A few months ago my family was invited to participate in a babysitting co-op involving 4 other families. This means that once every 5th Saturday Geoff and I watch 17 kids for about 5 hours. All the children are between the ages of 18 months and 9 years old. (more…)

I hate shopping. No, wait! I didn’t mean it. I love shopping. Please, don’t take my membership in the sisterhood away. Let me explain… (more…)

You know how Prince and P Diddy are constantly changing their names? I’m thinking about doing that myself. It’s not for any glamorous reasons. I’m thinking that my new name will help me keep a new year’s resolution that I’ve made for myself. I’ve decided that 2006 will be the year of frugality for me. (more…)

Husbands, boyfriends, and guys with crushes: You would be wise to listen to my words for they will serve you well.

It’s that time of year for you — a time of feeling, overwhelmed, frustrated, and maybe a little fearful. You must find the perfect gift (or maybe just a gift) to give to your beloved and you have no idea where to begin. Stress no more for I, the angel of Christmas presents, am here to guide you through these yuletide obstacles. In other words, this is just a little friendly advice to turn you from doofus to hero on Christmas morning. (more…)

As you may have read in a previous post of my husband’s I have a super-villain name. Not only do I go by Kristen and mama, I also go by Hobbygoblin. This is because I have a super-human ability to pick a hobby, learn all about it, tear it up, wear it out, and move on to the next hobby. (more…)

I think I may have come out of my “bah humbug mood”. Do you know what caused me to do so? Christmas letters! I love them. Every December I run to my mailbox hoping that it will be stuffed with letters from family, friends, and people that I knew for a little while a very long time ago. (more…)

An interesting recent comment got me a thinkin’ again (and as you know – that means trouble). The part that got me thinking was that the commenter was questioning the value of our online discussions here at the Thang and in the Bloggernacle in general. He hinted that we would be much better off (and that we could better serve God) by putting down the laptop and spending more face to face time with our needy neighbors. The gist of my response was to question why spending time face to face with neighbors was so much better than spending time in engaging “keyboard to keyboard” religious discussions here on the blog. My theory is that here at the Thang I can add much more value to my distant Web neighbors than I can with the folks I happen to live next to because here we have an opt-in conversation about important topics that we all actually care about. For instance, my next door neighbor has zero interest in discussing the strengths or weaknesses of various parables describing the atonement. But I do, and so do other people in the world. The problem is that the other people who want to talk about these things live hundreds of thousands of miles away from me. By discussing those things here at the Thang, the relatively small group of us becomes virtual neighbors who can teach, uplift, enlighten, and edify each other. It also lets us stretch ourselves by raising the level of the discourse far beyond the often superficial level we encounter in conversations with those we live near or worship with locally. (more…)

There I was pampering and nurturing Thanksgiving along when something tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and there staring me right in the face was Christmas. “I’m not ready for you yet,” I exclaimed. (more…)

The discussion at Rebecca’s post on Bullying over at FMH reminded of my darkest days… Middle School. (more…)

I’m mad as hell and there aint nothing I can do about it! Or is there…After contemplating several ways to satisfy my anger I’ve decided the best recourse I have is to share my story far and wide like an old biddy at a quilting bee. (more…)

I’m a modern day outlaw. First I nearly get thrown in jail (ok, the closest I’ve ever come to going to jail) and second I find out I may have a gambling problem, at least in my bishop’s eyes. (more…)