It’s relatively easy to see what the forces of evil are up to. Not always easy, though, to see what God is doing. There will be at least a remnant preserved, but who will be in it? And what should the Christian non-remnant be doing until they are wiped out? In any case, I’m a firm believer in praying for enemies, and I expect to see some of them in heaven.

Instead, we’ll be encouraged to read everything on our little e-readers; a few companies like Google will electronically archive all of the world’s libraries for us. And if the content of a book seems a little different than the last time you read it, well, it’s all in your head.

2. Handwashing all the dishes every day means I get to use my favorite dishes every day.

3. Lulu.com is offering a coupon for $3.99 off shipping (i.e. free shipping by U.S. mail) for my book, until May 1, 2010. Code is FREEMAIL305. The download remains free until next November. I have a few minor revisions in mind that I want to implement in the fall, but no major changes beyond trying to make some sense of that big steaming pile of health care reform.

While the book expresses a Christian viewpoint in certain areas, it is aimed more for people who are not Christians yet, and struggling to start a family in an unfavorable economy.

Articles like this [about only half of American households owing income tax] drive me crazy, because hard-working families with children and a lower income get lumped in with the freeloaders and deadbeats. I think that this no-income-tax-equals-freeloader sentiment is going to be used to tighten the screws on Godly families in the future.

The truth is that income tax is only one small piece of the federal tax pie. My great-grandparents probably never paid any income tax at all; the first income tax came later in their lives, was very low, and only affected the rich. That owing income tax is now practically a virtue reflects the expansion of tax obligations over the years.

Nearly all of the households that don’t pay income tax today pay Social Security and Medicare taxes (a huge part of the federal budget), as well as many other taxes. Just wait until they slam the VAT through!

So here is Prediction Seven: The “only half of American households pay income tax, so income taxes should be raised/tax credits should be phased out” argument will be used to slam lower-income Christian families that have more than the approved number of children. Within my lifetime.

One of her points is that there is a reason for being interested in something, and interest will drop off once that reason has been satisfied. Furthermore, this can happen well before the project is completed, and giving yourself permission to not finish what you’ve started can be very freeing.

On the other hand, she also offers pushes to move ideas from dreams to actions.

So I had some quilt squares that I started making more than a year ago. I needed to make five more squares to have enough for a quilt. I also had no interest at all in making any more squares, but I did want to finish the project. The book inspired me to create a different path to completion: a long, narrow quilt to drape over a chair, instead of a quilt to sleep under (which I have plenty of already). So now I have a quilt top ready that is two feet wide and nine feet long, and I can already drape it over my extra chair in my office and enjoy looking at it.

Various items have been arriving providentially, mostly through our apartment’s informal recycling program (people set things out by the dumpster). Some neighbors set out a double stroller that only needed a good bath. I also received a working monitor to replace my monitor that was dying. I set out a small file cabinet, but then took it back a couple of days later, after I realized that it was silly to throw it out when I had just ordered two books on working sheet metal.

I also got a different small file cabinet; it turns out that I need a place right near my desk to file all of my brilliant ideas. (Sher recommends starting a new binder for each new interest/project, but I prefer files.) It was a bummer that there was no key for its lock, to keep little mitts out of my files, but a couple of weeks later, someone set out a small liquor cabinet with a lock, and even left the key with it. This lock, when combined with a piece from the original (and also keyless) file cabinet, went ever so nicely into the new file cabinet, and now I can lock it.

Same thing happened on Easter Sunday, but there was also some music at the end of the service, for once, and MFH came to the nursery to take over with TLG so I could go to the sanctuary. As I got there, everyone was singing and some of the African immigrants in the congregation were starting to lead a joyous procession around the sanctuary (as they occasionally do, they are a great blessing to us uptight Swedes), and I was able to join right in. He lives!

But still, it’s all about a crowded, dirty stable*, weary travelers, and a very special birth.

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*If the inn was full, probably the inn’s stable was, too. As I mentioned in my book (in the context of co-sleeping), my mental picture of the manger scene is a stable full of donkeys, with one forlorn donkey sent outside to make room for Mary and Joseph, and baby Jesus being placed in a manger just to keep him from being trampled or squashed.

All I want to do, really, is live in peace with my family and my happy little projects, but there is no peace, because Satan rules this world.

I have a lot of minor edits that I would like to make to my book, but really it is good enough as it is. I’ve let the book, The Naturally Frugal Baby: Financial Survival Strategies and Tactics for Having a Baby without Going Broke, loose on Lulu.com: here. There’s a free preview, of rather poor quality, a free download of the whole thing, and the paperback is available at the Lulu minimum price (currently $10.03 plus shipping). I am not taking a profit on it while I am on a personal sabbatical for the next year.

The main topics that it covers are: the details of how the USDA determines that it costs about $200,000 to raise a child (really you can do it for much, much less); tax implications of parenthood; how to get your life in order before you start trying to conceive; childbirth care providers and how to pick one; when to leave work; options for working after the baby is born; navigating insurance benefits; feeding; diapering, demystifying cloth diapers and comparing costs against disposables; what baby stuff is most useful, and lower-cost alternatives for finding it; how to weed out bad baby advice; getting your financial life back in order after the baby is born; and a host of other things that arise later in the baby’s first year.

Since I’m self-publishing, there was no editor to restrain me from throwing in allusions to other subjects, such as architecture and economics and computer science and theology and decorating, or from illustrating the book with cartoons of Martians, or from referencing a lot of “out-of-date” books by authors that I happen to like. I also put in a list of online resources that I’ve found helpful. The book is 181 pages, altogether, and there’s a decent amount of meat in it.

This book is for anyone who would like to have a baby in the next few years, but is holding back because of the state of the economy. By all the indicators I’ve been following, the economy is going to be at best limping along for the next few years, if not actually in Great Depression 2.0, and extreme frugality will be almost the only way to start a family while keeping off the dole. If you’re not planning on having a baby yourself, maybe you know of some younger people who are almost ready to start a family. Remember that downloads of the book are free.

What I don’t understand is why the medical authorities seem so determined to see an epidemic of one sort or another take place.

Well, if I put my tin-foil hat on….

1. This administration is determined to not let a good crisis go to waste.

2. Having a flu crisis is great, because people have already been conditioned to get an annual flu shot.

3. Another reason a flu crisis is great is because any failures of the vaccine to prevent the new strain can be blamed on the other strains of flu going around.

4. The new vaccine could have some interesting “features” like not actually being a flu vaccine at all…

5. And instead provide immunity against the next dread disease that is going to be set loose, that will conveniently decimate those pesky non-vaccinating portions of the population.

6. And/or the vaccine might trigger some longer-term problem in the vaccinated population, to make them more dependent on the government and those in power.

That is why I’ve been tending to fence-sit on the vaccination issue; I think they are close to getting us either way.