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

Doll Clothes

"Little girls love dolls.

They just don't love doll clothes.

We've got four thousand dolls

and ain't one of them got a stitch of clothes on."

Jeff Foxworthy

The Rainbow Connection

Tuesday

Functional Art

On Saturday we also went to the Earth Day Fair on the City Pier on Port Angeles where Imogen carefully painted this reusable shopping bag (that painted my jeans on the way to the car).

Junior Ranger

Last Saturday, Imogen became a Junior Ranger with the National Park Service. She had to do five activities at the Olympic National Park Visitor Center in Port Angeles to earn her badge, patch and certificate. She looked at mounted bees and flies, did an outdoor scavenger hunt and a Going Camping program, made a flying squirrel necklace with a bottle lid and played in the Discovery Room. Our Ranger friends Brian, Tracy and Dean helped Immy with her accomplishment.

The White Balloon

Grammy and her friend Sue took Immy and her cousins to the Quillayute Airport near Forks to watch a person send up a weather balloon for the National Weather Service. It's done every day.

Photos: Sue K.

SKWIM

Pronunciation Guide of Washington Place Names

Giving Earth

Earth Day Sunset from Ediz Hook

Secrets and Surprises

"I had lots of secrets and surprises today."

-Imogen yesterday, on the phone from Grammy's

Little Bit

"Mama, your 'little bit' is actually a long time." -Imogen

Where Water Comes Together

Today

Tongue Point, Strait of Juan de Fuca

Gonna Watch You Shine

Tonight, Hollywood Beach

Jorge el Curioso

"Around the world, the adventures of Curious George have been translated in many languages, and George takes on names such as 'Peter Pedal' in Denmark, 'Nysgjerrige Nils' in Norway, 'Nicke Nyfiken' in Sweden, 'Hitomane Kozaru' in Japan, 'Choni Ha'Sakran' in Israel and 'Jorge el Curioso' in Spanish speaking countries." -Wikipedia

Photo: Filmweb.no

Best Art, Real Life

Hopscotch

This Evening

All Too Real

"It was, perhaps, the ultimate cultural rebuke, a reminder from the heavens that maybe we should not have been fixating on the man who publicly humiliated his wife and seemingly took for granted all that has been given him. Because right there in front of us was the man who was shuttling his wife to cancer treatments and handling a pain that is all too real to so many."

Lynn Zinser, "Mickelson Writes His Own Masters Script." The New York Times, April 12, 2010. Link.

A Troll Bridge

Getting to see the Fremont Troll was especially exciting for Imogen because The Three Billy Goats Gruff is one of her favorite stories

Her Pink Period

A Breast of Politics

"Nursing mothers will now get additional support, thanks to page 1239 of the health care bill that President Obama recently signed into law. It requires employers to provide 'a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from co-workers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk.' Only companies with less than 50 employees can claim it's an undue hardship."

-CNN.com

Le Hero!

A French tourist who rescued a toddler who fell into New York's East River says he didn't think twice about diving in to save the girl.

Two-year-old Bridget Sheridan fell off a gangplank at the South Street Seaport museum Saturday. Her father, David Anderson, says she slipped through guardrails when he averted his eyes to adjust his camera.

Julien Duret, of Lyon, France, jumped into the water. Anderson followed closely behind. Duret scooped up the girl and gave her to her father.

The New York Daily News says the 29-year-old tourist got in a cab after the rescue. Duret says he doesn't think he's a hero and that anyone would do the same thing.

Anderson says his daughter was unhurt. He says he feels guilty about momentarily taking his eyes off her.

-The Associated Press (with information from Daily News)

Photo: STAN HONDA / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

A Stone's Throw

Lake Crescent

Sunday

Stand Up

While she was dying eggs with her cousins, Imogen set up a "stand" for dying rocks. Although we didn't actually try dying rocks that day, it does sound worth a try!

As we were leaving, Imogen said to her cousins, "Um, guys, can you please tell your 'fodder' to not take down my stand?"

Life is Not Linear

"Children do not share your priorities about schedules, clean houses, and building for the future. They want to play and are most concerned about the next five minutes. They want your attention and approval. They want to experience a sense that you actually enjoy them. It's easier to do that if you stop worrying so much about what they are going to be like when they grow up. Life is not linear. Your children will change in dramatic and unpredictable ways as they mature into adults."

Kalman M. Heller, Ph.D.

Egging

A Serious Matter

“I do not believe that the accident of birth makes people sisters and brothers. It makes them siblings. Gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood are conditions people have to work at. It's a serious matter. You compromise, you give, you take, you stand firm, and you're relentless...And it is an investment. Sisterhood means if you happen to be in Burma and I happen to be in San Diego and I'm married to someone who is very jealous and you're married to somebody who is very possessive, if you call me in the middle of the night, I have to come.”

-Maya Angelou

Birth of a Nation

In 2008 United States births declined in rate and numbers for women of all ages, except those over 40, for whom it rose.

USA Today