MI.am.so.behind. A few random responses:
Plady, it looks like you're spamming us with links to various products. When not signed into MDC, multiple words in your posts (mostly items of clothing) are linked to various online sites selling said items of clothing. Log out and have a look- it's pretty remarkable...
jo, the musical theater teacher is from here- my oldest did a workshop with her in October and loved it. Our school does six weeks of classes (3 days a week), then has a "compass week" to end the learning cycle, meet with the teacher to plan for the upcoming learning cycle and offers a bunch of workshops for the kids both at the school and in the community. This time she attended an outdoor education workshop that played various nature-inspired tag and hide and seek games, along with wild food identification and eating. The highlight was eating ants. Some parents were totally horrified, my oldest chose not to participate in the ant eating (though happily tried all the other wild edibles) and my youngest was thrilled to try an ant, though not impressed with the sourness.
real, I'm giggling about the table of contents sentence. I'm sure it wasn't quite as amusing at the time. My oldest constantly quotes information from "non-fiction" books about fairies and dragons from the library. We have agreed to disagree on the truth of these books- yes they are in the non-fiction section at the library, no mum does not agree that this means they are entirely scientifically factual.
mommajb, I am disappointed by how often kids are offered treats in their lives. And frankly, as grown-ups, too- does every mundane occasion (staff meeting, education session, open house, etc. etc.) need to be celebrated with sweets and junk food? My oldest's kindergarten teacher had a huge candy "reward" bag, and I'm very grateful that both our current school and preschool are pretty low on the food as reward/treat/celebration scale. Preschool used to do fruit juice popsicles for birthday until last year when my daughter was on strict allergy patrol and the teacher made her an "ice crystal popscicle" as a replacement treat. All of the other kids were jealous, and now they all celebrate birthdays with "ice crystal popscicles". It's pretty funny to watch a roomful of 3-5 year olds get very excited about ice.
My week-ish worth of news:
Husband came home from Ireland last Thursday, and we're adjusting to the new rhythm of him being home (read: less evening computer/MDC time for me, since that would be kind of antisocial)
Taught (mostly observed) my first prenatal class on Saturday, which looks like a fun job.
Worked a night shift at the hospital Sunday
Yesterday after I woke up from my morning "nap" we planned to go to make photocopies at the college and then take the kids to the park, but partway into town my car started making a horrible noise. I drove straight to my mechanic, then walked to the park. While waiting to hear we decided to take the bus back to our town to get my husband's car, but had a call that all was well and fixed (gravel got up around the abs system and was easily cleared out- big relief!). The kids were so disappointed that my husband ended up taking them home on the bus while I picked up the car and went home to work to make the copies. This vaguely relates to the sense of place being "the best"- I really want my kids to see and know so much more than our small town offers. I'm glad that they probably know more about edible plants than most city-raised kids, but they rarely get to ride a bus and still think escalators and elevators are thrilling. Not to mention the "smallness" of all of the arts, culture and sporting opportunities here.
RR- I've been running! Twice so far this week and I have my running gear at the office with me for a lunch time run today. My legs feel tired after a slow 5k slog, but I'm starting to build a base again and hopefully start to shape up after a pretty inactive winter. My jeans being a bit snug is adding to my motivation.
-ed that book. I also loved The Imperfectionists (favorite book last year) and this year I loved The Sense of an Ending. And State of Wonder really surprised me - it started cliche, borderline airport lit. (I thought) and by the end was so rich and nuanced. And I totally agree about p.o.v. I was a big Bay Area snob (hello! best food, best culture, best education easy access to wilderness 
), but feel like I've learned half of what I know about Life since I left 12 years ago. Imagine what I might have learned if I left sooner 
Gosh you guys! I had the same feeling, and I was still riding high from seeing Lofty and Sparkletruck so recently. 
. Woot!
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