Are you mom enough? Really Time? This is the new cover of Time Magazine.
Of course images of a woman breastfeeding always spark controversy. But that kid is 3 years old! I"ve always been of the opinion that breastfeeding should be for the first year.
I myself had bad luck with breastfeeding. Big Brother couldn't figure it out no matter what ingenious tricks we tried so he was feed breast milk from a bottle until my supply dried up, which didn't take long.
Little Brother did great, but I had to have my gallbladder out when he was 6 months old. I couldn't keep my supply up enough after surgery but we were able to make it until he could have milk instead of formula.
What makes me angry about this cover is the question, "Are you mom enough?" implying that if we aren't breastfeeding out kids until they start going to public school, we have in some way failed.
As if moms need more pressure and more to worry about.
What is your reaction to the cover? Would you breastfeed a 3 year old?
Nuns tweet. Apparently. As soon as I heard about this I had to find out.
After an interesting discussion in my office which ended with the formation of a business to help nuns and priests with their social media endeavors, appropriately called Connected Clergy, I set out to become the foremost expert on nun tweets.
After all, as Leslie (a girl in my office) says, someday someone will want to write a thesis on the social media activities of the clergy.
As I began my research, I was frankly astounded by the sheer number of nuns on Twitter. In fact, there is even a hash tag #WhatSistersMeanToMe for how nuns have made a difference in your life.
(This is the part where I show how ignorant I am about nuns in general.)
I have always pictured nuns as being like this…
What I discovered is that Nuns are really more like
Even more surprising, the Vatican WANTS nuns to tweet. According to USA Today, "The Vatican wants the powerful women's voices to stress the Catholic vision for marriage and sexuality and to spend more time campaigning against abortion, gay marriage and women's ordination."
So what do nuns tweet about?
Good books
Complaints – albeit MUCH nicer than most
Inspiration
Poems
Prayers
Current Events
And limes
Nuns even blog. I'm loving The Awkward Catholic. It's extremely enlightening (no nun pun intended).
And give shout outs
I'm starting to think that nuns are WAY cooler than we are led to believe.
Its that time of year again. I always dread end of the year teacher gifts. What can you give them that they don't already have a million of? Here are some great ideas I found for teacher gifts on Pinterest.
And of course, never underestimate the value of gift cards!
This Mother's Day, I'm working with Clever Girls in support of Macy's Heart of Haiti to shine a light on the "trade, not aid" program, which provides sustainable income to Haitian artisans struggling to rebuild their lives and support their families after the 2010 earthquake.
When I was just a few days old, my mom got a call at school that would change both of our lives.
Her baby girl was here.
I was adopted when I was just a few days old. When my mom got that call, she left school where she was a teacher, and never went back. From that day on she was a mom. She devoted her life to me and my two younger sisters. She was, and is, always there when we need her.
I wish I could really find the words to express how grateful I am that I had a mom who always wanted the best for me and has always believed in me. It really has made all the difference in my life.
Now she is making a difference in the lives of my children. You can tell that she loves being a Grammy just as much as she loved being a mom, maybe even more!
This Mother’s Day do something for your mom that makes a difference in her life and the lives of others. Flowers are nice, but they don’t have the lasting impact that an act of service or charity will. Do something for your mom that she will remember for a long time.
Also, I would also suggest reaching out to those who don’t have their moms here anymore. This is a difficult holiday. Don’t forget to offer a kind word, a hug, or a shoulder to someone missing mom.
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Thank you to Macy's Heart of Haiti for sponsoring my participation in this “Share Your Heart" promotion. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own.
Mother's Day is a lot like Valentine's Day. Its one day you are supposed to show love for someone you should be showing love to everyday.
Since I have been a mother myself, Mother's Day has just about become a stressful holiday. I have to coordinate several holidays, in essence, all in to one day. I am a mother with two children. I have a mother who has three children and a husband who has a mother who lives in another state. I was adopted and have a birth mother. My mom has a mother who passed away recently so this holiday tends to bring up some painful memories as well as happy ones. Do you see where this begins to get complicated?
What I want for mother's day is to not have to get dressed at all that day. I want to spend the day in my pajamas. I don't want to cook anything. I don't want to clean anything. I want a hot Italian guy who speaks no English at all to come give me a pedicure, while I veg on the couch in my pajamas.
Ok, so I'm getting a little bit into fantasy world there.
I don't want this holiday to be a day where everyone has to be on their absolute best behavior so as not to hurt anyone's feeling by not wearing the right clothes, buying the right gift, or making enough of an effort to prove on this one day that you love your mother enough.
Instead lets just relax. Hang out in our PJs. Eat ice cream and popcorn. Read books. Have a totally relaxing day.
What I want most for mother's day is a low stress day. And a hug from my kids.
Why do they call them apartments if they are all stuck together?
Who was the first guy (you know it was a guy) who though jumping out of a plane was a good idea? Or even the guy who decided that putting people in the air to fly was a good idea? Or putting a bunch of gunpowder in a stick and setting fire to it? Or climbing tall really tall things? Or putting a couple of guys into a military missile and igniting it to see if they could make it to space?
If the black box always survives the plane crash, why don't we make the whole plane out of that material? And shouldn't there be parachutes under the seats instead of flotation devices?
If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?
If we wear a pair of pants, a pair of socks, a pair of shoes, a pair of earring, why do we wear one bra?
If Pluto and Goofy are both dogs, how come one wears clothes, talks, and walks on two feet while the other lives in a doghouse and walks on four?
Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?
Why do banks think its a good idea to charge you for insufficient funds? They know you don't have any money.
Why do people point at their wrist when they want to know what time it is but don't point to their butt when they want to know where the bathroom is?
Why do dogs run away when you blow in their face but stick their heads out of car windows?
Performance art is something that has always been widely criticized and often misunderstood. It is usually shocking as well.
This performance of Swedish artist Makode Linde at World art day on April 15 at Moderna Museet Stockholm was no exception.
There has been an outcry all over the internet spanning many different countries claiming this installation be racist. Yes. It is racist. It is supposed to be. It is supposed to be showing the horrific things that are being done to aboriginal black women. They are being mutilated!
The purpose of art is to invoke a response from the viewer. I think this piece of performance art has been wildly successful in that respect. There isn't a rule in art that says that the viewer's response should be happy, pretty, politically correct, or likable in any way. You aren't required to LIKE the art you see.
It doesn't make a difference whether the artist is black or white. It doesn't make a difference that a highly ranked political official ate the cake in the instillation.
What matters is that the issue was brought to light. What matters is not holding artists back because their opinion is unpopular, or unpleasant, or down right horrific. This cake is horrific. So is genital mutilation. So is racism.
I don't think there is anything wrong with this performance at all. I think the problem is that this mutilation is done on REAL women. What do you think?
