Hither and Thither

Here are just a few things that we've been up to lately (minus the painting, putting up shelves, bean-picking, tomato-picking, etc, etc):

Visiting my grandma in her new digs... and Ben taking to her immediately... a real treat for us all!

Playing at my parent's house in the early stages of Fall

Does anyone know how to start a school???

It's a cold, dreary day and Ben and I hopped in the car to go to the train table in the children's section of Barnes and Noble. I have to admit that often when we go to places like this, I secretly hope that there aren't any other kids there so Ben can peacefully play (remember, he's at that awkward learning-to-share stage), I can sip my coffee at leisure and snoop around the children's lit section for a little bit.

There was another mother/daughter pair there and the daughter was the same age as Ben. Oh boy. My heart took a small anxious leap and then settled quickly when the two connected right off the bat and played peacefully without ever arguing about who had what.

Of course, we started with the small talk and I quickly learned that the mother is from Morocco by way of Venezuela. We continued to chit-chat and she mentions that her oldest of her three kids is a first grader at a school that she and her friends started. It's a small Jewish school that only has 7 students since there aren't any Jewish schools in Madison.

WOW!!!

I had a whole handful of questions for her about how you go about funding that kind of project, etc, etc and it sounded very impressive. I shared with her about the charter school that I taught at in DC and she was very interested in the language-immersion aspect of it. Let's just say that we both got very excited about this type of education and all the benefits it creates for our kids and she finally said, "Hey! Do you want to start one with me?" ... and I think she was kind of serious.

If I only knew how, I would totally be game!

It was so refreshing to meet this new friend. I hope we do more together, because she hit the spot!

Randomness

When you're at home with a little one all day and every day, you have quite a bit of time to think, which can often get me into trouble. Here's what my mind's been up to as of late:

* Sarah Palin: (Let's just get this one out of the way, shall we?) SERIOUSLY?!?!?! I really don't know where to begin, really. Maybe that she prides herself with being such a "family person," yet she's willing to (pretty much) abandon her 3-month old baby to be VP. Just about EVERYTHING she stands for (without me going into a long rant), I'm disappointed with (even though you couldn't pay me enough to vote for McCain anyway). How can someone be pro-life and support the war and be a member of the NRA??? I don't get it!!! Also, does it really make ANYONE hopeful that she's so negative? Are people energized by dark, negative, down-right MEAN energy like this??? I'll stop there. I'm probably repeating what most folks have already said a few days ago, so there's no need to continue.

* Leave Every Child Behind: The government needs to take a running leap out of education, plain and simple. Business people don't. get. it. My brother-in-law is a teacher in PA and he was recently telling me that his eighth (EIGHTH!!!) graders couldn't find the U.S. on the map (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), because The Test apparently doesn't cover that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, with the economy going downhill and parents needing more jobs to make ends meet (which are diminishing, to begin with), the kids really, REALLY suffer. HOW are they expected to go to school and focus on learning when their life at home is in chaos (or non-existent in many growing cases)??? This is the kind of thing the government doesn't understand. There's a whole list of things that are supposed to happen before a child is available to learn and if they're not getting any of it at home, forget it. They ain't learning a thing. Of course the ritzy, wealthy schools in suburbia are doing fine and dandy because those kids have a parent at home who can go to their school during the day and volunteer/show support of their learning/be home to spend time with/etc... and then it appears that the teachers are SO GOOD and get all the raises and extra rewards. It's a bit unnerving to hear both presidential candidates talk about education like they know what's best and it's clear they don't get it. No matter who wins, I'm afraid public education is going keep on that downward slope.

My brighter thoughts:

* Ben has been QUITE the hoot these days! He will dance to ANY beat, drive his trains/tractors/trucks on any surface that will let them roll, and talk up a storm filled with expression and hand gestures. He makes me laugh so much! I'm so lucky to be his mama!

* We finished painting the whole downstairs (minus the bathroom) a few days ago!!! It used to be cold and boring white walls and a hideous bear/moose/pine tree stencil border around the whole kitchen and dining room. Yuck. We had a free session with an interior designer as a closing gift on the house and she gave us a really cool plan of what to do. I tried to take a picture and it's a bit dark, but you'll get the idea. It just feels like... ours. Finally.

* A dear, dear childhood friend of mine (our parents were good friends pretty much the second my folks moved to WI) just had a baby girl a couple days ago. She and her husband had quite the journey with getting her here, so it almost feels extra joyful.

* Fall is coming and it's coming FAST! Isn't it so interesting that when spring rolls around, 60 degrees feels SO warm? Then when it's the end of summer, it's an oh-my-gosh-it's-so-cold-we-need-to-bundle-up-and-drink-hot-chocolate (which we did last night) kind of change. This gets me every year.


* Speaking of fall, Ben's napping and I'm going to take advantage of our new cozy walls (I know, I'm such a nerd!) and cozy weather (60-something, cloudy) and go make some oatmeal cranberry bread.

(Excuse the mess... we're still organizing after the paint project)

I was going to load a picture of Ben rolling his forklift on his arm, but Blogger is being a real pickle about letting me get the task done. Sigh.

Privilege

Last week I had a conversation with a woman at the park who is around my age (I'm guessing) and again, has left me thinking non-stop about her. She has three sons, the oldest in high school and the youngest starting kindergarten, who recently moved from the south side of Chicago after a tragedy that happened. She described her life in Chicago and didn't talk about the tragedy, but I could kind of put together the pieces and figure out what caliber of tragedy took place.

We talked for a good bit while our boys played together and she really opened up to me about her old job that she recently quit and how there were major discrepancies with her pay, even though the store kept promoting her. She went on and on of all the other things in her life that were hard to get, especially with the economy being a bit of a challenge for someone like her to make ends meet.

This conversation reminded me of so many that I've had while living in DC. I was quickly reminded of ALL the factors that fell into place for me that got me to where I am now-- (just as a quick place to start) both of my parents graduated from college/grad school, they were able to provide multiple learning opportunities for us and take time to be with us everyday (and all summer long, to boot!), they paid for our college education, etc, etc, etc, ... I didn't have to lift a finger (except for getting good grades) and it somehow feels unfair.

It's pretty much inevitable that I felt sort of like a schmuck after saying good-bye to this woman and heading home to my nice new house, with a husband waiting for me and Ben after coming home from a day of work, and thinking about the supper I was going to make that night. Our lives would be a dream come true to so many people, even though we don't consider ourselves living "high on the hog." It's humbling to remind ourselves of this.

This woman was heading home to her two older boys and getting excited about school starting, especially the youngest starting all-day kindergarten so she didn't have to worry about daycare costs. She's also searching for a new job and trying to balance her life with spending time with her boys and not working the day away, coming home at midnight every night. She knows what she needs to provide for her boys to have a healthy life, but she can't quite get there.

I think this encounter was the kick-in-the-pants that I needed to get myself involved with volunteering again. To be the listening ear, to be an advocate, to be encouraging, to help push on, to be hopeful, ...