Real Beauty

I watched a video today that my friend posted on Facebook. It was most thought provoking. It showed the transformation of an ordinary looking woman into the image that was put on a billboard. The video was made by Dove which has created a campaign for real beauty about building the self esteem of young girls and breaking down beauty stereotypes. I tried to imbed the video, but I couldn't get it to work. You can watch it here. The other two videos are excellent too.

The beauty and fashion industries are notorious for making unrealistic role models for women's appearance. That is unfortunate, and it does cause problems for girls and their self esteem. I applaud Dove's attempt to make this issue known and combat the objectification of women.

This issue is becoming more and more of a problem in society. Many women will do almost anything to loose a few pounds, many who don't need to. Some women refuse to have children in hopes of preserving their figures. Even in Mormon society, eating disorders are alive and well. One of the most insidious forces at work to objectify women and destroy loving marriages or prevent them in the first place is pornography.

The obvious problems that pornography can lead to like fornication, adultery, and other evils are not what I see as the biggest problems that pornography creates. What I see is the biggest problem is the objectification of women and the effect on a marriage. For example, take an average Mormon man in his thirties who views a pornographic image. Likely the woman in it has been doctored with Photoshop similar to the one in the Dove movie. If not, she has probably had expensive plastic surgery and implants. The reality is, the woman is vain, self-centered, and lacks moral values. What the man sees is sensual perfection.

Then he turns from the image and sees his wife. What does he see? Not the woman who has born several children, serves in multiple callings, manages a household on a budget, and has the potential of being a Goddess. What does he see? A woman who is not nearly as exciting in the bedroom as she used to be, a woman who has not quite lost the weight from the last baby, and a woman with a modest wardrobe full of "mom clothes." This is the objectification of a woman in action. No longer are her virtues seen. No longer is her value as a human being important. How she appears is the only thing that matters, and in this, she falls short of the unrealistic ideal in the image.

Next thing you know, he wants her to change for him, loose weight, exercise more, and in a word, be more like the pornographic image. The reality is, the two women cannot be one. Pornography puts an unrealistic expectation of women in a marriage situation. This leads to damaged self esteem for the woman, and resentful disappointment and disillusionment for the man. If left unchecked, it can destroy a marriage and an otherwise happy home.

This is an issue I feel very strongly about and hope that I can raise my boys to see womanhood and the divine role of women with due respect.

Planting Trees

Planting trees in triple digit heat is not fun! Especially with it being as humid as it has been lately. Ben planted one of our two trees last weekend.

First, we dug out the grass and threw it away. We dug the hole to a diameter twice that of the tree's container. Then we removed the pot from the root ball and shook out some of the roots. Because container trees are usually root bound, the roots have a hard time breaking away from the knots they have created for themselves. They have a harder time branching out if they aren't loosened up a bit before planting. Then we mixed some garden soil with the clay and sand mixture that was already there, and then we put it around the root ball. (The orange dirt is the sand. The big clods are the clay.) I put about three gallons of root stimulator on the whole thing and put down a generous layer of mulch over the top.

We put a stone circle around the tree to protect it from the encroaching Bermuda grass.

Ben is terrific at this. His attention to detail always makes for flawless tree circles. You go Ben! First he digs out the dirt to the level he wants the circle to sit. Then, he places the first brick and uses some scrap lumber, a hammer, and a level to ensure that it is sitting firmly level. Next, he puts a second brick next to it, and hammers it down so that it is flush with the first. Then he uses his level to make sure everything is plumb. He repeats these steps until the circle is complete.

We also wrapped the trunk to protect it from sun scald, and staked it. The relentless wind was part of what got our Shantung Maple that died.

The Shantung Firedragon is doing well after its recent pruning. I thought I would post a comparison of the leaf structure of our different trees. Above is the maple tree.

This is the red oak. I love red oak leaves!

This is the Pecan. We are going to plant it this weekend. It is already producing some fruit. I don't know if it will be edible, but I am stoked about that. I can almost taste pecan pies I will make. . .

Trees

Apparently, late summer is the time to buy trees. We got a flier in the mail for 70% off on trees, so we went and checked them out. They were so beautiful and such a great price, that we bought two, one for the back yard, and one for the front to replace the Shantung Maple that we killed two years ago. The Plant Shed, where we bought them, offers a 6 month guarantee on their trees, and they were confident that planting them in triple digit heat wouldn't kill them. Here's hoping . . .

Each of these trees were in thirty gallon pots and were three hundred dollars regular price. We got them for less than $100 each. They are huge! We are so excited to have them in the landscape.

This tree is a Pecan. It should start producing pecans in a couple of years. We are going to plant it in the backyard.

This one is a Shumard Red Oak. Red oaks have beautiful fall color like the Shantung Maples. Transplant stress may prevent it from doing much this fall, but next year it might be pretty.

This is not a new tree. This is our Firedragon Shantung Maple. Ben decided it needed the bottom limbs removed so it could focus on gaining some height. He used to work as a tree trimmer, so he knows what he is doing, but I have a hard time with pruning. I do much research before I ever cut anything on my plants, so I had to close my eyes while he did it. I must admit, the shape of the tree is better now. I am looking forward to seeing some increase in height as well. I wish I had a before picture, but I don't. The most recent shot I have of this tree is from last fall.

More Summer and Temple Square Pages

More Digital Scrapbooking

Here are some of the pages I have done in the last couple of days. The top ones are of our Temple Square Trip last month. The last one is today when the boys were playing in the backyard.

Sweet Potato Vine

Well, I was able to get roots to grow off of my sweet potato shoots. I planted them this morning and already it is 102 degrees. The heat index has it at 107. They are looking very droopy, but we'll see if they are able to survive.

Digital Scrapbooking

Okay, I am nearly unpacked now. Yes, I have been home from Idaho for almost two weeks, but unpacking four people after a month being away from home is a lot of work! I decided today that I needed to take a break and do some scrapbooking. I finished a 2 page spread I had started on months ago and just needed to do a few things to finish it up. It has pictures from the fourth of July parade that we attended with the Leonards and the Tanners. I got the spread idea from the scrapping sisters.

Waterfall Pictures

Photography has been a hobby of mine for half of my life now. I took a photography class in high school and have been taking pictures off and on ever since depending on whether or not my old film SLR was in working order. I have tried unsuccessfully for the last fifteen years to capture the perfect waterfall picture. Getting the perfect scene with the light just right to create the right amount of blur to the water, was just about impossible. I still haven't taken the perfect waterfall picture, but these were pretty good.

My husband grew up, not in the country, but in the mountains, in a place called Cub River Canyon just South of Preston. If you drive up that canyon to a place called Willow Flat, you can go on a hike to where the water springs fresh and clean right out of the mountain and tumbles down the mountainside making a beautiful mountain creek with lots of picture taking potential.

The Burbank family reunion is always at Willow Flat, and since we were visiting up North during the reunion, we got to go for the first time in eight years. After a night of camping, Ben and I got up before the kids were stirring, and hiked up the trail a few dozen yards to get some pictures. It was so romantic to be together, doing something we both love to do, in the early morning light of such a beautiful place, and no kids to distract us. These were the pictures we took.