One year is over

Well, our one year home is over. The experiment was a success and there will be a year two.

But at this point, even we think that our lives are mundane and not worth reporting about.

So, the blog is done.

Thanks for watching!

What you crave

A few days ago I had Rosie on a walk in the woods. If we were in person, I'd tell you the animated, long version of the story. But in brief, she smelled something in some dry brush that interested her, pulled, and broke her already-fraying leash. She completely disappeared into a hole. She gave one "I found it!" bark and then I heard little muffled cries. Rosie had cornered some babies in their den. I couldn't entice her to come out. "Let's go on a run," I cried. "I have treats," I yelled. All to no avail. These fun things are no longer tempting when you have cornered the prey that you crave. I asked some other women with dogs to come by the opening to the den, hoping that Rosie would come out to see the other dogs. Eventually, she emerged wet and muddy. And much more interested in hunting. (She wasn't bloody though, so I don't think that she killed the babies.)

Today she was crying to go outside. Most of every day she watches out the window, and when a squirrel comes in the backyard, she cries to go out. When we open the door, she tears into the backyard, and the squirrels run up the retaining wall. It's a routine enacted at least ten times a day. Today, while the kids and I watched, which we rarely do, a different scene played out. Rosie ran into the backyard, the squirrel seemed not to notice her coming, and at the last second, scurried into a drain pipe in the bottom of the wall. Rosie, apparently recalling her success burrowing into the brush a few days ago, started digging around the pipe. Occasionally she'd stop and stick her head into the pipe. Then, she'd dig more. Did I mention that it had rained and rained and rained and rained for the past several days? Our backyard catches our up-hill neighbors' water and doesn't drain. Rosie, of course, doesn't mind the mud.

Whose owns this part of the yard?

Rosie patrols the yard year-round. She did not like Matt planting flowers in her zone.

My Mother's Day dinner

Eleanor loves to make a healthy and beautiful dinner.  This is tofu with a garbanzo bean and tikka masala, yellow split pea soup with fresh mint, and asparagus.  To avoid getting too snobbish, we had homemade Twinkies for dessert.  (Thanks, Uncle Marc, for the Twinkie pan.)

More benefits of homeschooling!

I love the ability to do things when the crowds aren't present. For example, our Thanksgiving travel always begins on Tuesday (suckers drive on Wednesday), and trips to Target are the best between 8am-10am on Tuedays and Wednesdays. I don't know, maybe I like feeling like we're beating the system. Maybe I just hate people.

It is in this spirit that I report a couple recent outings in our fair city. The other day the kids and I went to the top of the Carew Tower, the tallest building in Cincinnati -- at least until 2011.



I can't believe we've lived in Cincinnati for 7 years and hadn't done this yet. It was the best $3 I've ever spent. The best part? THREE other people up there with us. That and the lack of "haze." I hate that -- it's not "haze," it's pollution! If meteorologists would start calling it what it is, people might be a little more into doing something about it. I digress. The kids had a really good time spotting things and saying things like "Wow, you know Kentucky is close to us, but up here it seems a little too close!"

This is the view north looking toward Clifton.


Today we went to a Reds game. When we decided to homeschool about a year ago, one of the first things I thought was, "We can go to weekday day games." It was as fun as I hoped it would be. We filled our pockets with candy at CVS, bought $1 waters outside the park and had a good time on a beautiful day.


Calvin noticed there weren't many other kids, and then added, "We wouldn't be doing this if we went to regular school!" The Reds lost, but we didn't really care. It was still better than handwriting.

Hocking Hills

The kids and I camped for two nights at Hocking Hills. It's an incredibly beautiful place. And, once again, we were almost alone there. This is good, except for when predator-prey action goes on outside your tent. Then, the solitude is a little freaky. Eleanor and I (Calvin was asleep) wished that the dying animal would just die already.

Calvin had the quote of the trip, "Eleanor, is this better than handwriting?" (Handwriting is their least favorite "subject" in school.)

The US homeschool timeline

About a week ago Calvin overheard me talking to another adult about how there are more secular homeschoolers now, after many years of it mainly being a conservative Christian thing. A few days later, he asked Matt and me about who homeschooled first. As adults will do, we proceeded without asking what was on his mind. We explained Christian homeschoolers' ideas, which I'm sure we've talked about before, and the rise of secular homeschoolers. His response was to point out that African American families homeschooled before the Christian homeschoolers. Yes, that's true. And while we never said this to him, our homeschool year has presented information about slavery and Jim Crow that supports his conclusion.

The kids have said and done lots of things lately that make us sure about homeschooling next year. This is just one. Others--Calvin's love of reading, Eleanor service projects (there's a "Fund-o-rama" for Ronald McDonald House and The Public Library coming up), and how much they have learning this year about politics, the American Revolution, the Civil Rights Movement, our country (the Eastern half of it), and themselves. Of course, they've learned math, grammar, and other school things too!

It's not just one year home

We've decided to homeschool again.  I'm happy for the kids, because I think that this is really the best thing for their education.  It will be different next year, especially for me the left-out family member.   I'll miss being around to hear up-to-the-second the reports about projects and field trips and the news (from Eleanor). 

Next year, the kids will go to Leaves of Learning two days a week next year, taking lots of really cool classes on Wednesdays and Fridays.  Eleanor will get to live her dreams of being a journalist, being in the theater, taking dance and yoga, and cooking with science (there's a show about the science of cooking that she loves).  She'll also take creative writing and a cultural geography class that she was persuaded to take because it includes economics.  Calvin chose two math-type classes, a "horrible history" class, drama, creative thinking (again), and two literature classes.  When I was in college, I was always really excited when the new schedule came out and it was time to pick classes.  Imagining them was always the best part of the experience.  I'm vicariously having that fun again.

P.S.  We both woke up to the earthquake last night.  I thought it was the wind, to which Matt looked out the window and replied, "It's not windy."  He checked that the house alarm was on because he thought someone was banging on our house.  He also wondered whether the foundation of the house was finally giving up.  It was funny this morning to discover that it was an earthquake!

It's springtime!

Reds Parade...


Mt. Airy Forest in the creek...

Christ's teachings upset conservative government officials...

I find endless amusement in these headlines from our local paper.



And to fight the charges against him, Christ decided to invest in a very expensive, tailor-made suit...

Eleanor on "Talk of the Nation," Part II

Here is the clip of Eleanor on "Talk of the Nation." You can't help but smile when you listen to it.

E on "Talk of the Nation!"

Saturday night was Earth Hour. Eleanor called Talk of the Nation, an NPR show, and got on to talk about what we did! We were all very excited! I hoped to post the audio, but we can't get a clean copy until tomorrow. And I'm very impatient! To hear her, you can go to the show, click "Listen to Monday's show," and then choose the segment on Earth Hour (you'll see at the right and be able to click on it after you hear the ad). Her moment of fame is at 9:50.

And now we're home again

Since the last post, we went to Birmingham and Memphis. In Birmingham is the 16th Street Baptist church that was bombed and four girls died (and Spike Lee made a film about it). Across the street is the park where children were attacked by the police with water guns and dogs. There is also a museum on the park. It's probably the best museum we went to. It showed black life, both positive and negative, in Birmingham from the earliest days of Birmingham. It was a new museum that used lots of different media. After we were finished there, I felt like I wanted to go through again right then. Of course we didn't, because there are limits to how many hours we, especially the children, can spend in museums.


Next we went on to Memphis. We had BBQ. This means that Matt got ribs and the rest of us ate something else. We were low on food, so Calvin had a banana, apple, and water for dinner. We guessed that ours was the only table cutting up an apple in the restaurant that night.


Our last museum was the one built around the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. King was shot. The end of the Civil Rights trail.

Importantly, this museum addressed Dr. King's work in Chicago at the end of his life. It presented a different picture than we'd seen in earlier places where they focused on other efforts. Needless to say, it was very sad.

After a picnic by the river, the kids and Matt went to the Stax Records Museum.


After that, we drove by Graceland to have a peek and headed home. We planned to stay another night, but we were ready to come home. So, we did. Despite having a false start and needing a rental car, we're glad we went. We always have a good time on trips and learn a lot. We certainly learned a lot on this trip- about the Civil Rights Movement, the South, ourselves, and our lives.

Montgomery, AL

This morning we drove from Selma to Montgomery. We stopped at the National Parks Service site at about the midpoint. It is a new and very nice facility that documents the march and the tent city that was built on the location after the Voting Rights Act passed, blacks registered, and were kicked out of their homes by landlord/bosses. When I asked about Selma, they told us that there will eventually be facilities in Selma and Montgomery dedicated to the beginning and end of the march.

In Montgomery we had a tour of Dr. Martin Luther King’s former church. As they point out, it’s the only church that was “his.” We then walked past the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has a cool Civil Rights memorial. After lunch, we went to the Rosa Parks Museum. The day had a much more positive feeling than the other days because the sites were all located in central Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, which is economically alive. We did eat lunch with nearly all white people, which was a reminder that “the work isn’t finished” in a city that is more than half black. I think the day was more positive also because the museums were both very new and used multimedia to communicate the indignity of Jim Crow laws. Also, being in the very places where Rosa Parks and Dr. King (can you see the influence of being down here on my linguistic preference to include the title of the Civil Rights leader?) bravely fought back was powerful. So, in Montgomery, the distance to go is hidden and the distance traveled is easier to see.

Now we’re in Birmingham.

A Meat and Three, and Other Things from The South

Today we had our second lunch based on the “Meat and Three” menu. You choose one meat (fried chicken, fried catfish, fried gizzards, fried livers, etc.) and three sides (cream potatoes, macaroni and cheese, black eyed peas, squash casserole, etc.). Cornbread is not a side; it just comes with your food. Today we had this lunch at a cafeteria in Montgomery, AL. We also had pecan cobbler and fried green tomatoes. How could we pass these delicious, high-fat specialties up? Calvin was able to get a pancake for lunch today, so the lunch was a success for the entire family.

Calvin is a girl in The South. I don’t think anyone has referred to him as a boy since we left. His long hair and tennis shoes with a little pink on them mean that he can only be a girl. As you probably know, his “goal” is for people to think that he’s a girl so he is amused by this effect of being in The South.

When we were in Selma, our hotel was on the very edge of town. We needed some fruit and veggies and I saw a “Farmer’s Co-op” out the window. This (presumed) farmer's market seemed to me the perfect place to get farm-fresh produce. As we drove in the parking lot, I pointed out that nearly all of the vehicles were pick-up trucks. Maybe this place is a “feed and seed” rather than a farmer’s market? Yes. The woman from Minnesota should have realized this sooner!

Selma, AL

Today we spent the day in Selma. It was another day of mixed emotions. The state of Selma is dismal. According to the Census bureau 31% of the people who live here are below the poverty line. Most of the buildings are vacant. The picture above is on the street where much of the activism took place. You can see a sign recognizing the Dallas County [Selma] Voters League in front of an abandoned house. On this block are the major churches from which the local activism was based.

We went to the National Voting Rights Museum. It's not a national museum, in that it's a private museum. It had a variety of exhibit types--written documents, jail cell, uniform warn by sheriff's posse, etc. One of the most moving was the "I was there" wall. People who marched wrote on little pieces of paper that fill a wall. The stories of many brave, and largely unknown, people are there. The wall is what is pictured.

We walked across the bridge and thought and talked about the Selma marchers meeting the sheriff and his posse on the other side. It's an emotional trek. Their sacrifice led to thousands having the right to vote.

As you spend the day in Selma, you think about the difference that the national leaders and everyday people--often teenagers--made and have an overwhelming sense of gratitude and respect for what they did and changes that they made. You also feel like things are bleak. I guess in the end it's hard to have two perspectives: 1) the huge accomplishment of the Civil Rights Movements and 2) the long distance between where we are and equality.

I want to write more. I wonder where the national presence is. Where are the fancy museums that the federal government built in other places? I know that the national story is that racism ended with slavery, but seriously we have nothing here? I also want to write about the tasty southern cooking we had for lunch. Our hotel sent us to a restaurant where we could see everyone was white (in a 70% black city), so we went back to the museum and asked where to go. It was worth it- mac and cheese, candied yams, potato salad, mashed potatoes, squash and onions, and fried catfish. I also want to write about the weirdness of being on the road again. I can't believe we did this for 45 days just a few months ago. And finally, I can't believe that this emotional trip is going to end in Memphis where MLK was shot.

Atlanta and beyond

The kids and I took a tour of CNN. The kids thought it was great. Maybe because I don't respect CNN I had many snide thoughts, and even comments, during the tour.


We made a trip to the Carter Presidential Library and Museum. The kids are surprisingly interested in presidential libraries. After about an hour or so, Calvin and I went outside and walked around the beautiful grounds while E and Matt finished up the museum. The main take aways: 1) We'd be in a total different place as a country if Carter had success with alternative energy sources the way he'd hoped to. He put solar panels on the White House; Reagan took them down! 2) Diplomacy! Too bad GW doesn't know about that!


I always love to go hiking. Thanks to Carol, the GPS, we came close by taking a National Parks Service road in Alabama.


In Alabama we found this gift shop near Tuskegee. Eleanor met Ms. Eleanor in the trailer, which was too crowded to walk in. I paid $1.60 for a postcard for my Eleanor and then Ms. Eleanor gave my Eleanor a Susan B. Anthony doll. Side note: Tuskegee has no memorial to the men who died in the Syphilis study. We went to the Tuskegee Airmen National Park Service site, where we learned that there will be a site for the men done by the summer.

We're in Selma now. It's pouring rain, so we waiting to get going. Everyone is waiting in line behind me to use the computer. I'll have to write more later about Tuskegee and Selma. They are so poor and left behind that it's really an emotional journey through these Civil Rights sites of the South.

Atlanta, Day 1

Well, we made it to Atlanta. Today we slowly wound our way through closed streets to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site on Auburn. It's hard for me to articulate how I felt about the experience. I was moved by the bravery of the civil rights activists, from the leaders to the everyday people who risked their lives. I was filled with despair over the unbelievable isolation and poverty of the neighborhood. The pictures are of MLK's house until age 10 and the view from the back steps of the house; everywhere in the neighborhood were abandoned houses with boarded up windows.
Auburn used to be one of the wealthiest black neighborhoods in the world. Today we parked in a fenced off area for people going to the National Parks Site. During our visit we were approached by two men hustling from the tourists. But then in the museum, we watched a short film that explained that King's work is not finished, because of problems in *the world* - not the US, not Atlanta, not the neighborhood in which we were sitting. The films showed black students in an apparently segregated school talking about the successful efforts to end segregation. We have come far, as evidenced by prominent black political leaders, but we still have segregated schools and neighborhoods and on an on. It is hard, though I teach it and understand it academically, to listen to the language of the successful achievement of "rights" when for many, many people they are de jure rights only. The film and the tour don't address that King's work when he was assassinated was to improve wages and workers' rights and to improve funding of public schools. They don't say that his work is not done.

So far

Posted by Jen, Eleanor & Calvin

Today we left for Atlanta at 12:40pm. We didn't make very far before we had to go to the bathroom. While we stopped, we realized that our car was leaking fluid. We discovered an oily liquid by the passenger's feet a few days ago, but had thought something was spilled--perhaps intentionally by malevolent, Clinton-hating oiler changers. Luckily, while assessing the extent of the "spill," Matt realized it went up behind the dash. This prompted me to call my brother-in-law, Von. Within seconds of hearing about the problem, Uncle Von told us we have a coolant leak. In fact, it turns out our coolant was very, very low. He told us we should go home because it could be a very big and expensive repair. So, after 2 hours of driving, and 30 minutes of stopping, we turned around and drove home.

Although it was fun, just a stop at the bathroom changed the whole trip. And we're going to have to see what we saw out our window all over again tomorrow in a rental car. We have some treats and rented movies for the iPod to get us through the 8 hours that lie ahead, and especially the two that we already did.

calvin jen Eleanor

On the road again...

We've decided to take the "Southern Loop" trip that we'd talked about. Lots of concerns had given us pause: money, work time for me, transitioning the kids again. We've found good compromises on these issues. We have planned an eight night trip, rather than two weeks, 6 free nights with points, and coming back for Cincinnati Public Schools' spring break, during which the kids will have a light work load. So, off we go again. This time we'll learn about the Civil Rights Movement as we travel through Atlanta, Montgomery, Selma, Birmingham, and Memphis.

P.S. Yes, Hillary won Ohio! What a joy for the kids!

the last day of primary work...

The kids did a "honk and wave" that was, fortuitously for them, organized to be at the end of our street. They set their alarms to go out for rush hour at 7am! They'd been wishing to do one, but I wouldn't drive them.


Later, Eleanor spent some time by herself(!) working at the headquarters. When we picked her up, Calvin took this picture. These are some of the very nice folks who work there. They said she could use them as references. :-)


As we drove home from the headquarters, we replaced the four Hillary yard signs stolen from Ludlow yards last night. The kids were taking turns taking them from the trunk and putting them in the yards. It turned out that the last turn was Calvin's. He unbuckled his seatbelt, paused, and asked Eleanor if she'd like to put the sign up. She hugged him and said she would. While she was outside the car, Calvin asked why she loves this so much. I told him I didn't know. When she got back in the car, I told her that I was so happy for her to have had this week and so sad for her that it was over that I thought I might cry. Calvin said that he might cry too. To save herself from crying in that moment, she told us both not to start.

Canvassing for Hillary

Finding one's place...

Eleanor has found her place in the world. It's at the Hillary Clinton campaign headquarters where the 20-somethings who have been moving around the country for months to work on the campaign treat her with respect. They all look at her at say, literally say, that she is just like them when they were kids. They know her name now and welcome her back into the office.

Last night she got two jobs to do: put up yard signs in Clifton and canvass our neighborhood this weekend. The latter job she requested for the "Girls for Hillary" club that she organized. The Clinton office actually has a file on the computer now called "Eleanor Yardsigns." I had been ambivalent about the Hillary-Barack decision, but the power of Eleanor's passion is contagious. As a mother, seeing my daughter find a community and comfort is powerful. She has already talked about the crew's return in October. We have tried to point out the uncertainty of the outcome, but she doesn't have emotional room for that now.

When you watch the returns on Tuesday night, think of her.

The poll

Did you notice the poll on our blog? PLEASE!!!!!!!! take the poll. It will be fun, and I (Eleanor) will change it every other week.  Also you can comment to give me ideas.

news...

CORRECTION: Calvin didn't post this! Jen did!
We saw Spike Lee this evening. We actually didn't take a picture of him, but I thought it would be funny to act like we had another brush with fame. Actually, the kids really paid off again. We were sitting far in the back. Calvin wanted to go check things out up front while we waited for the talk to start. While up in the front, we were offered some of the unclaimed "reserved" seating. We sat in the third row, center. Cool! The talk was interesting, but mostly sounded like a commencement speech: follow your dreams, work hard, and don't get sucked into negative media representations of black people.



Here are some other things that have been going on...
Eleanor and I made a marble run out of Legos and a tube.

Eleanor started a club called, "Girls for Hillary." They made and posted this sign on Ludlow.



Calvin made a water balloon, froze it outside, and cut it open. The result was a frozen water egg. He kept saying, "It's as cold as ice!" and laughing.




Calvin read about a tasting experiment. We all had unsweetened chocolate, lemon juice, sugar, and salt.

Hillary!

How great is this?



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Both kids got their signs autographed. You can see it in Calvin's picture!

Joy!

During the extended Florida trip, the kids got to go to Disney. They had fun fun fun! They had three days away from their parents and were spoiled. Eleanor noted at some (paid) activities, "My mom would never do this." :-)

Super Tuesday!

Some children get excited about the circus. Some get crazy when they hear the ice cream man's music (though not in our neighborhood -- yikes!). Our Eleanor, on the other hand, got up this morning as if it were Christmas. To her, Super Tuesday is as good as it gets. She asked me on Sunday if she could stay up a little later tonight to watch some of the early returns. Of course I said yes, and I am really looking forward to sharing in her excitement.




You can see who she's endorsed. Without joining the chorus of people marveling (or disparaging if you're The Man) the diversity of the Democratic candidates (well, the final two anyway), I have to say that it's pretty cool that my daughter will never know a time when a woman could not be a legitimate candidate. As she likes to point out, however, there are currently something like 30 female heads of state worldwide right now, so let's not get too misty-eyed.

update on FL

Calvin ended up being sick. He's on antibiotics now, which is not so much a sign of how sick he is/was (since we tend to let nature take its course) as our desire for him to get better more quickly than he usually does. As we've long known, he takes a long time to get better. (A funny side story: The first urgent care that Matt took C to only accepts Medicare. Welcome to Naples!)

The end of my time in Florida was quiet. We all were lazy with Calvin, hanging around the condo reading, watching TV, doing impromptu projects, and doing some schoolwork. Matt and I each took E to the beach once. She loves to play in the sand. When I took her to the beach, she dug a very deep hole, designed to capture shells as the tide came in.

I'm home now, but their time in Florida continues.

Going to school

We went to Immokalee this morning. It shares a county and school district with Naples. Farm workers are organizing there (check out the CIW website and join the boycott- or at least say you are if you don't eat at Burger King). Matt's aunt works at one of the elementary schools in town, and she gave us a tour. Before going to Immokalee I taught the kids about farm workers, migration, inequality, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, and on and on. As we drove out to Immokalee this morning, we saw the citrus groves and tomato fields with workers in school buses on their way to pick food for all of us.

Then, surprisingly, the school was nice. They are in the process of remodeling. The rooms that had not been remodeled yet had data projectors, computers, were large enough, bright, pleasant, and didn't have too many kids. There is a large library, plus art and music classrooms. 98% free lunch & breakfast kids in a nice facility, working seemingly at grade level. It was heartening. Calvin commented that the kids didn't look as poor as he expected, which we probed to understand. Finally, we realized that with the pictures he'd seen on the CIW website of the farm workers' homes, he expected third world poverty at the school. Wonderfully, there wasn't.

Then we heard as we drove home that the voters yesterday voted to cut property taxes. The tax cut was opposed by school boards and city officials for the toll that it will take on services, including schools. On the other side, "the tax-cutting push was a response to exploding property values that jacked up tax bills mainly for owners of second or vacation homes, businesses." Seriously. This is the choice that is best for society?

The conclusion to the day... We skipped going to a park and having lunch in Immokalee because Calvin seemed to have developed an illness while we were at the school. It turns out that he has one of his low-grade fever illnesses. He was sick enough that he chose to skip the beach when Matt and E went, but not sick enough to skip a quick dip in the pool. Hopefully, he'll be fine in the morning.

and one funny thing...

Before walking to see this in the Everglades...


We saw this in the Everglades...

That's an RV pulling a pickup carrying a golf cart.

On the road again (even Rosie)

We're in Florida now. Sadly for Lisa, Marty, and the girls, Rosie hit the road too, escaping from their house this afternoon. Unfortunately they didn't know that she was safely in a neighbor's house. We are thankful to the enormous number of Clifton friends who helped to look for her. And we're sorry for the worry that her escapade caused her vacation hosts.

We're finishing our second day and having a very good time. Thanks to Roy and Kathy, we took a boat ride yesterday. There were pelicans to feed, and Calvin (yes, Calvin!) fed them by hand. The kids loved the boat ride. Calvin was manic from the boat ride until the day ended. I'm not sure what in him it fed, but he was energized by it. As part of his joy, he took about 50 pictures. We thought about the change in Calvin, who was terrified and carried crying onto the boat at Niagara Falls in September to this boat ride.

Today we went to Everglades National Park. We rented a canoe, took a hike, and pulled the car over when we saw some alligators by a canal near the road. We'd done three science lessons on the Everglades before we left. I was glad to see that the kids remembered things. And as with the road trip, the kids are much more engaged when they have some "expertise" about a place.

(There's an alligator in this picture.)