The Truth about Facebook

Ok, so this might be more of a rant than some thoughtful insight, but I do have some things to get off my chest that I haven't been able to for quite some time. It concerns mainly two things: Facebook, and announcing/taking pictures/bragging/really just about anything about your children on Facebook.
Although I am an avid user of Facebook, and I do enjoy the fact that I can keep up with friends from high school, college, childhood friends, family, just about anybody I want, without actually having to make a huge effort in keeping in contact (i.e. phone calls, letters, etc.)  If you want to know how someone is doing, all you have to do is look on their page and see their latest pictures of their honeymoon or whatever party they went to the night before.
HOWEVER- Facebook, like everything else on the internet, is used as a tool, but also as a weapon, and as an addiction.  Tell me you don't know at least one person who is addicted to Facebook, I'm pretty sure we all know at least one.  In fact, it just may be yourself.... whether or not you want to admit it.  My problem with Facebook is 1: how it's one big festering pile of drama waiting to be tipped over at any second, and 2: how people use it to brag about their lives.  The same can be said for bloggers, although to be honest I have nothing to brag about.  I just have nowhere else to write my thoughts out loud without getting too scorned about it (believe me, I tried that on Facebook. I can't write one frustration about my without getting reamed about how I am an ungrateful person.  It's not that I'm ungrateful, it's just I need a time and place to vent like everybody else, so lay off).  Like I said, I don't mind keeping up on everybody's to-do's and goings-on.   I just hate the excessive statuses about their partying, pictures of the five countries they visited that month, wheres most people are lucky to get out of the state they live in, and how mushy gushy adorable their children are.  Which brings me to my next topic of frustration: BABIES
For those who are members of the LDS church, most of you know that our first and foremost belief that we must do in this life is to find a companion that we can be compatible with and can marry for time and eternity, and within that bond to also multiply and replenish the Earth, aka have lots of children.  Which for those outside the church is why you see so many families with 4,5,6+ children in our homes.  We find joy in creating our eternal families and enjoy spending time together.  However, in some cases this backfires.  What I mean is that if a couple has been married for a few years, mostly more than 4 or 5 years, it's perceived as different or out of place in the church.  Only because most couple don't waste much time in having children (to be honest, this makes perfect sense.  Most LDS people spend their unmarried life as virgins, so it really isn't difficult to get down after they're married).
For me and my husband, we have only been married two and a half years, and already we feel out of place, and in some cases judged by others by the fact that we don't have children, or at least in the process of having one (aka pregnant).  When we moved into our current ward six months ago, the first question people asked was "how many children do you have?"  The second is "how come you don't have children?"  or my personal favorite, "you don't want children right now! Enjoy the time while you can!"
While I'm sure these people mean well and are just wanting to know us, they really need to remember one thing: THINK BEFORE ASKING SUCH A PERSONAL QUESTION.  The truth is, we do want children! And actually, we have been trying to conceive a child for a little over a year no, with no luck.  And every time someone asks me that question, it's like a knife to my heart and a punch to my stomach, as if someone else was kind enough to remind me that I'm not doing my job as a woman, to be fertile and to produce babies like a freakin machine.  And yet people seem to make it their business to find out why we don't have kids and when we should.
Of course, as you can see this is something I would definitely not post on Facebook, I don't want to complain so loud where the whole world can see.  People may see here but no one knows who we are so I don't really care who knows that we suck at making babies.  For this reason I also ask for people out there to be courteous as to what they say or post out there, especially about marriage or children.  You never know who is going to read your stuff and cry into a pillow because your post reminded them that they are still single or yet are still childless.  You can rest assure that when we finally have the opportunity to tell people we are expecting, I won't do some silly announcement or picture to brag to the world that my husband's swimmers actually work.  I'll let the really important people know the way I want them to know.
Yours truly
LDS woman

For Starters

This is not a blog meant for attention or for bragging.  I'm not one of those crazy Mormon mommies who take a zillion pictures of the cute hobby lobby crafts I did earlier during the week.  Or the cute things my child said or the funny things that happened in our life.  Truthfully, I have no children to show off, and I can't craft worth a crap.  But I like to think of myself as an intelligent woman, whom the best way I can express my thoughts and ideas through writing.  This is mostly a journal, an insight if you will to what I really think about as I go through life.  I'm not looking for viewers in any sense.  Just somewhere I can write my thoughts and can look back on them in the future.
I already know what others might think: "isn't that what a journal is for?" "If you're not looking for attention why are you writing a blog about it?" "I hate bloggers!"  Well, the truth is, I'm not a good journal keeper.  And even though I'm not attention seeking, if my thoughts were to somehow penetrate into someone else's mind and possibly help them for the good, then I'll feel that I helped at least one person in this world.  If i write it in a journal who would see it? Who would benefit from it? Who would it help?  No one really.  So that's why I chose a blog.
To respect and protect the privacy of myself and my family, I will not disclose personal information about myself ourselves.  Only that I am married, whom I will refer to as "the hubs", or "hubby", "husband" (you get the picture).  I will reveal, however, my religion.  Because my thoughts mainly center around my beliefs and the things I was taught throughout my life, and the things I learn since then.  I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  In short terms, LDS, or as most people know us as, the "Mormons".  I will always refer myself as to our actual title, or LDS for short.  Mormon to me is an ugly term in which people only associate with people who have enough children for three families and have five men in the household (which everyone should know by now, we don't practice that.  We haven't for several decades.)  Anyone who should have a question about our church or our beliefs should always feel welcome to ask.
So, this is just an introductory.  I'll begin writing my actual thoughts here soon, with every intention of making this a regular habit.
Until then,
Thoughtful Latter-Day Saint