My heart and eyelids are heavy tonight after so many events of the last few days. In addition, it was my last day at my current job, so there was a bit of melancholy as I cleared out my office. But I have to believe that we can find some beauty despite the storms of our society, just as the rain cleared on July 4 just in time for the fireworks. I think I need to read my own post again from a few weeks ago on maintaining hope. This week, I thought a lot about #BlackLivesMatter, feminism, and solutions to parenting challenges.

Considering racism then and now on July 4, with Frederick Douglass’s “What to the slave is 4th of July?”

In the wake of another spate of senseless deaths of black people (followed up by the also senseless deaths of police officers), some good articles:

• Advice for White Folks in the Wake of a Police Murder of a Black Person
• How to Protest Alton Sterling’s Death Peacefully and Passionately
• Deafening Silence: White Silence and Alton Sterling
• This is What White People Can Do to Support #BlackLivesMatter
• More black people were killed by US police in 2015 than were lynched in the worst year of Jim Crow
• What You Can Do Right Now About Police Brutality

I also saw this excellent template for writing to your local police chief to ask important questions about criminal justice reform. I think I’ll be writing an email this weekend.

My friend Trish writes about how her Live Generously shirt has cost her but has lead to so much more gain.

Hillary Clinton isn’t my favorite candidate ever by any means (I’m not fond of her foreign policy or pro-corporate positions), but the narrative around her is horrifyingly sexist.

Drooling over so many of these photos of Mommy Shorts’ trip to Copenhagen. I want to jump on trampolines built into the sidewalk!

This article is a couple years old, but I just read it and wow, does it resonate. It’s true that women really can’t “have it all” until we change some fundamental things about American society.

9 Things Happy Couples Teach Their Kids About Good Relationships – some excellent ideas based on solid social science.

One of the toughest things when I was on maternity leave was not being able to pay attention to Sprout while I was nursing Little Bird. (Especially because Sprout loved to climb all over me or loom over the baby at the same time.) These ideas for a “nursing box” would have come in handy.

What do we really mean when we proclaim that “our children are worth protecting at any cost” in the context of climate change?

Raquel at the Ugly Volvo’s routine while her son falls asleep sounds a lot like my routine while nursing, minus the cabins on Pinterest.

I’m not sure I want Sprout and Little Bird to be Vikings, but going on a dragon hunt sounds wonderful.

 

 

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