I am baffled by the idea that "God wants America to be great" and that the incoming administration will lead us there. It's my understand that God doesn't care about America, because God doesn't recognize America. We are all one people; God doesn't care about arbitrary lines that have been drawn on a map. He wants everyone to be great. I get so frustrated with people trying to twist religion to fit their own desires and ideals. Grrr.

Monkey has a wrestling tournament this weekend out of town, so my Friday and Saturday will be spent in a loud, smelly high school gym. But several members of my church family are going to DC together for the Women's March, and Sue is actually carrying a bunch of names with her (written on the back of her poster for those of us who couldn't go). And there is a smaller march here in Roanoke that day that I know cousin!Amy is going to and hopefully she will have some company. (If you can't make it to DC, which I know is difficult for most people, here is a great piece by Upworthy about how you can support the March from home.)

Anyway. Let me tell you what happened yesterday morning, so you can laugh at me. Davey was being grumpy (because he stayed up too late streaming and didn't want to get up for school) and wasn't talking to me because I yelled at him about putting milk and cereal in one of my good glasses (instead of a plastic cup, which is what he should have done if he was planning on taking it with him). So Ronnie and I are in the car already, Davey comes out, puts his bookbag and wrestling bag and blanket in the car, shuts the door. I think we're good, because he was being pouty and because he usually sleeps or at least lays down on the way to school. We get to the stoplight near school and I reach back to wake him up - no Davey. So Ronnie pulls the blanket up, and there is no other kid in the car. He says he told us he was going to get his water bottle and that he left the door open, but either way, I had left him at home. Bad parenting moment, lol. :P

Here, have some links:

This is what is the crock pot right now for tonight's dinner: Slow Cooker Chicken Fajitas

A rabbit playing JENGA (via Nerdist)

Ronnie is doing a Polar Plunge next month to benefit Virginia Special Olympics. (Polar Plunge is basically he's jumping into the river in the middle of February, but around here, middle of February could mean two feet of snow or it could be 70* outside.) He's collecting donations if anyone wants to contribute!

This week's questions from thefridayfive - these questions were written by lillibet.

1) What would/did you name your first child? My first child was named Kelly Marie, after my stepsister Kelly, who passed away when we were 17 and with the middle name Marie because it is a family middle name in both my family and her father's.
2) What do you think makes a good name for a baby? Um. It has to sound good together, like flow when you say it (because you're going to be saying it a lot, and using that middle name for when you mean Serious Business).
3) What do you think makes a bad name for a baby? Eh. Personally, I don't like super unique spellings of common names, names that are super difficult to spell, or people who arbitrarily name their kids one thing but never intend to call them by that name and use a middle name instead.
4) What's a name that you love, but would never give a child? Why? Not sure.
5) Did your parents do a good job naming you? Sure.

ETA: When Harley was pregnant with Illy, and she first told us she was going to use the name Illiana, I wasn't sure about it, but after 7 years, I love it. With such a big family, we sometimes have to go out of the box to come up with names (which doesn't always work, lol, because we have about a dozen variations of Jo, Joe, or Joey in our immediate family, and then we have a Harley, a Hallie, a Haley, and a Hollie, as well as an Illy and a Lily, and a Jayden, two Jordyns, a Jordan, and a Jaylyn. It's definitely easy to write the wrong name or call the wrong person sometimes!)

So, Librarians on TNT. It's not one of my can't-miss shows, but is kinda funny and kinda dumb and kinda light hearted, so I like it. It generally needs more Stone and Ezekiel, and I'm not just saying that because I started watching mainly for Christian Kane. I loved the Librarians movies anyway, but Flynn (Noah Wyle's character) in the show is... More or less something? More obnoxious? Less likeable? More insane in an unfun, unkooky way? Idk. I've seen a few people compare the Librarians to the Leverage team, which I generally don't agree with (no one will ever be as awesome as Eliot, Hardison, and Parker), but I can relate to the idea that the three who aren't necessarily front runners are more fun to follow. Anywho. Apparently Librarians already lost some of its audience because Noah Wyle spoke out against Trump? (The logic is baffling that all these assholes that elected a celebrity are insistent that actors/musicians/artists have no right to speak about politics.) The other night, ( spoilersCollapse )

I'm hoping that getting my thoughts on out LJ will help get some of them OUT of my mind, so maybe it'll be quieter in there and I can sleep better, haha. I'm trying to fight my instincts to play catch up before I journal about current events, so we'll see how this goes. I feel like I've cut myself off from people, and I'm working on making steps to reconnect the best way I know how.

Two asking-for-money things:

1. Davey is raising money for chorale (goes toward their spring trip) - you can browse and order online through this link. One of the items is a $25 gift card to Gamewear.com for $26.50, found here.

2. We (me, the boys, our youth group) are walking in the CROP Hunger Walk on Sunday October 9. 25% of the money we raise goes to our local RAM House (which provides hot lunches every day for people, and also offers things like help getting IDs, interview and uniform clothes, transportation to/from job interviews and the first couple weeks of work, etc.) and the rest goes to Church World Services which helps fight hunger (and provide clean drinking water) worldwide. Any support is greatly appreciated. FCOB Aliens Team Page

Thanks, guys! <3

Saturday's QotD: The answer is buckets. What was the question? Obviously the question was "What unit of measurement do you use for fangirl tears?"

Bonus question: If you could design the inside of an elevator, what would it be like? I don't do elevators.

So the Sinful Desire Archive is being migrated over to AO3. I only had three stories posted there but I ended up having to post five on AO3 because they went together. So, y'know, if you have an interest in Sam/Dean fic from ten years ago, have at it.

Today's QotD took a turn for the serious: Think about a time when you told a lie - how did you feel? How did the person you lied to feel? (the rest of the questions are all fun and innocent. what's up with this one?) I'm too old to try and remember a specific lie and the motivations behind it.

Yesterday's question was Happy First Day of Fall! What's your favorite thing about this season? Hoodies. Bonfires, leaves crunching under my feet when I take walks, hot apple cider. The lessening of humidity and death to all the mosquitoes.

This week's thefridayfive:

The name of...
1. Your favorite book? Um. For a long time, I would say it was Survivor by Tabitha King, because something about it really resonated with me and the place I was at in my life when I read it. But I have a fondness for The Hobbit and have worn out multiple copies over the years. I remember our third grade teacher reading it to us - every day after lunch we'd get to sit quietly and hear part of the adventure - and it's always been a story and a world close to my heart, so I'm going to go with that.
2. Your favorite movie? Stand By Me - been my favorite since I was a teenager and my best friend and I could recite every single line. Other favorites, as in I have to watch them every time they're on - Twister, Jurassic Park, Independence Day, the original Willy Wonka movie.
3. Your least favorite adaptation of a book to a movie? For the most part, I try to judge books and movies separately? Even if the movie is based on a book, it's not going to be the same story or experience or whatever. I can think of a lot of cases where I prefer the book to the movie adaptation, but I can't name a least favorite. I can name a least favorite adaptation of a book to a television series, though, because The Dresden Files series that SyFy tried to do definitely did not live up to the world created in the books, although I did like their Bob.
4. Your least favorite adaptation ever of anything to a movie? I'm assuming this means like movies that were based on comic books and/or video games or something? Because I would have no idea. Maybe the Super Mario Brothers movie from the early 90s?
5. Your first ever novel/comic book/movie character crush? Um. Do you know how old I am? Because this question is asking me to think way too far back. Lol.

I've been getting a weekly email with a list of daily questions to ask your kids, and I've been asking them in my two group chats (one is the youth group and one is my general teenagers), so I figured I'd put them here too.

Today's Question of the Day: If you could only eat one thing for an entire week, what would you choose? Obviously the answer is potatoes. I mean, there are so many different ways to prepare them, and they're my favorite, so that's an easy question.

The other questions this week:

If you had to give today a color, what color would it be and why? BLACK! Because black is the color that reminds me of death and also the color of the poor dead bunny I found in the sun room at Chris's this afternoon!

What do you think it smells like in outer space? My answer was NOTHING because I don't think smell would carry in space, and most of the teenagers said the same thing, but Jayden cheated and googled it and got this: When astronauts return from space walks and remove their helmets, they are welcomed back with a peculiar smell. An odor that is distinct and weird: something, astronauts have described it, like "seared steak." And also: "hot metal." And also: "welding fumes." But reading that, they're describing the smell of the spaceship after the return to it, so idek.

I'm feeling a lot better mentally this week than last week, which is super great. The new meds (which were for the eczema and resultant infections) are working for their intended purpose but messing with my other meds and with me in general. But I'd rather suck it up and do the full course of them (I go back next week for bloodwork and whatnot, but the full course is 12 weeks of them, and it's been - like three?) and then deal with sorting out the other meds, since they weren't working anyway.

So. How about some things that make me happy, then I'll go play catch up on my friends list.

- there is hockey on my tv
- I can walk 5k in about 50 minutes
- I hatched a sandshrew this afternoon and upgraded a mankey to a primeape
- I have great friends/family/church family
- we had a birthday dinner here last night for Harley and it was super fun
- Kid President
- Star Trek 50th Anniversary!

Live long and prosper! <3

This week has been shit. I think it might be side effects or interactions from the new meds? The first week or so was fine, but since then has been horrid. Being crazy is dumb.

I was going to do today's thefridayfive, but none of the questions relate to me. Hair and fashion is definitely not up my alley.

I do hope to be back to reading and posting soon though!

I am going to be so damned grumpy at church in the morning, I can already feel it. My poor youth group. I did too much today, which is pretty dumb since I didn't actually DO much. A lot of sitting around, a lot of talking and laughing, a lot of food. But it was mostly all outside, there was the people aspect, and I had three sodas and not nearly enough water today. (But it was all worth it! It was a great day!)

Question for you guys. Do you think it's better to have a wide group of friends or a smaller circle of close friends? My sister-in-law thinks it's a bad thing that my nephew has a lot of "friends" but he's not close with any of them - like he has never had any friend come over to hang out or gone to hang out with a friend (other than his girlfriend-of-the-month). Personally, I think a big part of that is related to the conflict between him and his stepmom so he doesn't WANT anyone coming over, but even then I know he doesn't have any specific friends. He's friendly - it's a small town, most of the kids have known each other forever and are friendly. But none of our kids have groups of friends. Haley has her bff Desaray and her boyfriend Josh (but Desaray goes to a different school). Ronnie has Sebastian (who lives five hours away). The two of them also have Caleb, Matthew, and Megan, who they hang with sometimes. Davey has his bff Jordan, and they have Anthony and Courtlandt and BJ. And of course Ronnie, Davey, Joe, and Haley are close, they always have been, and their cousins Jayden and Alyssa are part of that too. And I think they're fine like that but since Kristina brought it up, I figured I would too. (Sidenote: I met my best friend Shannon when we were in the 7th Grade. We had other friends in our circle, but we spent weekends (and sometimes weeks) at each other's houses through middle and high school, and her family is STILL my family - they're my kids aunts and uncles and cousins and Gammy. The only other person I still talk to regularly from school is our friend Jay, who married Shannon's sister Pam. So.)

Uh. There was something else I was gonna put here but I don't remember it. Oh well. Hope all of you are having a good weekend! <3