Random mix of thoughts of race

I had a call from the before and after school program Isaac attends.  I braced myself for a report of an injury or a behavior problem from the site director.  Instead it was the director of childcare.  She was calling to report that during a basketball game that morning another (white) child became upset that he was losing and referred to Isaac and another (black) boy as "chocolate face".  She assured me that they took this seriously, that they were talking to the other boy's parents, and that he had received a consequence.  Although people have made racist remarks of various levels of offensiveness about Isaac to me or my family members, this is the first time that Isaac has been confronted with it.

All through Isaac's life I have tried hard to help him embrace all aspects of his heritage.  When he was an infant, I researched a bought tons of books that featured interracial families and biracial children as characters.  We have talked at length about how President Obama is just like Isaac-- his mother is white and his father is from Africa.  Isaac attends cultural and religious events with his father (who is from Sierra Leone and is of the Muslim faith).  Although his school is not as racially diverse as other nearby schools, he is far from being the only person of color in his class.  We have talked about how children in his class may not understand why he is a different race than me, and talked about what he should say.   I think I have done a great job of teaching him to have a positive self esteem about himself and each of his cultural identities, and to

How do I, as a white person, prepare my child for the prejudices and subtle but prevalent racism he will face, that I cannot even fully understand?  I'm still not sure.  But here are some good articles I found while researching the subject.

Talking to our children about racism and diversity

5 Tips for Talking About Racism to Kids

Preparing your Child for Racism


And while we are on the topic, my friend Leah posted this.  Sometimes is is disconcerting when (usually well meaning) people gush over how much cuter mixed kids are.  It feels weird   Just because a child is more than one race doesn't mean they are any cuter than regular white or black kids.  Interesting to see an article that validates that "icky" feeling.

If any of you have comments about this I would love to hear them.

 

Update on 101 in 1001

I haven't forgotten about my 101 goals.  I have even managed to make a little progress on them and even cross a few off. 

14. Buy a car that fits all of the kids - DONE!!!!

I still can't park it well but my little sedan was traded in for a big ol' mini-van.  I am still getting used to it.  The other day I left cub scouts at the church and was temporarily unable to locate my mini-van amongst a sea of other navy vans.  I guess these are the problems of the middle aged.  Read all about the purchase of the van HERE.

77.  Take the kids to the Baltimore Aquarium - DONE!
I am counting this one, even though we only took Isaac and not the whole gang.  I hadn't been to the Baltimore Aquarium in ages and it was really fun.  We decided to go the same day we bought the mini-van to do a test run for a roadtrip.  Read all about it HERE. 

Other progress....

9. Try 50 new recipes
I tried this one - Red Lobster biscuit knockoff.  I thought they were just okay.  I have never been to Red Lobster, so I can't verify how authentic they taste.  We had lots of leftovers that never really got eaten, so I don't think I will make them again.  I also tried a cornbread recipe from the back of the cornmeal box that turned out TERRIBLE.  Usually I buy the little Jiffy cornbread-- so cheap and easy, but I didn't have any on hand.  I did have a random box of cornmeal so I found a recipe on the back of the box and tried to follow it.  Sadly, they were awful.  They had the consistency of yellow fudge, which is NOT how I like my cornbread.  Lastly, I made my own flour tortillas. 

43. Take a self defense class - scheduled
My Relief Society is offering one in May, so I am all set to attend.

Ten on Tuesday: Six Flags Edition

What a weekend.

1.  I had a craving for enchiladas on Sunday, but I had no tortillas.  I decided to make my own.

They weren't that pretty, but they turned out pretty good.

2. I did some major house cleaning over the weekend.  I finally got my microwave spic and span.  I washed the shower liner.  I put all my winter clothes away and pulled out all my summer ones. 

 

 

3. We had Miss Gabby spend the night with us again on Friday.  We played a mean game of Scrabble Junior and she was the winner. 

4.  In the morning we took her and Isaac to Six Flags Great Adventure.  Ryan was lucky enough to win four season passes in a drawing from work.  I have never been to Six Flags before, and I was surprised by how much there was to do for the younger group.  I always see the commercials advertising the huge coasters.

4. My favorite picture of the day taken on the tea cups.  This so fits their personalities.  They are only two years apart.

 

6. I am putting Les Mis on hold for a while.  It is on my 101 in 1001 and I am still going to read it, but I think I will save it for the summer when I can devote more time to it.  Right now I just need something light and fluffy to pick up for a few minutes before bed. 

 

7. I am currently reading Looking for Alaska by John Green.  I read The Fault is in Our Stars and enjoyed it, so I requested this one in from the library.  So far it is pretty good. 

 

8.  My tax refund came.  Woot, woot!  It wasn't much this year, but it was enough to get excited about.

 

9. I have just discovered The Mindy Project on Hulu.  I am loving it.  I swear, that girl was me a year ago.  Anyone else like it?

 

10.  This just made me laugh.

 

 

Have a great day!

 

 

Linking up with Lin

 



sweet moments

First of all, how much does my child look like bat boy in the above photo?

 

Tonight I was laying on the coach being lazy and I thought to myself "I really should do another day on my 5K app."  Tomorrow evening is crazy busy so I knew I wouldn't be able to squeeze it in then, and it was still early with some light out.  Ryan asked me to put Isaac to bed before I left, and in a desperate attempt to avoid bedtime, Isaac asked to come with me.  And I agreed.  Even though he was in cargo shorts and soccer cleats.

 

And it was really fun.  He ran with me through all of the running intervals and we chit chatted together during the walking ones.We would shout out encouragement to each other to keep going.   It was such a sweet little bit of time with him without competing with electronics or phones.    And as we approached the house at the very end, he turned to me, grabbed my hand, lifted it above my head and said "Should we finish this together?" and we sprinted home.  I think he has been watching one too many episodes of The Biggest Loser but it was totally precious. 

Random Thursday Vlogitty Vlog

It's not Friday yet, but we're getting there. Time for another

 

 

 

 

Today's topic is...

I decided to participate vlog style (see my other attempt at vlogging here). And yes, the irony that I am discussing beauty products while my hair is unbrushed and I am not wearing a stitch of make-up is not lost on me.  Hey, it was a long day at work. 

Moisturizer / Foundation /  Shower smoothie /  Toner /  Face wash / Foot lotion / Foot mask /  Face scrub / Naked Palette /  Naked 2  /  Perfume / More perfume

Linking up with Lin, Em, and Meg

Encouragement for the Week

Mothers truly are the greatest force in the world!

Revenge

Ryan says he can't be bothered to read the blog anymore...

So I figured I would just randomly post embarrassing pictures of him and see how long till he notices...

Happy Wednesday!

Weekend Update - Spring Finally Arrives!

It's was a warm weekend and we could finally get out of the house and do some things that don't cost money. It's the best feeling in the world!

Friday night we had all three of Ryan's kid's over for dinner and then Gabby stayed the night. When we woke up the weather was warm and bright and felt like spring at last.  We threw open the windows and then decided to get out of the house for a bit. They have FINALLY extended the Schuylkill River Trail up to my house so we decided to invetigate.  We walked a little more than a mile of it.  I was surprised the kids held up so well.

 

From there we went to Manderach Park for a little bit to let the kids run wild.  I ended up getting a pretty decent sunburn.

 

 

The last stop of the day was Five Below for a gift bag for a birthday present.  When these two are together they can keep themselves busy no matter where we end up. 

It was this little guy's second birthday, so Ryan took Gabby home and Isaac along too for a little family birthday party. 

They had so much playing, they ended up staying for almost five hours! 

I don't think the girls usually look much alike, but in this picture their little faces look identical!

In other weekend new I busted out the 5K app once again and made it through day 1.  It starts off so easy, it is confidence building even for someone like me who has done nothing all winter but watch TV and eat ice cream and is huffing and puffing through the "run" intervals. 

 

Our weekend was rounded out with a little bit of conference, a soccer scrimmage (Isaac's team got creamed, but he did score his team's lone goal) and finished another book, Jodi Piccoult's The Plain Truth. Now I have nothing else to read, so I am going to start Les Miserables.  For real.  Tomorrow maybe.

 

Happy Monday!

 





 

 

Random Thursday - Day in the Life Edition

This week's topic is an interesting one for other people, but not that exciting for me. 

My day starts at 6:00 when my alarm goes off.  I hit snooze a few times and wake up at 6:30 and check facebook/e-mail/blogs about half of the time .  The other half of the time I sleep another fifteen minutes or so and then throw myself around the house frantically trying to do everything that needs done before work.

The morning routine includes making lunches (if I haven't taken the time to make them the night before), breakfast for me, Isaac and on occasion, Ryan, packing up all of the schoolbags, sometimes a shower, approving Isaac's outfit (always a lot of drama with him and clothes), sometimes make up, rarely blow drying, and the goal is to be dropping Isaac at school by 7:30. 

Once I roll out of Isaac's school I make it over the bridge to my school, hopefully by 7:45 (though school doesn't start till 8, so I do have a built in cushion for disasters).  If I have time, I may treat myself to something from the Dunkin Donuts drive through.  My school is in the middle of PSSA hell mania.  Our theme is "Rock the PSSA".  I teach third grade, but my classroom is in the fifth grade wing, so I have a fifth grade poster on my door.  This morning I wrote myself up a to do list before dashing off to a faculty meeting.  It's the end of the marking period which always means a rush in paperwork due.  Plus all of the end of the year paperwork is due in only a few short weeks. The last shot is my computer screen as I have been doing progress reports any spare minute. 

At around 8:50 the kids roll in and the day begins.  I have to pull some kids to do some quick reading screeners and then a few other kids to do some math while my co-teacher led a multiplication lesson.  A reading test rounded out the morning, before lunch and then freezing at recess duty.  It was sunny and nice looking but still FREEZING.  Where's spring?  After recess I had a prep period (more paperwork!), got some adapted homework together for my IEP kiddos, and then I pulled a small group out for a reading skills group.  It was a good day at work overall.  I stayed an extra hour or so to keep working on paperwork and then headed home.

 

When I got home, Ryan had already put a frozen lasagna in the oven.  He and I cleaned up and vacuumed the bedroom quickly (long overdue!), tried to catch up on the dishes, tidied the kitchen, played a little Ruzzle, threw some dinner rolls in and then we all had a decent family dinner.

Isaac has Cub Scouts on Wednesdays, so that was our next stop.  We didn't have any errands to run today, so I stayed in the car and worked on my new book The Plain Truth by Jodi Piccoult.  After was done we had a parent meeting where we talked about things like scout camp.  They want us all to volunteer at least one day of the weeklong camp, which I can totally do in the summer.  Afterwards Isaac told me that he would really rather have Ryan do it because I will surely embarrass him.  WELL then. 

I rounded out the night with a little bit of American Idol.  (I know Lazaro is horrible, but I vote for him because it irritates Ryan).  Then we watched Survivor on the DVR and went to bed.

Super exciting life I lead on a random Wednesday, right?

Ten on Tuesday - Easter Recap edition

  one Today was my first day back to school after a pitifully short spring break (Thank you Hurricane Sandy!).  I managed to get to work on time, so I will count that as a success in my book.   two I decided to wear the dress I was going to wear to my brother's wedding to church on Easter.  Cute dress, terrible facial expression, right?    three Isaac actually spent Easter morning at his dad's house.  We picked him up in the afternoon and headed out to Lancaster for an egg hunt and a nice dinner with my parents and brother Joe.  Isaac was so proud to divvy up the hard boiled eggs that he and my mother had dyed earlier in the week. And then he burst into tears when Ryan cracked and ate his.  "I worked so hard on those!" he sobbed.    four I picked up Les Miserables from the library today.  It is number 34 on my 101 in 1001.  .I am feeling behind on that whole project.  All I am accomplishing reading tons of books.  Technically, this is just reading a book too, but at least it is a new item to cross off.  They only gave me a few weeks until it is due back, so I better get cracking since it is about a million pages long.
five My neighbor still has Christmas lights up on his porch and around his garage.  I am annoyed the HOA hasn't said anything to him.  Mostly because I am bitter that ONE TIME I left my trashcan in the street and they sent me a harsh written warning.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised though.  This is the same neighbor that ONLY stained the parts of his deck he can see.  

six Also, remember last week when I blogged about getting up close and personal with my neighbor's dirty laundry?  Same guy.  So I guess I better just keep my mouth closed.
seven This old guy at work asked me if I am being a good wife and cooking lots of wonderful meals for my husband.  I had to resist rolling my eyes and informed him that we have a modern and progressive marriage where we share cooking and household chores.  Usually whoever is home from work first cooks.  Ryan some made bangin' chili last night.  Ridiculously good!
eight We received two Fandango gift cards for our wedding and we decided to use them over Spring break.  We saw Oz the Great and Powerful with Isaac. Ryan and Isaac seemed to like it but I couldn't get into it.  I legit passed out for like the first half of the movie.  The worst part was, I woke up in the second half of the movie, and really hadn't missed anything. I had no trouble following the second half.  
nine Just Ryan and I returned to the movies later that night to see The Host.  I had really enjoyed the book and had forced Ryan to read it in preparation for the movie.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either.  Overall, kind of an underwhelming weekend for movies. 
ten   Tuesday night is Splash, me and Isaac's new show.  Kareem Abdul-Jabar and Louey Anderson doing synchronized swan dives?  Hosted by Joey Lawrence? You can't make this up!  Isaac and I watched it over and over again cracking up.
Have a great day everyone!