Radio Waves

I love listening to the radio while I'm driving in the car. My usual fare is talk radio. But sometimes I like listening to music. And when the kids are in the car, they find the talk radio shows quite boring so I end up switching to the music, our favorite genre being rock/alternative or for one person in particular, the quite grating, Radio Dis*ney.



I'm very selective about what is playing while the kids are around. For sure, no swear words (those usually get bleeped out anyway, but sometimes they sneak in), and no songs about sleeping around, drug use, or dark/suicidal thoughts. I think that eliminates most songs that are out nowadays, right?



What I have found is that while listening to the radio, I now need to be aware of what kind of talk goes on in between songs. For a long time, I haven't listened to morning talk on the music stations because they have a lot of silly talk. Talking about parties they went to, how drunk they got, the latest on Britney Spears, etc. etc. Talk that doesn't make me think, other than thinking, how shallow these peoples' lives are (IMHO). Now I hear DJ's frequently tossing around off-color words. Words like (you can guess what I'm alluding to) donkey, female dog, and of course the favorite, taking the Lord's name in vain.



I think our society has gotten so used to this kind of talk that we don't think twice about it. I don't remember radio being that way, but maybe I'm just now noticing it. I thought the FCC regulated that kind of stuff.



I know that my kids will hear all this kind of talk eventually, but I'm trying to shelter their ears as much as I can so it doesn't become part of their everyday language, it doesn't become, "But, everyone talks like that!" I am reminded of the children's song, Oh, Be Careful Little Ears. I think that's what it's called.

Oh, be careful little ears, what you hear

Oh, be careful little ears, what you hear

For the Father up above,

is looking down in love,

So be careful little ears

what you hear.

One good thing about driving my big monster SUV rental (yes, I'm still driving it, no incidents, yea!) is that it has Sirius satellite radio. So I've been able to listen to EWTN radio, much to my children's chagrin. I love being able to listen to Catholic talk while I drive! We don't have Catholic radio here so this has been a blessing!



Here are some things that I've done to make our listening more safe:



Bring CD's from our own collection. We download songs that we really like and burn them onto the CD so that we can hear current songs (lyrics have been checked out) without having to listen to any DJ talk.



Listen to Christian music stations.



Listen to classical music, although the kids don't care for this one too much. I put a classical station on when there is too much bickering going on. That causes them to settle down.



Then of course, the most obvious choice when I've had it with noise, TURN THE RADIO OFF! PERIOD! That one can be nice, too. It clears your head.

No foul language should come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for needed edification, that it may impart grace to those who hear.

Ephesians 4:29

You Are Not Going To Believe What Happened!!!

I don't believe it either. I went to pick up my rental car today. The car was waiting for me and after signing the paperwork, I went out to the back of the little rental car place to take a look at it and verify with the nice gentleman worker that there were no nicks or dings, whatever. Everything was A-OK, so after initialing in the proper places, I took the keys and prepared to take off.

Well, to get out the back lot, I had to maneuver this big minivan through a narrow, narrow driveway. Did I mention it was narrow? Yep, you can guess what happened. I had to turn into this driveway at a funny angle because the huge car was positioned in a way that was difficult to pull out. There were other big cars in the lot (very tiny lot by the way). And of course it being a totally new car, I wasn't comfortable in it. So, being stupid, instead of getting one of the nice employees to pull it out for me, I tried to do it myself. I backed in, backed out, backed in, backed out, just like in parallel parking. I couldn't get it, and just as I was going to back out for the last time, I got too close to the corner of the building and busted the side mirror on the passenger side. It's probably hard to visualize, but the lot was so tiny for having such big cars in there! I couldn't believe it. I wanted to cry! That's the third time I damaged a car in less than two weeks! Read here for my other incidents.


To make a long story shorter, I'll probably have to pay some out of pocket expense. They told me that the damage wasn't major and probably wouldn't be worth the trouble of filing a claim with my insurance company. We shall see. I really don't want to have to tell my insurance company that I'm such a klutz and they end up raising my rates! So now I'm driving a monster SUV that I sort of need a step stool to get in.

I'm really nervous about driving now. What will happen next??? Thankfully, the kids are on Easter break so I don't have to be taking them to school everyday! But I'm sure I will have some errands to run (like shopping for Easter outfits). Well, I guess it's like when you fall off a horse, they say you should get back on so you don't give fear a chance to take over.

I know most of you don't know what I look like , but if you see someone nervously driving a silver Chrys*ler Aspen, turn the other way!

Preparations

I still have lots to do before Easter.

Today I am getting a rental car so that I can be driving something while my car is in the shop. Tomorrow I take my car into the body shop so they can fix my ugly gash. I will try to take a picture of said gash so you can compare when the car comes back all nice and spiffy. That reminds me, I need to charge up the batteries so I can take the picture :)

I need to check through closets to make sure we all have something nice to wear on Easter Sunday. I have a feeling I'll be doing some shopping on Saturday. Little Emily is getting to be bigger Emily. She is growing like a weed. She is only three years old, soon to be four, but she is more comfortable wearing size 6 clothes!.

Hopefully we will (or a combination of us) be able to attend Mass on Holy Thursday and the Good Friday service. I hope so because they are so meaningful to me.

Oh yeah, I forgot that I bought a dye kit, so we will be dying some Easter eggs, too! I need to get out our old plastic eggs and fill those up so we can have a hunt on Sunday morning. I already have Easter baskets and grass so I just need to add some candy to them.

On Easter Sunday, we will be going to my mother's house for a family get together. It will be a little nontraditional as we will be having a barbecue! I think the weather's supposed to be in the mid to upper 70's so it should be perfect. I'm not sure what I'm going to bring yet. I need to look through my cookbook.

Through this busyness, I must not forget to ponder and pray about this most holy of seasons. Remembering the great love that our Savior has for us and the price he paid for our redemption.

Meditations

SUBJECTS FOR DAILY MEDITATION

Remember, O Christian soul, that thou hast this day, and every day of thy life:

God to glorify

Jesus to imitate

The Angels and Saints to invoke

A soul to save

A body to mortify

Sins to expiate

Virtues to acquire

Hell to avoid

Heaven to gain

Eternity to prepare for

Time to profit by

Neighbors to edify

The world to despise

Devils to combat

Passions to subdue

Death perhaps to suffer

Judgment to undergo

Source: Latin-English Booklet Missal for Praying the Traditional Mass

Car Troubles

Gosh, this just hasn't been my week for driving the car. It started out on Monday when I dropped Ryan off with Steve at work so that they could go together to baseball practice. I misjudged the huge concrete curb while turning to get out of that section of the parking lot. It's not a normal curb but it comes up about a foot from the ground. So, I'm turning and I hear a very loud grinding noise. I figure I must have scraped the tire and rim so I pull over to survey the damage and I don't see a thing. The tire looks fine and the hubcap has no nicks. I'm puzzled because the noise was so loud! So I figure that it must have scraped the area kind of around the tire. It seems a little bent but nothing major. I feel lucky I came out of that without major damage or a flat tire - so I think to myself. Well, I then stop at Staples to get some needed stuff. As I'm opening the sliding door (I have a minivan) to get Emily out, I notice that right under the doors, almost going underneath the car, is a huge scrape! It's about a foot long, all white with paint scraped off, paint about to peel off, just a yucky looking mess! Tomorrow I need to call the insurance company to find out what to do about that. I know I'll need to take it to get fixed, rent a car, and all that fun expensive stuff. I could kick myself for not being more attentive and misjudging that curb. I go through that parking lot all the time and I know it's tricky, but I've always managed.

Now for my next incident. Yesterday, I'm taking Kathryn to soccer practice. We arrive at the school where the practice is held. As I'm making the turn to pull into the parking lot, I have to make kind of a sharp turn. So, as I'm making this turn the car goes bump, bump. I've misjudged again, but the bumps are so clunky that I know I didn't just glaze the curb but probably actually jumped the curb! At this point I can't believe my stupidity and am beginning to feel that I'm a sorry driver! We arrive in the parking stall so I go around to take a look at the tire to see if there are any cuts, tears, etc. I look at the tire and can hear the air coming out and the tire slowly becoming flat!!! ARGH!!!! Steve can't help because he's with Ryan at his baseball game. I call my insurance company and they send a tower to come and change my tire. After soccer practice, we head to buy two new tires. Thankfully, they are able to put the new tires on right then so I won't have to do it today.

Hopefully, I won't have any more of these things happening for a long while! Now I wait to see what the insurance company says!

Weekend

Ryan and Kathryn both had games this weekend. Kathryn's team won 5-1. Yea! She's one of the older players on her team and enjoys her "leadership." For once she's not the littlest one wet behind the ears. At Ryan's level of play, they don't keep score so his team doesn't have wins or losses. He just has fun out there - as long as he's not playing at the pitcher's position. He doesn't like that at all.

We made a trip to the library this weekend. Lots of picture books for Emily and lots of readers for Ryan. One book that we've enjoyed so far is Bark, George by Jules Feiffer. The story is cute and the illustrations are hilarious. I'll have to check out some more by this author. I guess he's a famous cartoonist, but I'd never heard of him.

Worked some more with Kathryn on schoolwork. I mostly am trying to focus her and keep her from getting distracted. I plan on reading more with her to try to develop better comprehension.

Today, I went out to lunch with my good friends. We celebrate each other's birthdays by going out to lunch then a movie. This time, we skipped the movie and just window shopped. We don't need to have big celebrations. We just like to get together and have girlfriend time. All of us are so busy raising kids and whatnot that we don't get to see each other too often, but we talk on the phone more.

Tomorrow morning will interesting to see how easy or difficult it will be for the kids to wake up with this Daylight Savings Time. I tried to get them to bed earlier, but no one was really sleepy. I'm sure they'll feel sleepy when it's time to get up. I hope I can get up :)! I do like the sunlight being out a little longer. I can feel spring in the air. It was probably about 80 degrees today!

It was a nice weekend!

Favorite Parable Meme

Tracy at Tracy's Simple Life has tagged me for this meme:

1. You name your five favorite parables.
2. You tag one blogger per parable.
3. It would be nice if you linked back to this post.


Here are my favorite parables:

1. The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32)
2. The Lost Sheep (Luke 15:1-10)
3. The Ten Virgins (Matt 25:1-13)
4. The Faithful and Unfaithful Servants (Matt24:45-51)
5. The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31)


Consider yourself tagged if you'd like to play!

Quick Note

Just popping in for a quick note. I've been extra busy lately and computer time is quite limited.
Kathryn has been working on her California Mission report for school and the computer is being used for lots of research and typing. Her grades have also been slipping so I'm trying to get her back into focus for studying well - I'm having to teach her study skills, some organization, planning ahead, etc, etc. It's been a little tiring so at the end of the day, I just want to flop into bed and relax.

I hope to pop back in soon with more to say!