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Good morning, my friends!

 

 

 

I have been reading so many great articles online lately.  I am stockpiling them, in fact. 

 

But first.......prayers for my 16 year old son currently in surgery for a congenital defect repair (not heart).  Thanks! (Everything went well....home now for recovery and healing)

MARRIAGE & S*X

Should We Bring Back Young Marriage? 

This article is a good read.........and has much food for thought, maybe helpful for thoughtful conversations with our older kids......and a reminder to help all young marrieds.

You can follow this link, posted in the above article, about a girl's story of marrying young.

ETA: I remembered that I wanted to add that I was 21 and my husband 24 when we got married.  I did not think I was all that young at the time.....and apparently not even now.....because as I read those articles, I never even felt compelled to realize I had that in common with them.  :)  On the other hand, my father definitely thought I was too young and kept trying to talk me out of it.  And, we certainly did not wait till we had everything in life all lined up......I was starting my 4th year of 6 years of full-time college. Anyway......just thought I should add a personal relationship to this article.  I believe Willa was still pretty young as well.......we were married in the same year, 1985 (Happy June anniversary to Willa and Kevin!).  Since she is so much older than me.........she was not 21  :)  I think she was 22? or 23?

How old were you and your spouse when you married?  Did you have everything in life all lined up?  How many years has it been now?

Willa and I have both been married 28 years, this summer. 



How Pre-marital Sex Rewires the Brain
 
Short, but fascinating article.  The more I learn about oxytocin, the more impressed I am with this body that God designed.  Oxytocin may well be my favorite hormone.  :)  You will learn why s*x outside the marriage is not a good idea physically.........how it works well biochemically WITHIN marriage.......and related to p*rn. May be useful in talking with older teens and young adults about these topics. This ties in so well with the most recent book that I just finished reading: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and in Business by Charles Duhigg This book was also fasinating.......the brain is an incredible machine. (sorry...cannot seem to get rid of the bold)


PRO-LIFE
 

Experts: Abortion Not Medically Necessary to Save the Life of a Mother

Medical experts in Dublin came to these conclusions:

-“As experienced practitioners and researchers in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, we affirm that direct abortion is not medically necessary to save the life of a woman.
-We uphold that there is a fundamental difference between abortion, and necessary medical treatments that are carried out to save the life of the mother, even if such treatment results in the loss of life of her unborn child.
-We confirm that the prohibition of abortion does not affect, in any way, the availability of optimal care to pregnant women.”

Fascinating. I love that they are scientists and that they say this.  God bless those Irish.  :)

LEARNING & EDUCATION

An Introduction to the Creative, Right-Brained Learner

An excellent reminder that we don't all learn the same.  I have one very strong right-brained child.  On her own she compares herself to her left-brained siblings.  I am always explaining to her that she simply learns differently and that she has amazing gifts that none of her siblings can match up to. She is so going to shine.  Please read this article, look at your own children, and remind yourself to bask in the gifts of those right-brained learners.  And then, build those kids up.  It is hard to be different in a left-brained world.



If Students designed Their Own School

"The Independent Project"  "Students having their say in how to reform education in the 21st Century."

Love this video....."unschooling" in a public school setting. Clever of the principal to allow this opportunity for these students.  I believe these students will now be forever life-long learners.  What a gift that she has given to the students who go through this program........hope it catches on!

The method of "question of the week" and their own "personal endeavor" for the term is obviously inspiring to these kids.  No tests or assignments.  Good idea.

Don’t Go Back to School: How to Fuel the Internal Engine of Learning

The historic photos in this article are certainly worth a look on their own.  Here is the opening paragraph to this article:

      “The present education system is the trampling of the herd,” legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright lamented in 1956. Half a century later, I started Brain Pickings in large part out of frustration and disappointment with my trampling experience of our culturally fetishized “Ivy League education.” I found myself intellectually and creatively unstimulated by the industrialized model of the large lecture hall, the PowerPoint presentations, the standardized tests assessing my rote memorization of facts rather than my ability to transmute that factual knowledge into a pattern-recognition mechanism that connects different disciplines to cultivate wisdom about how the world works and a moral lens on how it should work. So Brain Pickings became the record of my alternative learning, of that cross-disciplinary curiosity that took me from art to psychology to history to science, by way of the myriad pieces of knowledge I discovered — and connected — on my own. I didn’t live up to the entrepreneurial ideal of the college drop-out and begrudgingly graduated “with honors,” but refused to go to my own graduation and decided never to go back to school. Years later, I’ve learned more in the course of writing and researching the thousands of articles to date than in all the years of my formal education combined.

SOCIAL MEDIA

 
What Hate, Entitlement and Stupidity Look Like in the Digital Age

 

The author is ".....writing this blog post to send to my two young adult sons for their continued edification on the importance of communicating honestly, respectfully and intelligently in the digital age."  Take notes and remind your own children.......and keep care yourself. Short.





GRAMMAR

Apostrophe now: Bad grammar and the people who hate it

Just more fun for those who like to read about grammar.......humorous, of course.  Love this quote:

"Semi-colons can provoke strong reactions; the novelist Kurt Vonnegut Jr advised people to avoid them altogether. "All they do is show you've been t.  I lovo college." " 

I myself did not actually fully get the semi-colon till I taught about it in homeschooling my 3rd and 4th high schoolers.  So I just avoided it altogether.  I love it now that I understand it .  :)

 

FAMILY LIFE

Big families..what we wish you knew.

Just more fun about big families from someone is there.......not that I count myself one.  I do only have 6 children.  :)

List Topics: Top comments at the grocery store......top mean comments.......what a mom on many wished others knew.......what people think......myths to bust.....best things about a big family

Do you have any comments to add?

The Heart of a List Maker

 

An excellent and clever way to keep family memories or keep a running tab on a family journal.  This is especially good for those who do not feel that they can scrapbook their family memories either because of time or because of a lack of creativity.  Short. Oh, and this could appease those who feel guilt (which they shouldn't! :) ) about not keeping track

CONGENITAL HEART DEFECTS

Non-inherited mutations account for many heart defects, Yale researchers find

Did you know that the rate of congenital heart defects is actually 1-2 out of a hundred births?  And that it is "...the most common form of birth defect."    Crazy.  How many people do you know with a congenital heart defect?  I don't know or see as many as that it seems.....but I do have one of my own.  I am posting this link because I think it is interesting that in the study they have discovered about where the mutations take place.....and may be near the same place where autism also finds its mutation.  Short, not much meat here.....but interesting enough.

HEALTH & FITNESS

Is stress making you sick?

Probably. Come....read about those adrenal glands.  I know so many women who have been plagued with adrenal fatigue.  We must take care of ourselves........so we can hang with our children's children's children.

I just ordered that book, recommended in the article....Adrenal Fatigue: The 12st Century Syndrome....from the library.  I do not think I have adrenal fatigue.......but there are many who I do think suffer from this malady.


Early Elective Deliveries Reduction Halves NICU Admissions

The hospital corporation that I work for made a new rule about doing elective inductions before 39 weeks as not allowed unless medically indicated. That new rule was at least 5-8 years ago.....so long ago I cannot remember when.  What I do know is this:  our babies now have less trouble breastfeeding, we have less "sick" babies.......and our doctors are even less inclined to do elective inductions.  This makes me so happy.  Glad to see the number two busiest hospital in the country is doing the same thing, and that in only six months they have reduced their admissions to the NICU.  This is great support for the waiting till "babies will come when babies are ready" science. Because the research states that babies are ready to be born at 39 weeks or later, for best brain development for feeding.........we are giving our moms and babes a much better start.


Warm Blessings,

                   Chari