8 is...a lot

One of the biggest news stories lately, as well it should be, has been the one about the lady who just had the octuplets. What an amazing thing, what a miracle to be able to give birth to one baby let alone 8. That is what the media should be focusing on, the miracle of life.

But the media, being the fine morality police that they are, is instead focusing on the mothers marital status, income, and debt. I saw one headline that I found the most disturbing, "Her kids...your money". So what if she has debt. Show me an American who doesn't. So what if she needs financial aid. She is just one of millions of Americans who accepts help in one form or another. Does this mean that someone with 2 kids should have there personal lives exploited if the accept any kind of government assistance? How about 3? 6? Or do we draw the line at 14?

Does the amount of money you have in you pocket allow you to purchase a "Good Parent" upgrade or something?

Now I may not agree with her decision to go to a fertility specialist to have her very first child because I believe that God instituted the family unit for a reason. Kids need the support and input from both a father and a mother, but every single one of us has used poor judgement in one decision or another. One bad judgement call in a persons life should not open up their entire personal life for the world to scrutinize and judge. I applaud her decision to allow every single life that had been created in her embryos, to have the chance to live. I believe that a new human life is created at the moment of conception, weather that conception happens inside the body or outside and a lot of people would say that those lives can be thrown in the trash or butchered in the name of research when a person has reached that "perfect number" of children. But not Nadya.

It really makes me sad when I see so many people on the Internet who would choose to bash people like Nadya and even other people who are self sufficient and have large families. These are the same people who scream at the world, "DON'T JUDGE ME!" This world would be so much better if people would worry about their own decisions and helping others instead of tearing them down.

Worth it's Weight...

There is something soothing and calming in the slow shake and dip of the pan, the exhilaration of seeing a little color in the bottom, and EUREKA!! you have found 6 small flakes that you quickly suck up with your sniffer before they are lost. Repeating this process hundreds if not thousands of times may fill your small 1/4 oz glass bottle which could possibly be sold at todays prices for about $200 -$300. 

So why do I do it? Maybe it's the hard physical labor of shoveling river rocks all day. Maybe it's the challenge of the hunt. Maybe it's the incredible feeling of accomplishment when you find that one little tiny piece that is just big enough to make that beautiful clinking sound when dropped into a glass bottle. It could be the peaceful serenity that you find as you wade downstream alone looking for that perfect spot to start digging or the fact that the all elusive nugget could very well shown up in the next pan. I think it's a combination of all of these. Nothing beats getting away for a day to spend some time alone in some of God's most incredible creation. 

Am I smarter than a 3 year old?

I thought that this being the first post on my blog, it would be appropriate that it be about one of my kids...

Tonight my 3 year old son brought his nearly empty mug of soup over to me at the computer and asked me to drink it. I thought he was offering it to me because he thought I liked tomato soup so I happily obliged and gulped the last bit down. He smiled at me as he took the mug back and said, "Now I get a cookie!" Just to verify that I had been duped by a three year old I asked my wife what she had told him regarding his soup and she replied, "I told him that he gets a cookie if he finishes his soup." How could we deny him...