The American Way

Yeah, I know, it's too early for Halloween pics already.  What can I say?  I adore this child, and when we tried on his costume tonight, I just couldn't resist.  Besides, it's not like my blog readers are going to get to see him live and in person on Halloween night...

♥

Accepting Un-Pretty

I spent most of my childhood being teased mercilessly by my peers, both at school and at church.  I have always been the fat, freckle-faced, redheaded, unpopular kid.  I didn't play sports.  I didn't have any particularly enviable talents  I didn't come from a "rich" family.  I rarely ever had more than one or two "friends" at any given time.  It didn't take me long to understand that I have never fit into the mold of what common society considers to be physically beautiful.  I probably understood this fact by the time I had finished elementary school—although acceptance of this fact would come much, much later.

As I grew into adulthood, I learned that it didn't really matter that I'm not beautiful.  I'm smart, I'm funny, I'm passionate, and I'm a hard worker.  I have learned that I don't need a hundred "best" friends, and I'm honestly much happier with a smaller, closer circle of genuine friends.  I have learned that who I am is good enough, and that I'm worthy of love and friendship and respect.  I've learned that I don't need to be beautiful, and I've come to realize that I'm not sure I'd even want the pressure that would come attached to maintaining a beautiful me.

Working around middle schoolers, these past several years, has given me the opportunity to develop an entirely different perspective on being "un-pretty" by watching it unfold through the eyes of my students.  While it's not something I point out to them, I have students who do not fit into the "beautiful" category.  Some of them may never fit into that category, and there's really nothing that they can do about it.  While the "un-pretty" seems to afflict both male and female students, it is the girls I worry about the most.

The problem I see is this:

When a girl goes crying to her friends, parents, or teachers, telling them that she has been harassed or bullied by someone who said she was "ugly" or "fat" or some other such derogatory term, it is almost always handled wrongly.  The first reaction or these friends and parents and teachers is to comfort the girl—and rightly so—and then to say something like "Just ignore them.  You're beautiful no matter what they say."

Red! Got A Late-Summer Makeover

Students and teachers alike just finished getting outfitted with new clothes for school.  Change can be a really good thing, and new clothes can be an outward expression of a renewed commitment or a new beginning.  In similar fashion, Red! has been given a new look and imbued with a new sense of commitment.

©2012,  Les Taylor Photography.
Used with permission from my friend, Les Taylor.

Over the past few years, I have had the opportunity to nurture my relationship with Jack—although neither of us knows quite how to label or characterize what exactly our relationship is.  Just over one year ago, Jack was given an amazing chance to move to Japan and accept employment with an architectural firm there.  Over such a great distance, and with the communicative obstacles that exist in our relationship when we are geographically separated, Jack and I have used written words (well, typed) to share with one another everything from personal successes and sadnesses to light humor and strange sightings.  My blog has been one of the tools I have used to share many of my thoughts, not only with Jack but with many of my other friends as well.

Just as a conversation will grow stale without new topics, a blog will grow stale over time without new content and new visual interest.  The new content was never really a problem, as I had blogged frequently up until this past April when I decided to take a break.  But the visual interest on the blog just wasn't there anymore, and the several edits and tweaks I had made were more bandages than permanent solutions.

Under the old design, even though the name was "Red!," there was very little of the actual color red to be found on the pages.  While I still think the old design was pretty, it didn't have any special meaning beyond that.  I began to wish that I could put some real symbolism into the design of my blog, something that could be uniquely me and would complement my text content.

Ink.

Photo: 3-19-2008

On March 19, 2008, I began my second tattoo.  On that day, I met with my preferred tattoo artist and had the outlines inked for a tattoo that would take several follow-up sessions of coloring to complete.  I was very happy that night with the results, and couldn't wait for it to heal enough that I could go back and get more work done.

I called back a few days later to schedule an appointment a few weeks ahead for my first coloring session.  The original design for this tattoo was very intricate and would have lots of detail and shading and bold colors.  The healing process went well, and I was on track to color within a month.

Then, as it often does, life got in the way.  Three days before my appointment, I found out that I was pregnant.  Of course, there are several reasons you can't be tattooed while pregnant, so we decided that it would just have to wait.

4-6-2012 — Before

A week ago, I found out that I would have the opportunity to finally go back and have the color added today, after only 4 years of walking around with a half-finished artwork upon my back.  I pulled out the file with the original plans for the tattoo and started thinking about what details to have added this session.  But the more I looked at the plans, the more I realized that my desires had become much simpler since the birth of my little boy.  So, I loaded the file into my photo editing software and set to work reworking the old plans to suit my current desires.

The outlines, obviously, were already set and had healed beautifully.  All that needed to be decided was what would be put into them.  In the original plans, the entire design would be filled with color, inside the lines and also in between the rings.  It was bold and color-heavy and very complicated.  It would take hours upon hours of coloring and shading and blending, and I knew there wasn't much chance I could get it all done today....and I sure didn't want to wait potentially 4 more years to have the chance to have more work done.  Once I had simplified the design, I was much happier and got even more excited.

Alert: Childrens' Consignment Sale Pensacola (April)

I found out that there is another childrens' consignment sale happening in a few weeks.  Unlike the March sales I posted about several weeks ago, this is a sale I had never heard of before, and so cannot verify the quality of this sale.  I think I already have all the clothes Kaleb will need this season, but he and I will probably go check out the sale anyway so I'll know if it's one I want to attend next year.

For those of you who weren't able to get what you needed at the last sales, or those who didn't attend them, check out the flyer below for the upcoming April sale!

If you need more information than what's on the flyer, check out

http://www.tinytotsandpolkadots.net

D.I.Y. - Calming the Flip-Flop Chaos

I live in Florida.  For me, being a person who almost never gets cold, that means flip-flops are pretty much suitable for year-round wear.  This also means that I have amassed a small horde of flip-flops, in several styles and a range of colors.  And while most of my other shoes reside in identical plastic shoe boxes stacked in my closet, flip-flops see too much use for that to be a practical solution for their storage.

So, most of the time, my flip-flops end up piled under two of the three bar stools in my kitchen instead, near the door where we come in and out, rendering those stools unable to be pulled out and used most of the time.

Alert: Consignment Sales for Children in Pensacola (Spring/Summer)

If you're a parent, you're probably well acquainted with the expenses involved in keeping growing children in clothes that fit them. Over time, these expenses can get to be difficult to keep up with. Some are lucky families can hand down clothes from older cousins or siblings, but not everyone has this option available.

So, for those without hand-me-downs, many organizations have events where parents can get together and consign or purchase used-but-still-usable clothing for children of all ages and pregnant women. Pensacola has two organizations that do this on a grand scale, and both are gearing up for their Spring/Summer sales, scheduled within the next couple of weeks.

I have gotten copies of the Spring/Summer sale flyers for both of these upcoming sales and have posted them below for any readers in or near Pensacola that might want to come and take advantage of these great opportunities to stock up on some warm-weather clothes for the children in your lives.

Both sales are primarily clothing, but they each also have an impressive selection of kids' toys, gear, furniture, and other necessities. It is certainly worth it to go and have a look! The majority of all the clothes Kaleb has ever worn have come from sales at one or the other of these organizations.

(9Lo9i9D): 9 Pairs of Shoes I'd Love to Own

Today's list is a list of 9 pairs of shoes, in no particular order, that I would love Love LOVE to own.  Sadly, most of them are not in my budget.  If you see a pair you like, too, click the link/caption under each pic to be redirected (in a new window/tab) to a site where you can buy them for yourself—or for me, if you really felt like it.

↑ Get them here.

Red! Blog: New Features & 2012 Goals!

This past week has seen several changes to Red!, and I wanted to tell you all a little bit about them as well as my goals for Red! during the rest of 2012.

The Red! Main Blog

This is where it all started. Things are basically the same, but I'll be posting much more frequently this year than in the past.  I've been on a bit of a blogging spree so far this year, and even if it wanes a bit, my goal is to maintain at least 2 posts a week.

Red!'s Family-Friendly Recipes Blog

In August of 2010, I began to notice that around dinner time every night my Facebook news feed would be filled with friends who had run out of new ideas for family dinners and fallen into a rut, eating the same old tired foods over and over again every night.  So, I launched this recipe blog to facilitate the sharing of family-tested and -approved recipes.

Quote of the Day has replaced Red!'s Life Lessons.

Life lessons started out as something that really excited me.  I had planned to micro-blog each day, telling of the lessons I learned each day just by living my life.  Unfortunately, my days tend to be more routine than I realized, filled with quick lessons specific to my life that were not noteworthy enough to blog.  Because of this, that blog went dormant after only about a half-dozen posts.  But something I do hear each day is at least one quote worthy of sharing, hence the new—and much shorter—Quote of the Day format.

Stepping Back Into Sanity

Kaleb is home from a fun sleepover night at my mom's house, and I'm in much better shape than I was when I dropped him off at daycare yesterday morning.  Things had been a little tough lately, and I'm so thankful to have had a day to focus on me and to do some mental and emotional housekeeping.  As anyone who's a parent already knows, you can't be as good a parent if you yourself are falling apart!

A Rough Start to 2012

Back on New Year's Day, I resolved that 2012 would be my Year of Acceptance.  What I have discovered is that accepting things as they come my way means that I am unable to ignore them and simply hope they will go away.  Life has shown me that ignoring problems rarely solves them, and I'm also learning that facing problems head-on is both the most-productive and sometimes the most-painful way to handle them.  And I don't know about you, but I would rather just bite the bullet and get things over with than try to draw them out and deal with that dull ache over a prolonged time.

Several weeks ago, I had to take Kaleb out of the daycare he had been attending since he was only weeks old, a daycare that I once loved and highly recommended to others.  We've found a great new place, but Kaleb's adjustment to a new environment and my adjustment to an altered morning routine have been a little bit stressful.

Of course, there's also the ever-present stresses of parenting, not at all diminished by my being a single parent.  I love my son, and I love spending time with him, but it was begin to wear on me when I'm with Kaleb every waking moment that isn't taken up by work—except for the shorts drives back and forth between my work and his daycare.

You may think your "tan" looks good.....

But I have never in my life seen anyone who I thought looked better "tan" than they would look with their natural skin tone.  If you were born white, than white is what is most healthy for your skin.  If you were born yellow or brown or olive or black or any other color, that natural shade is what is most healthy for your skin.  I don't care what the lady behind the counter at the tanning salon told you about how healthy it is to build up a "base tan" before you start going to the beach for the summer.  A "base tan" is still just a tan, and ALL tans are built up by overexposure to UV rays.....which means you are damaging your skin every time you get a sunburn OR a suntan!

Yes, your tan may be trendy and stylish.  Sure, I may be out of vogue with my pale, un-tan-able skin.  That's fine with me!  In 20 or 30 years, I'll still have healthy skin, and you'll either be going broke paying your dermatologist for "miracle" cures or you'll look like an expensive leather handbag!  Either way, I'll be better off for never trying to get a tan.

For the record, it IS absolutely possible to go to the beach and spend lots of time in the sun without causing unnecessary damage to your skin.  Sunblock and beach umbrellas are both cheap.  Use them!