Why We Don’t Do Santa, but We Still LOVE Christmas!

Why We Don’t Do Santa, but We Still LOVE Christmas!

Alright-That’s it.  I have been insulted and accused enough.  So, I’m going to defend my choice as a mom because darn it- this is Christmastime after all!  Let me just say this:

You can do Santa and be a great mom!

You can not do Santa and be a great mom!

You can do Elf on the shelf and be a great mom!

You can do advent calendars and be a great mom!

This is in no way shape, or form an effort to say that my choice as a mom needs to be the same as yours.  It is, however,  a defense of my choice as a mom to say NO to Santa.  I have been called a scrooge, I have been judged and so here are my reasons, once and for all:

1.       But Santa is Christmas!  How can you have Christmas without Santa?!

We desire that our celebration of Christmas be Christ-centered.  We feel very strongly that focusing on Santa directs our children to the idea of receiving.  Rather than moving an elf around every day and having him do something naughty, we have an advent calendar that contains a little treat, an activity, a scripture and a hymn for the day.  Our advent calendar is not a countdown to when we get gifts, but a daily reminder to focus on the Savior, to prepare our hearts for His coming.  Do my children ever behave in a greedy fashion?  Do they ever focus on what they are getting instead of what they can give?  Sure.  But our choices as parents can either reinforce that by focusing on Santa and presents, or redirect them, with stories of Christ and giving.  Do my children still get excited for Christmas? Yes!  They LOVE our advent calendar and ask each morning what we’ll do today.  They LOVE Christmas morning and they are just as excited to open gifts from mom and dad!

2.       Santa and elves are a fun way to teach children to be good!

The very idea of a Naughty and Nice list irks me to my core.  Why?  Because Christmas gifts, in my opinion, are not a reward for good behavior.  The premise of this idea is that children “earn” gifts with their good behavior and naughty children get no gifts or even receive a punishment in return.  I have friends whose children ask throughout December if they are on the naughty list or the nice list.  They spend their days perpetually worried about whether their behavior is good enough rather than just reveling in the unmerited love of God.  Is it any surprise that so many Christians grow up worrying that they can’t be saved?  Perpetually trying to earn their salvation with works of righteousness rather than just spending each day thinking of, loving and worshiping the One who has saved them?  When we do this, the works of righteousness flow naturally out of the new Christ life inside of us. 

Christmas gifts are given out of love, period.  I do not give gifts to people because they have earned it.  If I send you a Christmas gift or card, it is because I have love for you in my heart. Truly. That love may vary from a memory of our friendship in past years to the kind of love I have for my next door neighbor to the intense love I have for my children.  Christmas gifts, in our family, are symbolic of the gift of Christ to us.  They are given freely, out of love.  Now before you get all, “What about consequences for bad behavior or good behavior?” on me- please know that sometimes my children lose privileges for poor behavior.  Sometimes they don’t get to have friends over to our house or participate in a fun activity because they have made poor choices.  But, in my opinion, Christmas is completely different from these types of consequences because Christmas gifts are symbolic of Christ.  Christ did not come to earth because we had been on our best behavior.  Christ did not offer himself up as a sacrifice for us because we had made the nice list.  He came because he LOVES us!  He offered himself out of LOVE!  God sent him here because HE loved the world, NOT because the world had been behaving beautifully.  If ANYTHING,  He came because we were behaving horribly and He loved us STILL.  That is the beautiful message of Christmas!  His coming really is the “dawn of redeeming grace”! And yes, children are literal and concrete thinkers and need concrete examples.  But they can grasp simple symbolism.    My children know from the time they are two that they take communion or sacrament on Sundays and the bread and water symbolize Christ’s broken body and blood for us.  They know that.  Every year they understand it better.  Christmas can be the same for them!  We can take the opportunity to teach and every year, their understanding of the Savior will grow.  (I  hope!)

3.       But they are so little and innocent!  Shouldn’t we teach them to believe in Santa while they are young?  Protect their innocence?

 I LOVE young children!  I teach young children every day.  One of my favorite things  about working with young children is their innocence. One of my other favorite things about young children is their seemingly infinite capacity to trust.  It always amazes me how quickly, easily and fiercely they trust me.  I can lead them anywhere and they will follow because they know I want what is best for them.  Because of that trust, I take my job very seriously (mothering and teaching) I work very hard at teaching them that I mean what I say and I say what I mean.  In my opinion, using their innocence against them by tricking them feels like disrespecting their innocence.  Teaching them in simple terms as they grow seems respectful to me.  When my oldest child Isaac was in the nursery at Church, he was barely 3 on Easter Sunday.  My sister in law happened to be one of his nursery teachers and she asked all the little 3 year olds why we have Easter.  All of them said, “So the Easter Bunny can bring us treats!!”  Isaac said, “Because Jesus got resurrected!”  It was a special moment for me.  I saw that the innocence of a young child can be molded to suit whatever we teach them.   He was not too young to learn.  Did he completely understand the spiritual and physical ramifications of the resurrection? No. But in his own little 3 year old mind, He knew that Easter was about Jesus and that was enough for me.

We feel  a strong desire to be honest with our children.  I don’t know if you know this or not, but SANTA IS NOT REAL.  Telling my children that he is real abuses their trust in me.  My children know that Santa was once a real person.  We have taught them of St. Nicholas and how the legend came to be.  We have Santa decorations and Santa books and we sing Santa songs occasionally.  If you do Santa in your home, we do NOT judge you.  We just have made a different choice.  We ask the same respect.  We are loving, caring responsible parents.  We are not mean, baa-humbug  grinches because we don’t do Santa at our house.  Just as we are sure that you may very well love Christ and choose to do Santa.

4.       But Santa IS real as in the idea that he embodies the spirit of giving! 

Although some people feel that Santa is real because Santa is the spirit of giving, we feel very strongly that CHRIST is the symbol of giving.  In our home, we choose not to have anything to distract us from He who is the ultimate gift giver.  Jesus’s birth, life, death and resurrection are beautiful and real stories of giving and love.  We need no substitutions.

5.       But what about teaching them about MAGIC?  And fun and pretend and love and giving???

We believe that there are real powers in this world.  Powers like GRACE, LOVE, FORGIVENESS and GIVING.  We want there to be NO confusion between REAL and MAGIC.  God’s grace is not magic- it is REAL.  Our FORGIVENESS is not magic- it is REAL.  It was bought and paid for on the Cross and in the Garden.  When I teach my children about the Savior and they look at me with tears in their eyes and goosebumps on their arms, I tell them that they are feeling the Holy Spirit.  And I tell them that the Holy Spirit is real.  I cannot in good conscience use that trust to teach them about Santa and then later tell them that Santa wasn’t real… it was just me all along.

Which brings me to my final point:  I had some friends who told their daughter at age ten the truth about Santa.  She looked at them with tears in her big brown eyes and said, “Is Jesus real, then?!”  I just can’t do that to my children.  What I want more than anything in this life , is for them to know that God is their Father in Heaven and He loves them with a love so passionate it cannot be comprehended.  I will do all that I can to teach them the truth about their Savior.  God ACTUALLY sent His son to the earth to be born in a stable.  Jesus TRULY loved and lived here on the earth: healing the sick and raising the dead.  Christ HONESTLY took my sin and your sin upon Him and suffered and died on our behalf that we might return to live with God.  Jesus Christ LITERALLY rose from the grave that we will rise as well.  His body ACTUALLY ascended to heaven and HE PHYSICALLY, LITERALLY and TRUTHFULLY lives there, at the right hand of God waiting, preparing, urging, guiding and providing our return to them.  THAT is REAL.  The gospel is truth.  It is THE reason for Christmas.  If you do not know this truth, I invite you to learn of Him.  He WILL bring peace to your soul.  

http://www.mormon.org/christmas?cid=HPFR112814529

Family Pictures 2014

Matt's sister, Raegan is the brilliant talent behind Show & Tell Photography.  She took some awesom pictures of us at Union Station this year!  

Arrow of Light

Since it's Thursday, I thought I'd do a Throw Back and post some pics from last year!  Well... I'm ridiculously far behind and this is the only way I'll ever catch up.  So... for TBT-  here are some pics from Isaac receiving his Arrow of Light February 2013.

We were so proud of him for getting so many awards!  He was a stellar cub scout!  A special group called the Order of The Arrow came out to present his award. Ummmm... they were pretty serious.  They were all dressed up and acted out this whole scene where they asked Isaac questions about his achievements.  None of us had seen this happen before, so he was pretty nervous!

For the Arrow of Light ceremony, we presented him with this arrow and decorated it with different items representing Isaac and his interests.  His arrow includes:
a big smiley face because he has THE best laugh.
a soccer ball and a basketball because he is such a stud at both of those sports and loves them the most!
a heart, because he is so loving and affectionate-  Isaac is never embarrased by my hugs!
a skylander, because he loves video games.
a Lego weapon, because he loves legos. and violence.

A couple other items that I can't recall (which is why you are supposed to do this right after it happens instead of 13 months later!)

Isaac, we love you!! We are so proud of you! 

First Day of School 2013- Highmark, Here we come!

Yes, I am actually posting.  No, I don't have time.  I have about five milion things I ought to be doing right now, but I am just going to do this anyway.  I might bawl my eyes out doing it, but I am going to do it anyway.  Back in April, I applied to an awesome new Charter School near by.  It runs from K-9, so all three kids could go to the same school for another 4 years.  I had heard wonderful things about it and I knew a few moms who love it.  They were full, so I immeresed myself in all the other Mommy tasks of the Summer and planned to head back to their neighborhood public school.  

Of course, just as everything was getting really stressful with all the other craziness going on this Summer (you can read about that in another post later.) We found out that they all three were accepted to Highmark.  

On the one hand, I was really excited, but on the other, school was starting in just a few weeks.  That would be a big change for us and very little time to prepare. This is a really long story that I just don't have time to tell.  But the biggest shock of all is that all three of my kids were really excited to change schools. (Even Daphne, Miss "Don't make me leave my friends" Hunter)  She put together this "ballott" and had everyone vote:    

 So, after much prayer, thought, discussions with friends who attend Highmark, and a tour of the school, we made our decision!  Here we come, Highmark!

This morning, they were all so excited!  I made pancakes for the grade they are entering.  So we have a "K" with one leg eaten, a backward 4 and a 6:

As many of you know, I started a tradition of making a "First Day of School Cake " for my kids.  They hold it in the pictures and then we eat some cake when they get home and they tell me all about the first day.  This seems like a good  idea except that I am not gifted at Cake-Deocrating.  Some of you may have seen my struggles with decorating the cake chronicled here: First Day of School 2011 and here Back to School 2012.  Every year, I think , "I need to get my Mom's recipe for Decorator Frosting!" and I never remember in time, because I am always making the cake like at midnight the night before the first day of school.  But this year, I remembered!  And I am kicking myself for not getting it before!  The cake looks so much better and was TONS easier to decorate.  I know I'm still not going to  be invited to Cupcake Wars or anything, but it's presentable.  So, thanks, Mom!  You rock.

 Because Tori is starting Kindergarten, she will have an assessment later this week and have her real first day next Tuesday.  But we decided to pretend today so she could be in all the pics!

 Highmark has a dress code, so we had to do a lot of shopping and planning to make sure they had clothes that are "business casual", as they call it!  I think they look pretty darling!

Honestly, I think I am mmore nervous than they... I have been praying that this will be a  good school for them, that they will have excellent teachers, that they will be confident and kind and share Jesus's love iwht all they meet.  I can't even begin to explain how hard this change is for me, and I am sure it is huge for them!  It was a nerve-wracking first morning, new teachers, new school, new friends, new clothes, but I am so proud of them.  But I am grateful for a husband who holds the Priesthood of God and who was able to give thema  Father's Blessing last night.  I am so grateful to my Father in Heaven for blessing them with comfort and peace.  They both looked pretty nervous, but nowhere near what I thought might happen.  I am proud of their courage and calm and  I can't wait to see them this afternoon!! Happy First Day of School!!

Easter Catch Up 2013

I don't have time to write much and won't have time for a while... but in the meantime here are a few pics of our Easter Celebration!

In their  Easter Duds for Church this morning:

One of our Easter Family Nights, we did Resurrection Eggs!  This is such a fun activity-  it has become an Easter tradition for our family.

Each Egg holds a Bible Verse and a small object to represent part of the Easter story:

Daphne wa a super sweet sister and helped Victoria read her scriptures!

For our treat that night, we made Spring Cupcakes!

Bunnies and Flowers!

Isaac's flower:

This night for Family Night, we acted out the Triumphal Entry... which was interesting.  I figured the older kids knew the story well enough to be in charge, so we sent them into our room to prepare.   About 5 minutes later, we sent them all to their rooms to calm down until they were ready to try it again without attempted assault!  Oh, the joys of siblings!  :)

For our treat this night, we made Fruit Tarts or Fruit Pizzas.  They were Delicious!

 Even Matt, my Meat-and-Potatoes Man, liked this treat!

 On another evening, we watched "Finding Faith in Christ and made these cute little resurrection treats.  I thought they were a little on the cheesy side, but the kids loved making them and it was a good reminder.

Dying Easter Eggs!  The afternoon we colored eggs, I asked them to finish their chores before we started coloring eggs.  As Tori was finishing up her list, she said, "OK, Mom, I'm done!  I'm ready to die!"  She walked into the kitchen and I said, perplexed, "Did you just say you are ready to die?" Victoria's eyes got really big and she said, "I think I did!?!"  

Easter Morning! 

Does anyone else have children who sit like this?

My kids are monkeys, I tell you!

 For breakfast on Easter Morning, we read John 19:39-41 and Luke 24:1-7 while we made resurrection rolls:

 You "anoint" the marshmallows with butter and "rub" them with spices and wrap them up.  After they are baked, the marshmallow disappears!  (Sort of!)

 Kind of a fun way to think about the empty tomb!

 And some beauty shots of my sweeties before Church!
Victoria is holding up the Hello Kitty Watch she found in her Easter Basket!

We have had a lovely Easter celebrating Our Savior's Atonement and Resurrection.  We pray that you, too, feel of His love and mercy this day.  My heart is so full when I think of the price He paid for you and me.  I am overjoyed to see my girls drawing pictures of the empty tomb and spending time with my family teaching and remembering the Reason we have Hope.

"I Know that My Redeemer Lives

What comfort this sweet sentence gives:

He Lives!  He lives who once was Dead!

He lives, my ever living head

He lives to bless me with His love, 

He lives to plead for me above.

He lives, my hungry soul to feed, 

He lives to bless in time of need.

He lives! All glory to His Name!

He lives, May Savior still the same.

Oh, sweet, the joy this sentence gives, 

"I Know that My Redeemer Lives!"

  Happy Easter, Y'all!

Faultless

I am SO excited for Easter season.  I LOVE it.  I love Spring, I love the time to focus on Jesus, and I love to find reasons to be with my family.  

As many of you know, I tend to get a little stressed out during April and November due to Parent Teacher Conferences at my school.  Unfortunately, this hectic and crazy time tends to coincide with Easter.  I have all of these beautiful and spiritual daydreams of having Easter Week activities, one every night as a countdown, the way we do for Christmas.  

(This is a pic from last year that I came across while planning Easter stuff for this year!  One of those parenting moments you never want to forget!)

But as you can tell from last year,

 Easter Week Festivities 2012, it doesn't always work out how I want it to, and we miss a few activities or nights or play catch up because I simply can't do it all.  So, I thought maybe we could just Countdown to Easter with our Monday Family Nights this year.  It's not quite the same, but then we can focus all of March on the Savior and why we really celebrate Easter.  Basically, we are experimenting and we'll see how it goes.  And maybe, just maybe, we can get a few extra activities in for Good Friday and Saturday.  We'll see! 

I was inspired for the topic of our first Easter Family Night by a song on the Hilary Weeks cd I bought recently.

To be perfectly honest, it's not my favorite of her cds.  But, there are a few songs I love, and one that I cannot get out of my head.  It's called Fautless. 

For the start of our FHE, I asked them why we celebrate Easter.  My sweet big kids said, "To remember when Jesus was resurrected!"  (So glad hey didn't say anything about Easter Eggs!)  Then, I reviewed the Easter Story with my kiddos. I have some little visuals to tell the story in a really simple way, and we walked through it, reviewing for the big kids and teaching Victoria.  

I then said, we DO celebrate His resurrection at Easter, but why is His resurrection important?  Why does it matter and what does it mean to us?  Then we talked about the Atonement for a few moments.  I explained that the Atonement IS the gospel.  Everything else we teach is just extra.  The ONE thing I want them to know is that Jesus is the Son of God; He came to earth and paid the price for our sins so that we can return to our Father in Heaven.  And then we went into the other room and closed our eyes while we listened to this song, Faultless.

I know that there are many other songs that teach the message of Christ's atonement, but there is a particular reason I selected this one.  Listen for yourself.  In particular, listen for the words of the second verse.  

I have attached a link here to a Youtube video someone put together to this song.  Although the photography is lovely, I feel lit detracts from the words, so I suggest just closing your eyes or whatever you have to do to let the words sink in!

"If my sins were like drops of water, and I tried to hold them with my hands held tight

Some would slip through, right past my fingers I couldn't catch them all, 

No Matter how hard I tried...

But there are hands that have my name forever written on them

The price was paid and not a single soul will be forgotten, 

As we receive His grace

On that day, on the Day of Grace, through the sinless One

My sins will be washed away 

And I'll stand Worthy, only because He stands by me.

With mercy, and love without end , He will lift me

so I'll never Fall again and He'll present me

Faultless

Faultless before God."

Then we came back into the kitchen and Matt read Isaiah 49:15-16

I made a little card with the words of this verse for each of them, asking them to keep it in their rooms somewhere and to read it before they prayed at night.

Before dinner, I used this recipe and made some homemade clay for them to use.  We got out the clay and  impressed their hands onto the clay, using a toothpick to carve their names inside.  I wanted them to get a concrete example of what it meant to have our names graven on Christ's palms.  Then, we carve the scripture reference underneath and talked a little about what it means to know that Christ will never forget us.  

"Can a ^awoman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not ^bforget thee.

 16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me."

I LOVE this verse... my children were able to easily grasp the imagery of a mother not forgetting her nursing baby-  and then when I explained that when Jesus speaks to us in this verse, He is saying that it is more liekly that a Mommy would forget her baby than that He would forget us.  His hands were pierced for our sake, Our names are graven on His palms.  Using the clay ( I hope!)  helped them to grasp what "graven" means.  

After we finished that activity, I saved a little clay for them to mold.  Here's Daphne's fish:

While they were molding the clay, Matt shared this Easter video with them:

When it was over, Victoria smiled sweetly and said, "That was a good one, Dad!  I liked that one!"

I LOVE Easter!  I am so grateful for the sunshine and the signs of Spring leading up to one special day to remember the hope we have through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  May you and yours have a blessed Easter Season!  

Sequestration Sucks

Do you know what sequestration is?

First off, it hasn't really happened yet.  At least, most of it will not begin until April.   But the March 1st deadline means it will happen.

Sequestration means "to set apart"; it will set aside $85 billion from the Budget and still will not even touch the deficit.  It's almost pointless.  What we need are real, meaningful, SMART spending cuts.

Wait!  Don't run away!  OK... well, if you aren't interested, I understand.  I mean, this is my family blog and if you came here to read about my adorable kids, you might be a little disappointed.  But since you are enduring my post about politics, I'll throw in a few unrelated pictures of  my darling children just to balance things out a bit.  And, well, this is the only place I have to share my opinion without offending every single person on my Facebook friend list in one short sentence.  (I know, I know- when has that ever stopped me before?)  Ha!

BUT... if you are one of the people who keeps hearing about sequestration and doesn't understand what it means or why it matters or if you should care, here is a quick and easy explanation about what it is and why you should be concerned.

Honestly, I have never been more disappointed in our government than I am this week.  That said, I have never felt so bipartisan as I have this week.  The Democrats were totally wrong leading up to this fiasco, but they are now the only ones I hear making any sense.  Did I just read that right?  Did Laura just say something nice about Democrats?  I know, I know.  You better write this one down, who knows when it will happen again.  But let's get started:

1. First of all, it is important to know:  NO ONE WANTS THESE SPENDING CUTS.  No One.  Sequestration was designed as a negative consequence, a punishment, so to speak for the country if Congress and the President failed to figure out a way to cut spending.

In other words, President Obama is like the parent who came up with a punishment.  "Now listen Danny Democrat and Roberta Republican:  If you two kids can't figure out a way to cut spending, You are going to be punished.  The punishment is:    Sequestration."  Now, 50% of sequestration is spending cuts to the Department of Defense and Military spending.  No one wants to make substantial cuts to our National Security, right?, right?  Surely they will come together on a compromise before they cut spending like that, right?  Right?!! That's what we thought.  See http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/02/12/jay_carney_admits_sequester_was_the_presidents_idea.html
But for some reason, everyone in Washington is standing around blaming each other for Sequestration instead of finding a solution to prevent it, or stop it at this point.

2. So... Congress and the President have had almost 2 years to make an agreement and STILL HAVE DONE ALMOST NOTHING about the spending problem.  They created a Super Committee, which failed.  Both sides have been acting like toddlers, and refusing to compromise even an inch.  (I must say that I think a Preschool Teacher might be helpful in the negotiations!) Then, if you will rewind your brain to New Year's, you remember all this discussion about making a deal about the deficit and preventing a government shut down and yada yada yada.  Well, back then, in order to keep from shutting everything down, Republicans said, "Fine.  We'll raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans from 36% to 39 %  " (See these articles: http://www.boston.com/business/personalfinance/managingyourmoney/archives/2013/01/five_tax_increa.html and here: http://blog.heritage.org/2013/02/26/chart-obama-2013-tax-increase-twice-as-large-as-looming-sequestration/)  and then you Danny Democrats are going to have to help us CUT spending before March 1st.

3.  BUT... nothing happened.  All the sudden, as March drew closer, President Obama took entitlement reform OFF the table and asked for MORE tax increases!  MORE!  I'm sorry, but when you have a debt problem, every person who ever learned addition and subtraction knows that the solution is to STOP spending so much, NOT to make more money.  We could never, NEVER, EVER tax our way out of the 16 TRILLION dollar debt our country now holds.  So, since Republicans already compromised and caved on raising taxes for wealthy Americans, they said, "NO WAY! "  You Democrats HAVE to agree to cut spending.  (Actually,  the House put forth TWO different plans to cut spending without moving forward with Sequestration.  One (from Eric Cantor) included cutting FRIVOLOUS Federal spending, like 2.2 billion dollars the government spends to pay for cell phones and cell service for Low Income Families or paying Elderly Americans to play video games.  The other from Rubio, would have allowed the government to use "unspent" money from the 2012 budget to counteract the negative effects of sequestration.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bob-woodward-obamas-sequester-deal-changer/2013/02/22/c0b65b5e-7ce1-11e2-9a75-dab0201670da_story.html
4.  So, March 1st rolls around and here we are, taking the consequences of Congress's failure to act.   You hear the President saying, "This will be terrible!  We have to do something!  Republicans won't compromise"
And he's right about the first two parts.
Then you hear (some) Republicans saying, "This is a fraction of the spending cuts we actually need.  It won't even decrease the deficit.  If we can't get useful, meaningful spending cuts, we'll take crappy ones."
And they are right about the first two parts as well.

But Republicans sitting back and celebrating are making a HUGE mistake.  Here's why:

5.  Your average American doesn't pay attention to all the nuances of these arguments.  They know 2 things:
a. Republicans want to cut spending.
b.  Democrats want to raise taxes and spend more.

So....  when the President says, "This will be terrible!"  He's right.  When the negative consequences come in a few weeks, the American public won't remember that HE was the one who failed to compromise, they will remember him saying, "This is a bad idea!"  (when it was his idea in the first place)
And Americans will remember Republicans saying, "It's not that much money.  We'll have to take whatever spending cuts the President is willing to offer."

And who will be blamed?  Or does it even matter anymore?

6. HOW WILL SEQUESTRATION NEGATIVELY AFFECT THE COUNTRY? 

Sequestration will furlough 800,000 federal employees. (Most from the Department of Defense)  Essentially, that means they won't work one day a week and their families will receive a 20% pay cut.  (And yes, we will be affected by this- so this means I'm  biased.      But it also means that I know a little more about what sending Matt home one day a week will mean for our country, which gives me insider information.)

a.) Our National Security will be HARMED.
 If you send Department of Defense employees home once a week without pay, will they get their work done?

Nope.

We aren't talking about secretaries or janitors or jobs that can be absorbed by the other employees with some extra work.  We are talking about people who perform vital functions for the security of this country.  That's why we call it the Department of Defense, after all.
You know when you watch James Bond or Bourne Identity or whatever?  You see the Generals or the War Fighters or the Special Agents call the Computer Guys because they need vital information NOW.  What happens when those computer guys are gone that day?

These employees have been told that they absolutely positively LEGALLY cannot work on their furlough day. They have been issued written statements warning against working without pay on their furlough days. Now, I can't tell you specifically what Matt does, or why that would be harmful for our country.  Perhaps the fact that I'm not allowed to tell you is testament enough to the fact that his work is important, critical, and necessary.  We aren't just talking about Matt, either... what about all the other important Defense Employees and their responsibilities. What happens if there is a critical problem on the day he and half of the office are furloughed?

b.) The Economy will be negatively affected.  Maybe 800,000 federal employees seems like a small number to you.  But those people won't be pumping ANY money into the economy.  They'll be pinching pennies trying to make it through 6 months on 80 % of their pay.  And that's for the lucky ones who are just getting a pay cut, not an actual pink slip.

7.  BUT YOU'RE A CONSERVATIVE!  Don't you want to cut spending?!  Yes!, Yes, Yes!  But with a scalpel, not a hatchet!  And NOT to essential Defense Programs that keep our country safe.  Unfortunately, It's only Democrats I hear talking about that idea this week.

If you have ever spoken with me about Matt's job, you know I have frustrations with Government waste.
Matt is dedicated.  He's a Mormon-  and Mormons from active Mormon families are practically genetically infused with a  good work ethic.  You work.  Hard.  That's what you do.  Unfortunately, Matt also works with some people don't work hard.

You know how we could cut Defense Spending? 
 a.  Make it possible to fire a Federal Employee.  But the Federal Employee Unions (backed by the Democrats) have made it so it is virtually impossible to fire a federal employee.  You can move them around to another division, but it is almost impossible to get rid of them.

b.  ONLY give raises to Federal Employees who actually earn them through good performance.  As it stands now, EVERY federal employee gets an increase just for showing up to work and breathing.  Didn't do your job?  That's ok!  The union has made it so that you get a raise even if you don't do your work.  Awesome!
 Matt is one of the MANY good guys.  He works hard and he has been promoted for his efforts.  But there are guys there who get paid more than Matt just because they have "worked" there longer.  And I use the term  "worked" lightly.  But the Union doesn't care if you aren't doing your job, or if you are.

c.  Stop contracting with special companies and let people try to save money!  When Matt was sent to Germany for a project, we went with him.  The government would pay for Matt's flight, but not ours, of course.  I shopped around for weeks and got tickets for all three of us (Tori was free!).  Matt arranged to be on the same flight, but he had to do it through the Government's contracted companies.  I wanted to just buy his ticket and let work reimburse us.  That would work, right?  Nope!  The government has to do things their own, nonsensical, red tape way.)  Matt took the exact same flight at us, but the government paid more for his one ticket than for all three of ours put together.  Same type of thing happened with out rental car and our hotels. I wanted to shop around, find the cheapest rental car possible.  Nope, the Federal Government was contracted with a specific company, so we paid more because we had to use them.  They paid for our gas, but we had to use specific gas stations where the gas was more expensive.  NO ONE CARES ABOUT MONEY THAT DOES  NOT COME OUT OF THEIR OWN POCKETS.

(token cute picture of Tori)

But are they doing any of those things to cut spending?
Nope!  They are using a socialist plan.  When Liberals are involved, everything has to be equal, not based on performance.  Everyone gets  trophy or everyone gets a raise or everyone gets a pay cut.
 Everyone except Congress, that is.

In My humble opinion, if Congress wants to set up a consequence for them not doing their jobs, perhaps the consequence should be a pay cut for them?!  For the President?  If these people want to play political chicken with someone's salaries, I think it ought to be their own.  Then, we'd see some work being done.

As  Conservatives, Matt and I would actually be willing to take a pay cut if we were genuinely cutting Federal spending.  If the pay cut was actually going to help the deficit problem.  If we were cutting spending on Handouts like Unemployment, Medicaid, and Food Stamps.  Do people need them?  Yes! But these programs are also riddled with fraud.  We can figure out a way to help those in need without creating learned helplessness or inviting fraud and abuse of taxpayer money.  Should there be a sliding scale or a time limit for these programs?  Yes!  But none of this is happening.

This President is a deceitful genius:  

He's cutting Defense Spending while expanding Medicaid  and is managing to blame the entire thing on the Republicans.  

Republicans need to wise up and act against Sequestration before their entire party goes down the tubes.  The President needs to learn how to compromise.  

FAST.  

So to sum it all up, instead of cutting wasteful spending, actual, vital Defense jobs are being cut.  This is the most asinine type of spending cut and there is NO WAY it would have happened under Romney.  None.  But that ship has sailed and we are stuck on the deserted island with Obi Wan Obama, our only hope.... And we all know he has only brought change with very little hope.  So... our other options:

Contact your local congressman... ask them to act.
Fortunately for us, our Congressman, Rob Bishop, gets it.  His statement reads,
 "Washington needs to cut spending- even more than this- but the sequester is a poor way to do it and dangerously and disproportionately slashes military funding.  Roughly half the spending cuts under sequestration would come from the Department of Defense.  This unfairly harms defense personnel  and programs and it would hurt our national defense.
This ill-advised idea was first proposed by President Obama's chief budget negotiator and was to be so severe that a special bicameral, bipartisan committee would be forced to find an alternative.  That did not work. Congressman Bishop voted against the sequester and against forming this committee because the consequence of failure was too dangerous."

Regardless of which side you are on, Sequestration is a bad idea.
Republicans and Democrats need to stop blaming each other and SOLVE THE PROBLEM.

 I just emailed Rob Bishop.  Who can you contact?

Click on the link below to find your Representative and contact them:

http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

You can find your Senator here:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm


If you made it this far... I love you for listening to my rant.  Sorry to be so political and serious... I'll try to be lighthearted and happy next time.