i had a great talk with a good friend (we've been friends since grade 6!) the other day. She called to wish me a happy birthday... (& can i believe we're 30??!!).
As our conversations usually do (even tho conversations are rare, they're always edifying) ~ the talk turned to our passions. Today she sent me a link to a unicef website ~ actually, here's a cut and paste from her email:

"Today I watched a documentary on child pornography and was motivated to look up Canada's laws. In the process I came across the Unicef site with a downloadable version of the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). I thought it might make a good resource for your site."

So, unicef is totally about the rights of exploited & underpriviledged children, right? So, why does even the name give me the heebie jeebies? i did a little looking ~ i knew what i was looking for ~ the planned parenthood link, but it's even more than that. i found a website (here, i'll quote)

"LifeSiteNews.com - Widely circulated daily news reports on important developments in Canada, the United States and around the world, with a special focus on United Nations matters. Its purpose is to provide balance and more accurate coverage on culture, life and family matters than is usually given by other media. Available by free daily email subscription and on LifeSite."

Anyway, there's a link on my website... i signed up for their daily newsletter. i hope it's good. Ted Gerk's newsletter Pro-Life E-News [tgerk@shaw.ca] is *also* really good. It makes it so much easier to be informed & thus easier to be vocal & have an impact.

K, now here's me... feeling bad that it seems like all i'm doing is saying: don't support the 46 health care charities that support stem cell research... don't support unicef, don't immunize... etc... & this is NOT what i'm trying to be about... it just seems that the enemy wants us to call what's evil good, & what's good evil. There are so many good organizations out there who are not tainted ~ i would just encourage people (including me) to dig a little deeper & try to find ways of helping the poor & opressed without supporting agencies that are entangled in a culture of death. i find that i'm constantly having to rethink my priorities & i'm constantly feeling challenged to ~ as my mom would say ~ "think things through to their logical conclusion"... *sigh*

Jesus, help me to see clearer. Help me to keep my compassion without sacrificing truth. amen.
paige

Thursday, July 13th 2006 ~ My last day in my 20's ~
Breakfast: Toast, avocado, coffee
Lunch: Mr. Noodles (Cai cooked) toast (Sloan cooked) OJ (Peyton cooked!)
Supper: pb&j sandwich (hey, Neil's out of town)

i read: The Tale of Despereaux (half last night, half today)
3 chapters of Anne of the Island to the big girls (Cai read 1)
Lots of email
Some psalms & the story of the persistent widow (Luke 18)
(This week i read "underground to Canada" & "Voyage of Hope ~ the saga of the brideships"

What's on my mind: Becky M., heaven, babies, children, missing Cai and Sloan when they go to fiddle camp this week... having too much company, are we gonna move again? Can i pull this off? Be a real homeschooling mom?

Played and sang today: "my cry" ~ by me
"blessed be your name, in the land that is plentiful"...
"stuck in a moment" U2

~ missed Neil... who will be home sometime after midnight ~

i wore: a sundress ~ plaid ~ from Old Navy
hair: in barrettes

I HOPE MY 30's BRING..... (by their close...)
#one... glory to God... He is my hope & salvation... i hope my 30's bring a closer walk...

*more homeschooling
* happiness & love in my marriage...
*clarity
*less selfishness
*one daughter into womanhood! (Cai will be 20!)
*two daughters finished highschool! (Sloan will be 18)
*my tiny Mollen into double digits! (She'll be 12)
*Peyton will be sixteen!
*Charter will probably be bigger than me (at 14).
*Oh, God, i'm scared to hope, but i yearn for my 30's to bring me another child.
*i want to be a better mom.

IN MY 20's I LEARNED.....
*How to die to self
*How to be a mom
*How to be a wife
*How to cook, clean, organize, do laundry & run a household.
*How to grieve... how it really feels ~ to grieve...
*How to give birth, & breastfeed... & breastfeed... & breastfeed
*How to "run" a homeschool!
*How to pack up & move a whole household... again, and again, and again...
*How important God's Grace is...
*How unimportant most fights are.
*How much i *love* being a wife & momma~
*How to dress like a grown-up... (sort of)
*i *love* Neil.
*How to put together a website.
*That i don't know much... but i want to... & i'm willing to do something about it.
*Your children can surpass your wildest hopes and expectations...

IN MY 30's I WANT TO LEARN....
*How to impact this world & take back ground our parents lost... for the sake of my children who will battle this darkness after i'm gone.
*How to FIGHT against what i know to be wrong ~
*and how to EMBRACE love... above all to love, Love like Jesus, "do unto others"...
*How to homeschool successfully through highschool.
*i want to know more about the environment & good nutrition & exercise... to pass on good habits to my littles.
*How to teach my girls all i learned in my 20's (!) (maybe not all, but LOTS)
*Miracles happen, hearts soften...
*Neil loves me...
*How to let my babies go...
*How will we do this dating thing??
*More about prayer and fasting...
*How to find a schedule that i can actually do.
*How to get up earlier in the morning.