Give me a P, Give me a B and give me some chocolate!

It was a different Easter for me this year. For the past 5 or so years I've hosted a Good Friday dinner/observance. I would make dinner and incorporate it into a time to remember Jesus' last supper and the events leading up to Christ being crucified. We would read on the scriptures detailing Jesus' suffering and end the night knowing we would come together on Sunday to celebrate Jesus' resurrection.
Well, we joined a new House Church a month ago that meets on Friday nights. So, we decided to join in with what the HC had planned. But, Friday morning Doug and I decided to go to IMA (Indy Art Museum) to look at religious art and take time to ponder. We only found a few impactful paintings of Jesus, but we still enjoyed the time at the museum.
Spencer woke up with a fever that afternoon, so I stayed home with him and missed house church. He was sick through the weekend, so I also missed Sunday worship.
So, it was a little different this year...just forcing me to make sure I took time to remember on my own.
Ok, so why the strange title to the post? I fasted from sweets for Lent and now I can't get enough peanut butter and chocolate. Not Reeses. I want big hunks of bunny rabbit chocolate smothered in peanut butter. I've got to eat these gigantic bunnys or else Spencer will. My sister sat and watched him down a decent sized chocolate critter that sent him into a sugar coma. Maegan actually has self control, so she is content with small pieces of rationed chocolate.

Change is coming...

Investors Against Genocide (IAG) is leading a national campaign to make sure mutual funds do not make investments that contribute to genocide. They have submitted shareholder proposals to more than 50 mutual funds that ask the mutual funds to become genocide-free.

On March 19, at the first shareholder meeting on this topic, over a quarter of those who voted cast their ballots for genocide-free investing. More votes are scheduled for April 16 and May 14 at meetings where 19 Fidelity mutual funds will have a proxy ballot question on genocide-free investing.

Momentum is building for genocide-free investing. The March 19 votes received widespread press coverage including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, NPR's Morning Edition, Fox Business News, the International Herald Tribune and the Boston Globe. Additionally, AP and Reuters articles ran in regional newspapers across the country. Actress Mia Farrow and Congressman Jim McGovern along with national religious and human rights organizations including the Unitarian Universalist Association, American Jewish World Service, Physicians for Human Rights, and Genocide Intervention Network have backed the proposal. Visit www.investorsagainstgenocide.org/howtohelp for more details.

holy week

I been observing Lent season for the past 5 or 6 years. I wasn't raised with this tradition and I don't fast because I feel like I have to. The community I run with is all about not doing things because we always have or because we feel obligated. Everything we do should overflow out of a desire for loving God and others. Sometimes I don't feel like doing though, and that's when discipline helps. So, my friend Nikki asked me today what I have been experiencing this year. So, this Lent I've been blessed by a friend who has found freedom in her relationship with God and has had an 'ah ha' moment after 50 years of life. I've been comforted by remembering Jesus' experience of this same struggling life. I've also experienced some hard moments of realizing true community and friendship is hard, and it hurts sometimes. I've had a lot of thankfulness for my marriage, my kids, and my family and friends.
I hope you also take some time this week to remember. You have to be diligent, or time will pass by and it will be Easter Sunday. I used to wait until Easter Sunday to wake up and experience all the emotion of what that day stands for. I would try to grieve and celebrate all within a hour long service.
Jesus took the bread, broke it and said 'this is my body which is broken for you. When you do this, do it in the rememberance of me.'

Another Carson takes the seat

I got to work the polls yesterday for the district 7 Congressional seat.
It was a great experience. I just checked ids and signed ballots (and counted voters every hour), but I enjoyed being part of the process. We had some characters for sure. We had lots of angry people and rightfully so. For some crazy reason they decided to change where some people had been voting for 40 years. These were elderly people who lived right next to this voting site and where now being told to go vote several miles away. We had no explanation and we did take the heat for this issue. A lot of people never received notice of the change, and some people just got their notes in the mail that day. What a mess! One guy called us communists and another lady called the situation a "hot mess".

Adoption Fundraising

Doug and I have had the honor to witness several friends adopt children both locally and internationally. It is a joy to take part in their journeys, even if we haven't experienced adopting children ourselves.
A humbling part of adoption is asking people to help with the cost. It is hard for people to ask others to help them bring a child into their family. However, I see it as a beautiful thing. As friends, we have the priviledge of being part of the process. When I was pregnant, only Doug and I were part of the process :) Adoption is awesome because it takes a community of friends and family.
So, I would like to help some friends, the McKim family, raise money to pay for their adoption. They are adopting a child from Uganda. He is a teacher and she is a stay-at-home mom of 3.
You can help them by purchasing a very cool t-shirt and/or purchasing some delicious free trade coffee. They have been forced to get creative because they don't qualify for the tax credit (he is a teacher and doesn't pay enough taxes..something like that).
So, I'm taking orders for t-shirts ($20) and coffee ($10). You can go to Jen's Journey for Truth blog to contact her if you'd like to know more :)

Bounty of Patience

My biggest fear of motherhood came when I was pregnant with Maegan. I kept seeing a Bounty commercial of a kid racing through the kitchen, grabbing a huge carton of juice, and then spilling it all over the floor. The mom, looking a little amused, tufts the kid's hair, grabs her Bounty, and wipes it up with a smile. What?!! I'm supposed to respond like that! Where is the lecture, what about a little look of frustration! Can I really be that mom?
For the last two days I've been trying to catch up on laundry and ironing (because I leave it too long in the dryer). Plus, as you know, when you're home with two kids you are constantly picking up. At 7:00pm last night, Maegan and Spencer were playing so nicely while I cleaned up from dinner. Low and behold Maegan had drug half her wardrobe, some of mine, my cell phone, all the pillows in the house, and etc, and stuffed it all behind the big chair, the area where I never clean. She also took piles of clean laundry off my bed and tossed them to the floor, in pursuit of my bedding. Oooooooo, I was so mad. I wanted her to know I was mad, but I couldn't figure that best 'good mother' way to do that. So I grabbed my head and said with as much calm, laced with fury, that I could. "I'm on fire, my head is going to explode, I'm sooooo mad!" I tried to explain all the work I'd done to clean, nicely fold, and put all this stuff away. Now, dear child, all my work is lopping around in a big pile of dust. I went on to say that this was the highest disrespect for all my hard work.
I think the explanation at least made me feel better. So, the rest of the evening entailed me following Maegan around making her put it all away.
Maybe next time I can ruffle her hair and smile at her creativity.

carol the security risk

Well, I had a really embarassing thing happen today. I was embarassed to be escorted out of University Hotel at IUPUI by two security officers. But it got way more embarrassing.....I cried when they told me to leave. This is when crying is a curse. When I get embarrassed I cry, which leaves me naked to the fact that I'm embarrased, and makes me look weak. Instead I wish I could just be strong and have something bold to say in the face of embarrassment.
So, I had registerd to attend the Chinese Ambassador's speech at IUPUI. I was encouraged to do a little protest beforehand. My protest involved wearing my Save Darfur shirt, bringing some flyers to hand out, and a few signs to prop up. I wasn't planning on yelling or being forceful at all. I had a friendly message that encouraged China to do the right thing.
So I went in to register and my name wasn't on the list. So, I tracked down the guy whom I asked if I could bring a petition. He said the session was full and that I would have to take my petition outside. So, judging by all the well dressed dignitaries who were there, I decided not to do anything petition signing/protesting. I felt very out of place in my t-shirt. So, I just decided to wait for my friend who was planning on meeting me. Well, I won't go into the whole story but I was told by security that I must leave and wasn't welcome to stay. So, I started to leave and was followed out by another security guard who looked like I was a terrorist threat and he was making sure I left for good.
This was all very embarassing. I'm supposed to meet with our senators on behalf of Amnesty International. I have to get over this crying thing before then!