Thursday, July 31, 2008
Re-thinking groceries
A great post by a homeschooling mom of 14 about how rising grocery prices can inspire us to eat more simple, healthy foods.
via Like Merchant Ships
via Like Merchant Ships
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Homeschooling during morning sickness
What a wonderful post, from a mom who has homeschooled through morning sickness four times:
Read the rest here.
One thing I really struggle with when I am down with morning sickness is the Bad Mother Syndrome. I am convinced that my children are the most unruly, my house the most messy, my world the most chaotic, and I am very, very afraid I will never, ever feel "normal" again. It is during these times that it is most crucial that you ask for the Lord's guidance...Ask Him to show you TRUTH and give you the ability to PERSEVERE.
Read the rest here.
Eating Beef More Destructive to Environment than Driving a Car?
A Japanese study showed that the environmental footprint of producing just over two pounds of beef is greater than that of driving a car for three hours.
Angels without wings
A nice lesson from Danielle Bean about the fact that angels come in many shapes and sizes.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
What’s Lurking in Your Countertop?
Who knew that granite countertops can emit dangerous levels of radon and radiation? It's rare, but here's an excerpt from one woman who had some seriously dangerous counters:
The E.P.A. recommends taking action if radon gas levels in the home exceeds 4 picocuries per liter of air (a measure of radioactive emission); about the same risk for cancer as smoking a half a pack of cigarettes per day. In Dr. Sugarman’s kitchen, the readings were 100 picocuries per liter. In her basement, where radon readings are expected to be higher because the gas usually seeps into homes from decaying uranium underground, the readings were 6 picocuries per liter.
Friday, July 25, 2008
A service that translates voicemails into text
This is a neat idea: you can call a number and leave a voicemail reminding yourself about something, and it will translate it into text and email it to you. I'm not sure about pricing, but I think at least some of their services are free.
via Rachelle Gardner
via Rachelle Gardner
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Advice for Christian writers
I happened to stumble across the blog Rants and Ramblings today, and I'm delighted to have found it. Christian literary agent Rachelle Gardner offers tales from her line of work, including excellent, straightforward advice for Christian writers. I thought this post about how to write fiction and nonfiction book proposals was very helpful.
Advice for moms of preschoolers
Katherine, a mom of five, has some great tips for optimizing the preschool years.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
The "no spend" month
A family of three tries to spend less than $250 for 31 days. Wow! See the bottom of that post for updates.
via the comments at Simple Mom
via the comments at Simple Mom
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
American Medical Association comes out against homebirth
Both the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists are speaking out against homebirth. The ACOG is very concerned about the safety of newborns, when they're not supporting their brutal murders (see excerpted quote towards the middle at that link).
An interesting commercial
A pro-family commercial from Germany. Interesting that they're running this.
via Thoughts of a Regular Guy
via Thoughts of a Regular Guy
You are about to have a bad day when...
This picture is obviously fake, but it's amusing nonetheless.
Monday, July 21, 2008
On not giving up
A touching, powerful post by a father who is trying to help his troubled 18-year-old son.
The three day rule
A mom and stepmom share their secret for maintaining peace. I thought this was a great idea.
Skin care secrets for looking fabulous at 90
Big Mama's grandmother shares her skin care secrets, after so many of us demanded to know after seeing these fabulous pictures of her on her 90th birthday (she's the one in the blue dress).
Sunday, July 20, 2008
On hypocrisy
Dr. Bob has some very thought-provoking excerpts from an article on the topic of hypocrisy:
Read the rest here.
Because hypocrisy requires the hypocrite to believe in something or someone outside himself. Hypocrisy requires an aspiration to something higher or better than oneself. That is the meaning of the folk saying, “Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue.” Hypocrisy is an imperfect, deficient attempt to be better.
Read the rest here.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Why people with bad short-term memories shouldn't pull campers behind their trucks
See the video here. As forgetful as I am, I could totally see myself doing this. (According to the news story, nobody was injured.)
via the Cynical Christian
via the Cynical Christian
Friday, July 18, 2008
What does it mean to "know, love and serve God"?
Joe at Living Catholicism has an excellent breakdown of how exactly we can know and love and serve God.
The hidden children
Stories of Jewish children who were hidden by other families during the Holocaust. Click on the wardrobe on the bottom right to see a video of the touching reunion of the people involved in this story:
Jakob Steinkeller heard rumors that the Nazis were planning a "children's action" for the Zawiercie ghetto in which he and his family were forced to live. To save his 5-year-old son Frederik, he approached the Nowaks, a Polish Catholic family that lived above the workshop where he worked. Smuggled to the workshop, Frederik survived the war with the Nowaks. His father Jakob, however, was deported to the Auschwitz killing center. Frederik hid in several locations in the Nowaks' one bedroom apartment-under a table, in a bed, and even inside this wardrobe. Ensconced in these hiding places, he avoided detection by the Gestapo (which had offices in the same building).
Thursday, July 17, 2008
An absolutely amazing video
A baby is born without arms...and grows up to be a happily married man, and an excellent guitarist! Definitely worth taking the time to watch.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Reunion with a lion
Some guys who raised a lion cub are reunited with him after he was released into the wild. Neat video.
A eulogy for a sister
Dom posted the copy of a speech that one of his friends gave at the funeral for his sister, who had Down's Syndrome. Really beautiful.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Cancer's unexpected blessings
A 2007 article by Tony Snow, who recently died of cancer. An excerpt:
Read the rest here.
via DarwinCatholic
The natural reaction [to cancer diagnosis] is to turn to God and ask him to serve as a cosmic Santa. "Dear God, make it all go away. Make everything simpler." But another voice whispers: "You have been called." Your quandary has drawn you closer to God, closer to those you love, closer to the issues that matter—and has dragged into insignificance the banal concerns that occupy our "normal time."
There's another kind of response, although usually short-lived—an inexplicable shudder of excitement, as if a clarifying moment of calamity has swept away everything trivial and tinny, and placed before us the challenge of important questions.
The moment you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change.
Read the rest here.
via DarwinCatholic
A blog post with profound wisdom
Rachel of Testosterhome offers two critical lists of Things Not to Ponder and Things to Ponder at the end of one of those looooong days. Utterly sagacious.
Monday, July 14, 2008
A great how-to site
This site has some very well done how-to articles on pretty much every subject imaginable. Here's an example of how to paint a room (notice the "next" and "previous" buttons with more steps).
The interior mansions - thoughts on spiritual growth
I loved Philosopher Mom's series on Teresa of Avila's "interior mansions." For those of you who aren't familiar with it, St. Teresa wrote a famous book on spiritual growth (The Interior Castle) in which she described the soul as a castle in which God dwells at the very center. She describes the various mansions (rooms) that a soul inhabits as it works its way towards God. E.g. souls who linger in the first mansions have not rejected God, but are not praying frequently; souls in the second mansions have actively decided to seek God but are still vulnerable to falling back into their old selfish ways; etc.
Anyway, this is the best series of blog posts I've read in a while, and I highly recommend taking the time to at least scan it. Here's the link to all the posts in the category (they're all short). Read from the bottom up to start at the beginning.
Anyway, this is the best series of blog posts I've read in a while, and I highly recommend taking the time to at least scan it. Here's the link to all the posts in the category (they're all short). Read from the bottom up to start at the beginning.
Amazing series of pictures
A tugboat on a flooded river gets up to a bridge that it can't fit under. Click on the link to ee what happens next.
via Homemaking Through the Church Year
via Homemaking Through the Church Year
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Sniffing for the "information scent" - how we read online
An interesting piece about how people read on their computer screens, with some good tips about how to write for them. A great point:
Read the rest here.
via Geekpress
[Usability expert Jakob] Nielsen champions the idea of information foraging. Humans are informavores. On the Internet, we hunt for facts. In earlier days, when switching between sites was time-consuming, we tended to stay in one place and dig. Now we assess a site quickly, looking for an "information scent." We move on if there doesn't seem to be any food around.
Read the rest here.
via Geekpress
How the Netflix queue works
An interesting behind-the-scenes look at how Netflix anticipates demand, decides which customers get hot new releases, and more.
via Geekpress
via Geekpress
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Friday, July 4, 2008
Happy 4th of July!
I recently came across this video of our National Anthem being played at Buckingham Palace the day after the 9/11 attacks. I'll never forget watching it at the time. I thought it was one of the most touching performances of the Star-Spangled Banner I'd ever seen.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
The morning kiss
Hallie has a great post where she makes the analogy that not pausing to turn your thoughts to God in the morning like not pausing to give your spouse a morning kiss.
"Obedience gives strength"
I loved this collection of quotes about obedience. One that I didn't see on there, but is a favorite:
"Do you ever wonder why God values obedience more than sacrifice? Because obedience is someone else’s idea of what you should sacrifice."
~David Manuel
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Napping like they did in the womb
I thought this picture of Jessica's twins was too precious. They were monoamniotic, meaning they actually had skin-to-skin contact in the womb.
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