Neat story.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
The scoop on natural disinfectants
A short article about whether or not cheap, natural disinfectants like vinegar and peroxide work to kill food-borne illnesses in the kitchen.
10 tips for moms of little ones
This are excellent tips. Technically the post is about having twins, but I think it applies to all moms of young children.
What sacrifice would you go through to impact thousands of lives?
The sister of a woman who was recently burned badly in a plane crash (that story here) writes a beautiful post about the many lives that have been touched by the tragedy, and wonders if it is even a tragedy at all.
via Finslippy
via Finslippy
Grandma may face jail time for refusing to give back pornographic kids book to library
Quite a story. An excerpt:
Time is running out for JoAn Karkos. The Maine woman has until 4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29 to return the sexually explicit children's book It's Perfectly Normal to a public library in Lewiston.
If she does not, the 64-year-old grandmother may face jail time.
"I'm not giving the book back," Karkos said. "Every citizen has an obligation to protect the innocence of children." [...]
Meant as sex education for preteens and adolescents as young as 10, It's Perfectly Normal contains cartoons of naked men and women in various sexual poses, long-winded descriptions of masturbation and homosexuality as depictions of 'perfectly normal' behavior.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
The girl with the apple
This is one of the most amazing stories I've ever heard, about love and loss and hope from a Holocaust survivor. It's a must-read. (It was also written up in the Orange County Register, although that version is shorter.)
The Global War Against Baby Girls
Joe Carter writes:
Read the rest here. Don't miss the chart at the bottom with the boy-to-girl ratios by province in China. Wow.
If you were asked to name the technologies whose proliferation inadvertently threatens the human race, what would you include? IEDS? Assault rifles? Nuclear warheads?
Add this one to your list: the sonogram machine.
Read the rest here. Don't miss the chart at the bottom with the boy-to-girl ratios by province in China. Wow.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Hippie baby names
I don't know how I found this, but it's amusing. Some of them are pretty nice: I wonder if I could sell my husband on Lyric or Dezra. :)
"Where does your three-year-old go to school?"
An interesting post over at Joyful Chaos (the article she links to is good as well).
Monday, August 25, 2008
How to help a grieving family
A wonderful series of posts written by a mom who recently lost her baby daughter. Definitely worth bookmarking in case you find yourself helping a grieving family. I found the tips for bringing meals and cleaning house especially helpful.
via Rocks in my Dryer
via Rocks in my Dryer
Sunday, August 24, 2008
The uniqueness of earth
Two interesting articles: "Solar System Is Pretty Special, According To New Computer Simulation" and "No Moon, no life on Earth."
via The Deeps of Time
via The Deeps of Time
Homeschooling culture
A mom who's about to start homeschooling her son attended a homeschooling even, and had these interesting observations:
How refreshing!
From the church, the group traveled over to a neighborhood pool for lunch...An ordinary get-together, except for one thing. Nathaniel and I were absolutely floored by all the teenage boys we saw at this event. Tall, handsome, normally dressed teenage boys politely pushing baby strollers, watching siblings at the kids’ pool, and helping their mothers unload swimming gear from their vans. At one point, Nathaniel overheard one of these boys sit down next to another and ask, “Hi, how are you?” It startled him to hear a teenager speak in a complete, polite sentence without any of the posturing for coolness that we remember well from those years.
How refreshing!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Hope after losing a son
This is a touching story of how God worked in the lives of parents who lost their son in Afghanistan. It's a short post -- be sure to read all the way to the end. The last part is amazing.
What caused the Tunguska event?
Leave the Lights On introduced me to this mysterious, fascinating event that occurred in 1908. Read the eyewitness accounts here.
Would the discovery of alien life be a problem for Christians' faith?
Mark Shea has an interesting article. Scroll down to see C.S. Lewis' six criteria that alien life would have to meet in order to pose a problem for Christians. That part is fascinating.
Explore a hand-written Bible from the 4th century
What a great site. Here is where you can actually see each page of this Bible, which contains the oldest complete copy of the New Testament.
via Absolutely No Spin
via Absolutely No Spin
Space shuttle launch as seen from airplane
Neat! (You may want to mute the volume...some profanity slips from the guy filming it.)
via The Cynical Christian
via The Cynical Christian
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Must be seen to be believed
There is a translation of the Bible underway written in LOLCat. People are, uhh, really getting into this LOLCat thing.
Monday, August 18, 2008
A lesson in charity and forgiveness
An inspiring example from St. Jane de Chantal (d. 1641), whose feast day is today:
Read more about her here.
Despite the early financial worries, she and her husband shared "one heart and one soul." They were devoted to each other and to their four children.
One way Jane shared her blessings was by giving bread and soup personally to the poor who came to her door. Often people who had just received food from her would pretend to leave, go around the house and get back in line for more. When asked why she let these people get away with this, Jane said, "What if God turned me away when I came back to him again and again with the same request?"
Her happiness was shattered when [her husband] Christophe was killed in a hunting accident. Before he died, her husband forgave the man who shot him, saying to the man, "Don't commit the sin of hating yourself when you have done nothing wrong." The heartbroken Jane, however, had to struggle with forgiveness for a long time. At first she tried just greeting him on the street. When she was able to do that, she invited him to her house. Finally she was able to forgive the man so completely that she even became godmother to his child.
Read more about her here.
Cake wrecks
This is hilarious. A bunch of photos of cakes gone wrong. I can't guarantee there won't be anything offensive if you click through -- it's amazing what people will do with cakes.
via Homemaking Through the Church Year
via Homemaking Through the Church Year
Wisdom for spiritual dry spells
Laura shares some great advice she found for facing her own spiritual dry spell.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
A how-to guide to grocery shopping only once a month
Raising Arrows has an excellent four-part series about how to do your grocery shopping only once a month. Not only does this save time, but I've heard that people who do this often save money since it minimizes spontaneous purchases and gas use. Here are the posts in the series:
Great series!
Great series!
Friday, August 15, 2008
A couple writes a cutesy story about their upcoming abortion in the New York Times
I found this article perplexing. It's from a few months ago, where a couple talks about having a romantic evening at home, the girlfriend not wanting to drink because she's pregnant, even though she has an abortion scheduled for two days later. The author writes: "Even though the pregnancy is scheduled to be terminated in two days, there’s still something — someone? — inside of her she doesn’t want to hurt." Unbelievable.
It reminds me of this article, also from the Times, where a woman writes casually about how she aborted two of her triplets, relieved that she won't have to shop at Costco. She writes: "I looked at Peter and asked the doctor: 'Is it possible to get rid of one of them? Or two of them?' The obstetrician wasn't an expert in selective reduction, but she knew that with a shot of potassium chloride you could eliminate one or more." Again, unbelievable.
via Jordan
It reminds me of this article, also from the Times, where a woman writes casually about how she aborted two of her triplets, relieved that she won't have to shop at Costco. She writes: "I looked at Peter and asked the doctor: 'Is it possible to get rid of one of them? Or two of them?' The obstetrician wasn't an expert in selective reduction, but she knew that with a shot of potassium chloride you could eliminate one or more." Again, unbelievable.
via Jordan
Stepmom blues
Jill talks about how she often gets a deer-in-the-headlights reaction when it comes up at mommy events that she's the stepmom, and gives some tips for making conversation with stepmoms that won't verge into uncomfortable territory.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Questionable cosmetic company tactics
Some examples of cosmetics companies lightening the complexions African American models. The side-by-side photos also show the incredible amount of Photoshopping they do. It reminds me of this excellent video.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
From tragedy to triumph
The amazing story of Lopez Lomong:
Read the rest here. It's a must-read.
During a Sunday morning Mass 17 years ago, the 6-year-old Lomong, along with about 100 other children, was taken at gunpoint from his parents, driven away blindfolded in a truck and dumped in a cramped, windowless, one-room prison full of boys. There, they were fed millet full of barely visible sand, which prevented proper digestion, and, within days, gradually led to the death of boy after boy.
"They would go to sleep and never stand up again. 'Tomorrow will be my day,'" Lomong said. "But I had three angels." They were slightly older boys who told him to eat just enough of the death gruel to stay alive, but not enough to kill himself. After three weeks, the older trio discovered a hole in a fence. At midnight, crawling while guards talked, stopping when they fell silent, then crawling until they were outside the compound, the four boys began to run. "That is where my race started," Lomong said.
Read the rest here. It's a must-read.
Monday, August 11, 2008
The Hijabi 15
Tradicionalista talks about putting on the "hijabi 15," gaining weight after adopting traditional Muslim conservative dress practices. Since I've been dressing more modestly than I used to, I've noticed the same thing.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
"I wish I could see those two pink lines again"
I just had to reprint this comment by a woman named Susan to Danielle Bean's great article at Inside Catholic. I thought she had such an inspiring attitude:
I have nine grown up children...I was a battle weary mother, also, when I was having my kids. We were very poor at some periods....no hot water, cooking and heating with wood, used clothes and food stamps type poor. I admit to not being happy when I was pregnant with the ninth, to say the least...yet she turned out to be a delight.
Now I am 58 and long past menopause. When I read the bit about standing in the bathroom looking at the little pink lines, my immediate reaction was, "I wish that could still happen to me!" (Only for me it was standing in the Birthright office seeing a tube of fluid turn blue, as there were no home pregnancy tests at that point.) I remember when I was a new mother, a woman who had raised 14 kids (5 of her sister's, who died, and 9 of her own) came up to me and told me she still wished she could have another baby.
It's the most wonderful thing in the world. It seems so difficult at the time, you get so tired, there is so much work, there is never enough money. But later you remember how easy it was to delight them when they were little, how excited they were over a picnic at the local lake, how much they liked to hear you read stories, all of those wonderful things.
So to mothers I say, have as many as you feel you responsibly can...and then if others come nevertheless, be happy over those also.
What's wrong with pornography?
This article makes the case for all the different ways that pornography is destructive to the individual and to society. Here's an excerpt from the part talking about its link to violence against women:
Consider, for example, a study done in the Oklahoma City area. When 150 sexually-oriented businesses were closed, the rate of rape decreased 27 percent in five years, while the rate in the rest of the country increased 19 percent. In Phoenix, Arizona, neighborhoods with porn outlets had 500 percent more sex offenses than neighborhoods without them.
Ted Bundy raped and killed dozens of women. He was sentenced to die in the electric chair and requested that his last interview be with Dr. James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family. In that meeting, Bundy talked openly about pornography and told Dr. Dobson that his struggles all began there. He explained that all of his fellow inmates had an obsession with pornography before going to prison. Porn magazines, web sites, and videos lay at the root of innumerable rapes and murders. [Note: this is the interview I linked to here. -JF]
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Ted Bundy's last interview
This is one of the most fascinating, chilling, disturbing things I've read in a while. The day before being executed, Ted Bundy asked to sit down with James Dobson (found of Focus on the Family) and explain to him how he went from a nice kid raised in a happy Christian home to being a serial rapist and murderer.
Steven Curtis Chapman on Good Morning America
This interview with the Chapmans about the death of their daughter is beautiful and touching.
via Steppin' Heavenward
via Steppin' Heavenward
One for the opera fans
I'm not much of an opera lover, but this collection of various opera stars singing the same song was neat.
via Islam to Catholic
via Islam to Catholic
Rediscovering God
A touching post from Y and Joy Unexpected, who's been going through a sort of religious awakening recently.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Physics and origami
A physicist and origami master explains how knowledge of physics has revolutionized the practice of origami. Fascinating!
via Inside Catholic Video Room
via Inside Catholic Video Room
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Escape from Nihilism
I've only had a moment to scan this, but it looks good:
Read the rest here.
via Jinxblog
Because the presence of God made me more and more uncomfortable, I began looking for reasons to believe that He didn't exist. It's a funny thing about us human beings: not many of us doubt God's existence and then start sinning. Most of us sin and then start doubting His existence.
Read the rest here.
via Jinxblog
Post-Traumatic-Stress Disorder and childbirth
An interesting article from the Wall Street Journal:
Read the rest here.
PTSD is most commonly associated with combat veterans and victims of violent crime, but medical experts say it also can be brought on by a very painful or complicated labor and delivery in which a woman believes she or her baby might die. Symptoms can include anxiety, flashbacks and a numbness to daily life. Even as medical advances have resulted in many more lives saved during high-risk births, extreme medical interventions can leave a mother severely stressed -- especially if she feels powerless or mistreated by health providers.
Read the rest here.
Monday, August 4, 2008
What’s the point? Why bother?
A good answer to the question, "What's the point of life? Why did God make all of this? Why bother?"
Gift idea for fiction writers
The 10 Minute Writer was raving about this software for fiction writers. Looks cool.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
30 Ways to Make Your Life More Simple
Though some of these are obvious, it's surprising how many of them I don't do. Good list.
via Simple Mom
via Simple Mom
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