My Thoughts

On The Macon Miracle

The opinions, thoughts, and ideas expressed in this post are MY OWN and do not reflect the opinions, thoughts, or ideas Board of Education or any other employee of the Board of Education.

For those of you that don't know what's going on in this community, we have a new superintendent who was hired to come in and completely revise our public education system (the problems of which deserve their own post...maybe another day). I will refuse to comment on the man. I'd rather focus on the PLAN. I am writing this so in years future, I can return here and revise, reconsider, reevaluate how I feel about the changes that have taken place.

Background:

Yesterday, school closed at noon and every employee in the county was required to attend a celebration as the plan was revealed to us. In the fall, the employees, parents, and community members participated in two days of "strategic planning," during which our thoughts and ideas about how to change the system were collected and organized and used to draft "The Macon Miracle." I do, shockingly, believe that SOME of our ideas were heard and implemented into the plan--or at least the plan already contained some of the changes we believe will help improve our school system.

Last Friday afternoon, after some serious misjudgement on people in charge, there was a BOE meeting where the plan was revealed early. The public was outraged, immediately polarized. No one should have been shocked by that--that's what this community does best.

Another board meeting was held Thursday. Attendees were invited to come early and submit their questions prior to the meeting. I did not attend, but it seems as if those that did felt that their voices and concerns were not heard.

Also, Thursday morning, a peaceful group of highschoolers protested the plan. They spoke with the media beforehand, sharing their concerns. They elected spokespeople, had their concerns laid out and even had solutions for their problems. They tried to contact members of the Board of Education and were brushed off. Employees at the top of the food chain KNEW they were coming, yet the students were not even allowed to step foot in the Board of Education. The Superintendent and all of the deputy superintendents were unavailable to meet with them or listen to their concerns. The Director of Risk Management met the students outside and refused to let them in. I find this behavior deplorable. These kids were TRYING to do the right thing.

Friday's Meeting:

We were seated and ready by 1:00, with a start time of 1:30. Honestly, I was shocked that there weren't many community members there--the public reaction was dismal. I expected the arena to be filled to capacity.

I was beyond shocked when 2 classroom teachers opened the celebration. Seriously!? After all the fallout from the public, I expected Board members to kickoff this celebration.

Listening to the recorded message from a previous keynote speaker was a major waste of time. Not only could we not understand a single word he said, it was not a positive way to gain our attention.

The video? POWERFUL. I'm probably the only person who liked it, but I thought it was very nicely done and I thought there was a nice representation of community supporters. It was nice to see influential community members say they will support public education. I also liked that black and white community leaders were heard from. Too bad that's not always the case. I'm also a sucker for a good documentary and that's sort of how the video was done. Could have done without the children in it--even though I know all of the children in it.

The high school singer? Nice voice. Terrible choice of song in light of the speech that would be given in a few minutes.

Okay...the heart of the matter.
Finally, the superintendent showed up. I felt like the presentation was a rally cry for the employees. There was NO unveiling of the plan. He did not give us any new information. Everything he said had already been presented in the media. He did not provide any research to support his decisions (Mandarin Chinese, anyone? Extended day?). He did not touch on ANY of the hot topics. I was looking for him to actually present the plan, if not point by point, then at least a glossed over version of it. Instead, he spent a lot of time talking about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Not where I would have gone given the state of race relations in this community. I'm not sure if he was comparing himself to MLK, Jr. That wasn't the impression I got, but I might have missed that.

These are the things he did talk about:
Mental health support for children who are struggling in the classroom and their families.
Transitional programs for students who have been in the judicial system and are returning to the classroom.
Extended day (basically current afterschool programs) with support from teachers.
Class size will be capped at 25.
Closing 12 elementary schools because some schools are not filled to capacity and we need to utilize our resources.
There will be no layoffs. The 300 less teacher positions will come from retirement over the next 5-10 years.

Basically, that was it. He shared his personal story. He preachered-up on us at the end, which felt like the rally cry. Some teachers and the small-ish group of community members were standing and clapping. Other teachers were sitting quietly. He marched off the stage and that was that.

A major let down as far as presentations go.

I will not discuss the Chinese artists. Don't ask.

My opinion didn't change. There are still a lot of things I like. There are still a lot of things I have concerns about.

I'm sure I'm going to get hate mail about my next comment. I've taken measure to protect my heart from hateful comments.

If I had to decide for or against RIGHT NOW...

I'd have to say for.

I have many, many questions. I'd like to see research. I'd like to hear answers to my questions and know that I'm being heard. I hope that some of the things in the Macon Miracle change to better reflect the needs of the community.

But this system is FAILING it's students. We are working so hard and spinning our wheels. Something has to be done. Out of 164 systems in the state, we are ranked 151. Dismal.

I'm willing to try being part of the change.

Please, don't be a hater.

Going Granola, Part III

Update on Going Granola.

I couldn't take it any more. I gave in and bought (sent Dwayne to buy) real, actual dishwashing detergent. We are back on the tablets (because he went to Lowe's and that's what they sell. Don't ask...it's a story not worth retelling. I'm just thankful he went to the store for me!) and OFF vinegar/Borax/baking powder. I have to admit that I want squeaky clean dishes. Like the kind where you scratch your finger on the plate and it squeaks...yeah, that's what I want. Dwayne and I are both committed to going to a powder and using only the smallest amount necessary, but the whole Lowe's shopping trip sort of messed that up. Next time, people...next time.

I'm almost out of body wash--maybe another day or two. In preparation, I bought a small-ish bottle of Dr. Bronner's peppermint castille liquid soap. I'm going to dilute it and try it out. It was less than $10. If I get 5 bottles of body wash out of it, I'm coming out even. I noticed the hand soap was out at the sink tonight, so I mixed up a bit to use at the sink. It smells heavenly. I don't mind supporting organic/fair trade/green earth products, but MAN, OH, MAN...have you read the stuff on the Dr. Bronner's bottle? WEIRD. Not up my very conservative, Christian-worldview alley. I find it rather strange. But that's okay. I'll keep you updated on my opinion of the product.

Kefir: Loving it, still. Luke's diapers are a thousand...no, a million, times better. His bowels don't stink to high heaven any more. They are normal in consistency, color, and odor (maybe even a tad odorless!). We blend 2 cups kefir with 1 banana every morning and Luke loves it. He drinks it in place of milk at meal times. I am a little concerned because he is super congested again like he was before we went to Disney World. I don't know if it's a result of consuming a dairy product regularly or if he's just battling a cold that he can't shake (maybe even extra worried because his nurse mentioned RSV on the phone today! YIKES!).

Homemade detergent: Meryt puked in the bed the other night. There was throw up on the comforter, sheets, and mattress cover. The home made detergent cleaned it all out. We did wash the comforter 3 times, but that's because it's so fluffy that I couldn't get it positioned good in the washing machine and we wanted it really clean. So far, we're loving the detergent. I'm almost out of dryer sheets...not sure what we'll do about that. More research to follow.

So, that's where we are. Oh...I did buy Luke a loaf of gluten free, dairy free, nut free, somethingelse free bread at the natural store Sunday. He had a slice tonight. Not sure if he liked it or not because I found a bunch of it under his seat after I put him to bed. I think that's because he was screaming his head off and not eating much tonight because he was so tired. I don't think it's a true measure of his like/dislike for the product.

I'll update again soon. Have a few other posts in my head that I need to work through and get up. Thanks for following us on this journey!

Laundry Detergent

Several people have asked how I made our laundry detergent. I found a pin on pinterest (oh, my goodness...do you pin???). Trust me, I would not have tried it if it didn't look super easy and CHEAP. I wasn't willing to invest a bunch of time or money in case I didn't like the detergent. My total investment was about $5. I spent a about $10 buying everything I needed, but I've got PLENTY of Borax * and Super Washing Soda * to make more or to use for other things.

The original recipe is from WellnessMama. You can see her post here.

1 cup Borax

1 cup Super Washing Soda

1 bar Dr. Bronner's Castille Soap*

5 gallons water

1. Put 2 quarts water in a pot. Shred the castille bar soap and melt it down in the pot.

2. Pour borax and super washing soda in a 5 gallon bucket with 2 quarts hot water from sink. Stir until dissolved. (Now you've used 1 gallon water)

3. Slowly add water and stir. (I did this until I had 4 gallons in the big bucket. I knew I'd need a little extra stirring room when I added the melted bar soap/water.)

4. When soap is completely melted, add to borax/superwashing soda mixture. STIR well.

5. Finish adding water until you've got 5 gallons water.

6. Let detergent sit overnight. The soap mixture will sort of congeal in the middle of the borax/super washing soda mixture. Stir it well. It will be a bit lumpy and glumpy (I just made that word up). That's okay.

7. Pour into 1 gallon milk jugs to store.

Use 1/4 cup detergent for each load of laundry. Make sure you shake up the detergent before you use it --the soap will continue to separate a little.

Meryt and I did an experiment with the detergent. We used one of Dwayne's old t-shirts and smeared all kinds of staining matter on it. (I should have taken a "before the stains" picture because I'm almost positive that the one stain that is left was already on there.)

(Sorry the picture is upside down)

1. Strawberry syrup

2. Chocolate syrup

3. chocolate ice cream

4. dirt from outside

5. Coffee grounds

6. Ketchup

As you can see, most of the stains washed out pretty good. I did not pretreat the stains...just tossed it in the wash. I did wash it by itself with 1/4 cup detergent, so I suppose someone might claim that it is a bit more concentrated because there was no other laundry in the load.

Overall, we are very pleased with the homemade detergent. I might try to use the Fels naptha * next time because I've heard it's excellent for removing stains. I'm excited that the detergent will last FOREVER. I'm guessing about a year based on how much laundry I average and how much detergent I made.

If you want to make powder detergent, WellnessMama also has a recipe for that at the link above.

*I only provided these links so you can see the actual product. I did not purchase my supplies on line--they were available at my local supermarket in the laundry section. Dr. Bronner's castille soap was available in the health food/organic section.

Thanks!

Going Granola, Part II

SOOOOOOOOO...

I know you're dying to know how Going Granola, Part I is going.

And it's going.

Well. As in, good.

Things we're doing:
~Using homemade/chemical free laundry detergent.
~Using vinegar/borax/baking soda in the dishwasher.
~Growing kefir and feeding it to the kids.
~Making muffins from scratch so the kids have more wholesome breakfast options.

Things we like:
~Laundry detergent. It does a great job of washing the clothes. It even gets Luke's nasty poop out of his clothes. Unfortunately, this happens all too often around here and is a necessity in laundry detergent. Meryt (it's so strange typing her name on here when I called her M for so long so "protect her identify") and I did a little experiment on the laundry detergent. The pics are on my phone. I'll do another post with the pictures soon.
~Kefir. Actually, like is a bit strong. I don't like it at all, but can tolerate it in a smoothie (with spinach and bananas). Meryt can tolerate it a bit if it's blended with a banana. She also drinks it mixed with her smoothies. Luke loves it and will drink it UP when it's blended with a banana. I don't notice a difference in his bowels yet, but I'm hopeful.
~Homemade muffins. Luke loves them. Dwayne and I both like them. Meryt still prefers her pillsbury strudel. :) Some things might not ever change.

Things we're not crazy about:
~Vinegar/borax/baking soda. I wouldn't be worried about serving you food on my dishes, but I don't feel like they "sparkle" when I take them out of the dishwasher. There's no film or anything, but...they just aren't "squeaky" clean. I'm going to keep going for another week or so and see how I feel about it then. I might go back to dishwashing detergent.

Things I'm going to attempt next:
~Finding a non-chemical body wash. I'm almost out of my body wash, so I'm going on the prowl to find something more natural. I can't give up soap. I don't care how natural my body can be without washing it. I MUST WASH WITH SOAP. I want to feel clean. End of story. I'll go granola, but I'm not going THAT far. I'd like for it to be something I can use on the kids. Luke's skin needs a little TLC.
~I might try a homemade deodorant. Maybe.
~I might attempt to make Luke some gluten free bread. I honestly don't feel like I have the time to commit to that, or keeping it up, all the time.

I'll keep you posted.

Going Granola, Part I

This might be the only part in this series...or it might be the beginning of a lifestyle change. I'm just not sure.

Luke seems to be suffering from some digestive issues. We are certain there is an allergy to peanut butter--we saw the quite frightening reaction one evening at church. I'll be fine if that never happens again. It wasn't as bad as some, but it was enough to raise my blood pressure to a dangerous level and cause a relatively sleepless night. There also seems to be a sensitivity to milk. When we transitioned him from formula to whole milk, he was congested all the time and I couldn't get him to dry out. We went on a trip, so we put him on pre-mixed formula and within 3 days, he was completely dry, despite getting many less hours of sleep than normal every day. Since then, we've been playing around with the best milk alternative to give him. Rice milk seemed to leave him less than satisfied, so we're trying coconut milk right now and that fills him up.

After talking with some friends, H and I are going to continue to try some alternative feeding options for him. I'm going to make kefir and see if he'll take and digest that. There is research indicating that it is very benficial for digestive problems. Luke really likes yogurt, so I am going to attempt to make home made yogurt for him. It just seems that anything I can offer him in a more pure, more natural state will be better for his little body.

All of this talk about natural food opened my eyes to a world of more natural living. Truthfully, I always thought that was a little much...a bit over the top. Make your own detergent? Not wash your hair? Are these people FOR REAL??? My arguements: Stuff can't be THAT bad for you. I don't have time to worry about that. It didn't hurt me and I grew up eating it, washing with it, wearing it. You get the idea.

I was in the "convenience" camp. Firmly planted. Perfectly content.

But if you changed the diapers I change every day, you'd consider making some changes, too.

I'm going to make our family's laundry detergent this weekend.
The benefits are many:
~The cost is pennies per load. The initial investment will be less than $10. I will not use the entire contents of the material for the first batch, so I will be able to make more than one batch of detergent. We're looking at less than $0.05/load.

~One batch of home made detergent will last us more than a year. There will be no more panic about how much detergent we have left. I will have enough detergent TO LAST A YEAR. There is very little time investment in this as it will take me about an hour to make a batch of detergent. It is not something that will need to be made regularly.

~No chemicals. All of the ingredients are natural. Nothing is harmful to the environment or our family. Win/win.

I don't see how I have anything to lose by trying this. If we hate the detergent, I haven't invested a lot of time or money into this project.

The other evening I used the last of our dishwasher detergent. Instead of buying more, I'm using vinegar and baking soda. Again...natural. No chemicals. Clean dishes. Win! Win! Cheaper. Win!

I am slowly putting my toe in the pond. Testing the waters. Reading. Learning. Trying. I see granola living far in the distance. I am not fully committed to the path. But I'll meander along and see what happens.

Our First Pinterest Home Improvement Project

H and I complete our first pinterest inspired home improvement project today! And we didn't even fight about it!! Can I get a "Praise God!" ?

A friend of ours has the neatest way to display her child's school/art work. I told H I wanted to do the same thing, but he was NOT okay with putting that many holes in our walls. I wondered about using a frame to hold the wires, but knew I'd never be able to get him to 'see my vision.' When he left the house, I scurried to pinterest and found a perfect example of what I wanted to "tweak" to make our own. When he saw it, he loved it!

Honestly, I think this is the first time in 10 years of marriage that MY vision came to be exactly like I wanted it. Normally when I share an improvement idea with H, he takes my idea and runs with it and it ends up not being at all what I'd envisioned. Poor me. :)

So, this is is what one wall looked like prior to the project:

This is Luke's corner where his booster seat is. On one wall are three little triangular vases and a framed shadow box with dried flowers. I still like that. One the wall near the window is a wooden piece of art with flowers painted on it. On the other side of the window is a plate rack that holds four plates. Luke is modeling for you.
We took the wooden piece down and put up a large (24x36) open backed frame. H used eyelets and three pieces of large gauge jewelry wire to create places to "hang" the kids' artwork or school work. Hi, Luke! :)
I bought clips in the scrapbook section at Hobby Lobby to hold the papers. Here are a few things that were stuck on the fridge. Luke is wondering why we keep taking pictures of the wall.

There isn't a great place to take a picture of the tiny dining room. The frames are HUGE, but they look so great in here. I am so excited and can't wait to fill them up with current work from the kids.

I keep thinking of all kinds of fun things to do with these. A few years ago, Meryt and I made 14 "Valentines" out of my old scrapbook stuff. It would be fun to do that again and put them up. Maybe H and I could write something we love about each kid and they could read one each day starting Feb. 1?

During Christmas, we can hang up our Christmas cards and our 25 days of Christmas envelopes. M loves to paint seasonal decorations, so there will always be something she's created up there.

And just in case you wondered what Luke thought about all this:

He blew us a kiss of approval.

All About Luke

If this blog has been around when Meryt was a baby, you would have read about every breath she took. Fortunately for you, I didn't start until Meryt was a toddler. Unfortunately for Luke, I didn't spend much time here during 2011. My memories for him are recorded elsewhere. They are recorded, which I am thankful for.

A teacher friend of mine is constantly reminding me not to compare Luke and Meryt. I try so hard not to, but...I compare them all the time. This post isn't a comparison, but more a chance for me to record exactly what our little miracle boy is like.

Luke is A.L.L. B.O.Y. There is never, not a single time, when he sits and plays with his toys. Meryt and I were going to read Luke 2 and do the nativity story with Luke. Oh, how fun we thought that would be. Hahaha...hehe. We ended up chasing Luke around, trying to recover the characters. Luke thought this was a hilarious game.
Evidence #1:

Luke is tremendously strong willed. If he wants to get to something, he will find a way to do just that. I was sitting at the computer and refused to give Luke whatever it was he wanted. He crawled around the chair, climbed up and reached over the back of the chair.

Evidence #2:

Luke is a complete Mama's Boy. He wants my attention all the time. He LOVES to be held and would sit on my hip, mostly content, all day. There are many times I resort to carrying him in a carrier--win/win for both of us!

Evidence #3:

Luke makes a game out of everything. H was putting the lights on the Christmas tree. Luke watched for a few minutes and realized that the end of the string of lights was moving around. He would chase the string of lights, trying to crawl and grab them at the same time. (We're convinced he's part puppy.) He finally grabbed the end of the strand and immediately put a bulb in his mouth.

Evidence #4:

You don't believe me? Here...a closer look. (No child was harmed in the process of collecting this evidence.)

We make the hanging of the first ornament a really big deal. Luke was too young last year to participate in this tradition and we weren't sure exactly how to handle it this year. Meryt would never tolerate Luke being allowed to take this special honor "from her." Yet, we needed a way for it to be somewhat fair. We decided that each child would have a "first ornament" and that it would be a special ornament to them. Surprisingly, Luke did a great job hanging his ornament.

Evidence #5:

Luke is a complete flirt, but does not like strangers to touch him. He doesn't like to be left in the church nursery. He sometimes cries when I leave him at his "school." I was a bit apprehansive when we went to see Santa. Luke, in true Luke form, shocked me. He was totally into Santa. He checked him out and then looked back at us.

Evidence #6:

Luke doesn't sit still. He's always checking something out. He isn't walking yet, but he can crawl faster than most of my students can run. One minute he's right beside me; the next, he's almost all the way up the stairs. We tried to take a few pictures at the beach (notice the birds behind Luke to the left).

Evidence #7:

Oh! Wait! There are birds behind me?!?! And off he goes.

Luke LOVES to play rough. Most of the time, the rougher, the better. He LOVES to be bounced around or tossed into the air. He loves to be wrestled. He just loves to play. Everything is a game.

Evidence #8:

Loving the teeter totter. Meryt shook it as hard as she could and he just died laughing.

Then we discovere the slide. Oh, the glorious slide! He wanted to do the slide over and over again. He would laugh and giggle so hard as he came down. He's even progressed to coming down the slide by himself, to his complete and utter joy.

As high as his "highs" are...his lows are as "low." He has the most delightful laugh you've ever heard...and the most irritating cry. (Keeping it real...just keeping it real.) He's one complete package of extremes. And we couldn't love him any more. He is truly our miracle boy.