Zoo Boo

We went to Zoo Boo with my mom and our good friends, Steve, Annah Mary Summy, and Amelia. We had a good time. I think that Shea will enjoy it a little more when she's older. There's a costume contest and trick-or-treating tables set up. She loved getting candy and wanted to eat it all before we left. The highlight of the evening, however, was the dancing. In one pavilion, there was a DJ and an area to dance. She boogied with her Daddy to some classic dance songs. It was great!

Nash was out by the end of the evening.

Halloween Funny

I haven't made any political statements yet on my blog this election season. This is a light-hearted one. It made me laugh. I hope it does the same for you. :)

Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend, our family went with some friends to Cedar Hill Farms. I had no idea what an elaborate set up it was. Shea loved the petting zoo, the ponies, the hayride out to the Pumpkin Patch, and everything else that was there. We had a terrific time, and we came home with some pumpkins that we'll be carving sometime soon. I do believe that we'll be making this a family tradition. Here's some pictures of our time there.

From Pumpkin Patch

From Pumpkin Patch

From Pumpkin Patch

From Pumpkin Patch

From Pumpkin Patch

From Pumpkin Patch

From Pumpkin Patch

From Pumpkin Patch

From Pumpkin Patch

From Pumpkin Patch

Nash - Six Months

Nash is six months old now. He's pretty sturdy sitting up these days, and he LOVES his sister. Shea is crazy about him too. She's a great big sister. Nash lights up at people he recognizes when they enter the room, and he's rolling and scooting all over the place.

Oh, and by the way, he's HUGE! He's 22 pounds, and he's 29 inches long. He's in the 97th percentile in height and weight, and he's wearing size 12 month clothes. Shea lasted 11 months in her infant car seat, but Nash has already outgrown it. Yikes!

I'm happy to say that I'm still breastfeeding him. No formula for this little guy. He's not doing well with bottles at daycare (normally takes 1 to 3 oz. of each of his 3 bottles), but as you can see, he's not starving. That's because he's making up for it at night. He is still waking up at least twice during the night to eat. We started him on some solids. He doesn't eat much of them yet, but that's fine because I still want breastmilk to be his primary source of nutrition. We're just getting him used to some new textures and flavors and using solids as complementary feeding.

To Spank or Not to Spank - Part 2

My last installment on this issue (long ago) simply listed some scripture verses. I'm still not directly addressing the spanking issue, but I want to look at how God has interacted with the church after Christ.

The Bible teaches that "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). For those in Christ, God's justice has been satisfied in Christ Jesus. Nevertheless, the New Testament still offers plenty of instruction regarding how to live our lives. God still cares about our deeds, and He disciplines those he loves. Thus, we have what might appear to be a dilemma.

In Romans 5 and 6, Pauls talks about grace at work in our lives and is careful to clarify that this grace is not a license to sin. In Acts 5, we learn about Ananias and Saphira, whom God struck dead for lying to the Holy Spirit. As a result, "Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events" (Acts 5:11).

Also, the Corinthian church was taking the Lord's supper in an unworthy manner, and consequently were eating and drinking judgment upon themselves (1 Cor. 11:27-29). "That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world" (1 Cor. 11:30-32). God judged believers within the Corinthian church and physically disciplined them.

Further, to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, God says over and over, "I know your deeds." They're pretty much told to shape up or their "lampstand" will be removed. There again is God's discipline.

How do we reconcile these facts: we have no condemnation in Christ, Jesus has paid for our sin, God cares about our deeds, God disciplines us, and God's discipline is sometimes physical? While believers don't experience condemnation and won't go to hell for our sin, God still cares what we do, and we experience his discipline in our lives for our disobedience. This discipline is sometimes physically painful and can even cause our death. I think that we mistakenly call all physical discipline "punishment," but I don't think that's biblical. God's discipline in the lives of believers seems to manifest itself in different ways--some physical and some not. Therefore, I think that our definition of discipline is sometimes too narrow. Perhaps we need to delve deeper into our definitions of punishment and discipline and look to see examples of each from the Bible.

I'm still trying to work out what I believe on this subject, but this is what I've been thinking about lately. I don't claim to have this all figured out, and I have not exhaustively covered this subject here. More coming sometime soon.

Nursing Homes Cited for Violations

As many of you know, I represent people who have been injured by abuse or neglect in nursing homes. Some nursing homes provide superior care and really care about their residents. Others provide poor care, are understaffed, and don't adequately protect residents from actual harm. I am way too familiar with these nursing homes. Even the "good" nursing homes will have isolated incidents where, for example. an employee makes a poor decision and injures a resident. A new report states that over 90% of nursing homes were cited for violating federal health and safety standards. The state of the nursing home industry is something that a lot of people don't pay attention to until it affects them. They have the view that personal injury attorneys are worthless scum benefitting from the bad luck of others. I hope that what I'm doing holds facilities responsible for their actions and ultimately improves the care that the elderly receive in these nursing homes. Here's the article:

Violations Reported at 94% of Nursing Homes
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: September 29, 2008

WASHINGTON — More than 90 percent of nursing homes were cited for violations of federal health and safety standards last year, and for-profit homes were more likely to have problems than other types of nursing homes, federal investigators say in a report issued on Monday.

About 17 percent of nursing homes had deficiencies that caused “actual harm or immediate jeopardy” to patients, said the report, by Daniel R. Levinson, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Problems included infected bedsores, medication mix-ups, poor nutrition, and abuse and neglect of patients.

Inspectors received 37,150 complaints about conditions in nursing homes last year, and they substantiated 39 percent of them, the report said. About one-fifth of the complaints verified by federal and state authorities involved the abuse or neglect of patients.

About two-thirds of nursing homes are owned by for-profit companies, while 27 percent are owned by nonprofit organizations and 6 percent by government entities, the report said. The inspector general said 94 percent of for-profit nursing homes were cited for deficiencies last year, compared with 88 percent of nonprofit homes and 91 percent of government homes.

“For-profit nursing homes had a higher average number of deficiencies than the other types of nursing homes,” Mr. Levinson said. “In 2007, for-profit nursing homes averaged 7.6 deficiencies per home, while not-for-profit and government homes averaged 5.7 and 6.3, respectively.”

On Monday, Mr. Levinson issued a compliance guide for nursing homes that says some homes “have systematically failed to provide staff in sufficient numbers and with appropriate clinical expertise to serve their residents.”

Read the rest of the article here.