Casting My Vote at Thoughtful Pop was featuring on Five Star Friday last week, so there’s a good chance you’ve already read it. I love what he says and how he says it so much, though, that I wanted to share it here anyway.
Regardless of which side wins, the wars will continue, the bankers will profit, the corporations will grow and the people will be left behind. … But there is at least one big difference that I can see. One side has made it very clear that a vote for them is a vote against women. That side is standing proudly and proclaiming women’s bodies are not entirely their own and something to be legislated against. … Theirs is not a world to which I would choose to subject my daughters.
Regular reads
I’ve been reading Jenn Mattern’s Breed ’em and Weep for a billion years. Jenn is a powerful writer who has had a vicious last few years, emotionally and financially. If I were in charge of all the things, she’d be a fabulously wealthy author. Because she writes like this:
For her part, she loved you without worrying whether you would die and leave her, or whether she would die and leave you. She understood that this dying thing and this living thing are nothing to take personally. She understood that the only way to manage in this life, truly, is to make an afterschool snack for a lovesick granddaughter, and leave the rest to sort itself out.
I’m in charge of hardly any of the things, sadly, so I’ll just have to keeping hoping good things for Jenn.
Natalie Dee writes a web comic, and she gets me. She really, really gets me.
Heidi at 101 Cookbooks makes lots of things I’m pretty sure I’ll never make, like rose petal granola and something called black sesame otsu. She takes gorgeous pictures of the food, though, and the way she writes makes me want to hang out in her kitchen.
What does Wilco have to do with my meal plan? Stick with me. We’ll get there.
I never thought I’d be the kind of girl who’d cash in all of her husband’s frequent flier miles to go half way across country for a musician. Turns out I was wrong about that.
Rockford and I were both psyched (yes: psyched) when we saw that my very favorite group, Wilco, was going to be playing an outdoor show in Columbia, Missouri, this year. We lived in Columbia for five years, and we made a lot of great memories there. Not the least of which were the four Wilco shows we saw there. So we bought tickets, booked flights and on Sunday we got up before 6am and were in CoMo by lunchtime. Which was lovely timing, because it meant we got to have lunch at Shakespeare’s Pizza with our friends B and Rachel. After lunch we went back to our hotel — also paid for with loyalty points! — for a nap before going downtown to wander.
I’d decided that as a responsible grown-up, I would be just fine if we weren’t directly in front of the state at this show. The front of the stage is for hip youngsters, not stodgy homeschooling moms. I would be fine near the back, where it’s less crowded and your ears don’t ring quiet as much after the show. And then we got downtown, and Wilco was doing their soundcheck, and we watched it from directly in front of the stage, and it washed away all of that responsible-grown-up business. As soon as the soundcheck ended I joined the other 10-or-so people who lined up at the gate to get a shot at the front row.
This was our 15th Wilco concert, and I’d rank it in my Top Five Favorite Concerts. It was worth the flight, all the points and sitting on the sidewalk for an hour.
However: All that jetsetting does not put dinner on the table. Nor does it plan dinner, which is why Tuesday morning found me still puzzling over just what we’d be eating this week. I’m afraid nothing on our menu this week is even a little bit rock ‘n’ roll, though.
I’m still dreaming of the day I get a grill that’s up to the task of cooking a pizza. I stopped making my own pizzas because I got tired of setting off the smoke alarm every Friday night.
Our Roman signum, complete with fierce beasts.
Between two minor league baseball games and a trip to the fair, we had three late nights this week. Three late nights turned into three leisurely mornings, which made me feel like we were running behind all week even though we really weren’t.
I’m hoping to get everyone to bed on time every day next week. Here’s a little of what we did this week, once we finally got out of our PJs and got to work.
History
We broke out “Story of the World Volume Two: The Middle Ages” this week. I was a little disappointed to find that we were still talking about the Romans, but the kids didn’t mind. Yesterday we read about the Roman signum, about which our “Story of the World” activity book says:
Each legion in the Roman Army had its own signum, or standard, that it carried into battle. … During the later part of the Roman Empire, most signa were decorated with ribbons, gold or silver eagles mounted at the top, and round metal disks. Each metal disk was carved with a picture of a fierce animal or a portrait of the emperor.
Poppy and Pete love doing crafts & activities, and I didn’t do many of the crafty things from the first volume. I’m going to make a greater effort to do more of the activities from this time around, and so yesterday we made our own signum out of an old wrapping paper tube, some cardboard, a little aluminum foil, some ribbon and a lot of glue. Poppy drew a bear shouting “Ya!” on her metal disk; Pete drew a sad monster with hair; and I drew a lion of which I’m rather proud.
Reading
Poppy has been enjoying the “Magic Tree House” series lately, and she was very disappointed last week to find that the fifth volume — “Night of the Ninjas” — was temporarily out of circulation at the library. It was back when Pete and I went during Poppy’s ballet class, though, so we snagged it and the next four books in the series for her. She finished “Ninjas” yesterday afternoon and then devoured “Afternoon on the Amazon” and “Sunset of the Sabertooth” last night.
We’ve been reading “Anne of Green Gables” at bedtime, which means we haven’t read as much of it this week as usual. We skip the bedtime reading when bedtime doesn’t happen until after 10pm. (The children don’t like this rule.)
Pete really wants to move on to the next Bob book, but he’s still having trouble with “Dot and the Dog.” He’s getting his Bs and Ds mixed up, and then he gets frustrated and wants to quit. I welcome any and all suggestions on how to deal with the B/D thing!
Math
Most of Pete’s math lessons have included some practice writing his numbers. That’s by far his least favorite part of math, so imagine my surprise when he wrote numbers 1 to 23 on some drawing paper the other day and presented it to me. I’d planned to scan it and post it here, so of course he decided to scribble all over it once he’d finished. I guess he doesn’t want proof that he’s learning to fall into the wrong hands.
Pete’s math lessons this week also included a board game called Number Raceway, which was a big hit. I played one round with Poppy and Pete, and they played for another 20 minutes after I left to do laundry.
In PoppyMath news, she did a lot of work with counting coins this week. I’d like to get some play money to use, but for now I’m just dumping out the piggy bank when she needs some coins.
Extra credit
Our co-op started back up this week. Poppy is taking “Story of the World”-based class on the Middle Ages and a performing arts class, and Pete is taking a Dinosaurs class and a Clay Exploration class. I’m assisting in the clay and Middle Ages classes.
Poppy actually practiced on the keyboard this week and did the homework her piano teacher had assigned. I think this is the first time that’s happened.
In addition to her regular ballet class, Poppy started a second class to rehearse for “The Nutcracker.” It’s the same day as her regular class, so I was thinking she’d be completely exhausted by the end of the day. Not so. Children are made of energy.
Poppy had her first soccer game of the season last Saturday, and Pete’s first-ever game is tomorrow. I’m very much looking forward to seeing him play.
