Celebrity Endorsment

Remember all the hype about End of the Spear? Multitudes of Christians came out and said they would *not* see it because the main character, Nate Saint, was played by a well known gay activist.
As the true story goes, three families venture off to a remote tribe of peoples who are supposedly the most violent bunch around. The three fathers set off to make initial contact with the tribe, telling their children,"No, we are not going to use our weapons. We are ready to die, but they are not." Almost as soon as the men get off their plane (or boat), the tribesmen kill them. Steve Saint is Nate Saint's son (one of the fathers who were killed), and was a co-producer of End of the Spear. Now, as I understand the facts, the three families stayed near the tribe they intended on witnessing to, and eventually became like family to the tribe. One of the men who killed Steve's father is considered by Steve a grandfather ( I heard them on *deep announcer voice here* (as my son enjoys mimicking) The Michael Medved Show).
The controversy was huge in the blogosphere: debate on whether it matters what actors lifestyles are like, debate on whether Christians should support the film, debate on whether we should endorse actors who blatantly sin in real life. The movie flopped. Christians didn't go see it because of the gay activist portraying such a Godly man, and unbelievers didn't go see it because it was a Christian movie.
And now, I bring you the point of the post:
Today, as I was heating up soup (*yes* from a can. I have felt so lousy lately that I have depended on canned food from the grocery store. yikes!), I noticed an ad for Seventh Heaven (which just so happens to be a Chritian TV show - almost). Near the picture of the "family" it said, "Not intended as a celebrity endorsment." Is that crazy? Does this mean that companies, maybe even the media, are catching on that Christians are a powerful group of people? Do you think this is connected to the End of the Spear controversy? I am amazed at this little disclaimer and am wondering what else it is popping up on.

Don't Stress Your Baby Out!

I found an article that explains the reason response time is important to babies (when they cry). With 28 citations I believe this woman knows the subject she is discussing. I have wondered recently if babies (who then grow to become toddlers) are affected by how quickly a mother is able to soothe them after they begin to cry. I have always been a believer in, "You can't spoil a baby until at least 6 months." I know all children are different, but before 6 months children *need* their mama's to respond to their cries. I was told with my first that you couldn't spoil him until he was one. I believed it, and lived it out, and was fortunate enough that I *didn't* spoil him according to male book writers and uninvolved opinion swayers in the 70's. They taught us that a mother should let her babe "cry it out" and ignore the poor babe's only way to communicate (Sears). These men would whole heartedly disagree with the way I nurtured my son- what with him even sleeping in the bed with me! But spoiled he is not. He is a beautiful child- a tender hearted 6 year old, indeed- no signs of spoiling, for sure. So my point? What is natural for so many mother's ("Oh my baby is crying! I must soothe him!") is a scientifically proven good thing for women's as well as babies hormones. See:

Stress in Infancy

The Scrabble Adventure

My youngest babe got me out of bed at 6 this morning. It's *Saturday*, mind you, but I got out of bed happily because he slept all night in his crib... in his brother's room! Yippee! I haven't nursed the sweet babe in more than 48 hours, and he's done great through the night with Daddy tending to him (if the need arise). (for all of you who may not realize, this means I have gotten the best two nights of sleep since December '04! Hurray!) Anyhow, that's not why I came to you today.

Both babies were being loud at 7 this morning, and I knew there was a craft show at a church in our area that started early, so off we went (for the sleeping men-folk's sake, of course)! The tent-like canopies really got me excited as we pulled into the parking lot, but I soon realized it was more of a rummage sale than a craft show. But hey, who's complaining? Not me. There was *so* much stuff to "rummage" through, my daughter and I were in "50 cent to a dollar" Heaven! We got a bath rug (it looks brand new), a spice chart, a precious Winnie-the-Pooh placemat for my darling- *but messy*- daughter, and (cue the drum roll please) Scrabble! I *love* Scrabble! I don't get to play too often, and as our family is slowly working on building our game stack, this was a magnificant find. The problem was there were three different boxes being sold each for a buck. Two of the boxes obviously didn't have enough tiles, so I picked the one that had the most, crossing my fingers that when we got home we wouldn't be sorely disappointed (and not be able to play!). Looking back, I should have bought at least two of 'em, but it's ok- we still had to attend the Pancake Breakfast.

So we finally get a chance to count our tiles. 18 A's...ok. 4 B's...did we get double all the tiles? *23* E's........um, did we get all the letters in the alphabet? I just counted out half of our stash! I kept counting, and thankfully got to Z, and realized that we *almost* have double tiles. About 8 of the letters aren't a complete double, so I'm not quite sure what to do with them, but I'm happy that now we can play Scrabble any day of the week! Hurray!

I know this post has been a long time in coming. Sorry- I've been exhausted lately ;)

How to Waste Time~ the Pirate Search

My pirate name is:

Iron Anne Bonney

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

This rocks! I've been searching the internet for pirate games, flags, and general party ideas for my almost 6 year old's big bash next weekend. This quiz is *funny*, and I like my name! I actually took it twice for long reasons that would bore you, and the first name I got was "Iron Anne Rackham" (rack'em). Anyhow, I'm interested to see if *all* women are dubbed "Anne", so if you take the quiz come back and tell me your name. (I know, hardly any of you have the time to take such a goofy quiz, but I think this is hilarious.)

And if you have *lots* of time to waste (and need a good laugh), go here and get any website (or blog) translated into Pirate-Speak! Arrrrh! It cracked me up!