now posting regularly

Now for an acronym that I actually enjoy every single day- NPR. Wednesdays around these cyber-parts mean it's time to round up the stories that caught my ear (or eye, thanks to their Facebook feed) this week.

• "Naps May Improve Performance Later In The Day"-- Holy cow, if I didn't utilize the kids' daily naptime as my usual free time to be online, I would absolutely be pulling up a pillow next to them. And, look! NPR says that I shouldn't be ashamed if I make that choice, because clearly, I would be having my entire family's best interest in mind, right? "Improved performance later in the day" for me might mean an oven-cooked dinner as opposed to grilled cheese sandwiches and an energetic wife at 9 pm instead of a snoring mass on the couch. Thanks to you folks at All Things Considered for bringing this to my attention!

• "Teacher Takes In A Teen, And Gains A Family"-- Here's another StoryCorps piece from Morning Edition that tugged at my heart strings. This continues to be a brilliant project that gives voice to many!

• "Home Births Rise, Mostly By Choice"-- From NPR's health blog, Shots, this story caught my attention, even though I'm past the stage in my life where I'll ever again have to make all the considerations that go into preparing to give birth to a child. It's a topic I'm interested in, though, and I'm glad to hear that there continues to be a small rise in out-of-hospital births, because for some women, it just makes sense, and the option isn't all that well known about in many cases.

• "Top Republicans: Yeah, We're Calling Obama Socialist"-- Ugh. As much as I hate politics, I'm still drawn in by them, because I want to be informed about what's going on with the folks who get to make all the big decisions in our country. This story made me roll my eyes and shout at my computer. Ugh again.

• "The Woman Behind 'My Sharona'"-- Thanks to All Things Considered, I found out that there was an actual person named Sharona that inspired that cool, cool song by The Knack. Neat-o.
  

• "Druid Peak Pack Down To Lone Wolf"-- This piece, also from All Things Considered, saddened me, and I was surprised at how negatively I reacted to the fact that there will be no intervention for the lone surviving wolf that is being observed from this particular pack. They're letting 'nature take its course,' but it still sounded quite heartless in a way.
  

• "Changing an Institution: The U.S. Postal Service"-- Finally, the first part of today's Kojo Nnamdi show interested me, and I learned another thing-- did you know that the USPS is not a governmental agency, or was I the only dolt who was under that impression? They apparently stopped receiving federal funding before I was even born, but I had no idea. But it does explain why usps.gov redirects to usps.com.
  

Spreading the NPR joy,