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??

And it don’t hurt!

Now when Audrey stands at our closed sliding door to the patio, she points and says, “dirty?”

She wants to get dirty.  I love that.  I think.

Motherhood uncensored has a brilliant little idea to encourage blog readers to click through their RSS feeds and give the blogs they love a little extra traffic. Since I’ve managed to totally mangle my rss button, I don’t think I have too many subscribers. But if you read other blogs, check out her whole post and send a little love to the writers you read each day.

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????

I have been overwhelmed this last week.  I know part of it was not having Jake around for 3 days and there was another part that really had to face what living with a toddler is going to be like.  Now that were done with the nursing, she really isn’t a baby at all any more so we made some big organizational progress and packed up all the small baby toys and sealed up the baby clothes.  No more baby.  I know there are complicated emotions here, but there’s more to this story.

When Jake has gone out of town for business before, I’ve always lazied away the first few days then gotten my act together just before he came home–so the clean house would make him think that’d I’d been productive the whole time.  This trip, I cleaned the first day but by the time he came home, we’d degenerated into mild chaos again.

Cleaning is very near the bottom of the things I like to do list. Having a clean house is pretty dang near the top.  I’m so stressed when the house isn’t clean, and even worse so when I clean and can’t see the results a few hours later. Not only is it terribly discouraging, but it invariably sends me into a downward spiral of feelings of inadequacy.   I know that having a clean house doesn’t make me a better person, wife or mother, it just would be really nice if it was clean.

So–as I was clearing up the accumulated clutter this afternoon, I had a brilliant (perhaps) revelation.  I walked up the stairs, carrying my sewing machine and basket, and almost set it down next to the little storage cabinet in our bedroom.  My first inclination was to leave it on the floor and add to the mess on our bedroom floor.  Then, I thought, I bet it would only take 30 seconds to finish putting this away.  It took 26.

Most things only need 30 more seconds.  We rush around all day and when I finally get some no-baby time, the last thing I want to do is spend an hour cleaning up the day’s mess.  I think that if Jake and I each spent 30 more seconds at the end of each task, it will significantly cut back on the time I’m spending to clean.  And, most importantly, the time I’m spending feeling guilty for not cleaning.

I know I can’t make a major change right away, but my goal is 30 seconds/30 days of a clean car.  If we can do it there, I know I can bring the system into the house.

What works for you???  Is it possible to wrangle a toddler, run a freelancing business and keep the house moderately tidy?  I don’t need perfection, but I’d love to hear what you think.

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.

Of all the things I was committed to as a non-parent, it was the idea that I would raise our children to enjoy many kinds of food.  There was no way I wanted to relive my nanny experience–the kids would only eat strained spaghetti sauce, corn or broccoli and potatoes.  They also helped themselves to nearly a quart of ice cream every night and only got exercise on a concrete basketball court that was on a roof of their building complex.

Audrey still eats lots of different foods.

You could say we got lucky.  That’s probably some of it.  We also made it a huge priority from a very early age.  I made her baby food. I tried to introduce non traditional vegetables and meats.  We used green onions for teething relief.

I also clung to an article one of my college roommates brought home from an anthropology  class.  It talked about something to the effect of how Italian families never serve children separate meals.  Kids eat the same foods as adults.  There was also something as to how the father would star meals with a statement like, “Look at the wonderful meal Mama has prepared for us.”  It was all about how different cultures set the stage for eating and how, unfortunately, American society has not made eating well a priority.

Here’s an article in Gourmet magazine that sounds a lot like something I would have written. I hope the author gets her wish.

Audrey still often eats at a different time than Jake and I do, mainly because she’s been ready for dinner around 4:30pm for the last several months.  Still, last night, she and I sat down to bowls of creamy garlic chicken pasta.  Her favorite part was the broccoli.

Good old Relevant magazine has this interview with the Democratic nominee for president.   Does it assuage all my concerns?  No.  Is it as good as I think we’re going to get.  Yep.

We’ll see if Jake still hides my voting ballot come election day…

We learned a very  important lesson a few years ago.: Pay your web domain bills on time!   AND– make sure you are the one in charge of paying the bill.  Jake was the pastor of Rock and Roll church at the time and the guy who built our website had moved and wasn’t responding to our emails or calls.  Our rather popular domain name expired and was purchased out from under us.  Big bummer.

I did some serious linking in my last post to a certain powerhouse for prosphora information.  It seems the same thing has happened to them.  If you google “prosphora” you can still see the cached pages, but the front of prosphora.org has become a link farm.  I’m not sure what the story is, but I’d say get your prosphora information quick.

My mom thought my last post needed a link to where you can buy seals and I would have suggested that now defunct site, but here’s another link to buying Orthodox Holy Bread seals.  I recommend the plastic–it’s easier to clean.