Choice
… the problem here is with strangers passing judgment on other people’s situations
– Anna Quindlen (Newsweek, Feb. 16, ‘On Their Own Terms‘)
(Yes, I’ve been catching up with my Newsweeks that I didn’t have time to read yet.)
Anna Quindlen had a great article recently about RU-486 and since I cannot write like she can I want to quote a few parts for today’s post.
A few points I want to make here:
1) As human beings our bodies belong to us - not to husbands, boyfriends, etc., not the government, not politicians, not the clergy and definitely not total strangers.
“… between the clinic demonstrations, the political discussions and the imprecations from the pulpit, too many American women have come to feel that their pelvis is public property (Anna Quindlen).”
2) I’m concerned about young women today who are certainly not old enough to remember what life was like for women before Roe v. Wade and also have not been told or heard about what women went through in the past concerning childbirth, etc. when they did not have equal rights.
“But change in party or philosophy cannot change this undeniable fact: women who do not want to be pregnant will try to end their pregnancies. They will do it because they don’t have enough money, or enough support, or they think they are too young or too overwhelmed by circumstance. They always have, and they always will. Rat poison, Lysol, ergot, bleach—oh, the historical list of desperate measures is long. (Anna Quindlen)“
With all of our rights - those specific to women or not - we must be ever vigilant or we risk losing them. Don’t think it can’t happen.
3) Keep in mind that those who would control our reproductive organs are not likely to pay you or your child’s medical costs or college, or be there when you have to work two jobs to avoid being homeless, etc. Even if you are responsible and still find yourself with an unwanted pregnancy that you cannot terminate and then are not able to provide for the child properly, you could be accused and even arrested for neglect.
Be strong! Stand up for your rights. Don’t ever let anyone control any part of your body or mind!
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February 24, 2009
Saddest story ever …
I recently read a article in Newsweek called ‘A Vast and Sudden Sadness‘. It made me cry, but as sad as it was it was also beautiful.
It was about babies who are stillborn or that die shortly after being born. I had no idea there were still so many stillbirths. According to the article there are 26,000 a year (they didn’t say if this was just in the U.S. or not) and apparently in most cases doctors don’t understand why.
Way back when the babies were just immediately taken away, women were given lots of valium and everyone pretended as if nothing had happened. Obviously not a very psychologically healthy way of dealing with it.
Thankfully things have gotten better. Now the parents are allowed to hold the baby, take pictures, etc. All to help them better cope with the loss - and research has shown that it does help.
The article focused on a group of volunteers - who are professional photographers - and an organization called ‘Now I lay me down to sleep’. They go to hospitals and take sensitive, beautiful pictures of the babies and their families.
No, the photographs don’t take away the pain - but they do help with the grieving process and leave parents with some tangible memory of their son or daughter to share and hold on to forever.
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February 19, 2009
Help! Work at home puppy mom needs advice!
Many people may think that working at home with a cute, innocent little puppy around must be the greatest thing in the world!
Puppies are cute as hell, but I’ve found that it is not easy to get a lot of work done with one around!
Between the frequent peepee and poopy breaks and keeping an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t get into anything she shouldn’t it can be hard to concentrate. Not to mention the lack of sleep and overseeing her interactions with her big kitty-cat brothers.
There must be some other work at home puppy moms out there with some advice to share! Work at home people mommies should have some of the same problems too - except maybe not the chewing on the shoes thing.
Please help! Any advice would be welcome! I want my web sites to be successful - but its hard with a little 8 week cute poopy monster around!
Here’s the little monster:
Here she is again in my office by her crate and a bunch of her toys:
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February 17, 2009
My treadmill desk
As I mentioned last time, my husband made me a desk for my treadmill.
It was a bit tricky because, as you can see below, the railings are not horizontal to the floor, they slope downward:
Here’s the treadmill with the desk on it, shown from the front:
Here’s from a side angle:
Here’s a close up of how it fits on the railing. Notice the foam he used to make it sit flat on the railing:
Here’s two pictures of the underside, taken while not on the treadmill (obviously):
Here’s the side so you can see how it is angled:
Please feel free to use this design on your own treadmill! If you have questions about how to make it, let me know and I can ask my husband. If your treadmill is the same type as ours, what I have should work exactly as it is on yours:
Since I usually use mine to read on, I need what I’m reading to be raised a bit or I have problems with my neck and back of head from from looking down the whole time. My husband made the additional stand to add height originally for another purpose. And then I use a cookbook stand I bought from Barnes and Noble for my book or magazine:
The additional stand does block the treadmill controls a bit, but not my that much. I just have to reach around or under to change the settings. But I really don’t do that much anyway, since I usually just keep it at 1.5 the whole time.
For more information about treadmill desks, here are some posts and sites where I first learned about the idea:
Liz from Healthbolt: Is it a Computer? Is it a Treadmill?
Brandie at The Home Office Organizer: Standing Desks: A Smart, Healthy Option
Ning social network: Office Walkers
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February 12, 2009
New Year, New Starts!
And yes, I realize we’ve been in the new year for quite a while.
And even though New Year’s resolutions aren’t alway a great idea because they can set people up for failure with too high of expectations - still, I find that the holidays often give me a break from everyday life to reevaluate where I am and where I want to be.
Health, being the most important thing, is a good thing to make steps to improve on when you do that evaluation.
Last year I tried to get involved with that WOMAN challenge thing but the pedometer I had missed most of my steps and made it just too frustrating to try to continue with it.
Over the holidays I bought myself a much better pedometer, an Omron, from Amazon:
I tested it and while it does lose small number of steps, it really doesn’t lose a significant number of them.
I decided to try to get to that magic number of 10,000 steps a day! What I found was finding the time to get that many steps in is the hardest part for me.
A few days a week I walk on our treadmill when I exercise, which gets me over half way there, along with regular day to day walking.
However, to get the rest of the steps in I realized I would need to use the treadmill more (at least in the winter). But how to find the time?
A while back I got interested in the idea of working while walking on a treadmill, but wasn’t sure how to set something like that up. The commercial treadmill desks are pretty expensive.
Well, I finally got my husband to make me something to fit over my treadmill so I could at least read while walking!
Next week, I’ll post pictures of how it was made so if anyone wants something similar, you can see how to do it!
Meanwhile, I’ve been doing pretty good with my steps. I noticed the pedometer that I have won’t register steps on the treadmill unless I’m walking at least at 1.5 - which is a little bit faster than some people recommend for working on a treadmill.
To get to 10,000 steps I need to just walk about another 45 or so minutes at 1.5, which I can do most days. I usually do it while I catch up on my reading.
These are my numbers for the past week:
- date steps
- 2/3/09 9600
- 2/4/09 8150
- 2/5/09 10356
- 2/6/09 10182
- 2/7/09 10259
- 2/8/09 5597
- 2/9/09 9851
The really low day was Sunday - I find it difficult sometimes to get up to 10,000 on weekend days. I need a day or two to rest!
I hope to eventually get 10,000 steps at least 5-6 days a week.
So do any of you use a pedometer? Is anyone else trying to get to 10,000 steps a day? Any tips to share for how to do it?
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Related Posts:
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