It's been over a year...

and you know what? I think I will post more. I have been very involved on FB, which has had its highs and lows. In the end, I'm not sure whether it's been a net positive or net negative. All I know is that far too few people are intellectually honest. Most people are so lame. It's sad.

Here's the short and sweet. I left the Republican Party on 1.1.10 to become unaffiliated. I left the American Church sometime in 2010. I love and fear the Lord my GOD more than ever; I cannot abide, though, the love of money and fear of man that permeates the AC anymore. Sad, sad, sad.

It makes me shutter to think what it's going to take for us to care about what God really cares about.

Open Letter to Joshua and Anna Duggar

Dear Josh and Anna,

Let me first introduce myself. I am a wife to a man, who like your Dad, welcomes each child as the Lord sends them. With 9 children, we have only half of what your parents do. I respect your parents for their rejection of worldly standards which reject children and the fact that they are willing to raise them in the fear and love of the Lord. I do not respect the fact that you all have chosen to prostitute your family for money. To sell out your privacy for the ogling of many thousands of people is something I do not pretend to understand. Sure, the money is nice...but exposing y'all to the world is something I will never get. That said, I don't watch any of the 18 Kids and Counting. I did watch your wedding show, and I must be honest; it was painful.

I have an oldest son, who just groans over your family. He is 16 and a wonderful big brother. Academically, he is incredibly smart and like him, I can't wait for him to take on the world. That said, I cannot ever imagine filming the father-son chat he and his Dad (who are incredibly close) will have before their wedding. That is private; not something for public consumption.

This brings me to the Monday's Today Show. How lame is all that? To take what should be an intimate, private moment between you, Anna and the ultra sound technician and broadcast it for fodder for people is exhibitionist at best and greedy at worst. What was a punch in the gut, though, is your proclamation that you and Anna, who have 24 siblings between you, will have 2, maybe 3 children. Congratulations. Planned Parenthood must've shouted for joy. I can just hear the conversation now, "We couldn't stop those whacky parents, but, Hallelujah, their oldest son has bought our anti-child mentality, hook, line and sinker". Congratulations, you have bought the majority Christian party line which is so hugely responsible for the troubles our country is in. How about public school? Is that next?

I am hopeful that someday you will be horrified by those stupid, godless, worldly remarks you made, announcing that children #4 and below will not make the cut in your family. What does that say about your parents? What does that say about your siblings #4 and below? You should be thanking your God and parents daily for their dedication to raising so many in the fear and love of the Lord...not announcing that you reject it and will embrace the definition of children as property to be prudently acquired. So....Josh, are children blessings up through 2 or 3? You can't have it both ways, Mr. Duggar. Either you acknowledge children as blessings and accept each and every one that God would choose to send your way, or you acknowledge children as property to be acquired in a limited fashion, much like automobiles. Your intellectual dishonesty makes me grieve for your parents. To reject what they've done is to bite the hand that feeds you. Had your parents only had 2 or 3, you and Anna would not be earning the money from prostituting your family as your parents have chosen. The whole thing is ultimately lame and disappointing. I had expected better from you. :-)

~Lisa H.

Okay.....

Once again it's been awhile. Why don't I blog? It just seems like there's so many things going on I don't know where to start. But...I am of good cheer....the economy is tanking again and maybe people will begin to care once again.

I was SO frustrated at church on Sunday. It was a like a light bulb going off in my head. As Pastor R got ready to receive the offering he spoke how during *economic famine it is important to keep sowing*. Really? While I agree with that, that is not the whole and complete picture....we do need to keep sowing...while contemporaneously paying off our debts (if you have any...we do not), and live within your means. Anyway, the light bulb moment occurred when I realized that the only aspect of our spiritual life, in addition to worship, that is EVER focused on is tithing. Nothing else. Why tithing? Could it be because that's what the pastors live on? We have zero pastoral relationship. Perhaps a pastor will say "Hi" to my husband in the restroom. He has never received ANY encouragement regarding the ministry of being a husband and father of 9. All he's received is snide comments. "Are you done yet?" or something else equally lame and shallow. They have NO idea what kind of people we are....but let's make sure we tithe.

But, wait, I had another revelation. I was talking with a dear friend at church wondering aloud for the upteenth time, "Why are people lame? Why don't they understand things?" And all of a sudden the answer was so obvious and apparent and I can't believe I've spent years wondering. The answer is: (drum roll, please), THEY HAVE NO FEAR OF GOD!

Let's look at the following verses:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. Proverbs 1:7.

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2:1-5

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 9:10

The fear of the Lord is inextricably linked with wisdom. And teaching people the fear of the Lord is practically non-existent. Instead we sing, "I am a Friend of God", which in theory is theologically correct,( I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15 ), we still need to NOT forget that the Lord our God is HOLY and we are to fear Him, and it is through that fear that we gain wisdom.

So, really, it is now so obvious to me why people do not have wisdom. They have no fear of God. I assure you, I do. What is now the question that I can't determine is "Why don't people have any fear of God?" I think part of the answer to that is because they mistake God's patience for his approval. One might incorrectly think that God is NOT displeased with pornography, because let's face it, it's financially lucrative. One might say God doesn't mind adultery. I'm thinking of a welfare queen, who was NOT raised that way, who has two children with two different men of different races, (and of course she's married so neither of them), and thanks to President B Hussein Obama, is getting a cell phone with 120 minutes every month (more than my phone has ftr). When her mother asks her, "What do you think God thinks about the way you're living?" daughter replies, "He'll forgive me."

She has a point. God does forgive, but repentance is required. I'll be honest...once again I do not even come remotely close to understanding how the Lord works....and I can almost see how one might interpret the fact that negative consequences to not commence immediately upon sinning (or even shortly thereafter) as God's approval for said sin. But....God is patient.

Hang on folks...things are going to be quiet this summer....but this fall...as the days get shorter and it gets colder and the Chinese don't want any more of our funny money, it's not going to be pretty. There is so much room for economic contraction in this country it isn't funny. I was at the mall 10 days ago and to see the waste...I see 3 teenaged girls drinking iced coffee drinks? Forgive my language, but where the hell do they get that kind of money? In the meantime, the real estate market is collapsing (very interesting sidenote: On zillow.com last week I was checking something and saw a beautiful home with 4800 sq. ft for $765,000 ~5 miles from me. I check on the listing. I see the taxes on it are $11,000/year (insane), and that over the past 6 months its value was $765,000-$1,030,000, but WAIT, it sold on 3.30.09 for $575,000. Zillow then says that although that was the selling price it will not include it in its estimates of other real estate? Really? Then what are housing values being based on if not actually selling prices? People's imaginations, apparently. Well, gee, that's what our monetary system is.....the value of our $ is decided by people's imaginations, because it surely isn't linked to people's labor (which is the true, Biblical definition of wealth....remember, in the OT people brought their crops and animals...not photocopies.) The foundations of our economic system are systematically rottting...and oh, yeah, what does the Bible have to say? "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching. Matthew 7:24-28 )

Speaking of not fearing God. I am a horrified spectator of the Jon and Kate debacle/train wreck. I don't watch the show (banned it last February...stopped watching it myself ~1.5 years before that), but how can you miss his? Kate....as a Mom of 9, I am horrified and saddened by her blind greed. When is enough enough? How much money will it take to fill her heart? Nothing is ever enough for her. Her cold heart chills me. Jon...I gotta say, I almost understand where he's coming from. Not excusing...merely understanding.

H's cast is off. A started driving in driver ed last week. It's hot. My gardens are pretty good, and we're looking forward to lots of tomatoes. School is almost done. Toddler R is beautiful. The oldest 3 and their father (that would be my husband) are running lots of races. Doing a great job. I'll blog more later. Thanks for reading, readers.

You know...

I've been spending a lot of time on Facebook. I enjoy it/get annoyed with it in the same breath. What I enjoy most, is I can vent about those things that I can't talk about IRL with people, but by venting it, people I know IRL can read exactly what I think (like the fact that people who quit having children are lame and selfish or that people who send their children to public school are parasites and statists and humanists and well, lame, and have zero business complaining about Obama's ridiculous policies).

Once again, I have my gardens started. This year we're actually planting vegetables. Tomatoes (18 plants, including some vine type tomato plants), 6 pepper plants, zucchini, yellow squash, vine peaches (supposedly taste like mangos), blueberries (doing fantastically), basil, dill, cilantro, thyme, oregano (verrrrrrrrrrry slow), parsley (planting that tomorrow) and mint (still hasn't sprouted...seed packet says it takes several weeks, well they weren't kidding). We have 6 dwarf peach trees that are going gangbusters and I am trying my luck at 2 dwarf lemon trees and a dwarf orange tree. I am pretty annoyed that by accident I ordered 2 dwarf lemon trees and forgot to order a dwarf lime tree. Oh, well......I am not perfect.

My oldest son completed the classroom part of driver education. I read an interesting article today in Woman's Day Magazine by a Mom of 4 who agrees that 16 is the barest age that a teenager should be driving. My oldest son is over 6 feet. He's very smart and careful...yet I really dread him driving. He hasn't taken the driver portion yet. I need to call the school to find out when that will be. Interestingly, Driver Education is required by North Carolina to get a Learner's permit. We could pay $445 to do it privately, which is probably what we *should* do. BUT, when we get a new assessment on our house for our addition which states that EVERY year our taxes will increase by over $500 (that's right, we built our addition so we could pay $10 a week to the county for other's health care and education), *I* decided to make just about an even trade. Andrew learned a lot, like mostly the fact that he is much smarter than his peers, and for you drivers out here, here's something scary: 9 out of 36 students passed the classroom portion on their first try. And here's something else lame for you. If your student is homeschooled, they can take the class once at taxpayer expense. If they fail, no redos and you must either pay for it privately, or wait until your student is 18. BUT, if you're already a leech and send your child to government school for ALL their educational needs, they can take it as many times as needed, without any waiting period. That is downright scary. If you fail it, why on earth do you not need to wait at least 6 months to mature some. Oy, vey........

Good thing God is always in control! On the personal note side, my baby has been walking vor over 4 months (our earliest walker yet), and my 11 yod broke her radius today near the wrist. Poor girl. She's a trooper, though. :-)

I'll try to be more faithful. It's just been super crazy lately. Toddlers are a full time job, and well, I have 8 others besides her. So, as always, don't be lame. It's just, well......................lame.

Oh, before I publish this, let me just malign Twitter. It is an incredibly horrifying indictment on society that the microblog, limited to 140 characters, is somehow the most revolutionary thing to come down the pike in 2009. How can any substantive discussion ever take place, when what you have to say is so freaking limited. How stupid/sad is that?

Once again...

it's been a while since I've posted. Honestly, we're just very busy here and although I have so much to say, there's a lot of people out there saying it and I just want to make sure my own children don't turn out lame (and I don't think they will....but I have to keep making sure they don't) . In between, there's a home to manage and fun to be had and well....I just haven't taken the time to write much.

Here's a couple updates! First, despite the lousy economy (thanks 43 and 44) and the fact that we've lost around $30,000 in investments thus far, Dan got his biggest bonus ever. We are now REALLY debt free. For a while, when money markets were paying 5%, we had a line of credit that we were paying 2.99% on, and had no incentive to pay it down. Well, now money markets are paying 0.29% (how insane is that), and well....paying 2.99% seemed like highway robbery (which it is). We also had a 0% until February 28, 2010. They are both paid off and we owe nothing to any bank. It really is exciting. On the sad side, our new addition will cost us ~$500 in property taxes every year. ARGHHHH!!!!!

We will take a couple vacations this year with the extra money. 1 trip to WNY. I haven't been there in over 13 years, and I really would like to see it from an adult-Mom-to-2-teenagers perspective. We'll take the children to Niagara Falls, ON to see the Falls. Growing up , going to Canada was no big deal. Now I had to make sure all 11 of us have our birth certificates. Oy, Vey.....Then in August, we're hoping to go to Massachusetts to see some sites and visit with Dan's brother. I hope they both go well. It's only 26 months till Andrew turns 18. Sigh...

Now onto another unrelated, very sad topic. Last week an airplane crashed, killing 2 sisters, their husbands and 5 children. Their brother, sadly, had lost his 10 month old son in a freak crib incident. Very sad. Beautiful families. Now read the following 3 articles and see if you're as speechless as me. God is holy and we have got to have a Holy fear of the Creator and Author of the Universe. Hmmm........ http://www.dailypaul.com/node/87527 http://www.gingiedmonds.com/
and http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=6a1a06a3-4de2-4dc9-adb5-c48cc35f0336

Love your children and keep them at home.

Here's a letter I wrote...

to our newest Juniorette senator from North Carolina. Hang on folks.....

Dear Senator Hagan,

I am a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Allegheny College and hold a M.S. degree from Duke University. I am an intelligent, bright woman who is happily married and privately educating her children in a non-humanist, non-taxpayer funded upon threat of losing your home at gunpoint, non-godless private school. I respectfully request that after you have voted lock step with a party that is really not that different from Republicans, other than y'all profess to support having taxpayers support pre-born infanticide (abortion is the lay term), for this taxpayer funded stimulus, that you offer a defense/ response that I may share with my 9 children 20 years from now that explains why this stimulus, which we all know is NOT a stimulus, was passed and voted on by you.

No form reply is necessary, as it will only insult my intelligence.

Sincerely,
A NC resident who was not thrilled with Elizabeth Dole and is even less pleased with you,
Lisa Hassler

Please read this man's blog and take it seriously. http://www.free4him.org/dougblog/index.php

Here's what I've been up to:

Life isn't always easy, but we need to tell the truth in love.


Dear S,

Thank you for your Christmas card and kind words of encouragement. I appreciate you remembering us and sending us the card. We did not send cards this year as we were sick from December 5th through December 26th with the nasty virus and never got a picture and since I’m in touch with so many on Facebook, I didn’t want to *overexpose* anyone to us. J Please accept our best wishes for the New Year!

I have written this letter in my head about 100 times. I have been on Facebook since August and it has been a very rewarding experience on a lot of different levels. It has allowed me to interact with many like-minded quiver full, homeshooling friends I’ve met through the internet, as well as interact with my own teenagers, a friend from high school as well as get to know various people from KPIC better . The only 2 negative experiences I have had have been with your daughters N and V and I vascillate between sorrow at their rebellion and rudeness and disgust and anger at the willful choices these women have made to walk away from the wonderful inheritance that they have been given growing up with you and W as parents.

My heart in writing this is one reason only and that is reconciliation. Reconciliation first and foremost of N and V to Christ, and when that comes, reconciliation with them as sisters in the Lord. Sigh….

I realize I am treading on dangerous ground, but as I wrote to you before on Facebook via Message (since I never heard a reply from you, I’m not even sure you read it), if my sons or daughters were treating my friends the way your daughters have treated me I would want to know about it. It’s not about me, but rather their overall rebellion.

That was confirmed last night when talking with R J . I told her I had seen from W on Facebook that he had been accepted at UNC. She laughed and asked if her children were *behaving* and she was *counting on me* to let her know if they weren’t.

Seriously, this all goes back almost 3 years. You sent me a high school graduation announcement from N. We rejoiced with her and sent her a gift card to Amazon. You sent me the thank you note on her behalf. I’ll be honest; it struck me as strange. I cannot imagine my Mom ever writing a thank you note on my behalf when I was 17.5 and I will never write a thank you note for any of my children graduating from high school.

I requested to be added as friends to both N and V. They confirmed me and I was rather disappointed with their pages. In August when N was back at school I wrote on her wall something to the effect of “As you begin to sit under professors whose worldview is contrary to Christ, please remember who and whose you are and that you were bought with a price.You are being prayed for.” Within 10 minutes she deleted it. Sigh….

You know how on Facebook on your Home Page they have *News Feed* for your friends. I have better things to do than stalk your daughters (what with 9 children and home schooling 6 of them….;-)), but on my *News Feed* it said N was attending some party. I click on the link and see it’s billed as an erotic party. My mouth dropped and I wrote to her asking why she had chosen to reject the faith in which she was raised. A fair question, I might add, when a 20 yo woman says she is attending an erotic party billed to last all night. She wrote back saying she was a bit offended by the question and how was I to know what was in her heart. I explained I didn’t know what was in her heart, but when someone advertises to the world they are going to an erotic party it would seem to me that their walk with God really was rather non-existent. She wrote back acknowledging that she could see where I got that from and then a whole lot of mumbo jumbo about searching for God and how she is sick of judgmental Christians. If you are interested I will email you the transcript. It was left that we would agree to just disagree.

Fast forward to December (or November). On my home page is a picture of N with her comment, “FUCK YOU” in capital letters. I comment Sigh…. (that’s it). She messages me saying, Leave me Alone Lady ;-). Sharon, if that were my daughter and she sent that to me, I would’ve slapped her face. I gotta tel you, I am shocked by the rudeness and flat out nastiness. She is saying “FUCK YOU”; I write sigh… and she gets bent out of shape. This is crazy. She then deletes me as friend. I subsequently deleted V, who back in October had posted an album of her and her friends entitled “HOT BITCHES” (the capital letters are theirs, not mine). How sad is all of this? I know this is not how you and W raised them. I messaged N saying that I thought she was being immature, she said I was being prideful. I told her “Sigh…” is not prideful and let her know what “prideful” looks like. I think what may have hurt her is that I said that I am holding her up to my children (which I am, A and L) as an example of how I don’t want them to turn out. I am very sad to tell you that, but it is true. I am.

Friday, out of the blue I get a message from V titled, “You have lots of problems”. I read the first line which said, “I don’t even know if I remember you.” I stopped reading because I realized that she had nothing to say that I was interested in reading. I scrolled to the bottom and told her “I didn’t even read this…whatever…don’t ever contact me again.” Quite honestly, I am done with the 2 of them, but out of obligation to our friendship I am writing to you to let you know what is going on . You and I have been friends for over 18 years. You and Wayne attended our wedding almost 16.5 years ago. I have a picture of N and V in our wedding album in matching blue dresses. Now they’re labeling themselves as HOT BITCHES and saying FUCK YOU and getting mad at me when I ask them about it?!!! This is insane and horribly sad. You and I have given birth within 12 hours of each other over 12 years ago and we talked the night E was born almost 7 years ago and we rejoiced with you when J was born almost 8 years ago (I will always remember that, especially as we have the changing of the guard here). ‘’


So, in closing, I’m not sure what to say. Again, I write only with the hope that someday they will be restored to Christ and realize that I cared enough to say it is NOT okay to reject Christ and to act like the world. It is a crazy world and I want the best for y’all. To whatever end I can be helpful I will be. In the meantime, I will continue to love and raise my children for Christ.

Oh, on a positive note. As things keep getting crazier and crazier in the economy and culture I think of W saying, “What kind of church is Christ coming back for? Is he coming back for a defeated, broken down bride? Or is he coming back for a beautiful, victorious bride?” I believe the Church will ultimately be victorious because we have the truth on our side. And I hope that’s still the theology the two of you subscribe to.

And for the record, J is dating a self-proclaimed Hindu. She is not listening to anyone, and my Mom thinks it’s okay because he’s a *very nice, moral man*. Which he is. Sadly, last I checked, though, that is not sufficient for salvation. I just don’t understand these young women who have had so much poured into them in terms of proper teaching and lots of travel and missionary experiences to just reject Christ and walk away? Have we made it too easy that they are ungrateful? I have to wonder.


I submit this to you humbly.
Affectionately,
Your sister in Christ,

Lisa