Regarding the Duggars

I don't know how many of you follow the Duggars in the news, but a while back I posted that Michelle Duggar, the matriarch of the family, was expecting her twentieth child to be born in April. Sadly the baby passed away recently. This was not Michelle's first miscarriage, she had one after Josh was born. In fact it was that miscarriage that made her and Jim Bob decide to leave how many children they had up to God, as she was on oral contraceptives at the time.

The babies name was chosen to be Jubilee Shalom at the funeral, and it breaks my heart to see how many people are complaining about them online. No one deserves to go through the pain of miscarriage, even if they have 19 children. The Duggars are not on well fare and therefore what they do with their lives is absolutely none of our business. Although it does make for a good TV show.

I am a huge Duggar fan. Hence the Dress Like a Duggar for a Year challenge. And no I am not an Evangelical Christian. I am in fact a Reformed Jew. I think that using oral contraceptives is just fine, but what I do agree with in the Duggars is that they have good principles and their children are being raised to be productive members of society.

Many of the older children have gone on mission trips all over the world to provide for people in need and are also first responders. Which in a town as small as they live in is very important. They are genuinely well behaved, it isn't just for the cameras. They have strong family values and are very tight knit. I don't always agree with their choices but I do believe that they are a wonderful family. And I know they will be strong and support each other in this sad time.

Girls Just Wanna Run

When I used to go to a brick and mortar school sometimes I would see a gaggle of lower schoolers running around the perimeter of the school. I'd be leaving and suddenly they would whoosh by. My mom became intrigued seeing them when she picked me up one day and found out that they were part of this thing called Girls On the Run.

The next year rolls around and my mom tries to sign my baby sister up for Girls on the Run, only to find out that the school team is full, but she could go in for the coach training and set up a second team at the school. So naturally my mom jumped on it and did the training so that my baby sister could have some way to spin out her energy. Because she has a lot of it!

So my mom starts coaching Girls on the Run and telling me about it, and I start to realize what an amazing program it is. For anyone out there that doesn't know, Girls on the Run is a program from 3rd to 5th and 6th to 8th graders although currently in my city we only have the 3rd to 5th grade program. It incorporates running and healthy living with discussions about important things like drug awareness, Internet safely, and positive body image. There are about 22 lessons, one of them being a community service project, and in the end everyone runs a 5k together. That's what the girls are training for, and all of the teams in one city get together and do it as a group. And afterwards there is a party and everyone feels very happy and accomplished.

One night a while back I went with my mom to a coaches meeting to look into Junior Coaching. The website officially says that a JC has to be 16 and shush don't tell but I am about six-ten months shy of that. But I am mature for my age and the head of Girls on the Run in my city said it was fine. So I started JCing at a school a few blocks from my house. Not my old school where my mom coaches and my baby sister runs, but a different one.

And it was one of the most amazing experiences ever. I got to really make a positive difference in young girls lives, and I made friends with the other coaches. All of the girls on my team where always happy to see us and they really looked forward to our biweekly sessions. Even though I started mid season the team welcomed me in with open arms. And having something like that to do twice a week really helped me have a sense of purpose.

This weekend was our end of season 5k. My family and I had to get up super early. Ok around 7 but that is super early for me. All of the girls were tired and grumbly when we warmed up but after a while they started to get excited for the run ahead. Most of the girls had their parents or older siblings as their running buddies, but I ran with one of the girls on my team that didn't have anyone to run with. It was a challenge but we finished the 5k together and all of the girls got water bottles and goodie bags. There was a finish line set up with a group of people cheering as we crossed. My dad was standing by it when I ran through and yelled out "Go Duggar!" in reference to the fact that I was running in a long skirt.

I can't wait to coach next season, which starts in February so hopefully things will start defrosting by then. So far I have volunteered about 3.75 days. So I have a long way still to go!

My Goodness

I've always had unruly hair. Its my dads, and I always said he was lucky that his was always so short. When I was little my friend cut off all my hair after my fourth birthday party. It was boy short, in fact I looked like a splitting image of my cousin Andy (not the same person as my bestie) who is one year younger then me. It was so much easier to handle, and as it grew out I had the most adorable ringlets. But for some reason I have always, baring that, had long tangled hair. It gets in my way, gets in the worst snarls and tangles and is generally just a pain. But there are people out there that have lost their hair because of chemo. From what I've read chemo is a long process of poisoning your body to kill the fast growing cancer cells. It can save your life. But the downside is horrible nausea, loss of appetite, and loss of hair. Many people going through chemo chose to get wigs for various reasons. Problem is human hair is pretty hard to come by. The only way to get it is through donation.

I've thought about donating my hair hundreds of times. Hell I almost went through with it once. But for some reason I never could. I'd give the clothes off my back to someone that needed them but there was something about cutting off my hair that I just couldn't do. I've always had long hair it's part of who I am. Every time one of my friends cut their hair and donated it, I felt this pang of shame that I never could. But that all changed since I started this blog. I've realized how lucky I am to have such long hair, and that its time to give back to people who aren't lucky enough to have long hair like I do.

So here is the before

You can't really see all of it, but you get the idea

It's such a pain to take care of

And here is the after

Its really different, and it feels like my head is a few pounds lighter. If you don't believe me check out how much hair was cut off

John (the man that cuts my father and my hair) says that it is perfect hair for a wig because it hasn't been colored at all. Later on I filled out the forms for Locks of Love and I figured I'd put my blog address in the comments section. Its a total long shot but if anyone from Locks of Love is reading this: hi! Welcome to my blog. I hope you like it. 

So after I filled out the form there wasn't time to stamp it, and I didn't get home till late. Like 11 o'clock late. But I weighed it, and stamped it, and put it out on our mail.

I figured it would get sent out the next day. Wrong I was because there is no post on Sunday's. One of the many ways Harry Potter has enriched my life. Thank you J.K. Rowling for everything! 

And He Said We Would Cry

Last year in history, we studied the second half of world history. From the Enlightenment to Gandhi. And so of course after we studied Gandhi we had to watch the Academy Award winning movie about his life. Appropriately titled Gandhi. And I loved it. The historical accuracy and amazing film combination is something so rare. Most films struggle to maintain that kind of a balance, but Gandhi hit the sweet spot. It was touching and wonderfully shot. My history teacher last year swore that I would cry out of everyone in the class, and although the movie was touching and sad I didn't cry. Nor did anyone else in my class. But that might have been because he warned us about it. So if your going to watch Gandhi I'd bring a box of tissues just in case.

Every Baby Should Have a Home Made Blanket

I know a lot of people say that babies are a blessing no matter what. And I agree with that. But sometimes little blessings are sent to people who aren't quite ready to receive them. That wasn't the case for me. My mom and dad tried for years to have kids before I was born, and when I was my Grandma made me a home made blanket. I will always have that, to remember my baby days by.

But some babies don't have loving grandma's to crochet them blankets that they will have for the rest of their lives. And that is something I'd like to change. I think that every baby should have a homemade blanket. So that's what I am doing.

I'm going to crochet and donate 1,000 baby blankets to babies that don't have them. No, I'm not a 50 year old woman, although when I took my crocheting onto the bus to conclave a few weeks ago about 10 people asked me if I was. In reality, crocheting is really relaxing. As soon as I finish a blanket, I'll post pictures of it. And I'd really recommend you try crocheting, I'm really loving it.

Accidents on the Crazy Road Called Life

I think that everyone loves Jane Lynch. Well everyone that's watched anything she is in that is. But really its hard not to know who Jane Lynch is these days. It seems like she is in almost everything these days. I first saw Jane Lynch with out having any idea who she was in Talladega Knights: The Balled of Ricky Bobby. My mom absolutely loves that movie and I always thought the mom in it (played by Jane Lynch) was a great character. I also loved her character in Julie and Julia, which incidentally I am watching right now. But the first time I saw Jane was in Glee. I was a gleek from the start, and although I don't really watch it now, sometimes I will just watch Jane's scenes. She does such a wonderful job with Sue, making the character hilariously hateful but just when I can't stand her, the tides turn and a plot line tugs at my heart strings.

In Happy Accidents Jane Lynch does just that. There are moments of it where you think that she can be such a bitchy drama queen. Yea that's right I said it. There are moments in Happy Accidents where I just thought that if I had to work with Jane on something it would drive me crazy. But for about 90% of the memoir, I was the biggest Jane Lynch fan girl. Her exploration of what it was that she was feeling as a lesbian when being a lesbian wasn't something in the main stream vocabulary is very commendable, and the story of her falling in love at first sight made me grin. Not only does Jane Lynch have great comedic timing but she also is an incredibly funny writer. If you loved Bossy pants by Tina Fey (and really who didn't) then you'll love Happy Accidents.

It's Your Fault if You Get Stepped On!

Well this is my Thanksgiving post. Yea yea yea its way late, but ah well. Anyway every year my family goes up to New York to visit with family for Thanksgiving, and this year two of my cousins were in the parade. So naturally most of the family schlepped their booties out to the parade rout at 6:30 in the morning to witness it. Now I know, why would anyone ever go to a parade where they don't through things? Well folks I have absolutely no idea, especially because you have to be there UBER early and it is freezing out. Its one of the great mysteries of New York.

So, trying to dress warmly and yet in a skirt presented a sort of challenge. Its not hard to dress warmly in pants, I've been doing it to go skiing for years. But to not look totally foolish, well that's somewhat of a harder task in a skirt. In the end, as you can see in the picture below, I just decided to look totally crazy. I also wore a bright pink hat, pink pashmina, and purple coat. My mom said I looked very bohemian. And I have to say, I agree.

Its like a bohemian and a Duggar dressed as one

When we got to the parade route, it was so crazy. Police men directing people every which way, screaming, confusion, pushing, and caffeine. It was like Mardi Gras day but more organized. Finally the group of 5 I was in got through all the lines and sat down on the grand stand. Well the madness didn't stop there. Soon we were being yelled at to scoot over. My aunt would have none of it, she had kids in the parade and did not want to take the chance of being stuck behind a tree and missing them. And the people on the bench in front of us did not want to move either for some reason. The Macy's employee was very annoyed at us, and at one point I heard the man in front of me say "Occupy Grand Stand"

Eventually the man directing things gave up, and said "Alright its your fault if you get stepped on." After all of that was finished, he was actually quite nice and we shared a few laughs. And yes we did see my cousins and uncle marching. And the Subway ride home...well that's a different story.

Belated Happy Thanksgiving Y'all!