Upspide Down

He says "upspide down" instead of upside down. It always makes me want to sing,

Upspide down,
Boy you turn me
Inside out and
round and round

A few weeks ago while visiting the library, he really turned me inside out. There was a little boy in the children's section, and Aidan could not have been more rude to him. Aidan laughed in his face when the little boy introduced himself, and it did not improve from there. I decided the best thing for us to do was high tail it out of the library, so I gathered up the kids and our books and headed for the check out desk. While I was chatting it up with the librarian, Aidan wandered away from me, and next thing I knew he was back by my side and the little boy's mother was wagging her finger in his face saying, "You don't push!"

Could I just crawl into my library bag and die now? I was disappointed with Aidan, and I was also shocked that the little boy's mother decided to get in Aidan's face instead of mine. Now I know how little boys can be; I have a little brother and I've heard plenty of stories about George when he was a wee one. This wasn't our first altercation either.



The funny thing is I forgot about all of this until today. We were leaving the library and guess who I saw? From the look on her face, I'm pretty sure the little boy's mom recognized me too. She gave me a curt smile, and I barely eked out a hi. A few steps later Aidan said, "Is that the little boy I pushed?"

"Yes, it is."

"I really want to say I'm sorry to him."

So we turned around, despite the pit in my stomach weighing me down, and Aidan apologized to the little boy. Then Aidan added, "Do you want to be friends?"

Little boy of mine, you sure know how to turn your mother upspide down.

"Thug means never having to say you're sorry." U-Turn from Weeds Season 3

April Fools Gold

A little Before and After, which happens to be very timely as it is April Fools Day, and just yesterday we took a trip to Empire Mine, a former gold mine in Grass Valley.







The grounds are beautiful, the architecture amazing, but the mine itself gave me chills.



The deepest mine is 8000 feet below the surface.



The highlight of the trip for me was the 1958 filmstrip about the history of gold mining in California. I know California wouldn't be what it is without the discovery of gold, and that the little town I call home wouldn't be on the map if it weren't for gold, but I had never realized until watching the filmstrip that gold is a relatively useless metal. It is only valuable because humans have placed value on it. Many lives have been consumed by and lost in the pursuit of gold; even the devastation of the "New World", all for the pursuit of the mother lode. It made me wonder, what if people placed value on the things I consider valuable - peace, family, freedom, to name a few - what kind of world would this be? And if we continue to pursue material wealth where are we headed?



The funny thing is, not ten minutes after I took the above picture on the Quarry Trail, I saw a lone gold prospector heading up from the river; I even thought to myself perhaps I should try my hand at gold panning. After all, it is going for over $1000 an ounce these days. You can take the girl out of the gold country, but you can't take the gold country out of the girl.

On a different note, Avery had been planning an April Fools Day treat for several weeks, and as soon as she woke up this morning we started cooking. She couldn't wait to wake George up so we could have "pizza" for breakfast.



If you guessed pepperoni and green peppers, guess again. The dough is pie crust, the sauce is strawberry jelly, the cheese is coconut (dyed with yellow food coloring), the pepperoni is a fruit roll-up carefully cut into circles, and the peppers are gum drops. It was actually quite tasty and possibly the most fun treat we have made together. We then proceeded to make "kick-me" signs to attach to each other's backs. Fun, foolish times - better than gold.

Good Job!

After seeing a link to this article on two different blogs in the same week, I decided the universe was sending me a message and perhaps I should pay attention. Alfie Kohn's Five Reasons To Stop Saying "Good Job!" certainly made me pause and ponder, for I often hear myself saying those two little words: Good job! Or even for my emerging readers, Good J - O - B!

So after reading the article and thinking way too much about those two simple words, I decided that I was not saying Good Job! dismissively, that I don't find my children to be hungry for praise, and that I don't believe the use of those two words is making my children hesitant to try new things for fear of failure. Rather I discovered I was using the phrase for its efficiency; two words that simply mean, "Yes I see what you are doing or have done and it is wonderful".



For example, when my children walk across the canal on an old pipe I say, "Good Job!".

What I really mean is, "Thank goodness you made it across the pipe without falling into the canal because I would hate to have to jump into that cold, dirty water and rescue you!".



Or when my children jump on a swing and start pumping their legs I say, "Good Job!".

What I really mean is, "I am so glad you are big enough to get on the swing and push yourself because I would really rather sit here in the shade and read a book than stand in the hot sun and push you".