1
Social scientists have shown that marriage matters! Okay, so we all knew that already - but sometimes you need data to back common sense things up. Check out these 26 reasons why marriage (not cohabitation) is so important!
2
How is it that I can run 9 miles and not be sore, but spend an hour weeding and my hamstrings kill me the next day? I think that says something about either my exertion weeding or my speed running!
Also, the half-marathon sign-up deadline is next week, and I haven't been able to load the online sign-up page for three days now. It could be a sign to forgo the long runs and go back to a life of laziness ;)
3
We moved my grandmother-in-law last weekend. So many quicktakes I could write about that! I'll just say that I've resolved to never buy another trinket in my life and to cut my wardrobe in half. Okay, the former is doable, the latter will probably not happen. But it's a good goal.
4
I hate politics and prefer to avoid talking about anything related to it, so I'll make this short. Universal health care sounds nice to me, because it's good to take care of poor people who can't afford it. Mandated abortion coverage sounds bad to me, for a variety of reasons, including the fact that I don't think it really even counts as "health care." Turns out, I agree with the USCCB on this one: http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=97144. The fact that abortion is not mentioned in any of the emails I get from the White House (I'm on some list) or here makes me uneasy.
5
I recently finished Life-Giving Love by Kimberly Hahn. It was good, especially if you're kind of one the fence about some of the Catholic teachings regarding "marital union." I particularly liked the phrase "life-giving lovers and life-loving givers."
I almost skipped the fifth section, with chapters on miscarriage/stillbirth, infertility, and sterilization, because I thought "That could never happen to me." I'm glad I didn't, because there was so much good information, including advice for what to say and what not to say to someone struggling with these things. (I think something like 1/5 pregnancies end in miscarriage, which is soo sad. Is that right, Alison?) I have to admit, the chapters on miscarriage and infertility scared me silly. Of course that's not her goal, but she does a good job of convincing you that fertility is a sacred gift!
6
Now that I've finished that, I'm looking for some book recommendations. Do you have any? Particularly an unbiased history of feminism? See, I'm wanting to dive into the topic a bit more, but I'm afraid that most of my reading will simply bash feminism. And I think that there were/are definitely some good aspects of the feminist movement - they've just been overwhelmed by some of the not-so-good aspects. (This is why so many in my generation are wary of the "feminazis." Terrible word, I know.) Anyway, before I read more opinionated things, I'd like to read a book that describes the entire history of feminism without taking sides - that doesn't say that feminism saved women and doesn't say that it destroyed women. It just states the facts, preferably with plenty of statistical data.
And if you don't know of a book like that, but do know of one with a bias that you would recommend, I'm open to those, too :)
7
My husband the scientist touched my hair last night.
"I kind of like it when it's just a little bit crunchy," he confessed.
"I know," I agreed enthusiastically. "Because then when you touch it, it's not crunchy anymore!"
"Yeah," he said, reaching towards my hair again. "It's like the packing bubbles - you just want to pop them."
Guess I'll be using a little more mousse from now on!
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