Mormonism Mondays: Birth Control

So a friend of the family made a comment this weekend about a Mormon housewife. Something about her being expected to have a bunch of kids. I don't think she realized how many current and former Mormon housewives were in the room. Sadly, we didn't have time to talk that through. So here we are.

As you can imagine, this is something upon which the Church's stand has changed with time. I think the advent of widely available birth control terrified Church leadership. We believe in having children, always have, always will. We believe that's why the earth was created: so the spirit children God has already fathered can be born and live and die, becoming a little more like Him in the process. So if everyone can keep living like they are, but no one gets pregnant, all creation is for naught.

It turns out, however, that many people want to have kids, and that being to space them out and have no more than you can feed is a good thing. The official word can be found here. In a nutshell: Kids are good. Having them at the time and under the circumstances that's best for your family is good. As for expectations, we're expected to do the very best we can, whatever that may be.

Soy Chorizo

Just in case you're worried this is going to turn into a boring treatise on religion, I thought I'd go back to ranting about food for a minute. Not really. Just a quick shout out to the soy chorizo at your local Trader Joe's. I've never had the real thing, but their version is cheap, delicious, and not made out of dead pigs. I mix it with spaghetti, garlic, onions and chickpeas, and sprinkle toasted almonds on top. Yum.

Mormonism Monday: The Lingo

Last week, Lindsay was good enough to mention YM/YW. This brought to mind the problem of our parlance. I thought this week I'd just offer a couple of sample sentences, with translation.

"The YM/YW will be holding a Mutual fireside in the Stake Center Relief Society room on Fast Sunday."

Read: The leadership over the 12-17-year-old kids will be holding an inspirational talk/devotional for this age group (formerly called the Mutual Improvement Association) at the building which houses the offices of the leadership over the eleven to thirteen nearest congregations/a satellite dish for receiving broadcasts from Salt Lake in the room in that building primarily used for meetings of the local women 18 and up on the first Sunday of the month.

I'm out of breath. Let's try a couple more:

"Did listen to General Conference?"

Read: Did you go to the Stake Center/go online to hear the eight hours of talks/Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing that were broadcast from Salt Lake on the first weekend of April or October, whichever was most recent, thus moving the normal Fast Sunday to the week before or after?

Finally, there's Uncle S's favorite word: "Ward." Not psycho ward, not maternity ward (though there are times when it can feel like one or both). It means congregation. And for us, it also means the neighborhood. Because we don't get to pick who we go to church with--geographical boundaries are set way above the pay grade of anyone I know. So if you don't like the other YM/YW you happen to live near, or the Relief Society in your area makes you nuts, tough luck. You just have a chance to learn how to love and serve the people around you, no matter what. If that isn't a quick way to make us into better Christians, I don't know what is.

Mormonism Mondays

A fascinating new feature here. Started because my brother-in-law, who's known the family for a number of years, just found out in July that we fast once a month. I started to wonder what other basic things those close to us have just somehow missed.

So, in honor of Uncle S, our first topic is fasting. The complete rundown can be found here. In a nutshell: on the first Sunday of the month, everyone in the Church skips two meals. This is accompanied by prayer and the giving of a fast offering. Click on that link up there if you want to know what a fast offering is.

I've never liked fasting. Lots of excuses: I like to eat, I'm chronically anemic, I have low blood pressure, blah blah blah. But it's gotten better in recent years as I've tried harder to make it what it should be--training the body to be an instrument of the spirit, and not the other way around. Focusing on a problem, a question, or a needed blessing makes a fast much more worthwhile, and less like just going hungry. And sometimes, when the spirit is being fed through the singing of hymns, meditation, study of the scriptures, the body starts to feel less hungry. Yes, some things really can feel more satisfying than food.

Do you like Mormonism Mondays? Do you have a request for a topic? Remember, it's your comments that are seriously, so fascinating.

Eggs

I heard some eggs were recalled last week. The chickens were living in filth and misery, and lo and behold, their eggs were not fit for consumption.

I'm happy to say, I didn't have to worry about this in the slightest. My eggs, while a little more expensive than the factory ones that occasionally turn out to be poisonous, come from a farm an hour from here. I know the people who raise the chickens. I know what the chickens eat (seasonal, vegetarian food; and bugs) and how they live (outdoors, running around, scratching in the dirt and harassing each other).

I know these things because I buy eggs not from a corporation but from the actual people who raise them, at my local farmers market. They might be at yours, too, (their schedule is here) with meat and cheese...and yummy, non-poisonous eggs.

Laundry, dishes, floors, and...

A study of the diagnostic accuracy of the PHQ-9 in primary care elderly. Nice to remember I used to be a person.