Emily sent this link to a cool clock today. The clock shows the year, month, date, day, hour, minute and second at once. It gives me somewhat of a "Zen peace everything is aligned in the universe" sort of feel to look at it. Then again, it's the end of the day so maybe anything that's not associated with real work gives me that feeling. Who knows. Check it out.
http://home.tiscali.nl/annejan/swf/timeline.swf
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Web searching and shopping for the common good
Today I attended the monthly meeting of a group of church communicators from the KC area. It's a great group and so good to get together with people facing the same joys and challenges in their jobs as I do. One of the people there, Jennifer, showed us two websites I thought I'd share:
www.igive.com / You can shop here at your favorite web retailers and they will donate a percentage of your purchase to a non-profit of your choice.
www.goodsearch.com / Use this site as a search engine (it's powered by Yahoo!) and Yahoo! will donate money to the non-profit you choose from a list. You can also list your non-profit here to receive donations.
www.igive.com / You can shop here at your favorite web retailers and they will donate a percentage of your purchase to a non-profit of your choice.
www.goodsearch.com / Use this site as a search engine (it's powered by Yahoo!) and Yahoo! will donate money to the non-profit you choose from a list. You can also list your non-profit here to receive donations.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Pregnancy etiquette, part 1
So far, it's been a joy to be pregnant. As a brief baby update, he (yes, he!) is doing very well and seems to still be a quite active and squirmy young one.
But what I'd really like to blog about today is one of the things that is not a joy about being pregnant, and that is when people knowingly or unknowingly breach the bounds of what I'll call pregnancy etiquette. So let this be a helpful guide for things not to do or say to people who are pregnant. For the record, I don't believe any of the people I know read this blog have committed any of these offenses, so don't be concerned that this is a veiled attempt to tell you anything!
I invite any of my pregnant or have-been-pregnant friends to contribute other ideas in the comments.
We'll start with a classic...
Uninvited tummy-touching. Now, I admit, there is a bit of gray area here. Not all tummy-touching is unwelcome, even if it is uninvited. For example, Emily is a tummy-toucher, but that doesn't bother me in the slightest becuase she is a close friend, and that's just who she is. But if you don't know someone that well, I'd recommend asking first.
Calling her fat. Why, oh why, would this be OK? But I really did have someone tell me "you're getting fat!" I think this was meant in the way of "you are starting to show," but still not appropriate under any circumstances. Think about it. A pregnant woman has like 25-30 pounds of weight gain in front of her that she really has no control over. And she gets weighed by a doctor once and month, and said weight is going to be commented on whether it's too much, not enough or just right. And everyone she walks up to who knows she's pregnant looks at her face and then her stomach (not necessarily in that order). And she needs people calling her fat? Other people are perhaps less sensitive than me, but in my world this also goes for "wow, you're really starting to show," "You're getting really big," or "You're huge!" (which hasn't been said to me yet but I've heard it said to others. I'm sure my time will come.)
Asking her if her pregnancy was planned. Yes, really. This has happened to me several times, the lastest being today and prompting this rant about pregnancy etiquette. I can't believe anyone would think it appropriate to ask this. I think I'd be slightly taken aback if even a close friend asked me that, but so far none of the people who have asked me (that I can recall) have been on a friendship level that would allow for that sort of question. Craig and I did plan our pregnancy and this question offends me, so I can only imagine if the pregnancy was not planned, you were a bit upset about it and you were trying to put your best face forward, and some yahoo has to come right out and ask you. So don't do it.
I believe this may become a series of blog posts as the pregnancy progresses, but we'll see! And just so it doesn't sound like I'm down on being pregnant (which I have loved so far), here are some of the joys of pregnancy:
seeing/hearing/feeling the baby move
anticipation of meeting the little one
an even more meaningful reason to eat right and exercise
an excitement added to each and every day
anticipation of change
the increased bond between you and your husband
sharing baby news and seeing your friends' excitement
wearing elastic waistbands and still being hip
and many others!
But what I'd really like to blog about today is one of the things that is not a joy about being pregnant, and that is when people knowingly or unknowingly breach the bounds of what I'll call pregnancy etiquette. So let this be a helpful guide for things not to do or say to people who are pregnant. For the record, I don't believe any of the people I know read this blog have committed any of these offenses, so don't be concerned that this is a veiled attempt to tell you anything!
I invite any of my pregnant or have-been-pregnant friends to contribute other ideas in the comments.
We'll start with a classic...
Uninvited tummy-touching. Now, I admit, there is a bit of gray area here. Not all tummy-touching is unwelcome, even if it is uninvited. For example, Emily is a tummy-toucher, but that doesn't bother me in the slightest becuase she is a close friend, and that's just who she is. But if you don't know someone that well, I'd recommend asking first.
Calling her fat. Why, oh why, would this be OK? But I really did have someone tell me "you're getting fat!" I think this was meant in the way of "you are starting to show," but still not appropriate under any circumstances. Think about it. A pregnant woman has like 25-30 pounds of weight gain in front of her that she really has no control over. And she gets weighed by a doctor once and month, and said weight is going to be commented on whether it's too much, not enough or just right. And everyone she walks up to who knows she's pregnant looks at her face and then her stomach (not necessarily in that order). And she needs people calling her fat? Other people are perhaps less sensitive than me, but in my world this also goes for "wow, you're really starting to show," "You're getting really big," or "You're huge!" (which hasn't been said to me yet but I've heard it said to others. I'm sure my time will come.)
Asking her if her pregnancy was planned. Yes, really. This has happened to me several times, the lastest being today and prompting this rant about pregnancy etiquette. I can't believe anyone would think it appropriate to ask this. I think I'd be slightly taken aback if even a close friend asked me that, but so far none of the people who have asked me (that I can recall) have been on a friendship level that would allow for that sort of question. Craig and I did plan our pregnancy and this question offends me, so I can only imagine if the pregnancy was not planned, you were a bit upset about it and you were trying to put your best face forward, and some yahoo has to come right out and ask you. So don't do it.
I believe this may become a series of blog posts as the pregnancy progresses, but we'll see! And just so it doesn't sound like I'm down on being pregnant (which I have loved so far), here are some of the joys of pregnancy:
seeing/hearing/feeling the baby move
anticipation of meeting the little one
an even more meaningful reason to eat right and exercise
an excitement added to each and every day
anticipation of change
the increased bond between you and your husband
sharing baby news and seeing your friends' excitement
wearing elastic waistbands and still being hip
and many others!
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