, Here's How (Patheos blog).

You can also click HERE to email a note of thanks and support to the Green family, owners of Hobby Lobby.

I'll be happy to spend a little money there on January 5th.  I hope you'll join me!

 

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Go VOTE today!

It's election day!  We went to vote this morning and waited in line about an hour to do so.   I'm excited to see how things turn out, and praying that we get a final count tonight-- I don't want this to drag on for weeks! 

 

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5 Question Friday 11/2

 1. What terrifies you the most?  Something happening to my kids.  With my daughter, I worry specifically about her blood sugars, especially at night-- she's had two diabetic seizures, and I worry constantly that she'll have another and I won't catch it in time.  

2. Favorite fall/winter drink?   Pumpkin flavored coffee.  Mmmmm....   

3. Do you and your spouse have the same political views?   Kind of.  We're both conservative, and we both enjoy following and talking about politics.   It's funny to us, because years ago we were very much political opposites and prone to loud debates on various political topics.  Over the years I have become much more conservative.
 
However... he knows a lot more about politicians and history, and can debate anyone on any topic, recalling issues from years ago and how they affect things now.  He's not pro-life and he's not Catholic... two things that I very much am.  I get involved with issues I believe in via protests, letter writing, petitions, and online debates, and he doesn't... partially because of his job in law enforcement, and partially because that's just not his personality.   So yes, our core political views are much the same, but what we do with them is very different. 

4. What was the last book you read? Was it any good?   I received Faithful to Laura (A Middlefield Family Novel) in the mail this week to review, and I sat down and read the entire thing that evening.  I love Amish fiction, and I haven't had a new one to read in a while. :)   So yes, it was good.

5. Do you look forward to the snow each winter? Why or why not?  NO.  I hate snow, which is a problem, since I live in Ohio.  Snow and being cold both depress me. I hate driving in it, I hate not being able to get out and do things, and I hate keeping the kids cooped up in the house. I'd like to have a few pretty, fluffy snowflakes on Christmas and be done with it, rather than the months and months that we have to endure.  It snowed here earlier this week, by the way. 


Share your own answers to these questions at 5 Question Friday!

 

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Standing Up... from my couch

I wanted to go to a Stand Up for Religious Freedom rally today.  However, I am miserable with a cold, and the notion of standing outside in the cold air with a pounding headache while listening to rally speeches and shouting is just a little more than I can handle right now.  I'll have to have my own rally here at home, with my hot coffee and my warm blanket. 

The HHS Mandate forces religious employers to pay for contraception for their female employees.  For the Catholic church and many other religions, this violates a basic tenant of their faith.  (Of course there are Catholics who will readily tell you that they believe in contraception and even abortion, but this is not in line with church teaching.)

Here's a well written summary of how the HHS Mandate threatens religious freedom.

I've had the "separation of church and state" argument more times recently than I can remember... even here, in a comment on my last post.   This is not a matter of the church trying to force something on the general public.  Remember, nobody forced these people to accept a job for a religious organization, and nobody is saying that they can't use contraception... they're just saying that their employer should not be forced to pay for something that they find morally objectionable.  Women are free to work elsewhere or to pay for their own contraception.

Healthcare is a touchy issue.  As the mother of two children with medical needs, I understand this as much as, if not more so, than the average voter.   However, I can not stand by and watch as  the government tries to tell my church what to do.

p.s.  I've removed the option to be an anonymous commenter from my posts. I always welcome comments and discussions that differ from my own views, but I won't approve hateful "attack" comments from people who won't even sign their own names (you know who you are).  Not all anonymous comments are hateful, but enough were that I've chosen this option. Thanks for understanding.  

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Go read this: Time to Grow Up

Have you read this post: Time to Grow Up  at Catholic Mothers Online?   If not, go ahead and click over to read it... I'll wait.

OK, Back?  Read it?   Good.   Because I don't have a lot to add, unless you count cheering at my computer screen and holding back on my desire to forward that post to everyone I know.

Amberly has three excellent points that she proposes we all follow:  don't whine, dress appropriately, and make use of the talents God has blessed you with.   And really... that pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?   It doesn't matter what your political persuasion is, what your attached/single status is, how much money you have, or how you spend your days.  What matters is the choices you make within those circumstances.

Every day we are bombarded with political arguments, images of half-naked celebrities, and talking heads arguing about how they think our leaders should do things.  Wouldn't it be nice if everyone played by these rules?

 

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50 Shades of.... Red

I read a lot of books.  A lot.   So when the buzz started online about "50 Shades" I figured I'd put my name on the library waiting list and see what all the talk was about.   I didn't know what the book was about, but I thought I'd read that it was an intense romance/ drama kind of thing.  Whatever.  I figured it would be months before I got the book (I was number 700-something on the waiting list!) and I'd see then what all the fuss was about.

Well.

I received the book last week.  I was surprised that I got it so quickly, but I soon figured out why.

I started to read it one evening and quickly found myself shocked and deeply embarrassed by what I was seeing.  I put it down, hiding it carefully in my bedroom so that my 9 year-old wouldn't pick it up and check it out.  (She often wants to know what I'm reading, and 99% of the time that's fine... it's mostly Christian fiction or review books that come from Christian publishing companies.)

The next night, I picked it up again, thinking that I must be missing something that has made this book so popular.   I skipped ahead in the book, thinking that maybe there was just one section of that... stuff.  Nope.  Every chapter I flipped to was the same.  Porn.  Descriptions of things that no reasonable person should be reading or even thinking about... yet they're described with terms like "love". 

I finally skipped to the end, thinking that maybe there was a plot hidden in there somewhere.  Nope.  Not as far as I could tell.  Granted, I may have skipped too much to really get the plot, but as far as I could tell, it was chapter after chapter of an innocent young girl subjecting herself to the depraved desires of a powerful older man.

Why is this book so popular?  Are we, as a society, so messed up that we think a book with something called a "red room of pain" is a fairy tale romance? 

There are plenty of posts online both for and against reading this book.  Meg Hunter-Kilmer posts one of the best: "Why I Won't Read...".    

As for me, lesson learned.   Always read the full book description before diving into a new book!

P.S.  Please note that I've made the conscious decision NOT to link to this book, or even use the full title, as I usually do, via my Amazon Affiliate account.  I am not interested in helping the sale of this book in any way!

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