Sorry, what are you quoting? Your class? I'm lost...

I disagree that Islam is a proselytizing religion. If you've proselytized to by a Muslim, I apologize.

I recommend cutting nuts first. I almost passed out when I found the cup of cashews I was eating most days was ~700 calories. I would cut beans before I would cut dairy but that's because I worry about my bones. I've already had some bone loss. Can't you cut some dairy and some beans instead of one or the other?

Your budget sounds fine to me. Four ideas: - If you're not buying organic anyway, Asian markets often have much cheaper produce. - For those who can eat dairy, cottage cheese is fairly inexpensive and high in protein. We sometimes eat 1/2 -3/4 of a cup and are full for 2-3 hours. Add a little fruit or veg and some seasoning for a fuller meal. --Is there a Costco nearby? I noticed it's not on your list. --Have you looked at Amazon Subscribe and Save? It's not fresh food, but you could free up some money by saving $ on the non-food items like toilet paper, soap, shampoo, lotion, animal food, etc.

My book arrived today. It's an excellent selection of poems. They are all fairly short and seem like they would be good for circle time.

I love this magazine but I think I must have subscribed after this article was published. Thanks for the link.

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: I'm so sorry. I think you made the right decision.

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Islam is a very austere religion. A marriage is between the parties and requires 2 witnesses but no officiant. The two parties can be the bridegroom and the bride or in some schools of thought, the bridegroom and the bride's male representative. The each say one sentence and it's done. The only other requirement is a dowry, which can be very small (even a date pit, according to one story!) and belongs to the bride. The marriage is not considered sacred, made in heaven, etc. It's a legal contract into which people can add terms verbally or on paper. Divorce is allowed. Sunni Imams are not nearly as official as leaders in other religions. An Imam is considered a religious leader but an Imam can even be a someone who shows up for prayers and decides to lead the prayer at the masjid (mosque) or give the Friday sermon on a topic. I've noticed a shift in the use of the term "Imam" since Islam started becoming more mainstream. We used to just pick an Imam from whoever was there but it seems we fit in better with American society if we designate some kind of leader and they are considered "The Imam" of a masjid.

I would not go and would be the best MOH I could be at the events I did attend.

All the Muslims I know have separate paperwork. We went to the county, got the paperwork, and signed it with witnesses who also signed after our ceremony. We don't really have officiants in the same way, but if we did I wouldn't want them to legally marry us. That would be very strange to me. I much prefer the separation and like the idea of the flexibility that someone could be married religiously but choose not to be legally married. Those are two separate and completely unrelated decisions, to me.

This has actually worked for me. I can't say for anyone else though.

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If they're from Pakistan you've established a connection which will allow you to shame them about what their families will think.

Oh, and if they're from India, just yell "Pakistan Zindabad!" and they'll never call again. Works like a charm.

DD5 loves to talk on the phone! ;)

Great video demonstrating this, but don't watch it if you're not psychologically ready to see a government-style crash test! Basically the government crashed a 1959 Chevy and a 2009 Chevy into each other to demonstrate 50 years of auto safety improvement. The engineering changes to direct forces away from the passengers, the airbags, the safety glass, etc make the 2009 so much safer even though the 1959 is bigger and heavier and may feel more solid ("safer") for those reasons. In the end, the dummy in the 1959 Chevy would likely have died and the dummy in the 2009 Chevy would have a slight knee injury. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHp1GAFQzto

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Yes, I think anything beyond "Level E"? may involve mental health issues. My "Level H"-ish experience happened when I was walking down the sidewalk and a man came out of his house, aggressively put his palm on my forehead, and make the sign of the cross on me. His family came out and got him and sort of apologized. It's not that they didn't feel bad, just that they were so mortified they wanted to escape and quickly get back in the house. I felt bad for all of them.

I apologize for being flippant, but all I keep thinking is that there's no good way to tell people they might like Weight Watchers.

Thank you for this information. We already had "The Bible and Its Influence" as our plan to move forward. I'll add the GC lectures to my list of things to check out. Thanks! I pretty much did not know any of the information in your second paragraph; I thought I just needed to pick a version like King James or a more modern one. The one we bought at our library sale is KJV. I wanted to stretch DS in terms of reading content in older language.

I understand what you're talking about, although the pancake mix thing went straight over my head. I think it's important to differentiate between people who specifically don't like the Christian message and people who don't like any religion. I think a lot of people who react against things like street preaching are against religion in general, but their public target is someone like a street preacher because other religions don't seem to have street preachers. If Muslims started sending street preachers out to stand on street corners, or door-to-door, I doubt they would fare better and would probably fare much worse. Out of people I know who are really against religion, there are basically two categories: 1) people who feel any religion, not just Christianity, is holding back humanity; and 2) people who have been spiritually abused. Other than that, there are a lot of people who don't like religion or are ambivalent to it, but to really hate it and have a visceral reaction to it is another level and is not just limited to Christianity. Usually there's a history.

This is what I was trying to understand above, in my post which ArcticMama kindly took the time to respond to. I took a walk after dinner and spent time thinking about it but I don't think I'm going to understand this. If the message is one that is hated by the fallen world, and if one is not being persecuted, one is not "doing it right" then why complain about being persecuted? Isn't that the inevitable outcome of bringing a hated message to a fallen world? And if you do complain, and people agree that you have been persecuted (through their own idea, not through conversion), and they stop, what does that mean for the message? Does it mean you're not doing it right again? Does it assume their hearts have softened to the message? I'm confused as to why people who expect to be persecuted are complaining about persecution, and what it all means if, after they complain, the perceived persecution stops. I'm not talking about anyone in the thread, necessarily, but rather people who think like the author of the article I quoted above. I'm not sure who in this thread agree with the author.

Arnica comes in a spray if you don't want to rub it into your skin. It really does help with bruising and soreness. Praying for the other mom and her family as well.