Blog Site Web Address

We already have a blog page at   http://www.plaasclan.blogspot.com/

if you  would like to know more about us, please visit the site I don't think I could keep up two different webpages.

We are a large family. When we married, my husband had four boys, I had two girls and a boy, and we adopted five more children giving us a total of twelve.

I recently had a moment of clarity. I love those. Anyway, I was disciplining my son, Andrew. It wasn't the first time that day. Andrew is my challenging child. He is very strong-willed. He feels so strongly that things should go a certain way 

He focuses his mind on something and WILL not change it. In fact, he HATES change. I mean, he LOATHES it. We recently moved to a huge house with lots of space outside to play. It's a nearly perfect place, but he wants to move back into our 1100 sq. ft. house where you could only play in our little backyard. He hates change. If I had to compare him to an animal, I wouldn't hesitate to say, "bulldog". Any bulldog owners out there will know exactly what I mean. They are stubborn and opinionated, but oh so charming. That's Andrew.

We have had to walk such a firm line with him to keep him from being rebellious. Well, we were up in his room. He was throwing a fit. I was sitting with him explaining that he's not to act that way. It hit me with a blow - I may never be able to control him. I may never be able to control him. That's exactly what went through my brain. I may never be able to make him conform to the image I have of a good child. He might always make me look bad. The next question that ran through my brain was, "Can I love him the way he is?" Can I accept him even if he's different than what I want? Maybe he'll walk a path that doesn't make sense to me.Maybe he'll show us a different perspective on life. If I try to make him conform to the identity I want him to have, our family may miss out on his unique gifts. So I set him free ... in my heart.

How can anyone say the rich don't pay their fair share? Some statistics for you: 1% of the wealthiest Americans pay 40% of all taxes. The richest 10% of American citizens pay 80% of ALL taxes. 40% of the population don't pay ANY taxes at all. Think of illegal immigrants, people who live on beer and cigarettes, and people who just stink at their jobs!

Look, my husband and I are small business owners and in the ministry as well. We've used our businesses to hire people in need. We LOVE helping people, but one thing we have learned is that there are many needy people out there who WILL NOT WORK! I don't say that lightly. We have tried and tried and tried with many people. Some people take the hand up, and run with it. They own it, and they move on. Some of them even move on to run their own companies. We are so proud of them and happy for them. Others do nothing but complain from the beginning, and we have learned that unless they can overcome that attitude they will end up quitting, and will remain in the state they're in. The only help they could accept was free hand outs. And we did that too. In the end it didn't really help them. It's a sad situation, but it's a truth that has hit us int he face more than once. We didn't believe it for a long time. We thought, given enough help, anyone could better their lives. It's simply not true. There is a great percentage of people out there who despite any skills they may have, don't want to earn a good living. They are lazy in their mind. And believe me, I don't like saying that. I want to believe everyone has potential. I want to believe that we can save the world. You know what though? Jesus couldn't even help some people. Some people just don't want it. They want the free lunch - the easy way out. If it looks like something will put them out, they opt for the path of least resistance, and even though poverty causes so much pain, if you get used to it, then it becomes a rut that is easier to stay in than fight your way out.

Fair is an illusion. It's an idealogy that only works to the best of our ability. God is not fair. If He was He wouldn't have had His Son pay the price we owed for sin. I don't expect fair. I expect not to have my legs tied up as I try to better my life. The rest is up to me. That's freedom.

There was a Chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Professor noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a communist government.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, 'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?'

The rise of mall clinics has been in the news, and they represent an actual trend in medical care as a commodity. During a recent Presidential debate, the question was put to the candidates whether they support the idea of medical care as a commodity. Neither of the candidates really answered the question, but you got the impression that the person asking the question was being somewhat cynical, and I'm sure they didn't want to give the "wrong" answer. I can understand that, but it seems ultra-diplomacy is really what we should be concerned about. But that's another topic.

The question struck me as funny at the time. I actually don't believe that medical care being a commodity is a new thing. It's always been a profession, an offer of services in exchange for money or barter. There were certainly times in history and cultures for that matter that offered medical services more as a oommunity service than something to be bought and sold. However, America has always understood that doctors should be paid by the recipient of the services except in cases of charity where someone else stepped in to help out.

It's only recently that we've introduced the idea of insurance companies and healthcare as a right. Now, it's certainly in the best interest of a community to help in providing education and healthcare to it's citizens. It makes for a better community and everyone benefits from a growing, educated and healthy society.

I happen to believe the free market with careful regulation and protection for both the consumer and the market work to make these things available in an affordable way. Popup medical clinics such as Satellite Med are an example of that market working to provide affordable healthcare.

They are showing up in shopping malls and corners all over mainstreet America - walk-in clinics where the prices are posted like today's menu. You can literally shop for the best price in services. They use technology almost exclusively when checking in and handling your account. They even offer the option of checking in and giving them your cell phone number, then allowing you to go out and run a few errands, stay within 10 minutes of the shop and they'll call you when it's your turn. Say goodbye to long waits in a crowded, germ-infested waiting room.

Let's face it, most of us are in there for ailments we know how to treat because we've been through it so many times - strep throat, flu, UTI, stomach bugs, all the "kid" afflictions. We just need the doctor to sign off and prescribe the meds or tell us to drink lots of fluids and get some rest. It should be noted that if you're into alternative methods of self-care, you've abandoned this rigormorall already.

For the rest of the world of large families, this dance can get expensive. I believe these walk-ins are offering more than medical care as a commodity - they are selling convenience.

We buy convenience all the time - when we buy individual bags of chips instead of the big bag - when we buy a universal remote control. And I think it's interesting that in the medical field we actually pay LESS the more convenient it is. Hmmm. So what is the mainstream medical field actually selling us that we'd pay MORE for?

Packaging, my friends.

Now you can create your own blog entries at Large Family Resource! Just register, log in and visit your Blog Dashboard located in the User Menu on your right.

Write a new entry, create your own tags, and even upload your own images! I'm excited to offer this service to our Large Family Resource community, and I look forward to hearing from you all. 

I find myself lacking this. My husband has it. He gets up faithfully, early each day and heads to work until the waning of the day. He is in construction, and he's his own boss. Talk about self-motivation. This guy is totally a self-starter. I struggle here.

What do you do when you don't have the will-power to fight your way through the dense jungle forest of your mind with that machete of focus?

I'm sitting here singing to myself, "Life is a highway. I'm gonna ride it, all night long ..." But maybe life is more like a river. I can't help coming back to this analogy time and again. Perhaps it's the vision God knows will inspire me. We once went tubing down a small river in Tennessee. It took all day, and it was a mixture of rushing rapids and slow, almost motionless, meandering. The exciting rapids were very memorable. In fact, you found yourself just waiting all the time for the next one. "Is it coming up? Do you hear it?" How often our own lives are like that. We live for the holidays or special occassions or even ... tragedies. Some of us live drama to drama. I've heard it said that it's those times of trial that define us. However, that may be a mistake. Certainly the rushing moments are the times that our true nature often comes out un-restrained, but the fires that created that nature seem to me to exist in those meandering times. Either we're waiting for the next big thing or we're living in those times - enjoying the scenery and the sunshine.

It is during these slow spans that our habits of character are fashioned or forgotten. How do you spend your time when life is barely moving along? Some prefer to escape with false or vicarious excitement like television, romance novels, other people's lives, internet, etc. We can all think of these excapes. That's not to say those things in and of themselves hold much vice. Rather, it's the temptation to divert attention from the real life that entails encumberment. So many times we don't recognize a real life because of our entrapment in the fantasy.

So, what do we do during the lull? Create drama? Fight? When I'm in the middle of the chaos of life, I tend to function so much better. I've always done better under pressure or time constraints or busyness. But those darn slow parts ... When I get really behind ... ugh.
Fight or flow? That is my question tonight.

Fight my way through? Set a plan of attack. Make a list. Take each hill successively until the job is complete? This is my instinct, but I find myself unable to make that list. I cannot put my life into a mathmatical equation and get anything coherent from it just now. What about flowing? Perhaps it would do me more good (and my family more good as well) to put off the fight. Take each moment and contemplate the scenery, so to speak. Maybe my van does need cleaning out, not forgetting that, but studying it. Why is it a mess? Well we just returned from two funerals, one in MI and one in FL. We've had four ball games this week. {mosgoogle}  Okay, time to adjust. I won't fight it. I will pick up one shoe, one cookie, one wrapper when I see it. Okay, my bedroom is a mess. Why? Well, I don't really honor my bedroom right now. That could indicate some want of honor for myself and my marriage. I'll have to pray about that. But some of it is overrun laundry from those same trips. It's gonna take a little time to recover from those funerals. I give myself the pleasure and privilege of time, right now. I already folded some of the laundry from the trips while attending to a sick baby. I made a step. It's a slow one, but that is the part of the river I'm on.

I appreciate your patience. I am working feverishly to get the site up, upgraded and secure. If you're new, please feel free to sign up and join in. If you were a member, I ask that you RE-REGISTER. It will help to keep the site safe and secure for our little community here.

Be assured that I will bring back as much of the old information as well as post new information as I can. 

My biggest concern is that I do not bring over into this new environment anything that will compromise it from the old site. 

If you need help because you're a raving perfectionist and it keeps you from keeping your home, visit Flylady.net. Learn to kick the perfectionist habit and take baby steps to begin to care for your home the way you've always wanted to. Flylady's info and techniques are totally free, but I'd check out her store for some awesome supplies!