You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February 2008.
Tweens. What a strange word. It’s like the word “postmodern,” communicating not a stage with its own identity; rather, its identity comes from what it is not. The one thing people seem to agree on with the idea of postmodernity is what it is not–it is not modern. Likewise, the poor “tween” is caught between things she is not–she is no longer quite the young child she was, nor is she yet the “teen” she will become. People cite the age range of tween to be 8-10, or some say 8 to 14 or 15. Whatever she is, a tween is characterized by transition.
I’m living with three tweens, all in transition.
And let me tell you, it’s hard to find things that are truly appropriate for them. Even though companies are supposedly designing and marketing products specifically for tweens, I find that whether it’s clothes, games, books, TV shows or magazines, everything seems a little too young or a lot too old for my girls.
Then I heard about Kiki.
I guess it was a few months ago that my friend Julia over at Hooked on Houses told me about Kiki magazine. Julia said that a friend of hers had trouble finding appropriate, interesting magazines for her tween-aged daughters, so she simply started one herself:
Because the girls were starting to tire of publications written for an early elementary school audience, I started to investigate magazines for older readers. What I found bothered me greatly. Many so-called teen magazines dilute mature content and present it in a lively way. S*xu*lized images of girls and women abound, and soft s[*]x articles are more common than not, even in magazines published for girls as young as 8. The more I researched, the more annoyed I became. Since I couldn’t buy what we wanted, I decided to make it.
[editorial note: I changed the letters for search engine protection]
This page on the Kiki website, from which I pulled the above quotation, explains more about how and why Jamie launched Kiki. It’s already drawing the attention of various organizations–in fact, Kiki recently received an iParenting media award.
The Kiki website gives a feel for what the magazine is like, but I had the privilege of leafing through two review copies. And for an even better insider’s look, I handed them to three tween-aged daughters, to get their reactions.
This magazine, in my motherly opinion, is a fantastic alternative for girls interested in fashion. It’s a great resource with practical suggestions, like how to modify a pair of shorts with decorative hand-stitching or personalize a sweater by weaving ribbon down the sleeve. Teaching sewing techniques and principles of design, the magazine provides instructions and inspiration for a young girl to create a “look” all her own. For someone who might dream of working in a design studio, Kiki makes it seem within reach by showing girls step-by-step how to sketch and design everything from shoes to hats.
Fashion-curious girls will appreciate the insider’s look into the industry. They profile people who are in school or training as well as big names who are famous. This gives an inside peek into the world of fashion, leaving out the sleezy aspects and focusing more on how things are put together and what lines and fabrics inspire a designer.
Although a page might occasionally include a photo of a runway model to illustrate a particular style of clothing, the Kiki girls scattered throughout the magazine that are modeling clothes, hats, and hairstyles look like normal girls. They’re all pretty, certainly, but not like mini-supermodels. They’re wearing normal hairstyles and no makeup. They look real, and I think that’s important for girls in this age-range to see–girls who could be a friend from school coming over for a party. The Pajama Party on one of the pages of the Winter issue highlighted normal pajamas–flannel bottoms and T-shirt style tops. Cute. Normal. Real.
Another thing I liked was all of the learning. In winter, Kiki went to London, and the spring issue took readers to Japan. Each included facts and customs from that country with full-color photographs and interesting sidebars. They incorporate quizzes and art projects to engage the reader. They review products and recommend books for further reading on something that the magazine highlighted–more about shoes, for example, or Japan, or do-it-yourself craft projects.
My daughters love to draw and create, so I wasn’t surprised that they were instantly attracted to the crafty elements.
I asked one of my daughters to comment:
“There’s a lot to learn and a lot of fun things to do. I like the instructions for how to draw anime and design your own shoes. There’s a lot of drawing. You can even design a Kiki cover and send it in for them to look at!”
Physically, the glossy magazine is nicely designed with lots of color and sidebars–every page has lots to read about and learn.
The tagline for the magazine is this: “For girls with style and substance.” They even describe what a typical reader (a.k.a., “Kiki”) might value:
Kiki’s a girl who loves life, appreciates creativity, recognizes good ideas. Kiki is discerning. She thinks for herself. She has her own look. Kiki’s on her way to be being confident, strong, and smart. She’s a girl with style and substance.
My kids aren’t as style-savvy as some–in part, I suspect, because of their mother who is rather disinterested in style and fashion (ever the utilitarian, I value frugality and function over form). As I told a friend of mine, I’ve often wondered if the reason my blog doesn’t have many readers could be in part due to the fact that I have never once written a post about cute shoes. Of course, it could be due to the fact that more recently I posted about wads of hair clogging shower drains.
But I digress.
If you have a tween-aged daughter who is fascinated by fashion and loves to learn, this could be the very thing you’ve been searching for. Instead of focusing on the runway models who merely serve as animated mannequins, Kiki gives readers a chance to see where the real creativity in fashion lies–in the designer’s skills and imagination. That, to me, seems to be engaging and empowering for a tween girl who is given to staring at window displays and wondering about style.
They say that for the summer issue, Kiki goes to France!
Vive la Kiki!
I think yesterday’s post may have been the grossest thing I’ve ever written.
I couldn’t wait to get something new up here to replace it.
So this is Thursday’s post, even though technically it’s still Wednesday, and here’s the topic:
We survived this year’s AWANA Grand Prix.
This year, The Boy was not a big winner. Unlike last year, he received no trophy. No creative award. Just a blue participation ribbon.
They give trophies to first, second, and third place. He missed it by no more than an inch in the semi-finals, when his “e-racer” car came in fourth.
He was pretty brave. He didn’t break into tears like so many disappointed clubbers around us. He retrieved his e-racer car with the participation ribbon and headed back to us…slowly.
As he came around a row of chairs, a boy leaped out of his chair, off his father’s lap, and got right up in The Boy’s face and shouted, “I beat you, Rocket Boy! I beat you!”
The Boy looked at him, looked at us, looked down at the floor, and kept walking.
“Hey!” the little boy continued, running in front of him to force The Boy to look him in the face. “I said I beat you!“
We didn’t know how The Boy would respond.
He just looked at him, shuffled past, and then, after a brief glance in our direction, trudged up the stairs to retrieve his book and bag.
He didn’t yell back.
He didn’t break down weeping.
He just acknowledged with a look that he heard the taunt. And that was it.
These are the times that try men’s souls…well, it’s not that big.
But these are the times that test a boy’s manhood. These are moments that deepen our faith, as well.
I thought of the proverb about overlooking an offense. I plan to read it to The Boy tomorrow at breakfast. I think he’ll be encouraged:
A man’s wisdom gives him patience;
it is to his glory to overlook an offense. (Proverbs 19:11)
Our household of six includes four females who wear their hair long.
Both of our showers have drain covers that should catch the hair and prevent it from going down the drain, but some hair has inevitably slipped through. We’ve dealt with our share of clogged drains over the years, so we’ve been concerned about those renegade strands.
Well, we now have a little trick to capture the lost hair, but it might seem a little gross to somebody who doesn’t like thinking about bathrooms and hair, and for that I apologize in advance.
When we shampoo and condition, it’s normal for us to lose a few hairs in the process–having been through great hormonal flux through four pregnancies, I have lost a lot of hair over the years.
Here’s the trick: as we run our fingers through our hair, we make an effort to hang onto the stray strands and then stick them on the wall of the shower–we just unwind the strands from our fingers and press them right onto the wall. They magically cling.
Okay, so it’s not magic. It’s rudimentary science. The moisture of the hair, steam, and water itself is adequate to hold the lightweight hairs up there until we’re done showering.
Anyway, when we’re done, we just swoosh our fingers along the shower wall to swirl together all the strands. They form a little wad of hair. After drying off, we just toss the wad in the trash can.
Very few hairs escape.
And no clogged shower drains.
I suspect that the older two girls who have been taking extra-long showers have been undertaking creative, artistic ventures, forming little line drawings by positioning the hair on the white canvas of our shower tiles, but I’m not 100 percent sure of this, because the hairs are all in the trash by the time I can inspect.
This hair-on-the-wall containment trick has worked for us. The Belgian Wonder is super-supportive, pleased to minimize potential plumbing issues.
For more Works For Me Wednesday ideas, hop on over to Rocks In My Dryer.
Or, before heading back to Shannon, you can check out my own collection of odd and assorted WFMW ideas.
Well, hello there!
Guess what? It’s that time again:
Monday FunDay
Monday FunDay is a carnival dedicated to swapping simple, amusing–maybe even silly–everyday ways you enjoy good, clean fun.
Just post a story, idea, or explanation at your blog of how you and/or your family has livened up Mondays (or any day).
Then link up via Mr. Linky below (if you don’t have a blog, simply explain your idea in the comments) and we’ll collect all the ideas in one place. Again, please remember: ideas must be squeaky-clean, family-friendly fun.
Last week for Monday FunDay, Hen and Chicks posted some great photos of her son blowing bubbles while doing the dishes. What a fun fellow! He added some levity to a not-so-fun task.
And that’s exactly the principle I had in mind to post this week for my own Monday FunDay–figuring out how to insert some fun into otherwise boring, dull, un-fun tasks.
1. First, take a look at your long Monday to-do list (or make it now).
2. Pinpoint the one task that makes you sigh the heaviest–the one that you dread or even avoid diving into.
3. Think of something that would make it more fun:
-
Can you phone a friend, stick on a headset, and talk with her while completing the task?
-
Cleaning, sorting, and decluttering can be a bit more fun when you crank up some tunes, like Rachel Anne recommends to her Company Girls. (In fact, she has a lot of fun ideas for the un-fun…for more inspiration, consider paying Home Sanctuary a visit!)
-
Play beat the clock–time yourself and try to set a PR for the dreaded activity.
-
Like blowing detergent-bubbles while doing the dishes, try to find fun directly associated with the task at hand. For example, write a happy message and draw smiley faces in the dust before swiping it all away with Pledge and a soft cloth.
-
Reward yourself afterwards. If you finish sorting the papers stacked on your desk, let yourself write an e-mail to a friend. After you clear the kitchen counter, mop the tile, and vacuum the carpet, invite a friend over for coffee. Or…put the kettle on, pull out some Girl Scout cookies, and enjoy tea-for-one. It’s fun!
-
Borrow ideas from professional organizers on TV shows–if you need to declutter, insert a game. For example, if you have too many shoes and need to eliminate, have the kids set up a shoe-toss using a laundry basket and a representative shoe from each pair. Toss from a challenging distance. You get to keep the number of shoes that make it in the basket. Donate the rest. Personally? I need to declutter my bookshelves. Here’s how I’ve made it fun in the past and plan to again during our next vacation.
Now…what’s your fun for the day?
Instructions for Mr. Linky:
1. After you’ve typed up your Monday FunDay edition and posted it at your blog, come back here and click on Mr. Linky to add your link.
2. A window will prompt you to type in your name. Type in your name or blog name, and in parenthesis, include a short “teaser” for your idea. Something like this:
Ann K (finding fun in un-fun)
3. Below that is a spot for you to paste in the url of your post. Copy the url for your own Monday FunDay idea and paste it in (including the http:// part of it).
That’s it! It should be saved by Mr. Linky and appear back at this post. To see what others have posted, click on Mr. Linky and pay a visit to the fun bloggers who have joined in!
Next time your coworkers or neighbors complain about how depressing Mondays are, send them here, to discover ways that they can make their Mondays…funner.
It’s fun to have fun, but you have to know how!
[Check out previous Monday FunDays]
Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin.
Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
[credit: photos by Ann; flowers by God]
This link takes you to the Writer’s Almanac for the week of February 11.
Monday’s poem that week stuck with me. Somebody that the poet cared about challenged him with this: “Who do you think you are?”
After carefully reviewing the list of possibilities and concluding that he couldn’t identify a plausible possibility, the poet concludes that it was the first time he knew who, in fact, he wasn’t.
I thought about this for a while. So much of my young life was spent trying to figure out who I was.
Probably a lot of my adult life, as well.
Who do you think you are?
Recently, I thought about it relation to blogging.
Who do you think you are?
Like the poet, I carefully consider the list of possibilities…
Pioneer Woman? Heavens, no. She’s got that little zing that I don’t have. And wow, I wish I could take photos like those, but I don’t have the equipment, know-how, or the livestock to pull it off.
Boomama? Nope. Don’t have the comic timing, southern accent, or interest in college football.
Rocks In My Dryer? I don’t have the energy to review all those products and manage all those giveaways. So, no, I’m not her, either.
Holyexperience? Sigh. No, despite having written a book called The Contemplative Mom, I don’t write in that poetic, reflective, contemplative tone.
FiddleDeeDee? I’m not in Florida, though I sure wish I were. Not only would I be warm–I might be lucky enough to be plagued by frogs and have some great material to write about! Yes, she’s got that magic comic timing, too, along with the ability to insert an italicized phrase that adds just the right punch.
Who do I think I am?
Sometimes I still wonder who I am, at least as a blogger.
But I do think I have figured out who, in fact, I am not.
If I may ask–not in a challenging, snippy way, but out of curiosity–who do you think you are?
The Boy came up to me just minutes ago and said, “I’m going to start praying about the girl I’m supposed to marry. My future wife. I’m going to start praying now for her, so that I’ll know her when I see her.”
I affirmed his plan. “I think that’s a great idea. That’s exactly the thing to do. If you start praying now, when you’re young, you’ll have prayed about her all those years when you finally meet her. That would be amazing. I’ll pray for her, too.”
He nodded. “I’ll ask God to show her to me. If He tells me to go this way…” (a step to the left) “then I’ll go this way, and if He tells me to go that way…” (a step to the right) “I’ll know to go that way.”
“That’s exactly the thing to do,” I said, thinking of it more abstractly, as the verse in Isaiah suggests (“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’”).
“Because then,” he continued, taking a couple of steps forward by way of illustration, “if I’m walking along and God stops me right in front of a girl…”
He stopped abruptly and looked up with wide, earnest eyes. “Then I’ll know,” he said. “She’s the one.”
I nodded.
He nodded.
“That’s powerful,” I said.
He nodded and walked off to get his snowsuit on and play in the snow.
As I sat here thinking about it, I remembered a Wayne Watson song that came out back in the early ’90s, called “Somewhere in the World.”
Somewhere in the World
Somewhere in the world today
A little girl will go out to play
All dressed up in mama’s clothes
At least the way that I suppose it goes
Somewhere in the world tonight
Before she reaches to turn out the light
She’ll be prayin’ from a tender heart
A simple prayer that’s a work of artChorus
And I don’t even know her name
But I’m prayin’ for her just the same
That the Lord will write His name upon her heart
‘Cause somewhere in the course of this life
A little boy will need a godly wife
So hold on to Jesus, baby, wherever you areSomewhere in the world out there
That little girl’s learnin’ how to care
She’s pickin’ up her mama’s charms
Or maybe, swingin’ ’round in her daddy’s armsSomewhere in the world to be
Though the future’s not real clear to me
Theirs could be a tender love
Grounded in eternal love aboveChorus
And I don’t even know her name
But I’m prayin’ for her just the same
That the Lord will write His name upon her heart
‘Cause somewhere in the course of this life
A little boy will need a godly wife
So hold on to Jesus, baby, wherever you are(Updated: Link to Wayne Watson’s site)
I don’t know her name, but wherever she is in the world, a little girl should know that two grownups are praying that the Lord will write His name upon her heart…that she’ll hold onto Jesus.
And she should know that there’s a six-year-old Boy tromping around in the snow wearing purple boots and a blue snowsuit praying that at just the right time, the Lord will direct his steps and stop him directly in front of her.
So that he’ll know: She’s the one.
Our youngest is extremely verbal. He listens, remembers, and repeats. He thinks about things a lot. He asks questions and when we’re not expecting it, our own words will come back to us via his sweet, thoughtful, six-year-old voice. And when we state our intentions and commitments out loud, we’re sure to be held accountable:
“But, Mom, didn’t you say you wanted to spend less so that you can save for another mosquito net?”
“Wait! We forgot to pray for the people of Bangladesh!”
“Are we going to support a child through Compassion International soon?”
“Have you read the psalms for today?”
“Here’s the Bible story book. We just read about Saul. What’s next?”
“It’s Saturday–didn’t you say you’d clip my fingernails every Saturday morning?”
This can be a little annoying when I’m “caught,” when I haven’t followed through. But I think that’s the point of having an accountability partner:
-
to help me hold to the things I resolve to do;
-
or, to remind me to stop doing the things that I don’t want to do.
I realized that The Boy’s super-verbal personality is a gift. He can remind me to follow-through with things and be true to my word.
Sometimes it happens naturally, because he listens to everything I say and simply asks out of curiosity if I’m doing what I said I’d be doing.
Sometimes, however, I can be more intentional and actually ask him to bring it up. “I’m going to try to memorize this passage of Scripture. Can you ask me to repeat it to you later?”
He agrees to it. And he does ask later.
When he’s able to type, I’m thinking I can set him up with a website so that he can start his own accountability ministry.
In the meantime, I get to benefit most of all. A simple thing he’s helped with lately is reminding me of my blog commitments:
“It’s Sunday night, Mama–you need to write your Monday FunDay post!” or “It’s Tuesday. What are you going to write for Works For Me Wednesday?”
So, when I need some accountability, I just ask my most verbal child for help. He may only be six years old, but it works for me.
Before you go, feel free to browse my previously published WFMW posts, or return to Rocks In My Dryer for more great ideas.
Monday FunDay
I’d like to say happy Presidents’ Day to my fellow Americans.
No matter what country you’re from, however, you’re invited to join us every Monday to read and post good, clean, everyday ideas for making the day more fun.
Because “fun” is subjective, go ahead and write up what you think is fun and let us enjoy getting to know you better.
Write up a post at your blog with a story, idea, or explanation of how you and/or your family has livened up Mondays (or any day), then link back (using Mr. Linky below), so that we can collect some great fun ideas in one place.
If you don’t have a blog, feel free to leave your FunDay ideas in the comments. Ideas, as I already said, must be squeaky-clean, family-friendly fun.
In keeping with the holiday, my Monday FunDay ideas have a presidential theme:
QUIZZES
Think you know your presidents? Take this quiz. It lets you guess until you get the right answer.
Another Presidential trivia quiz (submit your answer, then use “back” to return to the questions).
Here’s one from AOL. It presents quirky habits and unusual traits of our presidents.
TOUR THE WHITE HOUSE
Then take a video tour of the White House. Click on one of the rooms to watch. Sometimes the video simply uses a voiceover explaining the details. A few rooms have a special host walking us through. The host for the Oval Office? None other than President Bush himself!
Fun!
Recent Comments