Note: There's no actual poop shown, just a discussion of it.
I just love how Norah figures out the one word of this monologue that cracks me up and uses it multiple times until Ben shuts her up by threatening to withhold cotton candy at the circus. Our parenting skills on display for all to see.
I thought long and hard about what to call this post. The working title was "Every F-ing Night," but once the wine took effect I calmed down and chose something more benign since I'm trying to set a good example for our next-door neighbors Nikki & Leah, who are still minors and also regular blog readers. I'd like to apologize to their mom right now in case she's never able to experience grandparenthood because her kids have read my blog and decided to remain single and childless for life.
My close friend and coworker, Greg, once told me that his family sits down to dinner together every night. I have a vague recollection that he went on about how important it is to have that daily connection but I might have gotten that from the old issue of Better Homes and Gardens that I keep reading at the orthodontist. Somehow after almost 9 years of motherhood I still sometimes get a pang of regret/guilt that I'm not doing things the right way. If a friend told me that she was feeling regret or guilt I would tell her that we're all just doing the best we can, but sometimes I forget to be kind to myself.
At mealtime, the kids usually eat at the counter stools facing into the kitchen. Ben and I grab a few bites in between cooking, dishing out, refilling drinks, and cleaning up. Tonight, soccer practice was canceled, so I made a nice dinner of pasta with chicken and broccoli, and garlic bread. Ben plowed the stuff off of the table and we all sat down for a lovely dinner. Norah actually confirmed, "WHAT? We're eating at the table? Not at the counter?!?!"
So I sat down with my delicious dinner and a glass of Naked Chardonnay (Trader Joe's - YUM - and no annoying cork to deal with so fast and easy access), all ready to talk about how everyone's day went and whether they were excited about going to the Big Apple Circus tomorrow. What followed was a fairly rapid escalation into a situation that came close to requiring medical intervention, since I thought I was going to burst a blood vessel somewhere. I think I may need to invest in an AED if we're going to sit at the table for dinner.
Adlani is an extremely picky eater. Up until now we have somewhat catered to his list of approved foods, but last weekend we decided that we'd had enough. He'll be 6 in August and he should be able to eat more than just the 4 items on the approved list (yeah, right). The new rule is that he has to try a little of what we make for dinner, and if he really hates it, he can have Cheerios. I'm not cooking a separate meal for him every night, and the rest of us are not going to eat an all-nugget diet. We're trying to ease him into the new rules, so when I put the trial portion of pasta on his plate, it had no chicken or broccoli - just pasta with a little bit of alfredo sauce.
I spent the next half-hour alternately urging, cheerleading, threatening, punishing, and cajoling him into eating one bite of the f-ing pasta. The girls did a great job but since the squeaky wheel gets the grease I barely even registered their presence. I don't know how their day went or whether they're excited about the circus. I only know that Adlani screeched, cried, gagged, and drooled his way to an early bed-time without dinner. Before you call DSS, he had a bowl of cereal after school so he will not starve, I promise.
After I carried him upstairs for the third time I was in serious fight-or-flight mode, and I picked up my plate and my wine, grabbed a book, and ate dinner in my car in the driveway. When I calmed down and came inside, I went straight to bed to sleep off the post-traumatic stress (Adlani did too). I woke up at 10:30 p.m. and here I am.
Ben: "OK, Aliya. Name 10 states."
Aliya: "Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, Maine, North Dakota, South Dakota, North Carolina, South Carolina..."
Adlani: "Sweet Carolina?"
Me: "Oh, oh, oooooh..."
If you've ever wondered why Sweet Caroline is played at Red Sox games, here's the answer. .
Speaking of parenting skills, many of us have experienced a moment like this but there's something about this video that is so hilarious and touching at the same time. I love the "you're a useless clod" look the daughter has on her face.
I'll admit, we've been lax in one of our parenting duties - teaching our kids to ride a bike. Last year, Aliya somehow figured out how to ride a two-wheeler without Ben running along behind her holding the seat while I videotaped, but apparently she hadn't mastered the art of braking while steering, so today she decided to ride up and down our (dead end) street until she could turn around and ride back without stopping.
It reminded me of the day I learned to ride my first two-wheeler with the banana seat, fringed hand-grips, and the basket on the front. As with many memories, I think I remember the photo more than the actual moment, but I'm sure it was exhilarating to ride through the neighborhood with the wind in my flowing, blond hair, unencumbered by a helmet.
Luckily I never cracked my head open, but boy my brother Elijah sure did. When he was around 7 he was riding his bike and his front wheel came off, the forks stuck into our dirt driveway and he went @ss over teakettle. He was a mess. I don't have a picture of him with two black eyes and multiple contusions, but here's a picture of me scowling in concentration while trying not to wrap myself around a mailbox:
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And then there's Norah, who will never let anyone run faster, climb higher, or cliff-dive from a taller rock outcropping than she will. She hopped on one of Aliya's old bikes and pedaled madly down the street while I ran after her. (I probably don't need to point out that she was wearing a polka-dot tutu and pink flats.) Aliya got all cocky and rode by with a "So long.... Suckaaaaaa" over her shoulder, and promptly ran off the road. Norah and I rode/ran past her with a "Suckaaaaa right back at-cha" and Aliya ran into the house to remain hidden in humiliation until dinner.
I'm sure I'll live to regret my parenting skills or lack thereof, but I figure they're all going to hate me for a certain period of time anyway so I might as well have a few laughs in the process. I have noticed that no matter how mad they get at me they still want to have "snuggle time" before bed. I guess when they stop asking for that I'll know that the honeymoon's over. Until then..."So long, Suckaaaaa!" :-) .
My trip home from Indy was pretty uneventful. We got held up on the runway in Indy for about a half hour but I still made my flight from LaGuardia to Boston. We left NYC at 9 p.m. so it wasn't surprising to have an exhausted-looking man-child pointing at the window seat next to me. He was in his early 20's, dressed in a suit, and looked kind of like one of the Jonas Brothers. The cute one.
In the old days, I would never have gotten up the nerve to speak to him, but now that I'm old enough to be his mother it's not a problem. So we started chatting about work, etc., and he mentioned that he had just graduated from college a couple of years ago. I spent my time in Indy this week with a group of EXTREMELY young and very smart guys, so I mentioned that we have a training program for people right out of college.
Mr. Jonas said that he had a friend in a program like ours and the company was based in Indy. His friend works for us! Not only that, he's a guy that contacted me because of my other blog and we've been trying to get together for lunch. It really is a small world.
Yesterday was the last weekday of school vacation, and since I had escaped for 2 1/2 days, I was on duty. We started the day by getting the house back in order, and then went to our favorite bagel joint. I was thinking that we would go to a playground, zoo, museum, or someplace that would be over-run by families trying to make the most of the last vacation day, but when I said that I needed to go to IKEA, the kids went wild.
They LOVE going to the playroom there (Smaland). I don't understand the attraction because the playroom has a big shoe, a couple of fake trees, a ball pit that is frequently closed for de-urination or de-vomitation, a coloring station, and a TV showing a movie they've already seen 100+ times. Who am I to argue, though? I was able to find the pieces and parts I needed for our new basement storage shelving in relative peace.
I love staying in hotels. I'm in Indianapolis for a couple of days and I have more than enough *stuff* in a small carry-on bag. The mess in my room is limited to my 3 cubic feet worth of stuff. I have a king size bed with 7 pillows, all to myself. I have 4 bath towels, 4 hand towels, 5 washcloths, and 3 miniature bottles of lotions and potions - all mine. I haven't turned the TV on once since I arrived and have not had to listen to a single cartoon voice or adolescent actress in crisis. Nobody woke me up during the night for a drink, a trip to the potty, or a sleeping companion. People keep feeding me and cleaning up after me. As much as I love my family, it's nice to spend a couple of days in Indiana now and then.
Today's gift was to set up an online wish list for the teachers at Aliya & Adlani's elementary school. It's not finished yet, but I hope to have it done in time for teacher appreciation week.
And now, I will pass out in my giant bed where I will huddle at the edge and not move for the entire night for fear of waking up whoever may have crawled in during the night. It's amazing what you can get used to. .
I don't know if it was spending my weekend with Josh and Rachael, who are very careful about what they eat, or the gluten-free muffins from Sunday brunch, or the fact that I'm sitting at the airport surrounded by ultra-fit marathon runners who ran 26.2 miles two days ago and are still able to walk without limping today, but I've been thinking a lot about food. There are a lot of things that I'm too busy to think about, because I'm always so friggin busy. I think that needs to change because someday when I have enough time to slow down and think about things, I'm going to be 80.
Last weekend Josh and Rachael's friends were talking about Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, and I was intrigued so I started watching it. It's a little embarrassing to watch it in the airport because it brings tears to my eyes and my fellow travelers are probably wondering what I'm bawling about.
This show is eye-opening and disturbing. In the 'Ham we're lucky because our director of food service, Brendan Ryan, has already made huge strides in improving the food served in our schools. 75% of the food is made from scratch to avoid all of the additives found in processed foods. Whole grain breads and pastas have replaced white bread and regular pasta, and the kids have fresh fruit and vegetables available daily. Sugary drinks and snacks have been removed from vending machines in the middle schools and high school (here's a recent article). Many towns have not made those changes - yet.
My gift today was a donation to Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Fund at America Gives Back. And speaking of America Gives Back, Idol Gives Back is on tomorrow night - 4/21 at 8 p.m.
In the words of Jamie Oliver, "Everyone can do better." The episodes of his show are available on Hulu.com until June 5th. Watch it. Seriously. .
Wow...only two days* left in the 29 Gifts challenge. I'll be traveling for the next three days so I have no idea what my gifts will be. Could be interesting.
Today I gave a flock of chicks to a family in need via Heifer International. I have given several gifts of animals in the past, and Aliya collected money instead of gifts at her 7th birthday party and bought a water buffalo. I think it's a great organization and a fun way to give. The animals are given to families who are taught how to take care of them. The families then have milk, eggs, wool, etc., to sustain and create an income for their family. The first offspring is passed on to another family, and the gift keeps on giving.
Here's a quick video about Heifer's work:
There are tons of other videos on the Heifer International website if you want to learn more. There's also a pretty cool interactive tool here.
*UPDATE: I just realized that I skipped Day 20, so I guess I have 3 days left in the challenge. Unless you count the Brownie Husband as a gift. ;-) .
This weekend I went up to Portland to celebrate the impending birth (in June) of my niece, so my gifts were all about Duende Bloo. Friday night I gave the gift of pork, when I took Josh & Rachael out to dinner at Norm's BBQ. Delicious!
Saturday morning after a leisurely breakfast I jumped in and out of the shower, blasted through my 5-minute morning routine, and threw on my coat...I think it freaked Josh out a little because he's not accustomed to living his entire life like his hair's on fire. Saturday afternoon we had a really nice party with great food and great friends, and we sat around talking so long that I just had to stay over and get another night of sleep that was not interrupted by someone kicking me or peeing in my bed.
I drove home today after brunch at the home of Josh & Rachael's friends, Jim & Nancy. It's amazing how much louder the kids sound after 48 hours of relative peace and quiet. For today's gift, I'm going to upload some photos to Duende's website and then call it a day. I have to rest up for Day 1 of April Vacation. .
Time flies when you're giving gifts, I guess. I can't believe I only have 6 more days in the challenge!
Today I bought a gift for my future niece's time capsule. We thought it would be a fun addition to Babypalooza to have everyone bring something to represent current times, that can be put away for the baby and opened when she's 16, 18, 21, or whenever. I bought a book, which I am now coveting - Snapshot - The Visual Almanac For Our World Today. Maybe I'll get it for Mother's Day. hint hint
I also bought one of our favorite kids' books to add to the baby's media collection - Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, by Mo Willems. The kids crack up every time I read it. I think it's my delivery.
Babypalooza is this Saturday so I'll be heading up to Maine tomorrow. All alone. I apologize in advance if Ben forgets the oranges for soccer on Saturday. I bought them, I'll cut them up, but then he's on his own. .
My gift today was to update the word games that the kindergarten classes were using. Adlani's teacher told me what she was looking for and I created some drafts and tried them out with his class. They really liked them so I printed them out for each classroom.
THIS is the kind of classroom help I can feel confident about. When I'm actually IN the classroom and getting my instructions in Spanish, I don't know whether the teacher's telling me to read to the kids, have them read to me, or organize the bookshelves in alphabetical order. Luckily, the kids know that I need remedial help and they translate for me. It's amazing how much Spanish they know already.
Here's one of the games. The kids roll the dice and move the number of circles, then say the word in the circle. They can also look for a matching word elsewhere on the path. They're doing great!
I skipped lunch and got a haircut today (the term "haircut" is inclusive of whatever it takes to cover all of the grey hair I'm getting from Norah - more on that later). Since I usually have about 9 minutes to shower and complete my entire morning routine, I never "do" my hair. Between the straightening, shortening, coloring, and my new glasses, it was like Extreme Makeover - Librarian Edition. Our admin told me several times, "Wow! You look really great!" which means, "You usually look like hell!" but that's ok. I stopped by the school book fair at Barnes & Noble and several people didn't recognize me. Then I went out for post-voting drinks with the girls, who luckily all recognized me and didn't tell me that I usually look like hell. If I had the extra half-hour it takes to not look like hell, I'd probably do something else with the time anyway. Who cares if I look like hell, really?
UPDATE (the day after the haircut): This morning after I showered and towel-dried my hair, Adlani said, "Uh, by the way...your hair doesn't look that good. It used to look really nice but now it looks all tangly." WHATEVER!!!
So to stick with the theme of *hair*, my gift today was 5 bottles of shampoo and 5 bottles of conditioner for the Pathways Family Shelter. I called to see what they were in need of and my contact said size 3/4/5 diapers (always), brooms (seems random), and shampoo for African-American hair. When I asked my awesome hair sorcerer Gina what she would recommend for shampoo, she said that she had a bunch of lotions and potions that she could donate too. Yay!
And back to Norah...I remember when she was an infant and I frequently commented that she was such an easy baby. We'd drag her around to everyone else's activities and she just rode along in her infant seat without complaint. Well, it's payback time. I think I should stop calling her a monster so I will say that she's a *challenge*. When I say "challenge," I'm talking Boston Marathon / Mt. Killimanjaro / Rubik's Cube challenge.
Last weekend we took her to the breast cancer benefit and everyone kept saying how cute she was, what a nice young lady she was - HAH! To the left, you can see a photo of her posing at the mall in her Sunday Best (her idea). And below you can see the REAL Norah, when we had to put her in the Penalty Box (the breezeway) because she was on a rampage - dumping over the garbage, throwing things, spitting, and basically behaving like she's been raised by wolves. I don't know how much more fight I've got in me. Seriously.
My gift for today was actually given yesterday, but I forgot to mention it and I ran out of time today to give a gift. Unless you count the fact that I am currently working on two projects that I was asked this afternoon to have completed before noon tomorrow. I think that's a gift considering that I had a full-day meeting today, followed by an event at school, a jaunt to BJ's, and a trip to Quincy to pick up my niece.
Anyway, I donated some J.Jill clothing in good condition at the J.Jill store. In return, I got 10% off 1 regularly-priced item for each item I donated! What a bargain! I saved about $25 with my 3 old (but still good) sweaters. That was painless!
Here's a photo of Aliya and her project at iNight - the aforementioned school event. It's an event where all of the Sage (gifted program) projects for the whole school district are displayed. It was a mob scene but Aliya got some ideas for next year and I got a chance to talk to a few of my pals. Plus I got a good door photo which I think is starting to embarrass Aliya. Oh well. It keeps a roof over our heads and chicken nuggets on the table.
Now that spring has arrived and with it the spring soccer season, I'm kinda wishing it was February again. It was a typical whirlwind weekend...2 soccer games on Saturday (photos to follow), 1 on Sunday (Ben), plus the benefit at the American Girl Store.
I worked on several gifts this weekend. Late Saturday afternoon we attempted to move sand from the preschool parking lot to the sandbox. Holy CRAP it was a lot of sand and we realized at the last minute that our wheelbarrow had disappeared so we improvised with sleds. We got about half the pile moved and then we went to dinner at Bugaboo Creek. The waitress came to take our drink order and I said, "I'm gonna need something strong...I think the Pineapple Splash Moose Juice will get me through the meal." She looked at me like a woman who doesn't have 3 kids out to dinner at 8 p.m., but I was too tired to care. And the Moose Juice worked - I highly recommend it. Here's the sand pile:
My gifts for today are surprises. One was for my incubating niece, and one was for my friend who's in the hospital. For anyone reading this who's part of the Goddess gift-giving coalition, it's done! I put on close to a hundred you-know-whats and also the other thing that was suggested for inclusion. Yay!
And while I was thinking about the Goddesses, I realized that this video was short enough to upload to Youtube. For everyone who is not a Goddess, it is a video of one of our girls' weekends at deer camp. It may not interest you unless you like snow, large chunks of meat, and random dancing.
I brought two more carloads to the yard sale (along with today's gift - muffins and coffee for the sorters) and I have another carload to take to Josh & Rachael (soon-to-be parents of my niece), and we still have TOO MUCH STUFF. I will say though, that after 6 school yard sales I am finally starting to see a dent in the pile. I've decided to start a new challenge when I'm done with 29 Gifts - 29 Messes. The gift-giving challenge has kept the act of giving at the forefront of my mind, so I'm hoping that the 29-Mess challenge will help me recover from the last 9 years of over-accumulation. We'll see.
Since the kids are major contributors to the mess, I re-implemented their after-school chores and responsibilities. I realized that one of the problems is that sometimes I'm not home to crack the whip and I can't count on Ben to do it, so there's a new sheriff in town. I made Norah "the manager," and her job is to check to make sure Aliya and Adlani have hung up their coats and backpacks, emptied their snack bags, cleaned their rooms, put away the laundry, cleaned their stuff off the stairs, and fed the pets. So far, so good! She's a ball-breaker!
All this clutter-talk reminds me that I haven't watched Hoarders lately. I LOVE that show! It makes me feel almost like a minimalist.
Yes, I have reached the middle of the 29-Gift Challenge, and looking back on my gifts so far makes me wonder whether the challenge has changed my regular pattern of giving. It has definitely made me focus on the gifts a bit more, but honestly I would have given all but 2 or 3 of the gifts anyway. We'll see how the rest of the challenge goes...maybe I'll run out of ideas (or time, or money).
My gift today was two complete carloads of stuff for the elementary school yard sale. The yard sale is this Saturday, so if you're in the area, go over and buy some stuff! This is an important fundraiser for our school, and it benefits the PTO as well as giving us a good excuse to clean out our closets. I'm hoping to dig around a bit more and find a few last-minute donations to drop off tomorrow.
Maybe tomorrow's gift will be a special treat for the hard-working moms who will spend the day organizing and pricing all of the items for the sale. Just looking at the mounds of stuff gives me the heebie-jeebies but they somehow make it look presentable and are ready for the line of customers first thing Saturday morning.
Yes, that's my gift for today - creme of tartar. The preschool teachers use it to make play-doh, so instead of putting it on each teacher's wish list, I buy big jars of it for the teachers' room. It's so much cheaper! The teachers' requests are pretty simple, so if you want to make their dreams come true, you can always check their wish lists online.
Here are some fun (ok...that's questionable) facts about creme of tartar:
It's a byproduct of winemaking. It crystallizes in wine casks during the fermentation of grapes, and can precipitate out of wine in a bottle.
It is sometimes combined with baking soda and other ingredients to make baking powder, or with potassium chloride in sodium-free salt substitutes.
In cooking, it is used for stabilizing egg whites, preventing sugar syrups from crystallizing, and reducing discoloration of boiled vegetables.
It can be combined with white vinegar to create a cleaning paste for brass or copper cookware.
It's a vital ingredient in gingerbread house icing because it inhibits the formation of crystals.
According to Dr. Wong, consuming 1-6 teaspons per day ("just shy of bowel intolerance" :-o) will cure a yeast infection.
Mixed with water it will remove ring-around-the-collar and rust stains from fabric.
Mixed with hydrogen peroxide it will remove a bathtub ring.
Mixed with lemon juice it will remove ink from clothing.
It will reportedly repel ants.
And of course, it's a key ingredient in homemade play-doh:
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
2 cups water
1 tablespoon veg oil
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
1 package unsweetened Kool-aid (any flavor)
Directions:
Mix all ingredients together in a pot, cook over medium heat, stirring until a ball is formed. Knead the dough on a floured surface. Store in an air tight container. .
I've actually been working on this gift for a week or so, but I'm going to count it as today's gift because the only other gift I gave today was the $30 I donated to the city of Somerville because their no-parking signs utilize arrows made out of tape. Tape peels off, people! With the $180 that they earned by ticketing all 6 cars parked in the direction indicated by the mostly-missing arrowhead, they should be able to buy a new sign!!
Anyway...I have a niece arriving sometime in June, and I made a website for her and everyone who's awaiting her arrival.
And for the rest of you I give the gift of heart palpitations from seeing an ultrasound photo on my blog. IT'S NOT MINE!!! .
I gave a couple of gifts of hardware which you can see on my other blog, but since they were actually on Ingersoll Rand's dime, I won't count those as my own gifts. However, I did give a related gift to an entrepreneur in Kenya, who needed a micro-loan for his hardware store (!), where he sells "doorlocks, padlocks, chains, forks, iron boxes and other items."
I funded the micro-loan through a non-profit organization called Kiva, which I heard about through my cousin. Kiva's mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of relieving poverty. You can search for lending opportunities by gender, type, and region, and when the entrepreneur pays back your loan, you can loan your money to someone else. The minimum loan amount is $25, and the organization has loaned more than $129 million dollars to entrepreneurs in developing countries. Here are some stats from the Kiva website:
Total value of all loans made through Kiva: $129,498,985
Number of Kiva Users who have funded a loan: 442,524
Number of entrepreneurs that have received a loan through Kiva: 330,313
Number of loans that have been funded through Kiva: 181,141
Percentage of Kiva loans which have been made to women entrepreneurs: 82.29%
Current repayment rate (all partners): 98.47%
Average loan size: $395.59
I don't know if a gift for my family really counts, but since there are no strict rules for the gift-giving challenge, I'm going to call our Easter activities my gift for the day. I helped the Easter Bunny with some ideas for just what the kids would want in their baskets, and he hid eggs everywhere! I have personally eaten enough candy to cancel out my next 15 Zumba classes.
A few days ago Ben said that since I missed Thanksgiving (I had the flu) we should have a big Easter dinner and invite a bunch of people over. Because I always say yes to everything, I initially agreed, but the more I thought about it I just didn't see how I could handle it along with everything else. As of yesterday afternoon we hadn't planned, shopped, or invited anyone, so I went online to see where we could go out for brunch/lunch/dinner.
I was lucky to grab some of the last tickets for a lunch cruise on the Spirit of Boston. It was GREAT! The food was typical banquet food, but it was such a GORGEOUS day and it was a really nice ride around Boston Harbor. The Easter Bunny came along too, and Norah got over her fear of furry creatures with giant heads and by the end of the cruise she wouldn't stop hugging him. That exposure therapy really works! They had goody bags, egg dipping, and an ice cream bar for the kids. There were definitely times that I wished I was alone in my room at the asylum with a ham and scalloped potato TV dinner, but the DJ was loud enough to drown out the kids' bickering for the most part.
Everyone came home and took a nap...a great day all around. I find it vaguely disturbing that the three photos from Easter morning where the kids look the most excited are the ones with the $1 bills, but I guess it could be worse. I heard Adlani say to Norah the other day, "You can't buy ANYTHING with a dollar!" He has probably pocketed all 3 dollars by now...halfway to a new Bakugan!!
In case you're just tuning in, I'm working on a challenge that entails giving a gift each day for 29 days. Today is Day 11. Read on to see what my gift for today was, and why my husband and son are virtually bald...
I found out this week that one of my oldest (in years of friendship, not age) and dearest friends has Leukemia. She's a young, vibrant, healthy, beautiful mother of two boys, and she's attacking cancer head-on. I know that her strength, positive attitude, sense of humor, and all of the people who love her will see her through, but the treatment will be extremely tough.
My gift today was to assemble a care package to send to her. I can't say what's in it in case she's reading this post, but Ben and Adlani decided to get into the act and help out too:
My gift today was a donation to the Massachusetts Audubon Society. We took advantage of the beautiful weather and the Good Friday holiday to spend the afternoon at Drumlin Farm, a trip that has become an annual pilgrimage to commemorate the beginning of the beautiful spring weather.
It was a little muddy, and there were quite a few detours on the way because of the flooding, but we had a great time and enjoyed the gorgeous afternoon. The kids were exhausted afterward, so we took a driveway nap - one of my favorite pastimes when the kids were babies. I'd drive them around until they fell asleep, then I'd go through the drive-thru at Dairy Queen, drive home and sit in the driveway eating my ice cream and reading a book. When I got tired out I'd put the seat back and zonk out. That's what I did at about 5 p.m today, minus the ice cream. Ahhhhhh.....
Here are some photos from this afternoon...lots of signs of spring:
I just found out that the woman who wrote this comment about me on Facebook is running as a write-in candidate for school committee.
"Lori, I think you should get the facts about the 2 way program before you assume it is being used as a punching bag. For the English speaking kids it's a great program but How long do you think your children should ride on the backs of all the latino kids in this community. A program is suppose to work for everyone not just the white middle class. I understand after 6 months your child was speaking spanish and you were so excited but were the latino kids in your child's class speaking English in 6 months. If your biggest issue is a bus ride you should be thrilled..what happens to these spanish speaking kids after your child moves on fluent in spanish? do you even care? You should because if it wasn't for them your child wouldn't have this program."
If you live in the 'Ham, please vote on April 13th. The three school committee members who are up for re-election are running unopposed, so if people decide not to vote because there's no point, a write-in candidate could actually win. If your kids are in the Two-Way program...a person who spreads these misconceptions about the program (not to mention unfounded lies and assumptions about me) is not the best choice for school committee. Just my opinion...vote as you see fit, but VOTE! .
Today I gave a gift, but since I got something in return, it hardly feels like I gave. That happens a lot with gifts...you put some good karma out there and you get something back. I bought 5 tickets to a fundraiser for breast cancer, but in return I get to enjoy a morning with my daughters and friends at the American Girl Store. That was painless!
My friend Sharon and her friend Kymm are walking in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer on May 15th-16th. This is a walk of up to 39 miles to raise money for cancer screening, support, treatment, and research. They're holding a fundraiser at the American Girl Store in Natick on Sunday, April 11th. Tickets are $25 and you can read all about the event here. To RSVP or request tickets, email teamdoublepink@gmail.com.
Check out Team Double Pink's site if you can't attend the fundraiser but would like to make a donation. Here's more about the walk:
So I sat down with my delicious dinner and a glass of Naked Chardonnay (Trader Joe's - YUM - and no annoying cork to deal with so fast and easy access), all ready to talk about how everyone's day went and whether they were excited about going to the Big Apple Circus tomorrow. What followed was a fairly rapid escalation into a situation that came close to requiring medical intervention, since I thought I was going to burst a blood vessel somewhere. I think I may need to invest in an AED if we're going to sit at the table for dinner. 
After I carried him upstairs for the third time I was in serious fight-or-flight mode, and I picked up my plate and my wine, grabbed a book, and ate dinner in my car in the driveway. When I calmed down and came inside, I went straight to bed to sleep off the post-traumatic stress (Adlani did too). I woke up at 10:30 p.m. and here I am. 
Time flies when you're giving gifts, I guess. I can't believe I only have 6 more days in the challenge!
Here's a photo of Aliya and her project at iNight - the aforementioned school event. It's an event where all of the Sage (gifted program) projects for the whole school district are displayed. It was a mob scene but Aliya got some ideas for next year and I got a chance to talk to a few of my pals. Plus I got a good door photo which I think is starting to embarrass Aliya. Oh well. It keeps a roof over our heads and chicken nuggets on the table.
My gift today was two complete carloads of stuff for the elementary school yard sale. The yard sale is this Saturday, so if you're in the area, go over and buy some stuff! This is an important fundraiser for our school, and it benefits the PTO as well as giving us a good excuse to clean out our closets. I'm hoping to dig around a bit more and find a few last-minute donations to drop off tomorrow. 
Anyway...I have a niece arriving sometime in June, and I made a website for her and everyone who's awaiting her arrival.
