Oh, IKEA, I love you. You make this possible:

This too (notice the white shorts):

This is how they got that way:

And my favorite contribution:

So serious!  I don’t know what your future holds, little girl, but I can’t wait to watch you work at it.

I’m sewing blocks tonight and I ran across Grosgrain. I can only imagine being able to sew beauties like this:

Can you do this? Beautiful stuff, I tell you.

But here I am getting distracted from the sewing project that needs to be finished before a certain little boy turns 1.

Here are some more beauties I can’t help pretending to make:

Tiny Happy’s Wrap Dress: I think I could make this one. Maybe.

Not so baby Yoda sweater: I can knit… Can I finish?

Anna Maria Horner: Not just projects, but a really awesome fabric designer

I was driving down the 55 freeway this morning on a bit of a detoured trip to IKEA. (We bought another potty for 3.99!!!) And I saw this beautiful billboard:

Chances are
there’s
a CHOC
miracle in the
car next
to youChances are there’s a CHOC miracle in the car next to you

There was one in our backseat! CHOC stands for Children’s Hospital of Orange County and Audrey spent 11 days in their NICU when she was born prematurely. Then, she spent another 3 days in the pediatric ICU when she was 3 months old after spiking a high fever on my 1st Mother’s day.

I love CHOC. If you’re local and have kids, I’m guessing you’ve spent some time at CHOC, or like the billboard says, there are CHOC miracles all around us.

Here was my miracle today:

BJORN LOMBORG in an opinion piece at the WSJ asks:

If you had a spare $10 billion over the next four years, how would you spend it to achieve the most for humanity?

This is an absolutely amazing article where eight of the world’s top economists identify the global challenges that can be solved most cost-effectively. Preventing terrorism? Not a great investment. Vitamins for children in Africa? Great idea.

The article also asks readers to think about how they would spend that kind of money to benefit all of humanity. I’ve had the privledge of working with philanthropists before so I’ve done my share of do-gooder daydreaming, but never at that dollar level.

Taking the “benefit all humanity” requirements to mind, I think my first inclination would be a major campaign of micro-investments and loans into developing countries coupled with a large push for the dissemination of prescription drugs.

I would also pour money into the arts, both here and in the developing world. I’ll never forget seeing a canvas painted by African orphans. They didn’t have many supplies so they had to work together on the painting, resulting in an incredibly interesting combination of styles and perspectives. Food, shelter and medicine only work to heal part of a person–the arts are integral for the health of souls.

Rod Dreher at Crunchy Con tipped me off to this article and also shared what he’d do with the spare cash. Here’s my favorite of his ideas:

I would also spend heavily on an array of Benedict Option pilot projects — providing land and seed money for various experiments in traditional, religious, self-sustaining communal life, to see what works and what doesn’t in a modern context. The idea would be to pioneer ways of preserving the best of our religious, cultural and agricultural traditions, and handing them down to the next generations.

What would you do with the money??

It’s not bills.

I am a member of the World Trade Center Health Registry.  Every year or so, I get a little survey asking about my health.  Why?  Because I used to give directions to my apartment by saying, “make a left at the explosion.”

Not so fun.

Perhaps I’ll write more about that sometime.  Rather not now.

Anywho, most of the WTCHR mail asks me how I’m doing.  I check the boxes and thank God I haven’t developed asthma and I don’t feel anxious all the time.  It’s not great mail, but I can live with it.  The latest brochure was much, much worse.

I knew all those statistics would eventually rear their ugly head.   There’s now a WTC Environmental Health Center set up at several hospitals around the city.  My update your info packet also enclosed a scary blue brochure asking:

Do you have Health Problems Related to 9/11?

I don’t think so.  But the testimonials inside were heartbreaking.  So many people, so many symptoms.  That toxic dust that coated everything for weeks–it really was toxic.

Lord Have Mercy on those who died that day.  On those who lost loved ones.  And on those who are still dealing with chronic health problems.  Have mercy on us.

I’ve been reading the Money Saving Mom blog off and on for a couple of months now, and am playing along with the CVS “game” a little here and there. I only get one paper’s worth of coupons and our local stores always seem to be out of the best deals, but it’s saved us some money.

Today I saw this post. It instructed readers how to sign up for an Amazon Prime free trial, promptly cancel and still get $10 credit towards your next purchase. I immediately followed the steps, ordered a cheesy fantasy novel for $7.99 and didn’t pay a dime. It should show up by Thursday. As soon as I got the order confirmation, I was hit by this question:

Did I just steal a book?

The part of me that did the ordering in the first place says, technically, no. That $10 in credit was part of their marketing budget. The author and publisher will still get paid.

But I have no intention of renewing the $79 per year Amazon Prime service. It enables you to get free 2 day shipping–not really worth it when I order 5 times a year. When I followed the directions to get my free $10, I knew that I was not who the marketing campaign was targeting, I was just taking advantage of a large corporation’s advertising efforts.

Not to sound too high and righteous; advertising efforts take advantage of me every day, so maybe I was due. I didn’t steal the book in the literal sense of the word, but I’m still not happy about the whole process.

I tried to leave a comment of the blog, but it either fell victim to cyberspace glitches or moderation. As many of us try to cut back in a tough economy, I’m wondering where you’re going to draw the line. For me, it’s no more freebies when I’m not genuinely interested in the service or product. There may be some other things to consider, but it’s a start.

I’m not saying that Amazon needs my $7.99. But they do need our 7.99. When I was a teenager, my dad showed me how getting a free Starbucks from your friend who works there is tantamount to stealing. This situation is different because the program was authorized by someone higher than a 17 year-old’s desire to be liked, but I still feel the same icky.

So here’s my question to all of you, and I know you’re there because I see that hundreds of you stop by every week and say absolutely nothing.

What are you doing to save money (if anything?)

and

Did I steal this book????

There are LOTS of things swirling in my head right now that I’d like to put into a blog post. So many.

I want to write about

• How our list of prayers for the dead should really stop growing
• All of the preschools I’ve been visiting and how there should be one with this
• This Speaking of Faith interview with Barbara Kingsolver that I just re-listened to
  (and how it makes me want to grow more vegetables)
• My sinking suspicion that out life needs to slow down more–and I don’t think we’re that busy
• The latest book I’m afraid to read: Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life

But- I’m trying desperately to launch a new project out the door and know that I have to keep up here or I’ll lose all of you who never leave comments (bad you!) So, here’s a list of words another busy brain has been spouting:

Knows for sure:

Meow
Bath (this was her 1st one)
Mama
Dada
Nana
Papa
Auntie
Ball
Bear
Dog
Cat
Bubbles
Pool
Zebra
Bow (and she does!)
Mail
Peas
Please (sounds more like “eeeese”)
Elmo (Welmo)
did I mention Meow?
Hot
Brrrr (that would be cold)
NO!
No, mama.
Know? (with a raised shoulders and arms)
All Done
Blue (all colors are blue)
Noodle
Basa (that’d be kielbasa)
What’s That (was tat?)
More
Beach (sounds like bitch…)
Melon
Birthday Cake (birday cay)

There are some more words I’ve heard her mimic, but not say without prompting. Of course, I can’t remember most of them.

But my favorite thing I’ve heard come out of her mouth:

Renoir

I’m not joking. We look at impressionist paintings in a little book (in French!)

She’s a genius. Or at least a really cool sponge.

I know my Orthodox readers won’t be shelling out any dough for this service, but I thought I’d inform the general Christian public that if you get raptured there’s now a company out there to make sure your friends and family get an explanatory email.  Yes, you read that correctly.  There’s a company that stands to make $40 from every believer in the rapture out there.  Youvebeenleftbehind.com is there for all your post rapture emailing needs.

Here are just a few juicy morsels from their website.  Take them as you wish:

“Programmed and run by Christians, for Christians “  I guess that means they didn’t outsource to Hindus in India?

“We have set up a system to send documents by the email, to the addresses you provide, 6 days after the “Rapture” of the Church. This occurs when 3 of our 5 team members scattered around the U.S fail to log in over a 3 day period. Another 3 days are given to fail safe any false triggering of the system.”   No off the grid team building exercises I guess.

“You remember how, for a short time, after (9/11/01) people were open to spiritual things and answers. (We are still singing “God Bless America” at baseballs’ seventh inning stretch.) Imagine how taken back they will be by the millions of missing”   I remember how my church at the time doubled.  I still have never heard a baseball crowd sing anything but the national anthem or  “Take me out to the ball game”.

If you’re interested in the historical Christian perspective on the rapture, the end times and the whole Jesus coming back business, check out this podcast:

Today marks day 7 of the teething chronicles at our house. Audrey is working on all of her molars at once and her gums are bright red with little white tooth polka dots brewing beneath the surface. Oh how I hate teeth! She can chew just fine, who needs molars?

This latest round of teething knocks out all of the other unpleasant tooth emergent weeks, including the first one we spent at the Lodge in Colorado and thought we were dying from dehydration. My poor bunny! She is so miserable and the only good thing I can think of is that she’s learned where her teeth are. Ask Audrey, “Let me see your teeth.” and she’ll shove her finger so deep in her mouth you have to back up in fear that she’s going to gag up her last round of green onion (numbs the gums) and banana (stops the drool.)

Last night was the culmination of a week without large chunks of sleep. She started to cry during the last few minutes of our recording the latest Man in Black podcast. This was 9 pm. While our friends were circling to leave, I went upstairs and got her back to sleep. That lasted 15 minutes. I warmed up a bottle (a special treat since she’s a sippy cup girl now) and Jake took a turn. Twenty or so minutes later, he had her quiet for a minute and a half and then we decided to let her cry for a while.

Blissful quiet. For 20 minutes. This was long enough for Jake to fall asleep and me to recharge. She would cry for 5 minutes then be quiet for 5… I eventually went in and found her and the sheet soaking wet. That bottle had leaked and she was whimpering. I win the bad mom moment award.

Fresh jammies, nice blankey covering the sheets and I nurse her back to sleep. More crying when she hits the mattress. I go back to bed and think she just needs 5 minutes. I give her 15. At this point, it’s 11:30 and I’ve given up on sleeping in my bed. I’ve taken plenty of red-eye flights and the rocker is more comfortable. The only problem is, I’m willing to sleep in the chair but she’s not. Audrey wants to play on the floor and point “oooh, ooh, ooh” at the light stripes the street lamp is casting on the floor through the blinds.

I take my pillow and blanket and lay on the floor and she plays around me. Who knew she had so many toys that made noise? Eventually, she points at the bottle that now only has 1 ounce of milk and I give the rocker another go. She finishes her bottle and lets me rock her to sleep for the first time in her 14 months of life. I wait until she’s snoring, place a folded blanket in the corner of the crib and angle her head on the raised blanket and her body next to the bumper. Quiet.

I go back to bed and watch the clock hit 12:01. I fall asleep praying the Jesus prayer:

“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me a sinner.”

But by mercy, I mainly mean sleep.

…that I didn’t take.

Here is a link to a beautiful photo essay by Jackie Nickerson, from her latest book of photos titled, “Faith.”

The photos depict Ireland’s Catholic monks and nuns, people who have chosen to practice their faith through what she describes as an “institutional life.”