Oh, look

It's something beautiful.

Far from home

Maybe this interests me because it reminds me of the state-run ethnic mixing the Soviet Union did in Latvia and elsewhere, but I think it's interesting in any case: an article about China's not-entirely-voluntary (it seems) program to integrate Uighurs into the Han population.

A part that caught my attention:

Bi Wenqing, deputy head of the Shufu county office that oversees the Xinjiang labor export program, ... said that although the Uighur workers at the factories have the freedom to worship, the practice is not encouraged.

"We have been trying hard to educate them into disbelieving religion. The more they are addicted to religion, the more backwards they will be. And those separatists try to leverage religion to guide these innocent young Uighurs into evil ways," Bi said.

Wow

Oh wow. What a loving woman.

Haha

Oh, this made me laugh.

But if I was his mom and knew about half those things, I'd about die of fright.

How am I ever going to stand having kids?

I myself have survived many a ride around the block in the back of a pickup truck. But unlike my sisters, I was a bit scared all the time. I'm such a wimp.

Threshholds

This article fascinated me on a couple levels:

Gilbert wrote about a study that showed people’s happiness with their lives and correlated that information with their salary.

What did he find? $40,000 is a truly magic number. Below that number, people were much less happy with their lives - people with a household income of $20K or $30K were generally less happy with their state of living than people earning $40K.

As Trent (who wrote the article) pointed out, that number won't hold true for everyone. Cost of living varies with your location, your dependents, the amount of debt you have. But he writes about the idea of having enough.

When Joe and I moved to La Plata, he left the decision of whether to take a job right away up to me (which was weird!) (and cool!) (but wow, what a big decision). We realized I didn't need to work for pay, and though of course we could use the money, I think things are working out better for us this way, at least for now.

Springtime asparagus

This may be my favorite article on cooking ever, because it is about life as much as it is about cooking.

Today I am smiling because not only do I suspect my capon will be defrosted in time to roast it for dinner, but because there was asparagus to go with it at the farmer's market. Mmm mmm mm.

Read these over lunch

Though it does not comment on any matters of international importance, this is one of the greatest things I've read in a while.

And I enjoyed the very last part of Answer Man's Sunday column.

Finding peace

Now my spinach is growing up and the sunny days make me want to find all the outdoor chores I can. Apparently Thomas Jefferson felt a bit of the same way: 

On Jefferson developing the American garden, from The Washington Post

And here is a really interesting article on a man's repentance, also from the Post. What I wonder about the most is his wife and their marriage, which is so little discussed. What would it be like living with a man so full of hate? Why did she? What did she think of it all? 

Doing less

I've tried to live very prayerfully these last few months, more like the way I've always wanted to live. Even with a flexible schedule, it has been difficult. 

This is partly because I pray very slowly. This is partly because I fall asleep very easily, especially at some of the more standard prayer times -- early morning, late evening -- as well as after lunch. And this is partly because I do too many other things. 

This woman's thoughts about choosing what is best reminded me of these things I already knew. She (and the author she quotes) so perfectly describe my tendency to distract myself with fun and useful things, causing me to miss out on God-time, which is so vital and so much better. 

Ahh. I've been living life for 25 years now, but I'm still not very good at it!

Simply living

When I started college, my plan was to take off some year to be a missionary, spreading love and help and perhaps even the peace of Christ someplace it was desperately needed. But my grandmother got sick, and I realized that I -- not just anyone, but I, Daina -- was needed at home. I stayed, taught Latvian school religion class, and looked for a job in the area instead. It was all much less of a leap, but perhaps a better fit for my God-given talents.

I thought that I might someday live in a commune, but instead God led me to marry Joe, who is not the commune type at all. So we live in our own house, though we hope to have all kinds of people in an out of it in time. (We are still working on this.)

I always thought that I would live in a house of mis-matching silverware, but Joe really likes the matching stuff, and we got a set for Christmas. It looks very nice. We gave away most of what I had before, though I kept a few of the most beautiful pieces, the old ones decorated with hearts or stars or curlicues, for when I have lunch by myself. Joe and I hope to get much use out of what we have.

I am trying to live the life God would have me live, one based on prayer and good works. I fail miserably sometimes, but in many ways things are going in the direction they should. But I never cease to be amazed at how different this life is than the lives I have at times envisioned.

This article in the Washington Post Magazine, A Not-So-Simple Life, was really interesting to me, and not just because the main subject once thought of becoming a nun but didn't.  She too wants to pour herself out, but has taken the route I once thought I  might, instead of the route I have taken now. 

The online chat that followed the article was perhaps even more interesting for me. The members of The Simple House talk there about something I first read about in the words of Mother Theresa. The lovely old woman who did so much for the poor of Calcutta and the world noted that in the United States, a rich country, the need for material things is often eclipsed by a need for love, especially among the loneliest of the elderly people, those who cannot leave their rooms and have few visitors. But this need is everywhere, in every neighborhood. It inspires me to read about people stepping out to address that poverty of love.

By the way, I've hung out with the nuns mentioned in the article -- on a Friday, pizza night. They're a lot of fun!

Maybe it really WAS a million

At first I thought the huge flocks of birds around here might be flying south, but then they stayed around well into winter.

So the local paper ran a handy column explaining what's going on. Apparently some birds just like to hang out in enormous flocks in the wintertime!

Raising children

This is one of the best posts I've read in a while.

Most of you have probably read the estimates that put the cost of having a child at more than $200,000 each over the course of a lifetime -- which seems mind-blowingly high. When you break it down, it seems more manageable, but still high: more than $11,000 a year per child spread over 18 years.

Of course, there are plenty of families out there that have a combined income of less than $40,000 a year but have managed to raise three or four or more happy and successful children. (Okay, maybe the DC-oriented people reading this don't know many such families, but I'll get to that.)

In the post above, Trent from The Simple Dollar explains why his family's per-child expenses will likely never come near the estimate. He looks at not only the costs of having children, but also the benefits -- such as tax benefits.

Of course, Trent lives in rural Iowa, and I'm not sure TOO many people reading this are. (Though Meaghan's close!) I'm pretty sure anyone in the DC suburbs would have to pay significantly more for child care, for example, in addition to housing costs that would probably give most Iowans nightmares. But the post and the following comments make two great points:

There are financial upsides to having children, and

Costs vary for every family

In DC, I imagine the average cost of raising children is even higher than the nation's average. Of course, incomes in the area are higher, too.

But averages are one thing, and individual families another. I have no idea what it cost my parents to raise us, but I am pretty sure they did not pay for child care after I was about a year old. Then they bought a house big enough to have my grandmother come live with us, and that grandmother watched us most of the time. The other grandmother filled in when the first one took trips, and one day neither was available, so we had to go over and hang out with the next door neighbor's grandmother.

That's not possible for everyone, and there was a cost (the house), but it shows that there are all kinds of possibilities available. And every family's budget is different. My parents did pay for us all to go to summer camp year after year after year, which was definitely not a mandatory expense, but one that changed our lives.

I've been thinking about this sort of thing over the couple days because of this interesting column about how rising and falling demographics are projected to affect the world in coming years. In a few decades, the U.S. is expected to be the only industrialized nation in the top-12 most populous nations. I guess being the only developed nation with replacement-rate fertility trends will do that...

(I hear there is more to child-raising than financials and demographics, though. I smiled this morning when I read someone's Christmas break recap, and event number one was: "Watched one of my sons give another of my sons a package of stink bombs for Christmas, and realized, in a very horrible moment, that absolutely nothing good can come of this.)

A broad table

I know some of you might have seen it already, but this article warms my heart!

I'm annoyed by the lack of stats, true. When it comes to adoption-related issues, I often crave more information than is out there. But it's really interesting anyway, at least to me. The subject is adoption of children with Down Syndrome, and I've been really interested in it since I read Choosing Naia (which was fascinating!) some time ago.