Celebrate the Small Things: My Granddaughter and Badass Ladybugs

My granddaughter Liza surprised me with a special gift over the summer, a 'little' something she had made at school. Assigned in class to make a book cover for her favorite book, she chose mine, The Shells of Mersing!  Take a look...

  

An image of (MC) Callie when she examines the shells on her bed.

Callie discovers who the killer is in this scary scene.

In typical shy-free "Liza style" she also informed the school librarian that the school needed to order my book for the library. God bless her. I was so flattered and bursting with appreciation inside. I'm terrible at doing my own promotion. She then informed me she wanted to play "Callie" when my book made it to film. Talk about a great confidence booster. I need to hire this little girl as my public relations person, but alas....she is twelve. 

Turns out my occasional nickname for Liza, "Ladybug," is just perfect for her. Ladybugs, as many of you know, are pretty 'badass' in the garden when it comes to fighting aphids and protecting their own. Liza is not only 'badass' in promoting her grandma's writing, she plays a pretty mean game of soccer as the team's star goalie. But don't get me wrong, she's all girl too. She has loved her dolls over the years. Below is a photo of Liza at ten with her fabulous Barbie Doll collection. Unfortunately, I lost the original picture of her holding the book cover she had made. My smartphone fell in the toilet on a camping trip later and shorted out everything! (Another story😕)

Liza, at ten. With her fabulous Barbie doll collection.

So thinking about the 'badass' ladybug as one of my favorite garden bugs, I decided to do a bit of research. Years ago at the house on Grant Street I came upon a large ladybug nest at the base of a tree in my family's backyard. It was the first time I'd ever seen such an anomaly and I couldn't believe how big it was. If memory serves me right, the nest was two feet across. It was swarming, and if you've never thought a lady bug could bite, think again. Several bit me. Small stings really and of no consequence, but the bites surprised me. 

I liked ladybugs. I had spent years letting them crawl up my arms and legs, and encouraged my children to do the same, which they did. The orange track marks they left behind on your skin, releasing a stinky fluid from their legs, was the only drawback. I have since found out that the fluid is really ladybug blood. I had no idea, did you? Ladybugs release this blood to keep predators from eating them. That's why you will never see a bird eat one. Ladybug blood is their first line of defense, whereas biting is secondary, which explains my surprise. Since I had discovered the home nest, I can only assume that the "ladybug guards" were defending their own. Plus, they were hibernating for the winter. 

 

A familiar nursery rhyme most of us know:

Lady bug, ladybug

 fly away home. 

Your house is on fire and 

your children are gone.

I have released more than one ladybug into the air with this innocent little rhyme, but as with most British nursery rhymes of old, the meaning is far from innocent.

In Britain, Ladybugs are called Ladybirds, which is an old Catholic reference to "Our Lady." In the 1500s and 1600s, a law known as the Act of Uniformity (1559 and 1662) punished Catholic worshipers for refusing to attend the Protestant church. Punishment was severe. Priests were hung and some burned alive at the stake. Worshipers were jailed and fined heavily. The rhyme served as a warning cry for Catholics to escape. I wonder how many lives were spared with this clever use of words. 

I think I will try adding this 'badass' red bug with black spots to my garden in the spring. If I can get them to stay (I have plenty of aphids to dine on), I might have a better gardening season (summer 2018 was a fail). 

Meanwhile, hugs, hugs, hugs to Liza my sweet granddaughter and "ladybug" for inspiring this Celebrate the Small Things post!!




Special thanks to 'Celebrate the Small Things' 
host, Lexa Cain. 
And co-hosts: L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog

Sharon M. Himsl
Published: Evernight Teen 
The Shells of Mersing

Celebrate the Small Things: A Better Doll for Our Girls - Lammily Dolls

I love dolls, don't you? I don't speak for everyone, I know, but I think the majority of women enjoyed dolls as girls. Some of you became collectors as adults.

Lammily Doll in middle

And not to the leave the guys out reading this, I know that some of you had your favorites. My son had a "Ronnie-Donnie" doll, a McDonald's rag doll version of Ronald McDonald. I washed it until it fell apart and disappeared one day never to reappear again.

A recent post on Facebook about the new Lammily doll brought back some fond memories of my experience as a girl.....

As a young teen, thirteen-years-old, my best friend and I decided one day we were "too old to play with dolls." At school all of the other girls it seemed were busy gossiping about boys and 'who liked who' etc., so playing with dolls just didn't fit into our worlds anymore.

But emotionally, my BFF and I were torn, unwilling to let go just yet.

We embarked on setting up a secret society of sorts known only to us. After school or whenever possible we would secretly smuggle our doll collections across the street in paper garbage sacks between our homes.  We also liked to play in a wooded area nearby. Fun days. We fired up our imaginations and had a ball, playing mamas with our baby dolls or 'mean headmistress' at the orphanage (our favorite) with our older dolls.

Although available, I didn't have Barbie dolls for some reason. I think my mother worried about those boobs and exposed legs, although my last doll was adult size, full-breasted and dressed in formal lace and black taffeta. She fit perfectly into any romantic scenarios I came up with. It all seems kind of silly now, this nostalgic glance back at the crossroad of becoming a young woman, yet role playing is how everyone learns, and it's just as important to girls and teens today.

[Click my post for  history of Barbie Doll: "B is for Barbie Doll,
Inventions by Women]
<http://shells-tales-sails.blogspot.com/2015/04/b-is-for-barbie-doll-inventions-by.html>

Unlike the pencil thin Barbie dolls with unrealistic body measurements, the Lammily doll is proportioned as a real girl or budding teen might look today. Cute, a bit on the pudgy side and without makeup. I grew up ultra skinny, reacting to my body shape in reverse, 'flat as a pancake' as a teen. Neither of the reactions, fat or skinny, did much for our self esteem growing up. Too many girls (and adults) struggle with low self-esteem based on their body weight and shape, so I want to congratulate the family and makers of the Lammily doll, Lammily, LLC 

 <https://lammily.com/special-offer-2/>

Interesting, the creator of this doll was an uncle who had purchased a
Barbie for his niece in Pittsburgh and thought doll makers could do a
better job. Click the below link for his story and a special offer (dolls
available only online).

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialLammily/videos/1100892270019074/

Below are kids' reactions on YouTube: 

 

Kids react in school.

 

 A Mom asked her girls what they think.

 

I'm celebrating
the return of spring,
blogging again, and 

this special story about dolls

 
Have a nice weekend everyone!

To join "Celebrate the Small Things:  visit Lexa Cain's blog
Co-hosts are: L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge
Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog

 

B is for Barbie Doll: Inventions by Women A-Z

First Barbie (1959)--available as brunette or blond

My granddaughter has a fabulous Barbie doll collection, complete with doll houses, clothes, accessories, and just about anything you could imagine. When I first saw it, all I wanted to do was sit down and play dolls with her, which I did and had a ball.

So where did Barbie come from, you might ask? Who invented this one of a kind doll?

Ruth Handler
(1916-2002)

The lady with the nice smile on the left, Ruth Handler, was the inventor, and she was one savvy business woman. She and her husband were co-founders of the Mattel Toy Company.....that's right, Mattel. 

One day, as the story is told, Ruth was watching her daughter play paper dolls with some friends. She noticed the girls were playacting scenes from the future, not the present, and began to imagine a doll they might like. Certain she was onto something big, she modeled the doll after a popular doll in Germany (initially sold to adults) that she had discovered on a trip. She named the doll Barbie after her daughter Barbara. (The Ken doll invented later was named after her son).

Barbie was introduced to the public at the 1959 American International Toy Fair in New York City on March 9, 1959 (which happens to be Barbie's official birthday). The doll was an instant success, in fact so successful, Mattel was soon listed as a Fortune 500 company.

 Not everyone liked the new doll. Some parents voiced concerns about the doll's adult chest, which clearly showed a woman's breasts. Ruth was adamant the doll have an adult appearance, but did agree to one change in 1971. Barbie's eyes, instead of casting a "demure sideways glance," were changed to face forward. 

Meanwhile, Barbie's measurements were somewhere around height 6 feet, weight 100 pounds, and body size 39-19-33. In 1997, in light of criticism that Barbie's body shape was unrealistic and young girls might try to emulate the doll, Barbie's waistline was made larger.

Barbie has been sold in over 150 countries and remains popular to this day. The average girl age 3-11 owns at least 10 dolls. 

How about you? Are you a Barbie doll fan?

Sources:
http://www.women-inventors.com/Ruth-Handler.asp;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbie
http://www.teenink.com/opinion/pop_culture_trends/article/175098/The-Barbie-Effect/

Copyright 2015 © Sharon Marie Himsl