My son’s birthday was yesterday. He is my only child that gets a homemade birthday cake. One year he wanted pumpkin brownies for school, which weren’t too bad, but one year he asked for a cheesecake for his birthday cake.
Now, every year I offer and he accepts, and it’s his favorite. This was the first year with chocolate chips.
Yum.
I mentioned last week that I was out of town, and so I missed a few days here. My plan for the fall is to have new posts Monday through Friday, and see how that schedule goes for me, as, a writer and you, the reader. I’ll be putting up a poll later to see which of those daily features you’d like me to continue this season.
Each week, I have tried to choose a theme and keep it in mind to focus on. October is one of those extremely busy months in actual activities in my life, and monthly awareness in the world. World Mental Health Day was just a few days ago. October recognizes awareness and celebrations of:
Breast Cancer
Domestic Violence
Fire Prevention and Safety
LGBT History
Black History in the UK
Literacy
Pregnancy and Infant Loss
The Holy Rosary
Yesterday was National Coming Out Day and today is Columbus Day in the US, Thanksgiving in Canada, and Day of the Race in Mexico.
October is also ridiculously busy for me with family fun and stuff going on at the schools with fall festivals, back to school nights, recreation nights, eight week writing workshop, applepicking, my son’s birthday, Halloween, and this year, our school district celebrated its Centennial.
Busy.
This week is Fire Prevention Week. My son, who recently graduated from Fire Fighter I had two Fire House Open Houses this past weekend. Local firefighters came to my daughter’s elementary school to talk about fire safety, show the kids the equipment to expect the firefighters to wear, and gave out pencils and fire extinguisher sharpeners. It’s a good way to get the kids involved and to ask their parents questions to keep the whole family safe.
Some suggestions and important things to remember:
1. Do you have smoke detectors on every floor of your house? And inside every bedroom?
2. For second floor bedrooms, do you have an escape ladder or fire escape for your apartment?
3. Do your smoke detectors work? (A good rule of thumb is to change your batteries twice a year – when you change your clocks for Daylight Saving Time, change your smoke detector batteries.)
4. Before you go to bed, clean and straighten your house. Make sure there is a clear path to your exits.
5. Have a meeting place that is away from your house that even the youngest children can remember and find.
6. My mother always had an emergency bag next to her bed. In it, she kept a flashlight, an emergency phone list, a bottle of water, an extra set of prescription medication, and sometimes a cell phone. I don’t think she ever used it for an emergency, but being prepared is still a good plan to have.
7. Get out of the house, and THEN CALL 9-1-1 from a neighbor’s house or from your cell phone.
I had planned on beginning this week with posts talking about the importance of reading banned books.
This is after all Banned Books Week, and it began on Sunday.
Unfortunately, I woke up on Monday with a headache that would have been at home in a marching band, and ended up spending most of yesterday in bed. I also got some bad news that I will share below the cut, but it entails that I might not have as much internet as I’m used to as I travel and visit family. I’ll try to set up some of the week’s posts while I’m away from home, but if I fall off this week, I hope everyone will understand.
My Dad used to eat peanuts all the time. He’d get this big bag of peanuts still in their shells. He’d crack them open and go through that bag in one or two days. He’d toss the shells in a paper garbage bag next to his chair, but on occasion he’d miss. Some days before he cleaned it up it looked like the floor of a country bar or a Ground Round in the “old” days of my childhood. I still flashback to my Dad sitting in his blue recliner in our den when I see those big bags of peanuts in the shells.
I used to love Nutter Butter cookies because of him also. And Vienna Fingers. It’s amazing what pops into your head from childhood, especially where food is related.
1. Drink lots of water. Not vitamin water, not flavored water, not tea, not coffee, not soda, no electrolyte replenishments (except when you’re doing serious physical activity).
Nothing beats plain ice cold water to refresh and rehydrate. If you’re just rehydrating, the temperature doesn’t matter, but ice cold water is the best.
2. It’s so important, I’ll say it again: Unless you’re doing strenuous, physical activity and you’re losing minerals and nutrients, H2O for you. Plain, unadulterated water. Save the mineral replacement until you’re losing minerals.
3. Sunscreen. Get the highest spf you find. For my kids I use 50 and above. I try to look for 70spf. Neutragena is a good product that we’ve used for years. Coppertone Sport is also highly recommended. The spray on kinds are convenient and work. Make sure you spray your kids’ hands so they can get the sunscreen on their faces.
Don’t forget eyelids, tips and backs of ears, noses, and lips.
4. Crack the windows of your car. Even with leaving them open a little, do not leave anything in your car. No kids. No pets. No electronic equipment. If you wouldn’t leave your cell phone or laptop, why are you leaving your kids in there?
5. Swim in pairs. We’ve been told since the 70s to use the buddy system. Why? Because it works. Do not go into any body of water, including backyard pools without letting someone know that you are in the water.
It is everyone’s responsibility to keep an eye on toddlers and preschoolers in and around pools. I don’t care if your friend is always an irresponsible idiot. If you see a child near water, shadow them or make sure the parent knows they’re near the water. Babies and children that young can drown in very small amounts of water.
Keep empty planters and buckets outside upside down so they don’t accumulate water that small ones can tumblr into (unless of course, you collect rain water. If that’s the case, make sure that the water areas are safe from children.)
Summertime should be relaxing and fun. Taking care and following some safety tips will ensure that it stays that way.
This has been one of those crazy busy weeks. For the last three I’ve resorted to lists that included absolutely everything that I needed to remember, even consisting of using the bathroom, sleeping and eating breakfast. This is where my anxiety meets the normal end of year stress and they compete for which is going to make me the most miserable and forgetful.
Since Monday, we’ve had the last day of school, report cards, forgetting and then buying the teachers’ gifts not to mention the bus driver’s who should be nominated for sainthood. We’ve had a broken bicycle, my middle child’s DARE graduation and 5th grade moving up day, my oldest child’s high school graduation plus keeping track of all the parties he’s expecting to go to this weekend. We had my brother visit for about twenty-eight hours (to attend the aforementioned graduation) and my youngest child’s doctor’s appointment for her yearly physical. I had planned on sleeping late Friday since I forgot about the doctor, and then I was going to just veg out at home for the rest of the afternoon, ignoring everyone at home and on the internet.
However, the internet had other plans for me. Reverend Clementa Pinckney”s funeral with President Obama’s eulogy and rendition of Amazing Grace brought the emotion and grief of last week’s church shooting back into my mental sphere. That sense of loss undermined with the controversy of the confederate flag and the discussion of what constitutes racism if the shooting of nine Black worshippers in their church isn’t (according to some news outlets.)
Then, with the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling that anyone and everyone in this country can marry whom so ever they choose, my Facebook and Tumblr exploded with the force of a thousand rainbows. As one comedian said, opening Facebook on Friday looked like a battle between the confederacy and a skittles factory. A more apt description I have thus far not seen.
While the kids were out meeting Minions at our local FYE store, I stayed home to catch up on my lying around and watched Lee Daniels’ The Butler on Netflix. I thought this would be an interesting escape from the emotional roller coaster this week has been and I’d see the inner workings of a White House staff member, i.e. the butler. I apparently did not read what this movie was actually about. It was excellent, and I would highly recommend it, but in telling The Butler’s story, it wound its way from 1926 Georgia sharecroppers to 2009 and the first Black President. It followed Forest Whitaker’s character through the civil rights movement, which brought out an emotional tear fest for me. It was painful to watch, especially the historical re-enactments of lunchroom counters and beatings and exploding buses, not to mention the fright I felt at seeing white-sheeted Klansmen that I remembered from my history classes.I was a sobbing mess by the end of it.
While I failed in looking for that escape, it was actually a nice way to be reminded of how far this country has come. With the marriage equality victory still taking center stage on my Facebook, this was a good reminder of what the civil rights movement was all about, and how we still have so far to go for so many.
However, the forefront of my emotions were still back at my family adventures, which started the inspiration for this reflection. It was exciting and scary, emotional and giddy as we proudly watched our two sons mark milestones in their young lives and move towards their next chapters. I wanted to be part of every moment, and I tried to relish in it. It’s not easy when so much is happening at the same time, and while I was trying to live in the moment, I was also trying to record those moments.
And to be honest, my daughter was a good sport that 99% of this week’s activities had her taking a backseat to her brothers. Even her visit to the doctor wasn’t all that pleasant since she didn’t get a special mommy day like usual for those kinds of things because money was short this week. So no lunch out, but we’re making summer plans with the next paycheck.
What really surprised me this week was that amid my frantic-don’t-forget-anything, do-we-have-everything pseudo-shrieking was my oldest son, my almost high school graduate, my volunteer fireman and almost certified EMS worker doing everything I beckoned. Everything. From wearing a collared shirt under his graduation gown to leaving the park early so we could have lunch with his uncle before he got on his train for home to not needing to be asked even once to get out of bed on graduation morning. For twenty-four hours he was on time, ready, cooperative, and non-argumentative as we pushed and prodded, posed and hugged. He even let me kiss him a couple of times.
As much as I think my son slacks off, he passed all of his classes, he received the highest diploma his school offers; he earned some college credits and kept up on his fire department/EMS training. So, his room wasn’t clean. Ever. His bed wasn’t made. Ever. On occasion he got the dirty dishes out of his room, and he took showers, made dinner and helped with his brother and sister when he was asked; sometimes before he was asked.
When I told him he couldn’t come to his brother’s DARE graduation because it was parents only, he was incredulous. “Let them try and keep me out!” I was surprised at his determination to be part of something for his younger brother like that. He went from shrugs and ‘sures’ to caring and wanting to be part of it. I think I was most proud of that moment than even holding his diploma finally in my hands. The diploma was his hard work come to fruition, but the former – that was my hard work. That was my parenting, of showing my children what is important in this life: family.
As they get older, their needs and wants change and evolve, but they’re getting it. The one thing I had control over, I seem to have been successful at. I found out that I’m doing something right, so I can keep trying to do it with my two younger ones, and hope they turn out as strong and kind, caring and loving and thoughtful as their brother who led (and continues to lead) the way.
Today is my grandfather’s 100th birthday. He died in the seventies when I was around five, but I still have vivid memories of him and visiting his house.
His name was Richard, but everyone in the family called him Mo. That was short for Moshe. There are several men in my family who were given Hebrew names, but used English/American ones their whole lives.
This is a photo of he and my grandmother on their wedding day. I think they were married in the 1930s.
I did a quick check and I thought I’d share with you what I discovered:
1915. 2015
Woodrow Wilson President Barack Obama
$3200 Buying a House $177,600
$2005 (which is Buying a Car $31,252
$46,879 in today’s prices)
$.15 Gas/gallon $2.29
$687 (for a man) Take-home $53,046
Income
$.07 Loaf of bread 2/$5 on sale
$.34 Dozen Eggs $3.49
$.09 Quart of Milk $1
$.26 Steak/lb. $5.99
$.10 – .15 Movie tickets $11
$.02 1st Class Stamp $.49
There was no minimum wage (except in certain places and only for women and children.)
A recent headline (from May, 1915) would have been about the sinking of the Lusitania.
(Source of Price Differences: http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2015/01/02/a-glimpse-at-your-expenses-100-years-ago?)
Griffins and Ginger Snaps 