Penguin Projects, Continued

It's funny the things we end up doing for our kids. Or more specifically, for their schools. The auction fundraiser was coming up, and I wanted to contribute something for the class auction item. So, inspired by the penguin theme, I painted a penguin platter. The kids signed their names on the back.

Guess how much it brought in?

$160!

My little prayer for the day: May the future hold less need for fundraising for public schools.

Happy Valentine's Day!

My mom always made Valentine's Day special. Pastel conversation hearts decorated the table, and we each had a special Valentine card waiting for us at our place at the table. As a mom myself now, I carry on the tradition. This year, we had heart-shaped French toast for breakfast, and then spaghetti for dinner.

Love is all around. And in our tummies.

Will You Be My Penguin?

My son's Kindergarten class' mascot is the penguin. Or penguins, plural, as they learn about all the different types of penguins (Chinstrap, Emperor, Macaroni...) and become penguin addicts. My son will only wear penguin attire if he has his way, and his friends are all penguin crazy too.

So for Valentine's Day, we are making little cards with a penguin stamp.

In general, I love making Valentine's. But when I realized my preschooler wanted the same as his older brother, that meant we needed to make about 50. That's a lot.

Next year, remind me to do store bought. Please.

Catching Up and Happy 2010!

Oh my poor, poor blog. I’ve neglected you since my son started Kindergarten and my family became a Petri dish for all communicable flues and diseases. Good news- we’ve all been healthy the past month. (Knocking on particle board as I write.)

But I love deadlines, and to jump-start the year, I’m excited to be taking an online class with Lisa Romeo on writing creative non-fiction.

In case you’ve been wondering what I’ve been up to since fall, here are a few highlights:

August 20:

Cried the entire day my son went to Kindergarten. He thankfully did much better than me. My friend’s son just started college. “Just you wait,” she joked. I now feel guilty about “stealing” my husband away from his family in Sweden. My dear in-laws, please forgive me.

September:

A blur of flues, strep, coughs, and sleepless nights in our house. Thanks to all my family members who drove or walked my kids to school when I was too ill to do so. I was thankfully well enough to perform in the Mama Monologues with our guest author Ayelet Waldman, who wrote Bad Mother and The Mommy Track Mysteries. She was honest, funny, and touching. And I also got to get away for a wonderful weekend of writing and fun conversations in Lake Tahoe at the Write by the Lake Retreat with Jennifer Sander, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published and some fifty other titles.

October:

I wrote an article in Bay Area Parent on Dr. Jennifer Gunter, an OB-Gyn and mother whose touching story includes the loss of one of her triplets. She’s turned pain into publication, and has a book coming out this year, titled The Preemie Primer.

November:

One of the highlights of my writing career, OK, my life, was this past November when I performed at the Mama Monologues fundraiser with Anne Lamott as our guest author. She was amazing, generous, inspiring, and hilarious. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote about it, and I was honored to have my piece mentioned!

December:

My Winter Solstice article was re-published in New York Spirit Magazine, and a personal essay on a roadside memorial was published in the Marin IJ.

Now it’s 2010, how did that happen?

Wishing you all a wonderful start to the new year!

Peace Day

During the last semester of my master's at USC, one of the projects I worked on as a teacher's assistant was to set up a Roots and Shoots program at an elementary school in East Los Angeles, something the teacher continued afterward. Roots and Shoots is an organization started by Jane Goodall that focuses on teaching children to care for our earth, its people and its animals. At the end of the semester, Jane Goodall happened to visit L.A., and we traveled with the class to see her speak at the zoo, where she commended the L.A. zoo for their humane living area for the chimpanzees.

Fast forward 11 years, and I'm writing an article on the International Day of Peace for Whole Life Times. I was delighted to find out that Roots and Shoots has been having Peace Day celebrations in L.A. for years now, and this year they are expecting over 5,000 people!

Here is the link to the article:
http://www.sopdigitaledition.com/wholelifetimes/#/24/

I think I'm going to throw a Peace Day party for September 21st, something recommended by one of the people I interviewed. Anyone else have plans for that day?

Gluten Free Writing

The great thing about writing is that you get to take life's challenges, and turn them into opportunities for assignments! My article "Gluten Free Dining in the Bay Area" in June's Parents' Press newspaper is an example of this. Having a son who is gluten free, I've become a reluctant expert on where to dine without wheat. But I also learned a lot about Celiac disease as I researched this article, so it added to my conversation today with my son's doctor at his yearly physical.

So now we get to decide if we want an official Celiac diagnosis, which would mean putting him back on gluten, having a blood test, and possibly an endoscopy, and if in fact he does have Celiac disease, or is just gluten intolerant, we would just end up back where we are now- avoiding gluten. I'm not sure if it's worth all that, but we'll see.

For now, I'm just grateful for all the food options we have that are gluten free.

Where the Hell is Matt?

Last weekend my brother got married. I spent the night before at my parents' house. It was fun to just hang out with my family late at night like when we were all living together. But now it was my own kids sleeping upstairs, and I was the mom still awake downstairs like my mom always was (and still is.) The bummer was that my brother pulled his back out the day before his wedding, so seeing him in so much pain was hard for all of us. Thanks to some homeopathy, Reiki, and western medicine, he was able to stand at his wedding and didn't need to use the wheelchair my mom's friend found for us at 11pm the night before.

As we hung around in the kitchen that night, and my brother and his fiance packed for their honeymoon, my younger brothers (the ones who weren't getting married the next day) told me about a really cool YouTube video called "Where the Hell is Matt?"

They told me I HAD to see it, and they were right. It's amazingly simple, artistic, and moving. Basically a nerdy guy named Matt dances in different locations around the world. According to the FAQs on his website, the message of his videos are "Up to you. I'm just dancing."

I think it's about world peace. But that's just me. Watch the videos and let me know what you think!

I'm not making any promises, but maybe I'll make my own knock-off version in Sweden. And if Stride gum wants to pay me to travel around the world and dance too, hey, count me in!

Where The Hell is Matt? 2008

Where The Hell is Matt? 2006

Mama Monologues this Saturday

I'll be doing a reading in this year's Mama Monologues. It will be a fun night of short essays and blogs being read by the Writing Mamas to help support Alanna DeSalvo, a Novato teen who had a pool accident and now is in a wheelchair.

Event information:
The Mama Monologues - "Mother's Day Night Out!"

Saturday, May 9, 2009

6 - 9 p.m.

Unity in Marin, 600 Palm Drive (Hamilton Center), Novato

$20 Per Person Donation ($30 per couple) includes yummy Writing Mamas-made food, savory and sweet, along with the best kind of whine -- wine, wine, wine!!!!!!

Mothers' Night Out! You're a goddess. A queen. This is your night to leave the kids at home, go out and enjoy some well-deserved laughs. The Writing Mamas will perform their popular "Mama Monologues," a high-energy, LOL performance of their blogs and essays about REAL MOTHERHOOD. Spouses and friends are welcome!

Profits from the event will help benefit the Alanna DeSalvo Recovery Project (www.alannadesalvo.org) to pay for rehabilitation bills not covered by insurance for this Novato teen who suffered a spinal cord injury and is now paralyzed.

Directions: Heading north on 101, take the Hamilton Field/Nave Dr. Exit, veering Right onto Nave Drive. Turn Right on Main Gate Road, continue Left on Palm Dr. Unity is on the left, with parking lots on either side.
Heading south on 101, take the Bel Marin Keyes Blvd/Hamilton Field exit onto Ignacio Blvd. toward Bel Marin Keys/Hamilton Field. Right on Nave Drive. Left on Main Gate Road, continue Left on Palm Dr. Unity is on the left.

The Writing Mamas Salon is a warm, encouraging and supportive place for members to talk about motherhood and writinghood and to have a neighborhood in which to do both. There is much laughter and friendship. It's the ultimate mothers' club, and this is the ultimate evening for mothers to come out, enjoy themselves and have fun. Mothers -- you deserve it!!! For further information go to www.writingmamas.com or contact Dawn Yun, 415.233.2483, or dawnyun@writingmamas.com.