winter break blogging, chapter seven

... in which the author remembers late in the day that it is the only Wednesday of winter break, and she quickly tries to recapture her days as a blogaholic...

Today involved a whole lot of excitement in the form of cleaning out cabinets and closets, pulling together items to donate, folding laundry, and scrubbing toilets. Ahh, the life of a homemaker, how I missed it. Then, late in the day, when I began to wonder what in the world I could blog about in the evening, I remembered that it was Wednesday. Back in the day, Wednesdays used to carry great meaning 'round these bloggy parts. Wednesday meant it was time for now posting regularly, my weekly public profession of adoration for National Public Radio. In the last week of winter break, I've been happily tuning in to NPR throughout the day, overjoyed to once again be listening to the workday hours programming that kept me company for my four years as a stay-at-home mom.

Since I've pushed the button on my fabulous radio bookmark a few times this week, I'm thrilled to be able to share some stories from the last week with you- ones that made me stop and listen, as NPR is so, so good at doing.

• "Vatican Declares Boy's Recovery A 'Miracle'" -- Okay, let's start out with the one that has the potential to offend the most people if I really talked honestly about my opinion. This Morning Edition story had me shaking my head... the line that stood out the most to me was this: "Of course, Jake did receive the best medical treatment from expert doctors." Ahem. It's hard for me to believe that people believe in the things they believe in. I'll stop now.

• "A trillion YouTube views in 2011" -- This Marketplace piece had me laughing, for I might be one of the last people on the planet to NOT ever see the YouTube video that gets the top spot for the year. And nope, I still haven't watched it, even though it's right there on the page...

• "Children's and Young Adult Winter Reading" -- This entire segment of The Kojo Nnamdi show was AWESOME, even if they didn't get around to reading my emailed comment on air. KidLit lovers, if you missed this one, click and listen, for it's even got Jon Scieszka on it! (And, guess what? I spelled Jon Scieszka's name right without even looking, yippee!)

• "High Rates Of Pepper Spraying In Ala. School District" -- Here's an All Things Considered story to make you wonder what in the world is going on. This is just freaking insane.

• "Hospitals Move To Curb Elective Early Deliveries" -- Here's the story of the week to make me shout obscenities at my radio, care of All Things Considered. How in the world do some women still continue to be so selfish as to elect for early deliveries? Have they not read anything about the biological needs and development that still need to occur in the final weeks of pregnancy? If they think that being forced to carry to 39 weeks is inconvenient and uncomfortable, then the whole experience of MOTHERHOOD is going to be one helluva slap to the face. I'm just sayin.

• "In Times Square, Saying Good Riddance To 2011" -- Whew, let's round this out with an innocuous story that most likely everyone can relate to. This All Things Considered story from earlier today had me wondering what I would get rid of, because it's been another heck of a year, that's for sure!

Well, seven days down, but I got one NPR post in, so I'm a happy blogger this week!


On the slide down the winter break mountain,