Yes, they do. Here’s my take on N.C.’s proposed education budget cuts in my Mountain Xpress column this week.
And yes, I know I’ve been an extremely lame blogger lately. But I have a cold. And it’s summer. Everyone should be playing, not working.
Hope you’re all having a good one!
Gratutious photo of my fairy rose bush kicking rose heinie a couple of weeks ago.
I often refer to laundry as the Sisyphean stone of parenthood. It’s the number one never-ending chore of parenting. Number two, after laundry, comes grocery shopping.
Read the rest of my weekly column here.
Last week it was adults getting old (and responsible). This week it’s babies growing up. Thank goodness. I think.
Check out all the wonderful shots that have been uploaded so far from our community photo project last weekend, Day in the Life of Asheville. I have yet to upload my top 15, though I have uploaded a bunch to my Flikr stream. Check them out and tell me which ones you like. Deadline is Friday at midnight.
Musings on aging, responsibility and parenting using a recent high school band reunion (and Kurt Vonnegut) as jumping off points:
Not that I want to talk too much about the ravages of aging, but some obvious differences between us at 18 and us at 45 include more adipose tissue and less hair. And those 25,000 beers we’ve drunk over the past 30 years? Some of them stuck around to pad our middles — making us more huggable, right?
Beer gypsies, the Trollingers, me and Julie of Bruisin' Ales
It’s been eons since I wrote much about mommy’s little equilibrium enhancer. Why? Because I’ve been trying to cut back on the quantities of beer I imbibe. Before summer fest comes beer fast. Also, my beer metabolism just ain’t what it used to be. So sad.
I was equally saddened to miss meeting beer rock star, Sam Calgione of Dogfish Head brewery, last weekend. Sam was delayed in Charlotte on Friday night, and I had to get home for a tag team night with E-spouse, so I missed the guy. And I hear he’s just my type–low-key, swarthy, and brimming with beer facts. For photos and dets of Sam’s visit to Ashevegas, visit Bruisin’ Ales loverly blog.
To honor Sam, I bought some Midas Touch and took it to Atlanta with me for an impromptu beer tasting at a party Saturday night. Midas is made using an ancient Turkish recipe (I made up that it was Sumerian, but I was wrong). It’s brewed with honey and grapes, which makes it a bit mead-like. I like it, but as a dessert beer, not a sipping-at-a-party beer. Next I’d like to try the Raison D’Etre, described by Dogfish Head as a deep mahogany ale brewed with beet sugar, green raisins and Belgian yeast. Yum!
I also took some of Highland Brewing’s Cattail Peak Wheat to Atlanta (a craft beer desert whose only watering hole is Sweet Water Brewing). I heart this beer. It’s now organic. Hurrah! It’s a smooth summer drinking beer with body.
In other brew news, we, the city of Asheville, tied with Portland, Ore., for number one beer city in the U.S. Yes, we did. And to celebrate, there will be a hops-infused party at The Orange Peel on June 26, sponsored by both the Peel and Mountain Xpress. It should be a blast.
Also, I hear the Asheville Tourists are sponsoring a beer festival on August 22 at McCormick Field. That’s less than a month before Brewgrass (Sept. 19), but Brewgrass is, as always, sold out, so I guess it’s not much competition.
So that’s three local craft beer parties this summer. Oh, be still my pounding heart.
This week’s column is about veggies and kids (again). Mostly about growing them. Happy planting!
This week my column’s all about chicken education at the kids’ school.
What day of the week do chickens hate? Fry-day!
The lowly chicken has been big news around town lately.
For one, the Asheville City Chickens movement pushed through changes to the city’s animal control ordinance governing urban chickens last week at Asheville City Council. Now those of us with houses so close together you can use two paper cups and a string to chat can keep chickens, too. Thanks to the ACC, the minimum distance between a coop and your neighbor’s home has been reduced — though I still don’t have room for poultry.
Plus, I don’t much care for live chickens — it’s those beady little eyes and dinosaur-like claws — though I don’t mind eating them and their eggs (the raccoons who live in the house behind mine wouldn’t mind eating them either). So, no chickens in Edgy land.
Luckily, my kids’ school, Isaac Dickson Elementary, keeps chickens, and the mostly city-raised students there know much more about poultry care and chicken life cycles than, well, I do. In fact, these kids learn tons from the lowly chicken. I call it chicken education.
The other day, I watched Patti Evans’ class of kindergartners and first-graders loving on the month-old chicks they incubated and hatched. The students thrill at telling the birth stories of the critters — these kids are like mini-parents. One explains that baby chicks break open their shells using an egg tooth that then falls off. See? Small dinosaurs in your back yard, ACCers.
Read the rest here. Thanks to Jason for the great photo.
This week’s column honors teachers–both mine and those who teach my kids.
We never forget our best teachers. But do we remember to thank them for what they’ve done for us?
I need a reminder to thank the teachers in my life, as well as to thank those currently teaching my elementary-school-aged kids. Tuesday, May 5, is National Teacher Day, which offers me both reminder and opportunity.
We all have at least a few teachers in our lives that truly changed the way we think — either about ourselves or about the world outside ourselves. And if we have kids, we’re usually lucky enough to see their growth and learning under the guidance of their teachers.
While we all learn from a variety of people, in honor of National Teacher Day, I want to thank those who’ve accepted the challenge of education as a career — particularly those who’ve earned my never-ending gratitude by teaching my kids.
Study after study reveals that the single most important factor in the quality of a child’s education is the quality of his or her teachers. I feel blessed by the teachers who’ve contributed to my kids’ education so far. While the Asheville City Schools system is far from perfect (what school system is?), as long as the schools continue to hire and support exemplary teachers, I can’t complain (too much).
Read the rest here.
