Happy Halloween

I think I have a bunch of other updates/explanations for my lack of participation in srbc but for now will stick with the current:

Happy Halloween breakfast for kids:

Puffy German Pancake. I originally got this recipe in college from my friend Emily but in the end had to look it up online and it called for using my cast iron pan. It was tasty. And of course I used whole wheat.

For the last several weeks my time has been taken by either traveling a ton (gone last 3 of 4 weeks) or by sewing this trench coat for Bridget's spy costume. She was happy and honestly I was pretty proud of the way it turned out for like 5 minutes.  Until I kept looking at it...

Bridget was my only child who cared about her costume.  Casey didn't bother because he is too old apparently.  But he did want candy so last minute grabbed a cloak from a few years ago.  And some paint from his Grandma halloween package.  He wanted to paint his skin black but I felt weird about that so we went with green.



















Gillian was a princess and then decided to be a vampire.  Bridget fortunately talked her into believing their makeup would be the same and anything involving makeup is a fun costume.  Apparently I didn't get a shot of her in the franticity.  Is that a word?

Next up Megs.  She refused to wear a costume in spite of looking so scrumptious in all of them:

Try #1:

Try #2:























Try #3 and final selection--bribed with "candy" to get her to get dressed (candy=fruit snacks)

For the actual trunk or treat event I tried to straighten her hair.  She looked really wild but it was fun--she refused to sit still and her hair was already fighting the straightness.

Here is our fancy trunk decoration:

And of course last minute we made Steve throw on a costume--one of my Blouses and a pirate hat from the costume box.  He wasn't too into it but he was a good sport about it. He looked adorable, really.

Since today is Sunday, we have a low key evening and we are having dinner with some friends instead of going out--I thought the kids would feel back but they got plenty of candy last night at the church Trunk or Treat so we are in good shape.  Have a bountiful Halloween of your own!

Meg Update

Turning Off the Switch

I have a new thing I do when I travel: Turn off the switch 24 hours in advance of returning home.  What does this look like?

1) Evening before in hotel room: No work.  I create a bit of a to-do list and then I turn off my computer, and curl up with a book or a movie if one is on.  Fall asleep no later than 9 pm.

2)  On airplane home, no work.  Read book, listen to music, or sleep.  Make sure and eat healthy meal.

3)  As I deplane, start to gear up for my "at home momness."  I expect the house to be messy, I get excited about cleaning, and try to think of what kind of things I can do with my kids to make it a fun time for them.

4)  When I walk in the door, get right down to business.  No napping, no endless snacking, and no movie watching.

This sounds really simple, but the decompressing 24 hours in advance is really important.  I want my children to look forward to me coming home, not a mom who walks in the door and criticizes or is grumpy.

It takes a lot of effort, but I have used this formula the last three times I came home and it makes a HUGE difference in my own attitude.  Unfortunately, it wears off around 8 pm and then my strategy is to go straight to bed.  I wish I could make it past 8 so I could extend the high energy flow to hanging out with Steve, but when you get up at 3 or 4 pm East Coast Time, it is hard to go all day with positive energy.  Especially after a 5-cities/5 days traveling bout.

As a side note, Steve and I went on our first date in which we didn't hire a babysitter.  I can feel a change of lifestyle coming on and it feels good.  

Waiting for Superman

I have seen Waiting for Superman.

And you should too--because you ought to know what is happening in the public school system.  I wrote two reviews--my first impression was not that good because I wanted it to be exactly the message that I send too.

But after a week of work in the field, I have changed my mind and decided that this IS the message for now.

I can deal with part II once people fix this first set of problems.

Here is what the film brings up that you should consider:

1)  Tracking is devastating.  Tracking is the idea that if you come in with low scores as a 9th grader, you cannot take college prep classes.

2)  The teachers union may be keeping your children from having the best teacher possible.

3)  Children in high poverty areas are further handicapped by their schools, not helped.

4)  Children in high poverty areas do have parents who care about their education--they send kids to school and trust the school to be a source of hope for the future.

5)  There are people out there who know what to do to fix schools and you should hold your school accountable for those principles.

Here is a suggested step for each of those key points:

1) The first day your child enrolls in high school, make it clear to the counselor and principal that you are expecting that their courses will automatically make them eligible for a 4-year college.  Check in each year that they are getting those requirements met and if you don't know, ask the counselor.

2)  If your child has a teacher who is incredible who loses their job at the end of the year and is replaced by an another less passionate teacher due to budget cuts and union protection of tenured teachers, march down to your school board and make a statement loud and clear about your tax dollars going to a system that does not consider quality teaching a priority.

3)  Do not take it for granted that poor children stay poor because their behaviors at home and lack of expectations at home lead them to learn less at school.  If you live in a city with a poor school, stand up for the rights of the children whose parents do not understand the system.  The majority of poor parents do not want their children to end up in their same socio-economic station yet don't know how to get their children into a better school.  Vote for initiatives that support high quality teaching.

4)  Do a reality check-- has your child grown this year?  When you go to parent teacher conferences, and they show you student work, ask how your child has improved.  Do not take a simple sample of their work that looks on grade level as evidence that your child is learning, ask for a pre and post sample.  If they don't have one, ask for one in the next conference.

5)  Make sure you know where the school is spending money--what is their plan and does the money that they spend support the plan.

Okay and when all else fails, give me a call.  I might give you bad advice, but it will make me feel better.

School reform is what I do--and my fidelity to it does create a gap elsewhere, but it is ultimately is who I am.

Cost of Fidelity

I read an article last year that I cannot find so I am going to have to make up the content to record my brilliant epiphany before it slips my mind.

I hope I am not plagiarizing, I promise that if I could find the article, I would have simply linked it to you.

The concept is pretty simple: When you do something extremely well, you suffer in other areas.  For example:

--Fidelity to a gym schedule costs you the time

--Fidelity to a particular diet costs you the opportunity to eat other foods

--Fidelity to a particular car brand can cost you an extended drive to find parts, extra money, or only being able to take it to a particular mechanic, etc.

Get the gist?  The idea is that every commitment you make has a toll on you which is why we should make them carefully.

Fidelity is not a bad thing---those who are faithful to principles, places, or people will enjoy tremendous benefits but you must weigh before each commitment what the cost would be.

You can avoid the costs by avoiding the fidelity but then you lose the magic that the fidelity provides to you.  For example, giving up on your diet will not yield you the results that fidelity would yield so you have to choose fidelity to the food offered, or fidelity to the diet restrictions?

Setting aside the obvious ones of family, religion, and blogging, to what principles are you faithful?

Staying the night in Berne

...Indiana

School Uniforme

That is not a typo, in Spanish we call it a uniforme.

And my eldest daughter has decided she doesn't like the white polo.  Before you get annoyed, let me tell you a little tale:

Last year at the kids' school, families asked me if we were going to do new uniforms along with the new school name and charter.  At the time I said "there are no plans to do that, but even if we do, we will allow the old uniform until people grow out of them."  But apparently I lied.

This summer someone decided to get a new uniform, new colors, new everything---and not let the old ones fade out of existence slowly.  If I were a real environmentalist I would be annoyed on behalf of all the cotton grown and then thrown out in favor of getting a new pritty color.  But I am not a real environmentalist, so I will just be cheap and say that with three kids and only planning on staying here for 6 months, it was annoying enough to have to drop $150 on approximately 3 T-shirts, one white polo, and one aqua polo per child.  The office staff was kind enough to let me know that I needed at least one aqua polo for field trips.

So... three weeks into the school year AFTER I have spent my money, a nice little noticia comes home stating that the T-shirts are only for Fridays and we must have a polo during the weekday.  Well, since I have already spent the money, I don't really want to go out and get more polos, right?  I mean, you are with me on this so far, no?

But Bridget is not with me--or anyone at the school on this as she feels it somehow violates her personal freedom to have to wear a polo.  So she wears the T-shirt a few days in a row until she is informed that she will "lose free dress day the last Friday of the month" if she wears the T-shirt on any other day.

I almost told my daughter that if they can't enforce the uniform policy on her now, how could they enforce it on free dress day and were they going to expel her or something? But decide to lay down the law and support the policy even if I think it was badly done.

This morning, Bridget awakens to discover that she has no clean aqua polo, only a white one.  So she actually refuses to go to school.

Steve, being the super genius that he is tells her that she not only is NOT going to get to do dance (the special SWAT team at her school that just started) but that she cannot go to Disneyland again....(insert crying)... unless she works it off.  So her total chore set today?

--10 loads of laundry (it was 8 but since I mistakenly posted 10 on my fb status I will stick with it here)
--dishes
--spot carpet cleaning with a brush and carpet cleaner
--random other chores that we could think of
--unloading and putting away laundry
--cleaning off her dresser
--putting away the groceries
--babysitting Megs

I asked her "how was your day today?" and she predictably said that she missed school.  I said "what would you do differently?" she said "I would just deal with it."

When I asked her if she would wear the white polo she said "no" so I am not really sure we reached her, but we talked about finding the shirt the night before. Which she did not do, so wish us luck in the morning.

On Aging...or Overworking

I can't decide if I am overworking myself or if I am just getting old.  I know not THAT old, but THIS old.  I am on my second straight week of 15 hour days.  So here is what is happening, is this as a result of age or work?

1. I don't really care what I look like
2. My hair does not behave
3. I am not motivated to lose weight to look better, just to be healthier (wha???) (see 1)
4. I don't want to eat any spicy or acidic foods.  Stuff I LOVE to eat, just makes me sick.
5. I like drinking chamomile.
6. I can't remember a lot of stuff and I have total mental freezes mid sentence
7. I watch teenage shows and feel sorry for the parents more than the kids
8. I would rather hang out with my kids than pretty much anyone else
9. I don't know what is real anymore.  Or what is true.
10. I don't want to answer the same question from someone who thinks they are the first person to ask me said question
11. I don't feel like I want to impress anyone, I just want other people to be successful as a result of my work.  This sounds more altruistic than it actually is.
12. I used the phrase "hunky dory" today.

I am somewhere wandering the hotels of Indiana, and piles of emails to go before I sleep. 

Hmmm