It looks like Wycliffe Bible Translators are making progress in translating the Word into every language .
Computer in the crib? I don’t think so
How young should kids get computers? Do computers belong in the crib ?
It doesn’t take much imagination to see that much of the blame lies with permissive and indulgent parents. Consider this section drawn from the paper’s report:
Yunice Kotake, of San Bruno, Calif., recently purchased a Fisher-Price Knows Your Name Dora Cell Phone for her twin year-old daughters. But a few days later, she returned the play phone to a local Toys “R” Us, after she found that the girls seemed to prefer their parents’ actual phones.
“They know what a real cell phone is, and they don’t want a fake one,” Ms. Kotake said.
This passage is troubling at so many levels. Ms. Kotake has twin year-old girls who are not satisfied with “play” cell phones. The real phones are so much a part of their lives that “they don’t want a fake one.”
I think this is certainly a parenting problem. Of course a 7 year old doesn’t need a real laptop. What for? Of course kids know the difference between a “real” one and a “fake” one. Already, a 9 months, Lydia loves to play with the remote control. At times, this is annoying, so her Grandma Maxson bought her a play remote one time. Does she like to play with it the same way? Nope. Lydia knows we use one and that is the one she wants.
Lemonaid
From http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2007/11/27/23249/601
You will need the following supplies:
- 2 L water
- 2 L drink container
- 1 L bowl
- 1/4 L cooking pot
- 5 medium-sized fresh young lemons
- 1/4 L cane sugar
- ice cubes
- lemon juice extraction device
- knife with serrated blade
- aluminum or plastic membrane wrap
- strainer
Step 1 – Remove Zest from Lemons
Wash lemons with a light hand soap and lightly scrub to remove any pesticide residue. Using knife, carefully remove only yellow translucent skin, also known as zest, from the lemon skins. This means you will be making very thin slices. Do not include the white pithy material immediately beneath the yellow skin, as it will interfere with the lemon oil extraction. Remove all zest from each lemon. Collect and place shavings in 1 L bowl.
Step 2 – Extract Lemon Oil from Zest Shavings
Pour 1/4 L cane sugar into 1 L bowl with zest shavings. Mix things around. Cover bowl with membrane wrap. Wait 1 hour as sugar begins to absorb lemon oil from zest shavings. Eventually mixture will become yellow syrupy mush. Cool, huh? Tastes just like lemon candy, too!
Step 3 – Extract Lemon Juice
Remove juice from lemons with extraction device. Pour juice into 2 L drink container.
Step 4 – Boil Water
Heat 1/2 L of the water in cooking pot until boiling. Pour boiling water into 1 L bowl on top of zest syrup. Stir things around. Wait fifteen minutes.
Step 4 – Dilute and Cool
Using strainer/sieve to filter out zest shavings, Pour the hot 1/2 L lemon syrup and water mixture from 1 L bowl into 2 L drink container. Refrigerate until chilled, or serve with ice cubes
Lydia and Chicken Pox
I’ll have a picture to post later on; however, we think Lydia has Chicken Pox. What’s good about that? Well, now we have a reason the doctor will like for us not giving her the chicken pox vaccine.
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Cyndi here…
I’m still trying to come to terms with this unexpected turn of events. Lydia has had skin issues off and on since birth. I always think of it as her “crazy” skin, as often as it’s red, blotchy, eczema-y. She’s been pretty blotchy since we were gone for Thanksgiving last week, probably because it’s so dry lately. I try to keep her lubed up with Vaseline and the occasional cortisone for really rough, irritated places. On Tuesday or Wednesday, I noticed a couple of red spots on the back of her neck and thought…that’s different… She had one or two others on her back, but she’s so often bumpy and broken out that I didn’t really think much more about it. Then this morning (Thursday) she had a few more spots on her trunk, and a funny spot at the nape of her neck. It was enough, and enough of a change, to make me start thinking about chicken pox, but surely not, when would she have been exposed, I’m just being “hyper mommy”. I talked to Matt, and Dave and Judy, my mom, and Ronda… At first it was relax, just wait and see, but this afternoon she clearly had more spots on her back and on her head. A couple even looked a little crusty. Between talking to everyone some more and a call to the dr., it seems unavoidable that she has somehow gotten chickenpox 🙁
I hate it that she’s sick, especially since she’s getting over a cold and working on a tooth. I also feel terrible that I might have unwittingly exposed people at church last night. My family keeps reminding me that there’s no way to know before they start breaking out, but I still feel bad. I know chickenpox isn’t the end of the world, and you can’t live in a bubble to protect yourself or others from exposure, but it’s hard not to feel guilty. Did I take her out too much? Clean too little? What if someone catches it from her? Or caught it from her before we knew what was going on? These thoughts have been running a wild circle through my mind all evening. This mommy stuff is hard! I’m just thankful that I’m not in this alone. God is in control and He knows all about this situation, and He has blessed us with loving, supportive family and friends.
We’ll post more updates as the situation unfolds.
[Update 12-03-2007 07:17:44] It looks like her fever broke last night . Thanks to all who were praying.
[Update 07-09-2008 14:11:41] I posted a few more pictures in this post . If you want to know why I came across them now, go read that post too.
Ninth-Month News
It’s nearly month 10, which means it is way past time for an update. Our little one continues to grow and thrive…though she’s definitely on the dainty side, weighing just under 16 lbs. at her 9-month check-up.
She has been scooting (army crawling) for the last month, and is getting better at being up on her hands and knees. Her biggest accomplishment has been pulling herself up to standing. She did it in her crib right around her 9-monh birthday and now does it using anything handy. She’s so mobile…and it’s only going to get worse! Between crawling and pulling up, she can get into pretty much anything she wants. She also “walks” around in her walker and loves to play with the cabinet doors. She can’t get them open very far before they bump into the bottom of the walker, but that doesn’t stop her from trying…repeatedly. And those little hands are working very hard to pry into anything…the cabinets, boxes, bags, etc…
Her sleep has been pretty out of whack since we went to a conference in October and left her with Grandma and Grandpa Maxson for 3 day. On top of that, we’ve since spent a lot of time traveling and haven’t had a very predictable routine. And just yesterday, I spotted another potential cause. Lydia’s first tooth is on the way! It’s the lower front tooth on the left and it’s starting to break the gum. We’ll see how long it takes to actually come in.
She’s eating Stage 3 foods and is starting to explore textures. We’ve given her those puff things and apple wheels. She also enjoys bananas and licking crackers/cookies. And Matt even gave her mashed potatoes, mushed corn, and a little piece of turkey to gnaw on Thanksgiving . I tried a little piece of hamburger one day, but she wasn’t quite ready for that. We’ve got some pasta for her to try and I’m working on getting her to drink soy formula part of the time as we look to weaning her in the next couple of months.
Lydia loves to play and investigate everything and continues to be pretty happy and adaptable. She only wants mommy from time to time, but generally is fine going to the nursery or getting passed around.
She’s got a little cold she’s getting over at the moment and we’ve had some additional sleepless nights as a result. I’ve questioned my mothering abilities…and my sanity…a time or three, but we’ve made it through. Last night was a peaceful night and I’m feeling much better about this “mommy” thing. It’s amazing how far those 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep will go toward restoring your state of mind. I’ll be positvely giddy once she’s back to sleeping 8+ hours a night 🙂
We’re very blessed by our precious girl and God continues to refine us as we face the challenges of each day.
She’s “talking” to me now, so that’s my cue to close. We may get new pics up eventally, but I make no promises!
Airline Pilots, Qualifications, and a Job
I recently saw this article on the regional airlines lowering their standards for pilots. The article (and the people quoted in the article) seems puzzled about why this is happening. It is happening because no one is going into aviation. Why? Here are some reasons:
Perhaps they see the airlines spending money like it is going out of style
Perhaps they look at the dumb business policies the airlines have that contribute to their losing money
Perhaps they talk to people who used to love to fly but now are no more than bus drivers in the air
Perhaps they see and hear about the massive layoffs that happened just a few years ago that are preventing people from flying for the majors.
Perhaps they talk to people like my dad who love to fly but at the peak of their career can’t even get Christmas off. At a time when a senior captain should be flying an international schedule of his choice, many pilots can’t even get their last Christmas off. Once the airlines start treating their pilots like the skilled profesionals they are instead of a number, you’ll see more people going into the profession.
Serbia Videos
I came across these two videos while surfing you tube tonight.
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Stupid Article
I was reading some technology news this morning when I came across this article talking about the Internet getting full (actually running out of capacity).
The main point of the article?
“The study is the first to “apply Moore’s Law (or something very like it) to the pace of application innovation on the ‘Net,” the study says. “Our findings indicate that although core fiber and switching/routing resources will scale nicely to support virtually any conceivable user demand, Internet access infrastructure, specifically in North America, will likely cease to be adequate for supporting demand within the next three to five years.”
But later on, they say:
U.S. lawmakers can also help in several ways, he said. For example, the U.S. Congress could require that home contractors who receive government assistance for building affordable housing include broadband connections in their houses, he said. Congress could also provide tax credits to help broadband providers add more capacity
How does adding broadband connections in new houses help the core providers increase capacity? If anything, that stupid law would increase demand and speed the “demise” of the Internet (that won’t happen, but the article claims it will). Why can’t people think logically when they write things? Why can they not extrapolate out the impact of what they are thinking?
I want to go on record and say
I don’t like this. And I don’t like Rick Warren. I don’t care what he says, this does nothing to advance the Kingdom. Why? I don’t see how a person can be a Christian (a real saved Christian…one who follows Jesus…not simply a cultural Christian) and support someone who believes it is ok to kill little babies (aka abortion). How does being unequally yoked with an unbeliever advance the Kingdom?
http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/11/hillary_clinton_to_speak_at_ri.php
Yard Sale
Who ever would have thought we had so much junk! Today, we had a yard sale to sell some stuff before moving overseas. I took some pictures and wanted to share them with you guys. Here they are:
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Thanks to everyone who helped us with the sale by helping and buying stuff! Just in case you are interested, we do have some leftovers. For more information, look at this post .