Children these days...

I'm in a parenting class, which is really fun and I'm learning a lot about how children develop. We have come across many controversial topics recently: bullying, having children with gay tendencies. It definitely gives me a lot to think about. I was researching online for websites that have parenting tips, or ideas about today's kids. I came across parenting.com and parent.net. They are both a little different, but each offer something great. I liked parenting.com better because it had more to offer, including a discussion board with various topics. One I skimmed through was about whether or not parents are too strict or not strict enough with their children.

I attended a lecture by Dr. Craig Hart on Thursday night. He does a lot of research about how parents matter. Society today degrades the role of parents, and many people are starting to think that parents just don't matter. Parents don't affect how their kids will turn out. Just reading that discussion board about if parents are strict enough provided more evidence to me that parents matter. One of the larger arguments was that children today are extremely disrespectful, and that related to parents not being strict enough.

I like learning about how parents influence children in today's society. Eventually, I hope to start a non-profit organization that raises awareness on parents and the family.

Internet Communication

As of right now, I have completed the entire assignment without the extra customizations. I have all the requirements, (branching pages, 2 classes, map, photo, information, supplemental activity, google calendar, google doc) but am working on making my website personalized.

The link is here

Food

One of my best friends since high school created a cooking blog. I love reading it. First of all, she is hilarious, and so are her posts. Second of all, she finds the greatest recipes. So I will continue to stalk her and use her recipes.

Today, when I was deciding what to make for dinner, and what to post on here, I found a recipe I wanted to make from allrecipes.com. Except I don't have potatoes. It looks delicious though...
 

Vegetable Shepherd's Pie

• 8 large potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 1 (16 ounce) package frozen mixed vegetables, thawed
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 6 tablespoons milk
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 (19 ounce) can kidney beans, drained
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Cook potatoes, covered, in a small amount of boiling water until tender. Drain and mash.
3. While potatoes are cooking, steam or boil carrots and mixed vegetables until near tender. Drain and set aside.
4. In a small saucepan, cook garlic powder, basil and parsley in butter or margarine for about 20 seconds (or microwave for 10 seconds). Stir into mashed potatoes along with salt and pepper. Gradually beat in enough milk to make potatoes light and fluffy, add a little more milk if necessary. Set aside
5. In a medium saucepan, cook onion in oil until tender but not brown. Stir in kidney beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, soy sauce, sugar and vegetable/carrot mixture. Heat through until bubbly.
6. Transfer vegetable mixture to a 8x8x2 inch baking dish. Drop mashed potatoes in mounds over the top. Sprinkle with cheese and paprika. Bake, uncovered at 375 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

Interior Design

Sometimes, I'm just not sure what interior designers are thinking. Maybe it's a good thing that interior design is only part of my field of study. Maybe it's not even interior designers that I'm having a problem with right now.
My style is very different from many of the designs that show up on freshome.com. They seem to be impractical and very "modern" style. I'm not sure how I feel about modernism in interiors. Many furniture pieces I have seen seem stern, uncomfortable. I want my home to have a welcoming and cheery feel. I want the design to be practical and welcoming.

The house that started this rant is this. I don't see why any house needs to look like this.
Ok, but in reality, some people like this. And interior designers' jobs are to create a home that their customer wants. I really don't like that house though.

Life and Internet Safety

I got in a crazy car accident last week. So, for those of you who are in other classes with me, that's why I was not there. It was pretty scary. Part of me wishes it was bad enough that I can't remember it because now I get scared every time I get in a car. Oh well. Eventually I'll be back to normal. I'm not even sure I'm ready to go back to school because I hurt my back and neck pretty bad. I think I hit my head pretty hard too because I get super bad headaches. But I have finally gotten to start on all my catch-up work. I felt the internet safety assignment was a good one for today since the articles we had to read were from past Ensigns.

I taught my husband what I learned about internet safety. He thought it was interesting.
There are two types of internet safety I focused on: moral safety and identity safety.
Moral safety consists of how to avoid the little whisperings of Satan through media,or, in this case, the internet. One common problem is pornography. Pornography does not start with someone saying, "Hey I want to get addicted to porn today." No, it starts with pop-ups, chat rooms, and half naked pictures of celebrities. Little by little, those porn viewers become pornography addicts, and when they realize it, they are in too deep to let go easily. Another problem with moral safety comes from music videos. I know many people think music videos are just "fun." They are not. Music videos contain scenes that desensitize and numb  the mind to pornographic, sensual, and violent images. Ways you can protect yourself and your children from these internet problems are through filters, creating bookmarks to more easily access your common websites, use pop-up blockers, discourage the use of chat rooms, and not to open spam messages.

Identification safety is another problem these days. Some ways to establish your personal safety are to
1. Never use or give your personal information online (name, address, date of birth, school)
2. Do not open phishing emails
3. Do not talk to strangers, and especially do not meet online strangers in person
4. Never give your social security number online, even on job applications.

After discussing these things with my husband, we decided we are going to be better. We will watch music videos less and change some of our information on our social networking sites.