"Chance"

A news article and its comments led me to do a little statistical research, out of curiosity. This is what I found.

It may shock you to know that all U.S. women have a 43% chance of having an abortion before they turn 45.
(from Adoption Information)

A 43% CHANCE??? Is that like the chance I have of being involved in an automobile accident through no fault of my own? Or the chance I have of developing a chronic disease? Or maybe it's like the chance I have of being the victim of a crime.

Seriously.

Let me spell this out. Chance carries with it the connotation of inevitability. It is something that happens randomly, that cannot be controlled. Check the dictionary. Denotatively, absolutely, chance can mean probability, which carries a more neutral connotation of the relative frequency of a particular event. Unless you're reading a word problem from an eighth grade math book, however, chance is not typically used in that way. It's something accidental, unexpected, unpredictable. Hence, we have games of chance, coincidences that happen by chance, and, as chance would have it.

It may shock you, but I do not have a 43% chance of having an abortion before I turn 45. Because abortion is not something that happens randomly, unpredictably, inevitably. It is something people choose. I can see how those "ch" words could be confusing. But, in spite of the likelihood of pro-abortion advocates preferring to consider themselves as being "pro-chance," friendly neighborhood support staff to those women forced through an abortion by uncaring fate, the term is and should be "pro-choice."

And THAT is my soapbox for the day.

Our Old House

Finally, some pictures from the last 2 weeks of work at our house! Work is progressing steadily, and we're excited to see walls up again.

The artifacts found in our walls the first week, an 1898 book on the American colonies and a 1912 book of nursery rhymes among other miscellaneous things:


Kevin, drilling a path for new electrical wire:


Wires run up to the attic for future remodeling:


Drywall completed in the dining room and living room, ready to be taped and mudded:


Our new closet in the front bedroom:

Pachelbel, Again

If you don't already know, I have very strong feelings regarding appropriate renditions and uses of Pachelbel's Canon in D. Pachelbel does not deserve to have his masterpiece abused as it often is.
I cannot decide, however, what exactly to say about this.

Bit of News

We've been busy on the weekends remodeling--and then recuperating in time for Monday. I have some pictures on the camera. Maybe I'll even post them.

I've started subbing a day or two a week in the county school system. So far, it's been typical. I'm trying to concentrate my efforts in one middle school of extraordinarily convenient location, hoping to become at least a recognized presence. So far, the teachers and administrators have been extremely supportive and helpful, which is always a good sign for a sub attempting to maintain some level of control and respect. When the regular faculty and staff obviously have your back, the students are much more likely to cooperate.

Being back in the school system reminds me both of what I love about teaching--namely, the teaching of material to and the varied interaction with growing people--and also why I was eager to leave. I'm enjoying the little change of pace, but I am twice as thankful for my days at home. We'll keep this up until the end of the school year, perhaps, and add some funds to our remodeling cache. I do look forward to being a full-time SAHW again. The weekly bread-making is already suffering some from my 2-day a week absence.

The Homemaker Tunnel

I am so far from any practical realization of this that it's ridiculous to say I want it, but somewhere, this is the light I wish I could occasionally glimpse at the end of the "becoming a perfect homemaker" tunnel.

Demolition

Last Saturday, our church turned out to tear down walls in our new house. I wasn't there, but Kevin said almost 20 people came! They got all the sheetrock off and started insulating and re-wiring. Apparently, all the wiring in the walls was still the original knob and tube, so we're glad it's going away. (For all you post-1920-people, that's live, bare wire wrapped around ceramic knobs at connection points and put through ceramic tubes in the studs. Not the safest idea, even if it did work well for many years.) The drywall (All but one room turned out NOT to be lathe and plaster.) was patented in 1912. They found an 1898 American history textbook and a 1912 children's storybook in the walls, as well as a pile of old razorblades. There are some pictures of the date on the drywall and the destruction in general below.






This Saturday, they're coming back to finish the rebuilding. Then we'll have walls again, this time with insulation and up-to-code electrical wiring.

Last week, I and another lady sent crock pots with lunch for the men. This morning, a different woman in the church e-mailed and asked if she could help provide lunch for this Saturday. We expected to provide food for everyone ourselves; it's a small thing in comparison to what is being done. But people continue to share, and I will be the first to admit that preparing food for 20 working appetites is a job for any one person.

I am, quite simply, speechlessly overwhelmed at the generosity and kindness of these people. To give up 2 Saturdays with their families to remodel a home for people they as yet barely know is--well, it's what the Church should be, but often isn't. I could not have imagined a better Body of Christ.

There is so much more that should be said, but words don't convey enough. I am thankful for the abundant blessings we've found here.

MORNING

Good Morning. It's not yet 8 o'clock on this chilly Saturday in Maryland. Yet, so far, I've:
baked 18 muffins
eaten 1 of those muffins
scrambled eggs, twice
eaten scrambled eggs, once
cut 9 carrots and a whole package of celery into sticks
cut 12 small oranges into wedges
made 1 gallon of lemonade
gone to the grocery store
packaged said items (minus the scrambled eggs, but plus a whole lot of stuff I don't feel like listing) into the car
seen 4 people off to their day's activities.

And this is in addition to being up until midnight last night baking cookies and shredding barbecued beef for demolition-day lunch.

Nobody told me being a homeowner was like spontaneously becoming the mother of 8.

Overdue Pictures

We're back home after our holiday travels and have busy remodeling plans for the next 2 or 3 weeks. Here are a few random house pictures we took earlier in December that I never managed to post.

The first meal in our new home


Ambience: the glowing, crackling, electric fire


Can of Fire Extinguisher found in the kitchen


Peeking at the wood floors


Kenmore sewing machine that hopefully still works


Kevin, removing trim in preparation for demolition day