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Daisy OK
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I just baked rhubarb nut bread last night! I took the rhubarb out of the freezer; my backyard rhubarb is just starting. It'll be ready to pick before I know it.
Rhubarb, My One True Love
It's that time of year again where I start waxing rhapsodic about my love affair with rhubarb. And though it isn't as popular as some spring edibles, it has a fanatic following. Just ask @cityslipper (Daniel Gasteiger) who is rhubarb-obsessed...in fact, he was so obsessed that we chose his recip...
Pets are so amazing - they really do sense our feelings and our needs. Thanks for the comment.
Pets know how you're feeling.
La Petite's friend Tyler died last Thursday, surrounded by an ocean of caring. She came home from the memorial service and sent me this email: "Ever since we got back from the funeral, Krumpet has been following me around where ever I go and sitting next to me. She's even sitting on my feet." ...
Thank you! I'm enjoying seeing this thoughtful and gentle side of him.
Babies and cousins and bonding: oh, my!
I missed their visit. I was on the road, taking La Petite a few things she'd forgotten at home, taking her grocery shopping and out to lunch, letting her talk about her friend Ty who is hanging on to his last days of life. My brother and sister-in-law and their new little baby came to visit Gra...
That would be SOOOOO much more effective. I'm even on district email; a real person could be in contact with me within minutes if he were truly missing.
Since he has Asperger's and thrives obsessively on routine, an absence means missing, not playing hooky. The robo-calls make no sense whatsoever.
They're baaaack - the school robo-calls!
It was a beautiful day, clear, crisp, and cold. All seemed well as I arrived home from work, set down my schoolbag, hung up my coat, brought in the mail, and checked the phone messages. 1) a call from the plumber's office wanting to reschedule our remodel date for the downstairs bathroom, offer...
What fun! We've only teased my brother a little about his "advanced age." He's truly young at heart. Being an "old dad" will not be a problem.
On Babies and approaching MidCentury Status
My mother became a grandmother at 46 when La Petite was born. I was in my 20s. My brother became a parent at 42. He'll be 64 when this one graduates from college. I'm an aunt, and I'm 49. Meanwhile, my own not-so little ones are enjoying their new cousin, born on December 4. They adore her al...
Luckily, he has his dad to look up to; my husband is an excellent cook, too. My father-in-law is still learning to open a can! :)
You can take the kitchen out of the boy...
...but you can't take this boy out of the kitchen. Since he's been taking Foods class in school, he's brought home recipes and talked cooking with mom and dad. He told us he was able and willing to help out with Thanksgiving preparations, and he was as good as his word. Here he is mixing up a ba...
I have to keep my sense of humor or I'd go postal. Humor really does help us survive.
Are you smarter than a school social worker?
Back story, the Cliff Notes version: school district Powers That Be decided on a re-eval for Amigo's autism for fear of our filing a formal complaint with the state. We met with the team to discuss our feelings and meet the diagnostician. This went well, despite the school social worker's inabi...
That sounds like a great tool! Amigo's team is large; we could use something like this.
Are you smarter than a school social worker?
Back story, the Cliff Notes version: school district Powers That Be decided on a re-eval for Amigo's autism for fear of our filing a formal complaint with the state. We met with the team to discuss our feelings and meet the diagnostician. This went well, despite the school social worker's inabi...
If it's any reassurance, thimerasol does not cause autism. That's been disproven over and over again. That doesn't mean the vaccine is totally safe, but it is one worry you can leave behind.
Swine Flu Vaccination and Other Questions That Keep Me Up at Night
I am sweating as I write this. The sweat and nerves are because I never write anything that might stir people up. I don't dig causing controversy-especially when I am certain I don't have all the facts and of that-I am certain this time. Yet, I am compelled to write because I am confused about...
I'm not sure what your destination was, but if train travel is an option, I recommend you try it.
The Inconvenient State of Air Travel
Recently we were forced into the airline system by a family wedding in the States. I would rather do anything else than travel by air. Why the Bush Administration thought bailing out the airline industry after 9-11 was a better idea than simply letting it collapse and rebuild, I still cannot f...
I teach fourth grade. The changes are amazing. One memory that stands out in my daughter's tween years: he blankie, lovingly and perfectly folded, with her deodorant on top.
That one, and shopping for Beanie Babies and bras.
Good luck!
The Sudden Changes in the Life of a Fourth-Grade Girl
As the mother of a nine-year-old girl, I know that when she hits the teen years I'll need to buckle up for a bumpy ride! Adolescence is notorious for being a time when our children descend into a teen-age black hole from which they don't emerge until at least the end of high school. I figure...
So funny! This reminds me of the fun I had teaching 6th grade for 9 years. I've since moved to teaching 4th; they're a little more docile. A little. Maybe.
What happens when your 12-year-old SON gets a hold of your cell phone
In his mind, my "footprints in the sand" cell phone wallpaper was vanilla-ly boring; yet this is his idea of excitement??? Sons...they're a breed apart...;) {Here's a link because this is a REALLY FUNNY, and believe it or not, informative book...you have GOT to get a copy of your own!}
12 hours is a looooong drive with kids and a dog. Glad you made it home in one piece! I can identify with your pleasure, though, in physical stress rather than mental. I think that's another reason I enjoy gardening. It relieves the teaching stress.
Riding in cars with boys.
Last weekend we drove down to Alabama in the family minivan, rented a small Budget truck, cleaned out my in-laws house of furniture and things we wanted, and then drove back to Kansas City. This all happened between Thursday evening to Monday afternoon. My husband drove the truck back, and I dro...
I had to laugh, too! I'm a teacher, and the "regulars" eye me up at the laundromat and the thrift store, too. I want to say, "I don't make that much! I need this place, too!"
Suburban Laundromat Smackdown
I must begin by confessing my guilt about going to a laundromat in the first place. I am fortunate enough to have a washer and dryer in my own home. I am not, however, fortunate enough to have one of those large capacity numbers. I am secretly tortured by the annoying commercial with Kelly Rip...
Role models turn up in the strangest places, as you found out. Readers raise readers, but our choices of reading material affect our children as much as the fact that we do, indeed, read.
Fashion Magazines, I Have to "Quit" You!
I thought I was doing a pretty good job of making sure my nine-year-old daughter would have a positive sense of self and accurate body image as she heads for those treacherous pre-teen and teen years. I NEVER complain about how I feel about myself when she's around, even though I often have t...
These conflicting designs make it tough for people with visual impairments.
Life's Great Mystery
How come the numbers go from bottom to top on calculators: and adding machines: and computer keypads: but from top to bottom on telephones: and ATMs: I'm sure someone out there will know. My money's on Dr. Momentum.
85? Wow. The women in my family tree generally develop health problems in their 50s and 60s. My mother is 69, and we know she's on borrowed time given her gene pool. I won't be an "orphan," even though I lost my dad a few years ago. I have an extended family that includes in-laws and a stepfather, and as quirky as they are, we love them dearly.
Orphans
Just a couple of weeks before my dad celebrated his eightieth birthday, a good friend's mother passed away not long after her own eighty-fifth. While on the one hand, it seems surprising that anyone would be surprised by the death of an elderly person - did I mention she was eighty-five? - Mi...
Mean girls still exist, more's the pity. Give your little one the anti-venom; she'll use it well.
Mommy the Frenemy Slayer
Growing up, I didn't have a lot of friends. Girls, I mean. I guess it was around the time I entered the 2nd grade (my youngest girl's age) when I realized that little girls weren't very nice. In fact, I quickly learned that some little girls could be very, very mean, too. "Look she's got b...
Love that picture!
Ask Stewie Starring Stewie Part The Third!!!
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!! O HAI! It time for Ask Stewie Starring Stewie! You better listen to Stewie, okay? Okay good, okay fine, HERE WE GO!!! Meaghan said... Dear Stewie- What do cats like most that makes their poo smell so bad? How can this be avoided? Would you be willing to eat bakin...
I love how our kitties (and bunnies) know they can get away with just about anything and know we'll still love them and photograph them and blog their exploits.
BUSTED! Now Get Off My Underpants
Around midnight, this is what I SHOULD be seeing around the old homestead. Peacefully slumbering cats, slightly out of focus. No running, no destroying, and especially no one is near my CLEAN UNDERPANTS. THIS is what was going on at my apartment LAST night. Me: Where is Stewie? Lulu: I don't c...
That kitty has a plan. Watch out, mama. Hope your job search goes well!
What I'm Not Talking About Today: Job Search Edition
I've gotten a lot of comments and emails stating "What do you DO, woman, when you're not blogging? What is your profession? Your occupation? WHAT IS YOUR JOB, GIRL??? Well. You know what the rule is, right? THE FIRST RULE OF BLOGGING CLUB IS THAT YOU DON'T TALK ABOUT YOUR JOB. The truth is that ...
Love the pictures! My rabbit set his paws on the keyboard one day; I ended up with a google search for waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...
Ask Stewie Starring Stewie Part the Second!
MAMA. Yes, Stewie. MAMA. Time for more Ask Stewie. Here, I type. No, I think I've got it, Stewie. You dictate, I'll type. WHAT DAT MEAN DICTATE. Answer the question, Stewie. OKAY, YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! from the desk (and conscience) of Linley said... Dear Stewart, How can we get our peopl...
Oh, Stewie, so dramatic!
Angel Christen Devil? No.
Y'all are so funny with the anagrams, seriously. One of these days I have to see what my FULL name (first, middle, last) spells out, since I already know it's longer than the alphabet. Yeah, THAT was fun on SAT forms. The thing about my last name is that it's not as difficult as it looks or soun...
Somehow, I predict he's going to weather this trauma better than you are. Hugs to you and the boob. Wait, that sounded all wrong...
Yes, I Took Pictures of the Bleedy Cat, But You Don't Get To See Them
Y'all? Poor Stewie. I make fun of him all the time, obviously, but he's my baby, my special little guy, he's Mama's precious angel baby, really, and he's just...SO dumb, and he gets himself into these predicaments that...Oh lord. Okay, we need some pictures here. But I promise, once the GORE com...
A public train station? With no public parking? I'm a hopeless midwesterner. I'm so spoiled with easy access to parking.
Actual Conversation: Miss Banshee and the Ticket
So when Captain Awesome came to visit last week, I picked him up at the local train station, and had to wait about five minutes for the train to come in. Me: Well, I have to park the car, because I can't park in front of the stupid station or I'll get a ticket. The World: No matter where you par...
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