{SQT} Radio Shows, Hidden Dessert And Horrible, Uninformed Decisions

Happy Friday! I heart four day weeks! Let’s celebrate with some customary takes.

1. I’m on the radio today, 10 a.m. EST, (Maybe that’s right now! Go listen and come back!) talking about my book ‘A Worthy Reception’ with Allison Gingras of A Seeking Heart radio show on Breadbox Media. Allison’s show is a radio book club and all week she’s been chatting about my book. Today I’m fielding questions and trying to keep the dog from barking loudly in the background whilst standing in just the right spot of my bedroom for clear cell phone reception. If you miss the live broadcast, you can find the episode HERE. Be sure to scroll through Allison’s archives for shows on lots of great books.

2. Last weekend I traveled to Front Royal Virginia along a really, really, REALLY scenic route. Thankfully, I’d built “view lots of extra scenery” into my travel plans. Thanks to Laura, I got to speak to the ladies of St. John’s, answer their questions and miss out on my opportunity to snag a picture with Ana (not that you’d know it from her sweet photoshopping.) Saturday’s bloggy conference was fun, informative and brimming with friends old and new. However, I am awful with names and remembering people. I almost didn’t recognize a good friend because I still picture her with short hair and had the mistaken idea she was shorter than me. I almost called another friend by her Instagram handle because that’s all I could remember, and another friend had to remind me of the mom’s night we attended together before I recognized her….but then I totally did.  So, this is my preemptive apology for when we meet and I instantly forget your name. Sorry.  My husband is just as bad as I am so when we meet new people, we constantly describe them to each other by their appearance until one of us figures out their name again.

3. Lately I’ve gotten back into the habit of not eating breakfast, which usually lead to my habit of breaking into a sweat at 10:15 a.m. and screaming “Get away from me! I need food!” before dumping half a bag of shredded cheese into my mouth. Rather than waking up earlier and eating food before everyone else, I’ve started drinking a breakfast smoothie…and by smoothie I mean pouring heavy cream in my coffee. It’s actually so good I don’t add any sweeter, and the 29,203 grams of fat keeps me satisfied until I can find time to shove pepperoni slices in my mouth later in the morning.

4. Here’s another healthy eating tip that I may have shared before, MUG CAKES! Or as I like to call them, secret dessert. I love baked goods, but not the mess or the whole “sharing with my children” part. Making a whole cake means everyone is always begging you for cake or screaming they didn’t get enough cake or crying that someone else finished the cake. Oh, and crumbs all over the place that are nobody’s fault. Mug cakes solve this problem. My current favorite is a peanut butter chocolate chip mug cake. In a small bowl mix one egg, three tablespoons peanut butter and one tablespoon granulated sugar. Beat together and when combined, add a small handful of chocolate chips. Pour into mug and heat on high for one minute and 35 seconds. While it heats, you have enough time to quickly wipe out the bowl and put back the ingredients. When you’re done, all that’s left is a dirty mug and fork. No one needs to know you just ate a tasty cake. I tend to make them right after I send the kids to bed or while they’re on their tablets. If anyone looks over, I’m just holding a mug. Nothing to see here, move along.

5. Fulton and Teddy had their first ‘Science and Adventure’ club meeting of the new school year. I planned a chemistry/ mad scientist theme and got everyone all hyped up for a Diet Coke and Mentos explosion…except I couldn’t’ find any Mentos. Admittedly, I only checked a couple of stores but since I do all my planning at the last-minute, I didn’t have time to go all over in search of Mentos. So we did some other experiments instead, plus we built molecules out of gumdrops. For the record, the boys WERE NOT interested in ‘The Freshmaker’ commercials. (Don’t watch if you don’t want to be singing the jingle for the rest of the day.)

Things about this commercial that were confusing to my children: car phones, everyone’s clothing (spot the fanny pack!), back doors that don’t automatically lock, how candy could make you do something possibly illegal / dangerous, and what does “freshmaker” actually mean????

6. I had a great chat on Jen’s radio show yesterday. I was yakking so much, she had to bring me back after the break to ask a final question. All I could think was, ‘I hope she doesn’t test my rapping skills live on the air.” Instead, she mentioned a woman who wrote an op-ed to a British paper about terminating her pregnancy because she’d found out her child had spina bifida. The woman continued that she wasn’t sure she wanted to abort the pregnancy but when her husband thought about how his unborn son might have a dysfunctional or unsatisfying sex life due to his disability, he decided it would be better if they ended the pregnancy rather than bring that child into the world.

via GIPHY

Is your jaw on the floor too?

Jen and I had been talking about people projecting their feelings onto disabled children or adults, and this article showed the horrible extent to which this mindset is taken. Nowadays, when a pregnant woman is given a potentially serious diagnosis for her unborn child, she is given the option to terminate the pregnancy rather than, oh I don’t know, being encouraged to go out and speak to a person living (and probably having sex) with their disability. Rather than passing along treatment options, parent support group information and the names of advocates, parents are led to believe their child’s life would be better if it was ended as soon as possible. The man mentioned above believed unsatisfying sex constituted suffering. You can see where this slippery slope is headed without my making any crass jokes. Who decides what defines suffering, and by what means, and when, it should be eliminated? Maybe we should consider the opinions of the so-called “suffering” in this discussion???

7.  But I can’t end on that note. How about a few sort of related yet more positive links?:

Human Life Matters – A great blog I just discovered written by a man living with Multiple Sclerosis

Not Dead Yet – An organization of disability activists fighting against physician assisted suicide. Their most recent blog post is a must read.

Speechless – a new sitcom coming to ABC. I don’t have a TV, but I need to find a way to watch this. The trailers I’ve seen are hilarious and they actually hired an actor with Cerebral Palsy to play the disabled character, rather than stick an able-bodied actor in a chair. I’m curious to see how close to reality they get this and how much is a caricature of what most people believe it’s like to be a part of a special needs family.

Now it’s your turn! Ladies and gentlemen, start your blogging engines! Write it down then link it up below. Be sure to include a link back to this post so your readers can find the rest of the Quick Takes. I look forward to reading your posts.