The "Norm!" of the 5th grade

Last night as we were leaving the band concert, M turned and hollered to the full auditorium, "Bye, people!" Fully 3/4 of the fifth graders shouted "Bye, M!" She shrugged and said, "Huh. Usually I get a bigger bye than that." I had to laugh. This is the girl who we used to think was shy...

Kool-aid mom manifesto

Remember the commercial for Kool-Aid where there's a group of neighborhood kids playing outside and they ask for a drink (thirsty, sugar-starved kids that they are)? The mom turns and yells, "Hey, Kool-aid!" and the big pitcher comes crashing through the fence. Fade to the next shot, with the mom bringing little dixie cups of sugar joy to all the kids in their clubhouse.

(I'm starting to realize that I might be adding a little of the "Honeycomb Hideout" commercial, too, because in my mind I start hearing "honeycomb's big, yeahyeahyeah. " But no matter...) I aspire to being a Kool-Aid mom, I really do. I possess a couple of quirks that make this difficult. One, I tend to consider my house my house...a little peaceful oasis from the world. And I like to have a say ("control" is such a loaded word) over my time. If I want to run an errand, I want to load the kids in the car and go, not eject the neighborhood from my house and yard first. I'm just quirky like that.

But today I had three 13-year-olds in our front room, laughing and throwing hackysacks at each other, talking, and hanging out. It's not that this is the first time it's happened, it's just that for some reason today I had an epiphany. So I am resolving to say yes more often, aspiring to the rank of Kool-Aid mom. Here's the Kool-Aid mom manifesto as I see it:

- I will find reasons to say yes to more of the "can I...?" requests that come my way.
- I will go out of my way to host my kids' friends here.
- I will stay out of the room (but nearby) to avoid the dreaded "mom trying too hard to be one of us" syndrome.
- I will maintain a good supply of fuel (by fuel I mean junk food and snacks) for those who grace our presence.
- I will give the benefit of the doubt more often.
- I will smile more and hesitate less.
- I will remember that most kids need more adults in their lives believing in them and listening to them.
- I will take a deep breath when the noise/mess/enthusiasm swells to epic levels and later, ask for help to fix/clean/tidy what's become undone.
- I will enjoy these delicious, fleeting years.

So I have two questions: who are your favorite Kool-Aid moms? what advice or additions to the manifesto would you suggest?

The chips have fallen

You know how I said I took pleasure in not doing any work over spring break, let the chips fall where they may? Well, those chips have fallen. But it's not disastrous and I still feel refreshed and recharged from a week away from it all so no regrets.

I attended my department's student presentation day today, which is always inspiring and illuminating. One thing I LOVE about Tufts is the innovative, can-do spirit that everyone seems to embody. This year's presentations were really diverse, including a student-initiated Saturday community children's art program with fabulous results, an examination of teacher's concepts of play in preschools in El Salvador, a study of young Chinese fathers' parenting beliefs, a study of families who adopted children from China, a program helping with educational reform in Ghana...the list goes on and on. As I said, so inspiring and exciting to see all of these ideas put into practice. Sometimes it's overwhelming to look around the world and see so much need, so much to be done. And it's tempting to just say "it's too much...there's no way we can improve the way things are." But all it really takes is a person with an idea about how one small thing can work better. And another. And another. But enough of my schmaltzy idealism :).

Small pleasures #3

This list is dedicated to the now-almost-spent week of my spring break:
~ deciding not to do any work this week...let the chips fall where they may!
~ getting my hair cut, complete with scalp massage
~ going to Target TWICE
~ getting fruits and veggies at Wilson's Farm, the shrine of all things fresh and farmy
~ buying a cool new poster
~ making a Barefoot Contessa dinner
~ M in braids
~ being ahead in the family NCAA march madness brackets contest (who knew?)
~ a new supply of tunes on my iPod
~ strawberries and kiwis
~ sun streaming in through the windows

Wise Words

My mom used to say (and I think this was from her mom and even her mom's mom) when we were leaving on a trip or staying with another family:

Be pretty if you are,
Be witty if you can,
But be cheerful if it kills you!

Someone once told me that this explains a lot about my personality--I'm not sure how to take that!