Small Business Saturday

Shop local! Shop handmade! Shop small businesses!

That was the theme yesterday!

Earlier this week, Elliott's First Christmas ornament arrived in the mail. I ordered it from Amy Miller Designs on Etsy- not local, but handmade, and a small business. I couldn't be more delighted. I feel like it commemorates both his first Christmas (on the 25th) and his first birthday (on the 26th).

Yesterday was the big adventure. We hopped on the Holiday Shopper's Train, thanks to tickets I won recently. Elliott's first train ride! He LOVED it! Mostly, I think he liked looking out the window without being in a car seat. He squealed most the way there. The short train ride went from one nearby town to the courthouse square of our own town.

We got to the Noblesville square and made a beeline for a restaurant we like- Courtney's Kitchen- conveniently right next to where the train dropped us off. After breakfast, we just meandered in and out of shops with craft and antiques, mostly. Elliott's favorite store was The Wild, a children's book and toy store. Amazing. He played with the train table in the back (spoiler: he's getting trains for Christmas) while I looked at everything and resisted buying the entire store.

The local visitor's organization had free hot chocolate & visits with Santa going on in their office. Though the hot chocolate was unnecessary- it was as beautiful & warm a day we could hope for at the end of November- we stopped by. I wanted to try to get a Santa picture. Turns out, we got the classic baby-and-Santa picture. By "classic", I mean, he was terrified of the large, strange man. I'll admit, I laughed.

We ended the jaunt with a trip to Alexander's for ice cream and a train ride back to our car. Such a nice day!

See all my Small Business Saturday adventure pictures.

What will I tell him?

Four, five, ten years from now, he'll have questions.
About the images appearing on the news every September.
About the planes. And the buildings. And the crying people.

About the heroes. The firefighters and police and dogs and airplane passengers.
About the villains. Why and how and who and when.
About the victims. Could it be me? or mommy? or daddy?

I want to give hope.
The villains were evil men, but not everyone is evil.
I want to tell him the heroes did the right thing even when they were scared.

The victims, we can't forget them.
We can't forget the victims that came later, either,
All over the world.

"There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear."
We can't live in fear, I'll tell him.
Hate won't solve anything.

Forgiveness is hard.
Perfect love, even harder.
For the world's sake, for your future's sake, we've got to try.

Stuff I'm reading

I could write an entire post about each of these, but, instead, I'll just put these recent articles out there for your perusal.  Enjoy!

The Unexpected Cost of Kids
4 Ways Breastfeeding Saves Money
Cribs & Playpens Associated with Injury & Death
Maternity Leave & Human Rights
Government Survey about Pumping at Work
Top 10 Breastfeeding Controversies in the News

I'll get around to writing a real post someday, promise.

What's the world going to look like?

Although I've been playing 'stay at home mom' (and, more recently, 'work at home mom') these last couple months, I've done my best to keep up with world events, as to not totally live in a bubble. World news as of late has gotten me thinking- what will the world look like when this baby sleeping on my lap learns world geography? There's turmoil in so many countries all of a sudden- what will come of it? Will new nations exist? Will the same nations exist, but look very different than they do today?

CNN has an 'unrest in the Middle East' primer of sorts, and includes these countries:

Egypt
Bahrain
Tunisia
Iraq
Iran
Libya
Morocco
Algeria
Sudan
Yemen
Djibouti
Jordan
Kuwait
Syria
Palestine

That's a long list! It's funny how, to 'spread democracy' to these countries, cell phones and social media and grassroots movements seem to be having more of an effect than Western invasions. As a kid, I had a globe that included the USSR, and was missing the former Soviet republics that didn't exist until I was 6 or 7. I better wait to buy Elliott his first globe until after this all settles down!

I Can't Win.

As some of you know, Josh is allergic to peanuts (among other things). Very early on in my pregnancy, I started doing research- Should I eat peanuts? Some said No! It will sensitize this already-genetically-prone-to-allergies kid to the food, and cause harm. Others said, Go ahead! It will desensitize the kid or have no effect, since you're not allergic and reacting. Everyone also says, Eat lots of protein! and I'm not a big meat eater, so nuts are my preferred way to get it many days. I had a dilemma

Argh.

Based on my research, I settled on the fact that it was OK for me to eat peanuts- I'd not be doing any harm. My midwife thought it was more important that I was getting protein than the risk that eating peanuts was doing any harm- especially since allergies are about over-reaction of the immune system, and babies don't have a very developed immune system until 6 weeks- so it's fine while pregnant.

And then, TIME (which seems to come out with alarming pregnancy news weekly) today published an article, Can Pregnant Moms Give Their Babies a Peanut Allergy? Maybe..

Ugh. Because I don't already have enough to worry about.

According to the article, the American Academy of Pediatrics used to recommend avoiding allergens with a family history of food allergies (That'd be me, well, Josh's family) between 1998 and 2000, but then rescinded that recommendation in 2008 when British studies showed that the advice didn't seem to have an effect on allergy rates. So, I've been following the most recent recommendation. Yay!

This new study, however, shows higher reactions to peanuts in babies whose moms ate peanuts more than twice a week during pregnancy (That'd be me, too. By my calculations, I eat about 5 servings a week of nuts.) According to the researcher quoted in the article, these results aren't enough to change the current AAP recommendation- "I don't think we have enough evidence to tell families to do anything different than what they are already doing," he says, "but the study shows that maybe we should consider in utero exposure as a potential risk factor and study it more going forward." Is the door locked on eating peanuts? Not exactly, but this is making me more skeptical...

Try as I might to do my best research and make the most informed decisions possible, I can't win. Sigh. This making-the-best-choices-for-your-child thing is hard already, and he's not even on the outside yet.

Perspective on the Nursery

The Telegraph has a series of photographs from a new book called Where Children Sleep. LIFE has a photo series too, with some additional children. Check it out. Thanks to my friend Michelle for the link.

The photos depict bedrooms (or, lack of bedrooms) from all over the world, with portraits and short introductions of the child who sleeps there. Some of them are just a one-room hut, or even a bed in a literal dump full of trash and old tires and used gym equipment. Living in our three-bedroom house... setting up a nursery for a yet-to-be-born baby who probably won't even sleep there for months to come... it puts our 6'x10' nursery (that I think feels tiny) into perspective. I have had a lot of fun perusing etsy for decor ideas, but coordinating crib sets* seem to matter less when I'm reminded that many children don't even have a bed, nevertheless a bed in their own room.

* For the record, I'm not registered for a coordinating crib set. Didn't really see the point, since quilts & bumpers & pillows aren't recommended, anyway.

In the news

Language shapes how we think, in a way. This long New York Times article is fascinating, mostly because I'm a word/grammar geek.

If this baby's a mama's boy, it'll be good for his mental and physical health.

Babies who are held "too much" aren't spoiled- they're better people.

Kacie has a great list of tips for Non-Pregnant People

Monty Python's take on hospital birth- why have I never seen this before?! Another reason why my health affiliate is a midwife, and I'm trying to avoid the hospital.

Via @twentysixcats- survival tips for the first month. Great list!

Because I'm a numbers geek, too, I'm really enjoying the Evidence Based Mummy blog. Today she posted a round-up of recent articles.

This is How the World Will End

From The Elms, a video filmed in 2008 in Haiti:


When the dollar made with blood is spent,
When an enemy can't become a friend.
When the better man won't lend a hand,
Baby, this is how the world will end.
When a day of hope is a rarity,
Or a diplomat hasn't time to see
That a child lost is a true offense,
Baby, this is how the world will end.

CHORUS:
Bring a chair up to the table.
Bring a message to the crowd.
Where's a common trust to deliver us from the wretched and the proud?
Sing a tune about the promise.
Speak on that which we depend.
And if a certain light don't shine again,
Baby, this is how the world will end.

When the poorest kid is fending for himself,
Or the widow cries, but she gets no help.
When we know what's true, but we still pretend,
Baby, this is how the world will end.

I'm still overwhelmed at the loss in Haiti. Friends of mine were just there a couple months ago, and reported back on the abject poverty they saw- before the disaster. Check out their articles on World Next Door both before and since the earthquake, especially Barry's post Heartache. This CNN article tugged at my heart as well, and made me aware and concerned for the orphans in Haiti- the orphanages that were full before the quake, and the many, many more beds needed in those children's homes now that so many more parents have died. My heart breaks.

Meet Jaden

Within the last year, a friend & coworker's oldest son was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, and immediately their family's world was turned upside down.



Jaden's walking in the JDRF Walk To Cure Diabetes in just over a week. If you'd like to learn more, join them, or sponsor them, check out Team J's page. They've already done an awesome job fundraising, but every little bit will help, until there's a cure!

Priorities.

From Reuters via Julie :

As Congress debates a White House-proposed $700 billion bailout for the worst financial crisis since the Depression of the 1930s, Bono questioned why wealthy countries had not been able to come up with enough aid for the world’s problems.

“It is extraordinary to me that you can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can’t find $25 billion to save 25,000 children who die every day of preventable treatable disease and hunger,” the U2 lead singer told Clinton’s fourth annual philanthropic summit in New York. “That’s mad, that is mad.” … “Bankruptcy is a serious business and we all know people who have lost their jobs,” Bono said, referring to the bankruptcy declared by Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. “But this is moral bankruptcy.”

There's a lot that could be said about the current financial crisis, but Bono's right- there are more important things we're totally ignoring. The financial crisis is urgent, to be sure, but so are the 25,000 children dying each day. Our priorities are wrong.

Trick question

During my high school years, I worked at the local public library. Daily newspapers would only stay on the shelf for a few months before they were rotated out- we did the cleaning at the end of each month, and piles of papers got tossed.

Many times, papers reporting on significant events were stolen from the library and never made it to the 3-month clean-up. Imagine my surprise when I found the September 11, 2001 issue of the New York Times in the throw away pile! I snagged a look at it

Any guess as to what the New York Journalists were talking about in the September 11, 2001?
Terrorism?
Thousands of deaths?
Muslims in America?
Airport security?

Here's a list of the top stories:

• Strict Arsenic Limit Sought
  
• Violence in Mideast, Despite Plans to Talk
  
• KEY LEADERS TALK OF POSSIBLE DEALS TO REVIVE ECONOMY
  
• Scientists Urge Bigger Supply Of Stem Cells
  
• In a Nation of Early Risers, Morning TV Is a Hot Market
  
• School Dress Codes vs. a Sea of Bare Flesh
  
• Nuclear Booty: More Smugglers Use Asia Route
  
• CAMPAIGNING FOR MAYOR: THE VOTERS; City Voters Have Heard It All As Campaign Din Nears End
  
• Traced on Internet, Teacher Is Charged In '71 Jet Hijacking
  

If I remember right, the School Dress Code story was the biggest on the page. Which goes to show- the world can change in an instant. We don't know today what tomorrow's issues will be, or what will really matter a week from now. When I read articles about fall fashion trends or the best diet pill or what celebrity just had a baby, my thoughts drift back to this front page.

I still have the paper as a reminder. We are dust; we don't know what tomorrow holds.

Links this week

• Festival of Frugality
• Kite Runner star is threatened in his native Afghanistan - We really liked this movie, and thought it was very well-done. Josh even ran out to get the book! Hard issues are dealt with in the movie, however, causing it to be banned in Afghanistan- and the boy actors threatened.
• Eating local on a budget - last summer, I made a big effort to try to eat local, and only did so a little bit. This summer, I'm barely trying, and yet we eat something local in every meal. I think having local food growing in the backyard is a big help. Last night's meal: stir fry with peas, carrots, and broccoli from the backyard. Hopefully, local food will continue to become part of our lifestyle, rather than a novelty.
• Speaking of local, is Walmart going local? Doesn't mean I'll start shopping there. In other Walmart news: If Costco can treat their employees well, why can't WalMart? Yeah, we're Costco members. Of the choices of box stores where you can buy both computer memory and oranges, I'll take the one that pays its employees better.
• Why would anyone choose dial-up? Apparently people are doing it. We did for a while, and it wasn't a bad choice.
• Is debt inevitable? This is an NPR interview with Barbra Ehrenriech, author of Nickel and Dimed and This Land is Their Land on my age group, and how debt is practically unavoidable. I could relate when she talked about college grads starting out with, on average, $20,000 in student loans, but she isn't very hopeful for us recent-college-grads prospects starting out. I hope to be a counterexample.
• Forbes Best Places to Raise a Family list is out. Who's at the top, #1 spot? That's right, Hamilton County, IN, where I live smack on the middle of. Who's number 2? Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, where we visit family a couple times a year. I can be critical of my county from time to time, but, on the scale of things (apparently) I have it pretty good. Rankings were based on the quality of the school districts, cost of living, graduation rate, standardized scores, home price, property tax rate as a percentage of median home price, percentage of homes occupied by owner, per-capita income, air quality, crime rate and commute time. Hamilton County scored highly on everything except air quality, where it was only mediocre. Perhaps we'll stick around here for a while.
  

Links this week

• Festival of Frugality
• What do the candidates tax plans mean for you?
• While Americans worry about the best acne treatment or latest diet, the AIDS crisis continues. TIME has a photo essay on global epidemics. One organization, Loving South Africa, is trying to deal with the issue from all angles in the epicenter of the crisis.
• This made Josh & I laugh. It's probably not funny if you haven't gotten one of the silly email forwards previously, though. If I get one again, I know how I'm replying :-P
• In other news, I'm harvesting peas this week. Fresh peas are yummy.
  

links for today

• Funny newspaper headlines & ads. I read through pages of these, and have been trying not to solicit stares by laughing loudly. It's not an easy thing to do. Hat tip: Mental_floss
• It can snow in June in Montana. And it's normal! When we were leaving our honeymoon about this time 2 years ago, we heard on the radio as we left that flurries were expected the next day. It boggles my mind. I'll take hot weather over cold any day. Hat tip: Two Frog Home
  
• People in Orlando are being arrested for feeding the poor. The author calls it "Unconscionable". I agree.
  
• What one woman did with her stimulus check. I admire her efforts. For us, we won't be stimulating the economy, we'll be paying down school loans. What are you planning to use your check for?
• This week's Carnival of Personal Finance
• Go over to Brett's blog & wish them a congratulations for bringing Jonah Benjamin home! He's such a cutie!
  

Bye for now

The four-day Wedding Festival begins tonight, so I'll probably not be on here blogging for the next few days. I'll be busy seeing family from Georgia and hanging out with my sister's sorority friends and getting my hair done and partying at the Zoo instead. Who knows, I may post a picture after the weekend of me in a dress! With makeup on! And my hair done!

(but only maybe.)

What're YOU up to this weekend?

In the meantime, check out some links of interest:

• The Carnival of Personal Finance
• Make It From Scratch Carnival
• Mosquito Nets: Apparently they're a trendy charity item. My church is participating, and that was the first I had heard of it, but I'm fairly un-trendy. Hence the pigtails I'm wearing right now.
  
• Speaking of "Til Death Do Us Part": A couple who vows to stay within 15 feet of each other. And a more mainstream couple who gave it a try for a day. I think it'd be fun. But, then, so would living in a yurt in the desert, right?
  

Clinton's Plan to Win It

Read a New York Times editorial published earlier this week that made me laugh.

If Clinton wants to continue, there’s $11 million that says she has paid for the right to go the distance. But is it hopeless? Not entirely. Given the Democratic Party’s innovative method of doling out delegates, all that’s necessary for her to snatch the nomination is:

1) A big, big win in Kentucky next Tuesday. Ideally, Obama should be limited to no more than 100 votes.

2) Oregon, scheduled for the same day, inexplicably breaks off and sinks into the Pacific Ocean.

3) Puerto Rico, clocking in on June 1, not only gives Clinton a huge majority, but also manages to become a state in advance of the vote.

4) Finally, on June 3 as the South Dakota polls open, Thomas Jefferson’s head on Mount Rushmore comes to life and starts shouting, “You go, girl.”

An ambitious scenario, true. But nothing less than we’ve come to expect from the most hard-working political family in American history.

On planning a party

Luke 14:12-14

Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

Millionaire birthday boy parties with homeless

Taj Chahal has thrown himself some great birthday bashes. He has rented limos to take his friends to San Francisco. He's flown to Vegas.

This year, for his 29th birthday, Chahal decided to do something a bit different: He hosted a surprise party for 300 total strangers - complete with birthday cake and party favors for everyone - at Martha's Kitchen, a San Jose charity that serves meals to the homeless and working poor.

Church happenings

A new series is starting up at church this week (see right). I'm excited about it, because I care deeply about social justice issues, and I appreciate that the church is addressing them head-on. My alma mater is addressing the issues head-on as well, with a Social Justice week. And, in a weird connection, the pastor of my church will be receiving an honorary doctorate from my alma mater in a few weeks.

Another exciting development at church: a community garden that will used to grow fresh produce for a local food bank. I think it's a great idea. I hope it flourishes well. They're going to try to use sustainable, chemical- and pesticide-free methods in the half-acre garden, making it not only an effort to end hunger, but part of the creation-care value of the church as well.

Worship CD plug

A few months back, Josh and others from his choir at church headed up to Alexandria, IN with their choir director to record a few songs at the Gaither's studio. That alone was a cool experience and an adventure. Imagine our excitement this weekend when we got, in our hands, the CD that was the fruit of that trip- complete with Josh's name in the credits!

His choir director, Carmen D'Arcy (Her last name is actually "Stanczykiewicz", but that doesn't play well on the radio. DJs have trouble with it. So do I. The recording company decided to use her maiden name.), had her CD released TODAY and on the radio across the country. Get it on Amazon! Or take a listen & read the lyrics on her website or Facebook* or MySpace page*!

And! The Big Event! On May 2nd at 7pm, join the choir and Carmen and lots and lots of other people at a worship event/CD release concert at Grace Community Church!



It will be fun. Josh will be singing, along with (obviously) Carmen. I will probably be scurrying around behind the scenes helping with the "hospitality room".

And, on a more serious note, I have appreciated the way Carmen leads us in worship at church, and the passion and excitement she exudes from up front. Josh ahs loved having her as a choir director. She's lots of fun. The CD definitely communicates all of that. I'm glad to have a copy.

Fun fact: All the pictures for the CD insert were taken at the place Josh's mom works- a beautiful art gallery in Zionsville, IN.
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* Don't take this as an endorsement of social networking sites. It's not. But, if you're already networked, just thought you might like to check hers out.

Stuff to chew on

• From True Womanhood In the New Millennium: How do we differentiate in our faith between cultural bias and biblical truth? What 'norms' have crept into the Christian subculture that aren't biblical, but still 'expected'? I thought it was an interesting topic to discuss.

• From Reformergent: Does it sometimes seem that the World does more for causes that Christians care should about than Christians themselves?

The human-rights issues in Tibet (and Darfur, Sudan, etc) are something every Christian should have awareness and conviction about. Yet, it seems like Christians are one of the most silent voices on the issue. Obviously there are some Christian groups doing something about it, but by-and-large it hardly feels like a hot button issue. I can understand why Christians don’t hold the same banners as groups like Peta or the Sierra Club (thought sometimes we should), but human-rights issues we should be as passionate, if not more, than those in the world. I understand too the difference between peaceful protest and those that cause civil unrest, and I definitely think Christians should opt for the peaceful form.

What was even more amazing to me, as I flipped through the news today, was two separate interviews that were the only “Christian” related subjects today. The first was a woman who was asked why she wanted McCain to remove Mit Romney from the list of possible vice-presidential candidates. Her reasoning is that he has allowed same-sex marriages in his state as well as waffles on abortion even after his conversion. She said as a Christian, those are not values we can stand for. Secondly, in a separate interview, a school in the midwest was having some ‘wacky clothing’ week, and one of the days was a cross-dressing day. There was an old curmudgeon from the Christian media world talking about how it was some sort of abomination that this was taking place, even though little to no parents or students really saw it as a problem.

That’s what Christians stand for in America? Has it really gotten this bad?

Read the whole thing.

• On prophetic preaching: I've not mentioned anything about this yet, but have seen a couple good posts/articles lately on the topic, so I thought I'd point them out. Let's ignore political leanings and the over-played clips for a moment, and think in a more meta- way about what the media and America's reaction to the Rev. Wright controversy means.

Julie Clawson was troubled by America's reaction to the clips for a couple reasons that deeply bothered me, too:

Two thoughts keep surfacing in the things I read - first that Obama should have caused dissension and left his church community years ago. This assumption reveals the opinion of many Americans that this is how church should operate. If you don’t like something at church, you need to initiate a coup and/or leave the church for a better option
....
The second assumption I’m encountering is that pastors shouldn’t be controversial or prophetic, especially if that involves questioning America. This elevation of civil religion and America worship is scary.

CNN echoed these thoughts in an article yesterday, saying the black churches have strayed from the prophetic and bold preaching of Dr Martin Luther King, and the most prominent churches tend toward a prosperity-gospel message. They elevate comfortable Tuscany villa rentals over the work of the Kingdom. Comfort over "taking up your cross". This is happening in African American churches as well as white churches.

Black prophetic pastors rarely fill the pews like other pastors, though, because their message is so inflammatory, says Henry Wheeler, a church historian. Prophetic pastors like the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the former pastor for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, often enrage people because they proclaim God's judgment on nations, he says.

"It's dangerous to be prophetic," said Wheeler, who is also president of the Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana. "I don't know many prophetic preachers who are driving big cars and living very comfortably. You don't generally build huge churches by making folks uncomfortable on Sunday morning," he said.

Are you at a church that is prophetic or convenient? Do you heard uncomfortable, counter-cultural truths on Sunday mornings, or nice words? Are you committed to your faith community, or are you willing to church-hop to find a message you like better? These are the questions this whole issue has raised for me.
Oh, and, Matt W, I didn't forget the point you made, too.

• Want something sweeter to chew on? Try these chewy chocolate chip cookies. I might. They look yummy.
  

What's been on your mind lately?