Note to my newest reader...

and you know who you are, sitting in your office in Boston, on the taxpayers' dimes...

Don't worry--you're not going to find anything objectionable in here. Feel free to peruse (each click gives my blog more "google juice", so click away!) and even leave a comment if you're so inclined.

Oh, and thanks for visiting. By the way, the next time you are compelled to google my name (or, should I say bing my name)--why not just give me a call instead, and we can chat! I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

:)

November draws to a close

And I post so infrequently, it's a wonder that anyone out there even reads this thing anymore.

I have so much I want to do, and yet each day seems to slip between my fingers with little accomplished. At least what a person looking in would deem as little. I'm puttering, getting things done for the kids, or school, or my writing. I put in a few minutes here and there on a whim, but never any dedicated time to it.

With Christmas in a few weeks (and company coming) the reality is that I can't get into any kind of dedicated time schedule until after New Years.

*sigh*

Which kind of feels like a cop-out, because effectively, I'm already putting off for a month what I really want to dig into today. I have stuff inside me...writing that needs to get out. It's about to bubble over and I'm afraid that I will lose these thoughts, these story lines and characters (most of which have been brewing for months on end now) that I'm ready to weave together into I'm-not-sure-what-just-yet-but-I-know-it's-something.

Perhaps if I just knuckle down around here, get things really squared away (as in the mountains of papers and supposedly important crap that I feel compelled to freaking hang on to...) and get my house a little more organized, then I can swing right into a writing groove when the kids get back to school in January.

Now, the real question is--are these the words of a woman who has a good plan and a reasonable set of expectations, or are they those of a woman who is a masterful procrastinator?

Only time will tell...

******

We went to S.E. Texas for Thanksgiving this year. We took my daughter and son with us to visit with the in-laws. Which sounds like it could have been a chore--the hidden assumptions that so many people have with that single, hyphenated word--but it was anything but. We had an incredible time. We stayed with my hub's brother and his wife in a spacious, comfy place with lots of family in and out during the week. Thanksgiving Day saw my husband's parents enjoying the holiday with all four of their children together. We live so far away in New England, that to have them all in one place at one time is rare enough--on a holiday it's all the more precious.

So many excellent, funny, and sometimes embarrassing moments [My foul mouth can really make me wish for the proverbial hole to open up in the earth...] It's so bittersweet to know that we are really so far away from these good, kind people on a day-to-day basis...people with whom we connect in ways that so many in this world don't ever get to truly appreciate, until perhaps, it is too late--but the time together is so fleeting...

So, what I need to do, you see, is get on this damn writing thing. Create a blockbuster, you know? An instant classic...with screenplay to follow. That way we can fund frequent travel amongst the far-flung family members!

National Love Your Body Day

Today, October 21, is National Love Your Body Day.

In honor of that day (and because I promised Kristen a preggo belly pic...) I offer you the following photo from the final days of my 2nd pregnancy. The one that resulted in this crazy-intelligent boy that gives me so much joy and frustration...(as opposed to the first one that resulted in this super-sensitive, amazingly empathetic girl...who gives me so much joy and frustration!)




LOVE your body--EVERY day!

Literary Musings

So, I'm taking a class. Yup...I signed up for a continuing ed course called "Writing Children's Books." My first class was earlier this month, and it meets monthly for four months.

I have always enjoyed kids books. I come by it honestly, of course...my mother worked in the children's section of a bookstore for several years. I read a lot of kids stuff, given that I have a couple rug-rats running around here, and with my son especially, finding age-appropriate stuff for him that has more than five words on a page is a serious challenge. (He gave up on Harry Potter, by the way. Too Scary. That's another post, for another day. )

I also love writing. Of course, you wouldn't know it by the frequency of my blog posts lately, but I do. And I really want to get better at it...so what better way than a class? That, and reading great kids books. My assignment for the next class is to read The View From Saturday, by E.L. Kningsburg, which I tore through on the Sunday after my last class. (I'll have to re-read it before next class!) The plot--excellent!! And, I loved the varying points of view--the author was masterful at creating a separate voice for each character. No wonder it's a Newberry Medal winner.

Speaking of books and the ALA...it's Banned Books week! There's an interesting map showing all the places that have had official challenges to or outright banning of books. Also of note on the Banned Books Week. org website is the Kids Right To Read Project. I actually have a poster in my kitchen celebrating banned books week (it's up year round!), it declares (and I enthusiastically agree...)

Free People Read Freely.

Kids should have access to all books. If a parent objects to a given title, fine. Don't allow your child to read it. Banning and removing books is not the solution. I don't push my morals and values on others, and I do not want others' pushed upon me. And don't you dare tell me what books should be available to my children.

Them's Fightin' Words!

You should read THIS.

And the Lesson Plans.

Now, please, someone--anyone! tell me, where is the hidden partisan message?

Country First?

One of the things my boy is learning in Kindergarten is to be respectful of everyone...a theme that builds on what we've taught at home. Now that he's out in the big bad world, he knows that when you are part of a group, you don't talk OVER others. You wait your turn and when you do, when you get your chance to speak--you get to say your piece.

He's going to be six in November. Talk about bringing out the mama bear in me--if I thought that there was a bully in his class who always talked over him and pitched a fit when he spoke because the bully didn't want the others to hear what my boy had to say, I'd be all over the school. Fortunately, that couldn't be further from the truth for him.

So, what is with the major kerfuffle over President Obama speaking to the nation's schoolchildren? I wrote about this the other day, and since writing have been talking w/ my husband about it. He made a really good point.

President Obama is a moving, inspiring, and engaging speaker. He has a knack for making his audience feel comfortable, without speaking only to the lowest common denominator (the banal phrase, "I am the Decider," comes to mind.) He speaks intelligently, without leaving you in the dust frantically looking up the definition of an obscure word in your pocket Mirriam's.

His speeches and his conversational style, his vision, his intelligent approachability, his inspiring life story--these are major factors that contributed to his success in the Presidential race. And therein lies the issue.

How do you muzzle an intelligent voice of reason? You throw out the Kindergarten classroom rules.

You scream as loud as you can about Partisan Politics! Treat that classic Back-To-School message of, "Work hard, stay in school, and seek to achieve," as 'indoctrination' into the secret, socialist/extremist party that Obama really endorses.

Create Fear. Lament that you don't want "that man" to have "access" to your children. Make a stink. Throw a tantrum. Drown out the other kids in the class because you don't want to hear what anyone else says, you want to say what YOU want to say.

Don't follow the classic classroom rule of respect for others. Shout, "Liar!" at every kid in class that you don't like. Over and over. Loudly. So that they can't be heard.

Or, for some school districts in the U.S...
require "Permission" to see a positive, albeit generic message to students.

I mean really, how detailed do you think this message is going to be? Frankly, in the long run, I think the fear mongering may be a good thing--how many rebellious kids, wondering what the hell their parents are worried about, will look up the video on-line? They'll be looking for the 'hidden message', those subliminal directives to the sleeper zombies that they must drop everything, eyes glazed over, and wander out into the streets to become zombie community organizers.

Only to see...

[shock]

An articulate, well-spoken, democratically elected President, telling them to work hard and set goals. That's all.

Again, we're talking about the President. The Commander in Chief.

What the hell ever happened to, "Country First"?

Education in America

Since when is the President of the United States interacting with school children a controversial issue? Since when are messages that are created to specifically encourage America's students to "Stay in School!" and "Work Hard!" and "Be Responsible!" considered "Socialist propoganda"?

Since the likes of Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck, et al got their grubby mitts on another President-Obama-hate-mongering campaign. There's a Facebook poll showing 2/3 of participants feel that a parental permission slip should be sent home so parents can decide if their children will listen to the President's pro-education agenda on the first day of school. Thankfully, the poll is entirely unscientific, as it allowed me to vote twice, so I will comfort myself by thinking that the lunatic fringe isn't the majority, they're simply a dangerous combination of dishonest and LOUD.

If my children are pledging allegiance each morning to the United States of America, then the Commander-in-Chief under that flag should certainly be granted the opportunity to give a "Back to School" message to the students in the government-funded public school system. What kind of so-called Patriot suggests that our democratically elected president ought not encourage kids to achieve...to be the best that they can be...? How perverse a message does that send?

I would be beyond offended as an American Citizen and the parent of two students in the public school system if, in the name of not offending the occasional loudmouth baa-baa-Beck-Sheep, a permission slip were sent home for this presidential address in our district.