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| Inside the shirt |
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Hummus
One of my all time favorite snacks is hummus and chips! When we first started dating (at the beginning of November of last year), John insisted he didn't like hummus. Well, after trying the hummus I like to buy, he decided he likes it! We eat hummus and chips at least every other week.
This week, John decided to try his hand at making some! It turned out pretty good, but the recipes online suggested adding water which we discovered diluted the flavor too much. John has lots of ideas for the next time we attempt our hand at hummus again.
I wish my camera on my phone were better, but these turned out pretty cute anyway. :)
Monday, June 17, 2013
Death and Hope
I recently had the unique opportunity and privilege of observing and spending time with a 90+ year old man and his wife during the last few hours of her life. I watched as he visited with and spoke via telephone with his loving children and grandchildren. I listened to stories from his life and gleaned pearls of wisdom from his many years of living.
I was the sole witness of hearing what was probably his last goodbye to his dear, sweet wife in this life. I heard the tender words he spoke to her about being parted only for a short time. Words he whispered to his love--words of life eternal.
I was the sole witness of hearing what was probably his last goodbye to his dear, sweet wife in this life. I heard the tender words he spoke to her about being parted only for a short time. Words he whispered to his love--words of life eternal.
I can only hope to one day feel the way this man felt towards his wife as she lay dying after 70 years they spent together in marriage. The feelings in the little hospice apartment were not of death, decay, sickness and sorrow, but of hope, faith, love, and a knowledge that the parting would be brief.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Blessings
Yesterday started off on the wrong foot. I was super cranky for no apparent reason other than the skies were gray. But it ended up being a nice day, full of little surprise blessings!
-I arrived in SLC for my classes only a little late but, most importantly, safe after driving through torrential rain!
-One of my late classes was cancelled so I got to go home early, which ended up being a HUGE blessing since it turned out I had forgotten to turn off my lights and the car's battery was dead! So glad I didn't have to deal with that in the dark!!!
-Grandpa lives close enough to come help me when the car stalled, and it didn't take too long to jump-start the little Mazda Miata. Such a wonderful Grandpa!!!
-The rain stopped just long enough to jump-start the car so we didn't have to get wet.
-I made it back safely in spite of the rain pummeling the freeway on the way home.
-Sweet Bain made dinner (and smoothies) for me.
-We decided that watching a movie to relax was a "good" enough excuse to stay up past bedtime
-Nice evening with my best friend. :).
-I arrived in SLC for my classes only a little late but, most importantly, safe after driving through torrential rain!
-One of my late classes was cancelled so I got to go home early, which ended up being a HUGE blessing since it turned out I had forgotten to turn off my lights and the car's battery was dead! So glad I didn't have to deal with that in the dark!!!
-Grandpa lives close enough to come help me when the car stalled, and it didn't take too long to jump-start the little Mazda Miata. Such a wonderful Grandpa!!!
-The rain stopped just long enough to jump-start the car so we didn't have to get wet.
-I made it back safely in spite of the rain pummeling the freeway on the way home.
-Sweet Bain made dinner (and smoothies) for me.
-We decided that watching a movie to relax was a "good" enough excuse to stay up past bedtime
-Nice evening with my best friend. :).
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Dishes Puzzle
Call me crazy, but I enjoy washing dishes. It's relaxing. But my favorite part is organizing dishes on the rack for drying. I can fit a TON of dishes in a tiny space (see below for proof). Trying to fit dishes onto a tiny rack feels a lot like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, and I've always loved putting together puzzles. For the first few years of college I worked as a supervisor in the MTC dish room Smelly? Definitely. That was the worst part. Gross? Sometimes. Fun? Oh yeah!!! We had much more fun than anyone else in the cafeteria did! It was there in the MTC dish room that I discovered how relaxing washing dishes can be. It was also there that I perfected the art of squishing tons of dishes into very small spaces. :)
It's hard to tell from these pictures how many dishes there are stacked up on this one little rack. But trust me, it's a lot! Just ask John!!!
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Together Again
The Robinson Clan is together again for the summer! The exciting thing is that with Alyssa graduating from High School in a couple weeks, we'll all be in the same singles ward! Yesterday we walked in the rain to an El Salvadorian restaurant to get Pupusas to eat, yum!!!! On our way back we stopped by Brad's favorite shop ever, the Great Salt Lake Guitar Factory. Great day!!! :)
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Books & Little Girls
Recently John and I read an excellent article entitled "How To Talk to Little Girls" by Lisa Bloom In this article, Lisa Bloom points out the fallacies in our typical interactions with little girls. She points out that in our conversations with little girls, we often tell them how cute they look, focusing on appearances and teaching little girls that we value how they look. She points out the consequences of emphasizing appearances:
"Teaching girls that their appearance is the first thing you notice tells them that looks are more important than anything. It sets them up for dieting at age 5 and foundation at age 11 and boob jobs at 17 and Botox at 23. As our cultural imperative for girls to be hot 24/7 has become the new normal, American women have become increasingly unhappy. What's missing? A life of meaning, a life of ideas and reading books and being valued for our thoughts and accomplishments."
After reading the article, I realized that Lisa is correct. I work with children and adolescents at an acute psychiatric hospital, and many of them have an unhealthy focus on their appearances. Some of them have eating disorders or disturbances, and many of them fixate on looking a certain way or being perceived as "hot" or "sexy". Instead of placing their self-worth on the mind, or positive personality traits, many of these girls place their self-worth simply on how they look. This negatively impacts their self-esteem and self-identity. To combat this, Lisa makes the following suggestions:
"So, one tiny bit of opposition to a culture that sends all the wrong messages to our girls. One tiny nudge towards valuing female brains. One brief moment of intentional role modeling. Will my few minutes with Maya change our multibillion dollar beauty industry, reality shows that demean women, our celebrity-manic culture? No. But I did change Maya's perspective for at least that evening.
"Teaching girls that their appearance is the first thing you notice tells them that looks are more important than anything. It sets them up for dieting at age 5 and foundation at age 11 and boob jobs at 17 and Botox at 23. As our cultural imperative for girls to be hot 24/7 has become the new normal, American women have become increasingly unhappy. What's missing? A life of meaning, a life of ideas and reading books and being valued for our thoughts and accomplishments."
After reading the article, I realized that Lisa is correct. I work with children and adolescents at an acute psychiatric hospital, and many of them have an unhealthy focus on their appearances. Some of them have eating disorders or disturbances, and many of them fixate on looking a certain way or being perceived as "hot" or "sexy". Instead of placing their self-worth on the mind, or positive personality traits, many of these girls place their self-worth simply on how they look. This negatively impacts their self-esteem and self-identity. To combat this, Lisa makes the following suggestions:
"So, one tiny bit of opposition to a culture that sends all the wrong messages to our girls. One tiny nudge towards valuing female brains. One brief moment of intentional role modeling. Will my few minutes with Maya change our multibillion dollar beauty industry, reality shows that demean women, our celebrity-manic culture? No. But I did change Maya's perspective for at least that evening.
"Try this the next time you meet a little girl. She may be surprised and unsure at first, because few ask her about her mind, but be patient and stick with it. Ask her what she's reading. What does she like and dislike, and why? There are no wrong answers. You're just generating an intelligent conversation that respects her brain. For older girls, ask her about current events issues: pollution, wars, school budgets slashed. What bothers her out there in the world? How would she fix it if she had a magic wand? You may get some intriguing answers. Tell her about your ideas and accomplishments and your favorite books. Model for her what a thinking woman says and does."
For the last couple of months I've made a conscious effort to attempt this. During my interactions at work and with little girls in the neighborhood and community, I've been asking about what they are reading. However, I haven't limited this to little girls, I've also been asking the little boys at work what they are reading and what they like about what they read. The first time I asked the question to the children at work, there were mixed reactions. Some of the children were really excited to talk about the books they were reading, while others didn't know how to respond--perhaps they had never been asked the question before.
One particularly poignant reaction was from a little girl who had been sexually molested at a very young age. Although she's only 8 or 9 years old, she is constantly striving to act and be treated as if she is 17 or 18 years old. However, her perspective on how older women act has been very skewed by her life experiences. She believes that to be a teenager or adult, she must be "sexy". She constantly checks her appearance in the mirror, tries to sway her hips as she walks, and dances as "sexy" as possible to the music playing. She talks about who she thinks is "hot" and which boys she wants to kiss. I always try to steer the conversation away from these topics, but have never been successful. Until I asked this little girl what she was reading.
At first the little girl was surprised that I asked her what she was reading, but then her face lit up! With a huge grin she told me she's reading "Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's Farm". I grew up reading Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, and I love those books. We talked about the book and what a funny person Mrs. Piggle Wiggle is for a full 15 minutes! It was incredible to see the difference it made by simply asking this little girl what she is reading.
Some days the kids at work aren't reading anything, and sometimes it's hard for them to focus on having a real conversation about the mind. However, I am going to keep trying, keep asking them about what they are reading, what they like about it and why. I want to promote placing value on the mind beginning when girls are young to help change the culture of sex being placed on women in society.
For the last couple of months I've made a conscious effort to attempt this. During my interactions at work and with little girls in the neighborhood and community, I've been asking about what they are reading. However, I haven't limited this to little girls, I've also been asking the little boys at work what they are reading and what they like about what they read. The first time I asked the question to the children at work, there were mixed reactions. Some of the children were really excited to talk about the books they were reading, while others didn't know how to respond--perhaps they had never been asked the question before.
One particularly poignant reaction was from a little girl who had been sexually molested at a very young age. Although she's only 8 or 9 years old, she is constantly striving to act and be treated as if she is 17 or 18 years old. However, her perspective on how older women act has been very skewed by her life experiences. She believes that to be a teenager or adult, she must be "sexy". She constantly checks her appearance in the mirror, tries to sway her hips as she walks, and dances as "sexy" as possible to the music playing. She talks about who she thinks is "hot" and which boys she wants to kiss. I always try to steer the conversation away from these topics, but have never been successful. Until I asked this little girl what she was reading.
At first the little girl was surprised that I asked her what she was reading, but then her face lit up! With a huge grin she told me she's reading "Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's Farm". I grew up reading Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, and I love those books. We talked about the book and what a funny person Mrs. Piggle Wiggle is for a full 15 minutes! It was incredible to see the difference it made by simply asking this little girl what she is reading.
Some days the kids at work aren't reading anything, and sometimes it's hard for them to focus on having a real conversation about the mind. However, I am going to keep trying, keep asking them about what they are reading, what they like about it and why. I want to promote placing value on the mind beginning when girls are young to help change the culture of sex being placed on women in society.
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