Best Of
Links
Categories
Archives
Search
Subscribe
I am a latecomer to blood donation . I regret this. I have always wanted to be a person who donated blood. The 4th grade teacher I idolized, Mr. Dunkley, took us on a fieldtrip to the hospital and donated blood before our eyes. He was so noble! so brave! I wanted to be like him. Later, in high school, Hawkeye Pierce and the gang, my M*A*S*H friends, were always ready to lie down and pull up their sleeves when someone needed them–and someone often did.
Well, I don’t live in a war zone, but the Red Cross tells me that every 2 seconds in the United States someone needs blood. I can donate as often as every 56 days, but my blood’s shelf life is only 42 days. In fact, last year a study suggested that patients who are transfused with blood older than 28 days are more likely to suffer infections. So, the fresher the blood, the better. That means the more donors the better. The difficult part is that donors are hard to get. Less than 38% of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood. Of those eligible, most don’t donate. There are a lot of us who are squeamish and afraid of needles!
But if you are someone who can donate, consider the cancer patients, the new mothers, the car accident victims, etc., who may need your blood. Some day you could be the one who needs blood or your mom, sister or daughter, your dad, your brother, your boss, or your best friend. Or several of you. One thing is almost certain: if you can donate regularly, you will help people. The need for transfusions is rising 6% every year, and the number of donations isn’t rising that fast. We hope for artificial blood, but it’s still a hope for the future. Today what’s true is that if you can donate blood, YOU ARE NEEDED. If you can’t donate, you can help by volunteering, organizing a blood drive, or my personal favorite: babysitting for someone who wants to donate! (The donation process takes almost an hour start to finish and no one wants to take small children to a blood donation center).
CommentLuv is now enabled on my site. I don’t like the name, but I do like the idea. According to the WordPress plugin directory: “This plugin will visit the site of the comment author while they type their comment and retrieve a selection of their last blog posts, tweets or digg submissions which they can choose one from to include at the bottom of their comment when they click submit.”
I have long admired the blogroll at Visual Anarchy. Not only does it show the blogs Lis likes, it also shows the title (with a link!) to the most recent post at each blog. I don’t know if this sort of thing is available for WordPress (she’s on Blogger) and my links are less visible anyway because you have to click the link button on the homepage. So, hopefully CommentLuv will help generate the same sort of community feeling–at least for the commenters who have blogs.
I’d love for you to try it (and let’s be honest here, I’m always hoping for comments) and let me know how it works for you.
I want to teach my children the words of Jesus. I want to help them knit the Gospel into the fabric of their lives, written on their hearts. I do not want the Bible to be a dead book for them. How?
I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven . . .
Matthew 5:44-45
If a child picks on your child at school, and says, “Nate, you’re so dumb, you can hardly read!” And then Nate comes home and tells you about it, would you share this scripture with him? Is it a good idea or a bad idea to label the day’s tormentors as enemies? Why?
Taking stock of my day—
I have three children.
1. Child #3 (Kate)’s speech therapist came for a home visit. I explained that I was pleased that she is saying a few more words and phrases, but frustrated that I have gotten nowhere with “articulation practice,” where I am supposed to help a 2 year old practice the sounds that are difficult for her to make. (Do you see a problem with this plan?) I may be a bad person, but I actually felt pleased when said 2 year old first covered her mouth, then turned around and put her bottom in the air after the speech therapist pushed her to make the “k” sound a few too many times. [It isn't just me!] Ultimately #3 hid and refused to say goodbye. Oh yes, speech therapy is going well.
2. I asked child #2 (Duncan) to empty the dishwasher. He said he was hungry. I said, “Great! Because I have a special treat for you right after you get that dishwasher finished!” It was more than three hours before he got any food because it was more than three hours before he was ready to empty the dishwasher. I suspect he might have eaten some of the trail mix that was supposed to be the special treat while I wasn’t looking though.
3. I didn’t take child #1 (Amelia) to Shakespeare for Kids although she desperately wanted to go, because she spent the entire day doing her chores and homework. Shakespeare is supposed to be a reward for doing her chores and homework well and quickly. We are not there yet.
One huge success today was that we found some large grid paper at Office Depot. [Amelia explained to me during a review of her homework that the reason I cannot read her numbers is because I am not trying hard enough, but I don't know, I think it might be something else!] The smaller quad ruled squares were too small for Amelia to fit her numbers in. I think the large grid paper might represent a significant boon to her future in math. It is important for your math answers to be readable in settings other than standardized tests! Unfortunately, Amelia hates the paper. She is no fan of anything that would make her look different from the other kids. I hold out a weak hope that once she sees it’s useful . . .
The good news: If I lock my keys inside the minivan, it takes only a few seconds for a locksmith to pop the door open.
The bad news: my vehicle is easier to steal than I ever would have imagined! It’s a good thing big boxy people carriers aren’t in high demand.
The other day Amelia (9 years old) and I were talking and she mentioned that she would like to be a mother as soon as possible. My first reaction (after seeing way too many famous teens with babies in the news lately) was WAIT A MINUTE, think that over!
I’m not going to argue that competition is always a good thing or that it is always better than cooperation. But I will argue that competition has a vital role: 1) It is highly motivating, 2) it teaches us important lessons about life and 3) it serves to uncover true excellence.
I just went to a church function and discovered that I was the only woman there not wearing a skirt or dress. Oops.
I am a little obsessed with statistics about my blog. That’s part of the fun of blogging right? There are two ways in which I check statistics about my blog: through Feedburner and Google Analytics. Feedburner tells me how many subscribers I have. Instead of keeping a static list of people who have subscribed, Feedburner reports the number of subscribers I have each day. This changes because although some feedreaders request feeds from Feedburner regardless of whether the user is using her computer or reading her feeds, other feedreaders pull feeds only when the computer is turned on or the feedreader activated. This means that my subscriber numbers can go both up and down. For example, on the weekends when fewer people are using their computers, I have fewer subscribers. On weekdays, the number is fairly consistent.
So, here’s what I want to know: who are you Thursday-only Feedreader people? My Thursday Feedreader stats are consistently higher. Are there a couple of you out there who only turn your computer on on Thursdays? You are a mystery to me.
Yesterday, at My Imaginary Blog, Zina mentioned what she termed some “some less-than-shining parenting moments.” Honestly, her post disturbed me, because the “moments” she described seemed perfectly normal to me and I was hard-pressed to think of what a better parent would have done in her situation. Please share your ideas for how to handle these common Mommy Shopping situations.
To simplify, I will recap here: Mom does desperation visit to Target with two small children in tow. Special circumstances: Mom is sick, kids are sick. Mom is also pregnant and therefore mobility impaired.
1. RESTROOM VISIT: Mom needs to use the restroom. She takes the small children inside the stall with her and instructs them not to open the door until she’s ready. They open the door (before she’s ready, of course) and she says, “DON’T OPEN THE DOOR.” The other child opens the door: “DON’T OPEN THE DOOR.” The first child then opens the door again. ”DON’T OPEN THE DOOR.”
Advice? What could a Mom do better in this situation? Obviously, it’s optimal to avoid using the restroom while bearing solitary responsibility for two small children. But often this is not possible. Then what?