I enjoy reading other people’s blogs, and came across this one here.  The blogger writes a very interesting post on Sarah Palin and parenting, and to be honest, I had never really thought of it this way.

Here it is (thanks girlgriot for the post):

And then there’s Sarah Palin. As if she’s the first or only woman who’s had to put down her Blackberry and pick up her breast pump. Please. She’s eating up this whole supermom thing, and that offends me. If she was interested in breaking the glass ceiling for any woman but herself, she might call people on that shit, but no, she seems to like it, to think it strengthens her bid.

I just can’t see how any parent could do to a child what Sarah Palin has done to her daughter. Your ambition is more important than your child’s life? And how she’s spinning it as a way to showcase her ‘family values’ is, as my students would say, grimy. To use your child as a political tool is so ugly I can’t quite process it. Maybe the subtitle of this post should be “Beyond the Pale … but not the Palin.”

I have no problem with a mother of five deciding to accept her party’s nomination to be Vice President. None. In Sarah Palin’s shoes, would I have accepted? No. And part of that refusal would surely have been because I had a special-needs infant at home. And part of it would have been because I had an unwed-and-pregnant 17-year-old. Not because I was the mother of either of those children but because I was a parent of those children. I’d figure that the baby would surely need more of both parents’ time and attention (and I’d probably think that about a baby who didn’t have special needs, too). I’d also be selfish about my time with that baby. Wouldn’t being Vice President mean I’d miss far too much of his growing up? First step, first word, first … maybe everything. That seems like a lot to give up, but that might just be me.

Maybe I would have accepted if Trig had been my only special-needs child. I’d have enough money to arrange for excellent care — even excellent care that could and would travel with me wherever I needed to be, excellent care that would be live-in once I moved to DC to take office. Ok, scratch my first answer. I’m on the fence now on the Trig question.

I’m not anywhere near the fence, though, when it comes to Bristol. There’s no way I would have accepted the offer. I would have thought about the fact that my acceptance would be to turn my child over to the rabid frenzy of the media, open her to scrutiny, judgment and commentary that she would be much happier and healthier without. I would do that as a mother or a father. It seems reasonable to assume that Bristol Palin would rather have had the personal story of her pregnancy and motherhood play out in the spotlight of Alaska politics rather than in the international press. I also choose to assume that she might have preferred not to be forced to marry the man-boy she’d been messing with (but that might just be me, too). If her mother had declined McCain’s offer, most of us would never have heard of the Palins, would never have had to see a single photo of Levi Johnston’s I-was-cool-in-high-school face. Bristol might actually have been able to make some choices, and maybe those choices would have been different from the ones that have been made for her in the last couple of weeks.

Hahahaha…. I just noticed that I had a category on here “Work/Things I do for money”  and it made me laugh out loud, because that sounds very peculiar.  I think when I made that category I was thinking about babysitting and things like that (cause I don’t really consider that work).  But I think I need to change that category to just say “Work.”

Anywho… I wanted to write this about possible things I can go for goals (challenges).  So here’s some that I’ve thought of:

• Buy nothing month (October?)
• Buying no plastic (but seriously, how can I get yogurt?!?!?!)
• Buying/eating nothing that has high fructose corn syrup in it
• I REALLY like the one where you produce no garbage, everything has to be either recycled or composted.  But with other peeps in the house, they most likely will not agree to that.  I’ll do that one when I live alone.

Anything else?

So I’ve gotten a pedometer from my dad’s co-worker.  I’ve had it since Friday night, and I haven’t done under 10,000 steps since I got it!  I put it on at 5pm and then wore it to work, and in that little time, I did 6,000 plus whatever I had done before 5pm!  It is my goal to never go under 10,000 steps a day.   I guess the only exception would be if I was sick, and stayed in bed all day (which I did on Thursday).

Also, this Sunday Destare is doing a 20 mile charity bike ride that I’m going to do, and on October 4th, the Fitchburg Fire Department is doing a 5k run that I want to do!  I’m very happy with all of the exercising I’ve been doing!

I think I want to make October “Buy Nothing” Month.
Groceries are ok, gas is ok (cause I have to drive to work, cause I get out at 2-3am, and can’t walk home alone at that time and I also babysit for a family 10+ miles away), and that’s it. Nothing else can be purchased.

How does that sound? Megan? Emiliano? Care to join? Have comments?

While running yesterday, I saw a church sign that said:

“Our Church is Soular Powered by the Son”

and I thought, ‘Whoa, really!?! Awesome!!!”

And then I looked at it again, and went “Oh.”

And I was very disappointed.

So I’ve started to babysit for this wonderful family, and this BEAUTIFUL baby.  I watched her and her four-year-old brother on Saturday, and then Tues, I woke up feeling a bit sick, but drove to their house anyway to watch the baby.  The mom greeted me with ‘That baby is sick, and she was up all night!”  A HA!  I got sick from the adorable baby!!!!

So I’ve had plenty of blogs planned out in my head, but have been too sick to write about them.  One of which is about what happens when I freeze regular non-fat plain yogurt in an ice cream cone.  Is it a nice, tasty treat?  Or just a very sour, really hard frozen yogurt?  I’ve been too sick to find out, but the concoction is still in my freezer, awaiting a taste test!

A couple times it’s happened to me where I needed to dry my hair, but didn’t have the time or didn’t have a dryer available. Luckily, both times I had a long car drive before getting to my final destination. So, what I do, is turn my heat on high, and aim to my head! Both times I’ve driven on the highway, so driving with the windows down has helped too! (plus the wind keeps me from over heating!!) Both times I’ve arrived with nicely dried hair. Saturday, when I took this pic, however, my hair took quite a bit of combing.

And, as an added bonus, the heater runs off the heat of the engine, so it doesn’t use up extra energy like running the AC does!

I’ve been reading blog after blog about being green, and environmentally friendly.  Its gotten me to thinking about the changes that I’m actually willing to make.  A lot of the sites stress not using plastic produce bags, which makes complete sense.  So I think I’ve decided to ask my mom to locate me some old sheets that we no longer use (some are fitted sheets, and the elastic has run out), and I will sew my own cloth produce bags.  That would be awesome.

I want to talk to my sister, Megan, about teaming up and doing Eco-Challenges.  For instance, go to the grocery store, and don’t buy a single thing that contains plastic. (Has anyone ever seen yogurt that doesn’t come in plastic???)  But we can give each other things to try each week.  That would be fun.  Let me know if you want to join!

No, thank you.  I would not like a bag.

I was very pleased that the last two times I was in a store and bought only one item, the person at the counter asked me if I would like a bag, instead of automatically putting it in one.   That’s a very good start to reducing the need of plastic bags.  I hope that everyone starts doing that.

There is a new used and new bookstore in Fitchburg. Amazing. Fitchburg just keeps getting better and better. I went today after I volunteered at the library, and I bought a book! It is this very cool cookbook. It features pasta, chicken and beef dishes and casseroles and such. All dinner items, which is exactly what I was looking for. Plus, every single recipe has a picture with it, which was a necessity in my buying a cookbook. The one I found is completely perfect, and I would say that 80% of the recipes look delicious to me. I am very excited to try them. When I do, I’ll post a picture of the final result and the thoughts on the food.

Finally, here are some pictures of Fitchburg’s new downtown treasure.