Remembering

Many of you know that my father served as a military pilot.  He entered the Marine Corps before I was born and left two years after I had my first child.  Like other military kids, I moved from base to base enduring more goodbye's and more new introductions than most people will experience in the course of their lifetime.

But you probably don't know that my mother's father also served in the military.  He fought in the Pacific long enough to collect stories for a lifetime.  I have uncles who served, too, and my husband was in the military when we were first married.

In fact, members of my family have served in the military as far back as the Revolutionary War.  On Memorial Day, as we remember the men and women who have given their lives in service to our country, I am thankful that most of the men in my family returned home.   I'll never forget the first time I saw the Vietnam Wall in Washington DC.  The names of my father's  contemporaries are engraved on that stone.  They were sons, brothers, husbands, friends.  I was one-year old when my father left for Vietnam.  I realized, as I stood there with tears streaming down my face, that had he not returned, everything--everything--would be different.  This would not be my life. 

So I pause every Memorial Day and think of the men and women who gave their lives; some of their names are on that wall, where my father's is not.  I silently thank them for fighting for our freedom and our rights.  I tear up as I think of the ones who once waited for their return; those whose lives were inconceivably altered the moment they heard the news.

Today, as I think of them, I honor both the service and the sacrifice.  And I offer a heartfelt thank you to all who have served.

This is probably not what they had in mind.

So since I'm new around these parts, and still getting used to the idea of posting within specific topics rather than just spouting off whatever comes across on the digital scroll display that is my brain.. (Oh look, the mail came! The new Entertainment Weekly is here...)

Anyway, Friday's usual topic is Food. Now, here's a little something you might want to know about me.

I don't really cook much.

I used to like to cook. Really, I did. But then I married a very picky, non-risk taking eater. And then I bore him two children, of equal mindset in regard to "I WILL NOT EAT THAT."

So anytime the conversation turns to food or cooking, I generally try and steer things toward wine. As in, "I like to cook with wine. Sometimes I even add it to the food."

Which is a long way of explaining that for years I did a Friday Wine Goodness series over on my personal blog, We're Not in Kansas Anymore, Toto. And I plan to re-invigorate that series here, for you lovely people. But first, let me explain my critical theory, if you will. Generally my code for wine recommendations goes like this:

• Cheap, but not headache inducing cheap
• Yummy
• Funny or interested labels

Yeah, I know, most wine critics don't really care about the label, but since I fill out my NCAA March Madness bracket based on the hotness of the players, you might guess I'm not a purist.

What my kids are reading.

I was a major bookworm as a kid. Seriously, I even have this friend from elementary school that I reconnected with as adults, and she has these memories of coming over to ask me to play and I'd always say no because I was reading something, which didn't really compute with her. But anyway, Deoxyribonucleic acid ain't just a spelling bee word, because my nine year old son is not just an avid reader, he's a vacuum. He hoovered his way through all seven books of the Harry Potter series last summer -in about 8 weeks total.
I was both overjoyed and suddenly panicky when I realized that summer that his reading appetite was so voracious. It was glorious to see him so excited to get a new book, or reach a new chapter, or understand a new character being developed. I worried at first that some of the themes were a little too dark for an eight year old, and educators may say Erickson's theory would agree, but he handled it pretty well and we talked it through when needed. But then there was a little warning lamp that started glowing in the back of my brain - Uh oh, what's he going to read next? After book seven, what I am going to feed the beast? We can't exactly go back to Encyclopedia Brown now.

So one afternoon I swung by the school librarians desk. She gave me a whole list of books and authors appropriate to age and reading level, especially for boys who like series.

Before I start listing them here, let me just point out that the school librarian is the most undervalued warm body in the entire building of most elementary schools. They do not just obsess over the Dewey Decimal system, they know everything about what your child should, could, or would read. Seek them out whenever you can.

Anyway, a not very comprehensive but good jumping off place for boys (and some girls may like these, too, I don't know, I only have boys) in 3rd-5th grades who enjoy series books with modern characters:

• Harry Potter, JK Rowling
• Percy Jackson and The Olympians
• 39 Clues
• Artemis Fowl
• Stormbreaker series - Anthony Horowitz
• Warrior series - Erin Hunter
• Redwall series - Brian Jacques
• Tucker series - Paulsen? (Inkheart, Eragon)
• Charlie Bone - Jenny Nimmo
• Keys to the Kingdom - Garth Nix
• Avi is an author with lots of books at this age range, not necessarily series builders though

My seven year old likes to read, too, but is really only in it for the snuggling in mommy's bed. Some of his favorites, however, include the now classic Magic Tree House series, Jigsaw Jones series, Bunnicula (and others by James Howe) and Hank the Cowdog. For the record, Hank the Cowdog is, I believe, the best damn audiobook series for kids available.

This is what happens when your kid gets a hold of your camera.

She's such a hack.

I had always thought calling someone a hack was a bad thing, until I became a parent in the age of the Internet. But as it turns out, a "hack" has come to mean a way to get what you need, working with what you have. I love that.
You know, my mom and I talk about this parenting thing sometimes. She's a little in awe of the network I have to work out some of the problems we come up against, or to celebrate and share the wins. She didn't have Dr. Google to turn to when someone ran a fever with a weird rash in the middle of the night. She didn't have girlfriends in other cities to which she could reach out and vent in a strange mix of over-sharing and anonymity. She didn't have ParentHacks.

So here's my favorite hack, for your use or amusement. It's very simple.

I keep a large cooler in the back of my minivan, so that I can feed my kids decent, healthy snacks or meals without hitting the drive-thru every single night.

See, I spend a ridiculous amount of time driving my kids from one activity to another. As kids get older, they get more and more activities, exponentially. Even for those of us who think that we are making an effort not to over-program our children, it just happens. I swear, one minute you're all "OMG Sally is such an overachiever helicopter mom with the karate and the cheer and the piano lessons and the basketball - does that kid ever just get to play in the yard?" and the next you're all "Oh gotta go, I have to run drop off the boys at soccer, then swimteam then feed them something and get them to cub scouts by 7 so they can race their Raingutter Regatta boat that we just built last night at 10pm."

Sometimes I have my own activities and meetings to go to. Then it gets really interesting.

Anyway, We do probably hit some kind of fast food drive-thru at least once a week. I try and use it as a rare reward, but some nights it just can't be helped. Calories are important to active kids. You can't drop a kid off at a sports practice and expect him to function for an hour on nothing but a granola bar. Funny enough, volunteer coaches don't really like your child when he's a starving basketcase melting into a pile of goo after only a few laps.

So, I keep a cooler in the car. Then, on the days we leave the house at 4:30pm and don't return until 8, I can have sandwiches, protein packed yogurt smoothies, cold Gatorade or G2, and fresh fruit ready to go.

The great thing is on those days we just hit the drive-thru for the ice cream. Kidding.

What's the matter with Kansas?

Hey folks, I'm Jenny, and I'm new here at Midwest Parents. Well, I'm not new to being a parent in the midwest, of course, I've been doing that for the better part of ten years.
Ten years.
OMG you guys I'm about to have a ten year old. Hold Me.

Ahem, sorry. Anyway, Glad to be on board. A little about me:

• I have two sons - age seven and almost TEN. (breathe.)

• I live in Kansas, in suburban Kansas City. Yes, most people do in fact think that Kansas City is in Missouri, and this is true, however we are one of those weird places where the "Greater Kansas City Area" actually spans two states, like 6 counties and umpteen cities. When I was a little girl growing up here, you could call across the state line, from one area code in Kansas to an area code on the Missouri side, without having to dial the area code first. And we had party lines! Remember party lines? You could call into some random number and get on the line with some random kid from some other random part of town and have a chat, a conversation, a talk. It was kind of like, oh I don't know, Twitter: The Analog Version.

• I drive a minivan. It is full of soccer balls, smelly cleats, and half empty water bottles that probably have bacteria growing under the lid. There may be a stray french fry or two under a seat, along with a missing arm to a Iron Man 2 Happy Meal toy. It does not, however, have one of those 3-D stickers on the back that looks like a small soccer ball broke the glass and got lodged there. Those are so five minutes ago. Now everyone seems to have those white outlined people stickers that used to be reserved for Calvin (as in, Calvin & Hobbes) peeing on Jeff Gordon's Nascar number. But I don't have one of those either.

• I do, however, have a license plate that says MAYHEM. I think that's fairly self-explanatory.

• I have a husband. He is busy. Right now, he's in Australia, for work.
  

• I don't mind him going to Australia for work, because every mile he flies across the ocean gets me closer to a free ticket to Maui. Fly Baby, Fly.

• I have a dog, he's a black standard poodle, named Max. He is younger than both my kids, and much more rotten. I'm not sure how that happened, I used to be good at training dogs. Then I had kids, and three years ago instead of having another baby, I got myself a dog.
  

• I do work outside the home, which you can totally tell if you were to ever actually visit my home, except every other Tuesday when a really nice man comes and cleans it for me. Then its nice for about five minutes, or until the school bus comes around the block. If you'd like to come by on one of these Tuesdays, between 3:30pm when the house cleaner is done and 3:45 when the monsters exit the bus, I'd be glad to show you around. Otherwise, just know that its gross, and that I really don't care much. No, you can't eat off my floors. But I don't really think anyone wants to do that anyway, so why keep them clean?

• Anyway, back to my working? I work at our church, I'm in charge of children's and youth ministries. I spent many years on the corporate track, albeit in a flexible environment, and trust me, this is much better.

So that's me, in a nutshell. My regular blog, which I've had for five and a half years, is called We're Not in Kansas Anymore, Toto. Yes, I know, I am actually in Kansas, but I started the blog because we were moving to San Diego, California, as a way to keep my family and friends up on what we were doing out there. Getting a lot of sand in every orifice of our bodies, turns out, is what we were doing out there. And we loved it. But we came home.

And so here we are.

Is There Such a Thing as Too Many Books?

I've mostly thought no. Books can be read and reread for years. Books can be shared with friends. Books can be more than just something to be read.

I remember taking my books from the shelves as a child and laying them across the floor of my bedroom. No longer books, but stepping stones to help me avoid the sharks and the crocodiles that were in the lake that had taken over my bedroom.

Books have, in my childhood, become houses for dolls, products in a bookstore, art projects. But a couple of weeks ago I was preparing for a garage sale and decided to weed through my children's books. We have a lot of books. A LOT. It felt good to go through the books and discover a stack of perhaps 30 books that I feel confident my children will not miss.

But it was hard. Books are always positive things to have around. Mostly they take up little space. I suppose there is such a thing as a bad book. I have experienced few books for which I have not found any redeeming qualities.

The fun part about the sale was seeing people dig through the books and find treasures. Several people found 4-8 books they wanted to add to their libraries. Seeing others find books they will love is part of the reward.

But am I wrong to weed out some books? Is there such a thing as too many books? For the most part, I think there is no such thing but I also wanted to condense our collection. There are some books my kids no longer read, or never have read. The older kids are moving on to big kid books.

I still have a love for books though that makes me want to keep them all.