Tuesday, 17 November 2009

  • Yesssss! Just as I've been saying...

     

    Finally, the medical community is admitting that the dangers of mammograms might outweigh the benefits!

    http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_13801800

    BUT then we read on...it is actually a government task force which is recommending this.

    Now that's interesting, isn't it?  Just as we get to the eve of a government-run health care plan, suddenly it becomes not so important to get tested.  Much as I hate mammograms, I have to wonder if the whole point of this is not to get us used to limiting our care, because of course, that's what's going to happen if the government runs health care.  You'll get less and less care for all the dollars you invest.  Watch for more government taks forces declaring that various medical tests are not worth the money we spend on them...   The telling sentence:  " the incidence of breast cancer among women between 40 and 50 is so low that you have to screen so many women to save one life."  Well, we wouldn't want that, now would we?

    Editing again:  The last line of this article really confused me.  It says that "mammography remains the only test that offers some screening value"  Why then, the last two times I had a mammogram, did they order an ultrasound because they couldn't read the mammogram?  It seems to me that maybe ultrasound might be a better way to screen in the first place!  It's certainly a great deal less painful and invasive.  But then, it may also be more expensive, and you know the government won't like that... 

    The comments on the article are interesting--many people howling that without a routine mammo someone they love would be dead.  But no one raises the question that I have wondered about:  do routine mammos actually traumatize breast tissue (with all the compression and radiation) so much that they actually cause cancer?  That's what *I* would like to see a study on!

     

     

Monday, 16 November 2009

  •  

    This morning I read something that made me realize how vital it is to give thanks for all our gifts. 
    Read it here 

    holy experience

    watching a young couple who has just lost a baby, able to surrender him to God in perfect peace
    old ladies giggling like young girls
    a little creek carrying its harvest of autumn leaves endlessly downstream
    grilling with friends and eating spicy venison
    two young people tentatively seeking each other's company, still unsure whether they are more than friends
    the smell of fresh ground coffee
    my beautiful, warm and cosy butterfly fleece
    a rousing rendition of "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" from my teenagers in the back of the van
    the stark silhouettes of trees against the sky
    a blue and white Delft vase
    laughing as a roomful of people play Guesstures
    my grandmother's Chinese Checkers board
    the last fresh peach dessert of the year
    a full-to-overflowing freezer
    an hour-long massage from my daughter

Saturday, 14 November 2009

  • I Think We've Been Cheated

     

    I just finished reading an article that is absolutely incredibly mind-boggling.  This article (Click here  to read it) states that a rather large experiment was performed in schools, back around 1930, which showed that children who had no formal math training before sixth grade actually caught up with their peers in math by the end of the sixth grade year, showing that when the brain is developmentally ready, math is learned very quickly.  The children were able to learn in one school year what their colleagues had spent six years on.  The even more surprising things is that the children who were part of the experiment FAR surpassed their peers in language.  These children developed more interest in reading, a better vocabulary, and greater fluency in expression than their peers who had spent so much time trying to learn math in the earlier years.  Not only had math study been largely unproductive, but it had cheated them out of time for other activities which would have benefited them more.

    I have long suspected that math is shoved onto kids too soon, and this article made me sort of angry.  If it has been known for all these years that this system works very well, and the children enjoy school a great deal more, then WHY for crying out loud, have we all been forced to struggle with teaching/learning math in the early grades?  Just think, thousands of American children have been taught that math is hard and hateful, when the real problem was that their brains simply weren't ready to assimilate it.  All that time...wasted!  And when I think of all the wonderful learning they have sacrificed because they had to spend a great deal of time on math, it's just terribly frustrating! 

    Makes me wish that I could start all over, and have the courage to go against the status quo, trying this method of teaching.  And it makes me very angry that this method was not adopted nationwide after its success.  It is just WRONG that young children are pressured to so that learning becomes a drag.  And I suspect that children who struggle with math in the early years often give up, feeling that they will never understand it, so when they actually reach the age where they are developmentally ready for it, they no longer have any desire to try.

    I have lamented many times the fact that my children generally want to just "get done with" school, rather than enjoying the process.  It is a sad thing that many people see the learning process as a necessary evil, and completely unrelated to their lives.  I have enjoyed so much all the things I have learned by homeschooling my children, and now I can't help lamenting the fact that we could have made it infinitely more enjoyable for them.  But, having been brought up in the traditional school system, I simply didn't know any better.  I can only pray that God will be able to bless my efforts anyway.

     

    And I can't help thinking that this is a good example of how our government works, too:  If something has been proven not to benefit the people, go ahead and keep doing it anyway...

    Yeah, call me cynical.

     

     

Friday, 13 November 2009

  • Quotes of the Day

     

    If Washington worked with just one-tenth the passion in corralling the enemies of the U.S.
    as it has in ramrodding the Obama-Pelosi health care system down our throats and pocketbooks,
    we'd reduce military acts of terrorism down to zero, inside and outside our borders.
    ~Chuck Norris

    source 

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Moving out at eighteen is a fairly recent, definitely cultural idea, one which regardless of the spiritual implications makes no economic or ecological sense. Does every eighteen-year-old need his own stove and refrigerator? How many square feet of housing are wasted on a solitary individual when the more prudent solution is to share? Why are some people getting their knickers in a knot over the emissions of cows while ignoring the massive impact this exodus of young people has on carbon footprints?
                                                        ~from the editors of Timberdoodle 

     

Thursday, 12 November 2009

  • Currently
    My Side of the Mountain
    By Jean George
    see related

    Do You Hear What I Hear?

     

    This evening I was in the kitchen when I heard tires squealing frantically and the sound of a crash.  I thought, "Oh, no," and headed toward the front of the house to see what had happened.

    Turned out that the boys were in the front bedroom playing some kind of racing game.  Where they got it, I'm not sure--I think they have some sort of barter system with their friends--but apparently it's a LOT more fun if you hook it up to speakers so that you can hear all the sound effects really LOUD.

    You can also give your mother a scare, and that's pretty fun, too... 

     

  • Prayer Request

     

    Please pray for David Michael Brovont, born prematurely yesterday.  His lungs have been getting worse instead of better, and he is being taken by helicopter to another hospital.  Also pray for his parents Mike and Anna, who are driving to Philadelphia to be with him.

     

    Update:  Baby David is gone.
    Please pray for his parents and family.

Tuesday, 10 November 2009

Monday, 09 November 2009

  • Currently
    Children of the River (Laurel-Leaf Contemporary Fiction)
    By Linda Crew
    see related

    And we wonder why Americans are getting fat!


     

    This is an amazing article about portion sizes and how they have changed in America.  Just as an example, look at this.

         

    The hamburger on the left was a normal sized burger twenty years ago, and the one on the right is what people commonly eat now.  Click here for more examples.

    http://www.divinecaroline.com/22178/49492-portion-size--now

     

  • November Gifts

     

     

     

    Gifts that make my life worth living,
    gifts that make my moments holy.
    Not gifts that I wish for,
    but gifts that I have received.
    Gifts that bring me back
    into Joy and Gratitude.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    white birches, leafless against a deep blue sky
    my sons creating hurricanes of leaves with the new leaf blower
    tangy apple cider
    golden asparagus fields rippling in waves like the ocean
    gooey pumpkin cake
    geese honking as they organize themselves into a V
    the crunch of leaves as you walk through the woods
    wispy windswept clouds
    smooth creamy chocolate-y fudge
    red and yellow mums, boldly standing where other flowers have faded
    turkeys ambling off the road, taking their own sweet time
    and gossiping together as they walk
    the smell of freshly cut wood
    that tired but oh-so-good feeling of muscles that have worked hard
    a field of perfect little Christmas trees
    a bear carved from a tree stump
    Amy chatting and waving to her own picture on the computer screen
    chili and cornbread eaten outdoors on a warm November day

     

Friday, 06 November 2009

  • Grateful? Yep.

     

    I wrote this on Monday, when I generally try to write my gratitude post.  It's different than usual, but it's what was on my heart right then.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    So what am I grateful for today?

    More than anything, my marriage. That's what is foremost in my mind at the moment. After spending a lot of time this weekend thinking about marriages that are either crashing and burning or just slowly having the life squeezed out of them, I'm feeling incredibly thankful to have been so blessed in marriage. I don't understand how two people who once wanted to spend all their time together, who laughed together and played together and watched sunsets together in awe of God's creation, can arrive at a point where they want do hateful things to each other, where they get restraining orders against each other, where they simply can't stand to be near each other. How does it happen?

    I don't know. I just can't imagine. But I do know how it doesn't happen. And those are some of the things that I am so grateful for in my own marriage.

    We spend as much time together as we can.
    We touch a lot.
    We laugh together.
    We talk about what we've done during the day.
    We realize that we can't necessarily fix everything that's wrong in our lives, but we still care and we still listen.
    We say, "I love you." Often.
    When one of us is cranky and difficult, we overlook it.
    We play games.
    We talk about our dreams.
    We tease each other.
    When one makes a stupid mistake and is sorry, the other forgives.
    When the offender doesn't act sorry, the offended remembers that sometimes they act like a jerk, too, and still forgives.
    We try do special favors for each other.
    When we disagree, we still try to understand each other and respect each other.
    We share silly jokes.
    We eat meals together.
    We compliment each other.
    And we laugh. A LOT.

    I really wonder if that isn't one of the most important things. Laughing. Because in all the other things, we fail sometimes. We aren't always thoughtful and forgiving, and sometimes we forget that we need to talk, and sometimes we get caught up in the busy-ness of life and don't take time for each other, but as long as we always go back to laughing together, it seems that the other things happen, too.

     

    Grateful?  You bet I am.  Thank you, Lord!

    \o/  \o/  \o/  \o/  \o/  \o/  \o/  \o/  \o/  \o/  \o/  \o/  \o/  \o/