Record of Life: September 2014

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Sunny Days

Flower photos by Abby

Her view of the world

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Volunteerism

After adopting Basil, Abby sure does like kitties. Here she is the teacher instructing them how to add up their treats. She scored their answers.

Bobo.

Bobo Abby.

Abby and I volunteer at the animal shelter every week. I grew up with my parents volunteering to make our neighborhood better! They restored three homes, gardened like crazy, attended who knows how many meetings and got a lot done! I recall historic lighting, park improvements, signage, zoning, etc. I can't perceive how they got so much accomplished! Grassroot efforts in Kodiak seem to have slower, lesser results.

The difference I make at the shelter may be minimal, but I feel the impact. I got a huge dread out of little Violet's butt. (I have tried getting Bobo's dreads out, but she is difficult.) I have passed out lots of treats. I have changed lots of litter boxes (they only get one scoop of litter, so boxes have to be changed often).

Friday, September 19, 2014

Weekend unphotoshopped part 2

I'll eat this smoked salmon while you make the bird...

"I want to plant these beans. They are magic beans mom." She did plant them! Somewhere...

I like how the path goes around the devil's club. Talk about low-impact lifestyle. Why is it that houses in town are buried in gravel?

I debated about including this banya photo (we love to banya!), and ultimately cropped it, but reality is there are issues in my life where I am out of control, like my daughter being too thin. I blame it on school. They have to start very early, they eat lunch at about 11am and only get 20 minutes or less to eat. A TON of food gets thrown away (add up all the schools every day for a year and it is about a literal ton or more). She then waits till 6:30pm at earliest to eat dinner. I see this as a multi-part problem.

1. Not enough time to eat. Eating in a group setting involves socialization. Are they supposed to sit there in silence and shovel food in their mouth as fast as they can? This is true about their morning schedule as well, which goes like this: 7:55am arrive, 7:56am enter school in line and put things away, 7:56:30 to 7:57 say good morning, 7:57 to 8:00am listen to announcements, 8:00am be in seat for instruction to begin.

2. Their tight schedule creates tons of food waste and rubbish that goes in our landfill, which costs our borough money. The issue - complacency and the ability to think critically and recognize problems. With the acceptance that they must remain on schedule despite need of nourishment or socialization they without question throw the food and all the trash away without thinking about the consequences. I have trouble turning a blind eye to problems.

3. Stifling the ability to be creative and to solve problems - change things. I have voiced my concerns before about the short lunch and her 15 pound weight loss last year. I feel totally helpless to do anything. I pack extra snacks for later in the day, but reality is with only so much time to eat, there is only so many calories I can pack into every bite! In fact, I have gained weight because I am constranly preparing high calorie meals! The trash bit is also not good. I asked her how many kids finish their lunch, and she said maybe one or two.

Teaching students that following the rules at the expense of reason and doing the right thing is everything that's wrong with the American school system, and our government for that matter. I have discussed this with Abby, and it is a issue we are going to try to address, together. It's all rattling around in my brain. I'll see what happens and if I even get time to write about it. I never did a post about Food for Less closing...I'll probably leave that one alone for awhile!