I've never really given much money to political candidates before, but this year my husband and I are thinking about making a significant campaign contribution.  Here's my dilemma: We really, really, really want a Democrat to be the next president.  I have fairly strong feelings about which candidate is better, but what's most important to me is having a Democrat in office.  So my question is should I donate money now, or is it better to wait until there is an actual nominee?  Or should I do both, but in smaller amounts?

I'm also wondering about our charity contributions in general for 2008.  I already wrote a diary about charity here, but this year I'm wondering if we should "blow our charity budget" on a big political donation. Sometimes it seems like the most important thing we can do for our country and the world is get Republicans out of office, so maybe it makes sense this year to donate lots of money to the Democrats, and neglect other causes temporarily.  That doesn't feel quite right, however.

I'm sure I can't be the only one wondering about these things right now, so I'm hoping to hear what others are thinking.

I just saw this awesome short video, and need to pass it on to all of you.  It's called the Story of Stuff, and is similar to An Inconvenient Truth in that it just makes you think "Wow, I really didn't realize how bad this is."  The video is 20 minutes long, so you might need to set aside time to watch it, but it's definitely worthwhile.

The themes addressed seem to be things we're thinking about here at MTs lately, with recent diaries on too many toys and consumerism.  I'm debating whether to send this to my family, who ignored our pleas to keep Christmas simple this year and instead sent us home with a minivan full of stuff, ranging from huge trucks that dominate our play area to tiny toothbrush holders that don't fit our toothbrushes.

One of my favorite parts is the description of how we get sucked into this cycle of needing the newest stuff year after year to fit in, and how we're stuck in this work-watch-shop cycle.  Also, the history of how government influenced our consumer society was fascinating.  I'd love to discuss this with others who are interested in this topic.

This time of year always gets me assessing how much we've given to charity over the previous year. This isn't necessarily because it's the season of giving, but more because we need to figure out the total amount for tax purposes.

I recently read the book Three Cups of Tea, about an American man who dedicates his life to building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan on a very limited budget (here's a link to his organization). He describes his quest for funding for his projects, and how little money he really needed from Americans to make an enormous difference in another country. It made me think of Peter Singer and this article I read by him years ago. Our country is so amazingly wealthy and it's unbelievable how little we're willing to share with others.

Thank you for the thoughtful diary, Treena. This is something I grapple with, too. -Elisa

So we're far from perfect, and it's hard to consider yourself an environmentalist without being a hypocrite in some ways, but we try hard to be conscious of the environmental footprint of our family.

I'm attending a wedding this weekend which should be a lot of fun, but I'm already feeling stressed about it.  I really, really hate getting dressed up.  I have ever since I was a little kid.  I didn't even have a wedding myself, partially because the thought of getting dressed up and having everyone looking at me was too stressful.

I consider myself pretty low maintenance, and I make a point not to do things to my body just because I'm supposed to.  So I don't own any make up, nail polish, or even jewelry.  I also don't shave... at all.  This has been a very gradual development with lots of self doubt and insecurity involved, but I'm generally pretty OK with it now.  Until I have to go to a wedding, that is.

I've written in an earlier diary about how determined I was to raise my 2.5-year-old son gender neutral.  (For those interested, he's still wearing only pink and now insists he's a girl.)  He showed a strong interest in trucks from an early age, and I grudgingly gave in to toys, clothing, and books with a truck theme.  I come from a family of firefighters, and once his interest in fire trucks was documented, he got several gifts of books about firefighters.  I was disappointed that some of them were old-fashioned, such as The Little Fire Engine about Fireman Small and his men.  However, the old-fashioned books still had cool sound effects and pictures of bright red trucks, and my son wanted to hear them frequently.

My 2.5 year old son hasn't yet hit the "Why?" phase, and we're probably still a few years away from the BIG questions, but my husband and I have been trying to decide what to do about religion.  Luckily, we share the same religious beliefs.  Neither of us believe in anything supernatural.  He was raised Jewish, I was raised Christian, but neither of our families were especially religious.  We both had horrendous religious education experiences, probably because what we were learning about was not consistent with what we learned at home.

I'm hoping some of you will be able to tell me about your own experiences.  I'm especially interested to hear from people who were raised by nonreligious parents, or those who are raising their kids without religion (especially if your kids are older).

I'll spell out what I see as our options here, and I'm very interested to hear what others think is the best choice.

I hate pink. I was a tomboy as a kid and made a point to reject all things girly, especially the color pink. When I was pregnant, my husband and I decided that we would find out the gender, but then not tell anyone. Our reasoning was that if we had a girl, we didn't want pink clothes. Our kid was going to be totally gender neutral until she or he was old enough to express opinions.