The crew

If I'm going to write about family life as a stone broke skeptic, I should probably talk about who the family consists of. Just some details to flesh out who they are so when reading you get an idea of where I might be coming from in our chaotic life.

The BaldMan: Husbeast for me, dad to our two rugrats. He's disabled and on VA disability as our only source of income at the moment. He's also going through school to become an accountant, but tends to have some serious problems with attention span and getting homework done (he does in fact have ADD). He's got the brains, but no drive to get anything done. He's taking one final class this fall, a science class, and he'll (finally) have his Associates degree. He tends to act like a teenager a lot, would rather play video games or trading card games than actually do things around the house, and is a serious procrastinator. I love him dearly, but he does tend to drive me batty at times.

The Boychild: four years old, very active and hyper. Has dad's problems with attention span and a good dose of mama's stubbornness, but he's also wicked smart (reads and can do basic math, etc) and has a huge heart, loves to give hugs and kisses to everyone. I worry about his sensory issues, though; he has some problems with loud noises and refuses to use the toilet because of the noise that happens when peeing. He starts at Head Start pre-school this fall, and they do screenings before then for those types of issues. I almost want to test him out of Head Start and put him into Kindergarten, but he needs to learn to be around other kids and some other social things that outweigh the knowing how to read and write.

Ms. Sassypants: the new baby (11 weeks old as of tomorrow). She's the spitting image of her daddy with her mama's lungs and attitude. Very happy morning baby (a morning person like her mama and her brother), but once 6pm rolls around she's cranky as hell and won't calm down for anything for a good hour and a half. She's slow to wake up, but once she does she's alert and smiling and checking everything out. Likes to coo and gab along to mama's singing, and is already a little heart breaker with her red hair and big blue eyes. We made a lot of changes in our day to day baby routine when we knew she was coming, and it's been interesting transitioning to things like cloth diapering, pumping breast milk to keep from going on formula, etc.

Grammy: The BaldMan's mom. To know her is to love her. She's a sweetheart, over here often, and a huge help to us all. She's the Boychild's BFF, and one of my closest friends. While she is not a skeptic in the religious sense, she is smarter than most people give her credit for and can often look through the bullshit to find common sense answers.

Papa: BaldMan's dad. No-nonsense guy, smart as hell, and as much a skeptic as I am. He's like a toasted marshmallow: Crusty on the outside, but when it comes to his grandbabies is gooey as hell. Won't have much to do with them as infants, but once they can talk clearly he has fun with them.


Then there's me, The Stone Broke Skeptic: Like my name states, I'm a skeptic by nature and poor to boot. While I am trying to find work that pays, I stay at home with the rugrats and write when I get a moment or two. I have a BA in Psychology that is mainly being used for writing complex characters in stories that I want to finish and submit for publishing, but I do eventually want to go back to school and get my Masters and PhD in Psychology, focusing on cognitive neuropsychology. I would love to work with veterans and do research into the physiological symptoms of PTSD, but right now I can't afford to spend another $100,000 in student loans to get to my degree and I cannot afford to move to a program where I can study it in a classroom and lab instead of solely online (I have nothing against online classes, I did many of them for my undergraduate degree; but for this, I need to study in the classroom). I grew up poor, watched my mother use the Lutheran Church (and now the LDS church) as a means to get us help when we needed it as a family and vowed to never do the same, especially since I don't really believe in a higher power. I got ordained in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster about a year ago so that if same sex couples (or any couples, really) wanted to get married in a secular ceremony I could perform the ceremony for them wherever they wanted in NY state (save for the city, as there different laws there), but otherwise do not see organized religion as being something I want to expose my children to, and frankly really despise in some cases.

Unfortunately for me, I live in an area where religion has tainted many of the social programs that are set up to help the less fortunate or income-challenged. Head Start classes are often in churches, food banks are usually in churches, as are thrift shops in my particular village. It makes trying to stretch my dollar a lot more difficult, as I refuse to spend my money in places that use the money to promote their religious agenda, like for missionary work, etc. One of the biggest ones of them all is Project Gabriel, which was pushed on me constantly while I was pregnant with Ms. Sassy Pants. The same people who bring Project Gabriel to life in our area are the ones who are in charge of Birthright. You know, the anti-abortion group that then rips babies away from their mothers, sometimes without their consent, without teaching them about their options? Yeah, there was no way in the world I would associate with those monsters, but they are constantly mentioned by DSS, Public Health, and the like as a happy and helpful agency. But that's for another posting.

As I said last week, this blog will mainly be about how to live a skeptical life in a non-skeptical world when you are stone broke. I'll post how to stretch a dollar until it screams, especially with kids stuff, but also the political and social problems that can happen when you are a free-thinker who is income challenged.