Wednesdays with The Subversive Children's Book Club: Hispanic Heritage

To honor Hispanic Heritage Month one more time this month, this edition of the Subversive Children's Book Club features books about people and events in Hispanic history and culture.  Enjoy!

• Harvest of Hope:  The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull
• Dolores Huerta:  A Hero To Migrant Workers by Sarah Warren
• Side by Side/Lado a Lado: The Story of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez by Monica Brown
• Si, Se Puede!/Yes, We Can!: Janitor Strike in L.A. by Diana Cohn 
• Separate is Never Equal:  Sylvia Mendez and her family's fight for desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh
• Tomas and The Library Lady by Pat Mora
• Frida by Jonah Winter
• Diego by Jonah Winter
• Sonia Sotomayor:  A Judge Grows in The Bronx by Jonah Winter.

Go Pink or Go Home: We Support Planned Parenthood

The Lone Star Ma Blog is pink today to show our support of funding for Planned Parenthood.  Planned Parenthood provides vital health care and cancer screening for thousands of Americans, men and women, too.   You cannot pull out a major health care provider's funding because you disapprove of something else they do that the government does not fund at all without grievous consequences for the people who depend upon its health care funding.

Congress has threatened to shut down the government rather than pass a budget that includes funding that might go to Planned Parenthood.  None of this funding is used for abortions. Tell your Congressperson that you support Planned Parenthood, Mamas! Women need access to reproductive health care and screenings.

MARSMARSMARSMARSMARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is liquid water on Mars!!!!!!!!!!  The stage is set!  Microbial Martians!  Neighbors!!!!!!

44

Double digits.  That's me.

Boehner's Resignation

I find it very disturbing that Congress is chuck full of Republicans who thought this man was not conservative enough.

These are scary times, Mamas.

Yankees

It troubles me when people in states that do not border Mexico write about things like guacamole and burritos because what they say is usually such, such travesty.

Sorry, but it is.

National Voter Registration Day!

Today is National Voter Registration Day, Mamas!  Get out the word to get out the vote!  We cannot enact policies that create a caring nation, state and community for our children if we do not vote!

If you are not registered to vote, go down to your county clerk's office and do so today!  

If you have moved and need to change your voter registration to another county, go down to the county clerk's office and do so today!  

Spread the word to other people to get registered to vote!

Everyone needs to be registered!!!!

International Day of Peace

Pray for peace.

Happy Autumn Equinox!

Now it is time for apples and pumpkins and other squash. Time for growing tomatoes and peppers. Maybe time for a sweater eventually, but let's not go too crazy.  Happy Autumn!

Bridging - A Junior Girl Scout No More

  
Today our Girl Scout Troop, after trying for some time to get everyone's schedules together, had our long-delayed Bridging Ceremony. The Lone Star Baby, with several other of our girls, bridged to Cadette Girl Scouts and received her silver key, which means she is - sniff! - an "older girl" now.

  
The girls are currently swimming in their new vests because these vests get worn throughout Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors and a girl does a lot of growing in seven years.

  
She also received her Bronze Award, the highest award a Junior Girl Scout can earn, and which I had been holding onto until the ceremony, for the project she and two other girls in the troop did last year.  They researched, developed and put on a Community Service Fair at the Library to teach kids lots of different ways they can volunteer to help their community in different ways.

  
I used to call this troop my "Little Girl Troop", when I still had the Lone Star Girl's "Big Girl Troop", but now these girls are growing up so fast!  I am so proud of them!

Flu Shot Mama

The Lone Star Family all have gotten their annual flu shot.  You go get yours, too. Quadrivalent, preferably, for also covering that sneaky late spring/early summer B strain.

Happy Constitution Day!

We the people!  That's us!  Remember, Mamas!

Speaking of Racists....

Most people have heard by now about the bright fourteen-year-old boy who invented a clock, took it to school to show to his engineering teacher, and then got arrested because his racist school and the racist police department in Irving, Texas thought it might be a bomb (maybe their bomb squad needs some more training?).  That people are still targeting Muslims with all of this nonsense is so horrible.  I am so glad that the President and people like FaceBook CEO Mark Zuckerberg have stood up to encourage this child before he completely loses all love of learning.  It was so sad to me to hear his school and school district officials defending their actions instead of thinking about him.

GOP Debates, Round Two

I got home really late last night and did not end up watching much of the Republican debate, but I saw a little and I think those Republicans had some nerve talking like that on Diez y Seis, or at all, of course. Ick. Bunch of racists.

Feliz Diez y Seis de Septiembre!

I'm not celebrating the war, of course, but I certainly understand the sentiment, even if I do not agree with violent means of revolution.  There definitely still seem to be a few things left to yell about, though....

Wednesdays with The Subversive Children's Book Club: Hispanic Heritage Month

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, this installment of the Subversive Children's Book Club spotlights books about Hispanic characters for older kids and teens.  Enjoy!

Upper Elementary and YA:

• Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez
• The Tequila Worm by Viola Canales
• Taking Sides by Gary Soto
• Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
• Ask My Mood Ring by Diana Lopez
• Trino's Choice by Diane Gonzales Bertrand
• Finding Miracles by Julia Alvarez
• The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
• Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of The Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Red Tide

Boo. 

"Algal bloom"sounds all poetic but it's not.

Kernel by Kernel

The Boy Scouts are out and about selling their (over-priced, not nearly as good as cookies) popcorn these days.  Go and buy some, please.  That is what I did (even though I need to give it away now because it is cross-contaminated with tree nuts, a thing not welcome in our home, but that's not their fault) on Saturday.

I bought a bag of the popcorn from a sweet little Cub Scout and then found his leader and told her:  I never would buy anything from the Boy Scouts before, but now that you have decided to stop discriminating against people, I will.

She heard me.  You go buy something from them, too, Mamas, and let them know why you will now.  This is how people learn.

Water or Bust: Basic Services Are A Must

On Friday night, one of my Girl Scouts asked for a drink of water.  I nodded my head to the paper cups I keep for their use since, as they grow, we are more and more into them being able to do things for themselves, and I told her she knew where the cups were, to let her know to go ahead.  As she turned the faucet on, another girl said "what about the water thing?" and I told her our neighborhood was not included in the advisory, and we continued on with our whole courage, confidence and character thing that we do.

I thought about it later, though.  

I have not been greatly inconvenienced by this boil water advisory since my neighborhood is not part of it but I was greatly inconvenienced by the summer one  that only lasted a couple of days.  

This one has been going on for over a week now.

The people who live in the affected neighborhoods and the businesses in them must be struggling a great deal.  I feel guilty for getting so busy that I have not been making an adequate fuss about it.  This is ridiculous. We need to get completely rid of the real estate cabal that is "governing" our city and replace them with folks who will make sure our citizens have basic services.  

Every single permit for the construction of new neighborhoods and business zones needs to be denied until the city is ensuring proper services to the neighborhoods that already exist.  Water first.  Proper sewage and storm water systems.  Safely maintained streets.  Public safety.  Parks and recreational opportunities as well.  Arts, culture.  If the Council cannot afford to take care of "Old Corpus", they should not be allowed to profit from "New Corpus". 

People need to hold them accountable at the polls.  I know I will.

Wednesdays with The Subversive Children's Book Club: Labor Organizing

In honor of Labor Day on Monday, this installment of Wednesdays with The Subversive Children's Book Club features, for a second time, books about labor organizing.  Solidarity forever!

• Harvest of Hope:  The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull
• Dolores Huerta:  A Hero To Migrant Workers by Sarah Warren
• Side by Side/Lado a Lado: The Story of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez by Monica Brown
• Si, Se Puede!/Yes, We Can!: Janitor Strike in L.A. by Diana Cohn
• Click Clack Moo:  Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin
• Woody Guthrie:  Poet of The People by Bonnie Christensen
• Mother Jones and The March of The Mill Children by Penny Colman

Childcare Centers Harassing Nursing Mothers?

I have heard some internet grumbling among some young moms in Weslaco whose childcare centers have tried to pressure them to start bringing formula for their babies instead of breastfeeding them.  The moms have said that the centers used phrases like "it isn't appropriate at his age" to shame them into bringing formula, while mentioning that they really think the childcare centers just want to be able to make the same bottles for all the babies and not have to trouble with breastmilk.

This is horrible.  

It is also illegal.

I remember how hard to was to keep providing breastmilk for my babies when they were in childcare.  It was mainly hard because pumping just is hard, but the ignorance and occasional attitudes of childcare workers certainly did not help.

I can remember a childcare center requiring me to bring a note from a doctor that my exclusively breastfed daughter's stools were normal and not diarrhea because they were ignorant about what exclusively breastfed babies' stools looked like - which cost me time off work and having to pay for a doctor visit to get the note.  I can remember a childcare center requiring me to provide documentation to back up how long I had told them breastmilk could be kept in the freezer and refrigerator respectively, because they did not know themselves and apparently felt the need to question me.   I remember a childcare center trying (unsuccessfully) to get me to nurse my baby in a separate room so that other parents and babies did not have to see us. I remember the constant struggle to get the childcare staff to feed the baby on demand rather than on a schedule that bore no relationship to when she was hungry and which wasted precious milk.

It wasn't easy.

Childcare workers really need to be trained better about breastfeeding.

I never had staff dare to try to pressure me to stop, though.  If they had, they would have quickly had trouble with childcare licensing.  If your childcare center ever does that to you, please call childcare licensing and make a complaint immediately.  Childcare centers who find it too inconvenient to provide the infants in their care with the protection of their mothers' milk need to be shut down. No excuses.

Happy Labor Day!

Weekends, people.  Remember the weekends. Unions rock.

Happy Birthday, Mama Jane!

Happy Birthday, Jane Addams!

Jane Addams, a founding mother of the social work profession, was born on September 6th, 1860. She co-founded Hull House, advocated for equality for all, an end to poverty, increased public health, an end to child labor and for peace - she was sometimes called "the most dangerous woman in America".

We should all follow her fine example.