Blue Thumb

My newest professional goal for myself has really been to provide more exciting opportunities for students to have real and practical math and science experience, particularly for young women. Our media specialist at school heard about an organization that monitors streams and creeks in Oklahoma so the two of us along with two other nerds highly professional science and math teachers at our site went for a two day training in Norman with Blue Thumb.

Day 1 we spent the morning learning about Blue Thumb and what they do. They are a volunteer based monitoring group that preforms chemical, biological, and physical monitoring of streams and creeks in Oklahoma, providing reports and information to conservation groups around Oklahoma. They covered basic environmental observations and how to identify different standards for weather, wind, etc. at a site.

Then, despite the fact that it was freezing and there was about a 3/4 inch ice sheet covering Bishop Creek, we borrowed some of their waders and went out to learn about proper sample gathering procedures as well as setting a dissolved oxygen sample.

We didn’t have to climb over any rip-rap but did encounter some floating detritus (yay new vocab words!) It was frigid, but we still had a great time! Here’s me, rinsing our sample water container with creek water.

 

The next day was much warmer and spent in the lab learning all about the different chemical tests we will run on the creek near our school with our students. Can I just say, we enjoyed it so much, I may have to adopt my own creek site after a few months of the students working on this because I’m going to be jealous that they get to do all the work!

And after a some demonstrations using educational models we “graduated!”

I cannot wait until we get some photos and videos of us working with the kids and taking care of our own creek!

This is a great organization! They provide all the training and materials, so check out www.bluethumbok.org or www.conservation.ok.gov

Lunches for the Whole Family

We are trying to all take our lunches to school or work on Monday through Thursday each week. On Fridays, Doc has academics and lunch is provided. On Fridays, I eat lunch at Mazzio’s with the rest of the teachers at my school as our week end celebration. Little Bird takes her lunch every day to do school.
We set this lunch goal for TWO very important reasons:
#1 Taking your lunch is cheaper than buying it at school/going out to grab lunch
#2 Taking your lunch is healthier than take out/pick up/ready made options
The biggest secret to doing this is that we prepare every side dish on Sunday after we get groceries.
 
Doc and I’s Sunday Night Lunch Prep
We pick 1-2 fruits and 1-2 vegetables for the week. Then, we wash everything and split it into Take N’ Toss containers which are just about perfect for portion sizing.

I use a vis-a-vis marker to label them and put all of the side item containers in one of our drawers in the refrigerator that is reserved for lunch items. I use small containers to provide “dips” for the fruits and vegetables, which are normally either hummus or plain Greek yogurt.

Little Bird’s Sunday Night Lunch Prep
To prepare things for Little Bird, I fill these amazing apple sauce pouches. I used to purchase the pouches at the store that were disposable. I found the price of the packs of 4 squeezable apple sauces to be a bit overwhelming. Over $1.00 for a side item for Little Bird’s lunches was a bit more than I wanted to spend. I found reusable pouches online. Squooshi pouches work amazingly well! They are easy to clean and I’ve already broken even on cost. I DID write “DO NOT THROW AWAY” on the lids and pouches to prevent any issues with them being tossed in the trash at school.

I buy large, organic apple sauce containers and send these pouches in my daughter’s lunch. I prep the pouches on Sunday and then refill as we go through out the week.
I love the Planetbox system and so do her teachers! At her age, lots of children still need help opening different parts of their lunches, but I can pack everything in divided compartments that all open when she opens the box.

Also, Little Bird is doing an amazing job of packing her own lunches. She helps pick the foods she’d like to eat and where they go. I use these silicon muffin molds to divide up foods (and make them bright and pretty).

With as much done ahead of time as possible, all we have to do is stick to our routine.
1. ) So our evening routine is generally that Little Bird and I make dinner.
2.) Doc comes home and we eat dinner together at the table.
3.) We all work together to clean the kitchen. Doc does the dishes and cleans up the counters. I pack entrees for Doc and I’s lunches as I put away leftover food from dinner as we often take leftovers. Otherwise, I make wraps, sandwiches, or other options for lunch. Then I simply grab 1 fruit, 1 vegetable, and 1 dip for each of us from the fridge and throw them in the lunch bags.
4.) Little Bird sprays the table down and wipes it off. When she finishes, she comes into the kitchen and helps me pack her lunch.
That means that in less than ten minutes, we normally have the kitchen clean, food put away, and lunches made and in the fridge for the next day.
We are on week 3 of this and so far it’s gone really well, but we definitely plan well and make sure we stick to our routine.

Simplifying Housework

 

Doc works. I work. Little Bird goes to school full time. We are exhausted in the evenings. By the weekend we just want to spend all our time relaxing and enjoying each other. Let’s just say that none of us are ever in the mood for housework.

So before I went back to work, we did a big overhaul of the house. We reorganized everything. We cleaned out closets and cabinets and pantries and erred on the side of minimalism.

Little Bird was given a chore chart to ensure that I spent less time cleaning up after her and that she assumes a role as part of the family in sharing the family work.

We set goals to keep the kitchen clean and the house de-cluttered during the week by actually cleaning as we went daily and not allowing ourselves to get sloppy.

So Sunday is our “work day”. Work for us means dusting, sweeping, vacuuming, and laundry. Now that we are on our 4th Sunday of preparing for the week, I’m happy to say that we’ve kept it manageable. We normally get the “work” done in less than an hour and then just have to change laundry loads throughout the day. So far, so good. Let’s just hope we keep it up.

Back to Work, Back to School, Refocus and Embrace Planning the Future

 

It has been a while since my last post, but rest assured plenty has been going on.

I think too much to put in one post.

So look forward to posts on:

• Lunches for the Whole Family
• Quick and healthy dinners you can make EVEN on a week night
• Simplifying Housework when everyone works full time
• Fall recipes I adore

And then hopefully once I get all of those finished, I’ll have some time to post about the difficulty of envisioning a future after child loss and how Doc and I have overcome the reluctance to pursue and seek out plans for our future. The next year will bring some GIANT changes for our family and I can’t wait until we can start announcing those changes.

Rocky Mountain National Park - 2013

Doc, Little Bird, and I just returned from our weeklong vacation to the Rockies!  This trip was very different for us because it was the first time Doc has been able to go camping with Little Bird and because Little Bird is now potty trained, so there was a lot of putting on shoes and jackets mid-night and trekking to the bathroom.

We hiked from Bear Lake up to Nymph, Dream, and Emerald Lake. The footing is loose on these hikes so I told Little Bird that we couldn’t carry her because it wasn’t safe. She’s too big for a backpack carrier now, so she just had to tough it out.

We drove along Trail Ridge Road up into the alpine area and admired the views. We also sucked on lifesavers and drank lots of water to cope with the altitude changes.

We made s’mores. Frequently.

I built an awesome fire. Doc built the other fires that were also cool…but maybe not quite so ragingly cool as mine.

We hiked up to Alberta Falls where Little Bird did some bouldering and rock climbing. Seeing the “happy water” as she put it together was pretty incredible. This was easily my favorite thing.

We saw bears, elk, deer, marmots, ground squirrels, chipmunks, coyotes, dozens of birds, and amazing wildflowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We celebrated my aunt and cousin’s birthdays.

We drove A LOT.

We slept in a nice little tent.

The best thing about this trip though was how much better it made me feel about the time we’re making up with Little Bird.I love that my daughter is the type to want to climb boulders and be amazed at chipmunks and become irate when we explain that people killed beavers to make hats (her response was that beavers don’t want to be hats and want to be with their families and alive). I love that she can do 12 hours in a car like a champ. I love that she ignores the bridge and decides to try hoping across stones instead. I love that she has an incredible sense of adventure and still wants to hold my hand while we hike. I love that she sleeps in a tent like she sleeps at home and when I’m carrying her back from the bathroom at 2 AM, scanning for bears and trying to get back without falling over, that I can point at the sky and she gasps and says “there are so many stars! They are beautiful!”

Even though she is still grieving and has been having a harder time controlling her anger and sadness at losing her brother, she finds joy. She is in awe of the world. She loves fiercely. I’m proud of her.

I am a Badass

Let me begin with a giant thank you to my friend Lizzy! I recently had a status update on Facebook warning that I was experiencing some grief relapse and I may be reflecting that on my updates in the near future so I gave warning. Then came a message asking for my address and a few days later, a lovely book.

“You Are a Badass” by Jen Sincero

The humor and frankness of this author has been exactly what I needed. I am a badass.

I honestly don’t exercise to be skinny. I do it to feel like a badass. When I feel strong I feel like a badass.

I wear high heels because the way I walk in them makes me feel confident and strong. I feel like I can take on anything.

I do things like the Warrior Dash, marathon vacationing, summer reading programs, and delve into home cooking because doing those things makes me feel strong. Confident. Capable. And darn it, it makes me feel like a badass. I made a freaking quiche. What could be more badass?!

AND. THAT. MATTERS.

Life dealt me a crappy blow. I can’t let it be my excuse. I can’t sit in the dark and be sad. I can’t not take chances or seek happiness because I know all to well that life can take deeply. I can’t.

I do it for me. Because I’m awesome. Not just because I took care of Rowan or because my family has someone managed to hold together or because we still find joy. I’ve been awesome for a long time.

I’m awesome because I never apologized for being a talented actress back in high school when that was my thing. I never apologized for being book smart either, despite the fact that the boys in my class didn’t like it. I’m awesome because I wasn’t looking to find love or a spouse when I met my husband, but I didn’t run away from it. I embraced the chance of a real partnership. I’m awesome because when I got sick and had to drop out of college, I got better, got a job, and worked while going to school until I could get scholarships back and go to school full time. I’m awesome because I mothered Little Bird. I’m awesome because I started student teaching two weeks after she was born because I refused to settle and was willing to work to have it all. I graduated with an infant in tow. I got a job teaching in an impossible hiring climate. I’m awesome because I am a great teacher and I am improved by working at a school full of them. I’m awesome because I carried a child I knew I would bury one day to full term despite the stresses that could have shortened that pregnancy. I’m awesome because I mothered Rowan. I’m awesome because we made his life worth it and loved him. I’m awesome for looking death in the face when it took my son from me and I AM FREAKING AWESOME because I get out of bed every morning, smile without faking it, laugh and share joy, and move foreword, looking for new ways to be a badass.

I’m awesome because I keep reaching. I keep searching and exploring. I keep loving. I keep living.  I’ve surrounded myself with awesome people a who have reminded me how awesome I am when I needed it, even when it’s sending me a book to remind me that I’m a badass when I start to forget. I’m going to make it through this period of grief relapse like I made it through the original one. I’m going to lean in. I’m going to be open to my thoughts and feelings. I’m going to move through it this time like I did last time. Like a badass who loved their son and misses him deeply.

Off the Bucket List: Summer Reading Program

 

Ok, first off, I would totally be lying through my teeth if I said that Little Bird read these books. I read them all to her. We reread a lot of them. She would “read” pages she had memorized OR (my favorite) use the pictures and flip through the book giving me a retelling in her own words. Some of them we read enough she could just about recite the whole thing. So essentially, the summer reading program was an opportunity for us to learn about the library system, get some new books to read (and get rid of when I got sick of rereading them), and get excited about some solid non-fiction books.

Today we happened to magically show up at the Library right before the scheduled Story Time. Mom win! I love it when luck makes it look like I’m better at filling up the summer days with good activities. Today was all about bugs. They sang songs, did storytelling with pictures, read several books, and danced. Score! By the way, the story time room is amazing. You can see the animal mural and there is a giant tree they go inside for story time.

After story time, we picked out our next six books and turned in our completed 20 list for our prize.

Here are the 20 books we have read so far this summer. Any with a * by it is one I loved and highly recommend.

1. Little Owl Lost*
2. The Little Red Hen*
3. The Bremen Town Musicians
4. Who Needs Love?
5. The Moon Might Be Milk*
6. Girl, You’re Amazing!*
7. Over the Green Hills
8. It Looked Like Spilt Milk*
9. The Toll-Bridge Troll
10. Wabi Sabio
11. Slippery, Slimy Baby Frogs* (lots of mating information in here, FYI)
12. Iron Hans
13. Lady Bug, Lady Bug
14. Different Like Coco*
15. Creepy Things are Scaring Me
16. Home Sweet Home*
17. If the Dinosaurs Came Back
18. Who Says Women Can’t be Doctors?
19. What is an Athlete?
20. The King’s Stilts*

So, the library dished out their prizes today to a very enthusiastic 3 year old. Here is Little Bird holding her 20 book prize of a Prairie Dog she named Sophia.