Happy Easter!

Love and Light and Springtime to you all!

Happy Spring!

Get outside and enjoy every minute of it!

Hey, Senate - Do Your Job!

Vote to confirm or not confirm the (elected) President's Supreme Court appointee. I mean, based on that appointee's merits. You know - your job.

Wednesdays with The Subversive Children's Book Club: Strong Girl Characters

In honor of Women's History Month, this installment of the Subversive Children's Book Club features fiction books with strong girl characters.  Enjoy!

Primary and Lower Elementary:

• A Chair for My Mother by Vera Williams
• Madeline By Ludwig Bemelmans
• Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
• Mirette on The High Wire by Emily Arnold McCully
• Chester's Way by Kevin Henkes
• Just Us Women by Jeannette Caines
• Rumplestiltskin's Daughter by Diane Stanley
• The Ramona Books By Beverly Cleary
• Tatterhood and the Hobgoblins Retold by Lauren Mills
• Little Women By Louisa May Alcott
• The Anne of Green Gables Books By L.M. Montgomery
• Seven Brave Women by Betsy Hearne 

Upper Elementary and Teen:

• The Tequila Worm By Viola Canales
• The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by  Jacqueline Kelley
• Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt
• The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
• Sugar by Jewell Parker Rhodes
• One Crazy Summer & P.S. Be Eleven By Rita Williams-Garcia  
• Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes 
• The Betsy-Tacy Books By Maud Hart Lovelace (the later ones) 
• The Alice Books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor  
• Like Sisters on The Homefront by Rita Williams-Garcia
• The Highest Frontier by Joan Slonczewski.

SDG Mondays: Resilient Infrastructure

Hello!  Today we focus on the 9th of the United Nations' new sustainable development goals:

"Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation."

This goal has eight associated targets:

• " Develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including regional and transborder infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all

• Promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and, by 2030, significantly raise industry’s share of employment and gross domestic product, in line with national circumstances, and double its share in least developed countries

• Increase the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, in particular in developing countries, to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value chains and markets

• By 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes, with all countries taking action in accordance with their respective capabilities

• Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and substantially increasing the number of research and development workers per 1 million people and public and private research and development spending

• Facilitate sustainable and resilient infrastructure development in developing countries through enhanced financial, technological and technical support to African countries, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States 18
• Support domestic technology development, research and innovation in developing countries, including by ensuring a conducive policy environment for, inter alia, industrial diversification and value addition to commodities

• Significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020"

What do you think of this goal and its associated targets?

What can you do to help reach this goal?

I intend to keep voting for candidates and policies that support sustainable energy infrastructures and decent wages for workers.

Sunshine Days!!!!!

While no mama likes to lose an hour of sleep, there is always coffee and now we get SUNSHINE BACK!!!!!!  I really, really, really like the Spring and Summer when we get to have sunshine in the evenings!  I get happy!  I can go for walks after work!  I can drive home in the light!  It is woooonnnndddeeeeerrrfulllll!

Often, I hear people bemoaning the ridiculousness of Daylight Savings Time and saying we should just get rid of it, but I just looked it up and it is now, the sunshine-y days, that are Daylight Savings Time.  The dark, depressing days are not.  So, um....no.  We can never get rid of Daylight Savings Time.  Never.

Now that other time - standard time or whatever you call it, when it gets dark at 6pm....feel free to get rid of that mess.  I will happily embrace Daylight Savings Time all year long.  I am quite certain it would make me a happier, healthier person.  You must never take it away, though.  Never.

Sunshine forever!!!!!

In Like A Lion

March has been...wet. Fields like bays and medians like creeks.

You May Want To Avoid Austin on Friday

I hear they are having a visitor and expect the traffic to be really bad.  Think Austin traffic on a regular day and then try to imagine the sort of traffic that might cause them to offer a warning about it.  I'd be scared. (Also, their breakfast tacos are not very good.)

Wednesdays with The Subversive Children's Book Club: Women's History! (Herstory!)

In honor of Women's History Month, this installment of Wednesdays with The Subversive Children's Book Club features books about herstory, which we still do not learn enough of in our schools (still thanks to bodies like the Texas State Board of Education).  Teach it anyways.  Make it anyways.  Enjoy.


Books About Herstory for Kids

• Cool Women: The Thinking Girl’s Guide to the Hippest Women in History By Pam Nelson
• Rad American Women A-Z:  Trailblazers, and Visionaries who Shaped Our History...and Our Future! by Kate Schatz
• Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals
• The Ballot Box Battle By Emily Arnold McCully
• Dolores Huerta:  A Hero To Migrant Workers By Sarah E. Warren
• You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer By Shana Corey
• The Librarian of Basra  By Jeannette Winter
• Amelia and Eleanor Go For A Ride By Pam Munoz Ryan
• The Value of Friendship: The Story of Jane Addams By Ann Donegan Johnson
• Wangari's Trees of Peace By Jeannette Winter
• Rare Treasure: Mary Anning And Her Remarkable Discoveries By Don Brown
• Maria’s Comet By Deborah Hopkinson
• Almost Astronauts:  13 Women Who Dared To Dream By Tanya Lee Stone

Breakfast Taco Wars

Corpus Christi.  No contest.  Get a life, Austin.

Happy International Women's Day!

This year's theme is Pledge for Parity.  What can we do in our communities to promote gender parity? Pledge to take action - publish an article, campaign for equal pay, support women in the workforce, lead a Girl Scout Troop - there is so much you can do.

Please read this post of mine on the United Nations' SDG about gender equality...and take action.

 What will you do today for gender equality?

SDG Mondays: Economic Growth

Good Morning!  Today we focus on the 8th of the United Nations' new Sustainable Development Goals:

"Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all."

This goal has 12 associated targets:

• "Sustain per capita economic growth in accordance with national circumstances and, in particular, at least 7 per cent gross domestic product growth per annum in the least developed countries

• Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, including through a focus on high-value added and labour-intensive sectors

• Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services

• Improve progressively, through 2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavour to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, in accordance with the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production, with developed countries taking the lead

• By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value

• By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training

• Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms

• Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment

• By 2030, devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products

• Strengthen the capacity of domestic financial institutions to encourage and expand access to banking, insurance and financial services for all

• Increase Aid for Trade support for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, including through the Enhanced Integrated Framework for Trade-Related Technical Assistance to Least Developed Countries

• By 2020, develop and operationalize a global strategy for youth employment and implement the Global Jobs Pact of the International Labour Organization."

 What do you think of this goal and its associated targets?  

What can you do to help meet the targets? 

I think of continuing to support candidates who support labor unions and environmental sustainability and health insurance.

Super Tuesday - Vote!

If you have not already voted, Mamas, you have to vote today at your precinct's polling location.  Find it on your county's website.

Voting is our duty to our children.