Whatever I find interesting from shops to animals to music to New York to Bolivia. NOT ALWAYS SUBJECTS FOR THE LITTLE ONES! I allow my 10-yr old to look.
Our worst
nightmare is now a reality. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has
formally proposed to remove all Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection
for nearly all gray wolves across the United States.
If this proposal becomes final, delisting will prematurely turn wolf
management over to the states, and we've already seen what can happen
when rabid anti-wolf politics are allowed to trump science and core
wildlife management principles.
More than 1,100 wolves have already been killed in the Northern Rockies since Congress took ESA protections away from them in 2011.
Please send an urgent message to Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell -- demand
that she provide oversight during the official review period and urge
her to re-think the official proposal before it becomes final.
It's time to accept the cold, hard truth.
I'm not a crafty mom. I'll never be a crafty mom.
One of my goals for 2013 was to actually try some of my pins
on Pinterest. I love looking through what other people have pinned, I
love seeing good ideas, and I love pinning things of my own. However,
I'm not great when it comes to following through and actually putting
some of these great ideas into practice.
Therefore, I gave myself a goal. One pin per week.
At first, I was flying. I found several recipes that were hits with
my family, from the 10-month-old to the picky 2-and-a-half-year-old to
the 30-something husband. I tried a couple of cleaning tips (apparently
blue Dawn plus warm vinegar is the cleaning elixir!). I wasn't just
meeting my challenge — I was exceeding my challenge.
Then I realized that I had two boards I was great about adding pins
to, but those boards remained untried: "Crafts I Can Handle" and "Crafts
For the Kids." Hmm . . .
If Pinterest, Facebook, and many, many blogs written by moms
are any indication, doing amazing crafts both with and for your kids is
the new benchmark. Why spend your money on a bin from the store when
you can cover an old diaper box? Why put hair bows in a drawer when you
can work together and create a gorgeous hanger? A good mom is a crafty
mom. She creates amazing products and engages her children in a
wonderful way. They aren't just crafting — they are making wholesome,
quality memories.
My toddler is part of an art playgroup. One of my friends has really
embraced her inner preschool teacher/wholesome-crafty-mom persona. She
gathers a group of 2-year-olds together, and every week we do something
different. We paint with pine branches, we experiment with homemade
puffy paint, we stamp with muffin tins, and we marble paint with shaving
cream. The kids adore it.
I can do that . . . right?
One of the things I realized about myself last year was that stepping
out of my comfort zone brings me unexpected joy and pride. Crafts are
definitely out of my comfort zone, so it was time to try.
Keep reading My Big Mess
My older daughter adores art, crafts, and anything where she can get
her hands dirty. It's not fair to deprive her just because it's not my
strength. Therefore, in the past few days we've made . . . a big mess!
Paint, glue, flour, food coloring, you name it, I've scrubbed it off my
floor.
I even tried some projects on my own, just to get my footing. I
covered an old Clorox wipes bottle with nice paper to make a plastic bag
holder for my car. I tried to cover some old shoe boxes with scrap
paper to make some toy storage boxes. I worked for hours on my computer,
trying to design some logos and personalize some printables.
Finally, when I stopped and looked at my shoe boxes, with paper not
quite lining up and definitely not adhered to the box, a plastic bag
receptacle with bubbling paper hanging off both ends and crumpled at the
join, and a logo with uneven coloring and text not quite lining up, I
realized . . .
I'm not a crafty person.
More importantly, I don't think I want to be. Sure, I like ideas, and
in the right hands, they'd be amazing. But I wasn't loving the time I
spent on these projects. I felt as if I was trying to fit into a box
that just doesn't work. I was focused on the end result, which wasn't
working out, and the effort wasn't fun for me.
I was disappointed at first. I won't be the mom who has her hot glue
gun at the ready. We won't have a commemorative salt dough ornament with
each child's handprint painted in a clever design. If I want a
decorative box or other storage container, I'll be buying it.
But I'm musical. My girls know songs and fingerplays and bounces and
games. I'll dive into a game of pretend and be just as dramatic as my
toddler. I'll pour water and scoop beans in the sensory box. I'll read
story after story with character voices and dramatic pauses.
I'll still get out the paint and flour and salt and food coloring. We
won't worry about the product, but we'll have a great time in the
process. We'll color rice and make Play-Doh and paint with colored
condensed milk. If they're having a great time, we'll do it. If they
lose interest, we'll do something else.
And I'll teach my daughters that it doesn't matter how the craft turns out. We don't need a perfect product.
I'm not a crafty mom.
And that's OK.
While some girls might consider Barbie's Dreamhouse fit for a princess, some feminists in Germany are protesting the life-size replica of the toy estate, CNN reports.
Located in Berlin's Alexanderplatz, the 27,000-square-foot Dreamhouse
is supposed to showcase Barbie's Malibu lifestyle, with makeup,
kitchen, and wardrobe rooms, plus a runway and real cafe in which
visitors can dine. But protesters complain that Barbie contributes to
sexism, racism, and body issues for girls.
The house "is the expression of a conventional role model that isn't OK," Socialist Alternative editor Michael Koschitzki said.
In addition to the protest, the buzz in Berlin has yielded an "Occupy Barbie Dreamhouse" Facebook page, which features a dark-haired girl saying "I can't stand pink!"
The "Barbie the Dreamhouse Experience" in Berlin is the first in what
is planned as a European house tour. A US Dreamhouse opened last week
in Florida, CNN reports.
Hatebreed have premiered the official video for “Honor Never
Dies”–watch it below. This is the second video release from their new
album, The Divinity of Purpose (Razor & Tie), which can be purchased on iTunes. RELATED ARTICLES:
Every year, approximately 785,000 Americans suffer a first heart
attack. And 470,000 who've already had one or more heart attacks have
another one. The scary thing is that 25 percent of ALL heart attacks
happen "silently," without clear or obvious symptoms.
Even when symptoms occur, they can be so mild or vague, most
people don't even realize it's heart-related (unless they are made
aware). Four things in particular are the most sinister signs of a
silent heart attack.
According to Dr. Crandall, the reason silent heart attacks go
untreated is because people don't even notice the symptoms, so he
created a special video presentation to show the four things to look for
that may be a silent warning — before it's too late to intervene and survive the damage.
Timing is the most critical factor for survival. Statistics show a
clear link between delay in treatment and disability or death — the
amount of time that elapses between the first sign of symptoms and
receiving care.
Originally developed as an educational tool, this video quickly
went viral, surpassing five million viewers in just a few short months.
Newsmax Health Publisher Travis Davis attributes the viral
sensation to the fact that the content hits close to home for so many
Americans. According to Davis, "Dr. Crandall tells the real-life story
of a 'widow-maker' heart attack that did not have to happen. It's scary
but eye-opening, because he outlines what could have been done to
actually prevent this."
Dr. Crandall, chief of the cardiac transplant program at the
esteemed Palm Beach Cardiovascular Clinic in Florida, practices on the
front lines of interventional, vascular, and transplant cardiology.
Years of experience have afforded him the chance to detect little-known
warning signs and symptoms like the four he addresses.
"I think the real value in this presentation is the number of
simple strategies he outlines to help prevent heart disease," says
Davis, "strategies that many doctors just don't take the time to discuss
with patients until they're already showing obvious symptoms of
cardiovascular stress."
There's a new secret way to cut the lines at Disney, but it involves a serious moral sacrifice. The NY Post
reports that a wealthy set of visitors has been hiring disabled "tour
guides" to accompany their families to the Orlando theme park, affording
them access to handicapped entrances, thereby bypassing the lines for
rides. The tour company, called Dream Tours Florida, was uncovered by
Dr. Wednesday Martin, a social anthropologist who discovered the
disturbing trend while researching her book, Primates of Park Avenue.
"It's insider knowledge that very few have and share carefully," Martin
said. Apparently, you need a referral to even get through to the
business, as Dream Tours' number is unlisted. Disney allows each
wheelchair or scooter-bound visitor to bring up to six guests to an
accessible entrance for each attraction. A woman who employed Dream
Tours' services told the Postthat she hired a guide to accompany
her family of four through the park in a motorized scooter with a
"handicap" sign on it, and the group received special access throughout
the park. We're pretty sure that we can all agree that this practice is
reprehensible, but whom do you think is most at fault? Sound off!
What to Make of the Syrian Chemical Weapons Attack
Photo: Flickr/ PanARMENIAN_Photo
It appears the Syrians have spectacularly upped the ante by using
chemical weapons. In the coming days, we’ll learn more about the attack –
who did it, under whose authority, how extensive the attack was, and
how much damage it has done. But any use of weapons of mass destruction –
which chemical weapons are considered to be and the use of which has
been specifically outlawed and taboo since the early 20th
century – is an escalation the significance of which simply can’t be
overstated. That it was done the day before the President of the United
States visits the region is, well, also kind of a big deal.
The apparent chemical weapons attack in Aleppo – the Israeli press is reporting it as a fact
confirmed by unnamed Israeli sources while the White House responded
with more caution – will change things. There will now be overwhelming
international pressure for direct action against the Syrian regime.
Whether that action will take the form of a no-fly zone (which was
already being seriously discussed) or some kind of bombing campaign as
we saw in Libya, time will tell.
The brutality of this attack also shouldn’t be forgotten. One of the
few horrors of war that has been largely off the table for the last
near-century has been chemical attack. Since the nerve gas warfare of
World War I, regimes that use chemical weapons, like Saddam Hussein’s
Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War in the ‘80s and against his own Kurdish
population, have been ostracized and alienated – untouchable even among
rogue nations. That Assad’s regime has resorted to these weapons is a
sign either that they are totally desperate or have completely lost
control of their commanders. Or both.
Lastly, what is Israel to make of an out-of-control, teetering regime
on its northern border suddenly resorting to chemical weapons use? No
doubt, the IDF will be prepared for a very significant response should
chemical weapons fall on Israel.
The last 24 hours have brought us an even more dangerous world than
we had before. It’s always a good time to pray – but this is an
especially good time.
There's a new secret 