Saving the Environment 1 Toy at a Time

So friends from preschool have come up with a wonderful idea - they are going to put a little less stuff out into the world by doing a unique kinda Birthday Gift request for their sons 4th Birthday Party. Instead of having each kiddo bring a BRAND NEW TOY as a gift, they are asking for each guest to bring a toy that they no longer play with - that they think their 4 year old would love to play with - as a gift.

Brilliant right?

Cost Effective - EASY as all get out to shop in your own toy chest - Less Trash - Totaly use of Reduce Reuse Recycle.
r>One p<;/SPAN>roblem - TheKing is not participating. At all. Won't do it. Uh uh. No Way Jose. Nada. Ain't Havin' It.

Ever since the invitation came in and it was confirmed we could attend I have been working toy angles. See we are at a slight disadvantage because I regularly have the kids clean out their rooms and present a few things that can be given to a resale shop. So while we may look overloaded with toys - we aren't really. We have lots of toys that have LOTS OF LITTLE pieces (hate the little pieces thank you), but we don't have a ton of toys. The other problem is that TheKing really does seem to play with almost all the toys he has. Dinosaurs, cars, trains, babies, stuffed animals, building blocks, dress up clothes - all of it. I know because I am the clean up crew.

So each day I have tried to sneak a toy to the side. One day it was some Fisher Price bulldozer things he doesn't play with AS MUCH. He found them. Another day it was his backpack (he has a few) that has some "travel" toys in it. He found that - scattered it all over and declared his love for each piece. Then I decided to sit and talk with him about what to give up..........he said,; &quot;nothing Maudy". I pointed a few things out - how bout the spaceships? Nope they were for playing Zathura. What about a few of the dino's? Nope they are for playing Zathura and killing the cars. Oh, well how about some of those cars....and he looked at me like my head popped off and started crying.

Yesterday a toy fell in my lap - well not literally - but I was cleaning his room and found one of those toys where you slip the circular slide thing in to look at pictures - what are those called? We all had one at some point. Then you click the button thing and a new picture is pushed into place.......what is that? Shoot now I have to go and google or bing it or something...hold on........ViewMaster!! I couldn't find it by googling - had to resort to "phone a friend" - only the friend was on Facebook - there is ALWAYS someone on Facebook that can answer the question I need. So anyway.....I found the ViewMaster sitting in his room in a heap of stuff - then I scored a few of the circular picture things and thought "hey this is the perfect gift for MrA's birthday party - these discs aren't even that bent up!" I took it straight to my room and set it up highish on my jewelry box to wait as I looked for more picture discs.

Later that night TheKing came in my room while I was reading. He went to his bookcase and grabbed a few books, jumped up on the bed with me (yes, he literally jumped - it is quite annoying) and sat there reading. I put my book down to read his books for him and noticed him staring up at my jewelry box. He looked at me, smiled and said, "Those are not for MrA. Those are mine."

I am just not sure how we are going to manage a gift for this party. In fact at this point I picture MrA opening gift after gift while screaming and tears ensue throughout the party room. No matter what we gift TheKing is going to figure it out - run across the room - snatch the toy out of the birthday boys hand and probably come back and yell at me.

BigGuy has suggested we go to the store, buy a new toy, throw it around on the front driveway and then drag it through the mud. He might be onto something......

Dear State Decision Makers

Thank you State Decision Makers for cutting our school funding - for deciding not to pay out money that is owed to our district (and others) - for causing our schools to require to look at new "excting" options for how we teach our kids - for continuing to funnel funding into important things like professional athletic stadiums that will help our cities to thrive while the children living there and going to schools that are inept and sucky do anything but thrive.

Just the other day our districts superintendent proposed a few ideas for how to manage with less money:
1) Cut all after school sports programs
2) Close 2 schools
3) Fire over 100 teachers
4) Fire even more teacher aides
5) Increase class sizes to 30 kids per (without an aide)
6) Go to 3 Tier bussing (I don't mind this one)
7) Introduce Magnets into our school to draw back the private kids (don't know how this will work as we are an 80% white school - but maybe they will change the rules about 60/40).
8) Reduce the school day by an hour for the high school students
9) Have the PTO's become responsible for the school field trips (this is a personal NOT favorite of mine as our district is divided into the "haves" and "have nots" - schools on the north side have 100,000+ PTO budgets and 4% poverty - schools on the south side have about $20,000 budgets (if lucky) and a 60% poverty rate - how will those field trip experiences differ??).
10) Cut certain supplies used by teachers to reduce spending
11) Cut PE in the schools (we currently have PE everyday)

Those are just a few. Does the superintendant want to do this because it is genious? No. These ideas are being proposed out of necessity. Is our school district alone in making these hard choices? No. Schools all over the state - heck - all over the NATION are having to make these choices. We are probably even a "lucky" district in the large scheme of things.

Should parents be paying REALLY CLOSE ATTENTION and starting to raise a STINK? Yes! Are they going to? Probably not until it is too late is my guess. They will hear tell of all these "ideas" and "suggestions" and do nothing.............until these plans become reality - then they will start by screaming and complaining to the district superintendant the the school board (might be a good time to resign from school boards now) and find that the people in those positions are right there with them!

What we need to be doing is Paying Attention!! Doing something as the decisions are being made!! Stepping up and realizing that we are part of the problem!! How? Well by letting it happen without trying to make changes. Or seeing the changes - then switch to a private or a charter thinking it is better - not realizing (some will realize how funding works - but most thing charters just get money magically) that those charters are going to take even MORE funding from the public schools. Add in that there is less money from the state and there is even less money for the kid still in the public school.

Imagine what might happen if we all paid attention NOW - and we all worked together to make change in our schools - TOGETHER (being the key word) - how about we spend a few hours less shuttling our kids to crazy hours of after school activities that we are paying out the nose for because they "have to have them to be well rounded people when they get older" (which is bs - these afterschool programs are a keeping up with the Jones's peer pressure thing) - and spend a few MORE hours working on keeping our public school together?

Who is with me?

The Legend of the Families Leprechaun

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!
About 5 years ago we were visited by a Leprechaun. Our morning started with some plain old cereal. The bowls were poured and the kids went to the table with them. Then they were called out of the room and when they returned the cereal was gone - only empty bowls remained........and a Gigantic box of Lucky Charms sat there!! The olders (TheKing was just a twinkle in our eyes at the time) were beside themselves crazy excited!! See we don't usually buy name brand cereals. I went into the kitchen for the milk and something hit me......literally - hit me! The kids ran in to the kitchen to find me holding a jug of milk - that had been turned GREEN!! Magically.

That afternoon the Olders and I were attending the St. Patty's Day Parade in DogTown with other MOMS Club friends. As we were driving there chocolate Lady Bugs flew through the van into the kids laps. Magically. The kids were amazed and after we were parked they wanted to search the van up and down for the culprit who they were sure must be somewhere under the seats.

The parade was a long one so I had packed a lunch for the kids - PB&J, Pineapple, Milk and some Vanilla Yogurt. ALL THE FOOD HAD TURNED GREEN!! Magically. All the items in their lunch carry's were green - PB&J (apricot jelly), Pineapple, Milk, Yogurt - everything! They were giddy. Other kids were drawn and excited too wondering what might happen to them. Other moms were rolling their eyes and glaring at me. Not seeing any of this as being Magical, but more as a green pain in their Blarney Stone.

The day rounded out with a few more chocolates Magically tossed at them. And a Legend was born. Through the years our Leprechaun has moved with us.......each day starts with a box of Lucky Charms, we have received cupcakes that appeared from no where. He has taken photos of himself next to TheKings sippy cup. Written letters. Turned off lights on people. Moved things about. But in general he just kinda surprises us. This morning I found Spidey dashing from room to room looking for things the Leprechaun might have done. He found Green OJ, Lucky Charms and nothing else. He went to check the toilet water...........really? that one surprised ME....and then came back to get the disappointingly white milk for his cereal - only when he poured the white milk as it came out it Magically turned GREEN!!

What Magical thing happens for you today?

So Maybe we aren't so Refined afterall....

Okay I have never claimed to be Refined - Sophisticated - shoot I don't even claim to be An Adult..........and I certainly don't claim those titles for BigGuy either. Although I do admit that for some reason people confuse us for those "type of people".

I will say that I am High Brow enough to not laugh at fart jokes (although BigGuy will pee his pants at a good fart joke......or any jokes that include Monkeys Throwing Poo). But, here is proof that we are no mentally older then a High Schooler........

Last night we were getting ready to do the FINAL 3 Deliveries for SuperStars Super Girl Scout Cookie Selling(insert crazy cheer here)....and BigGuy was taking her out. I was showing how on top of things I was to make it easy for him - I had pre-boxed all the deliveries and written the names on the boxes.

Plump - Bocock - Shank

Those were the 3 names. We looked at the boxes sitting together and began giggling. It just could not be helped. Then we started making sentences using the 3 names as regular words. And we giggled more. it just could not be helped. We laughed enough to bring tears.

Easter Can't Come Soon Enough

This year we are celebrating Easter with the two olders - the full version of Easter. What I mean is we celebrated Fat Tuesday - they better understand Ash Wednesday and the significance and we are following No Meat on Friday and also observing Lent. Not that we didn't do this before, but we really didn't make the kids follow this very strictly. In the past instead of "giving something up" we added something in - family walks - family game nights - extra reading time - things that they would be happy to do. This year we asked them to add or give something up that would be more challenging to do but not impossible. For instance BigGuy said he wanted to give up TV which surprised me because each year I throw out "let's give up TV for 40 days and 40 nights" to which BigGuy makes a distorted face close to laughing and says something about March Madness and that not being possible. When he suggested it I must have looked surprised he would suggest no television because he looked somewhat insulted.....and then I explained I was pleased, but that he always nixed the idea because of March Madness - to which he looked surprised that he had suggested it too and said perhaps we should pick something else. And so we did. Spidey gave up his DS. SuperStar gave up Sweets. BigGuy gave up Computer Games. I added in going to the Gym at least 4 days a week (I know not really hard) and also asked everyone to join SuperStar in giving up Sweets too. Which we all did.

Do you know how hard this is? ALL SWEETS - not just chocolate - no cookies (ahhhhh it's GS Cookie Time)....no ice cream....no brownies....no candy.....no a lot of things. Now we did take a reprieve for my birthday and we all had some made from scratch carrot cake........yummmmmmmyyyyyy!!!!! And then promptly froze the remaining pieces and I have been trying to give them away since. But for the rest of my birthday parties (given by folks in STL - thanks I love you) I pretend ate cake (if you all didn't notice - sorry, but I didn't want to be rude after you were so sweet to get the cake) and then when they weren't looking tossed it.

The kids are probably having it the hardest - well maybe not as they don't have a period that will land 2x's within the 40 days and 40 nights that screams for a sweet treat. The kids openly suffer more though. I have to be stoic and save my suffering for after they are in bed. SuperStar has caved 2x's eating a piece of chocolate candy here and there given to her by religion teachers and at a school event. And I am thankful for that because it actually offers us the opportunity to talk about what sacrifice means......that it if wasn't hard to do it would not be a sacrifice and also to talk about what the bible stories mean when they talk about the sacrifice God made. The difficulty of our Lenten choice this year has also given us the opportunity to talk about how the commitment for each person is their own choice - it is their relationship with God and not everyone is perfect.

Plus - it has encouraged us to become more familiar with what a healthy treat is - and realize all the millions of types and flavors of yogurt. There really are a million zillion flavors. And we are eating fruit like crazy - mango, pineapple, kiwi, apples, tangerines, banana's - straight - smoothied. Yet I know that Easter Day my kids will most likely vomit from over eating their Easter Basket.

How many days til Easter?

TheKing is slowly killing my love for Paul Simon....

You know how kids pick a music that they like and then they listen to it Over and Over and Over again? Yes, I will agree that some adults do this too - get a new CD because of one song and then listen to it Over and Over again.....but they eventually listen to some of the other songs too. Not TheKing. Spidey and SuperStar had the ability to listen to songs over and over too, but not like TheKing. TheKing will listen to the same song for a week. Which means you are in the car traveling around listening to the same song for a week!! And he will completely notice that you have changed the song even if you are being sneaky and set it up to happen when you get back into the car and think that he won't even notice that you have changed it because being a 4 year old He Should Have Completely Forgotten What Was Happening Before He Got Out Of The Car! No, not TheKing - he remembers - and he will make your life a living hell if you try to slip something like that by him.

Recently his weapon of choice......er, I mean musical choice.....has been Time Warp by the Chipmunks. Yes, I typed that correctly. See when we got our taxes back we took the kids to the store and let them each pick out a CD. TheKing - with Spidey's insistant help - choose The Chipmunks (a recent version, but not the Squequel - like most of you care - shoot like I care to know the various Chipmunk CD's on the market today - and this is why I am fairly good at trivia). As we are listening to the various songs (which are mostly remakes of songs you would recognize) Time Warp comes on - in all accuracy only in Chipmunk sound. BigGuy and I thought it was fairly twiste d that the Chipmunks would have done a remake of Time Warp - what with the "pelvic thrusts" causing such a sensation and all.......and we listened along with TheKing and kinda giggled because I hardly thought what would happen next actually would happen, but I heard TheKing say...."play that one again Maudy (his name for Mommy and Daddy - he combines us)". And so it was that I listened to Time Warp by the Chipmunks for at least 1 week - to school - from school - to the gym - from the gym (I considered giving up the gym because of this - okay fibbing). My inner parent was torn about the Chipmunks singing Time Warp and my outer parent was sick of listening to it Over and Over and Over again.

So one morning I slipped in a Paul Simon CD......at first TheKing didn't say anything and then he realized the voice sounded normalish....hey that couldn't be the Chipmunks singing Time Warp and just as he was about to throw a full tantrum I remembered that his absolute favorite movie (as of late), Zathura (if you haven't seen it a MILLION times you really can't appreciate it), ends as the credits role with the song Love Me Like a Rock by Paul Simon - which was on the CD - so I fast forwarded (ew my age is showing - you don't fast forward a CD)to that particular song hoping to get the fit turned into a treat because he would Love Love Love that it was the song from his all time favorite movie Zathura. And I did - he smiled from ear to ear - announced how he knew that song as if I did not know that song - and then settled back to listen to it. And when the song ended I heard those dreaded words, "play that again Maudy" - and foolishly rejoicing I did. Then Over and Over and Over. I now know that it takes 3.5 Love Me Like a Rock's to get to preschool - 2.8 Love Me Like a Rock's to get to the gym - and 7 days of Love Me Like a Rock to make me want to listen to Time Warp by the Chipmunks again.

TheKing is slowly killing my love for Paul Simon......

SuperStar and I went out of town...

So SuperStar and I traveled back to the St. Louis area and stayed in a hotel together for fun. On the website the hotel was GREAT!! In reality the hotel didn't match up - amazing what they can do with a website - it wasn't disgusting and we were able to stay overnight without feeling bugs would crawl on us - and the front desk attendant was very nice, but it most certainly was NOT what was advertised.

Now something I thought was funny happened:
We went to dinner - SuperStar picked Chinese food - we found a buffet - we were seated by the person who seemed to run the place. He asked what we wanted to drink - I asked what they had. He said "Pepsi". That is all he said, "Pepsi". I asked "What kind of Pepsi products?" He said, "Pepsi". Then I said, "Pepsi only or do you have different types of drinks?" Then he pointed to the plastic card on the table. I turned it around to see if there was a drink menu on it and it read:

Drinks
Water
Soda
Tea
Coffee
Juice

I looked back at him and said, "This doesn't say what flavor of Pepsi you have, it only says that you have soda." He pointed at the bar........I am not sure why he did this. Then he walked away and our waiter showed up. He said "What would you like to drink?" I said, "What do you have?". He said "Pepsi". Really? Really we have to go through this routine again?? I said, "What types of Pepsi do you have?" He said, brace yourself, "Pepsi". Then as an after thought he said, "All kinds". SuperStar jumped in and said, "I will take Cherry Pepsi." He said, "We don't have that." We just sat staring at him. Then all of a sudden he listed off all the various Pepsi products they had. SuperStar jumped in with her choice and then I said "Diet please" and the ordeal was over.

Why was it so hard for them to tell us what types of Pepsi they carried?