Milestones

I'm so happy for our country. I feel we have a capable, clear-headed, and consensus-building president elect. Three cheers for President Elect Obama and for all of us.

Also, the Beavercreek School bond, which I helped stump for, passed. It was its third time out, and a lot of people felt it was doomed with the recent economic downturn. But, the grassroots effort we put out seems to have made the difference. Three cheers for the citizens of Beavercreek, Ohio.

Another milestone: my sister Kindermusik educators are convening right now, in North Carolina. I'm thinking of you, ladies. Oh, I wish so much I were there. It's the right thing for me right now that I'm not there, as I'm not teaching Kindermusik right now. Sometimes, I'll be floating around the house and I'll start singing "Ram Sam Sam" or any other of a million little Kindermusik tunes in my head, and I'll miss teaching Kindermusik so much, it makes my teeth ache. But I'm working on the Nurturing Parenting teaching right now, which is off to a VERY SLOW START which is part of what makes this hard. I truly hope to be back in the saddle and at the KM convention in 2009.

Another milestone: I just passed my one year anniversary of keeping this blog! Wow. Coming upon my one year anniversary is forcing me to pause and reconsider. It started as a Kindermusik business tool. Then it morphed into a craft/Hall family happenings/random thoughts blog. That format would make sense if my family read it, or a wide circle of friends. But the truth is that there are three people who come by regularly to check in with me (bless you, friends), and two more who stop by once in a blue moon. I'd be more efficient, possibly, if I just e-mailed those dear friends. So, I'm rethinking the blog, and it's going on hiatus. I hope it will be back again soon, in a more professional context, perhaps. Or? I don't know yet. I'm wondering if I stop blogging, if I'll be nudged into working on the writing projects that hover on the edges of my consciousness.

Love to all. E-mail any time.

It's not so much the long journey...

...that wears you down, but it's the pebble in your shoe.

I used to have a friend who had this saying framed. Today is definitely a pebble in my shoe kind of day, and thinking of this forlorn little quote seemed to help a little.

What quotes do you think of on rough days? I don't mean so much the "buck up, little camper! Tomorrow will be brighter!" kind of quotes. I mean the kind that quietly sympathize with your state of mind. Quotes that speak to the human condition.

Here in the battleground state

Yep, we're in a battleground state here in Ohio. I took this photo of a neighbor's yard. Talk about battling.

When my mother was here visiting, she commented that she'd never seen so many political signs, and I believe her--where she lives, in Washington state, the electoral votes pretty clearly go blue, so Washington citizens don't put so much energy into convincing each other.

But I live in a battleground state this year, and I decided to jump into the fray. Yesterday, with a group of folks from the Obama Campaign for Change Office in Beavercreek, we went knocking doors. The office provided us with lists of addresses where, they somehow determined, undecided voters lived. We attempted to cheerfully, politely, and respectfully persuade. We said why we were voting for Senator Obama and gave out flyers. People were very nice. I think they are very used to this sort of thing in Ohio. I wish there was a different way, a less obtrusive way (hi, I know you're enjoying a precious Saturday at home with your family, but I wonder if you'd like to talk politics for a few minutes...I didn't actually say that, but that's how it felt...) , but this is the time-honored way of increasing your candidate's polls. It was hard work, but I'm glad I did it. It was a pleasure to be among like-minded citizens in Beavercreek. It was also a pleasure to see who showed up--I suspected that I might be the oldest, for example, but I'm happy to report that there were many folks older than me. Older, younger, middle-aged, men, women, black, white. Very cool. My door-knocking partner was a professor of geology at University of Dayton, father of three, and life-long democrat. He was a great guy. Overall, a good day, and I slept well last night.

the house's best feature

...is a big tub that, with a promise of excessive bubbles, normally bath-phobic children dive right into. And the dog is clearly thinking about it in this photo, though I'm happy to report that she didn't actually take the plunge.

Remember how we had a puppy? Well, no longer. Lacey is now 6 months old, and officially "mature". Tomorrow she goes in to be spayed. Oh, I feel so sorry for her. I wish there was some way I could explain it to her. Bless her little canine heart.

Now all we need is a yellow brick road

Yes, if you guessed Dorothy in the guess-the-costume post, you get an A+.

I don't think I fully appreciated how iconoclastic this costume is, until I was at the cutting counter at JoAnn's with these bolts in hand. "Oh, you're doing Dorothy!" she said. Um, yeah. A stunningly original idea, obviously. But that's okay. It was Leah's idea and she's going to have a great time, even if she's one of several Toto toting Dorothys in the school hallways.

I made a little white skirt, and this apron to wear over it with a white blouse. I'm very happy with how it turned out. More to the point, Leah loves it. I directly stole the idea of costume-as-apron from the amazingly creative Amy at http://angrychicken.typepad.com/ . So, after Halloween, she has a charming apron for hanging out in the kitchen with me. And lovely matching hair bows, should she choose to don them.

She told me she wanted to be Dorothy for Halloween about one second after I said "The End" when we read Frank L. Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of OZ this summer. She, nor Jacob, had seen the movie until this past weekend. Before seeing the movie, she was looking forward to her silver shoes. Well, of course! The shoes in the book are silver. I was all for dressing her in the silver shoes, and having her explain to everyone that she was Dorothy from the book, snob that I am. But Justin mentioned to her that most people will be expecting ruby slippers from the movie, and then we watched the movie, and that sealed the deal. Our household Dorothy will have her ruby slippers. (FYI, they changed the color to ruby in the film to take better advantage of that fancy new color technology they were showing off for the first time.)

Now you get to guess what the rest of the family is planning to be. That is, if the older child decides. Bless his heart.

Ubiquitous tension

You may have noticed there is a lot of tension in the air. It's the election, yes. It's the economic woes broadcast 24 hours a day on the news, yes. Locally, we have a school bond going before the citizens of Beavercreek asking them to fund a new junior high school and repairs to the other desperately bad buildings. I've been stumping for this, and everyone I talk to is either for it and tense that it won't pass (this is the third try), or dead set against it and tense that I'm asking them about it. And very locally, my husband's sciatic nerve has flaired up mightily. This has never happened before, so we're finding out exactly how painful a flaired sciatic nerve can be. Answer: very. This makes my sweetie, um, tense. He's in a lot of pain. The painkillers don't seem to be working. The doctors don't seem to know exactly what is causing it. I need to research it myself, find out the homeopathic remedies. I have a funny feeling they will start with turning off the news and getting more sleep.

Magical school pictures

My children's school pictures came back today, and they are killer good. I love them. The day they came home from picture day, they talked about how the photographer was giving them silly nicknames and they were all giggling. It totally shows. They both look happy and alive and....so darn old. I have a theory that the school picture camera has an uncanny ability to photograph your child just slightly in the future.

Let's play guess the costume

I'm making Leah's costume today. Can you guess who she wants to be?

National candidates in Dayton, OH

Several weeks ago, my son attended Senator McCain's rally here in Dayton, where he announced Governor Palin as his running mate. My son's very cool teacher, who is teaching about the elections, somehow secured VIP tickets for 23 third graders. It's true: I learned who the GOP running mate was from my eight year old! It's interesting to live in a battleground state in an election year, where your chances of seeing national candidates in person are very good.

Well, on Thursday, Senator Obama also had a rally, and the 3rd grade class couldn't go this time. So I decided Jacob and I would have a little field trip of our own. I took him out of school, and he, my father and I went downtown to the Fifth Third Field and joined the enormous line that snaked around the building. I wasn't sure we'd get in, but we did. Jacob and I cheered, clapped, ate peanuts, waved our American flags, bought campaign buttons from a vendor outside the ball field, and had a great time. I'm so glad we went. We decided he's one of a very few people in Dayton who have been to both campaigns' rallies.

My father was visiting from Washington state, and he decided to come along with us. This added an interesting element to the field trip. as my father is a life-long conservative Republican. Of course he was the good sport and gentleman that he always is. He did have a couple of sarcastic comments just loud enough for me to hear, and he spent a good part of the rally working a crossword puzzle, lest I should think for a moment that he was drinking the Kool-Aid.

The photos are actually on his camera, which I don't yet have. I'll try to post them soon.

It was a good day. And now I have this excellent fashion accessory from now until Nov 4th.

Nurturing Parenting website

Here is the website for the Nurturing Parenting curriculum. I'm just digging into it, learning about its founder Dr. Stephen Bavolek and so forth, but so far it looks good good good. I will be using the coursework for teen parents, naturally.

The latest from the universe

Remember when I was thinking about how to reach underserved, inner-city parents and their babies with Kindermusik? Remember how just as I was thinking of this, I heard the story of Geoffrey Canada and his parenting programs in Harlem? Remember how I decided to try to do something like that in Dayton?

Well.

I had called the Miami Valley Literacy Council, where I was so gratified to learn that they remembered me from volunteer work I did with infant Jacob in my arms, when we lived here years ago. I remember what a great parent you were, said the director. I almost cried to hear that. We all have moments when we don't feel like a marvelous parent, and I feel like I've had a few of those moments lately. And here was someone who actually remembered me for that quality.

Well.

It turns out that on the same day I called MVLC, they received a big grant for a parenting program for teen parents. They needed a qualifed teacher, but part time. I went and met with them today. They hired me.

I'm now going to teach the Nurturing Parenting curriculum three days a week to teen mothers at an alternative high school in downtown Dayton. I'll still be able to drop off my children and pick them up from school every day.

They want me to work with the curriculum however I see fit, working in lots of musical songs and games and literacy building and lots of things that I'm dreaming up right now as I type.

I think I have just found out why I moved to Dayton.

Required Reading

I am reading Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America. Paul Tough, a journalist who specializes in reporting on education, spent 5 years researching and shadowing Canada, who has done simply amazing things for the children of central Harlem. He calls his program The Harlem Children's Zone. It's a new approach to social services, bold and sweeping and...working. Sometimes it's a hard read--there is no sugar coating here--but really, read this one.

Or, if you'd prefer a quick overview, go to This American Life, and click on "Full Episode" under "Going Big." The feature on Canada is the first portion of the program. Better yet, go straight to The Harlem Children's Zone website.

A quick story: I had been thinking about how to bring Kindermusik to the underserved of Dayton, OH. Like most rust belt cities, Dayton has a large inner city population that's living below the poverty line. People who've probably never heard of early childhood music education or its benefits, and even if they had, they couldn't afford it. I was brainstorming possible grant sources while I was doing the dishes on Sunday, envisioning teen parents and their new babies learning songs and rhymes and strategies and TOOLS for their daunting new parenting journey, and the radio show I was half-listening to turned to the story linked above. It was about Geoffrey Canada, who, among other innovations, decided that he had to reach children right at birth or even before, or it was too late. He began Baby College, the foundation of The Harlem Children's Zone, where parents come to...learn songs and rhymes and strategies and TOOLS for their daunting new parenting journey.

Well, I started to weep. Sometimes the universe makes your path really obvious, and this felt like one of those moments. So I've been making phone calls and surfing Dayton social service websites. So far, dead ends. It's discouraging, but stay tuned. I'm not done yet.

Our love affair with Young Child, Semester 3

Leah is three classes into Kindermusik for the Young Child, semester 3. She Loves It So Much. She thinks the dulcimer is vastly superior to the glockenspiel. She comes home from school and plays it a lot, alternating with the piano, on which she makes up tunes. You can tell she's just proud to have a mountain dulcimer, in a way she never did about the glockenspiel. And she (and I) love Miss Kim. It's a bit of a drive over to Centerville for her Monday afternoon class, and worth every mile. I'm SO GLAD she can finish the Kindermusik series, even though we moved. We moved to Alabama just before Jacob's last year of Kindermusik, and he didn't get to finish--I would have had to drive 1 1/2 hours, each way, to Troy University. (Leah could still take her younger class--the Kindermusik program in Montgomery just didn't offer Young Child.) It's a testiment to how much I love Kindermusik that I nearly did that drive. I still kind of wish I did. Kindermusik is worth long drives.

In which this blog gets political

In case it's too small to read, the sign says HOPE.

For context for this photo, please watch this video.

I'm an enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama, and I look forward to voting for him in just a few short weeks. I believe he's a principled, brilliant, and capable leader.

This is no small thing for me, to announce my political leanings on this blog. First, I originally viewed this blog and an extension of my marketing for my Kindermusik program in Arlington, VA, and therefore not a place for political comment. Well, now that I'm in Ohio and I'm not yet teaching Kindermusik again, the blog has truly become (let's be honest) just about me me me. Well, it was starting to feel duplicitous to write posts that sounded like I was sharing what was really on my mind, when the truth is I've been thinking a great, great deal about this election and my views on it. So, I decided to declare myself.

Second, I was raised by wonderful, loving parents who also happen to be right-wing republicans. I would even call them Red Dog Republicans, to paraphrase Anne LeMott--meaning they would vote for a mangy old red dog before they would vote for a Democrat. It's been a long journey for me to figure out my personal world view and my political leanings, and while I'm certainly still figuring things out, I have been for a while now clearly and definitely (and now loudly) in the Democratic camp.

This should make things interesting around the Thanksgiving supper table.

Whoever you are and whatever your views, please vote on November 4th!

Political reading for the young

Looking for a book to share with your young children during this election season? This one is FUNNY, both for your child, and bonus jokes and references for you. Enjoy.

The young are wise

Last night my daughter and I were lying on her bed, chatting right before bed time. We do this every night--me on one child's bed and Justin on the other, and then we switch. If I'm going to find out what's really on my children's minds, it's going to be in that 10 minutes before sleep.

Leah asked me, "Are you going to grow any taller?"

"No," I said, "Unfortunately, I'm all grown up and this is as tall as I'm going to get."

"Well, that's okay," she said. "Your spirit will keep growing taller."

She is so wise. And insightful and kind and funny. And this was just when I had a lot of worries, say, 700 billion worries, just as I know you do.

Something more for your inbox: Writer's Almanac

I know, Garrison Keillor has his critics, but I just love him. I catch Prairie Home Companion when I can. And I absolutely adore The Writer's Almanac. But Miami University (that's of the Miami Valley, here in Ohio, as in the Miami Indian Nation) broadcasts it at an awkward time and I hardly ever hear it. So I subscribe and get a daily e-mail. I believe I like reading it even more than hearing GK read it, because I hear the poem of the day more clearly in the author's voice when I can see the punctuation and line breaks for myself. Though if it's a poem I really like, I might click the audio button and also hear GK's take on it. A poem a day goes such a long way toward beating back the barbarian forces. Whatever those may be in your life. Highly recommended. You can subscribe here. (In the menu on the right, next to a graphic of a hand holding a quill pen, you can click to subscribe.)

10 reasons to like Beavercreek

There was a hint of whine in my voice in my last post. Not good. So, to rectify, I offer you the following list.

Top 10 reasons to like Beavercreek (Edited--I had mis-numbered, so I actually had 11 reasons. That bodes well, don't you think? I could think of 11 reasons! Hurray!)

1. There really are a number of creeks and wetlands here, and I'm told there are actually beavers.
2. My children and I bike over a little wooden bridge, which spans a babbling brook, on our way to school and back every day. This is magic.
3. Beside the babbling brook there is a field of long grass, and just as the sun is rising in the morning, a low fog, mysterious and cool, hangs just above it. Often there is a flock of geese nestled in the fog, quietly going about their goose business.
4. I keep meeting people who have lived here their entire lives. Or they went away for college, and now they've settled back here, and their children have the same social studies teacher in middle school that they did--stuff like that. It's not the kind of small town that is dying out because the young leave and stay gone as soon as they can. Quite the opposite--Beavercreek is growing and the schools are almost bursting.
5. Ms. Rigano, my son's 3rd grade teacher. I believe she is a teaching genius. "She's the strictest teacher I've ever had," Jacob reports. But he also can't wait to get to school, because they're having a class election (part of their study of the presidential election), or they're opening their store, or they're publishing their books, or they're calling a NY fire fighter on the anniversay of 9/11 to hear in his words about his personal experience at the World Trade Centers, or they're practicing with money for when they work a day at Bob Evans. And on and on!
6. Ms. LeVesseur, my daughter's 1st grade teacher, another teaching dynamo. She jokes with them all the time. They are happy and relaxed and productive and they laugh a lot. When she reads aloud, she does all the voices, and when a child raises his hand and spills out a story that is completely unrelated, she listens and lets him finish and doesn't rush him back to the task at hand. She made dollars with her photo on them, LeVesseur Loot, and when the children earn them for doing great work, they proudly slip them into their handmade wallets. And on and on.
7. My neighbors are kind, thoughtful, and generous. My neighbors' kids are cheerful, happy, unusually polite, and fun. My kids love to play with them.
8. BSA (Beavercreek Soccer Association). Someone gave some land to Beavercreek, and a soccer "complex" was built, which means 27 soccer fields all located together, behind a car dealership at the edge of town. Game days are madness. It's also really fun. It feels like every family in Beavercreek is out there, staying for hours as they lumber with their lawn chairs and coolers from one child's game to another. The parents take turns working at the concession stand in a big shed, or they volunteer to coach teams (as Justin is doing). Goals are occasionally scored. Children get sweaty. It's good.
9. While our school levy has not passed, there is a passionate and sizeable grass roots movement that's working right now to explain to the good citizens of Beavercreek how important, how crucial that levy is. I'm getting involved and learning about how voting activism works. You just never know what you're going to learn about when you move to a new community.
10. Barney's Hardware. Yeah, you could drive a little farther up the road to your choice of Lowe's or Home Depot, but Justin and I try to get it at little old Barney's as much as we can. They've attached hammers onto the doors in some clever way, which serve as the door handles. They have some very young-looking employees who will trot--trot, I tell you--right over to help you reach something or find something. And this story: I needed to order a toilet seat. The young woman at the counter was recording my info in a giant, old-fashioned log book. She asked for my phone number, and after I gave it, an old guy standing in line behind me said in a perfect deadpan, "Wait a sec, let me just jot that down," and pretended to reach into his pocket for paper and pen. That cracked me up. He (clearly a regular at Barney's), said, "Don't you just hate it when you have to tell everybody in the store what your phone number is?"

"Well," I said, "I sensed I was among friends."

"You are," he said.

And you know? He meant it.

Dayton speaks for peace

And here I thought I lived in an ordinary little mid-western city. Oh my goodness, I was just surfing around a bit tonight, and found THIS. Please have a look at the work Dayton (yep, little old Dayton, Ohio!) is doing in both fiction and non-fiction literature for the promotion of peace.

This is fantastic. It reminds me that we should never be afraid to have big ideas, no matter how small our budget or out-of-the-way our city. It also reminds me that Beavercreek, my 'burb, which feels a bit small and bland and uptight to me right now, is not Dayton. I hereby resolve to get into Dayton more often, which is obviously where the ideas are flying through the air.

On having fresh herbs about

This scene makes me extremely happy. I found just the right bench to fit under the big window in the kitchen. I found the pots, ordered the organic seeds online, made the plant markers, and now, wudja look at that! Real herbs, right here in my kitchen. I am growing:

Parsley

Sage

Rosemary

Thyme

Cilantro

Cammomile

marjoram

mint

dill

basil

oregano

chives

So this is all lovely, but now we've come to the tricky part of actually using and maintaining these lovely sprouts. Wish these herbs luck, dear reader, because if my past record with plants is examined, you'll know they need it.