Sunny, Santa-Dress Saturday

Law of Fashion

Laver's Law was an attempt to compress the complex cycle of fashion change and the general attitude towards any certain style or period into a simple timeline. -Wikipedia

Chart: monoscope.com

Too Much Soap

Here's a good NYT article on using household detergents.

There's every reason to use less.

"Most people use 10 to 15 times the amount of soap they need, and they're pouring money down the drain," Vernon Schmidt, repairman & author, to The New York Times

The Unexpected

Did you read "Parents Are Junkies" on Slate.com?

More Than Ourself

"We love each other more than ourself." -Imogen

Happiness

“You make a lot of decisions based on how you think they will make you feel in the future…The evidence is pretty clear, though, that big positive and negative events don't have an enormous impact on people's happiness.”

-Art Markman, Ph.D., “Your future happiness depends less on the present than you might think,” Psychology Today via Jezebel

Indie Mom

"An 'Indie Mom.' Yeah, I could be that. I can DIY my life. I could give myself permission to live a life that's beyond the picture of what's 'normal' in our culture. Not as an angry outsider (ugh, nothing worse than a self-proclaimed rebel), but as someone who relishes that she can build the multi-faceted, beautiful life she wants even as she colors outside the lines."

-Debra Goldstein, "Invention of an Indie Mom," The Huffington Post

Go Dutch

Photo: bloesem kids

Read this enlightening piece on the lives of women in the Netherlands.

Preschool Musical

Another Door Opens

When she comes to a dead end in a maze, Imogen just draws a door and goes through it!

I like that kind of thinking.

Maze: activitypad.com

Only A Test

Imogen came out of the library the other night with a pencil and paper. She was acting like a teacher. "Now," she said, writing something down, "it's time for your reading testicle."

It All Adds Up

Imogen working hard in the veterinary clinic at her school.

Photo by Teacher Susan

Halloween

Scents Of Salt And Seaweed

"America might be losing its connection to the woods and overprotecting its once free-range kids. But, I look at the little ones on the shore. It’s good to see the sights and smells of nature being passed on, how the Salish Sea is soaking into their blood, how the scents of salt and seaweed are being internalized. That will shape their sense of place. These kids might grow up taking it as a given that eagles should soar overhead, that low tide reveals fascinating critters and new worlds."

Knute Berger, Mossback, Crosscut

Full Article

To The Moon

"Mama, when will we get to go up there, to the moon?"

-Imogen, looking up at the night sky recently

Leaving Her Mark

"AI" (or "IA") is Imogen's mark.
It stands for Amy|Imogen.

Featured Artist

Imogen is a featured artist at her pre-school.

Pink Princess

Buildings

Barbie & Barack Obama

The other day, Imogen was talking about Barbie and I was talking about Barack Obama. I first suggested it it would be fun to be one of Barack Obama's daughters or his wife, then I caught myself and said, "I'd just like to be Barack Obama," to which Imogen responded:

"You wish you were a girl and Barack Obama and I wish I was Barbie."

Then:

"We couldn't live together if you were Barack Obama and I was Barbie."

Really Important

"Mama, I don't have to be really important 'cuz I'm just a kid and I don't know anything."

-Imogen, responding to me talking about a social issue she's dealing with at pre-school

The Right Thing

English designer Luella Bartley on ending her “Luella” fashion line:

“‘It’s a difficult thing, being a woman, trying to have a successful business, be creative and do the best by your family. I sold it to myself that I could do it all,’ she told the Times [London]. ‘You can, but not the way my business was set up. It was set up for the old me. Maybe I was moving away from that life without realising it.’

With that in mind, Bartley has since been staying full time in the Cornwall cottage that she shares with boyfriend David Sims and their three children. But despite it being 11 months on, the Luella girl hasn't disappeared she said. ‘My lifestyle changed, but she stayed, which is nice.’

‘To anybody urban and creative, it obviously sounds like a drop-out situation,’ she said. ‘Letting go has been the biggest lesson. I used to think that if someone wasn’t successful, it was because they were crap, but now I realise that if people aren’t successful, it’s probably because they aren’t that bothered…You think that everyone’s going to forget who you are. But I had a chat with Phoebe [Philo, the creative director of Céline], who I admire so much. She took three years out and made sure her kids were secure. Then, when she was ready, she got the deal she wanted. You’ve just got to know what you want. I know I’ve done the right thing. I don’t mourn anything. I loved what it was, but I’m happy to be out.’”

Mdudu, Naomi, Luella Embraces Life After The [Close] Of Her Brand. The Fash Pack. October 12, 2010, from http://thefashpack.onsugar.com/Luella-Embraces-Life-After-Clouse-Her-Brand-11433700

Image from The Fash Pack via Bryan Boy

High Cost of Child Care

"The average cost for center-based care for a four-year-old in Washington state is more than the average cost of tuition at a public university."

MomsRising.org, citing "Parents and the High Cost of Child Care 2010 Update," pg 41, National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies

Original House

Front Cover, Select Pages, Back Cover

Light Bulb Moment

“…Jefferson County and Port Townsend lead the state, per capita, in solar energy projects. Jefferson County had 87 certified projects as of Sept. 1, 2010 – or one project for every 337 residents. The number includes 67 projects in Port Townsend, one for every 134 residents.

San Juan County ranked second among counties at one project for every 434 residents, followed by Klickitat County at one per 466 residents, Clallam County at one per 922 and Island County at one per 1,287.

King County had the greatest number of projects at 479 – or one project for every 4,036 residents.

…Other cities with at least 30 projects include Bellingham at 62, Sequim at 47, Olympia at 45, Redmond at 40, Spokane at 39, and Anacortes at 33.”

From:

(2010, September 30). Port Townsend and Jefferson County are state leaders in solar projects. The Port Townsend Leader.

Retrieved October 6, 2010, from ptleader.com: http://ptleader.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=27831&SectionID=36&SubSectionID=55&S=1.

Local Flavor

Read about the Bremerton elementary school that's offering local food to its students.

Photo: Meegan M. Reid, Kitsap Sun

Two Santas

Family Tree

"Cousins are different beautiful flowers in the same garden."

Study For Local Response

Study for Local Response by Imogen (Front and Back)
Construction Paper, Tape and Marker
Title generated at The Abstract Art Titlegenerator

Owls

By the Seat of Our Pants

Read Lisa Belkin's New York Times article, "Keeping Kids Safe From the Wrong Dangers."

Best Quotes:

"There is an inherent hypocrisy in our attempts to control our odds — putting the organic veggies (there is no actual data proving that organic foods increase longevity) in the trunk of our car (researchers tell us there is 'evidence' but not 'proof' that car emissions accelerate heart disease), then checking our e-mail on our cellphone at the next red light (2,600 traffic deaths a year are caused by drivers using cellphones, according to a Harvard study)."

___

"And while we certainly make constant (mis)calculations in our adult lives, we seem all the more determined yet befuddled when it comes to the safety of our children. For instance, the five things most likely to cause injury to children up to age 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are: car accidents, homicide (usually at the hands of someone they know), child abuse, suicide or drowning. And what are the five things that parents are most worried about (according to surveys by the Mayo Clinic)? Kidnapping, school snipers, terrorists, dangerous strangers and drugs.

'Parents are just bad at risk assessment,' said Christie Barnes, a mother of four and the author of 'The Paranoid Parents Guide.' 'We are constantly overestimating rare dangers while underestimating common ones.'"

___

"[W]e put them in that car and we drive — to the orthodontist, to school, to their friend’s house two blocks away — because 'if I let them walk and they were abducted I would never forgive myself.' This despite the fact that the British writer Warwick Cairns, author of 'How to Live Dangerously,' has calculated that if you wanted to guarantee that your child would be snatched off the street, he or she would have to stand outside alone for 750,000 hours. And while we are busy inflating some risks, we tend not to focus on others — like the obesity and diabetes that result when children are driven someplace when they could walk, or when they play video games inside instead of playing in the park."

Little Bugs

KidRaising

Bloomberg Businessweek has named Redmond, Washington as one of the "Best Places to Raise Your Kids: 2010," citing its close proximity to Seattle, $100,000+ median income, 34 parks and "excellent schools," as reasons. Shoreline and Bellevue are the Washington runners-up.

Graphic: Bloomberg Businessweek

Women & Poverty

In 2009, 29.9% of families with a single woman as head of household (4.4 million) lived in poverty, compared with 16.9% of families with a single man as head of household (942,000).

PRNewswire

What I Am

The Only Child

Read The New York Times article, "The Only Child: Not a Loner?," about new research on the social lives of only children.

"[W]hile we tend to think that siblings teach one another conflict resolution and other interpersonal skills, new research says they are no better off socially than children without siblings." -Pamela Paul, The New York Times

American Families

Read The New York Times Op-Ed piece, "How to End the Great Recession," by Robert B. Reich.

The Playground

Discrimination Against Mothers

"[M]others in the real world struggle every day because they still get paid, on average, 27% less than men and 17% less than women without children. In fact, most of the structural discrimination against women is discrimination against mothers.

Why is this still happening?

Well, first off it's because of bad policies in Washington.   Our public policies are stuck in the 1950s, despite the fact that we have a modern labor force now that's 50% women.  But discrimination against mothers is also cultural. Even though study after study has shown that mothers are great workers, most individual workplaces and businesses fail to meet the needs of families in how work itself is structured." -MomsRising.org

The Self-Sufficiency Standard

"Diana Pearce, a senior lecturer and the director of the Center for Women's Welfare at the University of Washington's School of Social Work, conducts research on the level of income necessary for individuals and families to meet their basic needs." -The Seattle Times

Watch the video.

Use the Self-Sufficiency Calculator for Washington State.

Don't Eat Vegetables

Imogen and I were discussing hips yesterday. I told her women have them "for when 'you' have a baby. (Then backpedaling) But you don't have to have a baby, only if you choose to when you're grown up. Do you think you might want to have a baby when you're grown up?" She said (with authority), "If you don't want to have a baby, you don't eat vegetables."

Hard to be a Kid

"Mom, I'll handle this.
It's really hard to be a kid."
-Imogen

Bracelets

Swinging on a Star

At the Sol Duc

Golden Slippers

Grammy bought these fancy dress-up shoes for Imogen at the Goodwill last week. She had to promise she would only wear them at home.

An Invincible Summer

Photo by Al

Kinetic Skulpture Race

That Good Fight

"We get sold a lot of things simply by dint of being women living in the West under late capitalism. If advertisers had their way, our insecurities would have insecurities by now (and our hair would still not be any shinier, bouncier, or softer). The fusillade of manufactured needs to which we are subjected is a bullsh*t system, a happiness shell game, with charge cards, and that system deserves to be questioned and, yes, critically unpacked. (And it is, refreshingly, by us [Jezebel] and so many other blogs.) Taking ads out of their context is a way of making them puny. It dispels…their "aura." And it is absolutely part of that good fight."

From:
Sauers, J. (2010, August 24). The Reason We Keep Showing American Apparel Softcore. Jezebel.

Retrieved August 25, 2010, from Jezebel: http://jezebel.com/5620770/on-american-apparels-sexist-brand-imagery.

Radiant Heart

Yesterday

A Childhood Summer

Imogen

Gwyneth & Imogen
July 22