Quotes of the Day

First one:

Mom, can we just stay home and read all day? -Dane and Aubrey, Friday morning.

Yup. They found my soft spot. Hopefully they have no idea how close I came to caving in. Picturing them curled up under blankets with books to their noses all day seemed very educational and inspired. I had to trust that their teachers had something even better in store for them - but sheesh!

* * *

Second one:

Mom? You know what I like about Jude? [Kindergarten cousin] He's so cuddly. He just gives me the biggest hugs. Every time I see him at school - even if I'm going with my class in another direction - Jude just runs up to me and gives me the biggest hugs. I like that. -Dane, grade 3

And another one by Dane, from a couple months back, so you see a theme here:

Mom? You know what I like about Dominic? [my friend Jennie's 6th grade son] He always asks me how I'm doing. Like when I came over after a baseball game with my uniform on, he asked me if my team won... and how I played... I like that.

So, two cool things there: Dane has really wonderful boys in his life and he appreciates affection and kindness and can articulate it.

Goodbye, #22

Last night my old friend Larry from high school left me a message to call him. Larry's wife is sick and due to have a kidney transplant, so I was worried he might have bad news.

He had bad news, but it wasn't about Tammy. It was about Brian Drugge (pronounced "druggy").

Turns out, Brian Drugge died of colon cancer this week. He was 39.

Brian was this really quiet, really amazing athlete who went to our high school. He was short, like 5'5", and was thick and swift-footed and easy-going. He started on varsity teams for baseball and football - and he always wore the number 22.

He had this noticeable sweet adoration from his teammates, and I don't think I ever heard a bad word about him. From anyone.

It was so hard to hear that Larry, perhaps like a lot of Brian's old buddies, was so sad that he didn't even know Brian was suffering. "Why didn't I know?" Larry asks during our phone call. "Why didn't he tell any of us, so we could..." Larry couldn't finish.

"So you could show him you cared?" I venture.

Larry's quiet. "Yeah..."

The other thing that makes me sad is knowing how colon cancer ravages the body. Brian's death reminds me of my dad's 52-year-old bird frame, all elbows and knuckles and teeth, after colon cancer ravaged his 6'3" body.

Brian was so compact and broad and muscular. I picture him reduced to that smallness and stillness and think it's just so contrary to what most of us ever knew him to be. I can't shake that image from my head.

He's survived by parents, siblings, a wife, 3 daughters. That's heartbreaking, too.

Rest in Peace, Brian Drugge. Even those of us far away still think of you fondly.

*
Friends, if you have anything to add, please share. (Karen?)

ROMANCING THE POEM AND A LOVEY-LOVE LETTER

My poem, "Romancing the Poem," was just accepted at Chronogram Magazine for their May 2010 issue, page 63.

Chronogram editor Phillip Levine wrote me my love letter and told me my poem is a "good, charming piece."

Yes, I'm quite happy. This makes me 5 for 5 in terms of my goal - one for every month of this year so far.

Smooches to Phil Levine!

THE WAR ON VACCINE: On PBS's Frontline tonight

Ashland is noted for having one of the highest populations of parents who choose not to vaccinate their children. I believe the number is at about 1/3.

Personally, I've had my kids vaccinated, but I think the debate is a really good one to follow. The more we research and learn, the better informed we can be in the long run.

My friend Jennifer Margulis, who's an award-winning journalist here in Ashland, has opted not to vaccinate her children. And I'm incredibly impressed that she agreed to this Frontline interview in order to further the conversation about vaccination.

Watch PBS tonight on your TV or online to learn more about the vaccination debate.

Got another Love Letter

Yes, I collected another love letter this week but I say Yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-oh-oh-oh-oh.



I walked through my house in exactly this way when I got the news.

Of Cherry Blossoms, Horse Pastures and Fish Eggs: A Modern Mama's Earth Day Mini-festo

It was an unusual housing situation. Not because I lived with my mom after my dad left -- lots of kids experienced that, especially in the 70s -- but because I lived in one of six four-plexes built off a pothole-ridden dirt road on a ranch in Tacoma, Washington. The landlords were rancher-jewelers who wanted to provide affordable housing for people in need, so a number of the units were filled with single moms raising their kids in what became a loosely dependent little community. What seems most unusual is that they gave us free rein of the ranch.

Most of the kids were boys, and for five years my best friends were these boys. I had best little girlfriends at school I could call to coordinate dresses and Leia buns for Star Wars on the playground, but at home I was all about ripped jeans, ratty tennies, a hooded sweatshirt, and pitch in my hair. Afternoons and weekends were spent climbing the fir trees that lined Pipeline Road, racing up higher than the power lines, tree sap gumming my braids and my fingers. At dark, when I’d finally go in, I’d smell of bark and needles and dirt. I also smell of dust and hay and machinery oil.

The big red barn housed machinery and crates that had been stored in there for decades. There, we hid, climbed, creaked around on the ground floor or in the loft, cobwebs stretching sticky across our foreheads, stamping horses snorting warm breath up our way when we lowered straw into their troughs.

Out in the fields, we'd run breathless and dusty, tripping on mounds and holes in the uneven earth, rolling in the weeds -- dandelions, daisies, thistles -- alternately tumbling out of our falls like expert gymnasts, or flying and landing flat as pancakes, stunned by the hardness of the ground. Once, early on, I ran through a patch of the most lovely green and fuzzy looking bushes I'd ever seen. It was a hot summer day and I was sure they'd refresh me, like cherry blossoms on thick branches in the spring or deep puddles in the fall. But they were nettles that lit my bare skin on fire. I ran down the hillside ablaze, only to find no real cure at home, except maybe a skin-washing – and a greater understanding of my surroundings.

Earth Day is all that exploration and more. It's community and discovery and time and curiosity and dreaming and play. It's what I hope my kids have when I open the storage shed and let them grab rakes and shovels and trowels, and set them to digging along the side of the house -- between the grape vines and our neighbors' flowering pear tree. I want them to dig in their half-inch increments, discovering clay-rich soil, perfect for carving out army trenches, moon craters, and a route to China. I love hearing them out there at 7 AM on a Saturday, their first thought not having gone to cartoons and TV but to what in the world were they going to discover that day. Their voices are husky, rushed, companionable: "You dig there and I'll dig here! Let's see if we can make our tunnels meet!" And the scraping, scratching, toiling begins.

Earth Day is the reminder that we should be outdoors, getting into mischief with our friends. Feeling the sun, the sap, even the nettles on our skin. Viewing the world from treetops, hilltops and barns. It's why I want my son to come limping in after he's discovered a certain kind of branch is too weak after he's fallen from up in the cherry blossoms, onto the wood fence and into the neighbor's yard. Of course I don't want injury. And I don't want unnecessary risk. But I do want exploration and discovery, and a kinetic understanding of nature. The more you figure out, the more you've been in it, the more you feel at home in it.

Which leads, of course, to taking care of the earth. It means understanding our best contributions mean walking or biking to school and all other nearby destinations; it means not polluting the air with exhaust, not digging up mountainsides for coal, or drilling coastal reefs never before touched by human hands. It means turning off lights and machines when not using them -- and using them less by being outdoors -- so we can dam fewer rivers, allowing ancient species of salmon to make their ancient treks from ocean to river source as their ancestors have done before them.

When I think of those salmon, I think of my children, who started as little fish babies in my womb. I want them to take the treks I've taken, and our ancestors before us have taken: the swims in clean rivers, the romps in the fields, the falls from tall trees. I want them to come into shelter at night, smelling of earth and air and bark, layered in grime and sweat and cherry blossoms, and live like they care about everything that exists on this planet. Because they actually do.

Yo Gabba Gabba! Aquabats!

Why, yes, kids. I can see why you'd think the lead singer is your father. He's certainly got the same moves...

Book Sense: A Conversation with Dane

Dane: Mom, how's your book coming along?

Me: Uh, super slow. I think I want to give up on it. It's going nowhere.

Dane: I know a book you could write that would be easy!

Me: Really? [raise eyebrow] What?

Dane: Just write a Dictionary!

Word.

UPDATE ON THE 2010 WRITING GOALS

Nine submissions -- for four essays and two poems -- are floating around cyberspace or drifting through snail mail as I write this. Nine!

It's April, and so far I've achieved my writing goal of one publication or acceptance per month for the year, and now I'm coming up on May.

May could be the month of love letters... or love letters. Who knows which will be which? I'll keep you posted.

In other news, Drunken Boat emailed me that the galleys will soon be ready for their issue that will include"Bar After Bar." Needless to say, I look forward to that!

*P.S. I'm home with Dane today. He's got symptoms similar to what Aubrey had last week. He's reading The Lightning Thief and will later watch a Discovery Channel video on dragons; I'm reading segmented/collage essays so I can try to give form to an essay topic I've been thinking about for years...

Major Triumphs In The Minor League

With the sun shining down on Field 5, Dane and his Yankees faced the Phillies on Saturday. They ultimately lost the game 7-9, but let me tell you what my kid did:

He bunted a run in, he stole third base, he scored, and he caught an amazing high fly ball to center field that surprised everyone in the dugout and in the grandstands, and possibly even Dane himself. ("I had my eyes closed, Mom!")

That fly ball was pretty much Dane's best play ever, and his dad had tears in his eyes to prove it.

Dane would still really like a shot at playing catcher - or anywhere on the infield - but he's got a great attitude and just keeps asking his coach what he needs to learn to be given that chance.

Coach's answer? Keep practicing.

Dane's answer? You got it, coach.

When Aubrey and her Mariners warm up for her game on Wednesday night, Dane and I already have plans to hit the lower field where he'll see what it's like to pitch from the mound to my mitt behind home plate.

Because he'd love to be a pitcher, too - and ya gotta love a kid with dreams.

Out of the Archives - Bad Word

I found this old post and this photo from 2006.

BAD WORD

My son, Dane, came home from kindergarten and told me his classmate Nadia got in trouble at school. She’d said the "S-H-" word.

Nadia's from Romania and she’s a little older than her classmates. She’s also a bit rough-and-tumble, but harmless enough. I asked him what kind of trouble she got in and he said she had to run a lap.

Aubrey, my younger child, yelled from the other room, "What's the S-H- word?"

I sighed and leaned forward on my chair, trying to come up with some quick teaching points as Aubrey made her way to the room.

I knew full well they’d heard me say it before, but when Aubrey showed up, I started out carefully: "Well… it's a word people say that shows their frustration -- only it's just adults who use it, and they try not to use it very often. And,” I said, looking at each of them deliberately, “kids aren’t supposed to use it at all."

Pause. Calm response. "It's SHIT."

"Shit?" Dane asked. "She said SHUT UP. . ."

To Cop A Feel - as published in Underwired Magazine

In the checkout line, Aubrey creeps under my skirt and stands up to run her fingers across my bare buns. She’s three and I’m used to her innocent caresses; however, I’m not prepared for her cold fingers goosing me as I pay for groceries, or the echoes of her voice bouncing off linoleum floors, glass doors and an open cash register with the holler of “Hey Mommy! Why aren’t you wearing any panties?”

I wince and blush at the checker suppressing her laugh and the guy in line behind me with bearded stubble and a 12-pack. I guide Aubrey down – and out – of there, and then ask her to please stand beside me and hold off on further observations. Please.

I’m not about to explain the subtle nuances of underwear at Safeway to a three-year-old: I’m not about to tell her and our neighbors in line that I am indeed wearing underwear, but I’m wearing what we call a thong, which would give her more to figure out and a more elaborate image for our neighbor than makes me comfortable.

I save that conversation for the van ride home, where I explain differences in underwear choices and panty lines to a little girl who will later that week hike her panties up to her armpits, creating a sort of toddler thong, and run through the house yelling, “I’m Mommy! I’m Mommy!”

Recently, her attention has turned to my breasts, and has advanced to petting. Heavy petting if I don’t stop her.

She cops a feel when we read books, when I finish a shower, when I wear a pretty blouse. She starts with the outer curves, working circles around them, and moves her way inward, skimming the nipples. She pokes, she strokes, she kisses.

I feel like a teenager in the back seat after Sadie Hawkins. I try to fend her off with a smile and the option to, say, just hold hands. “But, hey!” she seems to plea. “You invited me! And, after all, I love you!”

As unnerving, and even annoying, as these experiences can be, I know it’s healthy that my daughter is curious about the female body – mine, in particular – and that she is expressing herself this way. In fact, I’m grateful she admires what she sees and feels. It’s taken me years to get to that point. It’s taken me years of unassuming one-piece swimsuits, control top pantyhose, and bad posture to make my breasts seem smaller, all because I didn’t think the fullness, the billows, and the curviness of my body deserved much more.

My own mother had full breasts, thick thighs and a stomach that wasn’t flat. She was active – skiing, hiking, wearing short shorts and two-pieces without worrying about looking perfect – and she otherwise dressed in a classic style she thought served her figure well. I didn’t necessarily admire her body, and I never caressed it with Aubrey’s zeal, but I intently watched how she handled it, which seemed confident if somewhat careful.

A child of the ‘70s, my strongest notions of body size and proportion probably came from television. Wonder Woman, with her large breasts, small waist and cottage-cheese-free thighs set an early standard for me. As did posters of Farrah Fawcett at my dad’s house and any commercial with an attractive woman in it. I watched wholesome shows like Little House on the Prairie and Diff’rent Strokes, too, but my mind clung to images of women filling out their jeans and skirts, and even their prairie dresses, just so.

So when my daughter, who doesn’t watch commercial television, feels me up, telling me she loves me, that I’m beautiful, and that she wants to be just like me when she grows up, I start to understand that this size 12 body of mine is getting exactly the attention and admiration it deserves. Aubrey’s perspective is pure.

Some of that pure perspective rubbed off on me this summer, when I saw my mother and my aunt together. Both in their sixties now, their knees are dimpled, their waists are thickening, their arms are firm, and their breasts are still large, if slightly lower. They played croquet, they sat and talked, they ate from the snack tray. They laughed at the dog sniffing where nobody wanted him to sniff. They weren’t self-conscious. They were happy. They were comfortable.

I thought, Look at them. Look how they move with agility and strength, how they smile and laugh with confidence. Look how they accept themselves and enjoy others. And then I thought, That’s me. That’s me in 30 years. Look how lovely they are – and look who I’m going to be.

Perhaps Aubrey’s having that revelation now. Perhaps when she runs her fingers across my backside, gropes my chest, and asks when she’ll get her own set of breasts or if I’ll save my pink panties for her, she’s literally embracing who she is and who she’s going to be someday.

Who knows? Maybe I should have tested the limits of the cue I’d taken from Aubrey this summer. Maybe when I admired my mother and my aunt, I should have grabbed handfuls of their butts and their boobs like Aubrey would – if only to fully embrace my destiny, too.

SOME BARF, SOME BABYMOUSE

I'm home from SCBWI, which was inspiring, but I'm home with a sick girl who projectiled onto the nurse today, which was not so inspiring. (Well, maybe it was a little inspiring.)

This could be all I post for SCBWI then, given the circumstances, but I'll at least make it juicy. Here's me with Matt Holm, illustrator for the adorable Babymouse graphic novel series:

I knew Aubrey would love this, so I had him sign her copy -- but when I figured out his sister writes the books and he illustrates them, I had him add Dane's name to the inscription, as a source of inspiration for my own little writing/drawing brother/sister team.

Stepping into the Story Garden -- and the Mouth and Some Friends' Houses and the Kennel...

Doesn't that all sound magical???

I'm headed to Redmond, Washington, this weekend for a whirlwind conference. My writer-pal Jennie and I drive the 9 hours north tomorrow, hob-nob with other writers that evening, and then take all-day classes Saturday and Sunday - all in hopes of getting a better grip on the Young Reader's (and Writers) world. In case you're concerned, of course I'm going to sneak a quick dinner in with my one and only Karen on Friday night, but other than that, it's work, work, work. Learn, learn, learn.

Mick is away at the Oregon Dental Association Conference in Portland, Oregon, this weekend, frequenting coffee shops and skate parks in between classes with his pal Justin. Needless to say, because we're doubling up on the adult learning, we're, boo hoo, farming our kids out to family and friends.

Alas, the kids are beside themselves with excitement: Dane gets to spend the weekend with Logan, and Aubrey gets to spend the weekend with her cousins. (Hopefully, she won't bring and attract any sickness -- she's missed three days of school this week with the Flu. Fingers crossed.)

And Sharkles? Sharkles the dog? She's doing some doggie daycare and overnights at the R&R Pet Resort. She should be having herself some fun (even though she'll miss us!) as she plays with other dogs and tuckers herself out for each night of sleep.

MORE SCIENCEWORKS SPRING CAMP
WORLD RECORD HIGHLIGHTS

Here's Aubrey standing next to the world's tallest living man, Sultan Kosen, and the (formerly, recently, RIP) world's shortest man, He Pingping. For the project, the kids all sat in a circle, measured out the tall height and the short height onto separate pieces of butcher paper, and took turns drawing the body parts. They couldn't believe the contrast in heights between these two people -- and how they (the students) stood in comparison.

They also measured their waists in comparison to the world's smallest waist, a mere 15", a record held by Cathy Jung, who's been wearing corsets for 20 years and can't stand up now without one because her organs are all squished above and below her waist and her muscles there are shot! Find a coffee can -- we're talking smaller around than that. The kids' waists all measured in at around 22-30", if I remember correctly.

Here's all the butterfly art. The Queen Alexandra butterfly has an 11" wingspan, so it was easy to tell the kids to make their wing spans reach to the edges of standard paper laid out in landscape. They had the option to design their own colorful wings; I think Aubrey's the only one who chose to try to imitate it exactly. See if you can find it! (Click for larger image, of course.)


And here's one of the creepy clay creations. Dane opted to measure and replicate the world's longest tongue, which is nearly 4"!

Other clay projects were bulging eyeballs stuck up against their own eye sockets, long ropes of fingernails attached to the hand, and 7 inches of clay stretched from the ear to demonstrate the world's longest ear hair. (Grody!)

I would teach this camp topic again in a heartbeat. The subject is SO ripe for curiosity, wonder, and the opportunity for students to situate themselves in a larger context.

A Return to Wildlife Safari
(Excuse the underlining - I can't find how to escape it up here!)

Mick had never EVER been to Wildlife Safari before, and we were coming off a super hard week of Spring Break -- ScienceWorks (exhilarating but hard), Strep throat (Dane was almost over it and I'd been on antibiotics for 24 hours on this day), and lovely houseguests the week before that -- so we decided to reconnect with each other.

We drove a hundred miles north to renew our membership at Wildlife Safari, in hopes of finding some Spring babies AND seeing what sort of Good Deals we could find again this year.

For renewing our membership, we got a FREE ELEPHANT CAR WASH (look at that elephant loving on our van!) - valued at $20.

We rode in the Safari Bus out to Feed The Bears (knocked down to $10 per person instead of $40 as a Spring Break Special):

We threw the bears apples, and we had to be careful not to tag them in the head (we weren't always the best shots, though, sorry to say -- thankfully the bears never held it against us):

And lastly, we went on the Lion Training excursion (again, FREE with our membership renewal) -- where horse meat and a dummy stick got the lions to stand up on their awesome hind legs...

The lions were magnificent, and probably Mick's favorite, but I think we'd all agree the cutest little cutie patooties were the baby goats.

And Dane loved the camels -- he took these pictures:

And to top it all off, we had to participate in this special Reynolds tradition:

Baa.

Saddle Up
Well, that's a pretty cute cover for the "backside" issue!

FYI: Still waiting on my own copy...

SWEET TWEET!

While surfing the web to find an online copy of Underwired Magazine (haven't found one yet - might have to just wait until they mail me my hard copy from Kentucky and then scan it) I ran across this tweet on Underwired's Twitter account:

1. Essay submissions for next UW were hilarious. Our favorite? Hands down... To Cop A Feel. There was a lot to say about the "Backside" theme. 10:59 AM Mar 17th via TweetDeck

Now isn't that a sweet tweet?

NETTY'S BRAG PAGE

Meet Tai Song, Soccer Stud

Here's an article in the Tacoma News Tribune about Stadium High School's #1 ranked soccer team. My cousin Dani's son, Tai Song, is mentioned in it. Tai's been playing soccer his whole life and, apparently, he's stellar.

Dani, feel free to leave a comment with as many details as possible!

I wish I could see Tai play...

After-School Activity

Dane's going over to a pal's house after school today so he can see his friend's chicks. I'm laughing to myself right now because in a few years "picking up chicks" is going to mean something entirely different to them.

Since I have Strep Throat...

It's a good time to post some helpful information about the new healthcare plan!

Momsrising.org emailed me these highlights to begin to clarify what's been approved.

* * *

What are some healthcare highlights for children and families?

This Year - The following is a short list of key, important changes that will happen this year due to the passage of healthcare reform: [1]*

• Insurance companies will no longer be able to refuse to pay for treatment of children's pre-existing conditions.
• Health care plans will allow young people to remain on their parents' insurance policy up until their 26th birthday.
• Insurance companies will be banned from dropping people from coverage when they get sick, and they will be banned from implementing lifetime caps on coverage.
• People who are uninsured because of pre-existing conditions will have access to affordable insurance through a temporary subsidized high-risk pool.
• Small businesses that choose to offer coverage will begin to receive tax credits of up to 35 percent of premiums to help make employee coverage more affordable.

2014 - The following is a short list of key, important changes that will happen in 2014 due to the passage of healthcare reform: [2]*

• Insurance companies will be banned from denying health insurance coverage to people of all ages because of pre-existing conditions.
• Families and children with moderate incomes (up to about $88,000 for a family of four) will be able to get help paying for health insurance coverage.
• State insurance exchanges will enforce minimum benefit standards for health insurance coverage.

*Want more detailed information? Go here: http://action.momsrising.org/go/how/48?akid=1835.56106.Ujp9Lr&t=6

OOPS - SURPRISE!

How did I fail to anticipate a student would get queasy on Bizarre Human Feat Day?

It started with the hairiest family, got worse with the 12mm bulging eyeballs, and sealed the deal with the woman with the most piercings - specifically, the photo where she put her finger through her tongue hole! Poor little chap... he just said, "Um, I'm not gonna look anymore" and put his head in his hands.

In case you're concerned, he recovered. And I'm thinking there was no permanent damage.

Tomorrow is Dream and Scheme Day.

There will be foam tubing and duct tape to make humongous looping marble chutes, and newspapers and tape to make humongous twisting marble chutes; there'll be a huge box of dominoes to make a giant design to topple; there will be Dane's record-high number of Legos to build with; and an abundance of yarn for cat's cradle.

So many kids were fully engaged in learning cat's cradle today! It blew my mind. The World Record is 21,200 cat's cradles made by 3 women in 21 hours. Six kids who'd never picked up a loop of yarn learned today. It was really exciting to see how fully engaged they were, and how many "attempts" they were willing to make. "Attempt" is an awesome word at World Record Camp. It was also exciting to see children teaching each other. It even kept some of the more wound up kids mellower.

Dream and Scheme Day will include lots of kids trying to do their favorite activites, World Record Style; it will also include them brainstorming with me, so we can give ScienceWorks a list of records we think ScienceWorks should host to try to break a world record!

That's all for now. I'm actually feeling some sickness coming on -- I wish I could say it was just because the finger through the tongue grossed me out, but I happen to like that kind of stuff. It's more like a sore throat and earache. Just gotta make it through tomorrow...

THIS WEEK'S TOTALLY TUCKERING ME OUT...

But it's fun.

Field Day was perfect - for energetic boys, and as a break from a jam-packed museum on Spring Break. Tag was great, as were hula hoop, jump rope and head stand record attempts. Wore the kids out a little. They LOVED the Mentos and Soda group fountain record experiment. (Of course, anything with sugar or caffeine makes camp about the awesomest experience ever.)

Tomorrow is Bizarre Human Feat Day. It's been fun to define FEAT vs. FEET for them.

We'll cover stuff like the World's Most Tattooed Body, World's Hairiest Family, Furthest Popping Eyeballs, Longest Ear Hair, and, yes, possibly, Loudest Burp. (If I dare. Parents might boycott my classes after this, so I have to figure out if I'm prepared to go down in the name of Science!)

With scientific explanations for all of them, of course, if there's one to be had.

For one of our projects, I think I'll have students make clay representations of this:


Or this:

Should be spectacular.

THIS'LL BE QUICK SINCE A KID IS SICK

Taught at ScienceWorks again today, but had to go without one of my kids. That's right, Dane is sick. Turns out he's got Strep Throat.

Mick took him to the doctor on his lunch break, we both kept tabs on him via the phone, and he watched movies with Sharkles the Dog for a few hours. Not your ideal setup, but thank goodness I'm just a part-time worker and generally a full-time mom.

Tomorrow's camp lesson plan got switched to World Record Field Day instead of Bizarre Human Feats, because the weather's supposed to turn on Thursday (of course!) -- so we'll be trying to break records for hula hooping, jump roping, playing tag (no, I haven't found a record on that one yet, but with 13 boys in the class, I'm aiming to set one) and the Mentos and Diet Coke soda fountain.

I'm tired - and I've gotta squeeze in a midnight antibiotic dosage -- so good night. But, bless his heart, Mick's making the run to Albertson's as I type this to pick up my fountain supplies. I love that guy.

HOPE AND CARE

I know it's controversial, but I've believed in the possibility of health care for all for a while now. Here is an essay I wrote that aired in San Francisco in 2008. I'm so glad such daring progress was made this weekend - and that we're taking the leap.

Gearing Up For Day 2!

Today was great. LOTS of energy in that lab with 14 boys and 3 girls. Fortunately, they were all happy to spend their free time with Twister, Jenga blocks, stacking cards, Guinness picture books, and dissembling and assembling the organs of the human body -- and reading or learning World Record facts pertaining to each of those.

Lab lessons today included measuring everybody's waist and then seeing how they each compared to the woman with the smallest waist (15"!) and the world's fattest twin's waist (84"!). Of course, there was lots of fun and interesting talk as to how they got that way (corsets for the first, and a messed up pituitary gland after German measles at age 4 for the second).

The kids learned a lot about the pituitary gland today -- especially because the world's tallest people were/are so tall because of an out of control gland, or a tumor on it. We did a really cool project on those tall folks, too, drawing the world's tallest man on butcher paper and hanging him up to stand next to. He also has the world's largest hands and feet, so we measured those out too.

He Pingping's not the shortest man because of his pituitary gland, but because of primordial dwarfism, and we drew him on butcher paper as well - to stand next to the tallest man.

Tomorrow is Amazing Animal Day, which will start with charades and amazing animal facts. It'll move then into watercoloring the world's largest butterfly, which has an 11" wing span and is poisonous to predators. Kids'll be able to choose whether they want to paint the largest male or female butterfly (different colors, of course) or moth.

I'm still choosing my afternoon activity, but it should be fun. Natch.

The next day gets even juicier with Bizarre Human Feats. Kids'll learn a lot of wonderful and useless information -- and you'd better believe I'm going to let them see how much work and skill it would take to be the record-holder of the world's loudest burp!

WORLD RECORD WEEK

Camp starts this week! Following is the note I'll send home with parents the first day; above is a photo of He Pingping, the World's Shortest Man, holding the hand of the World's Tallest Man. He Pingping died last weekend at age 21. RIP, Pingping.

* * *

WORLD RECORD WEEK
Welcome to Spring Break Camp!

This week at ScienceWorks we'll focus on measurable extremes in the world: shortest/tallest, fastest/slowest, most/least, biggest/smallest... From the natural (world's largest mammal) to the cultivated (world's longest fingernails) to the man-made (world's smallest bicycle) -- and all sorts of categories in between -- we'll be curious about and amazed by World Records.

Daily Themes:
Monday - How High? How Heavy?
Tuesday - Amazing Animal Records
Wednesday - Bizarre Human Feats
Thursday - World Record Field Day (Dress for any weather!)
Friday - Dream and Scheme

At home, www.guinnessworldrecords.com might be fun to check out with your kid. And, if you've ever been part of a world record -- or if you've had a memorable experience to share about a record-holder -- tell your kid so they can share the news with the class!

One last note: Your child will learn at camp that any world record making or breaking she or he might come up with will need to be cleared with you first!

Looking forward to this,
Anjie

* * *

If you've read this far, dear Reader, do YOU have a favorite world record???

READ IT AND WEEP (OR CHEER!)

Check out this inspiring story Uncle Rod sent us about a father/daughter reading routine. It will astound you - and probably make you want to crack a book with a kid right this instant.

Click here for the NYT article.

I can't read The Giving Tree to my kids without getting a big old lump in my throat. And I love reading Small Brown Dog's Bad Remembering Day in as many different voices or accents as possible. And reading the Ramona books or the Anne of Green Gables series to my mom as she cooked up dinner are some of my favorite reading moments ever.

So tell me: What book have you loved reading to another - as a kid or as an adult?

Publishing Problem Solved

Underwired accepted my essay, "Cop A Feel!"

(That's their October 09 magazine cover to the left.)

It was accepted on the 13th, just two days before The Mom Egg needed a response from me regarding that essay - so I was able to decline with The Mom Egg, withdraw from Skirt, and give Underwired the go-ahead, all in good time and good conscience.

In an earlier post, I'd written that I liked The Mom Egg and its reputation (which is linked to Mamapalooza, an organization that empowers women and girls) and was excited my essay was accepted there - but The Mom Egg is not a paying market, like Skirt and Underwired. And not only do the other two pay, but they have snazzier presentation, for those of us who appreciate visual inspiration.

When The Mom Egg originally accepted, my friend Jennifer Margulis had suggested that if the other publications don't have a problem with multiple submissions (and they don't) then I could try emailing them and telling them my piece had been accepted elsewhere but I preferred their publication if they wanted my essay.

I did that with Underwired, which I felt strongest about, and got a sort of business-y response that said they just had their submission deadline a couple days earlier and wouldn't even read them all until the 18th, so I could withdraw my submission if I wanted.

I decided to let it lie.

I felt my essay was strong and didn't want to be annoying to them - so I made up my mind to just see what happened when they actually read it. I was going to wait until the last minute on the 15th and go with The Mom Egg if it came down to that. Needless to say, I was thrilled then when, on Saturday morning, the 13th!, Underwired emailed to let me know it had been accepted there.

Now I'm $100 richer, have another publication to check off my goal list for the year, have a little more publishing savvy, and am being published in a Kentucky market, which is exciting in light of my novel setting.

My essay will appear in the April issue of Underwired, which has the theme "Backside."

I'll post when it's out!

Tomato, Feta and Barley Salad

Monday's Rockin' Recipe Share

My in-laws are here and I planned BBQ ribs for our first night's dinner. (Ribs were half-price at Safeway, so I picked up three packs and used one and a half for tonight.)

I knew I wanted to accompany it with a good whole grain, something with a nice, low-glycemic index for the diabetics in my life -- and I LOVE the chewiness of barley -- so I found this amazing recipe at buffchickpea.com.

It's so good I only ate one rib and filled up with this salad. Go ahead, try it!

SOMETIMES A POST IS JUST A POST...

AND SOMETIMES IT'S YOUR 600th!

TOOT! TOOT!

SCRUB FLUB

You know your housekeeping commitment is minimal when you're cleaning your bathtub tiles and your 8-year-old comes in and says "What are you DOing???" like she's never seen anything like it.

PHEW!

I sent my application packet off today to the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) for the Work-In-Progress Grant. The application required a complete Application Form, my Career Background, a list of How I'd Spend The Money, the First 2500 Words of my Young Adult novel, and a Synopsis.

The total packet could only be 15 pages -- mine was 13 -- and I had to submit 7 perfect packets. The deadline is Monday, so I over-nighted it via UPS this morning.

The winners will be announced in September, so I can forget about the contest for now, but keep working on the project.

There are 4 prize categories:
-General (a catch-all)
-Contemporary (takes place in last 10 years)
-Nonfiction
-Multi-cultural/Minority (tells story from that perspective)

I submitted under that last one.

There will be a $2k grant winner for each of those categories, as well as $500 runners-up awards. After those have been selected, an additional "Unpublished Writer" category will open up, and the remaining applications will be considered under that category to win those same awards.

It was a long haul to manage the odds and ends, but I'm glad I did it. I feel more committed now than ever to the project, and like I have some serious work behind me -- and plenty in front of me, too, of course.

This fulfills one of my goals for this year: to apply for a grant. I think I'll apply for another one through the Oregon Humanities, which is due June 26. The writing sample then is the first 25 pages.

Note: I was reminded again how much I value my community of writers. Jennie emailed/phoned/came over to brainstorm and advise on various sections, Karen offered her understanding as a fellow artist, Maya from my Marin writing group helped me keep my head on straight by weighing in on which 2500 words to send, and my friend Ellen (Notbohm) gave feedback at various stages along the way. This sounds like an acceptance speech. It's not -- at least not in the sense that I've won anything, but maybe it is -- in the sense that I've accepted much-needed help from these smart friends.

IT'S NICE TO BE WANTED - PART II

(Dane made the Minor Leagues!)

Dane tried out last weekend for the Ashland Little League.

He didn't catch any fly balls in the outfield and didn't hit a single ball he was pitched - but the little fella played first base okay and evidently showed he's got alotta heart. He was drafted this week onto the "Yankees" Baseball team!

His coach called to tell him last night. Dane was grinning and saying "okay" and "yes" a lot, pacing the hallway.

His practices start tomorrow - and he'll have two a week, plus some weekend batting practice at the cages. The first game is April 3rd. The cool thing is that the fields and batting cage are just a few blocks away from our house, so Dane can easily ride his bike there.

I spoke with Coach Mark after he finished talking to Dane and learned he's been coaching all ages for years - and he's excited to coach yet again. Mark says he laid awake until midnight after the draft thinking about practices and drills. He says he does a lot of work with kids in small groups, and individually, which sounds perfect for a kid like Dane who says he wants to work hard and LOVES BASEBALL!

As usual, Dane has a sense of himself that Mick and I admire. Dane came home from tryouts and assessed his own skills. He said there were kids at tryouts who really knew what they were doing, and that he sees he's "got a lot of practicing to do." He says, "I need to get back into the groove. I want to be a pitcher. And I love batting."

And here's the thing about Dane: he'll do it, and he'll be excited about any progress he makes.

(To his credit, he hasn't picked up a baseball since last season. That's already changed. He carries his glove and a tennis ball around the house and throws grounders down the hallway to bounce back at him. He and Aubrey have also headed to our little fields next door to play catch -- Mick and I will do the same with him.)

One last note: It was perfect that he'd just seen Dennis Quaid in The Rookie. If you haven't seen it, check out the inspiring story of a middle age guy who followed his dream to play in the pros.

IT'S NICE TO BE WANTED - PART I

(ANOTHER ACCEPTANCE!)

A few years ago I wrote "To Cop A Feel," an essay about how Aubrey's curious and admiring gropes reminded me to embrace my own body-- and my destiny.

I got an email today that The Mom Egg, a New York-based literary magazine, wants to publish it in their upcoming annual issue, which will have the theme "Lessons."

Yay! I'm super excited about this.

I'm super excited about this, and I have to let them know by the 15th if my piece is still available, but now I have the dilemma of what to do about Skirt and Underwired.

See, I sent it to Skirt as a possibility for the "X" issue, with the title "Exemplary Behavior," and I sent it to Underwired as a possibility for their "Backside" issue.

Unlike The Mom Egg, both of those markets pay (and I think their websites are snazzier, although the literary content is probably similar). Additionally, they should be deciding soon whether they want it, because the deadlines were this week and the issues both publish in April.

That said, I have a call in to my local writing etiquette expert, Jennifer Margulis, asking her if I should email Skirt and Underwired separately to let them know this piece has been accepted elsewhere, unless one of them wants to grab it first.

We'll see if she says that's acceptable.

What do you think?

AUBREY on SCIENCE FAIR 2010

(as told to Anjie)

The Science Fair was very fun. My science fair project was "Why is it colder at Mt. Ashland than it is down here, when it's closer to the sun?" My brother's was "What makes a catapult work?" They were both very interesting. I thought mine was harder than Dane's because I had to figure out my answer with things that I couldn't make or do. I figured it out with my mom and dad's help.

Here's what I learned (wait, let me go get my board):


A mountain might seem big on earth, but it is a small part of the earth. The earth is very very very very far from the sun.

I also learned about pressure:

The earth is a big mass and its gravity sucks the air to the earth.
The air closest to the earth is thick and higher pressure which makes it warm.
The air further from the earth is thin and the pressure is low, which makes it cold!

Here's a picture of a judge asking me to explain my project. I got a green pretty ribbon. It says PARTICIPANT: SCIENCE FAIR .

A SAMPLE NIGHT OF SCIENCE FAIR PREP:

a brief photo journal and note

I like Science Fairs, really, I do. I love taking a question my kid has been curious about and turning it into a learning opportunity. An 0pportunity that happens to take at least TEN HOURS of preparation over the course of a few weeks per kid. I like that. Really, I do.

I like how the living room and kitchen turn into a work zone - and even the dog knows it. Glue and scissors and rulers and spoons and legos show up on any available surface; the computer has files up all the time -- like YouTube's "Catapults: Mini-Weapons of Mass Destruction" and googled responses for "Catapult history" and "How come mountains are cold when they're close to the sun?"; and spiral notebooks flop open to pages that list "Questions," "Best Guess Answers," sketches of air pressure on the earth, and all kinds of doodles.

I like how I get to practice my multi-tasking skills as a talking dictionary, penmanship coach, cookie baker, dinner maker, phone operator, Word tutor, research guide, diagrammer, and mom-trying-to-be-nice.

And I like that my kids, who usually have zero or minimal homework, have to roll up their sleeves and get committed. I really like that. I do.

But sometimes it's overwhelming.

And sometimes it makes complete sense to me that Wise Uncle Rod once toyed with recommending that his kids' school solicit money from parents rather than Science Fair Projects.

I like that, really, I do!

In the end, though, I know the Science Fair projects will give my kids a healthy approach to science, homework, curiosity, and presentations. And it will give them a good sense of accomplishment -- already, last year's displays on "Baking Powder to the Rescue!" and "COB: The Magnificent Mixture" are meeting rave reviews from their creators.

Perhaps some years it just won't work for our family to commit to the Science Fair, but for now it's coming together.

I might be crabby and shaking my soup ladel and stepping on legos and tape dispensers and pencils - but I'm also laughing and smiling and hugging for the other times. The times when someone says, "Oh, I get it!", asks another interesting question, admires their own penmanship, or jumps for joy when they've laid out their display and pasted it.

See? I like Science Fair Projects. Really, I do.



THE SCIENCE FAIR IS THURSDAY NIGHT. ONLY ONE NIGHT MORE OF PREP TO GO.