march 5: international women's day

Tomorrow night A Powerful Noise opens in theatres. This documentary addresses the most marginalized group in any nation--woman and girls. This topic is near and dear to my heart. My three little girls are lucky to be born in a country that recognizes their value & in which they will have a voice. Most are not so fortunate. Please visit http://www.apowerfulnoise.org/ to see how you can add your voice and resources to helping women around the world.

{Quotes taken from A Powerful Noise website}
A Powerful Noise takes you inside the lives of [three] women to witness their daily challenges and their significant victories over poverty and oppression. [This] is a meditation on the inherent potential of women to change the world.
This view of women's empowerment . . . is useful in virtually all types of development programs that help communities improve the quality of and access to water, health services, education and microfinance services {to name a few}, and those programs in which communities are guided to confront specific social injustices such as violence against women.
Working with women strategically makes good investment sense. Women, more than men, tend to parlay improvements in their own lives into the lives of their children and communities. Increases in income typically translate into greater investment in children's education and health care. Education for girls and women plays a strong role in the next generation's health and well-being. And the entire world benefits from the creativity, intelligence and effort that flower when girls and women are freed from strictures that keep them uneducated & silenced.

Want to Help? Get Started Here:
LDS Humanitarian Services
Unitus: Innovative Solutions to Global Poverty
CARE

{Any others you'd like to add?}

gerald & piggie

If you have an emerging reader, go to your library and get these books now. If you have two young readers, as I do at my house, better yet--they can each read a character.
Simple & hilarious, these are our favorite readers by far. I've heard that teaching kids to read aloud with proper intonation & emotion is difficult. Gerald & Piggie make it a snap with their hilarious expressions, huge print for shouting, tiny print for sad voices, etc. Our girls' faces {and voices} mirror theirs as they read. It's so much fun. Who knew stick characters could be so expressive! Yet another reason to love Mo Willems.

{Other reasons we love Mo Willems are this and this and this.}

move over, mr. darcy

My last class at BYU was a graduate seminar taught by the charming Nick Mason, who led us through a {sometimes uncomfortable} exploration of evolving social conscience as represented in literature . Class conflict was present in all the mid-19th C novels we read. Emerging industrialization, union workers, the disappearance of artisans & the growing middle class were creating unprecedented tensions.

Enter the intelligent, unheralded Elizabeth Gaskell, whose book Mary Barton introduced me to mill workers and unions and child labor of the 1800s. Fast forward to the present, in which I checked out the BBC drama North and South {based on a Gaskell novel} this past weekend and watched it obsessively. And fell in love--not only with John Thornton as portrayed by Richard Armitage {soooo hot!} but with the gorgeous cinematography. There is the powerful parallel story of tension between mill master and employee, cultured middle-class English girl from the South and rough-around-the-edges entrepreneur from the North. Such great acting. {And, did I mention how hot John Thornton is?}

Elements of the story resemble Pride & Prejudice, mostly in the love story. There are the two strong personalities that clash, the woman having a mistaken bad impression of the man, they both having to overcome personal pride to acknowledge their "simmering, restrained passion" for each other. John Thornton is definitely a Darcy-esque brooder {swoon}. But while P&P is a lighter social satire {witty, explores human nature but with only a narrow slice of British society}, North and South is gritty. It explores survival and class conflict and has more serious social and political themes. Such as the ones we discussed in my final graduate seminar.

I've put this Elizabeth Gaskell novel on hold at the library and can't wait to read it, but this is all really to say: Ladies, do yourselves a favor and watch this 4+ hour movie. You will fall completely in love with Mr. Thornton.

And, you're welcome. You can thank me later.

valentine rock stars

All you need is love.

And dancing.

{Plus, I'm totally in love with her.}

my romeo

{ we were both young when i first saw you}
{marry me}
{newlyweds}

fairy ball 2009

The second annual Fairy Ball was a glittering success! Twirling and pink cupcakes were had by all.

{For more of these lovelies, swing on over here.}

belle pastry

french patisserie

pink macaroons, almond croissant, heart cookie

i think we'll be stopping by on Valentine's Day with our little loves

{and by the way, check out our festive Christmas pictures here}