Skills To Possess When Trying To Avoid the Inevitable

Oh, happy little blog of mine, you seem so lonely.


There are plenty of other things I could/should be doing right now, but I've let a lot of blogging opportunities pass me by recently. So I am taking this time out of my morning to grab hold of this one.

Aunt Bethy was over the house yesterday with her new baby, and my cousin, Adam. (Yes, my new baby cousin has the same name as my fiance. Fun?) My dad is paying her to clean the house. So while she was cleaning, I was playing with Adam. He had been moved from the walker to a towel on the floor. I sat down and interacted with him. I think he's about five or six months old (or maybe it's three...I dunno), so there was only so much I could do. Although, perhaps the limits of playing were greater than what I thought, but I don't really know a lot about babies, so I kept it simple. Lift baby up and bring him down gently. He seemed to get a kick out of that. Take his hands and pull him to a stand, then let him back to the floor. He seemed to like that, too. I did these things for a while until he started to cry. Aunt Bethy explained that sometimes babies get over-stimulated and start to cry. So she said to just give him a toy and leave him alone for a bit. Sure enough, he settled down after I did as she said.

Later, she changed his diaper. I watched. I've never changed a diaper in my life. Not because I think it's gross; I've just never had to, nor have I had the opportunity to learn. It was nice to talk to Aunt Bethy though. She offered useful information about having kids for the first time, like how nothing prepares you for giving birth, but it's still not as bad as some people make it out to be. I'm sure I'll still be nervous, but it was reassuring to hear her side. She also said how it's unfortunate that these days they don't really teach girls how to raise kids or to handle babies. Rather, these days they teach you only how to be independent as a woman and that you don't need a man, which is true to some degree. But there are so many girls who have no idea how to deal with kids.

I am one of those girls. I grew up in a home of two parents and two sisters. My sisters and I are all close in age. My aunt grew up with two parents and seven siblings! The older siblings got plenty of experience changing diapers and taking care of kids because the younger siblings were a LOT younger. Their dad was working three jobs to support the family, while their mom stayed at home until the older kids were old enough to take care of the little ones. Then she went to work, too. So most of the kids grew up knowing about hard work and raising kids and working together as a family. There was none of that "be independent and take care of yourself" mind set. But they were learning to be independent while working together and serving each other, knowing the importance of hard work and love. Oh, and there were four boys and four girls, all nicely mixed in age. (girl, boy, boy, girl, girl, boy, girl, boy)

Okay, so that was then. That was a crazy big family. This is now. Families don't usually get that big anymore. But I do find it interesting that, although society today promotes female independence without men at all in the picture (unless negatively so), and the idea that it's okay to have as much sex as you want outside of marriage as long as you're having fun, there are now thousands of teenage girls and young women who are getting pregnant and have no idea how to raise a child on their own. I mean, you can promote do-it-yourself women independence all you like, and even neglect to teach young girls and teens about birth and taking care of a baby and all that Home Ec stuff (I guess because it implies that women only have one role to play and that role is being a stay-at-home mom).

But in the end, it really doesn't matter what kind of life you have as a woman. You can be single and independent, fine. You can be in a relationship looking to get married. Or maybe you like being in a relationship without the thought of marriage, still having sex. I mean, jeez! Even I could call it quits on marriage and life a life of pleasure, independence, and fun. What matters though is that women are still women. Men are still men. "Boys have penises and girls have vaginas." Women are the ones who get pregnant. Men are the ones who just fertilize the egg.

No matter what the culture is, no matter what society says is good and bad, God's perfect design cannot be changed. It can be manipulated by evil, but never changed. And so whatever effort the world puts in to telling women not to bother learning the essentials of a typical housewife or mother, the truth is that someday all women will need to know to some degree what makes a baby tick or how to cook a meal. You just never know when the need will arise.

My ideal life as a woman:
To be established as a successful illustrator, having a job that I worked toward with only the help of God.
To be married to a good and honest Christian man who respects women and does not feel superior over them.
To make love with my husband, without having to work to find love from other places. (To think, an endless supply of intimacy, commitment, and pleasure, and all I had to do was play the game God's way! Sweet!)
To have learned how to cook and change a diaper.
To have three children.
To retire at the age of sixty-five or younger.
To live with Jesus for eternity in Heaven.

I am a woman. There are things I wish I had had learned but was never taught, things I really should know. Thanks a lot, World. Thanks for teaching me to be a "real" woman.

Spring 2007 GPA

So school's over again for the time being. We're getting into the summer now. It would seem I've been posting my GPA after each semester. So I guess this semester should be no different. 'Twas not as great a semester as the previous, but still much better than those of freshman year.

Spring 2007 GPA: 3.80
Overall GPA: 3.77

Not terrible. Not excellent. There is much room for improvement. And the funny thing... I got A's in my two least favorite classes, and A-'s in my three favorite classes. What does this tell me? That perhaps my priorities are not where they should be? Or maybe I'm just not putting enough effort into my priorities, especially my major. I'm quite disappointed in myself for not keeping up my level of quality in the drawing field. I've got to start getting more modivated, more gung-ho about my major. Hmmm...

Turkey Jerky

Right now I'm munching on some of the turkey jerkey one of Adam's co-workers made. It's quite good. I still don't know how I feel about it not being cooked, but I'll make an exception for the flavor and chewy goodness.

If anyone out there is wondering what I'm doing writing a blog entry when I should be working on my final projects for exam week, then you should know that I actually can not do anything at the moment. The photo studio is closed, the glass studio is closed, and I don't really have to study for art history until a few hours before the test. It kind of scares me actually that I'm not able to work on anything, especially when I have so much left to do. Although, besides taking this opportunity to type an entry and eat jerky, I could potentially start cleaning and packing for Tuesday. Ah, Tuesday. I can't wait to go home! Soon... soon.

Okay! Shower time!