Last week was Arbor Day. Fischer and I headed up to our local botanical and ecological center to commune with the trees. Plus, they were having a FREE admission day! Fischer actually loved it. We hadn't been there since fall... and had usually always spent all of our time in the children's garden... but on this day we explored the entire garden and participated in some of the learning activities they were offering. He was so interested in the different types of trees and flowers, seriously - he wanted to know the names of the different varieties. He and I really enjoyed a few hours of tree lovin' fun. Actually, my favorite part was when we came across an empty outdoor stage, and Fisch stood up there and belted out "FinkleFinkle Little Taw" while I sat in the grass and listened. What I would have given for a video camera at that moment... or even my camera! Of course, I had to top that beautiful moment with a cowardly mommy moment... when he asked me to sing so he could watch! "Uh... let's go see what else we can find". Trust me, nobody wants to hear that (except Fischer).
They gave us a free Gambel Oak tree which is thriving on our kitchen windowsill waiting to be planted now.
Speaking of trees, we have recently fallen in love with Our Tree Named Steve, by Alan Zweibel and David Catrow. It is all about a beloved tree in a family's yard and all of the wonderful ways that tree was part of their lives, till one day when a storm hit and the tree fell. It is written as a letter from a dad to his children (who are away at grandma's when the storm hits). The book has beautiful illustrations and a thoughtful story line. It really makes for a good story about the love of a tree, but also about loss. Of course, I cried when the tree fell... but, I'm a pregnant mess... so maybe you won't. ;) Anyway, we love this story. I think that the children in the story are named after Zweibel's (the author) own children. A comedy writer by trade, it appears that this is his first children's book. He sure teamed up with a fabulous illustrator (Catrow) - we love Catrow's books!
Happy Earth Day! While I realize that everyday should be Earth Day, it is still nice to have a day to remind us of all that we can be doing to help save the earth. It is also a nice reminder for those that are just beginning to do their part.
Here are a few books from our shelves that might help us celebrate today and everyday:
Michael Recycle by Ellie Bethel and Alexandra Colombo is a fun recycling book with a cool new superhero to introduce. Fischer received this as a birthday gift from his buddy James. We've been enjoying it. I noticed that the Michael Recycle website has a list of great green tips. We also ran across a little computer game about recycling on Funschool. Of course Fischer is into recycling... because he is into the recycling trucks!
I don't know if there is anyone left on the planet who is not aware of Autism. I think that we are all aware of it and how many people it affects (1 in 150). The question this month is:
Do we promote finding a cure for it? Or do we promote acceptance and neurodiversity and accomodation? There are many people who are quite offended by the idea that they or someone they love is "broken" in need of fixing or curing. There are also quite a number of people who believe that their loved one can't be who they truly are until we find a cure. The matter is deeply personal and very emotional for all who have autism or love someone who has autism.
Self esteem. What does that phrase mean to you? For me, I think of all that encompasses me and how I feel about me. There are definitely things about myself that I am proud of or content with, my appearance is not one of them... specifically my weight. I have major issues with my body that do affect my life and my activities.
I've started wondering how these issues and feelings about myself are going to affect my daughter (when she arrives). What will she learn from looking at me and listening to me? Will she learn to nit pick her every imperfection? Will she learn to say mean things to herself? Will she learn that her appearance makes a difference in what she can do and accomplish? Will she learn that her appearance is of the utmost importance over all of her other qualities? Man, I sure hope not. Of course I won't come right out and teach her these things, but will she derive these "lessons" from my actions?
Now is the time for me to raise my own self-esteem and get myself in check. I want to empower my daughter to be and do anything she wants to. I want her to see beauty in all things and all people including herself. I want healthy habits to be a part of life, not just something you do to "fix" a problem.
What if I do a good job with all of that teaching and empowering, and then she goes to school and gets another message from her peers... or from the media... or a relative... or the list goes on. How will I talk to her? Will she believe me when I say she is beautiful? Or will she think that I am just her mom and I have to say those things?
We all know that low self-esteem affects so much more than what you say to yourself in the mirror. It affects schoolwork, it affects the types of friends you choose or put up with, it affects the risks you take (good and bad), it affects your self worth which in turns gives yourself permission to do certain things... things a mother doesn't want to imagine.
What can I do to help my daughter cope with adolescence and the pressures she'll experience everyday?
"Too many girls and young women develop low self-esteem from hang-ups about looks and consequently fail to reach their full potential in later life. The Dove Self-Esteem Fund (DSEF) was established as an agent of change to inspire and educate girls and young women about a wider definition of beauty. The DSEF is committed to help girls build positive self-esteem and a healthy body image, with a goal of reaching 5 million girls globally by 2010. It has already reached 2 million young women."
They are targeting girls ages 8-17 and their mothers to help build/repair/maintain self esteem. The exciting thing is that they provide FREE materials for mothers and daughters to begin talking and working on self -esteem. They have a mother's guide and a mother/daughter activity guide to help you facilitate conversations and about beauty, body, pressures, self-esteem, and self confidence. The guides have questions and activities to help us build an open-relationship with our daughters and to remind us how our own self-esteem and hang-ups affect our girls.
"A mom is one of the most important influences in the life of a daughter. Whether you are a step mom, an auntie, a grandmother, a big sister or just a loving friend, the role of a ‘mother’ is important and necessary in a girl’s development. Your love and care sets the foundations for your daughter’s life. Who you are will profoundly affect who she is and who she will be. How you feel about yourself, your looks, your body, your beauty, acts like a script from which your daughter will make choices about how she should feel about herself. In order to give your daughter the strength and courage she needs to feel beautiful in a world that may challenge her values, you need to take inventory of your own feelings of beauty." -Dr. Susie Orbach and Dr. Nancy Etcoff (Dove's Academic Advisors)
(My mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great-grandmother )
I read through the materials and found them to be informative, thought-provoking and interesting. They also provide an entire FREE workshop kit with DVD/CD to teach you how to run a self-esteem workshop in your area. Dove is also on the road providing workshops in many different states, you can check their map and schedule to see if there will be one in your area soon.
We can support Dove and their Real Beauty and Real Girls Real Pressures programs by buying Dove products and by helping them to spread the word.In an effort to do my part. I'm offering up a small challenge and reward.Please post about self-esteem on your blog and reference Dove's FREE Self-Esteem tools, then come back here and leave a link to your post in the comments of this post. If you do not have a blog, then just leave a comment here about your thoughts on the subject of beauty and self-esteem. I will award 2 winners (chosen at random) and will send you a gift from Dove. Leave your comment or post link by midnight March 29th. Thank you in advance for your support.
"Stand by Me" performed by musicians around the world.
The Playing For Change Foundation is saving the world by connecting the world through music. The Foundation provides resources and builds music schools around the world to help artists share their gifts with their community. You can support them by spreading the word about them, purchasing their CDs, DVDs, merchandise, downloading their songs on Itunes or attending one of their concerts. Poke around on their website to find out a little more about them.
I could have sworn that I had already talked about this last year... but I guess not. I can't find it on the blog anywhere, and I guess since we did it in December and I started this blog in February, I never did post about it. BUT, I would think that I would have since it is about saving the world and all! Geez! Well anyway we did it again... so fun!
Drop in and Decorate is the grand idea of NineCooks' Lydia Walshin, and has spread from idea to a full fledged non-profit organization!
"Drop In & Decorate, Inc., a nonprofit organization based in Rhode Island and founded by food writer Lydia Walshin, hosts Drop In & Decorate® cookies-for-donation events and provides financial and technical support to events hosted by individuals and organizations around the country.
Drop In & Decorate is a simple concept: bake some cookies, invite friends or family (or neighbors, or co-workers) to stop in and help decorate, then donate your cookies to a local food pantry, emergency shelter, senior center, lunch program, or other community agency serving neighbors in need. (Or, sell your cookies at a bake sale, and donate the proceeds to a community agency.)"
So last year, our little book club got together and baked and decorated over 150 cookies for the families residing in our local homeless shelter at Christmastime.
This year, Emily (my friend) and I rallied together a dozen or so good friends and baked and decorated over 300 cookies! We had so much fun! We were very excited to have enough cookies for all of the families and all of the men who come to sleep at our local shelter.
Everyone donated so much (cookies, time, decorating supplies, packaging supplies, money, and snacks) and together we had a great time providing Valentine cookies for so many people. Thanks everybody!
The week before, five of us got together and cranked out about 9 dozen cookies and put them in Jenny's freezer. The night before, Emily and I made 14 batches of icing and put them into piping bags. We rented out Emily's and BFF Mommy's clubhouse for the actual decorating. That day, from 10 to 2, people dropped in to decorate cookies and all of the little ones played and played! it worked out great. Emily and I came back later that night after the cookies had set, and packaged them all up to be delivered on Valentine's Day (the next morning). We individually bagged and tied 160 for the families and then stacked the rest in big zip locks for the men (we hoped they'd be ok without fancy bags and ties!). Drop in and Decorate is such a fun idea to get friends together to chat, get creative and ultimately benefit someone else. I think next year will have to be our "third annual Drop In".
The Drop in and Decorate website has lots of fun ideas about how to host your own party and also recipes. We used our own recipes, but I think next year, I'll give theirs a try.
I want to give a big thank you to: Emily L, Emily M, Jenny, Brenna. Danae, Lisa M, Chrissy, Amy, Amie, Vicki, Jolie, Katie, and McKayla. You are such fabulous friends!
Recently a group of friends and I participated in a snowshoe 5k to benefit Susan G Komen for the Cure. My good friend Lauren put our team together in honor of her friend Cari. Cari blogs over at UnDomestic: "Writings of a teachermom, choosing to stay home with her kids, while loathing all domestic responsibilities! In late Aug. 2008, I was diagnosed with Triple Negative breast cancer. After surgery, chemo and radiation, I was given the all clear. However, in the late summer of 2008, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which metastasized to other areas."
Cari has three little kids at home, and after learning of her story and checking out her blog, it was an honor to snowshoe for her. Our team carried fun balloons that said "Team Cari" on them and we had a blast! I actually had my butt kicked by the course... but supposedly it was REALLY easy. Hmmm. AND don't even try to cut me some slack on behalf of being pregnant... because two other of our team members were much further along that I, and they seemed to practically skip to the finish line!
Anyway, thank you Lauren for inviting me to be a part of such a fun experience and important cause!
If you scroll down this page on the left side column you'll see a header called "Save the World One Click at a Time". The links below it have been on the page forever, but have moved from the right column to the left and have changed from links to buttons and back to links. ANYway the important thing to note, as I have blogged about a few times before, is that this is a way that you can save the world with ABSOLUTELY NO TIME AND NO MONEY. Really.
All you do is click on the link and then click on the button it shows. That's it! You can do a world of good.
The fabulous thing is that if you click on one of these links, then click on the button that says "Click Here to Give - It's FREE", you've done it! THEN you can look at the top of the page at all the tabs for the other sites and click through them all. You can literally do your part for every site in under 30 seconds total.
How does it work? When you click you see some advertisements... so that is it. The advertisers are paying/donating for you to look at their ads (whether you do or not).
PLEASE DO THIS 'FREE' GOOD DEED - Animal Rescue Hi, all you animal lovers. This is pretty simple... Please tell ten friends to tell ten today! The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of getting free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals. It takes less than a minute (How about 20 seconds) to go to their site and click on the purple box 'fund food for animals' for free. This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising. Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know. http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/ PLEASE TELL 10 FRIENDS !!!
Obviously it counts, it works, and they really need your help. The email said 20 seconds, but like I said, I was able to click through all 6 sites in about that amount of time.
Feel free to cut and paste that email and send it on.
By the way, clicking on Ripple gives you 4 opportunities to click and give for free.
Click to give 6 days access to clean water
Click to help a village feed itself
Click to give 2 days access to education
Click to finance a $100 loan for a day
Also, by clicking on Free Rice, you can play a little vocabulary game and for each word you get right, you are donating 20 grains of rice. it is addicting and in a few moments you've donated full bowls!
Today is AmericaRecyclesDay. You can find out more information about recycling and ARD events in your area by checking out the National Recycling Coalition website. If you poke around for a minute you'll find a lot of useful information and facts. Turn your bigger kiddies loose on the "conversionator" for a fun way to let them read those great facts. You can also take a pledge to recycle more in 2009. I'm not going to quote you all the facts... we all know it is a responsible and easy way to save the world.
Are you up for a challenge????? Enviromom is challenging us all to reduce our waste enough to only have to set our can out to the curb ONCE a month. She has tons and tons of ideas and tips to help us do this. In fact she goes room by room and lists all the different types of garbage in your house and helps you find an alternative route for it. She does say that this is a journey and may not be able to be accomplished overnight, but making these changes will greatly reduce your waste and therefor "save the world" (ok I added that last part).
Whaddaya think? Are you up for it? Leave me a comment and we can start making changes this month for "practice" and then try it 'for real' in December.... together. Whoa - December? That would definitely be a super-mega-ultra- challenge, but I'm up for it. Who is with me? Sign up in the comments and we can do this thing together!
Tomorrow is Veterans Day. It is a time to remember those who have served and a time to be thankful for the freedoms that we enjoy.
Friday, Fischer and I were walking up to the entrance of a store. Outside, were two Veteran soldiers passing out the Buddy Poppysto fund raise for disabled and needy veterans of foreign wars. People kept walking right pass them, not looking, not listening, shrugging off the FREE poppy. Fischer and I stopped and took a poppy and thanked the men. I now wish that we had contributed to their fund or had engaged the men in conversation about their cause and about their service. I didn't think I'd know what to say... I wish that I had said something. I explained to Fischer that these men were brave soldiers who fought in a war to keep us safe and to ensure our freedom. He loved the flower.
My grandfathers are Veterans as I'm sure yours may be also... I think we'll send Fischer's only Great-Grandfather (PaPa) a card thanking him for fighting for us.
Last month I posted about reusable lunch gear: reusable lunch bags, sandwich wraps, napkins and snack bags. Apparently that post caught the eye of a director for Rejavanate bags. He said I might be interested in their product and their company and that there is a good story to go along... and he was right. I was taken with these three things about the company:
1). They reduce a significant source of landfill waste - burlap from coffee
2). They provide jobs to those that often have difficulty finding jobs - The ARC
3). They provide a good way to reduce our paper and plastic bag consumption
Do you know about The ARC? It is an organization that helps to meet the needs of people with disabilities. Finding a job is often a need that that they can help meet.
The Arc is the world’s largest community based organization of and for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It provides an array of services and support for families and individuals and includes over 140,000 members affiliated through more than 850 state and local chapters across the nation. The Arc is devoted to promoting and improving supports and services for all people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. http://www.thearc.org/
According to Rejavanate:
- Coffee is the second largest commodity in the world
- 800,000 tons of burlap are put into landfills every year
- The ARC helps 140,000 people find housing and employment
- US consumes over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps
- 14 million trees were cut to produce 10 billion paper bags for grocery stores in the US
So with the support of this company and/or the purchase of one of their bags, I can:
Create a job for someone who has a disability
Save the planet and save landfill space
Feel like I'm doing my part to offset my coffee consumption
Have a fun new bag to put things in
I'm IN!
If you are interested, check them out. You can also have your company's logo put on the bag. The company's sister site is buygreen.com. They offer all kinds of products and information to help you and your family make some good green changes.
Vital Ground is the organization founded by Doug and Lynne Seusand Bart the Bear to preserve wild land for the grizzly, which in turn preserves the land for all living things.
Operating as a land trust, the mission of The Vital Ground Foundation is to protect and restore North America's grizzly bear populations by conserving wildlife habitat. While preserving the areas where grizzlies roam is the focus of Vital Ground, the positive impact of our work goes well beyond saving a single species. Because the grizzly's range covers several hundred square miles−from alpine meadows to valley bottoms−protecting grizzly habitat benefits entire plant and animal communities in the wildest, most scenic places left on the continent. -Vital Ground
For more information check out their website and/or the video below.
You can support Vital Ground through Donations and promoting awareness. Remember talking about "Growing up Grizzly"? You can buy that book through the Vital Ground website to support their foundation. Also, one of the authors of that book, Douglas H. Chadwick, can be seen in the above video.
Be smart, and be careful with what you give and what you get on Halloween this year. PLEASE HELP GET THE WORD OUT! Check this out on CNN and over at snopes.com, for more information. Thanks for the warning Renee. Say a Little Prayer is asking for your prayers to help with this disastrous and tragic milk problem.
This site spends one week a year raising money for breast cancer research. During a specific week in October (Breast Cancer Awareness Month), people send in pictures of their "racks" and/or monetary donations to fund raise for a cure. I think in the past they have gotten some negative feedback, but in 7 years they've raised over $50,000.00 - they shut everyone up!
Go poke around over there... go ahead and peruse the photo gallery - you know your curious... I'll admit that I looked at all the pics. Be aware that you'll be looking at all kinds of boobies - covered and uncovered, even man-boobies (because after all they get breast cancer too).
I cannot believe it! Talk about a FABULOUS fundraiser idea!!! Why didn't I think of this? Oh yeah... because I'd never submit a picture for it! - Or would I? Hmm, we shall see next year.
I'll remind you about it next year, in case you are interested. What do you think about this? Is it offensive to you or smart and original or what?
Read more about the history of the Boobie-Thon here, it all started in 2002. This year, in one week they raised $9,300.00, not bad, not bad at all.
What can you do while you wait for next October? Well after you buy new bras and get your own boobies in photo-shape, you can click, click, click to give free mammograms.
Today is Blog Action Day 2008. Our subject is poverty. I only found out about this Day and this topic late last night, and therefor have not had time to create an in-depth and educational look at this problem for you to read (as if I'm ever in-depth).
You don't have to know the daunting and horrific statistics about poverty across the globe. We all know it is there, we all know it is unfathomably sickening.
The World Bank describes it simply:
"Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom."
We knew that. We already know that it has the most devastating of affects on children.
According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”
Based on enrolment data, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005; 57 per cent of them were girls. And these are regarded as optimistic numbers.
Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.
These facts and more can be found on GlobalIssues.org, along with their original sources.
Nothing is nearer and dearer to my heart than education... and that is exactly what it takes:
"The role of education in this process is particularly one of achieving universal primary education and adult literacy. The report made by the Secretary-General of the United Nations within the context of the Decade for the Eradication of Poverty confirms that universal primary education is central to the fight against poverty. Understandably so, because this is the level of education through which most poor children pass and within which their achievements should assist them to break the cycle of poverty. In fact, education is the social institution that reaches the largest segment of the population with the goal of guiding it through a systematic learning process." (unesco.org)
OK, so education is important... but where do we start... well, we know that it HAS to start with girls. Educating, investing in, and supporting the girls of our planet is going to be the CURE for poverty in our lifetime. We can do it. Can you believe that? We can eradicate poverty before our own children are grown? If you were the one in poverty and you were looking at your young daughter... going without food, clean water, health care, education, sanitation, etc... and someone said... here is what you have to do to ensure that your daughter and all of the children who come after her will NEVER have to experience this Hell - you'd do it. We all would. How do I start, where do I sign, what limb can I rip off to make this happen as soon as possible?
The information and the organizations are out there... get the word out, give what you can, learn, and be proactive. OK, ok, wait a minute... it really isn't my kid who is in need... in fact I don't even know any kids in need... and the economy is bad and my family is tightening our purse strings right now... we have to look out for ourselves... I mean we could be in a soup kitchen line if we're not careful! Oh... umm, I guess we could be wearing the "P" on our sleeve too.... Oh crap... OK... go on, tell me more.
Are you ok? Is the picture getting a little clearer? A little foggier? Let's move on. Watch this real quick: The Girl Effect:
The Girl Effect is about girls. And boys. And moms and dads and villages and towns and countries.
If you want to help end poverty and help the developing world, the best thingyou can do is invest time, energy, and funding into adolescent girls. It'scalled The Girl Effect because girls are uniquely capable of investing in theircommunities and making the world better.
Well what can I do? You can go to their website and learn more.
You can make a difference in a girl's life with Goods for Girls. You keep those girls in school during their time of month. They can't be missing 5 days a month of school now can they?
"In 2000, leaders of 189 countries signed the Millennium Declaration agreeing to do everything in their power to end poverty. They pledged to do this by achieving the Millennium Development Goals, a roadmap to end extreme poverty by 2015.
Still,every day, 50,000 people die as a result of extreme poverty and the gap between rich and poor people is increasing. Nearly half the world’s population live in poverty, 70% are women. We have the power to change this.
Campaigners worldwide will STAND UP and TAKE ACTION to push their governments for more and better aid, debt cancellation, education for all boys and girls, healthcare, trade justice, gender equality and public accountability."
This Millenium Campaign definitely has girls on the front burner too. We all know what needs to be done, let's Stand Up for girls everywhere.
Check out: Stop Child Poverty and Justice for Girls, two more organizations looking to make a difference.
We are all talking about girls and education as the key to eradicating poverty. Even our kids are talking about it through Net Aid/ Global Citizen Corps.
Last week Fischer and some of his friends went on a tour of the landfill. I will say that this was my idea for playgroup and there were not too many moms who thought that it would be fun... so attendance was low. However TWO other brave mommies did come... and Sheila sent BFF with me so that she wouldn't miss out. Anyway, I found the tour incredibly informative and eye-opening. In my state, recycling is voluntary. Therefor we saw mountains of cardboard out on the landfill that will never be recycled... too bad. In fact our landfill will be full to capacity by the time Fischer is 52 year-old. Then what??
So what to do? We already recycle as much as possible at our house. Our family has broken the bottled water habit with reusable bottles. But there is still so much more that we could be doing - after all, I have a pretty heavy addiction to zip-lock bags!! So I have been in search of some solutions. And I thought I'd share a few of the really great ones:
Let's start here with Martha and her reusable oilcloth lunch bags. They are cute and practical and would be great to send lunch to school or work or on a picnic. She has all of the instructions here.
OK now I have my cute lunch bag, what do I put my sandwich in? There can't be any better solutions that a zip-lock bag, right? Ah, but there is! The Wrap-N-Mat keeps your sandwich fresh and provides you with a place mat to boot! All perfectly washable and reusable. You don't even have to make it, you can buy it at reusable bags.com (that site has tons of reusable solutions for sale).
OK now I have my lunch bag and my sandwich bag and even a place mat, but what about my snacks? What about my napkin? Thank you for asking. Jill over at Life with Nature Girl has two fabulous tutorials on how to make your own reusable snack bags and napkins. Too fabulous!!
Now, I just need to learn how to sew! I'm just going to have to go over to Sheila's and start practicing. I really want to make these things. She doesn't know it yet, but she really wants to make them too. My other obstacle? Getting Andy to let his food touch fabric... I think he'll gag.
Hey, does any one know of any fabulous replacements for my zip lock freezer bag problem?
"Free, personalized websites that support and connect loved ones during critical illness, treatment and recovery."
I've recently been introduced to CaringBridge. It is a free website/journal set up specifically to meet the needs of people who are going through a troubling time in their life. It helps keep their loved ones informed and provides a place for friends and family to give encouragement, prayers and support.
I found out about CaringBridge from the Say a Little Prayer website, as they are asking for prayers for a young boy who is battling leukemia. I recently ran into it again over at The Askeanceas Ray pays tribute to a man in her family who is experiencing the final stages of Cancer. She links to his CaringBridge page. As upsetting as these situations are, CaringBridge has given both of these guys an outlet. They and their families are able to draw strength from the comments people have left, as well as keep everyone updated without making hundreds of phone calls.
If you have found yourself thankful for the experiences you've had with this service or thankful that you and your family have not been in need of this service, you may want to donate to help keep it running.
"Families say the journal provides a therapeutic outlet to reflect on their experience. Patients and caregivers use it to request prayers and support. Loved ones know where to turn for information 24/7. CaringBridge is a U.S. 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Your gift is tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Nearly 90% of all funding comes from individuals and families who use CaringBridge. Your gift will help us reach every family facing a serious medical condition, to help them stay connected and to help them heal."
If donations aren't your thing... maybe you can send up a few prayers.
I was originally going to save it for an upcoming series of posts about writing. I thought that this picture would make for a fabulous writing prompt. Anyway, you can look forward to more about becoming a better writer later.
Right now I'm just going to say that things are busy over here. Andy's health is poor, and I need to focus on the tasks at hand.
So, in the mean time you'll have to head on over to Wistar's blog and read the incredible survival story of these three friends. She found them treading water just like this in her pool filter. Wistar herself thought the incident was inspiring enough for her to write a not-so- warm and fuzzy story about it. What would you write?
Anyway, talk about "To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world." I guess that goes for turtles too!
Only two questions about global poverty have been asked in the history of modern presidential debates. It's a shocking figure and in 2008, we need debate moderator Jim Lehrer to ask John McCain and BarackObama "Just ONE question" on their plans to fight global poverty. I just took action with the ONE Campaign and you can too, here: http://www.one.org/debates/?rc=debatestaf
Gambel Oak 
Speaking of trees, we have recently fallen in love with Our Tree Named Steve, by Alan Zweibel and David Catrow. It is all about a beloved tree in a family's yard and all of the wonderful ways that tree was part of their lives, till one day when a storm hit and the tree fell. It is written as a letter from a dad to his children (who are away at grandma's when the storm hits). The book has beautiful illustrations and a thoughtful story line. It really makes for a good story about the love of a tree, but also about loss. Of course, I cried when the tree fell... but, I'm a pregnant mess... so maybe you won't. ;) Anyway, we love this story. I think that the children in the story are named after Zweibel's (the author) own children. A comedy writer by trade, it appears that this is his first children's book. He sure teamed up with a fabulous illustrator (Catrow) - we love Catrow's books!
There are also quite a number of people who believe that their loved one can't be who they truly are until we find a cure. The matter is deeply personal and very emotional for all who have autism or love someone who has autism.
I could have sworn that I had already talked about this last year... but I guess not. I can't find it on the blog anywhere, and I guess since we did it in December and I started this blog in February, I never did post about it. BUT, I would think that I would have since it is about saving the world and all! 
