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

Wise & Wonderful

Immy & Deia, July 19

Bright & Beautiful

Deia & Immy

Photo by Summer

The Home Fires

In 2008, 27% of U.S. children lived in families where no parent had full-time, year-round employment.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation

Maternity Peeve

Need a Mortgage? Don’t Get Pregnant

Read The New York Times article featuring Elizabeth Budde, a 33-year-old oncologist living in Kenmore, Washington, then take action at MomsRising.org.

Work Party

Imogen helped (tolerated?) a work party in Port Angeles on Saturday. When I told her about it she said, "Party?! I want cake!"

Photo by Paula

Of Sweetness and Spice

Little Goddesses

Tootsie Doll

Forks Old-Fashioned Fourth of July Kiddies Parade

All I Touch on the Way

The Namesake

Imogen Cunningham
Photographer
Seattle, May 1965

Music and Movement

Toddler Dance Party Series

Ages 1-5

Port Angeles Library

10:15 am on the last three Fridays in July: July 16, 23 and 30

Get your groove on while singing and dancing at the library’s toddler dance party series. Did you know that music and movement help toddlers prepare to be better readers? -nols.org

Child Care Check

Red Day

Art Rocks

Encouraging Togetherness

Imogen celebrates her birthday with family and friends at the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts

"Dancing in a circle is an ancient tradition common to many cultures for marking special occasions, strengthening community and encouraging togetherness."

-Circle Dance, Wikipedia

She Carved Her Way

Emilie Brzezinski

"Throughout her marriage to national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, Emilie pursued her career as a sculptor. 'She was always quite clear this was an important part of her,' said Mika [Brzezinski, her daughter]. 'She carved her way--literally.'" -The Reliable Source, The Washington Post

"After marrying, she sculpted for 25 years while raising a family, then had her first solo show in 1981 in Washington, D.C. [when she was 49]." -Wikipedia

Photo: The artist with "Family Trees," 2010; Kouros Gallery and The Washington Post

Walkability

Walk Score: Rate the walkability of your home

Of Recklessness & Water

Tongue Point, Mid-May

Happy 4th Birthday Imogen!

What I Tell Her at Bedtime

I need you.
The world needs you.

You're amazing.

You're my favorite person in the whole world.

I love you.

Thank you for making me a mother.
I always wanted to be a mother,
and you're exactly the child I wanted.

You're safe in the world tonight.

I love you.
I love you.
Good night.
I love you.

No Simple Reform

Gloria Steinem:

If the shoe doesn't fit, must we change the foot?

The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off.

Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.

This is no simple reform. It really is a revolution. Sex and race because they are easy and visible differences have been the primary ways of organizing human beings into superior and inferior groups and into the cheap labor in which this system still depends. We are talking about a society in which there will be no roles other than those chosen or those earned. We are really talking about humanism.

Law and justice are not always the same. When they aren't, destroying the law may be the first step toward changing it.

We know that we can do what men can do, but we still don't know that men can do what women can do. That's absolutely crucial. We can't go on doing two jobs.

Childbirth is more admirable than conquest, more amazing than self-defense, and as courageous as either one.

But the problem is that when I go around and speak on campuses, I still don't get young men standing up and saying, 'How can I combine career and family?'

Most women are one man away from welfare.

Women may be the one group that grows more radical with age.

Happy or unhappy, families are all mysterious. We have only to imagine how differently we would be described -- and will be, after our deaths -- by each of the family members who believe they know us.

Planning ahead is a measure of class. The rich and even the middle class plan for future generations, but the poor can plan ahead only a few weeks or days.

No man can call himself liberal, or radical, or even a conservative advocate of fair play, if his work depends in any way on the unpaid or underpaid labor of women at home, or in the office.

Jone Johnson Lewis. From "Gloria Steinem Quotes." About Women's History. URL: http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/quotes/qu_g_steinem.htm. Date accessed: 05/25/10.

Did You Know?

"A study found non-mothers made 90 cents to a man's dollar, moms made 73 cents to the dollar, and single moms made 56 to 66 cents to a man's dollar." -MomsRising.org

From Joy to Joy to Joy

Breathe Locally

The American Lung Association State of the Air 2010 shows that Clallam County, Washington is one of the cleanest counties in the United States for ozone air pollution.

Image: storesonlinepro.com

Checking Out

Port Angeles Library

Saturday

Library Books

1940 WPA poster using Wee Willie Winkie

to promote children's libraries. -Wikipedia