Where we've been

Clearly, we are bad bloggers. We still do all the things – the chickens and bread and canning and knitting; we just never take the time to write about them.

I have always wished that I could keep a journal. Some of the people I admire the most were avid journalers. But after years of starting and then never maintaining journals, I know that is not me. I write technical reports and papers all day. But I am not a writer. And though I try to take pictures for Joey, I’m not a photographer. I’m a reader.  I’m a doer, but I don’t document well. Neither does Chuck.

I think Chuck and I are very lucky in how well we suit one another. We met each other so early in our (barely) adult lives that we’ve become adults together. Some people grow apart, but we seem to grow more alike.  But that means that sometimes we are happy in our ways and leave aside things that we would both like to do theoretically, but neither of us really wants to take on.

I would promise that we’ll keep this up again, but I know that we have other priorities. So if you are curious about the chickens or our gardening or what we are reading to Joey (Roald Dahl – he is so into it!), give us a call or come over for dinner. I’m not on Facebook which seems to mean that I miss out on 75% of announcements from folks and people miss out on my announcements (I passed my quals, got my dissertation project funded, have a new job, and some other stuff!). But if you’re bothering to read this blog, I’d rather see you in person or hear from you on the phone. I’m old fashioned that way.

Hellloooo

Well. We haven't done a good job of keeping this up! The chickens are fine and cold. Something was raiding the chicken coop in the early fall and one chicken was killed, another hurt. We're down to three chicken who aren't laying many eggs. We're thinking in a few years that we might start with more than 5 chickens, like closer to 10. We also are going to get "smart" chickens. Tall order, I know, but our chickens have no survival instincts and it hasn't served them well despite our vigilance.

Other updates, we're not doing the raw milk coop anymore. It ended up being too much hassle to pasteurize the milk and we always had too much or too little milk. We are also probably going to stop our CSA and just patronize the farmer's market. Some weeks we know we're not going to have time to cook elaborate meals and the CSA sort of stresses us out trying to cook up everything before the next drop. We also like the ritual of going to the farmer's market and visiting with people. The farmer's market has greatly expanded from its humble beginnings and we can easily shop for everything we could ever want or need once a week.

We tried to take a family picture around Thanksgiving but Joe had other ideas. His natural ham-ish tendencies are over the top right now. He seems to take after my Grandpa Jodie who never met a stranger and was game for any adventure. This kid is too funny!

Three good things and a fuss

Good thing #1: In a stunning leap of faith that Fall will actually occur, we planted pumpkins in our extra planter box. Joey has been obsessed with pumpkins for several months around Halloween for the last couple of years. We're very excited to see if we can grow our own!


Good thing #2: I think I survived my qualifying exams. Two of my committee members asked me to TA their class so I guess that means that I probably will be making it through to the next phase of the program and I didn't make too big of a fool of myself. I find out officially next week.

Good thing #3: We are on the downward run for the summer heat! Chuck says this is overly optimistic, but I figure it is hot May, June, July, August, and September. So we've made it through three of five months. That's good right!

The fuss: We have a loud chicken. She's an Egyptian Fayoumi. And she is a fussy lady. She crows all morning and all evening. Not so great for an urban chicken. We got all lady chickens in the hope that they would be quiet and not enrage the neighbors. So far the neighbors are not saying a word but they are too nice. She might be finding a new family with the egg lady from the Farmer's Market.

From the Trenches

Dear UT SPH Library,

I understand that you, as a library, are not trying to make my life miserable. That the fight you appear to be having with the remote server I have to use to log in is probably not personal. I'm sure the server has done you wrong and deserves the silent treatment you have been giving each other all day.

But I am now on day 6 of a 9 day test that has been taking 16 hours a day. I am going to freak out and drive to Houston to get this fixed if you and the server don't make up soon. Or even worse actually have to figure out the UTHSCSA library system. That place is over run with first year med students. They are not my people and make me nervous. Please find a more mature way to deal with your issue and start talking.

Your friendly regional campus grad student.

Bona Fide

I take my qualifying exams starting tomorrow. Basically, anything I've learned in 4 years of grad school is up for examination. I'm nervous.

But I keep thinking of that scene from "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" where the guy keeps being described as "bonafied". If I pass, I'll be bonafied to start my dissertation. Whoo hoo! 

We've had a fun and busy summer. We spent the 4th at the Ranch and Joey had a blast. Then we went to Christina's wedding. Super fun and I got to play with my high school/college friends. We've made Christina an honorary Charger since all her bridesmaids graduated from Churchill.

We also have become evangelical about drip irrigation. Our garden looks incredibly lush with very little water and much less work. We'll be back to this space more often this Fall. I'm getting through the very hard press of my schoolwork and starting a fellowship in the Fall that will give me some breathing space. Plus Joey starts school in the Fall with Chuck and we have to take dozens of pictures of how cute he'll be in his little uniform!

The river almost runs dry

Fishing with Grandpa and Daddy

Ice Cream for Breakfast

Joeys loves "America's Birthday"

And he loves his flag

Alisha looks awesome with her feathers

Dyan as a robot

Honey as a bouquet monster

Christina arriving

Getting dressed

Katryn looking puurty

I heart public radio

I had a not so great day. One where things that were already going to be difficult were made unnecessarily hard and I was greatly disappointed by people I respect. I think I muttered "I'm utterly defeated" more than once today. And I was feeling mopey and a little sorry for myself about a whole host of things in my professional life that are in turmoil. I try to maintain perspective, but sometimes the trees are whacking you in the face so the forest is hard to notice.

And then I heard this story on NPR on the drive home. Pretty much nothing in my life is that difficult or sad or profound. (Related - I swear that Story Corp exists just to make me cry. Every single Friday morning, the Story Corp segment makes me cry! For 5+ years! I'm a sap.) So that's why we're members of KSTX and have been members of every NPR station in the three cities we've lived in together.

Tomorrow will be better. And even if it's not, Talk of the Nation is going to be live from San Antonio. The little radio junkie in me is very excited.

Blossom Rot

We have blossom rot! Oh the horrors! The butts of our pretty tomatoes are turning black.

But we also have a lot of healthy tomatoes so all is OK. And the chickens are gobbling up all the messed up fruit.I can't find the camera cord so no pictures.

I'll distract you with this report from OECD about Family Well Being in OECD countries.

More info here and a fun interactive thingy ma doo.
http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/

The Great Pumpkin Arrives Early

My Mother's Day gift to you, my friends, is this word of advice:
Never compost a pumpkin!!!

A "modest" volunteer pumpkin plant

My Mother's Day present two years ago, right before we moved into this house, was a compost bin. This Spring was the first time we used any of the compost as it needed about 18 months to really develop good dirt. However, during that 18 months our small boy was obsessed with pumpkins more than once. The chant of "More, more, MORE pumpkins" was very popular. Turns out that putting lots of pumpkins and pumpkin innards from pies into a compost pile gets you dozens of little volunteer pumpkin plants sprouting in your garden. Ooops.

Choking out the peppers

Since we were out of town for a week during which the weather was warm and perfect for growing, the modest vines we had been ignoring since we were busy turned into giant robust vines that required big garden clippers to cut. They were HUGE, choking out the peppers and okra and nearly pulling over two tomato plants.

A couple of other observations:  if you eat a lot of avocados (clearly we do) the shells don't compost well. Nor do peach pits. Remember the 27 lbs of peaches I processed last spring? Yeah. We found their remnants. But the dirt was fabulously black and rich. We had a great, relaxing Mother's Day that started and ended in the garden just like we like it.

Motherhood Matters

Me and my boy

I always wish we used Mother's Day to honor the work that mothering represents, value the health and well being mothers, and raise hell for policies that support mothers. Instead we get chocolate and spa days and waffles. I like the waffles, but I'd rather remember the sharp political undertones of the original day.

This is a nice idea: a "Motherhood Matters" week
http://motherhood.ksl.com/

 But it should say "Parenting Matters". And it should call for action. Families matter in any form. Mothers, fathers, and anyone who steps up to the plate to care for a child matters. As a society we sure make it hard on parents though family values rhetoric abounds every campaign season.

Did you know that the leading cause of poverty spells in our country is the birth of a child? That is just flat embarrassing for our nation. We are the only OECD country without paid maternity leave. Between 8 and 11% of American workers have access to paid parental leave. Can we get some support on that issue? Hey Hallmark, do YOUR employees making Mother's Day cards have access to paid maternity leave?

I study and work in MCH and there are a slew of interesting reports released about mothers timed to coincide with the annual holiday. I've picked a few of my favorites below: 

Save the Children released their State of the World's Mothers report.
http://tinyurl.com/state-of-mothers

Last Spring, the Obama White House hosted a forum on workplace flexibility. The report is very good.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/03/31/economics-workplace-flexibility 

I posted this before, but Human Rights Watch released a report on Paid-Leave and Work/Family support.
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2011/02/23/failing-its-families-0

And though sometimes the research from this place gets spun in weird and unproductive ways, the Families and Work Institute always has good info on working families.
http://www.familiesandwork.org/

Mom's Rising is an awesome organization raising hell for families.
http://www.momsrising.org/

And as the ultimate negative outcome for mothers, Amnesty Internation just released an update on their Deadly Delivery report about maternal mortality.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/amnesty-deadlydelivery

Finally, my favorite, is the original Mother's Day Proclamation taped next to my computer at work.

Original Mother's Day Proclamation
Julia Ward Howe, 1870

Arise, then, women of this day!

Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

Mothering deserves more than a card and brunch. Mothering is a political act and as mothers, we need to ask for more from our day.

Things I'm enjoying

Something to eat

Something to play with

A blog to read

Songs to hear

A book for fun

A book for getting smarter

A surprising editorial

And a video that never fails to make Joey and me happy