Participatory Democracy

Last week I attended a New York City Council committee meeting about funding for arts programs in the public schools.

It was really interesting to see how the process works. "Wheels of justice turning slowly" indeed. The meeting started at 1 pm, we moved to a larger chamber at 2:00, and the meeting was finally over at 4. Or maybe it was 5. At any rate, I was part of the last group to give our testimony.

And I think I was the only person there without some other agenda other than just wanting my kid to continue to have art classes. And guess what? My kid hates one of his art classes! (Music.)

Everyone else either worked for an arts organization or was somehow connected to some group that made money or something from dedicated arts funding.

Now, I did attend becuase a group I'm a part of, Center for Arts Education, asked me to, but even the other parents -- all 4 of them-- had some other reason. 1 guy is a musician and he wrote a cute song ("You can't spell 'smart' without 'art", thanks Tom Chapin!); another is getting her teaching degree in, yep, art, so she'd like a job in a few years, and so on.

And I was the ONLY person who told a STORY about ONE kid. Everyone else spoke in generalities or referred to statistics about the value or art in relation to academics. I told a story that illustrated it:

During writing time at school, the way they do it to draw their story, then write the words. DB tells great, detailed stories, but he would only write clipped, short ideas. I thought it was handwriting issue, but last spring the art teacher taught him to draw people beyond the stick-figure style, and now he tells better stories.

I can only think it's because he now is confident he can draw what he wants. His people are still sticks (I didn't say that in my testimony), but he CAN draw whatever he wants.

They liked my story!

I was impressed with the attitude of the committee chairs who had to stay the whole time and listen to new people say the same thing over and over. They were polite and positive and thanked us for staying till the end. One guy who had to leave at 3 (clearly no one had expected the crowd they got) even apologized.

Haiku Friday: Thanksgiving Edition

Just enough turkey
on my plate to enjoy it,
didn't overeat.

I skipped the stuffing
and we skipped the overnight:
good to be back home.

DB had nuggets,
warm crescent rolls; for dessert
peanut butter cup.

Didn't fight with him
at all about what he ate
pleasant all around.

Husband's family
of origin issues are
another story...

Whatcha gonna do,
it's only one day a year,
the rest to ourselves.

We all went around and said something we are thankful for:
* Skids and Mudflap the ice-cream twins Tranformers (new as of yesterday)
* Judy Moody books that have gotten DB to enjoy reading
* That our niece/cousing.granddaughter's recent surgery went well
* That we live in America
* That we were together and travelled safely
* Employment
* Our clients

It was nice. Plus, I have a sour-cherry pie here at home from the school fundraiser last week, and boy is it good! So that's my Thanksgiving treat.



Would you like to haiku today? To participate in Haiku Friday, just follow these steps:

1. Write your own haiku on your blog. You can do one or many, all following a theme or just random. It or they can be part or all of your post, but your post must include a haiku. What's a haiku, you ask? Hint: 5-7-5. More info: Click here. Or here.

2. Sign the Mister Linky below with your name and the link to your haiku post (the specific post URL, not your main blog URL). DON'T sign unless you have a haiku this week. If you need help with this, please let me know.

3. Please leave a comment after linking, thanks! (Eventually the Mr Linky links go away, I think, so they only way we'll find you in the future is via your comment.)

4. Pick up a Haiku Friday button to display on the post or in your sidebar by clicking the button at the top of this post.

REMEMBER: Do not post your link unless you have a haiku this week! I will carry on the esteemed tradition of deleting any links without haiku!

Haiku Friday, Now With Gratuitous Cute Baby Photo!

Busy busy week
s'posed to be a week off? Ha!
didn't quite happen.

I was going to use this past week to catch up on a lot of things. Somehow, it ended up being mainly more of the same, though I did make time for some rejuvenating activities. Like meeting this little guy here. Is he a sweetie or what??

Anyway, the busy work is actually leading to some income for us, so that's a yay!

And Husband and I spent last Saturday learning lots of interesting stuff about WordPress (am I allowed to say that name on my Blogger blog?). My favorite idea I came away with is to start a blog for the books of the month, and for photos of our related library crafts.

I also want to figure out how to scan and make Powerpoint presentations out of the books of the month so the kindergarden kids can "watch" them be read on the Smartboard instead of squinting to see the pictures.

Would you like to haiku today? To participate in Haiku Friday, just follow these steps:

1. Write your own haiku on your blog. You can do one or many, all following a theme or just random. It or they can be part or all of your post, but your post must include a haiku. What's a haiku, you ask? Hint: 5-7-5. More info: Click here. Or here.

2. Sign the Mister Linky below with your name and the link to your haiku post (the specific post URL, not your main blog URL). DON'T sign unless you have a haiku this week. If you need help with this, please let me know.

3. Please leave a comment after linking, thanks! (Eventually the Mr Linky links go away, I think, so they only way we'll find you in the future is via your comment.)

4. Pick up a Haiku Friday button to display on the post or in your sidebar by clicking the button at the top of this post.

REMEMBER: Do not post your link unless you have a haiku this week! I will carry on the esteemed tradition of deleting any links without haiku!

Annd, Haiku Friday Sneaks Up on Me Again!

Really no excuse
for forgetting this again ...
what is my deal here?

With a little help from DayQuil to control the cough I woke up with, I had a great time in the school library today. Each month DB's school features a different book that inspires discussion and projects. We moved the "bucket drops" from the October book-of-the-month, How Full Is Your Bucket, to a different wall, then made a new display of vegetable soup inspired by the November BOTM, Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen.

We also have to add something new from now on-- the librarian said the principal told her to add a "Task sheet," describing what the kids did for each project and why, like this: "Using crayons, K and 1st-grade students decorated foods inspired by Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen, including onions, carrots, string beans, noodles, tomatoes, potatoes, cheese and bread."

It was fun to write them up and make those pages fit the theme of each display, and I also think they help make the projects look more "official," instead of purely "for-fun."

Next week we're going to decorate mittens and hats and read the book Caps, Hats, Socks and Mittens. Guess who's bringing the craft? Bring it on!!

Would you like to haiku today? To participate in Haiku Friday, just follow these steps:

1. Write your own haiku on your blog. You can do one or many, all following a theme or just random. It or they can be part or all of your post, but your post must include a haiku. What's a haiku, you ask? Hint: 5-7-5. More info: Click here. Or here.

2. Sign the Mister Linky below with your name and the link to your haiku post (the specific post URL, not your main blog URL). DON'T sign unless you have a haiku this week. If you need help with this, please let me know.

3. Please leave a comment after linking, thanks! (Eventually the Mr Linky links go away, I think, so they only way we'll find you in the future is via your comment.)

4. Pick up a Haiku Friday button to display on the post or in your sidebar by clicking the button at the top of this post.

REMEMBER: Do not post your link unless you have a haiku this week! I will carry on the esteemed tradition of deleting any links without haiku!

INSERT MISTER LINKY LINK HERE

Health Care Debate: The Necklace Edition

This is the first and least relevant of my questions about the health-care bill that passed the House this weekend ...

Why was Nancy Pelosi wearing a lariat of Twizzlers?

Was it her emergency snack for the all-night session?
Photo by Yuri Gripas/ Reuters

After the Flea Market: Me and Mini Me

I made a whopping $8 for my $84 investment at the flea market. (Not counting the $100 to get the sewing machine repaired mid-project, since that would have happened sooner or later anyway...) But it was a good time anyway.

The best part: Finally meeting the guy I keep hearing looks just like DuckyBoy. I think they're adorable. (DB didn't see any resemblance.) You be the judge:

Haiku (Late) Friday!

Omigosh, I completely forgot it's Friday until @rmitty FF'd me on Twitter... I read her tweet and went, uh, Friday, isn't there something I do on Fridays?? ... Yikes!

I haven't even posted since last week. Ironically, what I've been doing is helping other people create websites and, yes, blogs! There's God showing that divine sense of humor!

And then there was Halloween to recover from. It was loads of fun. We went with some friends to Metropolitan Ave, DB had a blast dancing at one stop and shoved his way to the front of the candy line with the rest of 'em. My favorite part of trick-or-treating was that DB kept holding up his candy-holding pumpkin and making it say, "I'm not full enough! Is that the best you can do?"

My favorite part of the whole day was spending the rest of the evening at our friends' house and getting to play Wii tennis and bowling and letting the kids play. That, and NOT dressing up. It was nice weather so I just wore my Old Navy Halloween shirt and orange jack o' lantern hat and was happy about it. For once I didn't need to dress up to have a good time.

Plus my feet hurt so much Friday night that there was no way I could be Laura Ingalls a 2nd day in a row!

On Sunday we let DB eat as much Halloween candy as he wanted -- my friend was pretty shocked, 'cause she has A Plan for doling it out to her kids and then tossing it. Yep, as long as he ate healthy-ish food periodically throughout the day, he could pretty much go to town. I liked that he kept asking me if it was OK to have more, though.

Hey, Jan, how about a haiku? Well, let's get one going:

Sewing like crazy
to make a craft sale deadline ...
we'll know tomorrow

if I make money
with my holiday/fall wreaths
and some outgrown clothes...

DB's school is hosting a craft/flea market as a fundraiser, the idea being that the school sells you a table and then you can sell whatever you want. So I bought one to support the school and got the bright idea to make these fabric wreaths my MIL makes for her church fair every eyar.

I actually was hoping she'd have some leftovers lying around, but when I asked he she was like, "Here's the pattern!" which actually is really cool, except she didn't warn me that the first 5 of these buggers you make are the Hardest.Ever!! I have made every mistake possible when only doing straight-line sewing.

And my sewing machine broke.

And DB broke one of the styrofoam wreaths as we were walking out of the store with it. Niiice.

More cosmic sense of humor! I figure, for next year I'll be all warmed up. Meanwhile I have 4 to sell tomorrow plus some of DB's outgrown winter coats and assorted clothes.

I had big plans to make some cool holiday handbags too, but it's just a pain to even find the right stores that carry the right fabrics near me. So, next time. I'm proud that I've completed all the ones I could. It's a lot for me right now to follow through on something like this.

But meanwhile, I apologize for not getting this posted earlier!

Would you like to haiku today? To participate in Haiku Friday, just follow these steps:

1. Write your own haiku on your blog. You can do one or many, all following a theme or just random. It or they can be part or all of your post, but your post must include a haiku. What's a haiku, you ask? Hint: 5-7-5. More info: Click here. Or here.

2. Sign the Mister Linky below with your name and the link to your haiku post (the specific post URL, not your main blog URL). DON'T sign unless you have a haiku this week. If you need help with this, please let me know.

3. Please leave a comment after linking, thanks! (Eventually the Mr Linky links go away, I think, so they only way we'll find you in the future is via your comment.)

4. Pick up a Haiku Friday button to display on the post or in your sidebar by clicking the button at the top of this post.

REMEMBER: Do not post your link unless you have a haiku this week! Even though I have barely kept with the tradition of Haiku FRIDAY, I do promise to carry on the tradition of deleting any links without haiku...

Have a great weekend!