Sallie Borrink

I didn’t grow up in a denomination that followed the Lenten tradition of giving something up for the season. I think I might have done it once, but that’s it. I did decide to give up something this year. Sugar drinks, specifically pop and coffee drinks. Now this might not be a big deal to some people, but I love my sugar drinks. I’ve tried many times to cut back on them without a lot of success. So this is major for me. However, so far it has not been a big deal. I just think – ok, if you drink one of those it is the same as spitting in Christ’s face. He died for you. The least you can do is give up your sugar addiction for Lent. Somehow putting it in that light makes it completely different than just saying I want to give them up to lose weight. I am choosing not to focus on the fact that it might also make me lose weight over the next seven weeks. That truly is not my motive. And David could attest to the fact that I’m mighty attached to my mochas and Coke/Pepsi so this is a good choice for me. Did anyone else give up something for Lent?

I mentioned recently that we were doing some little homeschooling-type things with Caroline. Rest assured we are not trying to raise a super child. I have no intention of pushing her and trying to accelerate her learning so she’s some kind of whiz kid. However, I do want to expose her to little things as appropriate. I bought her a LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Set one night in early December when I was Christmas shopping at Target. She has played with it multiple times daily since then.

Last week I decided to see if she had learned any of the letters after playing with it. I THINK SHE KNOWS JUST ABOUT EVERY LETTER AND A LOT OF THE SOUNDS!!! I’m not kidding! We do talk about letters sometimes when we read books and we do have some ABC books such as a Noah’s Ark book, etc. But I could not believe it when over several days I checked to see what she knew. Sometimes I would ask her where the (insert letter here) was and before she pointed it out to me she would say the sound! Wow! I had no idea! (As a side bonus, since the fridge is right next to where you walk into the kitchen, she sometimes gets distracted by it on her way in to see me and so I get a few more minutes to get things done while she’s playing with it. LOL!) Anyway, I highly recommend that little set.

So about BlogHer. I’m curious about something. Several months ago I looked into BlogHer and considered applying. I decided not to do so because I didn’t like how much control of your blog you had to give up in order to participate. But even more than that, I didn’t like the little links to random blogs that always show up under their ads. I had clicked on some and, more often than not, was sorry that I did.

Recently I clicked on one because the title caught my attention and it was related to a topic I am very interested in. I can’t begin to express how sorry I was I clicked on it. There is no other way to describe some of what I read other than as p*rn*gr*ph*c. One phrase in particular was stuck in my head the rest of the day. It was so s*x*ally graphic I can’t even come up with a polite way to explain it. So here is my question to anyone who wants to answer. Do I just have horrible luck when it comes to clicking on BlogHer links or have other people experienced this as well? It seems like almost any site I go to has a potty mouth author.

Now I realize that BlogHer is not a Christian network, but some of this stuff would be offensive to anyone who was even moderately conservative about language and s*x*ual content. I’m sure that they would be just as offended coming to a blog like mine that talks about sin and Christ and salvation, but still. Anyway, I’m just wondering about other people’s experiences with this. I think the idea of promoting women bloggers is so great and I know some women who read here use BlogHer so please don’t (PLEASE DON’T) take this as an attack. I’m just sincerely curious about how other women view BlogHer and how they interact (or don’t) with the links when they come across them. Do I just have a horrible track record?

And, has anyone else picked up on The Next Big Thing in Christian blogging circles? By this I mean how teachings on patriarchy swept through so many Christian blogs for a few years and the teachings caused so much grief to so many. I think I’ve identified the next topic that I think is going to cripple people’s faith and I’m wondering if anyone else is noticing it. And, no, we’re not going to discuss it here, even if people identify it. I’m just curious if anyone else has noticed a real spike in blogging about this particular topic.