Concert

Noah had his first concert last night. He was so excited. The kids contra danced.

Thank goodness the NH state government is finally going to step in and give me permission to not give a shit about anyone anymore. Whew.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2011/03/22/hospitals_families_bear_brunt_of_nh_budget_cuts/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news

The boys have a t-shirt which says "An Owie to One is an Owie to All". I wish more people saw it that way. These people are rock stars to me.

Next on the chopping block in NH, Healthy Kids. We need to care about this, People.

I probably won't say more about this, but let me be clear in my position that the working class is not the problem. Neither are the kids. And unions do not have the power to hire or fire people, so stop patronizing me with that simple argument. It makes us both look stupid and assumes I don't and can't understand the truth of how very complicated these issues are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVemRn3FXVY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKOvqXoWB7s&feature=related

(I tried to get these up as videos but couldn't do it. Hope the links work.)

It's almost here...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Big day

Noah told me the other day, Friday, that he was writing without thinking about how to sound out and then spell the words. He spells phonetically for the most part, which is how kids learn to enjoy the process of writing without being bogged down over concerns of "correctness". But the point is that he is so excited. Noah loves words, especially writing right now, and you will often find him wandering around with pencil and paper in hand, or a white board. He loves to "read" the dictionary and learn new words. This is especially fun for me because I enjoy the very same things. I love words, the way they sound, what they do when you put them together. So now, instead of laboring over how to spell every. little. thing. and then laboring over how to form the letters, he just does it. This is a pretty big developmental milestone for me, as I think about the world that is unfolding before him. The world of words. I think about this time, of my little babes not being able to read with fluency, or before this, write. Soon these days will pass and the world will never be the same for them because of it.

Noah's school has begun the process of making maple syrup. They have tapped trees, collected sap, and stared the boiling process in the school's sugar shack. There will be a school wide pancake breakfast when they are done. Everyone is welcome to stop by and watch them work if the shack is open. Just pull up the drive and the shack is on your left. There are also beautiful woods and trails there if you want to take a walk. He is loving this experience, and I am so thankful.

http://www.umext.maine.edu/onlinepubs/pdfpubs/7036.pdf

Life at 66 Bagdad...

After playing together for nearly an hour, and making a big mess, the "Super Friends", of which there are three, declare that there is just way too much to clean up, especially since one of the friends has a broken muscle, and they are packing up and moving to Grandma's for a very, very, very long time. That's three verys.

I'm sure there are things in life better than this, but right now I just can't remember what they are.