Beyond Binkies, Code and Make-Believe

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s influence in our school.

We had the pleasure of attending "Art Night" at our daughter's school tonight.  This is an evening where each class displays the projects they have worked on through this week.  This includes some of the Art Lit projects such as the Dale Chihuly chandelier, the Korean scrolls on rice paper (<< at left) and the African paper collages inspired by the art of Lois Jones.

I'm getting depressed by the growing illiteracy in our schools.

Enough with "oh you tried," or "close enough" when it comes to spelling, grammar and speaking.  I feel that we are setting goals of illiteracy in our schools.  Our daughter comes home almost daily with her writing that is somewhat phonetic, but in many instances not close to being spelled correctly.  She's in Kindergarten.  Some of you may think she's too young.  I don't agree.  Why not learn it correctly from the start?  Why not learn how to accept constructive corrections to help us learn better?

Never play with a squirrel.

Sometimes gems of advice come from very short, young people.  Today this gem sprang from the mouth of our three-year-old. 

"Never play with a squirrel!"

The Bee Movie - It was funny, really.

We took advantage of a school fund raiser and bought movie tickets in groups of 10 for $.90 for each child.  The entire family may attend 10 movies for $18.  Not bad.  First one, "The Bee Movie" with Jerry Seinfeld.

We all enjoyed it.  There were enough sub-references only adults or possibly older teens would catch.  The animation was fun and the humor, as well as premise left us giggling.

Spring is sprunging ?

We saw the sun!

Chores were done , the temperature had risen to 45. 

Time to go OUTSIDE!

Shorts or short sleeves were the order of the morning through lunch.  It was beautiful, crisp, sunny.  A bit cold for our parakeet - we tried but he didn't look happy at 52 degrees in the sun.  Whimp.

I had forgotten how fun it is it laugh until it hurts

I love my girlfriends and having time with just us.  But I have to admit, the dynamic of adding in the husbands puts a hilarious spin on it all.  My two friends that I seem to spend many daytime hours with regularly at the school or doing a.m. coffee at New Seasons put together an evening for the three couples for the first time.  OH MY GOSH!  My throat hurts, my sides still hurt.

Once and Watershed - what a nice way to say, "I love you."

This Valentine's Day was quite fun.  It's actually the best I can remember.  Our home was polluted with construction paper hearts everywhere.  The children had stashed items for each of us under their beds.  My favorite treat was music from my husband.

Chamberton - OC alternative rock band

We have great friends in Laguna Beach.  James revealed a part of his life that we didn't know about until recently. HE was in a band.  Not just any band, but a touring band that went to Japan.  This was brief, but he's still a musician and now they are getting the band back into the recording studio.  Latest updates - they are laying the final tracks for the album and there is talk of movies.

Our iPods can tell so much about us

My husband and I rarely mix up our iPods.  We are still using the little 1GB shuffles from a few years ago.  They work for us.  We don't get many opportunities to use them since we always have to, sigh, hear the children.

I have a habit of walking to the beat.  Sometimes it is challenging. I also like to have upbeat, happy music that I tie into happy memories. Now as much as I am open to new things (not really) I still like my 70's and 80's music. I admit to still being a fan of Donna Summer and disco.  Yes, it's true.

No Country for Old Men. Whew! It was rough.

This was the first of the nominated films for the year we managed to see in a theater.  After this, "Juno" is next.  This is not for the faint of heart.  I'm glad to have seen it. It was a well made, well acted movie.  The plot and graphic violence was a bit too up-close and personal for me to ever want to see it again.