ValerieBenAndKids

Activites

2011-07-17T15:25:00.000-07:00

SO, we have been super busy for the last few months;
In June we went to Washington for 3 weeks and visited our families. Benjamin's Brother Alex graduated with his associates' degree, and I got to see my Sister Lena's house. It was pretty fun. We also discovered that our kids are great at traveling! We stopped by Yellowstone National Park, Mt Rushmore, and a bunch of other historical sights; Our kids traveled really well. We didn't even bring along a movie player!
Also, at 12 noon Wisconsin time we all sang a couple of Songs from the Solidarity Sing a Long. My kids saw one day that it was 12 noon in Wisconsin (10am in Washington) and they started singing 'Bring back Wisconsin to me' and 'watch him stew'. I have never been more proud. Except perhaps the time when my 2 year old raised his little fist during the chorus of "Solidarity Forever".

I have also been able to get back into helping with the recall efforts. I have gone canvassing for Fred Clark and the Democratic Party a few times already, but this weekend I got to be a part of 'Get Out the Vote'. I went door-to-door and encouraged or reminded People to vote on Tuesday. It was quite different from working with the Democratic Party. My main hang up was remembering to tell people which group I was with.

By the way, if you vote in a primary election for a democrat, then you are instantly labeled as a democrat leaning voter. So if you vote in primaries across party lines, be prepared to get lots of visitors around election time!!

This week I am planning on attending the assembly "debate" on the State's redistricting plan. It violates current law, so a new law will also be passed to make it legal. Then every city and county will have to redraw their lines, and set aside their own carefully made maps that they have been making for the past few months.

This will cost money, but I am sure that it will be pushed through like everything else.

I really hope that these "taxed too much" people show up and protest the unconstitutional waste of public money that this redistricting entails.

The Assembly has also hired a set of lawyers to represent them- these lawyers drew up the redistricting plans, and they will stay on after the redistricting is over. The State Government has a legal team already, but they are not being used; Perhaps this is to avoid the scrutiny surrounding their dealings.

I put nothing past the Republican Party of Wisconsin. I believe that they are capable of every crime that exists. I also beleive that their support plays off of peoples' fears and latent racist and classist ideas. In America today there is a large group that will blindly follow this extreme fascist agenda simply because it is wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.

Great blog

2011-05-05T07:13:00.001-07:00

Awesome blog that I will now follow;

http://bdgrdemocracy.wordpress.com/

Henry Wallace

2011-04-28T15:57:00.000-07:00

Henry A. Wallace wrote this article on fascism in the New York Times in April of 1944. It is pretty relevant today in Madison, WI. I think that many Walker supporters would disparage this article as being alarmist, as many elements of the TEA Party and ALEC are described quite accurately.

“When facism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." -Sinclair Lewis

arizona's immigration law---from ALEC!

2011-04-25T05:38:00.000-07:00

Arizona's Immigration law was written by and fro the private prison industry. NPR did a nice story on this connection. Illegal immigration is a problem that needs to be addressed in this country. The solution is complicated; the ALEC is attempting to capitalize on the issue with a 'solution' that will benefit the private prison industry.

alecwatch

2011-04-20T05:11:00.000-07:00

Here is a good report on the ALEC. I think that alecwatch.org is going to become one of my favorite websites. The Alec is launching a PR campaign. They have been in the new lately, and that is bad for them. The ALEC is currently launching a public relations campaign. Their message is essentially to say that their highly organized, secretive, and effective model is a form of free speech, that other people do the same thing, and it is really nothing to worry about. William Cronon has a great analysis which disputes this claim. This issue is addressed under the heading 'a cautionary note'

If the extent of their corrupting influence in known, the public will be angry. The funders of ALEC may be boycotted. Their ROC (return on corruption) will be negative.

Mark Pocan infiltrated ALEC

2011-04-16T19:29:00.001-07:00

Mark Pocan Infiltrated ALEC a few years back, here are his observations.

That there are not socially conservative causes in ALEC seems to confirm the idea that they really are all about maximizing profits for large corporations. After the legislation comes out of the ALEC, it is then wrapped in a flag and couched in Christian values before it is sold to the American People.

The marketing of this stuff is amazing. Advertising is expensive, and it works. Plenty of people believe this stuff, who are otherwise nice normal people. I believe that once the lies are exposed, that these same people will look at the origins of this agenda, and realize that they have been used.

It is good to have family values, it is good to have personal responsibility and work hard. It is wrong for your elected government to tell you that their legislation is for the good of the people when in actuality it is written by and for the good of large corporations.

Glaxoclinesmith should not write medicaid prescription re-embursement legislation. Koch Industries should not write environmental regulations. Private charter schools should not write school reform. These things are wrong; wrong for every state that adopts these measures, and they are wrong for Wisconsin.

Even if everyone in the state joins the tea party and Walker becomes the president, I will still say this is wrong, because it is. The truth will out; maybe not today or tomorrow, but it will and when it does I am going to be on the right side of history.

a reason to recall

2011-04-11T13:45:00.000-07:00

Here is a good reason to oppose the Walker agenda.

http://scottwalkerisgoingtokillme.blogspot.com

Even if nothing else, this story alone is reason enough to oppose the big business legislation that is taking over our state. This makes me sick, actually, it makes me really proud of the sunburn I got Sunday afternoon canvassing for the recall of Alberta Darling.

Prosser- Palin

2011-04-08T18:17:00.000-07:00

I now know how Prosser was able to pull ahead in this supreme court election; sure he's the incumbent, and he is going for his 3rd term, the Americans for Prosperity launched a few new "nonprofits" that all funneled 2.2 million dollars for tv ads against Kloppenburg (Kloppenburg had around 1.4 million in outside support). Not to mention that a sitting justice hasn't been unseated in a LONG time.....
no, it was Sarah Palin's last minute endorsement. Palin also has an opinion on the national budget, which she recently shared with all of her twitter followers;

My new slogan for anything related to money will be "We can't AFFORD cowboy poetry & subsidizing abortion."

I am disappointed by the Kloppenburg loss, but I am not discouraged. I have done my homework, and this is a long fight. I feel strongly about my obligation to be politically involved in this. Even if all of the recalls fail, the entire state decides to repeal all environmental regulations, and the entire state votes to scrap public education altogether; even if the Koch industries succeed in their massive misinformation campaign. If everyone in the state learns about ALEC and says "so what" I will not dismiss this far- right agenda. I can not stand by and watch my state be destroyed.

"We will not remember the words of our enemies, but rather the silence of our friends" -Martin Luther King JR.

Prosser's 8,000 votes

2011-04-08T06:38:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I was not going to call fraud on this one; but there is some really compelling circumstantial evidence;

An additional 14,000 votes were found in Waukesha county after election day. The computer analyst who made the discovery and is in charge of the county elections is a former employee of David Prosser. She was also part of another election-related scandal back in 2002, where she avoided prosecution by trading her testimony for immunity. She has been criticized for her management of the computer system, apparently she used her personal computer instead of county-owned machines, and refused to let the county IT personal ensure that it was properly backed up and supported. The discovery of the votes was not reported for 29 hours.
This discovery of votes occurred because she claims that the village of Brookfield's data was not saved in the totals, though she 'hit save several times '. This woman has been a data analyst for 12 years.
And, then there is this; the totals from the polling places indicate a huge wave of voters late in the day...

- 24 wards in Brookfield
- 1379 votes for 5 wards
- 276 votes per ward
TOTAL VOTES FOR EACH WARD AT 7:00..... 6,620
- that would mean 7,680 people voted between 7-8!!

I don't know if there was fraud, but if I was looking for someone to commit fraud, This is who I would pick. This warrants an investigation, which has already started. We should at least figure out why so many Waukesha voters can't stop at the polls until 7pm- does no one vote in the morning, during lunch or on their way home from work? What is it with the massive 7pm rush to vote? If people are in line at 8pm, they are allowed to vote, so an extremely long line might explain the odd numbers.

Here is what our Governor said about the discovery of missing ballots;

A recount could begin as soon as next week. “As long as the rules are clear, as long as there aren’t ballots somehow found out of the blue that weren’t counted before, things of that nature, as long as everything’s above board, I think that’s fair,” said Walker.

Kloppenburg

2011-04-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

Joanne Kloppenburg has probably won a supreme court seat. If the recount confirms her lead, then she will have unseated an incumbent Supreme Court Justice, which she trailed by 20 points just 6 weeks ago.

I was at her after party tracking the ups and downs as precincts trickled in. Many polling places had a larger than usual turnout, some even ran out of ballots, which made the count slow, especially in urban areas. Early voting-which tended to favor Kloppenburg- also slowed the count I was there until 1:30am when she came out to tell us that the vote was officially too close to call, and the counting would resume in the morning.

The Kloppenburg victory, if it is upheld, is remarkable in this fete. I am a bit wary of declaring anything further, because Kloppenburg won on the "anyone but Prosser" ticket. David Prosser openly declared his support for Walker, and his intent to 'Complement' the Governor and GOP agenda. I also sincerely believe that Kloppenburg will uphold the law, and much of the actions of the current administration have been within the limits of the law.

I am absolutely sure that Prosser would be biased towards the GOP agenda. He has argued that it is not necessary for a justice to recuse themselves from cases involving campaign contributos, replacing the "if a reasonable person can see a bias" test with the "if I think I can be unbiased" test.

Kloppenburg has not won yet, even if her lead holds, it is not official until after the recount, which could take weeks. Even pulling 50% of the vote is a phenomenal accomplishment.
Prosser supporters, including the Koch-topus, outspent Kloppenburg supporters 3:2 on outside advertising. The unions and protestors were very instrumental in volunteering for Kloppenburg, however the Tea Party is also highly organized and they promoted Prosser. Both candidates took public financing, which probably prevented this from being as quite as nasty as the Gableman/Butler race a few years back.

I really think that we need to find a way to reverse Citizens' United, however that is less likely, as the Koch-topus has stretched its tentacles as far as the US Supreme Court. Open records for donors to nonprofits would also be a good step.

ALEC

2011-04-04T05:23:00.000-07:00

The ALEC is trying to take over my country. They say it in their own words on the top of their public webpage "controlling the nation by controlling the state houses" I have a few articles that discuss these guys better than I ever could.
This even lists the members if the 'private enterprise board' remember, each of these companies sent their employees here, paid 1,000 to join ALEC, then another undisclosed amount of money to be on the private enterprise board. The model legislation drafted by this group is then proposed as law by the republican lawmaker side of the operation- the lawmakers' pay a token $100 to be a part of the group, they are then lobbied by ALEC at private conferences and conventions. I am sure that this model legislation will benefit the members of the private enterprise board- but it is not likely that it will benefit the public.

Personal implications of the Walker agenda

2011-03-31T08:15:00.000-07:00

Some who read my blog are tired of the politics being discussed. My entire family, the Valerie, the Ben and the kids are all involved and affected by the current political strife in our state, so its news is our news. Here are some of the ways that the current Walker/ALEC legislation, besides being a morally wrong, and making us physically ill, will affect our lives.

My kids are all doing well at school, my kids will not suffer academically from the cuts to their school funding, I am a full time Mom, and we don't have many special needs. Maddie has been given some help through the Talented and Gifted program TAG, which is being defunded by the state. Her teacher consulted with the TAG coordinator and was given a few workbooks and lesson plans, but even that small amount of help will no longer be available.

I plan to vote April 5th in the spring election, and I generally do not carry ID with me. I plan to vote for candidates that have traditionally been favored by minorities and civil rights advocates. If voter ID is enacted in Wisconsin, it will have an effect on my voting habits. I live across the street from a polling place, but if I forget my license, I will have to travel home, pick it up, and then go back. I have four children, and getting to the polls is already difficult. I can easily imagine that this burden of proof will reduce the number of successful voters, and will not prevent any appreciable amount of voter fraud.

"The hottest place in hell is reserved for those who remain neutral during times of great moral conflict." -Martin Luther King jr.

gop misinformation machine ramble

2011-03-30T06:08:00.000-07:00

Walker and the GOP misinformation machine are telling plenty of lies about everything from the true cost of employee pensions to the cause of our nation's current financial troubles. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will cost the United states 170 billion dollars in 2011, for a total of 1.29 trillion since 2002. This breaks down to approximately $100 per household per month. The wars are a big drain on our national economy, and taxes have not been raised appropriately to compensate for the added cost. Instead it seems that the GOP is launching a national attack on public employees attempting to use the unbalanced budgets not to bring military spending under control (even in peacetime, the military makes up a huge percentage of the national budget, and is a major expense) but rather to convince the public that public sector unions are greedily taking more than their fair share of benefits and perhaps even salary, though there is a lot of data to counteract this...My conclusion is that the GOP is desperate to win the next presidential election. The military spending is the main problem, but their constituents support military appropriations, so the new scapegoat is public sector unions.

Much like the 'Welfare Queens' of the 1990's Public employees are an easy target. There already exists resentment and prejudice against the upperclass moderately well educated teachers, librarians, professors, and other public employees. They are do deal with the public, so many people have anecdotal stories of a lazy or stupid teacher that they can point to when deriding the incompetence of librarians or professors. They do belong to unions, and like any large organization some of the bureaucracy gets in the way of common sense. These instances are the exception rather than the rule; Most of the time the union protects veteran teachers from being fired for not following the latest fad in education reform (and everyone seems to know how to improve teaching these days, except of course for those actually trained to do it).

Perhaps the public sector workers in Wisconsin will weather this storm, I am fighting for them, but in reality there is a lot of anger and resentment out there over this economy, people are angry that a black man is in the White House. The GOP is conveniently channeling this anger away from the war that is draining our resources, towards public employees. It might work, as there are a lot of stupid people out there. But I am fighting for the rights of public employees, and I will fight this misinformation machine. They are lying, and the truth will out.

protesting week 6

2011-03-27T07:53:00.000-07:00

The Alec group was discussed by UW Madison Professor Bill Cronon in his new blog, Scholar as Citizen. I looked through his blog, and at first dismissed it as crazy conspiracy theory. However, after posting about the ALEC group, our friend Bill Cronon's employer, the UW Madison, was served with a Freedom of Information act request from the Walker administration, and then the ALEC group took down their website. Cronon discusses this extensively on his blog, but to me this drastic action by the far-right shows that they do indeed have something to hide. I have long suspected that this was not about the budget, but now we have evidence about the true motiovations behind this administration. In other news, We participated in our first march last Saturday. I have been singing with a group in the rotunda everyday at 12, and they were asked to lead the crowd in some songs before the march. I didn't get to actually be with the crowd, but we still had fun. The kids played during the rally, then we waited until the very end before we joined in. We wanted to make sure we had plenty of room so no one would get lost. There wasn't any problem with the march. There were lots of people, but everyone was super nice and helpful. When I had to pick up a kid, someone even carried my sign for me. We had never walked down state street before, and so we discovered this lovely badger sculpture. Maddie loved the Badger statues.

This week, a small cold crowd gathered, as a group from whitewater finished their walk and hand delivered letters to two senators and two assemblymen. The walkers wore their robes and hoods! there were about 30 of them. It was a great statement. Jut one of the many demonstrations that are happening everyday all around the state.

Some person made a SHAME cake, and was serving it to all the protesters on Saturday. It was a cute little act of protest, and since it was 20 degrees, the cake tasted pretty good.

This was up on a window a few weeks ago, but I like it.

music and inspiration for the protest

2011-03-18T18:39:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the lovely songs that I have learned over the past few weeks. I have so much anger about this budget bill, and the direction of this far right administration, It is difficult to voice my feelings in an effective way. I have managed to make some pretty great protest signs, but I have also been singing. Several singing groups have sprung up in the protest. The Unitarians sing every Tuesday at 7pm, and the Solidarity singing group is m-f at 12 in the rotunda. I like these groups because I can express my anger not only through protesting, picketing, and talking, but also a beautiful, powerful song.

solidarity forever-- a very powerful strong--

I love I'm sticking to the Union! Girl Power!
Especially for anyone who has ever fought sexual harassment at work..

I love this..please just sign me up for Jail for Justice after listening to this song.

The classic this land of course, we added a verse about access to our own gov't building after the DOA locked us out last week.

We shall overcome is always a great song, and it was very easy to add a verse that goes "Scott Walker won't be governor some day (someday soon!)" january 2012, the recall starts. I shall participate.

As I was searching for the music to we shall overcome, I found the MLK speech by the same name.
I especially loved this line;

"Before the victory is won.. some will be misunderstood and called bad names and dismissed as rebel-rousers and agitators… But we shall over come."

This will help me get through protesting this weekend. I can do this! Dr. King says so.

The complete text;

We Shall Over Come…

Deep in my heart I do believe… We shall over come.
Now I join hands often with students and others behind jail bars singing it: “We shall over come.”

Sometimes we’ve had tears in our eyes when we joined together to sing it, but we still decided to sing it! “We shall over come.”

Lord before this victory is won some will have to get thrown in jail some more but we shall over come. Don’t worry about us, before the victory is won some of us will lose jobs, but we shall over come…

Before the victory is won, even some will have to face physical death. But if physical death is the price that some must pay, to free their children from a permanent psychological death.. then nothing shall be more redemptive… We shall over come.

Before the victory is won.. some will be misunderstood and called bad names and dismissed as rebel-rousers and agitators… But we shall over come.

and I’ll tell you why.

We shall over come because the arch of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.
We shall over come because Carlyle is right: “No lie can live forever“.
We shall over come because William Collin Bryant is right: “Truth crushed to earth will rise again“.

We shall over come because James Russel Lowell is right: “Truth forever on the scaffold.. Wrong forever on the throne… Yet that scaffold sways the future. And behind the dim unknown standeth God within the shadows, keeping watch above his own“.
We shall over come because the Bible is right… “You shall reap what you sow.
“

We shall over come… Deep i my heart I do believe! We shall over come.

And this with this faith… We will go out and adjourn the counsels of despair and bring new light into the dark chambers of pessimism. And we will be able to rise from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope. And this will be a great America! We will be the participants in making it so…

And so as I leave you this evening I say… “Walk together children! Don’t you get weary!”

March 25th

2011-03-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

March 25th is the day that the 'budget repair' bill sans anything fiscal, is being published as a law. Doug La Follette decided to take the full 10 days to publish the bill despite the Gov's urging to declare an 'emergency' and publish it much earlier.

It is also the 100th anniversary of one of the worst labor disasters in history, the triangle shirtwaist fire. This disaster fueled many labor reforms through energizing labor unions. Labor laws were won almost exclusively through organized labor demanding better working conditions, sick leave, 10 or 8 hour days, benefits, end to child labor, etc. The government tends to support businesses, which have an interest in the status quo. Change must come through the people. The people organized and demonstrated, had strikes, marches, and some even died in the interest of promoting fair labor laws.

This bill represents a huge step backward for my State and the nation. I want to commemorate it appropriately, right now I am planning a 'day of shame' sort of like a birthday party, except the cake says "shame" and we even have a pinata representing the bill that we bash open to release out civil liberties (symbolized by candy).

This is not the end; so much is on the table, and this administration has so many more dirty tricks to come! I pledge to demonstrate everyday until public workers are allowed to collectively bargain, and repeals their classist education reform. I have a vacation scheduled for June. If this is not resolved, I will find a way to demonstrate while on vacation (if they have a city hall and poster board, then I can picket!)

Protesting is so hard, but I must continue.

2011-03-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

Protesting and demonstrating is really hard. Picketing is mentally tough. Talking with Tea partiers and conservatives who have misinformation and racist classist ideas is really difficult. After my last action, I was mentally spent. It is difficult to stand up for my beliefs, but I have to do it.

I have learned how to calmly discuss these issues with the misinformed. I can keep things from escalating to a yelling match, which is important. I am good at keeping things civil.

But what I can not handle is the number of people who believe the lie that public sector unions are bringing down the economy, and that if we can only eliminate them, we will magically have great education systems and lots of money just like Utah, Texas, Mississippi, Arizona, oh wait, it didn't work out so well in those places..... oh well.

I am not going to individually decry every statement from every whack-a-nut conservative fake statistics factory right here, but I can. I have good information and a good argument in favor of public sector unions, the reasonable funding of public schools (the voucher program described in this budget will segregate the schools), and The need to not make these horrendous, unnecessary changes to Badgercare.

I actually haven't had a lot of opportunity to talk to pro-walker supporters face to face. I get a lot of yelling, lots of one-liners, and handouts full of random statistics from the Maciver institute, and the few times I have been around Pro-walker people, they have really wanted to make a point, but would not listen to anything that I have had to say. Of course, part of what I am saying is that to support Walker is to deliberately and needlessly hurt the most vulnerable of society; That to support this 'budget' is to allow too much power to one man over for the state badgercare program; that to not fund ESL in public schools is in effect racist, and that public workers are just the lastest group targeted by the GOP, as the cause of all of our problems.

Remember 'welfare queens' from 1995? Yeah, well, turns out there really weren't any. So there was a giant uproar, tons of welfare reform, which was a solution without a problem. The whole 'welfare queens' deal did serve to unite conservatives in hating poor black women with children, which is always good for America.

Part of this targeting of public employees is to build up support among conservatives so they can be united in their hatred of something. 10 years ago it was illegal immigrants- remember the giant wall proposed on the Mexico border?- and the right still hates non-english speakers, but there are more public workers, they are more visible, and they also play into all of the anti-intellectual fears of the right.

I am not sure how to best fight against this fear mongering, but fight against it I must.

I have been avoiding extra curricular activities at my church because I know that many people there are sympathetic to the Conservative anti-union, anti-public employee, anti-immigrant(racist), anti-social safety net stance of this Administration. However that is about to change. I have been sleeping outside, carrying signs, singing and praying in public for this cause. I am recommitting to talk to people being duped by the tea party who are in my life. I do not want my inaction to be misinterpreted as consent to their crazy ideas. I am not going to bring it up, but I am not backing away when the subject is introduced.

I am sure that it won't make any difference in general, but when I was a kid I believed the lies about welfare queens and that the poor were less morally good than the wealthy. It took a few good history classes, several good books, and one excellent sociology class to change my mind. Education does work, so I have to go out everyday and educate the population about these issues.

I am so glad that I have had the opportunity to be educated, and also to be exposed to times of unemployment and poverty because if not, I may still be a fearful, close-minded conservative.

AND its is still winter...

2011-03-13T18:17:00.000-07:00

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The weather is still cold, and there is still great uproar in this state. As you all doubtless know by now the Senate was able to take all of the non-fiscal items out of the budget repair bill, put them into another bill, and pass it. This was done without the usual 24hours notice required by law, and that evening protesters swarmed the capitol.

The head of the capitol police Charlie Tubbs promised that the doors would be open the next day at 8am, and several members of the protest encouraged people to leave at their leisure. However, teh last time that the protesters left the capitol, and were promised entry the next day, the place remained on lock down for two days, so a few hundred people refused to leave and spent the night.

The next morning, Thursday, The assembly was scheduled to meet at 11am, but at the doors of the capitol remained locked until a few minutes before 11am, the assembly delayed their session by 90 minutes so that the public would have access to the session.

The police said that they were conducting a "security sweep" and all protesters were put through metal detectors. There are 160 police in the capitol on a normal day, and there were only about 200 campers; my guess is that the DOA could have done this 'security sweep' several hours previous, but wanted to incite the crowd by making it appear that they would not be allowed into the building for the assembly vote.

I don't think that Charlie Tubbs, the head of the capitol police lied; I think that the Governor misinformed him on purpose to cause problems with the crowd. I also think that he planted bullets on the lawn of the capitol last week to justify his own over-the-top security. There is nothing that I would put past this guy!
I have always heard that politicians are corrupt, but now I have first hand evidence.

The legislation monstrosity passed, and now we have a bunch of court challenges, and 16 members of the senate have petitions circulating to recall them. This is not my Wisconsin, but with some hard work perhaps I can help to get it back.

Where to go from here....

2011-03-13T08:21:00.001-07:00

AND the recall efforts have begun!
http://host.madison.com/app/interactive/senate-recall-chart/

I live in DANE county, my senator FRED RISSER, is 84 years old and the longest serving senator in the senate. He is not likely to be recalled, but I am going to put up a few yard signs anyways.

My options for action include;
canvassing for Joanne Kloppenburg -not because she is super liberal, but rather because her opponent has openly expressed his support for Walker and the agenda of the far-right republicans that have recently seized our state like an infectious disease.
Several articles have cited how the Kloppenburg is being painted as a lefty liberal, but there is really scant evidence for this. Ofcourse I am very against the incumbent Prosser, as he appeared at a AFP rally, as well as a Recall Mark Miller rally a few days ago.

I can travel to districts where democrats are up for recall (if enough signatures are collected) and canvass in their support. I may do this, my out-of-district participation may be criticized, but the AFP's 3 million dollar pro-walker commercials are also from out-of state, and I find that even more disgusting. plus, I have had peaceful protest training, so I am good at canvassing.

I can protest at the capitol everyday until walker is recalled, specifically against him, or against the various far-right agenda bills being proposed on Voter ID (a solution without a problem!) and the nefarious Arizona-esque anti-immigration bill being drafted by rep. Don Pridemore (what a fitting name!)
In addition to the total wreck of our proud labor tradition, the budget hasn't passed yet, and even the 'budget repair non-fiscal' bill is not competely legitimate as the clause about no-bid contracts for state-owned power plants was added between being passed by the senate and assembly...this is what happens when you cobble a bill together and pass it 1:50 after it is proposed....I like to think that the drums and chanting outside were a distraction that helped this accident to happen....

Anyways, I will be busy for a bit! Feel free to join me!
I wasn't intending to bring down the Tea party with my actions, but apparently the destruction of my state is the goal of the tea party, so turn about is fair play.

protests are ongoing- just like me!

2011-03-08T05:46:00.000-08:00

shaming the "stand with walker" bus as it leaves the Alliant energy center. My favorite chant of the day; "You're on our side -you just don't know it" I love the energy of this movement, and the positive momentum. Keeping it positive really cuts the stress, and the potential aggression that this nasty piece of legislation is inciting. Unfortunately, some people like Senator Grothman, mistake the desire to keep things peaceful and positive as a show that the protests are just an excuse to go out and party.

I have been involved in this effort for a while now, and I am almost exhausted. I have a lot of things that I would rather do than protest and picket everyday. But I believe in this effort, and if I do not do all that I can, and this thing passes, then I will be in a way a bit responsible for the result.

My fellow citizens are so creative!

This is sort of true. REpublican SEnators!!!! TUrn from the dark side!!!

posters

2011-02-27T08:07:00.000-08:00

I am constantly amazed not by who I see out protesting -over 70thousand satruday- but rather who is not out. People are busy, but this is a huge issue, and if it goes the wrong way thsi could be a disaster for our country.

Strangly, I find that the people who are least worried about this bill are generally from places where there is not a great private sector. If you were educated in the 43rd best state in the nation, you might not value excellent public schools.
This is the source of apathy for most people from out of state. I grew up in Washington, had a medium education, and I want to continue this state's tradition of excellence in education.

Hall of support; over 10,776 comments from moveon.org encouraging the protests.

Hall of shame,
lists each republican member of the senate and assembly and the amount of money contributed to them by the Koch Brothers corp. The Koch Brothers also funded the "prowalker" anti-protest last saturday, and they founded the Americans for Prosperity, a Tea Party group.
There is also a paper for each democratic assemblyman and senator thanking them for their actions.

Scott Walker threatened to layoff public employees is the Dems did not return from out of state and pass his Koch Brothers budget. There was been a significant cry from public employees saying that they want the Senators to stay away; they would rather a few lose their jobs than our whole state lose its integrity.

Please vote for Joanne Kloppenburg. Her opponent has openly stated that he supports "conservative causes" which here means rubber stamping the most right wing radical agenda our state has ever seen, destroying 50-125 years of a tradition of worker rights.

when I am surrounded by tea partiers trying to get me down, I remember that others have had it worse and have done better. I want this poster!

and of course, there is a cute harry potter reference;

thoughts on today's protest

2011-02-27T07:41:00.000-08:00

this inspires me.
The protest here in Madison is not the Protest in the middle east, It is not Tahir Square. However, I am fighting for something that I believe in, and there is a some opposition to the movement; I do not like to be different, but I am not going to cave on this issue.

Also, with the kangaroo court we used to call congress, Our democratic senators are hiding out to try and stop or slow this crazy bill that is being railroaded through.

I can march for a few hours in 12 degree weather. I can be unapologetic about my own beliefs and stand up for what I believe - especially when it is not popular. I can associate with the opposition, try and convince them, and just not go away. Others have done more, I can do more.

1 percent of the state was at the capitol today.
Here is a great song.

me in the media!

2011-02-25T08:53:00.000-08:00

I appeared in a pro-scott walker add! I was at the protest, and at 8 seconds, as the announcer is talking about "being flooded with out of state protesters" I am on the far right. You can only see my sleeping bag, but that is definately me!

I hate the assertion that the protesters are from out of state.

BTW, there is also a rumor that most of the tea partiers were not from Wisconsin, so the allegation is on both sides. However, the difference is that in the Assmebly debate, a republican assemblyman stood up and made the accusation that we were not from Wisconsin. Lying on the public record is a more serious matter.

One of the assembly democrats defended us, he said "they are from wisconsin, they are all from here; and they aren't here because they like to sleep on the floor or smell bad or bang on drums, they are here because they are scared about their future and the future of their state."
I don't mind a debate, a heated debate, even ultimately being defeated is fine if it is done correctly. (which was NOT the story in the assembly this morning, but that is another issue)
I am very offended by the lies being told about me in the media and by governor and the Wisconsin Republican party.

b

there may be hope afterall....

2011-02-25T06:11:00.000-08:00

Early this morning, In the Wisconsin state assembly, the republican speaker called for a very short surprise roll call vote. The Budget repair bill was passed in a short -43 second- roll call vote, after which the republicans fled the building.
2 Republicans and 1 Independent did not vote for the bill. Was this because, like the 13 democrats who didn't vote they did not have time? probably not; by all reports, and the footage I have seen, they were all near enough to their seats.
This means that some of them were not comfortable with using semi-legal tactics to get their vote through.

This was not the first attempt at passing this thing behind the backs of Democrats, I was attending the assembly earlier, when a roll call vote was quickly called. The minority speaker, Peter Barca shouted out the rule that was being broken, and then moved to remove the speaker. The vote to remove the speaker was 33-63, so at least 4 Democrats did not vote to remove him. The Dems who spoke beleived that he called the vote not because he thought it would work, but because he wanted to incite the masses of people gathered outside watching the proceedings on TVs.

After witnessing hours of republican/democrat straight party line votes, I am so glad that a few Republicans were willing to not vote for this bill in this way.

Perhaps all is not lost.

I used to have respect for republicans.

2011-02-24T04:42:00.000-08:00

I just sat in on the Assembly last night, and I now have no respect for our assembly republicans. The Dems introduced a lot of amendments to the state budget 'repair' bill yesterday, and now, 47 hours later, they are going through the process of defending their amendments and then having the republicans vote them down.

I listened to amendments 45-57, they were each proposals to exempt the prison guards at various institutions from the state worker ban on collective bargaining.
The democrats talked about each institution, someone who had actually visited the site talked about its unique needs and the neccessary safety and staffing considerations. The prison guards would not be guaranteed a method of ensuring their own safety without collective bargaining rights. The administration at each site could change the staffing ratios, eliminate training, put workers in dangerous situations.
The inmates would suffer from this as well. Prison inmates generally eventually return to the population. If they are not given good care, treatment, and training while incarcerated, then they will be more likely to reoffend, return to prison, and end up costing the state even more money.
I sat there for 2 hours, listening to assembly men and women talk passionately about their prisons, and the prisonguards who run them, then the giggling, teetering republicans voted unanimously to table every ammendment.

I used to have respect for these people. This is not funny, it is not a game, Scott Walker thinks that he can use our state as his launch pad into tea party valhalla, but he is wrong. I will do everything in my power to bring him down. I will camp out at the capitol, I will protest his sponsors, I will write letters, I will get arrested if the Assembly Dems think it will help -I offered, and they told me not to-
I will work night and day everyday to ensure that the whole state and the whole nation knows the truth about the crimes being committed here against the citizens of Wisconsin. These assemblymen will not be re elected. Their names are on this bill, they are also to blame for it; I have witnessed their crimes and they must be accountable.

If the budget 'repair' bill passes, the next step is a general strike.

nonviolence training

2011-02-21T10:21:00.000-08:00

I got to attend some nonviolence training, It was very straight forward, know when to walk away, avoid confrontation, etc. I also learned about how to avoid getting arrested, and how to avoid being arrested, as well as the pro's and cons of each.

I also got to write the phone number of the ACLU on my arm. In a different discussion I was warned that the large numbers of police that were patrolling the capitol were friendly, but they obeyed orders, and "they are not here to serve you lunch".

Also, at another meeting, the people were encouraged to bring their "less granola-y friends" to improve the presentation of the protesters.

links to protest stuff

2011-02-20T16:20:00.000-08:00

I had an excellent12th grade history class, (Thank you Mr. Lynch!) In that class I first learned about the struggle for workers' rights in this country. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, was an expose on the meat packing companies of its day.
The struggle for workers' rights is real, it is long, and it was been a hard fight. Effectively removing them is also turning into a hard fight.

One more reason to love Kenn Lonnquist,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGc46S7el3U&feature=related

Saturday evening Representative Jorgensen talked about the history of labor in this state. He cosponsored with republicans, a labor in the classroom bill a while back.

He pointed me to this incident, back in 1886 in Milwaukee.
this is a link to an article about the bay view roller mill disaster of 1886, a crowd was protesting to get the 8 hour workday, and The State Militia fired on the unarmed crowd killing 7 people.

http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=935

I should also mention that Representative Janet Bewley Stayed up until 1am hearing testimony. Thank you Representative Bewley!

Protest Pictures

2011-02-19T10:38:00.000-08:00

Every protest needs a pipe and drums group. This one led the Firefighters' Union. They were excluded from the no collective bargaining proposal in the State Budget Bill, but they showed their support and showed up en mass. They paraded through the Capitol Building and the crowd went wild. The Police union also supported the demonstration; they also showed in large numbers, but they didn't have any bagpipes, so they they were less memorable.

A sub theme of the signs was "anti-tea party" The tea party held a counter demonstration on the opposite side of the square, but it was a significantly smaller than the main protest. There were visible "peace marshalls" around, and lots of reminders that we were having a nonviolent protest. Organizers feared that the larger crowds in addition to the Tea Party would lead to conflict. We were also warned that they may have weapons. The police stood by and asked everyone to not carry weapons into the captiol- this was not an issue any other day of the week.

As far as I could tell, the Tea party was a sad minority. There weren't many taunts, more like "hey come join us!"

There seems to be lots of overlap between the working class republican base and people who support the right for unions to exist.

Fox 'News' was even offering Tea Partiers a free lunch, of course they had to show an ID. Teapartiers like to require ID. Oh well, I shouldn't mock the uppermiddle class white conservative minorty.

I had originally intended to protest Sarah Palin, ("refudiate this Bill!" and "Do anti-intellectuals support walker? You betcha!" -with a picture of Palin) but She will embarrass herself without my help. Plus, while jogging around the square I was hearing snatches of the Tea Party speaker, and felt my commitment to nonviolence beginning to wan.

More Cowbell Less Walker...

This is the scene in the middle of the Rotunda, and this has been kept up day and night for 5 days.

I love the popular culture references! I actually saw 2 gandolf signs.

These people are so creative! I also saw one that read "Hey Walker, why can't we be friends with benefits?" and a "Stop the Imperial Walker"

Some crazy lady was running laps around the square form 5am until about 8, then she took a break and did more! She must have done like 20 miles.
Protesting + exercising = protestercising (Martin came up with this word mash-up!)

The State motto is "Forward", this statue is The Lady Forward, and here she is blindfolded. I think I might try to be her for halloween this year.

protest at the capitol

2011-02-18T13:46:00.000-08:00

Today we braved the crowds, and went to check out the protest at the capitol. We had to walk at least a mile to get there, because the 25,000 other protestors were using most of the parking spaces.

Inside the capitol rotunda, it is packed. All 3 levels are filled with people. Everyone is polite. I had to chase my kids through a very dense group, and everyone gave way, I am so impressed with how gracious everyone was- I guess since they are 75% teachers, they nice as a rule.

Here we are with some of the best teachers from our school, some of these people had been at the capitol 10 or 12 hours a day, for three days, picketing against Gov. Scott Walker's Budget Repair bill.

This bill would, among other things, take away the right of public employees to engage in collective bargaining. Pretty much, it would outlaw unions. It also cuts funding of lots of arts and music in the schools, cuts finding to special education, and lots of other things. The budget needs to be repaired, but this is not the way to do it.

Maddie colored her sign herself. Martin used a sign from one of his teachers.

Reed was pretty happy watching the crowds. There were lots of drummers, musicians, and chanting. There was even some singing- public singing is a rare thing these days! It was fun to do; and really brought us to a correct mindset.

Maddie was in the background for a CNN broadcast!!
(middle front; red pants)

There were lots of people protesting different elements of the budget repair bill. This couple is protesting cuts to special education funding.

As fun as visiting the protest was, it is real work for the teachers and union employees who are picketing 24 hours a day. These are real public employees who are looking to protect their own rights. This is a serious issue, and I hope that some of our republican wisconsinites will reconsider their position on this bill.

political action!

2011-02-16T07:42:00.000-08:00

Governor Walker has recently proposed removing collective bargaining rights for all Wisconsin State employees. This includes the Teachers' Union. The Madison School district is taking a day or two off to protest this, and I am in support of their actions.

I cannot, with 4 children, brave the capitol square to join in the protest, but I can have my children write letters. Also, letter writing is an educational activity.

I explained the situation as basically being "The teachers do not think that this is a fair way to be treated, so they are protesting" My kids understand the basics, and have been writing and drawing pictures.

Some may criticize this as using my kids to echo my own political ideas, but just by being my kids they are exposed to me and my influence. Which they will probably eventually adopt as their own until they are mature enough to either embrace or reject my ideas for their own.

Plus, many adults get involved in politics without more than a child's understanding of the issues. Many right wing republican/ libertarian commentators act like children, so why should actual children be left behind?!

If you wish to write letters to our governor, here is his address;

Office of Governor Scott Walker
115 East Capitol
Madison WI 53702

snow!

2011-02-02T16:29:00.000-08:00

We had a real blizzard this week! 30 mph wind and 11 inches of snow. We got great giant drifts all over our yard. Everyone had a snow day. Reed has really enjoyed the snow. He asks to go out and cries when we don't take him outside with us. He likes to walk around while we shovel snow or sit and throw little snow balls.

Maddie hollowed out a drift to make herself a snow cave. She also buried herself in snow.

We shoveled out trails through the drifts so we can walk around the yard.
Everyone loved playing in the snow. Benjamin and I shoveled the driveway for 2 hrs each. Benjamin liked getting some exercise and skipping work. The kids made sled routes out of the drifts, and are planning on turning some of the larger piles of snow into snow caves once they freeze overnight. If we succeed we will post the results.

mystery powder

2011-01-24T15:50:00.000-08:00

rI found this large bag discounted at the local grocery store. It was onbly 50 cents! SO I brought it home and started soem detective work.
FIrst, we observed the powder, and , considering the context (grocery store) hypothesized about what it could be.
powdered milk, flour, rice flour, biscuit mix, pancake mix.

the kids tasted the stuff, and said that it tasted like flour. They still wanted to add baking soda to see if it would fizz, but I advised against it.
then we performed the cooking test. I mixed a small amount with water, then cooked it like a pancake. the powder definatly fluffed up during cooking, so it probably contains some baking soda. It also tasted great, so it is some sort of baking mix.

I then mixed it up as if it were biscuits, cooked it, and they tasted great.

I am secretly relieved that it wasn't plaster of paris or something. Tasting mysterious white powder is not always a great idea, but here it worked. FYI: when we invite people to come and eat at our house, we don't serve mystery food.

candlelight hike

2011-01-16T13:33:00.000-08:00

we recently attended the candlelight hike ski & snowshoe event at governor dodge state park. A 2 mile ski path was lined with little paper lanterns. There were also a few ice lanterns, which looked especially neat. I think that I will try to create my own ice lanterns this winter.

There was very little snow, so most people just hiked. We put Reed in the stroller to keep him warm, but no one really got cold.

Afterwards there was a large bonfire for roasting marshmallows. Cookies and hot chocolate were available by donation. My kids, like children everywhere, enjoy cooking things over the fire.

Winter hiking is fun, but winter hiking at night is even better.
This activity showed me that my kids can hike 3 miles in the snow without getting tired or complaining, as long as there is hot chocolate and marshmallows at the end.

ice fishing and other news

2011-01-15T08:41:00.000-08:00

Icefishing

We went ice fishing at kids' ice fishing day at Brittingham park. We even got our very own free ice fishing rod. It was incredibly cold.

Martin really likes to fish and will probably want to go ice fishing again. Caleb and Maddie enjoyed the free hot chocolate and Bonfire. It was a good experience. They always are interested in the icefishing houses on the lake, now we know a little bit more about what they are doing.

In other news, Maddie has acquired another costume. She has been making saddles for herself, so Reed can ride around the house on her back, so I made her a horse costume. It turned out well.

Maddie does not usually like to wear barrettes in her hair, but she recently wore this lovely outfit to church. She told us that she was the 'flower fairy'.

Everyone dresses up to go to church, Maddie just takes it a step further.

Quiet Book

2010-12-26T18:19:00.000-08:00

The awesomest Craft project I have ever made is my children's little genius quiet book.

A few years ago,I was really annoyed by these "baby Einstein" toys that claimed to make your kid smart- but then offered a bunch of colored balls and blocks. No theory of relativity anywhere.

So I made a quiet book that fitting a true baby genius; full of basic scientific and mathematical principles, or atleast the ones that were easy to represent with felt and velcro.

Here Galileo is dropping 1lb and 10lb weights off the top of the tower of pisa. Kids pull the string to see which hit the ground fist, and ofcourse, they hit at the same time.

fractions and radions
This page features a circle and pieces of felt that are 1/2 ,1/3 and 1/4 of the circle. the circle is also labeled in radions.

Help Pythagorus show the pythagorean theorom.
Here kids use velcro felt triangles and squares to show a geometric "proof" of the pythagorean theorem. Here one of the four red triangles is missing, but the principle is illustrated. There is a pocket behind Pythagoreus to store all of the felt pieces.

Here kids lace a string around the circumference of the earth to help Eristothenes find its' circumference. The actual circumference (24,901.55 miles) is written on the back of the earth,
Eriostithenes actually used a well at the equator on the equinox and the distance to another point, as well as its angle to figure out the distance around the earth. He was accurate to within 1000 miles.

This is My favorite page. It is DNA transcription and translation.
First children are instructed to "unzip" the DNA ( there is a zipper at the top of the page) and then take out individual adenine, uracil, uracil, and guanine and match them up to the DNA,they all snap together to form an RNA chain, which is then taken to the facing page, and near the large black ribosome is a pocket full of amino acids, these match up with the RNA codons to form a protein.

Help the Mole find Avogaldro's numbers.
The felt mole can go over and under the felt bushes. Avogadro's number is under a rock in the corner of the page.
avogadro's number is used, along with an elements' chemeical number to figure out the number of molecules per mass.

Carl linaeus is known as the father of taxonomy. On this page we match several scientific names with their corresponding common species.

This page features a magnetic OH- and H+ they stick to eachother to make H2O!!

Help Marin Mersenne catch the prime fish. All the fish have prime numbers, and the page contains the formulas for both Mersenne prime numbers and perfect numbers.
Pick the Perfect Apples.... The apples have perfect numbers on them. Perfect numbers are ones which the factors except itself, add up to the number. As you can imagine, these are quite rare and are often quite large. The two smallest examples are 6 and 28;
6 = 3+2+1
28 = 14+7+4+2+1

Pick the Square roots! and then feed them to the rabbit.
the facing page features velcro flowers with petals in Fibonacci numbers; 1,1,2,3,5,8,13, etc

Help Galileo chart the 4 moons of jupiter. The 4rth moon is behind Jupiter.

I don't imagine that my kids will actually grasp the principles around all of this stuff, but some of it might sink in somewhere. I want my kids to learn that science can be fun, accessible, and interesting. A part of the natural world that we all love and enjoy.

Christmas

2010-12-26T15:47:00.000-08:00

Christmas was really fun! The kids love a day devoted to opening presents and playing with new toys. Maddie wore her Santa Hat all morning.

I got a pair of VIbram 5-fingers. I will have to wait for spring to really try them out, as they aren't really suited for running on snow.

Everyone got lots of stuff. The highlight of the day was family tickets to a waterpark this summer (thanks Christi!)

Childrens' Museum

2010-12-26T15:32:00.000-08:00

We recently visited the Childrens' Museum. Everyone loves the CHildrens' museum. The place is laid out pretty well, so The older kids can run around and I can keep track of them while I watch the younger kids more closely.

Caleb's favorite thing to do id paint with water colors on a giant window. The paint and then use a spray bottle and squeegee to clean the window and make another picture.

Maddie , Caleb and Martin love the climbing structure. Reed is too small for it, so he just gets to play on the Car and sit on the saddle on the slide.

Martin made a giant house, and Caleb and Reed played inside of it.

This place is fun for everyone, and better yet, it is indoors!

WINTER!!

2010-12-26T15:21:00.000-08:00

It is winter! We have a lot of snow on the ground. This snow is from a storm in December. We all went out afterwards and built snow forts.

I made this big pile of snow, and Martin is burrowing out an igloo! I am so glad that He is old enough to build his own fort.

It was very cold, and perhaps this is why the sky was a brilliant deep blue. I know that Low temperatures as usually accompanied by high pressure systems- perhaps high pressure means more nitrogen in the air which makes the sky especially blue?

Or maybe When you are outside on a very cold day after a very big snow storm, you get to participate in a very special sort of day. Building giant snow structures is so fun, that even the sky appears to be more than the usual color of blue.

I love winter in Wisconsin.

Holidays

2010-12-12T05:03:00.000-08:00

For Thanks giving we dressed up as pilgrims!
It was originally Maddie's idea, but eventually we all dressed up - except Ben and Reed.

I am especially proud of the Pilgrim hats.

Maddie and Martin made a ginger bread Egyptian pyramid and entered it in a Gingerbread house contest. The gingerbread men who are working on the pyramid have frowns on their faces. Maddie tried to draw X's on the eyes of some of the workers. Some of the gingerbread people are holding little gingerbread chisels.

I think that they did a great job, and I think that the gingerbread contest is going to be our holiday tradition!

Ice age Trail

2010-10-25T06:20:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went hiking on the Ice Age Trail. It was cool and cloudy- perfect weather for a walk.
The older kids loved running up and down all of the rolling hills. They also got to look for the yellow paint on posts and trees that marks the trail. There was even a hand-pump operated drinking fountain along the trail. We brought plenty of water, but it was just extra fun to pump your own water. Even though , according to Maddie "it tastes like a penny".

This is a great place to hike with kids. I love that we have lived here for three years, and we are still finding new fun places to explore.

Valerie's Running Update

2010-10-03T05:32:00.000-07:00

I have been training for a marathon October 30th, but I tried to register and it was already full. However I do not care because my training is going great. On Friday I ran 18 miles and I felt great.

I have been running pretty well recently, but it is easy to get off track. To train for this race (which I am not doing) I am running 50 miles a week, and that was difficult at first, but now I am 3 weeks in and I can actually see improvement. Amazingly, regular training results in better running.

To run quickly a person must incorporate speed workouts, hills, and long fast runs. I will probably do that eventually but right now I want to cover distance and the formula for that is simple; Run lots of miles.

I am not doing any intentional speed or resistance runs right now, but I run with my double stroller a lot, and I think that the extra effort counts as something. I have awesome ankles. They are virtually untwistable. Kind of like that special metal in eyeglasses that can be twisted around and not break.

So, this is my little fitness update.

CAMPING

2010-08-13T12:50:00.000-07:00

we went camping this week, for the express purpose of viewing the Perseids meteor shower. It was incredibly hot this week, so we were able to sleep in our tent with out the rain cover, so we could actually see stars through the screened roof of the tent.

The sky was perfectly clear and we got to look for meteors at 9:45 and 2:30am. At 2:30, we all went out and watched meteors. We saw more than 50. Some were surprisingly bright.

Maddie told me that she would spend most of her time "roasting and eating". We had roasted hotdogs and marshmallows for dinner. This fulfilled a requirement for Martin to 'prepare and cook an outdoor meal' for scouts.

I loved camping with the kids. They were all excited about the meteorites. I was even able to teach them a few constellations. I will do this again next year.

tenney beach ----vilas beach

2010-08-13T12:35:00.000-07:00

tenney beach is adjacent to tenney park on lake mendota. This is an awesome park.

This is a popular madison beach, complete with concessions and lifeguards. The larger lakes hav waves on windy days, and that was the case today. My kids were surprisingly confident in the water. The enjoyed jumping over adn diving under the waves. There are large concrete steps near the edge of the swim area, kids are allowed to jump (feet fist) off of the large concrete blocks into the water. There is a nice sandy bottom to the swim area, but there are also a few giant rocks to trip over, so we have to be careful. This is a good beach and I will come back here again when we are on the isthmus and need to swim.

Vilas Beach is very near our home. It is probably the busiest of the Madison Beaches. There are multiple lifeguards, concessions, boat rentals, and of course we are near the Zoo. Our favorite activity, next to swimming, is pouring water down the beach and making dams, rivers, and reservoirs.

Vilas beach is a great place, but it is usually too crowded for me. I like to go here in the early morning of evening when there are fewer people.

scavenger

2010-08-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

I am good at getting stuff on the cheap, or free. Here are things that I have accumulated that are incredibly useful as well as free.

I made this rug out of old tshirts left over from a large yard sale. I am so proud of this thing!

Free off of craigslist.... My friend Alisha Peterson co-wrote book with Jon Schmidt called '67 fun songs primer' It is a piano teaching book for parents to teach their kids piano even of they do not play themselves. I am trying it out, so we got a piano. I plan to recover the keys ($100) and I looked up the value of this great white thing, and it has no real value, but it can hold a tune and it is fine for us to learn on.

We got this really great futon out of someone's basement when they were redecorating. It is really nice. We sit on it when I am in the basement supervising the kids. Also, it is where the kids go to hide whenever the tornado sirens go off. I like it in the basement but Benjamin keeps pointing out that it is much nicer than much of our upstairs furniture.

I got this couch when someone was moving out of student housing. I recovered it and we have had it for 4 years now. recovering a couch is pretty expensive, but originally it was free so it counts.

Blooming Butterflies

2010-08-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

We visaited Olbrich Garden's Blooming Butterflies recently. Everyone had fun, and surprisingly Caleb was the most interested in identifying butterflies.
He looked at the butterfly displays for a long time. He walked around with his butterfly identification card, and tried to figure out what each one was. Many of the butterfly species look similar, so this is a formidable task for a 4yr old. His greatest achievement was figuring out the name of this butterfly,
a tiger lapwing. He was so excited that he told everyone who would listen the name of the butterfly. He really wanted the butterfly to land on him, but it did not.

Adam ondi Ahman

2010-07-22T07:36:00.000-07:00

We recently visited Adam Ondi Ahman, a historical and religiously significant site maintained by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. Benjamin's parents are missionaries there, maintaining the grounds.

This is Preachers' Rock, Joseph Smith Stood on this rock and organized the 3rd stake of Zion. Maddie stood on it and posed.

We found some great tress to play in by the east overlook. The grounds are all well cared for, and from what we heard, there was a lot of work put into making them look this nice.

The kids called this the 'family tree'. We do all like to climb trees.

We went to a park in the nearby town of Gallatin and played. There were a lot of mud puddles, and three of the four kids got so incredibly muddy that they had to go home in different clothes.
Benjamin's Parents, Ben and Melody, are in their element. You could not design a missionary experience more perfect for their abilities and talents. Ben's dad drives around tractors and backhoes, while his Mom does indexing for family history work. The sisters also do community service and seem to have a lot of craft projects going as well.This was an incredibly fun, spiritually uplifting family vacation and I hope to go back a lot over the next year while Ben and Melody are serving their mission.

Spring Harbor Beach

2010-07-15T19:25:00.000-07:00

Today we visited Spring Harbor Beach. It is a neighborhood beach located at 1918 Norman way, just north of Spring Harbor Middle school along the shore of Lake Mendota.

Amenities
The Parking lot for the beach is located across the street from the park. It is a pretty good walk from the parking lot to the sand, but this is the only major inconvenience. There are bathrooms and a drinking fountain located near the water. There are a few shade trees and grass in the park, as well as several picnic tables.

Safety
The entire beach was visible from my spot sitting on a picnic table under a shade tree. The swimming area is well marked with ropes and buoys. A life guard is on duty for part of the day, though we had to provide our own lifeguards....

Caleb kept saying "don't throw sand Martin!"

Sand&Water
There was a little bit of green seaweed. I didn't have a problem with it, but Maddie and Martin who were actually swimming in the water seamed to find a lot. The water was fairly clear and relatively cool. There were lots of boats going by, so there were waves in the water.

I really liked this beach, it is small and safe and I will come here again with my kids to swim.

Stewart Park Mt. Horeb

2010-07-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

Stewart Park in Mt. Horeb, Wi has a lovely newly created beach and swimming area. There is a natural spring in the sand, which creates a tiny, 2ft wide shallow pool which then drains down the beach into the water. It is like a natural sand and water table, and is really really fun to play in. As a bonus, the spring water is cold, so it can be used to ice sore muscles.

I once belonged to a gym that had a 'cold immersion pool' right next to the hot tub. Some older guys would "go to the gym" and sit in the cold immersion pool, then get in the hot tub, then back to the cold immersion pool again and call it a workout.....

well, here we have this little spring and it is fun.

Safety
There are no life guards, no swim lines, and no buoys. Motorized boats do not have access to this part of the lake, so they are not a danger, but the swim area does drop off sharply about 100ft from the beach. There is a sign warning of this, but no swim lines. All of the mothers at the beach agreed that the city should put up a swim line. It would probably not cost very much money and would make it much easier for us to tell if our kids were going out too far.
Sand
The sand is clean and new. It was only been on the beach for a year, so it is beautiful. The beach was fairly clean, a little bit of seaweed and some droppings, but it wasn't too bad. The water is pretty clear.
Amenities
The changing rooms and flushable toilets are near the parking lot which is very far from the beach. It is about 300yards from the water to the parking lot. There is a small playground near the parking lot and there are lovely hiking trails around the park and lake. There are lots of berries growing in the woods around the beach.

The beach is very wide and there were a lot of people there. This is a great beach for a cloudy day, as there is no shade. Even in the sun this is a pretty great place to swim.

Goodland County Park beach

2010-07-13T18:50:00.000-07:00

Today we visited Goodland County Park. We swam from 1:30-3:30 It was really fun.

Amenities
There is a playground and park near the beach. The park is full of large beautiful trees that shade much of the beach. There are bathrooms, but they are far away from the beach. There is also a drinking fountain and lots of picnic benches. We also found some clay deposits along the beach, which we dug into and brought home a bunch of clay to make into works of art.

Safety
There are no lifeguards and the swimming area is not marked by lines; just several large buoys. I felt very safe because the beach is very small. I could see all of my kids all of the time.
Water
Because there are no lifeguards, the beach is covered in floating water plants. We made a game of cleaning them up. After 20 minutes of occasionally scooping up water plants, the beach was pretty much clear. The water was warm, and it was nice to walk in. There were a few sticks on the bottom of the lake, but other than that it was smooth and muddy.

I think that occasionally playing in water along side water plants builds character. I want my children to learn that nature is normal, good, and fun; not something to be feared an avoided. The county tests the levels of blue-green algae at every beach every week, and closes beaches that are unsafe. They also put watches on beaches that are near unsafe levels, so swimming at this beach is perfectly fine. Just full of seaweed. Like swimming in a salad.

I liked this beach, but my kids did not like the floating water plants. It is a great small beach and would be perfect for activities that lifeguards do not allow- water guns, throwing people in the water, inner tubes, etc.

July 4rth

2010-07-12T18:31:00.000-07:00

For the July 4rth Neighborhood parade, Maddie dressed up as a bald eagle.

Reed was also dressed up as a baby Bald Eagle, or Eaglet. There are benefits to attending the Eagle festival in Sauk City every January- Maddie knew all about baby eagles, especially how their heads are brown until they are several years old.

Caleb dressed up as a dinosaur. He really wanted to be a dinosaur. Maddie tried to invent some story about how she was the mommy eagle, and that she protected Reed the Eaglet from the dinosaur that was trying to eat him.

Caleb not only wanted to be a dinosaur for the 4rth of July, he also refused to wear Maddie's Dinosaur costume, It was too big for him, and he wanted a small one. So I sewed him a suit out of an old towel. This may very well be the biggest domestic feat of my life. If I can make this awesome suit out of an old towel, I can do anything.

We entered the parade as a group, and the kids won 3rd prize (there were 3 entries) with our award we got $3 prize money which was then used to purchase fireworks. This was really fun.

A few days later Martin had a track meet , and there was an Eagle statue there. Maddie loved the eagle and kept pretending to fly on its back. Of course we really weren't supposed to climb on the Eagle, so I took this picture secretly while telling my kids in a stern voice to get off the statue. They really are so cute.

Olbrich Beach

2010-07-12T17:59:00.000-07:00

This is the first installment of a series of reviews of Beaches in the Madison area.

Today I visited Olbrich Beach. It was a cloudy humid day, so the kids were anxious to cool off. we swam from 1pm till about 4:30.

Safety
The beach was relatively uncrowded. There were 2 lifeguards who seemed fairly capable, without being overbearing.
This beach was a little peninsula in the middle. The kids are allowed to play on the island, but they can not climb the rocks into or out of the water. This could be a safety hazard, if older kids swim across the beach, you can not always see them from the other side of the water.
The lifeguards kept the kids all on the same side of the swimming area, so that they are easy to see.
Amenities
The parking lot was very near the beach, I could see my car from the water. There were bathrooms with changing areas between the parking lot and the water. All very convenient and clean.
Sand
The beach was very clean. The sand contained a lot of shells, which were fun to look though and play with. The bottom of the lake was nice and sandy, very few rocks. AND to the delight of my 8 yr old, the sand is perfect packing sand. Martin made a baseball out of sand, then held it by the sides with two fingers! We also made lots of canals and pits which were then filled with water and gleefully broken. This was great sand.
Water
The water is a bit cooler than average, as it is from Lake Monona, a large lake. It was also pretty clear. I would guess that this is rarely closed for algae.

I will go here again.
This will be a great place to visit after we go to Olbrich Gardens.

So this is what they mean by extreme ultramarathon....

2010-07-11T05:57:00.000-07:00

OK, so I have run a few ultramarathons, I have done several marathons, and trail races, and nothing has ever even come close to this.
My friend Jesse was volunteering at the race, so she gave me a ride to the start. This meant that I wouldn't have to drive myself home in case I was too exhausted or injured to do so.
The race started st 5:30 am, there were about 200 ultrarunners doing either the 50k (me) or the 50 mile. 50 mile participants could switch races at mile #25. Just in case you felt like doing 25 mile miles instead of 6.
First off, they sent us up a ski slope. I know because of the ski chairs stored at the base of the hill, we snaked up through the woods, then ran pretty much straight back down the slope. The 50 mile runners get to run the ski slope again at the end of the race.

I tripped on a branch or rock, (fall #1) coming down the mountain. Then we ran across the park through a bunch of pretty nice hiking trails lined with thorny berry bushes (scratches on arms) And into Devils' Lake state park, about mile 15, things got interesting. We were routed up the first of three sets of stone stairs, and around the perimeter of the lake. There were too many participants, and I spent a lot of time walking to get around other runners and hikers. There were a lot of hikers, and the trail around the lake was very narrow. On the south side of the lake We got to run across an open filed, there was no trail, we were just sent across a wooded portion of the park, over a stream, and over rocks and logs, and marshes. The footing was unsure and it took forever. Then we were up and running through some other narrow trails infested with hikers, and stone stairways...We even had an aid station on top if the bluff; people had to cart the water for the aid station up there! Eventually I ran back down the trail towards the finish. When I say 'nice trail' I mean that there was a trail. many of these trails were not open to the public, and were overgrown. There were logs across them, and We had to duck under barriers to get onto them. Towards the end, I was pretty tired and my muscles were not working properly. About a mile from the finish, I was running towards Parfrey's Glen on the Ice age trail, and I tripped on a branch or root. (fall #2) my calf muscles seized up and I had to wait a few minutes before I could get up and continue on my way. Eventually I finished. My family was at the finish as usual, though Maddie complained that I was too slow. Caleb ran into the finish with me so I gave him my medal.

There was no shower at the finish, so I took a swim in the lake.
The course was well marked, there were great volunteers (like Jesse!) directing us across roads and along the course. I think there were too many runners on the course, and too many hikers on the trails. This was an experience, but I prefer less extreme races, ones that actually feature trails throughout the entire races and do not involve ski slopes or wading through streams.

pre-race jitters

2010-07-09T06:57:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I am running the Dances with Dirt Devils' lake 50K. It starts at 5:30am. It is incredibly challenging and hilly. I am fully prepared for this race. I was originally training for the 50 mile, but I was not able to complete enough long runs, so I am doing the 50k (31miles).

I am nervous because my last 50K was run in February, and it was really difficult.

This time I am in way better shape and there is no snow or ice or cold to deal with. I will have plenty of food, water, and extra clothes/shoes. So it is going to be super fun, and I am going to listen to some awesome stuff during the race.

I want to do a timed race this fall; There are 24 and 12hr races, all participants run around a track, a chip counts the laps, and we just all go as long as possible. A runner can quit anytime, Lots of people will do a marathon then leave. Family and friends camp along the track and support the runners. I think it will be a fun and different sort of race experience.

Martin in the news

2010-06-28T05:11:00.000-07:00

Martin played Disc golf on Saturday and got into the Appleton Newspaper!

He had fun and we will definately do this next year. I love the idea of the Badger state games, they are basically an olympics for everyone.

Garden Greatness

2010-06-11T05:45:00.000-07:00

So I saved a couple of dollars.. I bought a Leek a few weeks ago, and after eating the top of it I replanted the roots in the garden behind my raspberries. The thing kept growing, and I have used the top of it twice since then. I do the same thing with green onions, and I am always amazed that I can plant things form the grocery store. These are tough plants.

We also have our first red raspberry of the season, I am sure it will become more red and more ripe in the next few weeks.
four 0 Clocks can grow from seeds or from rhisomes, They are a perennial in their native Peru. This plant is growing from a rhisome that has been protected from the harsh winter cold by the nearby dryer vent. I love when nature and the modern lifestyle intersect.
I have wanted a Mulberry tree for the past several years. I have read about how to propagate them, and tried several methods. I got some cuttings to root, and produce buds, then they died. I attempted to put in a cutting this spring, but it also died. I was about to give up an just buy a tree, when I discovered this beautiful delicious tree growing under my line tree in the front yard.

I am so excited for this summer!!!! Mulberries!!!!! I am never going to move away from this house.

School picnic

2010-06-11T05:26:00.000-07:00

we went to the school picnic. It was super fun!

Caleb liked to go to school with Maddie, and be a part of the class. He held Maddie's hand and walked with her into her class, let her read him a book, and then he played with toys in her class. Caleb is excited to start kindergarten in 15 months. .
Reed enjoyed walking around and being admired by all who saw him. He is very cute and fun. He is also really good at climbing into the cupboard.

new themesong

2010-06-08T14:37:00.000-07:00

here is my new and most favorite themesong.
h ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4ipoty30tw

I love this song.

Others have attempted to write songs about me in the past, but have fallen short. Here is a short list of the songs that sing about me.

"Valleri" by the Monkees,
this is alright, they did another song featuring my middle name "cheer up sleepy Jean" but neither was really great, mostly because the Monkees were a made up rock band/tv show. Why did they write about my names? because they were around in the late 60's, when the names Valerie and Jean were in their hey-day of popularity.

"Valerie" by Steve Winwood
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anCg5EiB2AM&NR=1&feature=fvwp
This is so from 1987s!!!! The entire song is spent apparently singing to 'valerie' in hopes that she will come back because the singer is 'the same boy he used to be' of course, this lack of maturity and personal development might have been the reason for the break up in the first place....I'm just saying. Go to therapy, maybe some college, then sing a song about it.
the new lyrics could be
"Valerie, call on me, I've overcome my commitment issues with some psychotherapy"

The Happy Wanderer -German Folk Song
I love this music video
The Chorus is "Valleree, Vallera Vallereee Valler ah ha ha ha ha haha ha ha haha ha ha"
I even know a few verses in German. My kids think that the words are about me, but of course they are just nonsense words.

Bratfest

2010-05-31T15:45:00.000-07:00

The Bratfest is an unhealthy event that encourages people to overeat. In the interest of public health it should be changed or discontinued. Some would argue that I have no stake in this event because I do not eat meat. This does alter my perspective, but I accept that many people eat meat as a part of a healthy diet. The Bratfest is not a part of a healthy diet. The Bratfest encourages the public to come together and eat as many sausages as possible in 4 days. A massive sausage binge all for the noble cause of eating more than the previous year.

The Bratfest wants to get bigger ans bigger, but the State of Wisconsin is already very good at being bigger. 24.1% of our adults are obese, and this costs our state an additional 1486 million dollars every year in medical costs. (ncsl.org)

Obesity is not just a matter of personal choice or willpower, it is a product of environmental, cultural, genetic and biological factors. One could argue that Bratfest sends a message that eating large amounts of sausage is good for the community, and is a socially acceptable way to participate in society. This is a paradoxical message, as eating lots and lots of brats will eventually shorten your life and prematurely end your participation in the community.

The nuances of this message, along with any public health concerns are pretty much ignored during bratfest weekend. The Brat can not be made healthy, unless you just do not eat one. The Sauerkraut, onions, and relish are fine, but alas The star of the whole event, the Brat is just not good for anyone. 260 calories, 22 grams of fat, 840 mg of sodium. The 14 grams of protein, its only redeeming quality, do not compensate. A single Brat eaten occasionally in an otherwise balanced diet can be fine, but that is not what the Bratfest promotes.

There is a large electronic sign that counts the number of Brats eaten. The goal of the event is to break the record by eating more brats than have been eaten at any other bratfest ever before. This year we succeeded. We, the attendees ate 209,376 Brats this year.
209,376 Brats at 260 calories each, then we divide that by 3600 calories, then we as a community have gained a collective 15,121 pounds from this festival.

It is possible that some of use actually burned off these excess calories, there was Rutabaga Paddlesports offering 15 minute Kayak rides, and it was a fairly long walk from the parking lot, but I bet the vast majority of us didn't do an extra 5 miles before breakfast. (5mile jog/walk would burn the calories from 2 brats, not counting buns)

So what are the alternatives? Is it necessary to give up our tradition? The city could have a strawberry or spinach festival and encourage all of us to eat the healthy stuff enmass, or we could have a city-wide walk-a-thon and count laps around the track.

I think I would be appeased if the impetus to 'break the record' were dropped. Maybe the organizers could quietly encourage moderation in the number of sausages people eat, perhaps feature meals that contain sausage along side (gasp) whole grains and vegetables. But this does not have the same allure as the massive eating of sausage that is the Madison tradition.

In reality, the Bratfest might not survive without the 'break the record' advertising. In that case it would be a Madison tradition like the medical tradition of bleeding people to cure illness, and the Puritan tradition of burning witches . It is a stupid tradition that needs to end before it does anymore damage.

free stuff in Madison

2010-05-30T13:02:00.000-07:00

As the summer begins, I am appreciating all of the free fun stuff to do in this city. First off, the free beaches with lifeguards. I can take my kids swimming in a safe fun environment. This is not technically free, as my taxes fund the beaches, but it seems free and it is fun.

There is free mulch in a few city parks. We have been getting lots of it lately for our garden. It is fun to shovel and great for putting around our plants.
It is a really big pile of mulch!
This is not free, but it is half price every wednesday, when I go and get clothes for my kids and clothes for projects. like denim quilts and grocery bags made out of pants. It is a fun place to shop, my kids call it 'the place where you can buy anything you want'. Personally I love the highly accurate name "Dig 'N Save"

beginning of summer.

2010-05-30T12:37:00.000-07:00

Maddie and her friend made Caleb dress up and be a part of their game. It was all very cute.
Maddie is good at climbing on fence posts, as well as climbing into post holes.
This is a part of the fence we are building across our back yard. The kids all love to help, and they have been pretty helpful in general. They can hold measuring tapes, mark boards, pick up garbage, and even help measure the depth of holes in the ground.

Here we are swimming at a beach. This summer is going great so far!

related to Percy Jackson books?

2010-05-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

Today I found a list in the handwriting of 8yr old Martin,

Centaur army weapons
bow and arrow
baseball bats
paintball guns
styrafoam hand
and hoofs

He was home sick and read the entire Sea of Monsters book in a few hours. Then I had him do some research on wikipedia to look up the real mythology of some of the characters. He made a list of the characters he could think of, then looked them up online. This didn't hold his interest for long, mythology is incredibly complicated especially for an 8yr old. He did manage to get through the labors of Hercules (Heracles in Greek).

I suspect that he made this list after reading the book and in preparation for researching Centaurs. I hope he won't be too disappointed when he discovers that Centaurs had no styrafoam, paintballs, or even baseball bats.

Sweet Revenge

2010-05-12T17:48:00.000-07:00

I have been pondering recently, the inequality of marriage, how women are often obligated to stay in a marriage gone sour, and suffer more social criticism as well as financial upheaval when they do leave a relationship. Men are often more financially independent, as well as less socially obligated to stay and care for their children, so they are often more free to leave their marriages. It isn't fair, but few things are.

That being said, Some women do get to make lemonade out of lemons.

Like our friend Jenny Sanford. Her ex Husband, Mark Sanford is the current Governor of South Carolina. She divorced him in March following his very public visit to his mistress in Argentina during which he claimed to be 'hiking the Appalachia trail'. After his affair was discovered, he did not apologize, but instead could not stop talking about his Argentinian Girlfriend.

Jenny Sanford is left with the couples 4 children to raise, and this Friday she is campaigning with Nikki Haley, who is a republican and will challenge Mark Sanford in a primary election later this year. I hope Nikki Haley wins.

dance recital

2010-04-19T16:38:00.000-07:00

On the way to the recital, We saw Uncle Mark driving Head of us.

Maddie did a great job in her recital. I really admire these teachers who can convince a bunch of 5 & 6 yr olds to learn and perform a real dance. Maddie is in Ballet so that she has an outlet for all of her creative energy. She is also in a music class, but that hasn't gone as well. She is learning music, but she also uses every opportunity to be a dog or cat. We have to discuss "when is it time to be a dog" (recess, at home, etc) "when is it time to be a little girl" (during class, church, etc.) I am so glad I have such an interesting child.

things that I find exciting.....

2010-04-14T18:28:00.000-07:00

These are my new gooseberry bushes!

Martin can burn things with his magnifying glass!

Reedus Robertus of the familae VanHorn

2010-04-12T12:43:00.000-07:00

This creature was spotted in my yard earlier this week. It appears to be primarily a quadraped though it will attempt bipedal locomotion. It eats anything that comes near its mouth, and makes very cute noises.

park

2010-04-10T15:47:00.000-07:00

water

2010-04-07T17:12:00.000-07:00

what is it about a giant puddle of water that makes kids want to jump in it even if it is cold and miserable and rainy?

easter weekend

2010-04-04T17:05:00.000-07:00

Friday we did a massive Easter egg hunt with some friends. It was fun and there were lots of eggs!

On Easter Sunday we went for a walk along the ice age trail and read the Easter story.

We have three pairs of binoculars and three children who can use binoculars, so it works out just right. Today the kids were looking for birds and birds nests. It got the kids some exercise so they were more willing to stay indoors during conference.

.
Here we are playing on some play equipment, which is always fun. This is after Martin and Maddie did a 2 mile race in Black Earth.

Finally, here is a sample of what Maddie has been wearing lately. She just looks cute, so I took a picture. She has a pink/bright pink poncho, zebra striped pink t-shirt, and pink striped pants.

correction; I should have posted this earlier.

2010-04-04T10:16:00.000-07:00

OK, so last week after the Health care bill was passed, I was exuberant, and I posted an incredibly inspirational poem, written for Obama's inauguration and read there by Elizabeth Alexander. Here is one of my favorite parts;

Some live by 'love they neighbor as thyself'
others by 'first do no harm' or 'take no more
than you need'. What if the mightiest word is love?

I feel the entire poem is about our country, its varied spotted history and various political and social feelings; and how we all work towards the same ends albeit with different means.

What I did wrong, is that I removed my post after a few hours because I heard a lot of negative feedback about the Healthcare bill from my republican friends. I had truly not expected negativity from anyone.
A friend very rightly chastised me for this
"did you get too much flack from your republican friends"
well, if they gave me too much flack (a little bit of flack is fine) then they are not my friends and really wouldn't read my blog. So I need to express myself more and not worry about introducing inconvenient thoughts and ideas to those around me.
We do not progress by trying the same things over and over and expecting different results.

The Great poet William Butler Yeats , in his poem The Second Coming, described time when
"the best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity"
I will not speculate on where those 'full of passionate intensity' stand on the health care bill, but I must make sure that I am not one of those who lack conviction.

So there you have it, I will not shy away from big political social statements which I feel to be important. As you read this blog, be warned that it is written by me (you can get your own if you don't like it). It will of course continue to be focused mainly on my children and our family blah blah blah. But I am making a special effort to live a life consistent with what I believe are correct principles and ideas.

Praise Song for the Day
by Elizabeth Alexander

Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other, catching each other’s
eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise. All about us is
noise and bramble, thorn and din, each
one of our ancestors on our tongues.

Someone is stitching up a hem, darning
a hole in a uniform, patching a tire,
repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere,
with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,
with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky.
A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin.

We encounter each other in words, words
spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,
words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark
the will of some one and then others, who said
I need to see what’s on the other side.

I know there’s something better down the road.
We need to find a place where we are safe.
We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain: that many have died for this day.
Sing the names of the dead who brought us here,
who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,

picked the cotton and the lettuce, built
brick by brick the glittering edifices
they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.

Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

praise song for walking forward in that light.

field museum

2010-04-01T06:07:00.000-07:00

We visited the Field Museum in CHicago recently. IT was great. One of the exhibits was "it came from underground" and everything was as if you had shrunk to 1/100 of your normal size. This was Maddie's favorite place. She liked ot pretend to be 1/100 of her size, and crawl around in the dirt. There were also lots of moving scale sized ants, crawdads and other bugs. Even a wolf spider eating a grub. Caleb was frightened by these. The kids all got to crawl into a cicada shell and pretend to molt.
I was particularly impressed by the display of meteorites and the extensive dinosaur collection, including Sue, the most complete tyrannosaurus rex ever found.
After the museum we played outside. It was really fun and took all day long!

Modern Art

2010-03-31T21:05:00.000-07:00

What is going on here? Are there two kids in a tree dripping paint onto a board? Is this some crazy painting method that will result in some crazy looking picture?

Yes! And here it is, though I must warn you that it looks much cooler in person. We visited the art museum in Milwaukee, and we were inspired. I am not sure where in the house this art is going to be displayed, but it sure was fun to make!

In other new, Reed is getting very good at standing and balancing.

highlights

2010-03-25T07:34:00.000-07:00

Here are some highlights of our little lives lately......

Martin reading Archaeology Magazine. There is so much I love about this picture. Not the least is that I share his obsession with all things natural history. I love when he spouts out little factoids about ancient Egypt or Earth science. He is so my child. I didn't even teach him this, but he knows the Mohs Hardness scale and can recognize an Ammonite! This summer I hope to teach him the constellations.
We
Reed at the Library! He shares a birthday with Thomas Hardy, my first favorite author, and though I did not do this deliberately, he is appropriately named after one of my favorite activities! I credit reading with developing my own social and political ideas. I read my first 'real book' Les Miserables at 13, and though I didn't understand it all, I remember questioning some of my own ill-formed political opinions because of it. I hope to teach my own children about empathy and social justice, how to live their lives and be good people in part by reading them good books, then encouraging them to read great books themselves. (I mean, what can we learn about marriage from Jane Austen?)
YEAH REED!

We recently celebrated our own favorite psuedo-holiday, The Ides of March. We ate Caeser Salad and Caeser-bread. I wasn't able to get the Orange Julius I had oplanned, but it was still fun. I'm not sure the kids understood our synopsis of the story of Caeser's death, perhaps next year we will have to act out a few scenes from the play, complete with togas and tunicas!
This is a recent trip to the library.
Caleb is playing a video game.
Maddie is participating in the ' reading to Dogs' program.

That's about all we have been doing lately.

Caleb-therium

2010-03-13T17:32:00.000-08:00

We have a book 'Ancient Mammals' It has some great illustrations of ancient mammals that existed after the dinosaurs and before modern times. The best pictures are those of the ancient mammals killing and eating each other, which is always a popular subject for young boys.
Caleb has recently become interested in this book and we read it every couple of days. It features a Brontotherium, which lived in North America, and Unitatherium, which was twice the size of the modern elephant and lived 45 to 40 million years ago in ancient Egypt. There is also Megatherium, the Ancient ground sloth and a previous inhabitant of North America. This book has influenced Caleb.

One day he was pretending to growl and bite things and said;
"I Caleb-therium"

Perhaps one day he will be a paleontologist. Or he will be ostracized when he starts Kindergarten and none of the other kids want to pretend to be a Glyptodon.

50K

2010-02-06T16:18:00.000-08:00

I just finished the John Dick Memorial 50K. put on by the Badgerland striders, this is a serious race. It is 'only' 31miles, however it is run on ski trails which are covered in snow and they are slippery. This is a significant obstacle.

As I arrived this morning I found two drills and a couple boxes of drywall screws. Runners were drilling them into the bottoms of their running shoes for better traction.

I had considered the traction problem and nearly purchased some YakTraks, but they cost $23 and we are on a money diet, besides I have found my trail shoes to be sufficent the last couple of winters. My trail shoes have a very hard plate in the sole so the screws would not go in easily, and I decided not to force them, so I ran on my normal shoes just as I had planned.

I am amazed at what I find out at these races. There is invaluable knowledge to be gained from observing a group of people with 10,20, 30+ years of running experience. I especially love how so few of them use the latest running gadgets.

So I ran the race. At the end I walked up all the hills and stumbled down hills, barely able to make the corners and avoid holes in the icy snow. But I made it to the finish line (conveniently located inside of the heated shelter) where my entire family was waiting for me. They were all so cute. It was fun and I am glad I attempted this race, It was more than I thought I could do.

art

2010-02-01T07:15:00.000-08:00

This is some art I found around my house recently. Maddie is the artist, and explained the this as 'a mad scientist trying to kill a person with a laser, but doesn't know that it is actually just air'.

This is sideways, but if you look closely you can see Maddie standing next to me, and I am holding Reed. We are standing on our round rug. l

weekend stuff

2010-01-24T15:55:00.000-08:00

Maddie started her Ballet class this week. This year the class is much more structured than before, and the class will perform at a recital at the end of the semester. I am pretty excited
During her class the rest of the family visited a local park and played on the equipment in the snow. It was full of slushy snow, but otherwise fairly comfortable.

Reed enjoys being outdoors. He is pretty quiet when we go on walks or sit outside. I think that he likes to look around and enjoys watching the other kids play.

Benjamin likes to make tapioca pudding, and the kids like to help him. They all ate the tapioca pudding that they helped to make, and for some reason Maddie and Caleb are dressed up as Lemurs.

Apparently Lemurs are opportunistic carnivores who also enjoy the occasional chocolate tapioca pudding.

I bet Maddie grows up to be a great scientist.

Either that or she goes native and lives as an animal with a troop of wild lemurs.

firefly obsession

2010-01-22T05:32:00.000-08:00

lifecycle of an obsession as illustrated by my latest craze, Joss Whedon's Firefly.......

1. watch all of the episodes in earnest.
So done, and you too can join me in this great obsession by going to Hulu.com It is definately pg13, not appropriate for children.

2. visit fan websites and watch fan videos on youtube
this is worth your time even if you are not a fan;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdXkGXD7gDc

3. dress up as the characters
Halloween 2010. I can hardly wait.....

4. harrass friends and family to either locate fellow fans or share the obsession.
See step 1

btw, if you do not like Firefly, please do not tell me. I lost several friends because they didn't think that the series of unfortunate events was the BEST childrens' book series ever.

5. Use taglines and slang from the show in everyday life.
Every year I make myself running tshirts for that year's major races. I also like to make matching shirts for my kids and spouse. This year the gorram shirts might say
"no power in the 'verse can stop me"

shiny.

6. download the themesong
done.

7. Contemplate ways to name potentual future children after the show or its actors.
Kaylie Serenity or
Malcolm Jayne
...Zoe Persephone sounds nice....

8. Check out the actors' current projects.
Nathan Fillion guest starred on season 4 of Desperate Housewives and I watched a few episodes, but I really just kept thinking "how come captain Mal is hanging out on Wisteria lane? where is Inara? Perhaps the great dark secret that they are always worried about is that Mal is harboring a fugitive from the Alliance and is going to expose the truth about Miranda...." and then I got pretty bored after it became apparent that no Reavers where ever going to show up.

The little I have seen of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse has been pretty good.

9. To ensure that this is worthy of my devotion, and not just a passing phase, let a reasonable amount of time elapse, then watch it again, and if it is truly great, repeat steps 1-8

The last step is the real kicker. I have liked a lot of stuff, but found years later that I didn't love it. Such was the case with Twilight. The really great stuff that has stood the test of time is rare, and it is really great. The only thing that can rival my Firefly obsession is my great love of Xfiles. It aired 10pm-2am when I lived in Utah, and I used to happily get up in the middle of the night with my screaming kids because it meant that I got to watch xfiles.

robinson crusoe and revisionist history

2010-01-12T06:39:00.000-08:00

We recently started to read our children the classic novel Robinson Crusoe Published in 1719 it is considered by some to be the first English Novel.

The plot so far is this;
The owner of a sugar plantation owner is shipwrecked while on a mission to buy slaves.

Incidently, a bit of research shows that abolitionists in Europe frequently were succesful in limiting the numbers of slavers allowed to operate in the british colonies. Crusoe alludes to laws that have made slaves unavailable locally which prompts him to make his own voyage to africa to get his own slaves.

The Disney version of the story omits this detail.

presentism is the term that describes modern people judging the past by current standards. revisionist history is the practice of changing parts of history that do not agree with what we wish our history to be.

I do not want to white wash history, though I do want to cut it up into child appropriate bites of truth. We must honor our ancestors but not hesitate to acknowledge their sins. We must learn history if we are to halt is repetition, and to learn history we need to take a long hard look at it unencumbered by any rose colored glass.

Slavery is wrong, in all of its forms. It is bad for the enslaved as well as for the owners. The power is corrupting. I know this because it has been told again and again in abolitionist and antislavery literature. The case has to be made against slavery to answer proslavery sentiments pervasive in the society at the time. Today we celebrate our abolitionist literature and forget that it was once considered radical by our own venerated american ancestry.

I want to represent this sentiment to my children. Robinson Crusoe is a great book, the fact that the protagonist is a slaver is incidental to the plot. I am attempting to tell my kids that people do bad things for lots of reasons and that he was simply following the actions of others of his time. It is easy to sin by following others and that is why we must constantly check ourselves, 'examine our lives' as Socrates demands. Do what is right according to the dictates of your own conscience; especially when it is unpopular, unusual or difficult.

mystery dinner

2010-01-08T14:04:00.000-08:00

what's in these cans? I do not know
It will be our dinner though....

I found these cans sans labels at the local grocery store discounted for quick sale. I didn't know what to make for dinner tonight, so I got them all and decided we would make a game out of it.

Martin and
Maddie opened the cans and found
kidney beans, navy beans, cherry pie filling, sweet green beans, spicy tomatoes, and chicken broth(?)

for dinner we are eating the green beans, navy and kidney beans, pasta with tomato sauce, and cherry pie mini turnovers for desert.

We will probably not eat the broth, but everything else was well worth the 25 cents per can.

This was fun. I can't wait to buy some more cans without labels!!!

MORE CHRISTMAS PICTURES

2010-01-05T14:08:00.000-08:00

Notice how Reed almost blends into his surroundings. Like his christmas outfit is a kind of camoflauge.

Caleb loved Christmas the most. He was too young to really know what to expect so it came as a sort of really great surprise. He wakes up to a stocking full of candy and a whole bunch of presents.

Maddie seemed very protective of her presents. She loved everything she recieved especailly the littlest pet shop, doll, and ponies.

Martin loved his Legos and immediately went to work assembling sets.

Caleb opening his drum set.

Martin with his book of directions for his lego sets

drive thru diet??

2010-01-02T16:40:00.000-08:00

So......
Taco Bell is promoting its drive thru fresco menu items as a part of the weight loss plan called the "drive thru diet"
Christine Dougherty lost 54 pounds over two years by following a 1250 calorie diet, which included some drive thru items from Taco Bell. (perhaps the salsa?)
http://www.drivethrudiet.com/

Well, funny thing this guy name Morgan Spurlock tried the drive thru diet at McDonalds and it had the opposite effect, chronicled in his 2004 documentary film Supersize Me.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390521/plotsummary

He gained nearly 30 lbs and became incredibly unhealthy, all by eating at McDonalds three times a day for a month. He summed up the marketing of this horrible unhealthy food well when he said;
"The bottom line, they're a business, no matter what they say, and by selling you unhealthy food, they make millions, and no company wants to stop doing that."

It is not in Taco Bell's interest to have a healthy population. They sell most when the consumers are all a bit stupid, believing their marketing lies; living and dying their own 'unexamined lives'. Taco Bell wants you to buy their junk food, and this add campaign is trying to pass them off as healthy. It is a lie.

What is the solution? should we all, as Morgan Spurlock suggests, slap our children everytime they see the golden arches so McDonalds' gives them a negative association? A bit extreme, and McDonalds, though a great offender, has no monopoly on the marketing of unhealthy things.

We are marketed all sorts of things that are bad for us; soda pop, oreo cookies, and many things are bad for our financial health like a too expensive home, new cars, designer or even just too many new clothes; The job of an informed consumer is great, and rejecting what others hold important is sometimes to violate a social norm. Much of our consumerism is tied up in social customs and culture.
(Just try to eliminate christmas gifts some year...)

The solution, I believe is to embrace and live an examined life. As Socrates wrote, "the unexamined life is not worth living". We must find what is important and seek after that, and weight carefully our decisions so that when we purchase a can of soda pop it is with open eyes, fully aware of the 180 calories and two days' recomended daily allowance of sugar. Not blinded by some pretense that this will make us American or bring us closer to polar bears frolicing in the snow.
We must teach our children ( and model such behavior in ourselves) to be conscious deliberate consumers. To examine their motivations and adhere to the commandment found in Exodus 23:2"Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil"

Also, as I pass by the Taco Bell with the disillusioned dieters waiting in the drive thru queue, wondering why their fresco tacos do not combine into a 54 pound weightloss, I like to shout so that my children can hear "Taco Bell is the DEVIL".

A little bit of negative association can't hurt anything.

snow forts

2009-12-30T10:17:00.000-08:00

We have a lot of snow, and on Christmas day the weather warmed up to an unseasonable 39

degrees. It rained a lot too, and the the result was 18 inches of heavy slushy snow. Perfect for making snow sculptures, and that is what we did. We made a large 6 foot tall igloo and snow fort out of snow bricks, molded from a large sterilite container.

zoo in winter

2009-12-28T14:08:00.000-08:00

We went to the zoo with my brother Aaron. since there is snow on the ground, we took a sled to cart the children around.

apparently riding in the sled was incredibly fun. The kids fell out of the sled for fun, then ran and jumped back in.

Caleb especially liked having Aaron around. It was pretty fun. Ofcourse wouldn't any kid love an uncle who pulled them and all of their siblings around on a sled for 2 hours? The kids, especially Caleb were sad to see Uncle Aaron leave today. Perhaps Aaron will was not completely sad to go.

christmas pictures

2009-12-27T17:27:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of our christmas.

It was super fun. The kids got a lot of presents and there was a lot to unwrap.

earlier in the week we visited the olbrich gardens with Uncle Aaron. We made decorated paper snowmen with leaves, sticks, and other fun stuff. It was a fun project.

maddie on tv!!!

2009-12-18T17:48:00.000-08:00

Maddie's Teacher was the teacher of the month for december! Maddie, of course, got to be on television because of this. I love it when my kids are on television.

here is a link to the clip.
http://www.channel3000.com/localvideo/index.html?v=26261

fantastic children

2009-12-15T20:22:00.000-08:00

So I try to be conscience of the things I eat, mostly from a social justice and environmental perspective. I heard of a study that showed that women in the US who drank cows milk (which includes growth hormone) had twins at twice the rate of their english counterparts, whose cows' milk contained no growth hormone.
This is one study, so I need more information before tossing out the cow's milk; there is a huge genetic role in twinning, so that affects the results as well. Cows' milk also has a huge carbon footprint, though I do not believe it to be especially inhumane; I also believe it is disgusting for us here in the richest country on earth to spend lots of money on organic and special food when billions live on less than a dollar a day. I believe that organic food is elitist and that one day we will answer for our wanton waste of resources and selfish consumption.

I was discussing this with my husband, (who tried to name one our youngest child after comic book hero Mr. Fantastic 's alias Reed Richard), because I like him to feel that his opinions are validated, and he said;

"Well, if just having twins is the only risk, I mean maybe it could be a good thing. Perhaps our future children will have the ability to regenerate, or read minds, or we could graft steel onto their bones and then they could all fight crime"

Well, that's it. Bring on the dairy.

snow!!!

2009-12-09T10:27:00.000-08:00

We got 12 inches of snow in the last 24 hours. Before this snowfall, we had 2 inches on the ground, so virutally all of this is new snow. This snow is fairly wet and heavy. Notice how the trees are weighed down. It is relatively warm, about 25-30 degrees.

Though I dislike driving in the snow, I have retained my childhood enthusiasm for the white stuff. Shoveling it is an adventure. Tromping through it is a challenge.( ran 3 miles this morning!). I have more fun pulling my kids around in sled than they do! Last night I pulled Maddie home from her playdate. It is the most wonderful time of the year!

I love to make snow forts. I also love sandcastles, but snow is so much more versatile! It is like fluffy white playdough. My favorite trick is to spray water on a creation, then let it freeze overnight. Snow sculpting has become more enjoyable as my children have grown old enough to assist in my endeavors and even to contribute themselves.

Martin made a tower today all by himself, he even thought of using the plant pots as molds for the bricks. It is white (the color of snow) so it is sort of hard to see in the picture.

Martin is currently working on his fort which is the first of two that we are making for snowball fights. Benjamin plays snowball fights with the kids. Each team gets a fort, then they throw snow at eachother. Generally they just throw snow at Benjamin because he lets them, and that way nobody cries.

Most of the fun is in the fort construction and stockpiling snowballs.

We love the snow!!!!!!!!

Here is a picture of Maddie wearing her new headband which she doesn't like to wear.

I plan to let her pick out the next flower head band.

Reed inspires good behavior?

2009-12-08T15:56:00.000-08:00

Here is the scene that took place in our house today;

Reed is peacefully sleeping on the livingroom floor. Maddie is watching him sleep and stroking him and his fuzzy red sleeper. She has a sweet smile on her face and says
"Whenever I see Reed sleeping I remember not to threaten to kill anybody".

Good thing.

Christmas tree fun

2009-12-06T07:56:00.000-08:00

There is a conflict in our home about christmas trees.
Benjamin believes that real christmas trees are very important.

"Well, why not just have a fake christmas too?" Benjamin says, when approached with the idea of an artifical tree.

Perhaps his preference has merit, but since this is MY blog we will ignore that, and simply humor his eccentricities.

I like fake trees because they are cost effective. Especially when borrowed from a friend or purchased at a garage sale.

Benjamin believes that real trees can be made more cost effective by getting a lot of use out of them. A $30 tree up for 3 weeks is $10/week. Left up for 6 weeks, it is $5/week- that's half price!
He likes to leave the tree up until all the Holidays are past. And by Holidays I mean Valentines Day. So the first week in January I get to do all of the tree removal. It is a messy and crazy business, much easier with an artifical tree, but that's alright. I am willing to be inconvenienced for the sake of marital harmony. Besides, This year I am cooking a Tofurkey for Christmas dinner. Benjamin will need some payback after that.

Since we must get a 'real' tree (is there an imaginary tree? perhaps it would cost the square root of $-25.00), We try to get a cool one. We visited a tree farm yesterday. It had a lot of trees, it was 10 miles away, and it was way over priced.

A lot ofhte local christmas tree farms justify their high prices in a variety of ways.
1. The experience of walking in nature, selecting and cutting your own tree is worth the extra $20.

If your only exposure to nature is a christmas tree lot then you are already in trouble. The parks and trails in the county are all free. You are allowed to look at all of those trees free of charge, year round, and they are even open on christmas.

2. Patronizing tree farms supports local business, small businesses and helps the economy.

No one should attempt to make a living growing christmas trees. It is at best a part time oppertunity. Small businesses with bad models a.k.a. way overprices stuff should go out of business quickly so the failed proprieters can go on to other potentually more successful ventures.

3. Local Christmas tree farms are more "GREEN" than Christmas tree lots and big box stores

Actually, chrsitmas trees in this area are an extremely "green" product in genreal. In this state the soil is perfect, nothing needs to be added to it. Importing trees to the city enmass on one large truck is much more efficent than having every family individually drive out to a farm, select a tree then drive back to the city.

We only visited one Christmastree farm this year, and it was way overpriced. The average tree was $50. Since we had driven all the way out to it, we felt rather obligated to try and find something to buy. As it turned out we left and bought our tree at Home Depot for $16.99.

A great price. I have no buyers' remorse. It smells piney and the kids love it.

When we decided to leave the tree farm, I thought of all the stuff we could buy for the $30
we would save by not buying their tree. I think we will have great stockings this year.

When we returned home, we set up the tree then let the kids decorate it while we watched Alabama beat Texas in the SEC championship. I love football season. Its like a holiday every saturday for 5 monthes, that requires no gifts, trees, or complicated relative dilemmas.

If Maddie ran the world....

2009-11-08T14:26:00.000-08:00

MOM: Maddie, what would you like to do today after church?

Maddie: I want to go swimming!

MOM: well, we might not be able to swim today, it might be to cold, what else would you like to do?

Maddie: Go christmas carolling!

MOM: IT is a little early for christmas carols. We could go christmas caroling on thanksgiving. That would be a fun activity.

Maddie:NO! We can't do that because then we would just sing "Turkey Turkey Turkey" because it is Turkey day.

When we got home from church we filled up our little wading pool. Then we let the kids swim and run through the sprinkler. What else can you do on a 70 degree sunday in November when it is too early to sing christmas carols? There wasn't much swimming, but everyone got wet and Caleb and Maddie both wore their swim suits. I brought out the hammock and relaxed with Reed. Such beautiful weather. Everyday really is beautiful in its own way. If you live locally don't be surprised if you get some early carollers soon. It is supposed to get back to normal temperatures by the middle of next week. I love my life.

giant pile of leaves

2009-11-08T05:26:00.000-08:00

Saturday Morning the city decided to collect the leaves on our street. The sweeper truck piled them all up in front of our house! The larger truck came to collect them later in the day, but for several hours we had a massive pile of leaves! It was fun.

Maddie's hair blends in with the leaves. She likes us to pretend that we can't see her because of her hair

Caleb liked to cover himself up with leaves and then pop out of the pile.

What a great unexpected activity for a november saturday!

It was very warm saturday, so after playing in the leaves we all went for a hike at Natural Bridge state park.

An archeological dig at this site in 1957 found firewood that was 12,000 years old. Evidence of ancient inhabitatation. These paleoindians were living in the time of mastadons and mammoths. This part of Wisconsin was not glaciated- the southwest corner of wiconsin was not covered by the glacier that covered the rest of the state during the last iceage- so the land is a lot rougher and older structures like this are preserved.

I am very glad that my kids enjoy these sorts of outings. Hopefully they will always be excited about nature and geology. I like this park because it is pretty fun but also very safe. The trail is a loop, with all of the trees bare you can see everyone all the time. There is nowhere to fall or get wet. We had a fun hike and a great day. Now we are ready for the long cold winter.

fun

2009-11-06T11:08:00.001-08:00

We went to the zoo.

we saw the giraffe.

Reed seemed entertained. He probably just enjoyed watching all of the kids and people.

Halloween

2009-11-02T08:31:00.000-08:00

Reed
carried around, did not dress up. was not really scared of any costumes. Did not like the cold wind at the trunk or treat.

Caleb
First a bat, then a lemur, then a Bat again. Only 1 melt down during Trick or treating. Enjoyed acting out his costumes and pretending. Really loves all of the candy everywhere, doesn't enjoy not eating all of his candy all of the time.

Maddie
planned on being a bat, then found her Lemur suit from last year. Wore the suit All day friday, slept init friday night and wore it all day Saturday including her acting class. This suit includes a 4 ft long tail. Was very disappointed to learn that she is actually a lot larger than a rela lemur. She also acted out her costume, making Lemur beds out of boxes and pretending to eat tamarind, which consists of up to 50% of the diet of some wild lemurs. Trick of treating and playing with friends went great. This is truly Maddie's favorite holiday.

Martin
Martin dressed up as the wizard Howl from Howl's moving castle. He decided not to trick or treat at all this year! We wanted to do trick or treat for unicef, but in the end we just collected our spare change. Martin is a great kid.

Ben and Valerie
We did not dress up, which is incredibly sad. I deeply regret this and next year I am definately dressing up. We did watch the WSU cougars play Notre Dame on Halloween night. The cougars lost, but they played alright. I love my team. GO COUGS!

Stop TALKING about YOURSELF all the time!!!!

2009-10-27T06:26:00.000-07:00

show off?

Am I a show off? There are two schools of thought on this topic....

Yes you are, but we love you anyways.-(sister/mom)
and
yes you are, knock it off.-(brother)

I believe I fall in between the two. I may have an anxiety disorder, which leads to excessive narccicistic tendencies. (say that three times fast)
Ofcourse most mental illness is not a great excuse for antisocial behavior, so I need to reform. Hear is an overview of the problem. A list of my recent "bragging" activities;

1. Sewing 10 bat costumes and making an elaborate birthday party for 6yr old girl and all of her friends. I also regularly updated everyone I knew/saw/talked with on the status of the preparations and all of the great awesome things I had planned. I realized that this was not of the general interest, and a conversation about the weather or the status of the local corn crop would have been less braggy, but I was genuinely excited and really wanted to talk about it.

2. Running a speedy half marathon while pushing a baby in a stroller. Lots of fellow runners and spectators congratulated me on my great wonderful accomplishment, and looked on admiringly. I didn't mean to attract so much attention, so I (here it is, my one non-self promoting act all week) I put away my stroller as soon as I possible so people would not recognize me as the "lady who ran with her jogging stroller". I thoroughly enjoyed all of the admiring questions and accolades. I really like attention. Is that so wrong?--not wrong, but it is unfortunate. No one likes a bragger.

3. I go to the Running group Tuesday evenings at Mov'n Shoes in Downtown Madison. I went for a few weeks this summer, then I came back recently and have been attending regularly for three weeks now. The first night I was there I told someone that I ran ultramarathons. Then they told someone else, and now everyone knows. I am not that fast yet, so I wanted to establish my "running credentials" lest anyone think I was a (gasp) beginner. Bragging at running group is not so awful. If there were an arena for bragging it would be at a running group, or previous to another sporting event. The problem is, that I tell people about my running all of the time. I am always thinking about it becaus I am usually sore from a workout, dreading a workout, or wishing I was working out. It really is something I do all the time. perhaps in this arena I could just limit my running talk to fellow runners who are better than me, while running.

Taken as a group these little self promoting transgressions are not too awful. I just need to find a way to keep a lower profile. I met someone who ran a marathon and didn't tell anyone about it. I admire her humility. I told everyone about my silly first marathon weeks before I did it. I was genuinely scared, and was talking about it all of the time because I was scared to death. Unfortunatley bragging, even when it is to assuage the fear of death, is still bragging.

CONCLUSION
My bragging is not awful, but I could stand to keep a lower profile. I will be more likeable when I am more interested in others and stop talking about myself all of the time.

So this week I will do something that is totally incredibly awesome and not tell anyone about it. When people ask about my week I will say "oh no, I haven't done anything awesome at all". I am sure (in a very narcisssistic way), that I have a wide readership. None of you will ever know what awesome, great, crazily creative thing I am doing this week. If you knew you would all be brought to shame by your own lack of ingenuity. You would fall to the ground groveling in your own egergious ignorance of all things awesome. Then praise my pristine perfection as a prime example of a pretty great person.

but that won't happen, because I am not bragging about it.

half marathon

2009-10-25T13:47:00.001-07:00

What is a superwoman?

Is is someone who can run a half marathon in 2:02 while pushing her 4 month old baby in a jogging stroller?

Well, then I guess that's me.

Mauston pumpkin dash 2009 was pretty fun. I hadn't planned on taking Reed along at first, but Benjamin had the other kids and they had soccer and classes, so we decided that If I took Reed his morning would be a whole lot easier. I took my large Burley double jogging stroller. It is covered and stays pretty warm. I put a pillow next to Reed because he is not so good at sitting up yet. He was dressed warmly and had blanket around him. I originally planned to stop during the race and feed or change Reed, but as it happened he was pretty happy and slept through most of it. I wouldn't take a baby along again, but I definately would consider taking an older kid. Especially if they could cheer me on or intimidate my opponents.

walk through Indian hills park

2009-10-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

Sunday we walked through Indian Hills Park. The leaves are turning colors and it is beautiful. Martin and Maddie ran down the trail. They enjoy 'exploring'. Martin and Maddie call bumpy trails that go up and down a "roller coaster" and they like to run on the down hills. Caleb keeps up with them pretty well. He fell a few times but it was so fine that he got right back up and kept running along.

All of the kids climbed the tree. I should dress them all up as monkeys.. oh wait we did that last year.

Reed enjoyed the view from his carrier.

Maddie and Caleb both fit into the hollow tree trunk!

Maddie's Birthday

2009-10-18T07:35:00.001-07:00

Maddie turned 6 and we had a Bat Party for her. Most of her firends were invited.

I made bat suits for all of the guests.

They had a scavenger hunt outside. We also played 'pumpkin bowling' and built a scarecrow. The scare crow turned out kind of creepy looking. There was a giant chocolate bat cake with yellow and pink cake inside.

Reed's Toes!

2009-09-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

Reed can grab his toes!

What a talented little boy!

Fossils and Sunflowers

2009-09-20T17:35:00.000-07:00

Sunday we went on a walk through Stewart County Park.

It was a pretty park, lots of lovely trees turning color in the Fall.

one of the first things we saw were a bunch of fossils in the Limestone bricks lining the trail. These had been brought in from somewhere else, so we couldn't see the entire strata together, but just to find so many fossils anywhere was pretty awesome.
This is the largest one we found, it is about the six inches across. I believe it is the cross section of an ammonite. Martin saw it first. Our little geologist.

The trail is pretty fun. After climbing up this little rocky slope Maddie told us to call her "rock climber Maddie".

Reed seemed to enjoy his little frontpack. He is out front and able to watch everyone run around.

The kids ran around the trail, up and down the hilly tree-lined way. They all had a lot of fun. Caleb had to be carried a lot. He is only 3 and is easily distracted and upset. The older two kids would typically go on ahead, and Caleb and Benjamin would stay back. When they went down a steep hill Caleb would run down first then Benjamin would get a running start and leap over Caleb!!

he loved it and said "you jumped over me" a very coherent sentence for Caleb. It was fun. I am sure we will be back.

***Sunflower house picnic***

Saturday we were invited to the 'sunflower house picnic' a friend of ours ran a daycare for several years and she would always plant a sunflower house for her kids. This year she invited our kids and some other families from church to plant the sunflower house with her. We went out and planted in the spring, and this saturday it was ready for playing. It was about 10 by 12 feet inside. There were 3-4 ft tall sunflowers for walls and morning glories grew on strings for a roof.

It was a very fun little place.

We had chocolate chip cookies and lemonade for a snack.

This is the inside to the sunflower house.

What a fun Saturday!!!!

devils' lake

2009-09-20T17:23:00.000-07:00

we went to devil's lake state park.

There were lots of rock for climbing. All of thekids had a lot of fun.

here we are in the 'devil's doorway', It is a little cavity in the rock.