Real Hope

I wish I had been as mature as these two in college, then I could have a successful Plan B already in place. Instead I have to work to build a Plan B while re-directing energy from Plan A.

Samurais and Cowboys

I have needed a good movie list for a long time. While perusing the usual suspects, I came across a great archive of movies for boys at MommyLife. I'm off to Netflix to update my queue.

Lessons in the Pages

I am usually self-conscious about crying while reading bedtime stories to my girls, but Angel in the Waters is definitely worth it. It is a beautiful telling of birth from the eyes of the child; but it is more than that. It passes on spiritual and eschatalogical truth in a way that is both simple and deep. The art is well above most children's book art and is a pleasure to see. Read this to your kids, they will ask for it, and don't be afraid to cry.

Much to my relief

SherryTex is back! Visit her and cheer her on! She has written a great blog for a long time, I'll forgive her the brief hiatus since I desperately missed her. Her pieces are most excellent humor, distilled from family living, with the occassional serious piece so that a reader can see her soul.

Link me, link me!

Why an Engineer should have Kids

Although the common engineering reason to become a father is happiness in having a woman, in the Earth's gravity well, who actually tolerates being married to an engineer, the most convincing argument for an engineer to have kids is efficiency.

This was confirmed by my recent post-birth conversation with a fellow engineering bud from Penn State. When I asked him what he thought about fatherhood, his first comment was that he couldn't believe how much time he wasted before children.

From an engineer's perspective, child-induced efficiency occurs in: reduction of TV hours (tv/7) unless you want your kid quoting C.S.I., falling asleep faster (z^4) if sleep is to be had at all, reading dozens of books (12b) in a 9-month window to decide how to be a parent, completing laundry in 1/3 the previous time (t/3) despite the fact that the load doubles (2L) with kid clothes, countless hours of free entertainment (1/E-> 0) by watching your newborn try to find his fist, and handyman skill increasing (12h) to keep the house safe.

But the best part is love growing in your home (3L). Nothing makes life better than that.

Radiant Home

Enough is enough. It is a beautiful, cool night after a brief but necessary rainfall and I have to keep all my doors and windows shut for a radon test. I despise this crazy money-making scheme. Paying to pump air out of my house because miners got lung cancer. At least I can still choose not to have my future home tested.

What's missing?

A Christian, homeschooling, parody songwriter who is for limited government; what's not to like about Tim Hawkins?

Painting the Nursing Picture

The Art of Breastfeeding was a good read on the whole picture of breastfeeding. The science was very well covered, including both the nutritional content of mother's milk and the physiology of the mother's and child's bodies. Even though I have plenty of experience with breastfeeding, I learned quite a bit about the underlying biology. I do wish the book had more further covered lactational amenorrhea , since that is of particular interest to me. A good read, I'm glad that I bought it.