Babycation!

As I am sure my loyal 3.14 readers have noticed (if they are in fact still reading; perhaps I have fallen to 2.72), my posts have been fewer and further between for a few months.  The reason is simple, but I have not yet announced on the interwebs – I have been busy growing a person!

I don’t know how much having a child in my life will affect my ability to post nonsense online, so I make no future promises, other than that I am now on babycation (definition: the portion of maternity leave a woman chooses to take before the birth of her child) and will be using a portion of each continued day of such to write things, hopefully stockpiling some posts for the zombie-stage of new motherhood (which I have heard can last 18 years).

For your edification, as I proceed on to my babycation tasks of the day, such as thank you cards and naps, I leave you with some reading on the benefits of babycation and maternity leave for mothers and children.

La Virgencita

In honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe:

Roses in the Mexican Winter

Illegal Abortion Does Not Lead to Unsafe Abortion

Sorry I don't have a more creative title.  More on that in my next post.

There is a common myth that gets repeated in the dialogue surrounding abortion -- that making abortion illegal will lead to underground abortions, which will be less safe than legal abortions.  A recent study of abortion in Chile calls this premise into question.

Guarding Your Heart

Okay, so I believe I promised to over-analyze this article about “guarding your heart.”  I like it because in some interweb circles, the phrase (and even the concept) of guarding one’s heart is taking a hit, often because people decide it means “be emotionally inaccessible.”

Deborah Fileta writes, “Just like physical intimacy, emotional intimacy is beautiful and binding in the correct context, but can be just as harmful and heartbreaking when it moves too deep, too fast.  Here’s the thing about dating in an emotionally healthy way: It’s important to make sure your emotional relationship is growing proportionally to your level of commitment.”

Dancing, Dating, and Gender Roles

Sometimes, I read articles and think, “Oh, so close!”  Normally, these are blog posts that make really really really good points, but gloss over important nuances or forget something major.  In order to ease myself back in blogging (yes, I know it’s been a while -- I’ve been distracted), I am going to share two of these in a two part series that covers an easy target: dating.

The first is written by a friend, Daniel Paris, who works for FOCUS, a college evangelization program, and is about dating in a more general sense.

Math and Whales

Following an index reference to whales will lead you to this picture, though no discussion of whales:

And following a reference to a large-eared mathematician will lead you to this one:

I never thought of indexes as places to have fun, but this quick read made me think again.