Happy Friday! Today I’m in DC with Tim and Clara. One of my best friends turned 30 this week and I wanted to fly into town to surprise her. And she was definitely surprised! More on that later, though.

This Week In Photos:

• Spring has finally hit Chicago and I swear everyone is in a better mood x 1000 than the last few months! Phew!
• Tim and I went to the lakefront with Clara so I could practice my photography skills. I absolutely love the Chicago lakefront and wish we lived right on it again!
• Clara absolutely loves her bath and the toys in it.
• Two of Clara’s friends (twins!) had a birthday last weekend and we had the best time celebrating with them! They loved their smash cakes!

Worth Reading:

// “Even as a scientist, I find these stories of risks and statistics overwhelming. I can know, scientifically, that some alcohol is fine and that most cheese is safe—but I still avoid them. I’ve started drinking non-alcoholic beer and decaffeinated coffee, something I would have scoffed at just a brief seven months ago. I’ve given up sushi and my cavalier attitude towards foods that have a reputation for harboring pathogens. It’s not that being pregnant has clouded my scientific judgment; deciding what food is good to eat involves a lot more than just science. Our “common sense” about what foods are healthy is affected by scientific studies, by doctors, by food manufacturers, and by tradition and culture. It’s no wonder that each decision feels like we’re narrowly avoiding a shipwreck when we’re eating for two.” (here)

// “In writing that article, I mined for passwords every chance I got: sitting in the doctor’s waiting room, riding Amtrak, filling that awkward lull during Thanksgiving dinner with in-laws. I interviewed several hundred people, most of them strangers. A surprising number were willing to take a broad leap of faith and give me not just the codes that they are never supposed to reveal, but also the emotional secret inside that makes these codes personal….Stuck on a tarmac, I sat next to a childless 45-year-old woman who eventually revealed to me that her password was the name of the baby boy she lost in utero (“My way of trying to keep him alive, I guess,” she said).” (here)

// “What remains unquestioned by such efforts to redesign social networks for greater wellbeing is the underlying logic, which implies that relationships are there to be created, invested in and – potentially – abandoned, in pursuit of individual optimisation. The darker implication of strategically pursuing positive emotion via relationships is that the relationship is only as good as the psychic value that it delivers. “Friend rosters” may need to be “balanced”, if it turns out that one’s friends are not spreading enough pleasure or happiness.” (here)

// “Yet despite increasingly laissez-faire attitudes to sex and marriage, millennials are sleeping with fewer partners than their parents did. Boomers and early Gen X’ers born in the 1950s and 60s had the most sex of all—an average of 11 sexual partners as adults—followed by those born in the 1940s or 1970s, who averaged at about 10 partners. Millennials, born in the 1980s and 1990s, only have an average of eight sexual partners. Still, they’re doing better than their grandparents in the “Greatest Generation,” who slept with an average of about two partners each.” (here)

// “Remember: every time you have a boss — he’s taking some of your money. And his boss is taking some of your money. I hope my daughter will do one of these things but I don’t think she will. I hope my daughter realizes that the average multimillionaire has seven different sources of income. A job is only one source.” (here)

I hope you’re having a wonderful start to your weekend! We’re enjoying our time in DC and God has blessed us with gorgeous weather here!