Challenge the lying "Deficit Weenies"

READ THIS ARTICLE NOW and spread the word each and every time you hear
that ridiculous argument about the deficit.

Why I Love Our School!

Last night we went to Emmett's 3rd grade classroom for the celebration of the kid's service projects. Each student had to somehow make the world a better place and there were so many great projects. Really wonderful. (Check out this video by Bidane !!!)
But then to top it all off they decided, with the inspirational direction of Merrill and Dmitry and help from Allison Bell, to make their "project completion party" into another service project.
For $10 each of us received a handmade pottery bowl made by the kids, classroom made vegetable soup and salad (lettuce, radishes and herbs picked that morning from the school garden) and fresh bread AND then delicious apple bars (made by Cindy, Dmitry's wife) with apples picked by the kids on the field trip they went on last week.
And all the proceeds go to Food Not Bombs.
Wow.
It was a delicious meal...and one the kids deserved more than any other as they grew it, nurtured it, and put thought and love into it.
There were over 100 people there!
It felt like thanksgiving to me.
It was just awesome.
These kids get the best here...they just do.

Time Out Kids New York!

Hurray, we made it to a top ten list for best family CD's of 2009.
Our awesome competition is Recess Monkey, Lunch Money and Billy Kelly-all really great!
So we are really proud.
Read about us here and, friends, if you like the CD too...don't forget to pass it along to other
families who you think would dig it!
Thanks everybody and Hurray!

The Goddess of the Hunt

Tally: 8 mice in 3 days!
Most definitely the Artemis we were looking for to
solve our rodent problem in a circle of life kind of way.
Zarina is bad ass.

pots, vegetable soup, kids, matt laughing really hard...

...things I love.

Remember this song from Sesame Street?

Mac loved it. Emmett loved it. And now Silas IS it!!!!

I just can't believe it.

I really thought Maine was going to lead the way by legalizing Gay Marriage.
Here's a quick article at Huffington Post called "The Power of Fear and the Obligation of Hope"
I know the pendulum is supposed to swing back and forth and all that
but it seems the arc is shorter than ever...so the opposition doesn't have to
work as hard to keep up this momentum of gloom and fear. 6 months for HOPE swings to negativity in 3 months. And this manifests itself in all sorts of ways. I believe this vote against gay marriage is one of those ways, unfortunately. If employment were on the upswing I bet this would have gone down differently.

One year ago when the world economy truly was a nightmare Obama was elected. And we heard over and over from both sides that it would be a long haul to merely slow our decline! I worried that no one would be taking pottery classes or music lessons or buying antiques or art going out to eat or to movies for sure. I actually thought it would go much further than that...I thought most people would be in soup lines. Really.
So now it feels like a recession. A bad one. But not a depression like we were all afraid of...
I know the economy is bad but it's no where near as bad as expected after only a year. I still do think that in 4-6 years there would be a full recovery as was the projected estimate but I thought that everyone was on board with this. I thought everyone knew this was going to take a lot of time and patience. Sure I figured in the FOX factor distorting this reality once Obama was in office but I really never expected such resistance to change after the overwhelming majority of the country voted for it! I never thought the support would dwindle so quickly.

Are we really already swinging back to fear and racism and self-preservation over long term good so soon?
I know the economy and gay marriage are two completely different issues and I am mixing my metaphors here. But I have this overwhelming feeling that nothing positive can happen without some YES action.
I all I hear is NO from the conservatives...and it's spreading. Sadly it seems nothing will change unless Obama plays dirty and alters his course in a way I do not approve of. He would have to go the way of all slimy politicians and do what Bush did to approve the tax cuts...sneak little bits of legislation in other bills.
He could perhaps hide some healthcare tidbit in a bill about Christmas Singing in Schools so the Republicans would have to vote for it. Or maybe slip in something about assault weapons in a bill about teaching 6 year olds to shoot.
Because everything is shot down at this point if it's perceived to be liberal. In this case, it's gay marriage.
Crap.

Someone to Help

Check out the website weloveyouberyl.com

Two videos: One Crazy, One Kooky

Volleyball

Mac's SDCCS volleyball team (yet to be named) won 2 out of 3 games at their
first tournament. It was sooooooo fun to watch her play even for ME who really
dislikes completitive anything and tends to feel really sad for the losing teams.
But in this case everyone from every team was so enthusiastic and supportive,
high fiving all over the place...I loved it and didn't wince once!
Mac has a killer serve, by the way!

Halloweenish

So this year like every year we have multiple Halloween events which gives us all the opportunity wear our costumes until we are sick of them...even Silas who has been Buzz everyday since his birthday decided to be Flash to trick-or-treat. Mac who is always at least two things over the course of the Halloween festivities was a bee and a mime.

Sooooo, here we are... before the preschool party, at the SDCCS halloween carnival and trick-or-treating with the gang.(In no particular order;)

I just had to post some of the shots of the costumes from school. Once again, the teachers give it their all!
I can't tell what I love more...the "care bear" or the "gorilla" or "Pigs in A Blanket" or "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" or the "sweetest little owlet" or "Andy Warhol" or "the humongous winged girl ". But Mac's mime is ridiculously good and Emmett's dead crazy rocker dude is truly creepy (and rockin') and Buzz/Flash, well, just look at him!

Who knew ?

Well, I suppose a lot of people knew...but it's
NEW to me and hurray its de-lish!!
Go out right now and buy Quorn Roast (Fake) Turkey.
Bake it the way they say, in an oven bag with
olive oil and herbs brushed over it. Then eat it.
Too crazy delicious. I can't believe it really.
(Meg, this must be the brand they have at Sips...)

doing the natural candy thing this year for halloween

I suppose it's about time!
found this great website that has some good options for packages of free-trade, no sweatshop, vegan chocolate, natural lollypops and glee gum (love that stuff!)
Check it out. The Natural Candy Store. I ordered regular mail today and hopefully it will be here on time...probably shoulda done the 3 day option....

two things to make you smile

The public option option!

(thank you for growing a set Harry Reid)

AND Matt at the pre-school Halloween party.
And in the car his "Operation" belly was so big he couldn't wear a seat belt!

This just kills me.

Review of WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE by Emmett, Age 8

I (Emmett) have a child's eye view of where the wild things are. This movie is certainly not aimed for kids laughter and pleasure. It's about a kids feelings. The wild things are the main character and max and his family. Carol the main wild thing who welcomes max into the land of the wild things, he represents max and how he just wants everyone to just be together. This movie will win the academy awards for best kids film. Well I say that is so wrong. This is not a kids film it is an adult movie about kids problems that kids will sometimes enjoy. From a child perspective (A child that likes stupid potty humor) will be bored throughout the movie and give it a 3 out of ten; a child that enjoys sharp and witty jokes and understands the depth in a movie will give it a 7 and 1/2 like myself. I don't seriously have a favorite scene i just like the process of max's brain. It is an adults movie for kids.

peace

out

and

oh whatever

...emmett

So Many Things to Love about "Where the Wild Things Are".

1. The screenplay is by the guy who wrote "Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius", Dave Eggers (I highly recommend that book!)
2. The sculptures made by the wild thing, Carol, look like they are inspired by Andy Goldsworthy! And what's not to love about that.
3. There is a scene where everyone jumps together in a big heap and wrestles around and falls asleep, the essence of snuggly-family-safe-love.
4.The soundtrack is part of this movie, not just behind it.
5.On the way home Emmett says, "so Max's feelings are the wild things" (whoa, E can be heavy!) and I said, "yes, every character was Max and all the people in his life I think" and then we decided that Max ran away from home for a time and "met" his emotions and observed them interact with one another and he befriended them even when they scared him...and then he went home to where he was safe.

What a great book AND movie. I cried my face off, of course, and Emmett patted my hand throughout.

I think that I will never read this book in the same way as before seeing the movie and that is a little sad. I had always thought of it as the tantrum journey of a younger child...fiercer and faster and with less to analyze. The movie did not tell the complete story or the only truth of what the book could be with it's mere 10 sentences. If anything it showed us way more since it's intended audience seems to be adults....But, I also think it told a truth...and that's about as good as a movie based on a book can be.

It was so fun taking Emmett to this movie, just us. I think this may be a first. Mac was at Magic Mountain with friends and Silas was sleeping with Papa after a morning with Nana at the zoo.
Our plan was to go to lunch and a movie and pretend we were restaurant/movie critics/appreciaters (looking for the good in both). I had heard so many critical things about the movie I really had no idea if E would like it.
I also wanted Emmett to experience Jhoti Bihanga, the restaurant that serves the world most delicous "neatloaf" and mash potatoes with mushroom gravy and carrot cake...but it was closed... so we ate at a japanese place by the movie theatre while playing hangman (winning word, "spry"). Nothing was as we expected but completely delicious in everyway!


I give the whole date 4 stars and two thumbs up.
(Emmett's review to follow!)

Chess.

Thanks to Dmitry and Merrill, (the worlds best 3rd grade teachers),
Chess has made a comeback in our house. We dabbled in it for a while when
Mac was in Allison Bell's 2nd grade class. Mac and Emmett played a lot for 6 months or so
but now it's getting serious!

Well, tonight while speeding from one room to the next I just happened to snap this
picture...and it turned out to be the very very first time Emmett beat Matt.
For real, no taking it easy.
Great moment for him. (He beat me long, long ago!)
He wonders now if he will EVER beat Dmitry???

Inspiration: Collaboration

Caline sent this delicate and beautiful book to me. For me to work on as our first collaborative project. It was tied together with string so it could fold like an accordian... with the life of a bird depicted on front of each page...the back side left blank.

Also included in this envelope, a small doodle/drawing, made by ME, from August 9th, probably 1987. (It reminds me of Caline, this drawing I made long ago.)
And putting two and two together I felt that maybe I should simply be drawing on the back side of each of her pages, fold the book back up and then send it back. Collaboration complete.

But that's just not what happened.

It became clear that I was wanting to incoporate other things. I even made some stamped things out of clay that I thought I would susupend from the book. (I will be sending these to you, Caline, for our next collaboration if you're up for it....since I don't know how I could send this to you without it getting destroyed...)

Anyway, the thought of hanging things from this bird book got me started collecting twigs with Silas, then discussing "balance" with Emmett and thinking about "color" with Mac.

And then we wished we had a perfectly empty (but not white) room to look at it in with
the sun shining in on it so we could watch the spinning shadow on the wall.

The bird book is alive in our house now!
Twig, Breeze, Balance.




Thank YOU Caline!

Almost as Tall as her Mama!

It's true!

Winter Garden looks like Spring...

...except the light is VERY different!

I have never planted winter vegetables at home...only at school.
I am very excited
malibar spinach, broccoli, radishes, lettuce, beets, winter squash, collard greens, scallions, late season tomatoes, chard, russet potatoes, fava beans, snap peas...as well as more nasturtiums and sweet potatoes around the compost pile!
But the light is so soft and shaded and dappled that it just doesn't seem like there's going to be enough sun. And it hasn't even started raining yet!

!