the sleppys

I can see how there may be some confusion from readers who know me and may not know Dad. I am a descendant of Spaniards, Italians, and pre-Colombian Americans. More than likely, there are Asians and Jews in the mix. Dad is German, Irish, and Heaven only knows what else as his father was adopted by a family in the Midwest. But we cannot teach our children only one culture as there are more than a dozen tribes, nations, clans, and tongues in our family’s melting pot.

What we can do, however, is teach them the American ways of Christianity and English. Beowulf, one of the oldest transcriptions of English, is a legend (a cultural thing) that comes not from England but from Scandinavia, opening vast and rich horizon of Norse mythology. A Bachelor of English Literature once told me, “Beowulf does not stand alone.” He was correct.

If you do not like that I claim Western and Northern Europe as an important part of our family’s culture, then blame my parents. They are the ones who gave my brothers and me the blessings of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, took my brothers and me to Mass and Sunday School, and introduced the Catechism. They are the ones who made my brothers and me take piano lessons, who continued to pay for piano lessons, who let me be persuaded to believe that Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and Brahms were important figures in music, the thing I loved. These men were, gasp!, German-speaking Christian people! I learned from them.

If you speak English, then Beowulf, King Arthur, Thor, Odin, Frigg, Tyr are ALL a part of your tongue. If you like classical music or even pretend not to like it, then the Rossini’s William Tell Overture and Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries are a part of your culture. If you don’t believe me, look it up. I already did my research.

If you want to enjoy wonderful literature by C.S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien for its subtleties in language, then you must acquaint yourself with Celtic places and figures, id est, Cú Chulainn.

And really, if you do want to make a comment about our children, come knocking on our door and say it in person. You’re awfully big behind your typing keyboard. Come show us how big you are in real life. That may mean you’d have to put on shoes. Everybody knows that real Indians don’t wear shoes.

Our Blog is ours. We own it. We pay our money to host it. If you wish to participate we would like you to. We don’t post comments from Unknown (you know who you are). Your IP is logged, and therefore you are not truly “Unknown.” The answer to one of your questions is yes, OUR CULTURE! Now if you really want to have a dialogue then try again. Oh, and tone down your hate. thesleppys.com is our Free Speech Zone, not yours. Remember that.

Mom here.
Will President Obama sign a stimulus to start building separate showers for the homosexuals in the military? I am not a young male soldier, but I highly doubt that a straight, young male soldier will want to shower with an openly homosexual male soldier. I would not be comfortable showering in front of a known lesbian. Tax payers will pay for separate showers for every individual soldier. Maybe we could save money and bloody shower fights by segregating the homosexual soldiers to train with each other. Fewer trips for the Pillow Fairy, too.

How is a a military chaplain to guide the spiritual life of an openly homosexual soldier? If the chaplain adheres to the Holy Bible (or Koran or Torah), he will have to say truthful words, which will hurt a homosexual’s feelings.

Comparing our nation to Sweden or Israel by claiming that they both allow openly homosexual soldiers to serve in their military is invalid. Those countries do not have a volunteer military as the United States does. Because those countries have policies that force young people to join the ranks for at least two years, of course, they will need to make room for openly homosexual troops.

The Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy was a working one. It did allow for homosexuals in the military with no “lying” involved. It was simple: Be not nosy, and Involve no one. Those who were on the side to repeal this policy claimed that the homosexuals had to “live a lie” in order to serve their country. If our nation is one of Christian values, then it is homosexuality itself that is the lie.

I am for the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell:
Keep homosexuals out of the military.

If we are to deconstruct the accomplishments of Christopher Columbus down to where and how he took care of his sword and shovel, then we must do the same for every individual. If we do that, no one is going to be celebrated, for we will always pour over a fault. No one’s accomplishments will be acknowledged. In the end, there will be the deconstruction of Man.

Columbus, indeed, was not the first person nor the first European to see America, but he certainly was the first to open new routes to and from Europe and America. If not Columbus, then others shortly would have: Europe was interested in new routes for either war or trade. Factually, it was Columbus. He taught other voyagers how to navigate to the Americas, what it would cost, the amount of food, ammunition, and men to bring, and what the dangers were so that they could return to Europe safely. He was the first to expose the facts of this hemisphere to western European civilization.

Pre-Columbian American people were nomadic, with no wheel, no written language, and little growth. War between nations was ongoing, brutal, and bloody. They were not interested in peace, trading, nor human rights. Marjory Stoneman Douglas, author of The Everglades: River of Grass, writes about a Catholic priest who was taken prisoner then disgustingly killed by the indigenous people.

Today’s “political correctness” has one goal: To deny the importance of western civilization. The followers of this movement use the term “Euro-centrism” to disgrace the values of the West.

What are the values of the West?

Reason.
Faith.
Philosophy.
Science.
Ambition.
Productivity.

The West values all individuals by each of their accomplishments. One’s race nor ancestors’ lineage is not the definition of an individual. Politically correct, anti-Columbus groups put an emphasis on blood heritage. They infiltrate our schools and universities to teach that multiculturalism is the medicine for racism, moreover encouraging us to define ourselves by our ethnic identities, and further stimulating the division between ethnic groups and races.

One individual, with his western values, made America better. For that, he will be celebrated. He certainly will be celebrated on Columbus Day 2011 in our home.

When I was a single, I had so much money, I never thought twice about giving to beggars, dropping a few dollars in the Ronald McDonald donation box, or paying an extra ten dollars on my grocery bill for the March of Dimes. I did it mainly for selfish reasons because it felt good to give. The feeling would last a total of four seconds, then fade. A week after we became parents, Dad was laid off, so we became poor. Really fast. We weren’t entitled to unemployment nor post-partum benefits due to our being independent contractors, so we played the hand that we were dealt.

We became a family of four… then a family of five… then a family of seven…

On our journey together, we struggled to make ends meet. And we’re still struggling to make ends meet. I won’t blame “the economy” because this economy still has its share of rich people who will hire me. Poor people don’t hire people. Poor people do their own work, mow their own yards, clean their own homes, wash their own laundry. Poor people do not hire another to teach their children what they know.

It seems, however, to be the the “poor” people who drive newer vehicles than the one we drive. “Poor” people wear jewelry and new clothes, have their nails and hair done, and still have the resources required to enroll their children in team sports. We Sleppys are poorer than that. We Sleppys don’t even have a washer and dryer. We Sleppys teach our children our own skills and keep our younger ones at home because music lessons, private school, and day care would add up to more than our household income.

I don’t give as much as I did when I was single, but I don’t feel guilty. I contribute to my community in other ways, perhaps in ways not as obvious as giving money.

We have a butterfly garden. Many butterflies visit our garden. Our neighbors think they are weeds and don’t appreciate the plants themselves but do comment on the abundance of butterflies in our yard. I’ve grown to love our milkweed plants because they are the sole food of the monarch butterfly. There was one spring when our resident monarch laid her eggs aplenty under the leaves of our milkweeds. We had many caterpillars’ eating the leaves clean, leaving only stems. About eight caterpillars (of which we know) made it to pupal and later adult stage. A few months later, another cycle began. This time, we had a family of Northern cardinals that made their nest in our backyard. We saw the butterflies’ laying eggs and caterpillars’ munching on the leaves. We also saw the male cardinal picking off the caterpillars and feeding them to his chicks.

Consider the cardinals: they neither make goods nor offer services; which neither have house nor van; and God feeds them. Both chicks grew old enough to leave the nest of their two parents. They grew strong and learned to fly on the energy of the milkweed.

Last night, on my way to the grocery store, I was stopped at a red light. A man in a wheelchair sat in the crosswalk, looked at me with sad puppy eyes. He pushed himself with his feet over to my van, when I noticed that he had a prosthesis that started at his right elbow and a grabber/claw thing for a hand. I shook my head. He leaned his head to the left and saddened his eyes.

Seriously. He not only was begging for money, but he was begging. I felt that I was being harassed. I thought he could go to the vehicle behind me. I figured that he is quite accustomed to being rejected and has learned that there are drivers and passengers who are waiting to give him cash. Then it occurred to me that he thought I was being cheap. I mean, here I am, sitting in my comfortable van while he has only one hand. I said, “Sorry, man. I have five kids.”

This must have pushed a button. “Oh, really? You want some money?” He started digging in his plastic container.

“No, man, I don’t. Keep your money.”

And he THREW a wadded dollar bill into the van. It landed in the pocket door next to the speaker. He strolled down to the next vehicle, yelling, “Fu*k you!”

So I was stuck with this cursed dollar.

I kept it in my hand, thinking that I’d give it to a beggar, but there wasn’t one in front of the store that evening. As I went back to the van, I still had it in my hand and let it drop to the ground as I climbed in.

Poor people can’t give. And God provides. So why do I feel like some jerk spit in my face?

I was telling a mother of two girls that Ty went to a boy’s birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. At three years old, he clung to Dad’s arm for an hour before he sat by himself in the booth. The other children ran around and played. He was still, quiet, observant, and no more than four inches away from Dad the entire time.

“Wait until he gets to the real world!” exclaimed she.

A young public schooled boy asked me why I home school our children. He mentioned that his school was a good school. He also talked about a family who lives on his No Outlet street with five children who are home schooled. Without waiting for my response, he said, “The mom does that because she’s afraid of the world.”

“Oh, is she?” I wondered where he got such an idea.

“Yea, and her kids are never allowed to come over.”

I didn’t answer the boys original question because he obviously didn’t want to hear it and because I didn’t want to get into topics such as parental influence, abdication of responsibilities, and low quality government workers with a nine year old boy.

On a Teacher Work Day, Dear Husband was at Target when he overheard a mother’s telling her children, “This is why I shop while you are at school, so I don’t have to put up with your misbehavior.”

Yet… our children give a proper greeting, hold open the door, give the right of way to elders. When prompted, they give up their seat for others. They sit quietly at the bank, and stand in single file when I’m shopping. They are children who forget where they are sometimes, so every once in a while, I have to call attention to them while in public.

Do we not ALL live in the real world? A successful bachelor banker doesn’t live the life that a single mother of two who is on the dole lives, but they both live in the real world. What exactly do people mean when they mention “the real world”? If it means gangs, drug pushers, and people of questionable values, the sexual education of young children, loud music, video games, and high fructose corn syrup, then, by the power invested in us by God Himself, we will strike it down with our flaming swords!

But it is all in how we treat people and to what we are accustomed. Ty’s clinging to his father for an hour is a representation of how we chose to live, where we chose to go on our free times… the library, the park, the wilderness, places that harbor mostly quiet (the real world). When Taylor accompanies me to my trips to the fabric store, she stays close to me, on the right side of the walkway, with her voice down, exhibiting behavior that is lacking from other four year olds. She’ll get a little shriek in her voice when she sees a pink, glittery fabric that would be perfect for a tutu. In our “real world,” Kyle greets the grocery store’s security guard and cashiers with a hearty “Good Morning” and stands aside when a stock clerk has to make his way down an aisle while pushing a filled cart.

We, Sleppys, are not afraid of the real world. School cannot be counted on to do what is clearly a parent’s responsibility, which is to teach a child how to treat others. NOT EVEN CHURCH will teach them that. We, Sleppys, already live in the real world, day after day, guiding, teaching, encouraging, witnessing to, sacrificing for, correcting, and molding our young breed.

Just you wait until *your* children get to the “real world.” Wait to see how shunned they’ll be, classified as rude, crass, grotesque, tasteless, loud.

(Aside, Talon loves wearing her brothers and sisters’ boots. They are so big on her, so she stomps around the house, looking like Link in Iron Boots. Totally adorable.)

From The McLaughlin Group, June 11, 2010:

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: This is from the government manual on what the Minerals Management Service does. It assesses the nature, extent, recoverability and value of leasable minerals on the Outer Continental Shelf. The service conducts extensive environmental studies and consultations with state officials prior to issuing leases, easements or rights of way. Once permits or other approvals have been issued, inspectors conduct frequent inspections of offshore operations and environmental studies, personnel, collect data to ensure that marine and coastal environments are kept free of pollution.

Searching for the original document, I found this, though not the source material, an interesting discovery.

Why does the media focus on BP over this oil leak? We the people, through the President, through the Department of Interior (a Cabinet member), through the Minerals Management Service (MMS), bear responsibility for this. We as a people have oversight, yet have decided to look the other way. The Chief Executive is ultimately responsible when one of his departments under-performs at best or causes the citizens harm at worst.

This will be edited over time.

Elton John is claiming that Jesus Christ was gay. I am interested in his reasoning.

My own thoughts on this subject is that Jesus Christ is not gay and looks down upon homosexuality. Of course, God loves all His children, and homosexuals are not an exception. But it is not logical for Christ to be gay while simultaneously being God.

God created Man in His image (that means we look like God does, with eyes and arms and toenails). To multiply and subdue the Earth, He created the forms of male and female, which cannot procreate alone nor can they procreate with like forms (that means that two males do not make babies). This is a fact in humans and most all species, although some fish and invertebrates can switch their gender or spontaneously procreate. I don’t know if it’s possible with non-animal living organisms.

It is illogical that Christ is a homosexual. It would make more sense if He is asexual because God has no reason to procreate. But I do not believe that to be defending it further.

Aside, when speaking of Jesus Christ, because He is the living Word of God, we use the present tense.

He does want us to be loving and forgiving, but He also wants us to make good choices, which do not include perversion.

The babies are eating more and more kinds of food. Now that they are nine months old, they can tolerate new foods better than when they were four months old. When they did turn four months, a lot of moms were telling me that I can start feeding them regular food. Food at four months? That’s crazy to me. With our first child, we followed what the books (Doctor Spock, Babywise, et cetera) were preaching to us. But trying to feed a four month old who can barely sit up and is continuing to make a mess with his sloppy food was frustrating. “Give it time. He’ll get used to it.” More crazy talk. So with our second, I waited until he was six months to feed him. It was easier, but I still did not feel that I was doing the very best for him. One mom told me that she exclusively breastfed her baby until the baby was almost one year old. “Can babies survive on breastmilk for one year?” Well, God made my mammary glands to make the milk that provides nutrition. This nurse-for-a-year concept didn’t seem as ridiculous as giving a baby slop at four months. It was like being taught a strategy and slapping one’s own forehead for not realizing the simplicity! I took our third baby to work with me for ten months, and she nursed exclusively because we were attached to the hip, which is where babies are supposed to be: attached to their mother. I know that it’s nearly impossible for a modern mother to be with her baby 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the first 45 weeks, but we made it happen.

So at nine months, both babies can confidently sit up and tolerate new foods. This morning, I mixed in two table spoons of cow’s milk into their cereal, which is barley and breastmilk. They didn’t seem to notice the change in taste, and two hours later, they are not looking like they’ve reacted with allergy. I think we should try goat’s milk because it is supposed to have a composition similar to breastmilk.

A few nights ago, Dad made a delicious soup with white beans, pork, onions, celery, and carrots. I mixed their cereal not with breastmilk but with the stock. The cereal disappeared from the bowl faster than you can say, “Bob’s yer uncle.” They liked the taste of taste! Not that they think that breastmilk is bland, but it kicked the jarred Garbar junk in the derriere.

I’m aware that some might think that I am being over-protective about the babies’ intestinal flora. If I had the choice of being over-protective or unaware, I’d chose the former. There was a police officer who made the news recently for going out of his way to save a choking two-year-old girl. The girl was feverish, so her mother gave her meat. Meat. With a fever! When my children have fevers, they get breastmilk, even if they are two years old.

I’m happy to see that the amendment to define marriage [between a man and a woman] in our state had passed. In my peacenick, hunky dory, liberal youth, I thought, What’s the harm in letting two people who love each other get married? But that leads to What’s the harm in letting first cousins get married? Brothers and sisters? Sisters and sisters? A man and his horse? A woman and her television? I know! It gets ridiculous!! Besides, marriage is the foundation of the natural family. You can’t call yourself a Christian or Jew or Muslim and believe that two people of the same sex can be married. God made Adam and Eve. And Adam and Eve made babies. Religion aside, like a male tiger and a female tiger make tiger cubs, Two men can’t make babies. Two women can’t make babies.

Historically, marriage is an institution that begins a family. Marriage is older than any of today’s religions. Marriage is as old as the Law of Man. Marriage, in its own constitution, is about Family. Not about Love.
Two men can love each other. That’s a little crazy, I think. But possible. If they want to live together, that’s possible. If they want to be on each others wills, then they can do that through other avenues and laws. If they want to visit each other in the hospital, they can grant each other power of attorney. If they want to rear children, sorry, they can’t have that right. Children are not property. Every baby deserves a mother and a father. That’s what marriage is all about!!

Now that the amendment passed, we will have to decide what defines a man and a woman. A man who goes through surgery to superficially change his gender (because he will never have ovaries or lactating mammary glands) and goes through the courts to change his name is not a woman. Yea, here we go again.