The least of these

I've been a little fired up lately, so fair warning.  :-)

It's election season here in Georgia.  There's campaign signs on every corner.  And I'm paying more attention this year than I ever had, because the people who are elected will directly affect some of the dearest people to me.  My kids.

No, I'm not talking about the ones I've given birth to (though they will be affected somewhat).  I'm talking about the group that will be coming to me in August.  I'm talking about the 20+ children whose lives will intersect with mine for the next 10 months.  And I'm talking about the kids who will come to school hoping to escape the chaos that they live with everyday.

But, you see, lots of people at the State Capitol don't seem to understand that.  They seem to think that we can perform miracles.  I don't know how many times I've heard one of the legislators say "Our schools need to do more with less."  Really?  See, the problem is the fact that these guys are middle class.  They've come from middle class homes, and they send their kids either to middle class schools or to private schools.  They don't seem to understand that too many times, the schools are the only refuge many of these kids have.   I don't worry about the "brain drain" my students will suffer.  I worry that some of them won't eat very much during summer.  Let me tell you a story to illustrate this.  The teacher next to me last year had a student who I'll call A.  One day, A comes to school about 2 hours late, and when she walked in, she looked awful.  Her teacher asked her what happened, and A tells her that she walked to school because she missed the bus.  (She lives about 5 miles from school.)  Why didn't her mom take her?  Well, her mom wasn't home.  The day before had been her mom's birthday, so she hadn't come home.  A was left with her older sister who sent her off to school with a "nice lady walking by."  What would have happened if the person walking by A's house hadn't been so "nice"?  I wonder about A during the summer.  Is she getting fed?  Is she spending more nights alone?  Is someone making sure her clothes are washed and her room is clean?  Does anyone tell her that they love her, that she is a valuable person, that she can be anything she wants to be?

Where am I going with this?  Well, my conservative friends may not like this too much, but I'm going to be honest.  The Religious Right is the cause of so much of this.  They've listened to too many radio shows telling them that people can lift themselves up by their bootstraps, that helping the poor is enabling them, and that small government is more important than making sure that kids are fed.  They don't care about the kids like A.  Oh sure, they say they do, but whenever it's time to make the hard decisions about making a state budget, they want to cut taxes, cut services, and cut public education.  Who's reaching out to the least of these among us?  Who cares about the kids like A who have no where else to go?  Sure, we can talk about the failure of society, about too many parents having kids out of wedlock, and about parents not taking responsibility for their children, but it seems that all that does is point fingers.  It seems like all conservatives want to do is assign blame, while the kids like A, and others like who walk into our schools everyday need someone to care, they need someone to reach out and love them.  Teachers try.  We give everything we can, but next year, I could have 25-some kids in my room.  While I know that I can teach them all, I worry that I'm going to miss the lost ones.  Am I going to have to time to see when a child is hurting and reach out to them?  Am I going to see the ones that need that extra hug, that extra minute, that extra encouragement?  Is it really worth the extra $20 a year you may save in property taxes?

Summer's here and the living is easy!

Or hot, as the case may be.  Since the temp has hovered in the 90's for the last couple of days, we decided to head to the pool yesterday!  It was so nice to be back.  Andrew even had a good time (once he decided that he liked the water).  Nathan got into the water more than he ever had.  He even went down the smaller slide, which is something he hadn't really ever done before.

Our park system has about 100 rules for the pool.  Their rules include how close you have to be to your child (under 6 must be within arm's reach), how many kids you can have with you (no more than 3 per adult, though I'm not sure how they would enforce that if you had 4+ kids), and what type of clothes you must wear (bathing suits, no cut offs).  They even check babies who have to wear swim diapers AND plastic pants AND a bathing suit.  But, I think they are missing some of the most important rules.

1. If you are (how shall we say it?) umm, well-endowed, especially if you've had at least one child, then please stop shopping for your bikini tops in the junior section.  They just don't give you the support you need.  Seriously, it's embarrassing for you (even if you don't notice).
2. If you have to shop at Lane Bryant (which is OK, I love their clothes!), then please remember that string bikinis are NOT your friend.  Nobody wants to see that much cellulite.

I also have a 2a to pregnant women.  When you come to the pool, wear a suit that covers your stomach.  Yes, pregnancy is a beautiful thing, but stretch marks are not.

If I could post these rules, and have everyone follow them, I would be one happy swimmer!

No Scare Tactics, Please!

Tuesday night, I went to a "Mom's Night Out Goes Green" at a farm near me. (Yes, we do have farms in metro Atlanta! You just have to drive to get to them. I'm actually closer to "the country" now that we've moved.) Anyway, one of the presenters was one of the moms on www.gwinnettareamommies.com . She owns her own company selling cloth diapers and other "green" products to moms. (Here's her site.) She was great. She told people easy and fairly inexpensive things that they can do to use less paper products in their homes. She's even (almost) convinced me to buy some cloth training pants for Andrew! I learned some great ideas that I can use at home right now.

I wasn't as crazy about the 2nd presenter. She owns a company that sells bulk grains, baking products, etc. (It's a place my Aunt Sandy would have LOVED.) But, instead of teaching us how to use more natural products in our cooking, she resorted to scare tactics. You've heard it before: Even the "healthy" products at the grocery store are bad for you; the way food is prepared means that there's no nutritional value in it anymore; you must make everything from scratch (I'm a working mom, so it's not going to happen!). It may just be me, but I'm completely turned off by that. Believe me, I know that there are lots of things that aren't good for me, but when someone tries to tell me that nothing you buy at the store is good for you, I have a tendency to go "Seriously?" It was just a real turn-off. While they may have had some good products, I just wasn't even interested in buying them. Not the best way to promote your product.

But do go to Emily's site! She's got lots of great things there!

A New Milestone

We've reached a new milestone here in our family. Matthew went off to camp yesterday. He's been gone about 36 hours, and it's been very, very quiet. (That could be, in part, because Nathan has no one to fight with. I'm just saying.) He's up in South Carolina right now, so it's very weird knowing that my eight year old is in a whole other state without a single family member. He is with a group of rising 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders from our church. To be honest, while I miss him, I haven't worried about him. First, Matthew is very social. Just ask his teachers. :-) The chance of him being homesick is very, very low, because he'll be having too much fun hanging out with all of the other kids. Second, he is with a group of adults that I trust implicitly. I know most of the chaperones that are on the trip, and I know they will take care of him as well (or better!) than I would. And finally, he's old enough to be on a trip by himself without Mom or Dad around. At some point in time, you have to let your kids grow up. While I love having them around me (most of the time), I also know that my job is to help them learn to live without me hovering over them. So, I sent him off with $8 to buy junk food (plus snacks in his suitcase) and a reminder to listen to the leaders. He'll come back tired, dirty, with a pile of laundry, and hopefully with lots of wonderful memories. Isn't that what parenting is all about?

Yum!!

So yesterday I said I was going to try and make my own granola bars. After searching up and down the aisles at Publix to find honey (I hate shopping at new stores!), I finally found it and tried this recipe.

Homemade Granola Bars
Recipe by For the Love of Cooking.net
2 cups of old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/3 cup of honey
1/4 cup of brown sugar
2 tbsp unsalted butter, plus extra for pan
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup of shredded coconut
1/4 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips

Butter a 9 by 9-inch glass baking dish and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Spread the oats and almonds onto a baking sheet pan. Place in the oven and toast for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
In the meantime, combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, extract and salt in a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. Cook until the brown sugar has completely dissolved.
Once the oat mixture is done, remove it from the oven and reduce the heat to 300 degrees F. Immediately add the oat mixture to the brown sugar mixture, next add the coconut and chocolate chips then stir to combine. Spread mixture evenly into the prepared baking dish and press down, evenly distributing the mixture in the dish and place in the oven to bake for 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow them to cool completely. Cut into squares or bars, wrap individually in saran wrap then store in an airtight container for up to a week.

I made them without the coconut (I'm not a fan) and accidentally used 1/2 cup of brown sugar. (That's what happens when the recipe is on the computer across the kitchen from the cook.) I also added some wheat germ (about 1/4 cup or so). Anyway, despite those changes, they turned out great! Nathan even gave them two thumbs up. I'd add a picture, but I haven't a clue where my camera is right now. They made 16 granola bars which will last us a week, and the only thing I'll need to get to make another batch is more oats (I'm almost out). Definitely a once a week recipe! Next time, I may make them with raisins (or peanut butter!).

Busy, busy, busy!

The last two weeks have been unbelievably busy around here! In the space of a week, I moved my entire classroom (just across the hall) and all of our stuff to a new house! That's right, we are officially in new digs. Our new house is in a neighborhood with a ton of kids. We haven't been out much to meet anyone since we're either unpacking boxes or it's raining (or too darn hot to go outside). Today, the next door neighbor stopped by this evening to say hi and tell us about the kids in the neighborhood. It looks like there are at least a couple that are Matthew's age.

I also picked up my first CSA share yesterday. A CSA is community supported agriculture. Basically, every week I will get a bag of produce from a local farm. I love it because I get fresh vegetables without having to grow (and kill) a garden. This week, I got red potatoes, vidalia onions, salad greens, spring onions, swiss chard, and . . .collard greens. (I need to find someone to take the collards off my hands. We don't eat greens.) I made fried red potatoes tonight for supper. I steamed the potatoes, chopped up a couple of the spring onion bulbs, and fried them all together with some mushrooms I had in the fridge. A little salt and pepper (and granulated garlic since my fresh garlic is still at the old house) and the onion tops at the very end. Yummy. The boys saw the onions and refused to touch them. That's OK, more for me!!

Besides the produce, the farm also sells eggs (from the chickens that are scratching around the farm) and lightly pasteurized milk from a farm near here. I got a dozen eggs, but I don't know if I'll get any milk. It's $5 for a half gallon, and we drink at least a gallon a week around here. They sell chocolate milk, so I may buy that as a treat for the boys. They also sell Greek yogurt, and a homemade veggie cream cheese which I can't wait to try. I'm so excited about the next 25 weeks!

Of course, having this fresh food is making me want to serve less processed food to the boys. So I went searching for a granola bar recipe. I think I found a really good one! I'm going to try it tomorrow (when I get my baking dishes from the house). I'm also going to make frozen banana pops too! It's going to be a delicious summer!

That is if I ever get the boxes unpacked.