Cosleeping Makes Happy Babies

I woke up to baby laughter, rolled over, and saw this cutie peeking out at me from under the quilt my mom and sister made me years ago, standing in her pac n play next to my bed. I love cosleeping as those good mood smiles are the happiest time of her day. I would hate to miss them, doing it alone in her own room and then cry at me to come get her instead. It is so much easier for this tired mommy too to just pull her in with me to nurse and snuggle more than to have to get out of bed for her. I just love snuggling and tickling her! She is growing fast, and it is really difficult having another baby, so finding these moments are so important. I love her so much!

Sundress in December

Visiting some friends with their irresistibly edible Christmas tree makes us grateful for iPhones if only better than having no camera at all. Have to love the sundress in December: I love Texas!

"If Government Can Pay for a War, Why Can't it Pay for Healthcare?"

A recent status update of a friend on Facebook that I met with distaste.

The issue isn't whether or not government should help people, that's obviously its only job, but as to how. This is more an issue of federal scope of responsibility versus municipal and county governments. Local control and decision making power with a body (federal in this case) to ensure they don't fight is what this country was created to be.

The power and lure of a socialist national system, which is what the Democratic party in our country is evolving into, is the "helping people" mantra that sounds really good, to everyone liberal and conservative. In a large federal system, in practice it is expensive, inefficient, and bureaucratic. Let the feds do what they do best: and yes, that is protecting the borders through trade law and fighting foreign wars. We should be more involved in our local county health department and let our voice to DC be on what wars, battles, or defense measures we deem worth our time and money.

We simply cannot afford to provide a single-payer system: but even if we could, it's poorly administered, and that money could go farther on an individual and local level. Trusting a body that has already bankrupted social security and medicaid is folly.

An interesting read of the tax and spend clause of the constitution, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxing_and_Spending_Clause shows that while it is certainly a legal and constitutional use of taxpayer money to pay for federal healthcare under the umbrella of its component "general welfare" clause, the interpretation is often debated. It is best to err on the side of too much liberty.

As we march toward socialism, we have many examples of countries who had originally followed our constitution in designing their own democracies but are now breaking under the weight of its own spending obligations and the tax burden that places upon its people. PIIGS come to mind, with Britain not far behind them. Any American who has lived in or used the social medicine systems in those countries such as Canada, the Netherlands, and many others, is full or stories of the rationing and limitation on care choices.

No question that our current healthcare system is in dire need of improvement through reform as I know firsthand after my recent frustrating attempts to secure health insurance for a self-employed family. However, there are many ways to encourage private health insurance to be better, such as opening up competition across state lines, or regulations that encourage performance and favor good behavior through competition, or empowering county health systems to provide care for the un and under insured in our communities, that should be exhausted before the radical move of universalizing healthcare that example has already shown us is no answer. There is work to be done, so let's focus our efforts on working where it will do the most good and indeed truly help others rather than just pretend that we are.

Apologies

I hate coming across blogs and reading apologies about how long it's been since that person has posted, promises to do better, blah blah, as if posting on a blog somehow denotes some sort of cyber fame. Now, for a heavily commented blog, loads of followers, with professional relevant content, and an author who periodically gets emails asking when a new post will arrive, perhaps I can understand. But for the most part, blog readership is typically very low, and an apology to an occasional passerby just seems a bit inflated.

However, never to be left out, because I love feeling peer pressure like a middle schooler caught in a cafeteria, here is my apology and pledge to post more frequently. Because I know that you, my fans, are in need of me. All those little things I post on Facebook, one-line status updates, photos with a quick caption, or just rambling thoughts about bull can go on here just as easily, and then I can find or print these posts for posterity someday. To be loved is a beautiful thing.

SOLD!

We sold our house! We had an offer on it less than 2 weeks after putting it on the market, and after a little negotiating we closed yesterday. Sadly we feel lucky we were able to get most of what we had into it back out. In view of the recent real estate upheaval, we were able to pay the fees and commissions and walk away with a check for the amount of our down payment 8 years ago.

Now Troy has turned down 2 offers to relocate as his company here attempts to downsize without laying off any of their specialized workforce: one to NYC last week, and the other for Portland yesterday. They are trying to make Boise work as he indicated it's the only place he'd be willing to move, so we are preparing for him to get laid off after 12 years. The timing is unfortunate in that we just bought this remodel and are not very far along in that process and have the looming arrival of another baby, but he can start putting full time in at a little side job he's been doing on and off, a generous severance package, and we have a big emergency fund in the bank. The hard part is deciding how much to dip into cash to get this house progressing while he's looking for a career position in either Austin or Boise. We'll take it day by day, because long term planning right now is just too stressful and unpredictable.