Se Hace Camino Al Andar

Today was just glorious. I broke out my maternity skirt (let’s not talk about pasty white legs, please!) and my birk sandals. I took Alice to check out a science discovery center in the next town over but by the time we made it to the path that runs along the river there, she was ready for nap. So, we headed home, she took a superlong nap, and after lunch, we headed out again, sticking to the neighborhood. We stopped for strawberry ice cream before making our way to Energy Park, where she got to peek inside a real caboose, and play on a wooden train. We also watched a freight train roll by the park, (the longest freight train I’ve ever seen! I think it took at least 15 minutes for the train to finally pass through!).

It was hard to get Alice to leave the park but she was covered in strawberry ice cream, and it was time to make dinner! She didn’t leave without a fight and I can’t say I blame her.

I do a lot of laying down these days, and I’m usually joined by Alice, who likes to bounce around on the bed while I’m trying to “relax.” At some point, she’ll start asking for Daddy and compel him to come and  ”liedown” too. So, the three of us end up spending some family time in bed, in which there is a lot of tickling involved and other childish antics.

We were having a calm moment, and I was finally able to close my eyes for a few seconds, when all of a sudden Alice’s big forehead whacked into the bridge of my nose. I cupped my hand over my nose, my eyes closed as I got over the shock. I could hear Alice saying “That’s my mommy! that’s my mommy!,” obviously upset as Henry gently admonished her to be more careful. Henry urged Alice to say “sorry” and she repeated “sorry, sorry, sorry” over and over again. I opened my eyes to see my girl with the most mournful look on her face and my heart broke in two as she bent her head down to me, burying her face in my chest. “Sorry sorry sorry.”

I told her was sorry, too,  gave my girl a hug and all was right with the world. But man, that was heartbreaking…

Last week, I finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Since then, I’ve been thinking a lot about the choices I make, and how finances play into that.  Kingsolver, in her book, discusses briefly the issue of bananas. More specifically, she stopped buying bananas because they don’t grow here in the US. It takes an enormous amount of fossil fuels to bring bananas to this country, and for what? It’s not like we don’t have fruit of our own in this country, as Kingsolver points out, plus bananas are expensive, given that a bunch doesn’t go very far when you have small children (forget about organic bananas! So Expensive!!) . So, yeah, at the risk of sounding preachy and judgmental, why don’t we go back to the old kindergarten adage, “you get what you get and you don’t get upset.” In other words, why not appreciate the bounty that we have and be satisfied with it, without having to completely destroy the planet in the process?

So, the long and short of it is that I’ve made a conscious decision to not buy bananas anymore, even though Alice loves them. She’s at the age, though, where if they’re out of sight, they are pretty much out of mind, so I don’t think it’ll be too big  of a deal. Luckily, she is a fan of fruits that are more local to us– berries, apples, pears.

So, anyway, back to finances. There’s no getting around it– meat is expensive, especially when you don’t buy CAFO meat.  I knew, when I decided to stop buying CAFO meat, that we would end up eating less meat because grass-fed and finished meat is not cheap, even when it’s local. The same goes for milk and eggs, though those two items are weekly purchases in our house because they are more affordable than meat, and good sources of nutrients for Alice, and her pregnant mama.

Our goal is eventually to be as self-sustaining as possible. We’d like a small farm someday but even before that happens, there are things we can do now– canning, preserving, joining a meat CSA and just learning to do without, or better yet, learning to make do with what we have. I think that’s the key here– changing our mindset from “have not” to “have.”  I thought about this today as I was checking out at Whole Foods, where I buy our meat and fish,  the vein in my forehead bulging a little at the grocery total. Even without the impulse purchases I made (shhh, don’t tell!), the bill was high but the future health and environmental costs of buying conventional foods is even higher, I think.

We still have to finish this week out before it is officially spring but today, it felt like it had SPRUNG. Good timing, too because I was carless today and had to walk to not one but two doctor’s appointments (at the same office). When I was pregnant with Alice, the bulk of my second trimester and all of my third trimester were during the warm weather, so I was always outside, always walking. This pregnancy has been different. It’s been winter for most of my pregnancy so far, and that has kept me indoors more.  My two walks today, 30 minutes each, was a welcome opportunity, though not the most comfortable one.

Along with this great weather, came some hopeful news from the doctor. Though the baby is breech, the presentation is such that there is a good chance for the baby to turn. After a week of fretting and overanalyzing, this little peace of mind was very welcome. I can go ahead with all the natural remedies available to me, and the cephalic version. No matter what happens, I can feel confident that I did all that I could with the resources available to me.

Having said that, please shoot your strongest turning vibes in my direction, no matter where you are!

I know there are plenty of women out there that would disagree with me when I say this but there are plenty of perks to being pregnant!  Chief among these perks are permission to take 2 hour naps in the afternoon, which I did today and telling your husband that you are about to eat the last cupcake, without an argument from him, which I also did. Just now. It was really good, too. Cinnamon frosting, and banana hidden away in the middle. A nice surprise! I would’ve taken a picture but I don’t want to be mean. Also, I ate it. A cupcake waits for no photo opportunity.

{Thanks to my mom and Wendy for gifting us with a six pack of cupcakes from Bettie’s Double Decker Cupcake Bus, which has been parked in the lot of a gardening center near their house. It was an assortment and every cupcake offered the opportunity for a tasty surprise. YUM.}

My sister handed down her perfectly good printer to me and I finally got it today when my mom came to visit. The printer also scans photos, so I was finally able to scan some photos I’ve wanted to get online for a long time! Enjoy a little slice of life from the summer of 2004, when I spent two weeks backpacking and driving through Ecuador.

Technorati Tags: ecuador

This morning, we all woke up around the same time, that is, Alice time, including me, since I didn’t have insomnia last night, miracle of miracles.  I made the usual Saturday morning pancakes, and after breakfast, we wondered what to do with this rainy day. We thought about going to The Carle, where we have a membership but Alice usually only lasts about an hour there before she’s ready to head home. We decided to head west on Route 2 and pay a visit to MassMoCA. The last time we took Alice there, she wasn’t yet walking and so it was a very grown-up oriented visit.

But for a 20 month old, the museum is a veritable playground. After having lunch at the cafe,  where Alice and I shared a cobb salad, we wandered briefly through the temporary exhibits, too conceptual to hold Alice’s interest and headed for the Sol LeWitt collection upstairs. This exhibit, if you haven’t seen it, is a natural attraction for babies and kids alike because it’s all about color, shapes and patterns. I’ve been asking Alice to identify colors and when I asked her where purple was, she yelled “Purple! Purple!” and went looking for him (her?). It was hilarious and I wish I had video of it! We do, however, have video of Alice wandering the exhibits; you can see the video here!

The visit ended at the Kidspace, where the exhibit was art made of candy. I was a little worried about it as Alice LOVES candy and I didn’t know if she would understand that this was not candy she could eat or take home with her!  She was obsessed with one artwork displayed on the windowsills, a depiction of a coral reef made out of froot loops, marshmallows and cheetos.  Amazingly, she was so good about not touching any of it, though she did get awfully close, thanks to a step stool.

She went back and forth between the windowsills for at least ten minutes, just looking and counting. Counting what, we don’t know and it wasn’t in numerical order, either. We finally managed to get her away from the windows and to the craft table. We needed a rest and at least, we could sit at the table! The kids there were gluing all manner of junk food to pieces of paper, and I’m pretty sure that this was Alice’s first time working with glue. Hilarity ensued on my part when Alice became frustrated with bits of food getting stuck to her fingers… *shake shake shake whine whine* I was nice and stopped laughing long enough to bail her out, don’t you worry!

We knew it was time to go when she had a meltdown upon being told that she couldn’t take the candy home with her. I carried her out of there kicking and screaming, snot running down her face, the whole nine yards. I said to the girl at the front desk, as I carried a screaming Alice out the door,  ”This is how you know you did a good job, when they don’t want to leave!”  She looked alarmed at the mess I was hauling but she did chuckle.

I cleaned her up, she calmed down and asked for her blankie, but was given a cookie instead, much to Henry’s consternation. Yes, mommy is a pushover. Whatever! Let’s move on…

We wrapped up our rainy Saturday with pasta fagioli, the ingredients of which I miraculously had on hand in the pantry and fridge, and a fresh loaf of bread that I shaped, rested and popped into the oven as soon as we got home (a win for Artisan Bread in 5!).  We packed Alice off to bed early tonight because we were all exhausted and drained but tomorrow, we’re looking forward to a visit from the Grandmas and brunch at The Hope + Olive.

I may not work, but I look forward to Friday just as much as anyone else!  Henry works from home, and the emphasis is on working, thought he has been letting me sleep in most mornings, because of the dreaded pregnancy insomnia. So, I’m still the primary caretaker during the week, just as I was when he had an office to go to everyday. When the weekend rolls around, Alice gets more daddytime and I get some alone time.

This weekend, we’re looking forward to Saturday morning pancakes, a yoga class for me on Sunday morning and hopefully, a visit from the grandmas on Sunday, as well.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Ooookay, let’s not talk about the other thing anymore. Instead, let’s talk about the yummy dinner I made tonight! For those of you that don’t know, when we moved to Greenfield, we knew that we were going to have to do some serious budget-cutting, since we’re paying rent here and still paying for our apartment in New York until it sells. One of the easiest ways to save money, when you have a family, is to cut back on meat and eat more vegetarian meals. We could all do with less meat anyway, and the meat I buy for my family is expensive, since we try to avoid CAFO meat.

So, we’ve been eating a lot more vegetarian meals since we moved here, and tonight… mmh, it was YUMMY.

Vegetable Ragout with Polenta (adapted from Food Made Fast, by Williams-Sonoma)

(Note: This is a great way to use up veggies floundering in your fridge!)

Ingredients:

Zucchini
Tomatoes
Sweet onion
Garlic
Mushrooms (I like baby bellas!)
Prepared polenta (it comes in logs, usually found in the health food or deli section)
Shredded parmesan cheese
Balsamic vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Clean and quarter the mushrooms. Place in a microwave-safe container, cover with plastic wrap and zap for 6-8 minutes. Drain mushrooms and set aside.
3. Chop the rest of the veggies, seed the tomatoes, if using plum or bigger, and leave the garlic in big pieces.
4. Combine all the veggies in a roasting pan, keeping the garlic off to a side or corner of the pan (you’ll need to take those pieces out later and mince them.)
5. Coat with oil, salt and pepper. Roast until soft, browned and fragrant.
6. In the meantime, slice  polenta into rounds, place in a single layer on a baking sheet, and coat each side lightly with oil.
7. When veggies are done and removed from oven, broil the polenta slices until browned, then flip, top each slice with shredded parmesan cheese and broil until cheese is browned.
8. Mash up roasted garlic, and combine with veggies in a bowl.
9. Stir in a tablespoon of balsamic and season with salt and pepper, to taste.
10. Distribute veggies evenly among plates, and top with polenta slices.
11. Eat! Yum yum.

I’m not sure if this Newsweek piece on firing bad teachers was purposely published on the heels of Elizabeth Green’s piece in the Sunday Times Magazine last week or if it’s just the topic en vogue these days but in any case, I find it hard to argue with the points in the article.

Yet in recent years researchers have discovered something that may seem obvious, but for many reasons was overlooked or denied. What really makes a difference, what matters more than the class size or the textbook, the teaching method or the technology, or even the curriculum, is the quality of the teacher. Much of the ability to teach is innate—an ability to inspire young minds as well as control unruly classrooms that some people instinctively possess (and some people definitely do not). Teaching can be taught, to some degree, but not the way many graduate schools of education do it, with a lot of insipid or marginally relevant theorizing and pedagogy. In any case the research shows that within about five years, you can generally tell who is a good teacher and who is not.

The main thrust of the article is the same as Green’s piece on teacher education, and the quote above just reiterates the point I made in my previous post on this topic.  Looking at this issue from both sides of the fence, as a teacher and as a non-teacher/parent, it’s hard to argue that yes, it is far, far too hard to fire bad teachers, harder than it should be. But, and this is a big one, having been a teacher in a poorly administrated school rife with nasty politics, I have seen first-hand how teachers can be targeted by principals and assistant principals based on a personal agenda or political manuvering. It’s not the stuff of myth– it really happens.  A former colleague of mine was harassed to the point of a nervous breakdown because she called the assistant principal on a discrepancy in the school’s special education promotion policy. The policy on paper, and the policy being executed were two very different things, to the detriment of the students. Since our school was under scrutiny already for poor performance and management, the assistant principal had a vested interest in putting the kibosh on a teacher that had the guts to stand up for her students.

So, it’s a fine line. How do we balance the protection of good teachers that dare to stand up to administration when they spot wrongdoing and the protection of students by letting go the truly bad teachers? Perhaps the union’s voice would be stronger if they were more selective in who they defended. They might be more effective if they spent their time helping the victims of political persecution and less time trying to make it difficult for bad teachers to be fired. Because believe you me, I have seen and worked with my fair share of crappy teachers over the years, including one teacher that used to pee  in a can in his classroom closet and badmouth other teachers to his students.  Why is that guy still teaching while my well-meaning colleague, who is an excellent teacher, by the way, was basically driven out of the school by a nasty agenda?

The way I see it, the issue here is not bad teachers, per se but the fact that there’s little accountability and far too much job protection than is healthy or reasonable. A great teacher, or a good teacher, even should be judged on the merits of his or her performance, and if he or she is truly a good teacher, then there should be a willingness to be held accountable and the union should support that. Of course, the question then becomes “how do we measure the performance of a teacher?” That is a whole ‘nother bag of tricks but it’s not an impossible task. All those countries that are ranked above us, in terms of education– how do they do it? Instead of trying every new thing under the sun, why not send American administrators across the pond to see how it’s done. It’s probably not rocket science but it would most likely require a huge cultural shift in our thinking about education and schooling.  Transforming culture is the hardest reform of all, and it doesn’t happen quickly. It happens gradually, over time, across generations and that might just be the ticket because the fast fixes are getting us nowhere fast.

As a follow-up, check out this debate between Elizabeth Green and Evan Thomas (of Newsweek): http://www.newsweek.com/id/234696