Once Upon a "Sit Upon"

Lucy's class used "sit-upons" during field trips this year. It is a piece of tarp with duct tape around the edges - and it works brilliantly if you need a place to sit down out of the RAIN/sand/dirt/street/etc.

Now we have a family set complete with bag to hold them - just in time for summer adventures.

Well, I guess you're in good company

Answers from 8.5-yr-old Lucy

What is your favorite toy?
Stuffies

Who are some favorite friends?
Harley Quinn, Dahlia, Aga, Addy, Saylor.

What's your favorite food?
IKEA.

Favorite treat?
Gummy bears.

What is your favorite book this year?
Land of Stories by Chris Colfer. Also Lumber Janes and The Year I got Polio.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A spy.

Holiday?
My birthday.

What are you most proud of?
Brand new friends.

What do you hope to accomplish while you are 8 and half?
A mini-fridge for the playhouse.

Um - ok. If you could change something in the world, what would you change?
Price of houses.

What's your favorite school thing?
Choice.

What's your least favorite time?
Math.

If you could choose any super power, what would it be?
Able to do gymnastics.

If you could have pet in the world, what would it be?
Could it be a thing instead?

Ok, if you could have anything in the world, what would it be?
Harley's mallet.

And what would you call it?
"You Go Boom."

Where in the world do you want to go?
New York City.

Where do you want to go to college?
BYU.

What do you want to study at college?
Welding. Something like engineering

What kind of car will you drive someday?
Tecla. It hasn't been invented yet but it teams with a computer. Also has a toilet. In the back it has a mini fridge and a whole bunch of cool stuff like a microwave and food packets.

How old do you think you will be when you get married?
20.

How many kids do you think you'll want some day?
1.

Interview with a 7-yr-old Henry

Who is your favorite friend?
Mom and dad.

What's your favorite food?
That's easy, sushi.

Favorite treat?
Ice cream

What's your favorite movie?
Fantastic Mr. Fox.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Engineer (the kind that engineers stuff)

What's your favorite number?
Of course, 7. Obviously.

Holiday?
Christmas!

What are you happiest about?
A wonderful family.

If you could change something in the world, what would you change?
Trump not being president.

What's your favorite school thing?
My teacher, Cara, and discovery.

What's your least favorite time?
Reader's workshop.

If you could choose any super power, what would it be?
To make the world right.

If you could have any pet, what would it be?
A dragon named -um - whachamacallit.

Where in the world do you want to go?
Legoland for a week. The one in California.

Where do you want to go to college?
In New York City.

What do you want to study at college?
About Macey's.

What kind of car will you drive someday?
Tesla.

How old do you think you will be when you get married?
20.

How many kids do you think you'll want some day?
3.

When I got to choose your books

Today, for dress-as-book-character day, you dressed up as Emily from the Amulet series (main character, happens to be a girl) and Rapunzel from Rapunzels Revenge (the graphic novel with the empowered cowgirl twist).

I am realizing that all the feminist books we've had around the house are having an effect on you both. And I'm sad to say that I haven't been able to find the same selection for racial diversity.

When you were little, I went to bookstores and the Library asking "Can you help me find books that feature brown people but aren't about them *being* brown?" As you can imagine, the conversations were pretty weird. But I am constantly looking for narratives that you can really connect to. Books about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, and Obama are important too - but I want you to see that regular kids (just like other characters you love) can be different races. Brown is totally great. Brown is totally normal.

When I started looking, there weren't very many options. A couple of librarians suggested animal books since they avoid the race issue altogether. That was a sad moment for me - realizing that publishing isn't as inclusive as I had always assumed.

I searched again today and I am FINDING A WHOLE BUNCH MORE! Many other families must have been seeking out diverse media because consumer demand seems to be pushing publishers to be more inclusive. I am so grateful!!

I love books and I love how much they can change what you see in the world. I will enjoy the magic of choosing books for you as long as I can.

Some of our favorites are here:

• https://www.pinterest.com/mfivecrows/irresistable-also-racially-diverse/
• https://thebrownbookshelf.com/our-books/
• http://ailanet.org/activities/american-indian-youth-literature-award/
• https://www.leeandlow.com

What Standing Rock could mean to you in 40 years

Standing Rock may not feel personal to you. Maybe it seems unimportant or easy to leave off your radar when so many other issues are on fire right now. But I hope you will try to understand that it could affect you in big ways.

To explain, I’ll tell you just how everyone in the area I live in (along with just about everything in my life) IS DEFINED BY A SIMILAR STAND OFF BY INDIANS THAT HAPPENED 37 years ago. 

In 1980 - Salmon throughout the Columbia River Basin were dying out. The tribes were unfairly blamed and told they could not fish because there weren’t enough fish. Some scientists and local American Indians knew that dams were the reason the fish were dying, even though state and federal agencies denied it.

So under threat of getting arrested or killed, Tribal fishers went fishing anyway. Jeremy’s entire family camped near Rapid River and took part in an armed standoff with state police. MOST OF THE NEWS MEDIA at the time said the Indians were there because they wanted attention and/or money (sound familiar?). That was not at all true but it took a long time for people to understand the Tribes and their relationship with salmon. It took everyone time to understand that a culture really can worship fish.

Jeremy's brother, Jarrod, being cited by Idaho Fish and Game Wardens

Fast forward 37 years, the tribes have fought for river protection constantly on the ground and through the courts. They have created new models of working with government along with new science for fish genetics, hatcheries, and river restoration.

TRUTH: actions by the NW Indian Tribes are the ONLY REASON that we have strong salmon runs today. Likewise, we have healthier water, rivers, and ecosystems because of the efforts of American Indian Tribes.

But in other regions of the US, $ interests have also put water resources at risk (think fracking, draining aquifers, lead contamination, climate change, dangerous drilling, etc).

Water really IS life. The risks are already there or coming. Supporting the Tribes at Standing Rock is a good way to push our government to take water protection seriously so we can protect these resources for ours and coming generations.

Standing Rock is not just about a pipeline. A culture really CAN worship water. And anytime - from now, to forty years from now, to indefinitely - wouldn't it be fantastic to know that Tribal members were working to protect YOUR water. You may not understand it, but that is exactly what they are trying to do.

(Jeremy, please feel free to re-write this with all the details - I am not doing it justice.)

Walk Two Moons

Dear Rose,

I am really happy that we got to spend some time with together last week. It was quite a gift, getting to be with you on THAT WEEKEND. You know? When your life was turned inside out and your mother was recovering in the hospital from something I can hardly think about. I think that someday, you will look back on it as one of the strangest and most tumultuous weekends of your life. And I'll tell you what? You were STILL kind. And lovely. And brave. Even on THAT WEEKEND.

That says a lot about you. It really does. And I hope you are proud because what it tells me is that you are becoming an amazing person.

We went to Powells together and I picked out this book for you because it is one of my all-time favorites. It is about a mixed-race family (one American Indian parent, one white) and though it is written by a Brit, it captures some of the subtleties that bringing those cultures into our family has meant. And I love that aspect of it oh so very much.

It is also about a girl losing her mother. And with your mom just having had her head zipped open, the timing for giving it to you last weekend was, pretty much, HORRI-TERRIBLE (that means so horrible that it has to be combined with terrible).

So I held onto it this week. And read it again. And cried again. And fell in love with it all over again.

Now that your mom has passed through her zip-down and zip-back-up as ferociously as we all hoped she would, I am passing it to you.

I hope it adds another piece onto the lovely, brave, amazing person you are becoming.

Love,
Margaret

Your book-loving, nerdy mama

My bubbling excitement at a children's author retweeting me confirms that no, I am probably not one of those people that is cool around celebrities.

xo,
Your book-loving, nerdy mama

Qigong, "The Boy Game," and Hawaii

We started a new massage therapy prescribed by your occupational therapist. Years ago, I would probably have put "qigong sensory therapy" the same category as "milk from constantly hugged goats" – but alas, life is an adventure. The challenges we face have reshaped me. My parenting mode is much more "willing to try anything" than I ever imagined. Yes, I would probably even try milk from constantly hugged goats if there was evidence-based research showing it could help.

At any rate, it is mostly enjoyable for us both. But some nights, you would rather read or do something else. Some nights, I have had more than enough together time and would looooove to skip it. To help us stay on track, you made up a reward system for it. Every night that we do it, you get to play 3 or more games of The Boy Game (to be explained) and after a year, we get to go to...Hawaii!!

The Hawaii part I completely understand (YES - let's do it!) but The Boy Game is one of many bizarre things that you love for reasons that I cannot fathom. It goes like this:

Mom chooses random verb and sings it in this pattern:
Flying boy,
Flying boy,
Flying - flying - flying boy 

Boy acts out verb and pretends to have some sort of grave accident at the end of the song. 

Repeat with new verb such as climbing, jumping, etc.

This is something you want to do every night for a year? And I can talk you out of say - dawdling while brushing or teasing your sister because "Maybe we will have time for one more round of The Boy Game?"

Well, okay. I'll go for it. Who knows - maybe someday you'll write a book about your childhood and include The Boy Game as one of your many adventures. You are currently in love with Jon Scieczka's book Knucklehead where he talks about one of his favorite games, Ghost Rider, where a kid rides a bike under monkey bars, letting go so the bike keeps going without a rider.

Hooray for Ghost Rider! Hooray for The Boy Game! And a big hooray for OT!

Your rights are not up for grabs

My dearest Lucy,

Umbrellas up, we joined nearly 5 million people across the globe in the women's march this weekend. It was possibly the largest protest in Oregon, the United States, AND world-wide history.

I brought your cat hat to the parade but I didn't give it to you until we got there. We stopped to talk because I figured you'd want to understand what "pussy" was referring to in this march before you decided whether you wanted to wear it.

You had heard part of the quote from Donald Trump so we read the whole (completely awful) thing. Then I explained that by saying "grab them by the pussy," he was referring to grabbing a woman's vulva without her permission.

Shocked and very upset, you were starting to cry when you asked, "You mean someone like him can grab me there? And that's OK? He just can?!" I said "No. It's not ok! See all these people around you...all of these hats and cat signs? Every one of them is out here to say that it is definitely NOT ok. Talking about women like that is NOT ok. Grabbing a woman like that is NOT okay. And no one should think it is ok. Ever. Again."

The fear on your face went away so fast and you just lit up. And all of the sudden, I was so grateful that you had learned about it HERE. You had been in THIS crowd, with THESE people to get your first glimpse into sexual violence. You are so young – I have not wanted you near the topic. But it is looming close in your future. Like me, you must soon face that being female means some people will want to intimidate, use, and control you. And like me, you must accept we have a president that said THIS and other horrible things. Among many reasons I am grateful you EXPERIENCED, in a beautiful way, that most people agree that it is NOT ok. We want women to have safety and equality. We want YOU to feel valued and safe.

Yes, we've got some big problems. But have hope. Take a look around! All kinds of people are willing to show up and work to make things better.

Love you,
Mama

(With thanks to the Pussy Hat Project and all the worldwide march participants. You changed her world. And you changed mine!)