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Favorite Political Sites
Jun
Posting Photos Online Requires a Mad Scientist Flowchart | Lifestream Blog.
This article is a couple of months old now, but I just stumbled across it this week … as I struggle to figure out how to balance personal/professional online presence for myself and also figure out how to put up content for our Girl Scout site keeping it both secure and easily accessible to families, this chart really resonated with me!
Jul
So, just so we’re clear … my child took a test, upon which her entire future is based (her scores this year, the first time she ever took the test, determine where she gets to go to middle school, which determines where she goes to high school, and so on), and no one knows how to score the damn thing?!! How do you make a test without developing the standards for it?!! So basically they’re meeting later this month to “decide” how to score the test … when they will have the results right in front of them!!!
Favorite quote … our illustrious State Education Commissioner Tim Webb on the new scores … “For the first time in many, many years, we in Tennessee are being honest, truly honest with our students and our families,” Webb added, stressing the scores don’t indicate a “loss in knowledge.”
So we’ve been lied to for years with the test scores, but THIS TIME, they’re going to tell us the truth. Only, they’re not sure what the truth is, or how to find it. Are you f%#@*^! kidding me?!! No, they’re not, that’s the problem.
Dec
Barely in time for Chanukah, but will arrive in plenty of time for those of you who celebrate XMas! %-)
Two versions … the collage went inside the handmade cards I made …
And this was the all-in-one that I sent to everyone else. No offense if you got this version … most people did! I only hand-make cards for family members … there are only so many hours in the day! I actually really like this one, and may do away with hand-made cards altogether next year.
Whatever you celebrate this time of year … Merry Everything!
Nov
So the little dude who didn’t want to join karate now loves it, and is pretty good at it, too! And Samara is zooming along the ranks, just got her blue belt today. Since Leslie is gone for the weekend, I promised I would put these up …
Eli’s 1st Kata Test…
and his new yellow belt!
Samara’s new blue belt…
and both kids proudly posing together! 
Jul
Just got an email from Real Simple with the subject line :
I don’t know what kind of kids these people have, but spinach couscous would NOT be kid-friendly in my house!!! In fact, not even sure it would be grown-up friendly…
Maybe if I pureed it in the blender, added food coloring, and mixed it with a ginormous amount of sugar (for the kids) or meat (for Craig)? 
Jun
mommy set me up so i could blog!!!
i miss you guys so much
love
Samara
Jun
Feb
Watching (or at least listening to) kids’ movies is something I do WAY too much, thanks to having two little ones about, so this week’s topic is a very salient one for me. Some of the kids movies are much less painful to watch 20,000 times than others! Here are my favorites:
1. The Lion King – possibly the best last scene in a movie ever (well, at least a kids’ movie), and just great throughout; the combination of story and music works well here in a way it doesn’t always.
2. Mary Poppins – I had never actually seen this until I had kids, now I LOVE it! What great parenting messages, and the interplay of color with the black & white is fascinating at multiple levels. Plus Dick Van Dyke steals the show as Bert.
3. The Incredibles – STRONG female characters, enough said; my kids and I have been waiting impatiently for a sequel on this one!
4. E.T. – my kids actually don’t like this one as much as some of the others, but it made a HUGE impact on me as a child, so gotta have it on the list.
5. Mulan – again, strong female characters, rare in a Disney film! Very engaging story, too, for both girls and boys.
6. Finding Nemo – phenomenal characters, and more good parenting messages
7. The Wizard of Oz – love this one as both a psychologist and a mom!
8. Transformers – okay, I know, this one is inexplicable, I just love this movie somehow…
9. Harry Potter – I know, they’re really books, and the books are MUCH, ***MUCH*** better than the movies. But, still, the movies don’t do a bad job of capturing the magical world – some of the visuals are stunning, and key plot elements are there. My kids still aren’t quite old enough to read the books, so the movies are a good stand-in until then. Order of these movies in terms of favorites so far – 1, 3, 4, 2, 5.
10. Shrek – great messages about inclusiveness and being true to yourself, and at least puts an interesting spin on the whole “rescue the princess” shtick.
Please note, even though I did love them as a child (and continue to as an adult), I don’t consider the Star Wars movies to be children’s movies (in the sense that I don’t think they were made FOR children). If they were children’s movies, they would definitely be at the very top of this list (in the order 5, 4, 6, 3, 1, 2). Other favs that almost made this list – Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Monsters Inc.
