She's pretty!

7YO son: Mrs. Kyser's pretty.
Me: What makes her so pretty?
7YO son: Her body.
Me [eyes bulging with a gasp]: Her body?
7YO son: Because if she didn't have a body, she'd be just a head.

Summer vacation

I had forgotten how much fun summer vacation is. I took a break from many of things which placed demands on my life. I feel refreshed. I am ready to face the next school year. If only I could figure out how to keep my house clean when I no longer have hours in a day to do it.

First love

My son told me that when he grows up, he wants to marry a little girl in his class. He has good taste - she is a cutie-patootie! Probably the most beautiful little girl of 5 years old I have ever seen. And, she thinks C is "awesome!"

Of course, the next day he asked if he could marry his sister. I don't really understand how my son's brain works. Maybe his father can try to explain it to me one day.

An Artist

My family went the local arts festival last night. It was a misty evening, and we arrived too late to see many of the booths because they were closing for the evening. But the trip was not wasted. You see, we met an artist whose work A and I are very familiar with. We have seen his signature frequently.



At the beginning of the school year, I proposed an art project to A. I had found a list, called "Edmond Art," in our phone book. There are over 90 statues and murals scattered across our town, and I thought it would be fun to take pictures of all of them. I knew this would also be an exciting way for my children to see and learn about the town where I grew up. As we view each piece of art, we discuss why we like or don't like them, how they make us feel, and which are our favorites. A is keeping a journal of her thoughts. When we have seen them all, we will make a scrapbook with pictures and journaling of our adventure.



Most of the murals in town have Bob Palmer's signature at the bottom. We did not realize at the time that he is an art instructor at the University of Central Oklahoma and has his studio nearby. He has designed murals all over the state and the world. As soon as I saw the art in his booth, I grabbed A and pointed to his signature. A big smile erupted on her face. She met Mr. Palmer, and we told him about our project and how much we liked his work. I don't know who was more excited - her or me!

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!