You make me giggle. I wish "Bishop" was the worst Mormon-related thing my husband's aunts ever called him!

You guys are awesome!

Thanks! (Furiously making notes...)

Please share your favorite pancake and pancake-related (syrups, toppings..) recipes, stories, poetry, whatever. My extended family has a rotating gift-exchange for Christmas, and this year it's my turn to buy a gift for my sister's family. They're just moving into a new house, and one of the things she has requested is a 2-burner pancake griddle for her new gas stove. I was thinking of getting her that, and then putting together a home-made book with recipes for different kinds of pancakes and pancake toppings, as well as maybe some pancake-related poetry and short stories if I can find some. (Like this one. It's waffles, but close enough.) Please help me put together a good collection! Thanks in advance. :)

Thanks for the giggle. The stuff our neighbor's pet is leaving in our yard is, unfortunately, NOT rainbows. And the neighbor in between our house and the offending party left US a lovely bag of the neighbor dog's contributions on OUR porch. Dh went over and asked if it was them, and they said it was, and he pointed out that our dog is ALWAYS on a leash or a tie-out when she's out, and can't GET to their yard. Dh has also sent the neighbor with the loose dog a nice letter explaining the leash and pick-up laws in our town. We saw a difference for a couple of days in that they sent their kids out to watch the dog poop on our yard so it wasn't unsupervised--still not on a leash, but hey the kids are watching it, that counts, right? We don't want to report them, but we are getting tired of the mess. I kind of like the idea of living in a denial fantasy populated by rainbow-pooping unicorns instead...

We really enjoyed Real Science Odyssey at about that age.

I liked that one a lot too. I especially liked this quote: "During the 1940s and 1950s, an American prison warden, Clinton Duffy, was well known for his efforts to rehabilitate the men in his prison. Said one critic, “You should know that leopards don’t change their spots!†Replied Warden Duffy, “You should know I don’t work with leopards. I work with men, and men change every day.â€1" I know the talk had nothing to do with autism, but this quote made me think of the times people have told me I shouldn't be too worried about teaching my son X, because autistic kids have such a hard time learning to do X. But he DOES learn, I've seen him learn to do all sorts of things he "can't" learn to do. Often it's just a matter of finding the baby steps. And the babies of the baby steps. And practicing them one at a time before trying to put them all together at the same time. And having a relationship of trust makes a HUGE difference too. There are times I have to sacrifice my own preferences in the short term for the sake of the relationship. But the trusting relationship is worth its weight in gold for the long term progress. When the relationship is solid he will do things for me that he would never EVER even attempt on the "bad" days. Sometimes it takes longer than I think it "should". Much longer than a regular child. Sometimes YEARS longer. But little by little it comes. There are still things I'm a little skeptical about him being able to do, but I have definitely learned that autistic kids are not leopards, so you should never say never. Anyway...again, not that it had anything much to do with autism. Except that I sometimes get a glimpse of the unimpeded spirit that's inside him, and someday when the mortal imperfections are smoothed away he is going to be an INCREDIBLE guy. And I wish more people could see past what he is now to what he WILL be someday.

:grouphug: Anxiety is hard, hard stuff.

Speaking of scaring people...how about an Eviltron?

So...out of curiosity, did anyone else watch the priesthood session of conference? There were some good talks in there.

Something I do not believe: Men have more power in the LDS church than women, but that's okay because God said so. Some things I do believe: Men in the LDS church receive power directly from God, conditioned upon faithfulness. God has established a structured system within which God requires men to operate in order to access and use the power God gives them. This structured system assists in bringing order to the church body, clarity to the doctrine, and efficiency in administration. Women in the LDS church receive power directly from God, conditioned upon faithfulness. God allows women access to His power on terms that are very flexible and adaptable. This unstructured approach allows women to move freely, broadly, and responsively to accomplish God's work in ways that are not possible under a more rigidly regulated system. God's power, delegated equally to men and to women, is most effective when both kinds of power are working in tandem, bringing both structure and flexibility to the church as a whole, and to church members individually. Replacing the more flexible female way of operating with another rigid, structured "priestesshood" system in order to be more "like" the men would impede the progress of the church as a whole, and result in less freedom for individual women than we currently enjoy. It would be like replacing the flesh on the body with another skeleton. Two entangled skeletons just don't function the same as a skeleton working in tandem with muscles, blood, and internal organs. The power given to men and the power given to women are equal; neither is superior to the other. God's highest blessings are reserved for those who have learned to truly respect and value both their own kind of power, and the kind wielded by the opposite sex, and who are able to work as equal partners to coordinate both kinds of power in a synergistic relationship that produces a new kind of power that is greater than the sum of its parts. The "fullness" of divinity includes both the masculine and the feminine. (Both men and women are created in the image of God.) Women don't need to be exactly "like" men in order to be "equal" with men. I don't need the priesthood in order to be equal to a man any more than I need a beard in order to be equal to a man. The fact that I operate through my womanhood instead of through the priesthood makes me no less equal to a man than the fact that I reproduce with ovaries instead of with testicles.

:banghead:

Yuuuummmmm.....I haven't made flan in a long time. Now I am having a craving. And as it happens I came home from ds's outsourced class today and discovered that dh had forgotten to put the milk away after breakfast, so maybe I'd better cook it up quick!

I didn't see your post, but it sounds like you could use a :grouphug:. Maybe one more. :grouphug: And one for you too! :grouphug: Hooray for no migraine! (And for page-flipping hubbies too. :) )

:iagree:

:grouphug:

:iagree::auto:

Oh you didn't seem at all callous or flippant! I'm sorry if I sounded like I thought you were. I definitely know that there are bad schools out there, and that sometimes unfortunate things happen even at the good ones. There are moments I think it might be easier to be enthusiastic about homeschooling if the schools here WEREN'T good. It would be less tempting to just insist that ds suck it up and go. I am encouraged by the fact that he does seem to be coping fairly well with one class per day in a regular classroom this year; it gives me hope that he will be able to do something with his life besides hide in his parents' basement and play video games.

:lol: That is cute. Thank you for sharing. :)

I agree wholeheartedly with your general observation. :) I would love some. Thank you.

Please calm down. Once again, I did not say you don't know your own religion. Nor did I say that you are not a real Mormon. Please don't put words in my mouth. I only said I do not think you have a very complete grasp of MY POINT OF VIEW, which is clearly different from yours. And I pointed out that ancestry and activity don't necessarily guarantee knowledge. That is as true of me as it is of you. A pioneer heritage doesn't automatically make either one of us more knowledgeable or faithful than any other member of the church.

It was rather eye-opening for me at the time. I have since found it interesting how many times two people can experience the exact same events or actions completely differently solely because they interpret the same words or actions or whatever in different ways.

So I had a nice Skype chat with my mom a little while ago and she shared something that just made me giggle in light of this discussion so I thought I'd share. She and my father are serving a temple mission in Germany right now, and evidently President Monson is over there for a conference and decided to visit the Freiburg temple. She said the temple got a call to give them a heads-up that he'd be there within half an hour, but he arrived after only about 10 minutes. I asked if the temple workers got to meet him, and she said yes, she got to meet him and shake his hand but Dad didn't. I asked why that was, and she said he shook hands with the sisters first and there wasn't time for him to greet all the men. Thinking of this thread I jokingly said, "Well that seems kind of sexist!" And she pointed out that it's rude to greet the husband without acknowledging the wife first, and it was only good manners. There's no point to this really, just that I thought it was funny timing in light of this conversation.

I was referring to your "anti-suffragette" remarks. I did not say that you are not familiar with the general structure of the church. I did say that you do not seem to understand MY point of view regarding the structure, functioning, and doctrine of the church (which I only pointed out because you claim to have previously championed my point of view and I don't think you understand it well enough to have argued it.). This post has only reinforced my opinion in that regard. I, too, come from a "pioneer stock", "orthodox" LDS family and have been active in the church my whole life. However, I have noticed that knowledge is not hereditary, and regular participation does not give one a deep understanding of the principles taught by the church anymore than sitting in a garage makes one a car, as the old saying goes. It comes from a great deal of personal study and prayer, and often from being willing to set aside preconceptions and look at things objectively. I am sorry that you are unhappy. It sounds like you are in a difficult position. I hope you find peace someday.

Maybe you could ask YOUR visiting teachers to watch your kids while you go visit the sisters you're assigned to? (Depending on distances I know that might not be practical.)