Monday, April 30, 2012

Semana Del Nino

Our little ones are our treasure.

New Column!

Please read my new column on We the People News!

It's a lot bossier than my parenting columns usually are - I am not much one for thinking that there is only one way to do things and that people should follow my sage advice.  On this topic, though, I have just seen so many kids hurting lately, that it all poured out.

Thoughts?

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Birthday Box Service Project

Today the Brownie Girl Scout Troop and the Lone Star Girl joined other Girl Scouts in our Service Unit for a Birthday Box tour.  Troops in our service unit had made birthday boxes for local agencies where children may be taking shelter on their birthdays .  In each box, we packed cake mix, icing,  a tablecloth, paper plates and napkins, plastic ware, party favors and a wrapped gift.  Our Brownie Troop made two boxes for the 5-8 age group, since they could relate.  These boxes were made so that the agencies would have an almost-instant birthday party in a box available in case a child was staying there on her/his birthday.

We delivered the boxes to our local Ronald McDonald House, the Women's Shelter and the Salvation Army.  At each agency, staff explained their missions to the girls.  I think the girls got a lot out of it.

You could tell, though, that already the Brownies had a sort of super-charged, uncomfortable awareness at the Women's Shelter - young as they are.  Some things women know in their bones from so, so young.

De-Lurking Comment Contest!

Things are getting kind of lonely on the blog, here, people.  I know you are coming to read it because of the site meter, but I am not seeing the comments that make this feel like a community interaction.

Please de-lurk and talk to me, folks.  I miss you.


To encourage this, I am starting a contest this week.  Everyone who comments substantively (spam and "I'm commenting" sorts of comments don't count) on this post or anything else I post through Saturday will have their screen name written on a tiny piece of paper which will be put into a hat.  A child will draw a name from that hat and that person will be our winner!  (We are high-tech over here.)


The winner (if they message me their mailing info. after I announce their winning) will receive a slightly-used copy of Loose Woman by Sandra Cisneros.  Ms. Cisneros lives in San Antonio, Texas and is one of my favorite writers.  My favorite poem in this collection is Las Girlfriends on p. 105.

 

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Unhacked

The e-mail problem is all better now! 

Open letter to the hacker who messed it up for awhile:

Dude - I'm a forty-year-old history teacher and mom who is only slightly computer-literate and who lives paycheck to paycheck.  Get a life.  You can find more interesting people to mess with - I promise.  May I suggest the Koch brothers?  


Sincerely,
Lone Star Ma

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Dulce - Card Game Edition

I just found out that Lone Star Pa and the Lone Star Baby sometimes play baloney while waiting for her violin lesson to start.


How sweet is that?

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Sweet Gaps

If the Lone Star Baby had a street name, I totally think it would be Baby Teeth. 

While our dentist insists that she is completely within the range of normal here, I have never known any other kid who held on to those little pearls for so long.  She was the only kid in kindergarten who had not lost any teeth and in first grade, she only lost one.  She has now, at seven and a half,  lost a total of four.

The most recent, this week, was one of her two front teeth and the other one is soon to follow. 

The little gap makes her look sooooo cute...soooo...six!  Almost like getting her younger self back for a sweet little gap of time!

The Evil Empire Expands

Nestle, World Violator-Extraordinaire of the World Health Organization's Code on the Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes (read:  Big Giant Corporate Baby-Killer),  has announced its plan to buy the infant-nutrition unit of Pfizer, which includes infant formula brands SMA and Promil.  (Nestle already owns Gerber, by the way.)  This acquisition is being made to increase Nestle's footprint in China.  Western culture is such a gift, is it not?  I'm sure the Chinese babies will appreciate it.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Saturday, April 21, 2012

My E-mail Has Been Hacked/Weekend of Overwhelmedness

If you have gotten weirdo messages from me, they were not me.  My e-mail has been hacked.  I am trying to fix it but I think that those of you who I e-mail have probably already had me blocked by your spam filters so you might want to unblock me.

Also, there were lot of events I wanted/needed to get to this weekend - the Earth Day celebration, the strango-chango-because-we-haven't-had-our-primary-yet Democratic Convention...those in particular, and a lot of others.  

There is just too much to do here, though.

I am going to have to stick with fixing hearth and home, being with family,  and Brownies.  Sorry.


Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Equal Pay Day 2012

Today, April 17th, is the day that symbolizes how far into 2012 that women must work to earn the pay that men earned in 2011.  In Texas, women earn eighty cents for every dollar that men earn - a median income of $33,689 for women working full-time compared to a median income of $42,044 for men who work full-time.  The wage gap is even worse for women of color.

Nationally, women earn seventy-seven cents for every dollar earned by men.

President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act  into law in 2009 and has promoted it as one of the key accomplishments of his presidency.  Only 8 Republicans in the House and Senate combined voted in favor of the law.  Mitt Romney refuses to say whether or not he, as president,  would have signed it.

Monday, April 16, 2012

The Horror, The Horror

The Lone Star Baby and her sister have finished their doses of Tamiflu and now there are just a few more days of Augmentin for the Lone Star Baby. 

Do you know that her teachers have only good things to say about her behavior?

At medicine time, you could buy this seven-year-old cheap for all of me.  

Oooooh, the wailing.  Oooooh, the gagging.  Ooooh, the thirty minutes that it takes to down 3/4 of a teaspoon.

(help)

(please)

Open Beaches

It looks like the treasured Texas right to open beaches is being chipped away at most nefariously.   Until March 30th, the law of the land was that beaches are public and no one can own them or keep the public from them.  For these purposes, it counts as "beach" if it falls between the vegetation/dune line and the water. 

The problem comes in with the fact that the vegetation/dune line is not static.  Beach erosion is an unfortunate reality and, gradually, over the years, that line changes.  Sometimes, due to a storm, it changes quite suddenly and dramatically.  This is a risk you take if you buy land close to the beach and you know you are taking it -  the right of the public to the beach access wins every time.  If you gamble on Mother Nature and lose, you are out of your property. 

At least that is the way it was.

Now, the Texas Supreme Court has sided with gambling property owners over the public and has decided that if the line changes suddenly, you get to keep your property.  The public is out of luck.

I think this is a travesty.  All developers have to do is buy up land that abuts the vegetation line and wait for weather, and soon they will own the beaches.  This is not cool.

What can we do to protect our Texas heritage of open beaches?

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Swim Banquet

We went to the swim banquet for the Lone Star Girl's swim team tonight.  She has earned her letter so we will be ordering her letter man (letter woman?) jacket.  We are so proud of her.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Good-Bye, Senator Truan

Thank you for all your years of service to Texas.  You will be missed.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The Bugs of Springtime

So...back from the pediatrician's office and I am glad we went promptly.  Both girls have flu (hopefully a relatively mild case since they got their shots) and the Lone Star Baby, who never gets sick,  also has strep. 

Sigh. 

Augmentin and Tamiflu have been acquired.  Lone Star Pa takes tomorrow's sick day shift.  Don't let us breathe on you.

New Column

Please read my new column on We the People news! 

Shaping Up To Be A Rough Week

My mother-in-law is in the hospital and Lone Star Pa is worried sick, but doesn't seem comfortable heading north to be there.

Both girls are home sick today with mucous and coughs and headaches and fevers and I am home with them although I am also powerfully worried about my students at school as it looks like no sub picked up my job, so I am sure it's a scramble there  (and I already have to be out Friday anyways for a long-scheduled doctor appointment for the Girl that cannot be missed).

The doctor is fitting us in this afternoon.

My normally unwashed youngest just asked to take a shower which is so totally out of character that I think she may need more acetaminophen.

My foot still hurts.

That sort of week.

Monday, April 09, 2012

Mariposa Concern

I have only started seeing monarch butterflies around in the last month or so - not too many but you notice even a few, they are so gorgeous.  Usually, they migrate through here in a brilliant tapestry in October or so, on their way to Mexico.  There is usually a day where they are absolutely everywhere - a flutterby wonderland.  I didn't see that this year at all.  What's the deal?

Sunday, April 08, 2012

Recently Read And Enjoyed by Lone Star Ma

  • Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu .... modern re-telling of The Snow Queen.
  • Partials by Dan Wells ... YA future dystopia about genetically engineered soldiers run amok and a deadly virus... even the Girl liked it and she's very demanding of her biologically themed sci-fi.
  • The Thirteenth Child and Beyond The Great Barrier by Patricia C. Wrede ... really excellent YA fantasy - sort of like steam punk if it was set in the old American West instead of Victorian England and if it used magic instead of technology - very interesting premise - I highly recommend these.
  •  The Wisdom of The Radish (and other lessons learned on a small farm) by Lynda Hopkins ...excellent memoir about starting a small organic farm - I may not agree with her about chickens and turkeys, but I loved this book.

Saturday, April 07, 2012

Boot

My foot hurts.  Like a lot.  The arch-ish area of my right foot.  Only when I walk on it.  I do remember this vaguely starting a couple of weekends ago and thinking "ouch", but it went away.  Yesterday evening, it started hurting bad, making it very painful to walk.  Knowing my rather freakishly high pain tolerance, I might suspect that I broke it a couple of weeks ago and have now Made It Worse...but I suspect I would remember what actually broke it if that were the case.  So it must just be some lovely muscle-y thing.  I am wearing the Girl's Boot.

Last Sunday At The Girl Scouts of Greater South Texas Centennial Bash - Breaking Camp and Scout's Own

























Last Saturday At The Girl Scouts Of Greater South Texas Centennial Bash - Dinner, Sing-A-Long, S'Mores, Camping










Last Saturday At The Girl Scouts of Greater South Texas Centennial Bash - Girl Scouting Through The Years