It's ALIVE...er.um I mean, I'M ALIVE

Yes, I am. I finished the most dreaded paper yesterday and now have a bit smaller, much less worrisome list of things to do. Oh, and my kids have been swept up by their nana and brought to NY where they can bathe in the warmth of familial love from both sides of the family and remember that not all adults have laptops, books and rollerball pens as appendages. I miss them so much. I have never gone so long without kissing Ezzies plump cheeks and being squeezed by Henry's stronger and stronger hugs.

But, if they were here, I would be doing my best to ignore them and I wouldn't have had the time to go to Pintus with Curt and Maggie, to eat some yummy Indian food and be serenaded by a hot chick doing "the snake" and "shut the door", sheesh.

And when my eyes are burning from the glow of the screen and my brain feels a tad mushy, I need some down time. I make yo yos.

I have neglected posting for a while and so I did not post about the wonderful craft night at my friend Kim's the other week. Helen was there, knitting. And some unfamiliar faces showed up too. We got to watch a new friend spin dog hair into yarn. NO kidding. We drank vino, ate cookies, listened to soothing stories and swapped crafting, momming, parenting stories for a few hours. Great fun. That was when I started making the yo-yos. I hadn't been doing any crafting at all and yo-yo making requires very little: a needle, thread, small scraps of fabric, scissors and a circle template. It's sort of fun. They are so cute.

A pencil case and a theme song, or two

Thanks Mama. I love my new pencil bag. Kaffe Fasset makes such loud and happy fabric. It makes me smile every time I catch a glimpse of it. And my big bag is so much more organized.

It's no surprise that gospel songs make some of the best personal theme songs. Here are two songs that pop into my head when I am trying to calm down and not worry for crying out loud.

#1 and #2 ( I do love Bruce but I prefer Neko Case's version but couldn't find it...)

Molly's Blog

My sister Molly is an extraordinarily talented artist. I will say no more. Check out her new blog- Works by M.E. Carlisle...p.s she does commission work...

just imagine

So, just imagine a gal who likes to cook, and sew and knit (rather poorly), read novel after novel, grow vegetables and flowers, teach young kids, sing, play with her kids, hang out the laundry, paint, draw, sing some more. Just imagine that this same girl (seriously) can't tell her left from her right, can't ever remember a single number if it is more than 3 digits long, gets lost in any building with more than two corridors (especially if the color theme is beige), and had panic attacks in Math class since 10th grade. Imagine that this girl has to write a paper comparing legislation and regulation for her policy class. Imagine her blowing her nose on a hanky, drinking her throat coat tea and wrinkling up her face because she suddenly is convinced she has been writing her paper in a circle. Is it possible? She doesn't even know. She has never been very good with directions. But if you have ever taken a peek at regulations and statutes there are lots of numbers and letters and when they run out of those they start doubling and tripling them and using lower case and Roman numerals. And there are subsections that refer to even more subsections. It is absolutely brilliant.

I feel like Alice. In Wonderland or maybe even from Gertrude Stein's novel. Either would do.

All Hallow's Eve

a book and some bubbling 'strone

For my Literacy for LD class, I am tutoring a teen who has ADHD. Mostly we are working on reading comprehension skills, which you can imagine are tough for someone who has trouble focusing. We meet twice weekly and we discuss a book we are reading: Kristin Cashore's Graceling. It has been so much fun to see her warm up to this book. At first I was only having her work on elements that she could pull straight from the text but she has been making some really thoughtful inferences. I love this book. It is a Fantasy about a young girl who has a grace or uncanny skill. I won't spoil it by telling you what it is but I will say that she is a strong, confident, intelligent, female character within an adventurous story that has some real depth to it. It's a book I want my boys to read in a few years and I would definitely foist it on any daughter of mine. Oh yeah, and it's a Harcourt book so I got a free copy from Amy.

Today I am home with two sick kids. Ezra has a tiny cough and Henry has been battling a fever and cough for a few days now (no swine flu I am pretty sure). I have a ton of work to do, but I am trying to concentrate (except for a bit of therapeutic blogging) on the kids and domestic stuff. Thus the low sugar, high fiber oatmeal cookies and minestrone soup made with a bushel of garlic, oh and laundry, a bathtub full.

Right now the boys are drinking their tea (Ezra's current fave is Twinings Chamomile -Apple, Henry prefers Twinings Lemon-Ginger), eating popcorn and watching Curious George.

The sky is gray and drippy. Soup is bubbling on the stove and for the moment, everything is peaceful.

Mark Bittman's Minestrone, from How to Cook everything Vegetarian

1/4 c. olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

1 1/2 -2 cups hard veg. such as potato, squash, turnips diced

salt and pepper

6 cups stock

1 cup cored peeled and seeded chopped tomato or canned

1 1/2 cup soft veg, such as green beans, zuchinni, cooked dried beans, kale etc.

parmesan rind cut into tiny pieces

1/2 c. chopped parsley

saute carrots , onions, celery in oil.

add hard veg., parmesan, salt, pepper, stock and tomato bring to a boil until veg is soft.

add soft veg. and parsley, simmer until very tender

adjust seasoning

So simple, easy and special, especially when every vegetable is local, except for the enormous Quaker potatoes the in-laws brought from Dill's garden in the Finger Lakes.

the real heroes

Yesterday I dragged Ezra with me to a rally in downtown Amherst, in the dark rain. Okay, so I did not have to drag him, lately he wants to go wherever I go, even if I say it's a boring meeting. There were about 30-40 other people there, some with kids in tow, many Spanish speaking. Professors, restaurant workers, moms, dads, students. All of us trying to stand up for the most vulnerable among us: the minorities, the low income, the kids. For some reason, and in the name of anti-segregation, the town board with support from many townspeople who are mainly white and seriously privileged, thinks that bussing the kids who receive free or reduced lunches around to disburse them more equally will somehow create equity.

These people do not understand the meaning of equity. Equity does not always mean THE SAME FOR EVERYBODY and clustering is not segregation. Minorities or non-English speakers or low income children, can benefit from being in a community with more of the same. If a town has a large population of Cambodians, placing them in the same school can allow that school to specialize in their language and culture and those children and their families will benefit from that specialization. It goes the same for any group of people. The town board is basing their decision on one study of a population of urban minorities and how they benefited from being placed in a suburban school system. This comparison is ridiculous and huge decisions like this cannot be based solely on ONE STUDY. That is ludicrous. Can I scream now?

How can these educated people call this segregation? How will my children benefit from being moved out of a top performing elementary school in their own community and being BUSSED to a school filled with privileged kids from the other side of town?

Somehow, I feel that if the privileged kids had to be bussed, the town would be in an uproar.

So, after this rally I had a half hour before my tutoring session with this young girl with ADHD. And then I had work to do. So, I did not have a lot of time and energy for an Ezra fit, But he had plenty of time and energy for one.

And so I missed the important meeting after the rally. And I felt so horrible. But I felt stretched to the limits.

AND I just want to thank all of the people out there who have everything stacked against them: socioeconomic status, race, class, single parenthood, lactose intolerance etc. and who still manage to go to a rally, got to a mtg. get out there and make their voices heard. They are the real heroes.