A new holiday

For Christmas, I gave A a book titled 101 Things You Gotta Do Before You're 12! Some of the "things" include:

1. Go to a demonstration, protest, or rally
2. Join (or start) a club or team
3. Conquer a fear
4. Plan a dream trip
5. Make a time capsule
6. Run (or play) in the mud
7. Give Shakespeare a chance
8. Enter a crazy competition
9. Start a new family tradition
10. Make up a pen name or spy name
11. Meet or correspond with someone famous
12. Make your own...

Number one on the list is: celebrate a holiday you don't usually celebrate. We did some online research, and A decided to celebrate Earth Day this year.

Our family has never really formally recognized Earth Day before. I mean, we do keep all of our plastic Wal-Mart bags, and we either reuse them or we take them to the recycle box in the store. I also bought some of those reuseable shopping bags. The theory was that I would keep them in the back of my van and take them with me into the store each time I shopped for groceries. In order for this to work, one must remember to take the bags back to the van after unloading the groceries. And if the bags actually make it back to the car, one must remember to take them into the store for the big shopping trip. Thus, the large amount of plastic Wal-Mart bags that are accumulating in my laundry room.

So, for Earth Day 2009, the Donwerth family will make the earth better by:

1. Holding fundraisers at our schools to raise money for water filter straws for WaterIsLife.com. One school principal has challenged each classroom to raise money to buy one straw. The other principal is asking each student to bring $1 so that they can wear a hat on a special day. We would like to see 100 lives spared from waterbourne illnesses.
2. Attending Disney's Earth movie. For each ticket purchased during opening week, Disney will plant a tree in the purchaser's honor. We took a friend with us, so 5 trees will be planted because of us.
3. Collecting paper for recycling. We throw away a fair amount of paper, and each of our schools has a paper recycling container in the parking lot. (If we can find out where to recycle plastic, we can save empty 2-liter bottles, too.)

It's not much, but it's a start. I think the next step will be to conserve electricity and water. But that may take until Earth Day 2010 to master!

The snitch

Mom: "How much do I owe you for the T-ball shirt and hat?"
Coach: "Twenty dollars. You can get it to me later."
Mom: "I'll bring you cash after my husband's payday."
Son: "Yeah, my mom doesn't have much money."
Coach [smiling]: "None of us do these days."

Water Is Life

I'm so proud of A! She spent the better part of 2 days, selling lemonade during her grandmother's garage sale. She raised $90 for http://www.waterislife.com/. With the money she raised, Hearts and Hands International can buy 9 water filter straws for children in Kenya. That's 9 kids who won't die from water-bourne illnesses because of her! Wow! And she was disappointed because she didn't reach her goal of 20 straws. We're going to try to find other ways to raise money this year to help her reach her goal, but I'm still proud!

Sick day

My son threw up after school today. I knew he was sick at lunch. It's odd how a mom can tell her child is sick just by looking at him. His face was flushed, his head hung low, his shoulders were drooped, he shuffled his feet. No fever, no cough, no rash. But he just wasn't acting normal. It was confirmed at the lunch table when he didn't eat his Cheetos. That NEVER happens! But he wanted to go to school. I warned his teacher and told him that I would take him home if he started to feel worse. He made it through the day, but didn't make it down the hall to me. In fact, he didn't make it to a toilet or even a trash can. While waiting for me, he upchucked all over the couch, his pants, his coat, his sister, and her back pack.

Now he's napping, which NEVER happens.

When I leave my little diabetic with a new caregiver, I explain to them about what his low blood glucose level looks like. I describe his low behavior in detail, and say, "Don't worry - you'll know. His whole behavior changes. My little spaz will slow down." And they get it when they see it. So totally obvious. You just know. The blood sugar monitor just tells you how low it really is. It's just like when your own child gets sick. You just know.

Except in the case of an ear infection, which always went untreated in our household because my kids never once complained of pain!

Bad children or bad parents?

People often tell me they couldn't do my job. They say it takes a special kind of person to work with special needs children. I used to think that, too. That is, until I accepted my job. Teachers and teacher assistants have it easy - they send the kids home to the parents every day. I go home to my normally developing children.



It's the parents who have the tough job. I admire those who do their job well. They're angels. I am ecstatic that others even try.

Food Snob

My husband thinks he's Gordon Ramsay. He must have seen every season of Hell's Kitchen. He has probably watched every episode of Kitchen Nightmares, both the U.S. and the U.K. versions. He rarely reads books, but he just finished Chef Ramsay's autobiography. He has been experimenting with food in the kitchen, making entrees without recipes. (I must admit here that he usually scores. Only once in 15 years has he made something entirely inedible.)

But an ordinary family breakfast at Denny's turned him into a food critic. Once served, Super D picked up a bit of his scrambled eggs and wiggled them back and forth to show me how rubbery they were. I told him that if he had wanted good eggs, he shouldn't have ordered them scrambled. And I scooped up a bite of my eggs, over medium. As I was enjoying my bacon, he held his fork aloft, waiting for me to try a sample of his biscuits and gravy. Not really knowing what he wanted me to say, I simply nodded my head with a smile and said, "Hmm." He replied with a look of scorn, "A mix." Even our daughter's link sausage failed to pass muster. His word for it was "frozen." Of course, he prefers sausage patties to sausage links. (Oddly enough, the best sausage I think he has probably ever had came from my mother's freezer. My brother procured it from a pig farm.)

It should be noted that my husband did not walk away from the restaurant hungry. I believe Super D ate everything on this plate. I should probably consider myself lucky that Chef Husband didn't send it all back to the kitchen, yelling obsenities at the kitchen manager about how horrible the whole experience was. Although Ramsay-wannabe would have had to stand in the cold in order to speak with him - the manager was just outside the front door, smoking his cigarette.

Maybe my pallette isn't as refined as my husband's, but I rather enjoyed my breakfast. If only because I didn't have to cook it.

My genius

I just have to brag a bit. "A" brought home her progress report today, and she has a 100% in Science and 99% in Social Studies! Two of my least favorite subjects! I have always said that she is just like me, but not in this arena!