PractiGal

Life at 16 months

To my dear son,


Friends and family are always asking what you're doing at the various stages of development. I decided I should post about that now and then, so that you'll have something to look back on, and so they'll know too...


Every day is an adventure. You wake up around 7 each morning and are ready to dive into the day. We often hear you chatting in your crib first thing in the morning - it makes us smile! You're a very expressive chatterer. You usually greet us with a cheery smile and "Hi! hi! hi!" though lately it's been "Baw! baw! baw," referring to the little playground balls I bought for you. You're very attached to those balls and want to see them right away when you get up. Daddy wants to write NBA on them, just to plant a little seed -- no pressure, of course!

Technorati Tag: children

feministing

The Unhealthy State of Women's Healthcare

On Thursday the Kaiser Family Foundation released the results of its latest survey on women and healthcare, and the results aren't pretty.


Kaiser found that among those women who do not have health insurance, two-thirds could not afford *any* medical care last year.


And even those *with* insurance aren't fairing that well. One-fourth of young & middle-aged women in the US decided to forego medical treatment or prescriptions because it was too expensive. In the past year, one in five women report that they did not fill a prescription because of the cost.


Alina Salganicoff, vice president and director of women's health policy at Kaiser Family Foundation explained that: "The growth in health care costs has become a central women's health issue. A sizable share of women are falling through the cracks, either because they don't have insurance or even with insurance can't afford to pay for medical care or prescription drugs." (sigh).

Technorati Tag: health

red statement

A Relevant Repeat

Sunday, July 03, 2005 At 11:09pm:


The War In Iraq Costs $173,073,057,160


Instead, we could have paid for 22,923,583 children to attend a year of Head Start.


According to the 2000 census, 71,843,425 children were living in the United States. Of these children, 23,026,593 were under the age of 6. If it weren't for the Head Start daycare down the street from us- either my partner or I would have to stop working. We still have to pay tuition- but it is nowhere near the thousands of dollars a month at other centers. According to Head Start's own records they serve a little over a million kids a year


Can you image what would happen, if instead of the Iraq War, we were building child care centers?

Technorati Tag: childcare

Womenfolk

The song blog dedicated to women in music

Womenfolk's purpose is to promote music. Naturally, if you enjoy what you hear from the site, I strongly encourage you to support the artist and buy their respective album or compilation.

Technorati Tag: music

Mom with Attitude

We're Home- I Hurt- T is leaving- Joe Can Flip You Off Now.

We came home two days early- weren’t supposed to be back until Tuesday morning. (for those who didn’t know we were leaving, we went to Charleston for the 4th of July weekend and to take T to the beach before he leaves)


I broke my foot in two places. I would tell you how this happened but then I would have to kill you. It’s too mortifying to share but let’s just say that it involved a pair of heels, a bottle of wine and an eager husband.

Should we all just use our imagination on this one?

Technorati Tag: mommyblog

Dervish: diary of a Muslim feminist

Husband of the Millenium

Not long ago I posted a short snippit about how I'd found a bookseller in the US who stocked Muhammad 'Abduh (and Rashid Rida's) Tafsir al-Manar. I had joked to my husband that my gift to humanity would be translating the twelve-volume tafsir into English, which of course would take me the rest of my life. Cost and postage looked prohibitively expensive so I forgot about it.


For those who don't know, Muhammad 'Abduh was one of the most influential modernist reformers ever, and Rashid Rida was his student who carried on his work. Muhammad Asad's translation of the Qur'an carries material from the 'Abduh tafsir in its commentaries, but there isn't an English translation available. (Sort of the case with so many of the gems that lie hidden in the Arabic world).


When I first wanted to learn Arabic as part of my University course, I had to get permission. I remember sitting in the office of the head of Arabic & Islamic studies while Dr. Saeed typed up a letter of permission. Back then he only had a pokey little office but its walls were crammed with books. I looked lovingly around at all the beautiful sets of commentaries with gorgeous spine decorations thinking, "one day I'll have a set like that on my bookshelf". They sort of symbolised my burning desire to dive into the Arabic and Islamic oceans of knowledge of which I was only beginning to become aware.

Technorati Tag: muslim

Blogs by Women Directory Update

Thanks to Angie for doing such a good job with the blog. I am very grateful. Thank you very much to my little helper, too.

The Blogs by Women (BbW) Directory now has 413 blogs listed. Our official launch date was March 8, 2005. We're proud of the work we've done! There are a lot of nice blogs listed in the directory. Please go look around and read a few blogs. Tell them Blogs by Women sent ya.

Don't forget to check out BbW's sister site TheNewJane -- the first blog advertising network for women. Another interesting women's project is Celebrating Women. Head over and take a look.

Thomasburg Walks, Grumpiest Girl, Fetch the Paper . . .

A few new additions to the directory:

Thomasburg Walks, a blog about birds, mammals, reptiles and plants in the fields and woods around Thomasburg, a hamlet in eastern Ontario, Canada.

Grumpiest Girl, being in the world is hard at times. That's why it's important to shape your life, eat cake, and write it all down.

Wondering why your blog isn't in the directory? Read the rules.

Heart Crossings, Technology, pop culture, single motherhood, love, relationships and the IT industry.

Fetch the Paper: Digital Dog Edition, Happy pets, happy people--that's the mantra of FETCH the Paper.

Slivovitz for breakfast, it's a sort of "italienglish" diary and another -useful?- point of view written by a 24italian girl.

Menstruating She Devils

1,000 Women

Will the world sigh, "ho-hum," or will the world, startled, sit up and listen when the Nobel Peace Prize is announced in October?


Innovation might win the prize.


One Thousand Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005 seeks to recognize women as peacemakers. And like the roles they play, the number 1,000 reflects the small but sustaining efforts of women. The names were announced just days ago.


In January, the official nomination letter was signed. Three women represent the 1,000, to conform with the rules of the Nobel Prize Committee, but all 1,000 names are listed.

Click to read more ...

Technorati Tag: Nobel Peace Prize

Bedroom Thoughts

Teaching our boys

After my recent posts and the following comments I have realised that I have an 11 year old son with whom I have not talked with about the finer details of life. He is still a young sort but I am incredibly proud of him because of the way he is so self-assured whilst retaining a sensitivity and best of all he has a great attitude to girls. He can be a boy's boy and then easily be a best friend for girls and stands up for them when boys go "Ewwww, it's girls, yuck".


I remember when I talked over periods and stuff with my daughter it was not easy. She is nearly 16 now and we seemed to have coped. With my son being the carefree sort I am afraid that I have been coy over the years, especially when the sanitary towel adverts came on the TV. He'd asked "what's that for" and I'd say something along along the lines of it being a type of tissues. I fudged it quite frankly.

Technorati Tag: education