"Defining Marriage Down"

Great article by David Blankenhorn at WeeklyStandard.com. It's a coherent explanation of the correlation between legalized same-sex unions and the further eroding of the institution of marriage.

He includes a couple of pithy quotes about the real agenda behind the gay marriage movement (and, no surprise, it's not compassion for gays):

Inevitably, the pattern discernible in the statistics is borne out in the statements of the activists. Many of those who most vigorously champion same-sex marriage say that they do so precisely in the hope of dethroning once and for all the traditional "conjugal institution."

That phrase comes from Judith Stacey, professor of sociology at New York University and a major expert witness testifying in courts and elsewhere for gay marriage. She views the fight for same-sex marriage as the "vanguard site" for rebuilding family forms. The author of journal articles like "Good Riddance to 'The Family,'" she argues forthrightly that "if we begin to value the meaning and quality of intimate bonds over their customary forms, there are few limits to the kinds of marriage and kinship patterns people might wish to devise."

Let's not pretend that "gay marriage" is about civil rights or compassion for gays. It's an all-out attack on the institution of marriage and on the traditional family.

Homosexuals deserve our compassion, truly, for they have a difficult cross to bear, and more than that, they deserve our love, as our sisters and brothers. Courage is a Catholic organization that speaks directly to these issues.

"The Long Winter"

The kids and I are reading our way through the Laura Ingalls Wilder books.

Last fall, I began reading "Little House in the Big Woods" to my 9- and 7-year olds, and I noticed that soon the older girls were drifting in to the living room to listen while they worked on other things. Wonderful!

So we continued, through "Little House on the Prairie", "On the Banks of Plum Creek", "Farmer Boy", and "By the Shores of Silver Lake".

We've gotten through the delightful early years (I get as sentimental for Laura's early childhood as I do for my own kids'... almost, anyway... so I love reading "Big Woods"), and the difficult years on the prairie with the plague of locusts, fires, and drought. We noted the great contrast between the utter poverty of Laura's family -- the threadbare clothes, lack of shoes, and scarcity of most foods -- and the luxury in all those areas available to Almanzo as a boy living with his well-to-do parents back East.

We choked back tears (well, I did) when we learned of Mary's blindness and the death of Jack the brindle bulldog in the opening of "By the Shores of Silver Lake". It doesn't matter that I've read these books a dozen times before; I still am moved by so many of the passages.

Now we've started "The Long Winter". It's too bad that we didn't get to this book last month, when we had snow and wind and cold. But, no matter; the weather is still chilly enough this week to match the falling temps in the book. And even if it wasn't, Laura's writing is so vivid that we would shiver while reading it on a 90 degree July day.

What's for dinner?

It's a breakfast supper tonight: French toast, sausage, and orange juice. The French toast is simply to use up some day-old french bread, and a whole lot of eggs, since we're due to get four dozen more from the farm this Thursday.

The farm is Solar Harvest; the eggs are out of this world good.

About that Day Care study

I'm sure you've heard about this latest report on the effects of day care. Kids end up with better vocabularies... but more behavior problems.

Day care facilities are the saddest places. Once I stopped in at a day care to drop off some quilts and afghans for a local blanket-drive. Lots of kids with runny noses, a small fight breaking out in one corner, the one or two adults doing their best to maintain order. The general feeling was every-kid-for-himself, with a background of institutional false cheer.

And this was one of the major chain day cares, which probably would be considered a "high quality care" facility.

It doesn't surprise me in the least that kids who spend the majority of their lives in the care of low-paid, low-tenure day care workers have some issues as they grow up.

What's for Dinner?

Last night, Tom grilled steaks and chicken. He's maybe just the best charcoal griller in the entire Western Hemisphere, so trust me when I tell you they were goooo-oood. (Two syllables.)

And happily, there were leftovers. So, tonight for dinner we had my latest food fad: wraps.

Take one small flour tortilla. Spread with mayo. Add bite-size pieces of medium-rare steak (or BBQ'd chicken). Top with shredded lettuce, slices of avocado, tomato, roasted red pepper, a little shredded cheddar cheese. If it's the chicken, you can also add a little more barbeque sauce (we're partial to Sweet Baby Ray's), or for either one some honey mustard.

Roll up and serve with baby carrots, pickles, and chips. Even the kids love these.

Life on the edge

My two youngest spent the day with a homeschooling friend and her four kids, as well as another homeschool mom and her four who were visiting.

Those 10 kids had a blast. The weather was gorgeous -- 80 degrees today and sunny -- so they were outside for hours, playing Red Rover and tag and chase. They armed themselves with sticks and played Cowboys and Indians. They ran through the wooded area, crawled under thick old bushes, and poked sticks into the mud. The boys climbed on the shed roof and flirted with danger while they surveyed the world from above.

They were constantly at risk of putting out someone's eye or breaking a bone, wore no sun block, and came home red-faced, exhausted, and completely happy!

Life on the edge, kid-style. It couldn't get any better.