But because it fosters false nostalgia for an imagined self-sufficient rural life, it may mask some of the real problems facing the dwindling number of people who actually live that life. Emily Cook, manager at Virginia’s Farm at Sunnyside, told me she was sick of “farmer groupies” who weren’t actually interested in the real problems farmers are facing. “The discussion needs to move beyond how great heirloom tomatoes are to how are we going to have farmers 20 years from now,” she said. “Our system really needs to change to make farming a viable career to people.”

I got in a pretty strong debate not long ago with some well-meaning hipsters about this kind of thing…the desire for a “simpler time” without the risks is just nostalgia and living a nostalgic, but safe life, is counterproductive to being the change we want to see in the world.

In an essay called “Self-Respect,” Ms. Didion offers the only strategy that has ever consistently helped me regain my mommy peace once I’ve lost it:

“It was once suggested to me that as an antidote to crying, I put my head in a paper bag. As it happens, there is a sound physiological reason, something to do with oxygen, for doing exactly that, but the psychological effect alone is incalculable. It is difficult in the extreme to continue fancying oneself Cathy in Wuthering Heights with one’s head in a food fair bag. There is a similar case for all the small disciplines, unimportant in themselves; imagine maintaining any sort of swoon, commiserate or carnal, in a cold shower.”

I love this. The whole essay is great.

Careful examination discloses that disadvantaged students have made spectacular progress in the last generation, in regular public schools, with ordinary teachers. Not only have regular public schools not been “the great discriminator” — they continue to make remarkable gains for minority children at a time when our increasingly unequal social and economic systems seem determined to abandon them.

I’m not suggesting this is the end of the story…FAR from it. But in the midst of the rhetoric, it’s important to make sure we have our facts straight and not just buy into stuff that sounds like it jives with our own prejudice.

Unfortunately, the real story is complicated and, in a way, not all that reassuring. Researchers don’t really know what causes depression. They’re making progress, but they don’t know. That’s the real story.

It’s not exactly a blockbuster.

We cannot leave the job solely to social media, television, Internet and peers to provide the context of interpreting life’s meaning for our children. We cannot leave children to their own private, internal resources to make sense of the world around them and expect them to move toward mindfulness. We have the obligation, the duty and the responsibility to engage with children, talk with them and listen to them. When we listen and talk with our children in a mindful way, with the intention of moving them toward living a life of increasing mindfulness — increasing attention, awareness and care for themselves and others — we give our children the gift of a mindful life. What can you do — today — to help a child see a clearer model of mindful living in you, in how you speak, in how you relate to others and in your kindness and compassion? When you live a mindful life in the presence of any child you give him or her the gift of mindfulness in a powerfully authentic way.

Mindful children come from being in relationships with mindful adults.

This whole article is great.

Personal relationships, particularly romantic ones, can be the INTJ’s Achilles heel. While they are capable of caring deeply for others (usually a select few), and are willing to spend a great deal of time and effort on a relationship, the knowledge and self-confidence that make them so successful in other areas can suddenly abandon or mislead them in interpersonal situations.

This happens in part because many INTJs do not readily grasp the social rituals; for instance, they tend to have little patience and less understanding of such things as small talk and flirtation (which most types consider half the fun of a relationship). To complicate matters, INTJs are usually extremely private people, and can often be naturally impassive as well, which makes them easy to misread and misunderstand. Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is that INTJs really want people to make sense. :-) This sometimes results in a peculiar naivete’, paralleling that of many Fs — only instead of expecting inexhaustible affection and empathy from a romantic relationship, the INTJ will expect inexhaustible reasonability and directness.

ummm…yeah *sheepish*

Masterminds are rare, comprising no more than one to two percent of the population, and they are rarely encountered outside their office, factory, school, or laboratory. Although they are highly capable leaders, Masterminds are not at all eager to take command, preferring to stay in the background until others demonstrate their inability to lead. Once they take charge, however, they are thoroughgoing pragmatists. …Ordinarily, they verbalize the positive and avoid comments of a negative nature; they are more interested in moving an organization forward than dwelling on mistakes of the past. …Decisions come easily to them; in fact, they can hardly rest until they have things settled and decided. But before they decide anything, they must do the research. Masterminds are highly theoretical, but they insist on looking at all available data before they embrace an idea, and they are suspicious of any statement that is based on shoddy research, or that is not checked against reality.

Yep, that’s me. “Rational Mastermind” makes me chuckle. The Brain from Pinky and the Brain pops into my head immediately. “…the same thing we do every night Pinky, try to take over the world!”

The company is framing their new line for girls with “science.” Executives are going to great lengths to explain that the line is based on research, using anthropologists who spent time with girls in their homes. The frame gives the company an excuse for reproducing the same old gender stereotypes that we see throughout our culture.  They can shrug their shoulders and say, “Well, what are we to do? This is what girls want.”  In this way they are trying to make it clear that they shouldn’t be held accountable for the messages their products send.

But it’s no accident that girls feel alienated from Lego.

According to Business Week, Lego has spent most of the last decade focusing their products on boys.  They have deliberately designed products that they expect will appeal to boys and included boys almost exclusively in their marketing material. Today Legos are shelved in the boy aisle is most toy stores.

So, basically, what Lego has done over the last few decades is take a truly wonderful gender-neutral toy, infuse it with boyness, and tell every kid who’ll listen that the toy is not-for-girls.  Now, stuck with only 50% of the kid market, they’re going after girls by overcompensating.  And, to top it all off, they’re shaking their heads and doing “science” to try to figure out girls, as if they’re some strange variant of human that regular humans just can’t get their head around.

In fact, girls don’t feel like the toy is for them because Lego has done everything in its power to ensure that they will not.

I don’t want to make a mountain of a mole hill but I don’t think moves like this should be ignored either. The section of this article that I quoted is key in my opinion.

The Best Homemade Playdough Recipe EVER

Posted in Days of my life at 12:23 PM by Robin

You gotta love the life of a stay-at-home mom.  Sometimes there is time–too much time–for introspection and reflection on the deeper things of life, and there is time to write long, deep-thinking posts about these things. Other times, all you can think about is “What can I do to keep these kids busy and out of my hair long enough for me to take a shower?” If you haven’t guessed, summer vacation is upon us, and I definitely fall into the latter category right now.  I have felt guilty for being unable to post very often lately (although I do have time to check in on Facebook a couple of times a day–that takes a lot less effort! So, if you miss me, you can find me there!), so I thought I’d take just a second to share with you all one method of keeping the kids busy.

My mom used to make homemade playdough for us pretty frequently, but it was always full of salt and consequently very rough and scratchy.  Plus, it dried out and got crumbly very quickly. Store-bought play-doh isn’t much better. Happily for me, I found this awesome recipe online somewhere. It is smooth, easy to kead and mold, and doesn’t dry for days! We left a whole pile out overnight without a cover, and the next day the top was kind of dry, but we kneaded it up a bit and it was just fine again.  This stuff kept all three of my kids occupied for three days solid–even the ten-year-old! We made it like two weeks ago and it is still sitting in my fridge, wrapped in plastic wrap.  We haven’t pulled it out in a few days, but it still feels fairly soft to the touch.  I’m not sure if playdough can spoil–it never usually lasts long enough to find out!  Anyway, great stuff, give it a try, then sneak off and take a really long shower.

 

 

 

In a large saucepan, mix together

3 cups Flour

1 1/2 cups Salt

3 cups Water

2 TB vegetable oil (I used canola, I’m sure it doesn’t matter)

1 TB Cream of Tartar

Food coloring or unsweetened Kool-Aid pkg for color.

Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan and gets too thick to stir (about 10-15 minutes). Remove from heat and let cool until it can be handled. Place on counter or wax paper and knead several times until smooth. Store in an air-tight container.

Need to mix some of this up with the girls over break

Tub and Shower Magic

By Bobbin on August 04, 2010

Photo by gailanng

15 Reviews

• 
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Total Time: 5 mins
• Serves: 1, Yield: 3 cups

About This Recipe

“This came from an Everyday Cheapskate e-mail and it is truly magic as the title states. I just tried it and it got the soap scum off my glass shower door with hardly any scrubbing. It was amazing as I have tried to clean that door with various products. It is so easy, too. Try it and you will be sold. Be careful because a little bit goes a long way. You need a 24 oz squirt bottle for this.”

Ingredients

• 12 ounces white vinegar
• 12 ounces liquid, blue dawn detergent

Directions

1. Heat vinegar in microwave until hot and pour into squirt bottle.
2. Add the Dawn soap. Put the lid on and gently shake to incorporate.
3. You now have a powerful cleaning product that will melt soap scum and tub and shower buildup, clean sinks, appliances and just about anything. Just spray it on, scrub, rinse and be amazed. For tough soap scum build-up, spray the mixture on and allow it to sit as long as overnight. Then, scrub and rinse.