5 days til blast off

In 5 days we will be saying goodbye to the house in which we started our family. Now, I know it's just a rental, and we knew we'd be moving out eventually, but I never thought I'd be a person who didn't have a home for my kids. When I think of my childhood, crazy as it was, I still get the nostalgia, that yearning, for home. Thanks to everyone who has donated to our Youcaring site, one day we will have a home, but for now, we'll have a duplex- complete with upstairs footsteps and all ;)

So, someone out there, please tell me why moving from house to house made your childhood fun/memorable, because then I won't feel so guilty!

In the meantime, I'll be trying to spend every extra (haha) second when I'm not feeding, burping, bathing, or entertaining children skillfully picking up boxes in the basement to avoid spider/centipede encounters. Oh, and then there's that teaching thing I do, too. If I'm still sane by Sunday, I think I deserve an award.

Sorry for the language, but when I googled "my brain", I had no idea MY BRAIN would show up :) Yep, and this is why my co-teacher called me "moody" today. You betta watch yo'self.

Oh- and Aaron, you deserve one, too. Happy Sweetest Day 2 days ago, and Happy Anniversary 2 days from now, we'll be too busy and too broke to celebrate, but I love you. And I'm still going to prove you wrong.

What does your bread say about you?

Part of what makes me a great teacher is that I can relate to my kids. (I'm not afraid to say I'm a great teacher... I'm not about that life. Take THAT Danielson framework.)

When we start talking about social class in Short Fiction, I show a video about how social class affects EVERYTHING we do. There's a segment in the video in which a lady donning a fur coat rips open a package of Sara Lee Honey Wheat bread (you know, the good stuff!) and declares it's trash- she mushes it up in her hands and drops it on the floor. The video goes on to say that even worse than this is white bread (you know, the bad stuff!) that only the poorest of poor eat. Then they go on to show a lower class lady scoffing at spinach- because who eats rabbit food? Iceburg all the way!!!

This video is usually the biggest eye opener for my kids. "But I eat white bread*" "And I love Iceburg" - I hear ya guys. I didn't know this was a statement of social class, either. I didn't realize that my white bread cheese and pickle sandwich was telling you I could never afford a Lunchable. I didn't realize it mattered.

Now I'm about to start The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I LOVE teaching this book and I LOVE having the chance to talk to my kids about my high school experiences. It's true, I really love Sherman Alexie and I'll take any chance I can get to teach his work in my classes. Mostly, I love being able to talk to my kids about things we can all relate to: parents who could have been something, pets who shouldn't have had to die, friends who should have made it, and holding on to hope because it's all we've got.

So maybe all we can afford to bring "home" is the white bread*... but at least we've got a family to bring it to :)

* I learned a very important term from a student my first year teaching. That disgusting bread on the ends of the loaf that is used to simply keep moisture in all the other bread and that everyone avoids using is called "Booty Bread"- an appropriate name I think all people should adopt into their families

*Yes, I realize Aaron bakes all of our bread-- a delicious money saving strategy that means the girls will never have to know the pains of being judged by the color of their bread. 

Holy Smokes, Batman

How does time go by so fast? A week has passed, and we're up $100 on our YouCaring website!!! (Thank you soooooooo much) and I haven't had a single second to post anything-- or grade papers, sorry kids.

Since I just fed, burped, and bathed the babes, I figured I'd take a split second before dinner and update- I'm hoping in the meantime Katherine doesn't find any scissors, eat any cords, or bury herself under piles of blankets (all of which happened within 2 seconds Friday morning)

Lili officially just gave me 1 minute- she says her belly, her back, her armpits, and her eyes? are all dirty so we have to go take a bath, too.

You guys, one kid is eating a phone, one is pooping in the corner, and the other looks like she's about to cause trouble. This is all I can handle for today.

Did I tell you I'm looking for a second job... ;)

When I was little...

I briefly thought about dressing up Lili as a house for Halloween and sending her door-to-door to give out our YouCaring address... but, she really wants to be Tinker Bell.

This thought made me recall a time in my life that I thought I had another genius idea that involved going door-to-door which TOTALLY backfired.

You see, I've always wanted to help others-- and before it was others, it was animals. On a sunny but brisk fall day, my friend Alisha and I, whose dad worked for an animal shelter, decided we would go door-to-door and ask for donations for the shelter. We didn't have anything to prove that was what we were doing, but we didn't think a couple of 8 year olds needed proof. Who wouldn't believe us?! We just wanted to help out the animals! I remember the exact neighbor's house (sorry Nikki Hall, it was your parents) who burst our donation bubble. Right after saying something along the lines of "We just want to help save the Eagles with broken wings" or maybe "What if you were a blind raccoon?!", they replied "How do we know you're not just keeping the money to spend on yourselves?"

Well, shit.

I imagine my life of fundraising may have thrived had this moment not made me feel like a total shmuck. But, I'M BACK!!!

And while I may not be saving Eagles or blind raccoons, at least we'd be able to keep Bucket with us- so, come people!!! Help a cool cat out! All we need is your dollar- and a dollar from every person you've ever cussed out while driving in traffic... that's probably a lot of people.

Bucket loves to snuggle :) 

It's October...

We usually love October.

I love the colors of the trees, the smell of the air, the pumpkins, the leaves, the Halloween candy I get to eat because Lili can't... but this month is the one I have been dreading.

We move.

We will be packing up the house in which we welcomed all our littles. We will be leaving the block that we all love-- where all the neighbors watch out for us, play with our kids, help take care of us. I never thought I'd be so sad to have to leave. I never thought I'd find such a community in Milwaukee.

I'm sad because we can't take Bucket. The duplex we are renting won't allow pets. The girls love him to death, but we're going to have to find a temporary home for him- so if anyone wants a cat who thinks he's a dog and mostly lives outside but sometimes comes inside to snuggle, let us know. We'll take him back ASAP!

Alongside this awful feeling of dread and procrastination and denial, I'm feeling the fire to fuel up our YouCaring page again. It's our goal to have a house by summer. We won't be able to make that happen unless we can make THIS happen. We've had so many amazing friends, family, and kind strangers stumble (or maybe were forced) upon our blog and helped us out immensely, for which we are forever grateful- but we're going to need even more! Will you help spread the word?!

Do you have a dollar to spare to help us get these babies in a home of their own?!

We'll save some space for you :) And serve you beer and bread...



;;L;;LlzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaYTYL' (a message from Lili who has had it "up to here" with me spending time on the computer)