How Can It Be

How can it be that we live separate lives?
Haven't spoken in years.
Haven't shared our tears.


I never thought that our friendship would end.
I think about you often.
I keep hoping she will soften.

Who decided our friendship had to die?
Was it me?
Was it you?

I remember your birthday.
I remember our friendship.
I remember your smile.

It's easy to have a clean, grean, home!

About a year ago I decided to try to keep a greener, cleaner home.  I started researching economical and ecological ways to do this; my research led me to a book that I have found indispensable, The Naturally Clean Home, by Karyn Siegel-Maier. This book contains 150 super easy, yummy smelling recipes for everything from laundry detergent to air fresheners. In the first chapter she explains how to take care of the herbs you will use and what you will need in your tool box. At the end of this chapter she gives you a chart that tells you the specific uses and attributes of the herbs and essential oils you will use. All of the oils have anti-bacterial,anti-viral and/or anti-biotic properties which makes them perfect for keeping a clean home. These properties also allow you to keep a safe home without using harsh chemicals. It is a little expensive to put your tool box together with the purchasing of oils and such; but when you spread out the cost over time and the fact that you can get several batches of cleaner out of each bottle of oil then  it actually ends up cheaper than buying those ready made cleaners.  I have truly grown to enjoy cleaning with these cleaners and love the fact that my laundry smells fresher,my bathroom sparkles brighter and I am not putting any more harmful cleaners into my family's breathing space.  This book has joined my The Joy of Cooking book on the shelf of well used and slightly stained books.

Bloody, Violent and Possibly the Best Kevin Smith Film, EVER!

On Saturday March 12, my husband and I, treated ourselves to Kevin Smith's Red State Tour; which included a screening of his newest film, Red State, and a Q&A session afterwards. It was an enjoyable evening for both of us, and I want to provide you, my friends, with a peek as to reasons why.

Let's start with a quick synopsis of the movie: Red State is a story where we take a Phelps-like family (Westoboro Baptist Church) and multiply their hate mongering craziness times, oh, let's say a million. In this film, Michael Parks plays the patriarch, Abin Cooper, of this clan of hate-mongerers (5 Points Trinity Church) , and they go from simply protesting funerals to murdering those who they feel are the sinners of the world. John Goodman plays an aging ATF agent, Joseph Kennan, who is sent to investigate the family for stockpiling arms. These two are accompanied by an incredible cast including 2011 Academy Award winning actress, Melissa Leo as a one of the "believers", Michael Angarano (Sky High) as one of the victims of the family, and Kevin Smiths own wife Jennifer Schwalbach Smith as a "believer". This collection of actors gave gritty performances that brought us into the film, and made us cheer for the demise of this family. Michael Perks gives a charismatic and oddly fatherly performance of a man who truly believes what he preaches. John Goodman's performance simply blew me away! He made his character believable with a healthy mix of gritty wisdom and dry humor. The script was impeccable and tight, and the cast did an incredible job of translating it to the screen. The crowd here in KC absolutely loved this movie, showed Kevin their love all evening with their loud applause, laughter in somewhat odd spots, and cheering at each interesting and bloody turn.

Prior to the show, Kevin Smith invited Megan Phelps and the entire Phelps family and members of WBC to the screening; they have had a conversation for the past little while. The Phelps family did picket outside, and agreed to join Kevin on stage after the film for the Q&A. Alas; we were to be disappointed and stood up: not 15 minutes into the film, Megan and Phyllis tapped Kevin on the shoulder and told him that they had to leave, due to the filth (lol). Kevin also live twote throughout the film, and we enjoyed his comments about her leaving. We also received his thoughts on the KC crowd's responses throughout the night, which was amazingly funny.

The Q&A session was a pretty standard Kevin Smith Q&A, until Joshua and Libby Phelps stepped up to the stage. These two are Fred Phelps grandchildren who decided to leave the madness that is the Phelps family. Listening to the two of them describe how their family believes exactly what they are doing is part of the salvation of the world was creepy and enlightening. It was heartwarming to hear them apologize to the community for their involvement in creating an atmosphere of hate. I want to commend these two for having the courage to walk away from their family and standing up against the perpetuation of hate.

All and all this was a great film. It was provocative, engaging, violent, and eerily funny. The mix of a strong script, killer cast, engaging director, and social medium coverage made this night one of the best events I have ever been to!