We tend to think of very young children as safe from peer group pressure and the worries of the world at large but it turns out we're wrong. Here are just a couple of examples to show what I mean.
First, one that's been bothering me for a few months. We went around to visit Miss Now Three and a Half on her birthday and she was pulling out and displaying the goodies she had received. Out came the books, the toys and some clothes - and then her mother said, 'What about your new shoes?' A little reluctantly she took a pair of blue climbing shoes out of the box - this family is into indoor climbing and Miss Three and a Half, who is totally fearless, has been climbing under supervision since she was first able to work out how to use hand and footholds. When I admired her shoes she hung her head a little and said, 'But they're boys' shoes.' Apparently blue is for boys even at three and this from a child who lives in shorts and t-shirts and whose parents try to avoid gender specific items as far as possible. We had a bit of a discussion about how shoes can be any colour and besides there was a bit of pink around the eyelets and the moment passed but it made me realise how cultural ideas seep through even to the youngest children from their peers, adults from outside the family and books or magazines to mention only a few sources and these pressures and beliefs will only grow even more once social media gets involved.
The second one came up when I was watching a documentary which cited a recent study showing that girls as young as eight or nine are putting themselves on weight loss diets due to perceptions they are overweight whether or not they are. The study suggested that the pervasive coverage of weight and weight loss diets along with the doctored photos of women in women's magazines to make them appear unnaturally skinny create a false body image where young girls of healthy body weight perceive themselves as overweight. These magazines don't even have to be purchased and come into the home to affect perceptions. Because they are prominently displayed at supermarket checkouts their influence is ubiquitous and they are seen every time someone - young or old - queues to pay for their shopping. Young girls aren't the only ones falling into this trap, either. Apparently there is an increasing number of young boys deciding they need to diet. I'm not suggesting that childhood obesity doesn't exist or need to be addressed but these children don't have the health issues they think they have. They are being manipulated by what they see around them.
I find this disturbing. How about you?
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Friday, September 20, 2019
Froggies!
About a week ago I went out to clear the over-growth of algae out of one of our backyard ponds. It had been neglected this winter and guilt was tugging at me. The plan was to clear out the mess, replace the waterlilies that had sadly died and maybe invest in some fish. I knew several frogs frequented this pond but I hadn't seen or heard a peep from them for some months. You usually know when they're about because of their distinctive call -they're not known as motorbike frogs for no reason. I'd come across a few hiding in the base of self watering flower pots and several had set up home in a pile of empty pots near one of the garden taps - they ranged in size from not much bigger than my thumb to full grown adults - so I knew we still had some residents but I hadn't seen any others even in their favourite sunbathing spots near the pond.
So I pulled up the first clump of algae and started checking for frog spawn since we're heading into the frog breeding season - and the whole base was speckled with tiny tadpoles, some still in the egg. I checked another couple of clumps and they were the same. There must have been several hundred altogether. Of course I abandoned the pond clean up and left them to their own devices. They've now all emerged and are feeding on the algae, because unlike the adults the tadpoles are technically herbivores. I say technically because while they're still very tiny there are so many that I wouldn't be surprised if some at least turn cannibal, something that happens when a pool is over crowded but that's up to nature to sort out and, although the pond has a netting cover to make it child safe and keep out predators, I know from experience that the majority won't reach adulthood. Sad but probably just as well or we'd be overrun with frogs.
Motorbike frogs are also known as Western bell frogs, Western green and golden bell frogs and Western Green Tree frogs (the last is something of misnomer because, although they are adept climbers, they are really terrestrial).
So I pulled up the first clump of algae and started checking for frog spawn since we're heading into the frog breeding season - and the whole base was speckled with tiny tadpoles, some still in the egg. I checked another couple of clumps and they were the same. There must have been several hundred altogether. Of course I abandoned the pond clean up and left them to their own devices. They've now all emerged and are feeding on the algae, because unlike the adults the tadpoles are technically herbivores. I say technically because while they're still very tiny there are so many that I wouldn't be surprised if some at least turn cannibal, something that happens when a pool is over crowded but that's up to nature to sort out and, although the pond has a netting cover to make it child safe and keep out predators, I know from experience that the majority won't reach adulthood. Sad but probably just as well or we'd be overrun with frogs.
Motorbike frogs are also known as Western bell frogs, Western green and golden bell frogs and Western Green Tree frogs (the last is something of misnomer because, although they are adept climbers, they are really terrestrial).
Saturday, September 07, 2019
Oh Yes, It's More Than Time
I've just been reading the latest blog post on Yarn Harlot. This is where Canadian knitting teacher and writer, Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee, blogs. I've been following her blog for a long time as she takes us through her life with knitting, her family and, more recently, her part in the annual Toronto to Montréal Bike Rally - that last is a 600 kms bike ride. Makes my eyes water just thinking about it.
I love knitting so that's where I first got interested in her blog where she posts patterns and a commentary on what she's currently knitting. She also doesn't shy away from the joys and sorrows of her life so we got to share the sadness of her mother's sudden death and the grandmotherly pleasures of a small grandchild along with her struggles and successes in other areas.
Today though her blog post really resonated with me. She's had a hectic year and this time she's talking about chaos in her home. I've heard of the CHAOS acronym, otherwise known as Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome, before. It was invented by The FlyLady, Marla Cilley. Truth be told I've been living it for sometime. Before health issues - both mine and Pisces' - disrupted our lives we had started on much needed renovations. When you've lived in a house as long as we have - and I'm not going to tell you just how long that is - things wear out. So far over a few years we've renovated the bathrooms, laundry and kitchen - and very nice they are, too. The final major job is to put in engineered flooring and, before everything went pear-shaped, I had pulled out the existing carpets and packed up a lot of the house contents ready to move on to the next big step.
That's when Pisces got sick and with the worry over that and the time it devoured - it was serious involving a number of hospitalisations but now several years on he's recovered well - neither of us had the energy to focus on things other than survival. Then I came down with a debilitating and still undiagnosed illness that had me bed-bound on and off for well over a year and I suppose I should also factor in a slow healing broken bone in my foot, not to mention that we've both had multiple surgeries that took much longer than anticipated to recover from and things ground to a halt as far as the renovations as well as everything else.
When all these sorts of things happen something has to give and housework is definitely one of the things that suffers. Did I mention clutter build up? No? Well that's the other thing that gets too hard. Stuff I had packed had to be unpacked and didn't get properly packed up again. It just sat there because I was going to need it again soon and other things accumulated as well. Sometimes I swear things breed around here and it's not helped by some folk having the habit of picking things up that might be useful - no, we don't need a beanie with an advertising logo on it just because it's free and the same applies to the plastic poncho and so much more. It all just got harder and harder.
Now, though, we're both as good as we're ever going to be I suspect so it's time to deal with the mess and with that in mind I've signed up again for the 100 Day Goal. The major goal: to declutter with a view to getting the new flooring done early in the New Year. As well I'm going to find time to write, garden and keep up with my studies every day. Gulp. With daily micro-actions I might even succeed. Wish me luck!
I love knitting so that's where I first got interested in her blog where she posts patterns and a commentary on what she's currently knitting. She also doesn't shy away from the joys and sorrows of her life so we got to share the sadness of her mother's sudden death and the grandmotherly pleasures of a small grandchild along with her struggles and successes in other areas.
Today though her blog post really resonated with me. She's had a hectic year and this time she's talking about chaos in her home. I've heard of the CHAOS acronym, otherwise known as Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome, before. It was invented by The FlyLady, Marla Cilley. Truth be told I've been living it for sometime. Before health issues - both mine and Pisces' - disrupted our lives we had started on much needed renovations. When you've lived in a house as long as we have - and I'm not going to tell you just how long that is - things wear out. So far over a few years we've renovated the bathrooms, laundry and kitchen - and very nice they are, too. The final major job is to put in engineered flooring and, before everything went pear-shaped, I had pulled out the existing carpets and packed up a lot of the house contents ready to move on to the next big step.
That's when Pisces got sick and with the worry over that and the time it devoured - it was serious involving a number of hospitalisations but now several years on he's recovered well - neither of us had the energy to focus on things other than survival. Then I came down with a debilitating and still undiagnosed illness that had me bed-bound on and off for well over a year and I suppose I should also factor in a slow healing broken bone in my foot, not to mention that we've both had multiple surgeries that took much longer than anticipated to recover from and things ground to a halt as far as the renovations as well as everything else.
When all these sorts of things happen something has to give and housework is definitely one of the things that suffers. Did I mention clutter build up? No? Well that's the other thing that gets too hard. Stuff I had packed had to be unpacked and didn't get properly packed up again. It just sat there because I was going to need it again soon and other things accumulated as well. Sometimes I swear things breed around here and it's not helped by some folk having the habit of picking things up that might be useful - no, we don't need a beanie with an advertising logo on it just because it's free and the same applies to the plastic poncho and so much more. It all just got harder and harder.
Now, though, we're both as good as we're ever going to be I suspect so it's time to deal with the mess and with that in mind I've signed up again for the 100 Day Goal. The major goal: to declutter with a view to getting the new flooring done early in the New Year. As well I'm going to find time to write, garden and keep up with my studies every day. Gulp. With daily micro-actions I might even succeed. Wish me luck!
Wednesday, September 04, 2019
I've Been Doing a Bit of Shopping
Well, trying to at least.
You might remember that a while back I was in search of a tool to make fastening bracelets and necklaces something I could do by myself. I like to wear jewellery - how surprising - but painful hands, the result of an auto immune disease I've had for most of my adult life, make it impossible to fasten them by myself - I can usually manage to undo them, though. Pisces never objects when I ask for his help but he makes such a production of doing it that honestly I'd rather not bother. (He does have finger tips that are somewhat larger than the average but it's not the fumbling but more the irritated muttering that wears me down.)
Then when we were out to lunch the other day I was looking around at the other women who both had necklaces and bracelets on while I had only my wedding and engagement rings - and my mother's wedding ring that I have worn since she passed away - and the long chain necklace I can get over my head. It didn't seem fair. So I got inspired to try - again - to find some sort of help so I can do these tasks by myself.
On-line I went. I tried pages on disability aids first but the only bracelet fastener on them was one with very, very bad reviews so maybe not the ideal. Then I googled bracelet fasteners and there were a whole bunch - none of them with very enthusiastic reviews either but they were relatively cheap at between $15.00 and $20.00. Most according to their reviews seemed to be either cheaply made or to have grippers that could potentially damage the jewellery they were holding. Hmm. Then I discovered Fairy Fasteners - and they sounded great. Well designed, ergonomically suited to the task and they looked attractive - but the price was $119.00 US plus postage and handling. Nope, not going there.
So what about necklace fasteners? Again there are a variety. Most seem to be based on adding a magnetic catch to the necklace and they range from the cheap and tawdry to the only one I could find which incorporates a sort of locking system by using pins that click into holes which are supposed to hold the magnets in place. I'm not sure how secure that would be and I don't much liking the idea of trusting a precious necklace to just a magnet either.
What to do? I decided to look up bracelet and necklace fastening hacks and that's when things got interesting. You can see where I found some of these suggestions here but they came up in a number of other places, too. As well there are a whole bunch of videos on using the opened out paperclip and the tape method if you prefer to see things in action. Just google bracelet fastening hacks.
Well I decided to try out these methods and to say I was sceptical is somewhat of an understatement. I went through my jewellery box and chose this bracelet.
This is because a) it has a clip over catch and b) it's somewhat bulky and likely to slip around and c) it's old and damaged enough that it wouldn't break my heart should it be damaged.
I was not sure if I had the dexterity to use the paperclip hack but it seemed a good place to start so I found a large paperclip - that turned out to be important, because a small one wouldn't give you enough to hold onto - and opened it up like so.
All you have to do then is to lie your wrist over the bracelet, which you've laid out on a flat surface (I found having my hand palm up worked best), hook the smaller hook of the paperclip through a link near the receiving end of the bracelet (the bit with the ring), bring it up over your wrist then hook the catch through while holding the other end of the paperclip. It took a couple of tries to find the best position for the various bits but then it was very effective.
The tape method appealed to me most because of the least risk of damage to me and my bracelets and it's probably the most simple. You need a piece of tape long enough to securely hold the bracelet in place - I used around 6-7 centimetres. You tape the ring end of the bracelet to your wrist leaving just enough overhang for you to slip the catch through the ring and clip it closed. Voila, your bracelet is fastened. You pull off the tape and you're done. According to what I read some kind of invisible sticky or Scotch tape is least likely to transfer unwanted stickiness to your bracelet and it certainly seemed to work for me.
So there you go - my bracelet problem is solved. I'm still looking for a necklace hack, though, so if you have any ideas I'd love to hear from you.
You might remember that a while back I was in search of a tool to make fastening bracelets and necklaces something I could do by myself. I like to wear jewellery - how surprising - but painful hands, the result of an auto immune disease I've had for most of my adult life, make it impossible to fasten them by myself - I can usually manage to undo them, though. Pisces never objects when I ask for his help but he makes such a production of doing it that honestly I'd rather not bother. (He does have finger tips that are somewhat larger than the average but it's not the fumbling but more the irritated muttering that wears me down.)
Then when we were out to lunch the other day I was looking around at the other women who both had necklaces and bracelets on while I had only my wedding and engagement rings - and my mother's wedding ring that I have worn since she passed away - and the long chain necklace I can get over my head. It didn't seem fair. So I got inspired to try - again - to find some sort of help so I can do these tasks by myself.
On-line I went. I tried pages on disability aids first but the only bracelet fastener on them was one with very, very bad reviews so maybe not the ideal. Then I googled bracelet fasteners and there were a whole bunch - none of them with very enthusiastic reviews either but they were relatively cheap at between $15.00 and $20.00. Most according to their reviews seemed to be either cheaply made or to have grippers that could potentially damage the jewellery they were holding. Hmm. Then I discovered Fairy Fasteners - and they sounded great. Well designed, ergonomically suited to the task and they looked attractive - but the price was $119.00 US plus postage and handling. Nope, not going there.
So what about necklace fasteners? Again there are a variety. Most seem to be based on adding a magnetic catch to the necklace and they range from the cheap and tawdry to the only one I could find which incorporates a sort of locking system by using pins that click into holes which are supposed to hold the magnets in place. I'm not sure how secure that would be and I don't much liking the idea of trusting a precious necklace to just a magnet either.
What to do? I decided to look up bracelet and necklace fastening hacks and that's when things got interesting. You can see where I found some of these suggestions here but they came up in a number of other places, too. As well there are a whole bunch of videos on using the opened out paperclip and the tape method if you prefer to see things in action. Just google bracelet fastening hacks.
Well I decided to try out these methods and to say I was sceptical is somewhat of an understatement. I went through my jewellery box and chose this bracelet.
This is because a) it has a clip over catch and b) it's somewhat bulky and likely to slip around and c) it's old and damaged enough that it wouldn't break my heart should it be damaged.
I was not sure if I had the dexterity to use the paperclip hack but it seemed a good place to start so I found a large paperclip - that turned out to be important, because a small one wouldn't give you enough to hold onto - and opened it up like so.
All you have to do then is to lie your wrist over the bracelet, which you've laid out on a flat surface (I found having my hand palm up worked best), hook the smaller hook of the paperclip through a link near the receiving end of the bracelet (the bit with the ring), bring it up over your wrist then hook the catch through while holding the other end of the paperclip. It took a couple of tries to find the best position for the various bits but then it was very effective.
The tape method appealed to me most because of the least risk of damage to me and my bracelets and it's probably the most simple. You need a piece of tape long enough to securely hold the bracelet in place - I used around 6-7 centimetres. You tape the ring end of the bracelet to your wrist leaving just enough overhang for you to slip the catch through the ring and clip it closed. Voila, your bracelet is fastened. You pull off the tape and you're done. According to what I read some kind of invisible sticky or Scotch tape is least likely to transfer unwanted stickiness to your bracelet and it certainly seemed to work for me.
So there you go - my bracelet problem is solved. I'm still looking for a necklace hack, though, so if you have any ideas I'd love to hear from you.
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