Baby Steps

At teacher conferences last week (the day after the election-- so I was barely a functioning human being anyway), I found out that Harry has had homework (30 minutes everyday!  On the computer!) for his gifted math class since, um, the first day of that class that he has NEVER DONE.  I guess it was a miscommunication because the kids in his class do "math maintenance" on the computer while regular 5h grade math happens, so they all thought that counted toward their 30-minutes.  But they don't.

So!  It's a new era of homework in our house (which actually kind of sucks because the kids really just have reading homework-- and of course they read anyway everyday).  I decided it would be good for Jack to do 30 minutes of math on his computer, too, but I am hoping they'll be self-motivated enough to do it before they walk the dog.  This morning, we were all a little off our game, so their computer time cut into their (essential) play-outside time.  Bah.  It's a work in progress.

This is a picture of Dorothy watching her favorite scary movie, the Curious George Halloween special on the PBS Kids app on Apple TV.

 SHE'S LIKE LIVING WITH A CARTOON-- that's how sweet and adorable she is.  Today we were outside riding bikes, and as I buckled her helmet, she said, "Hang onto my bike because I am a little bit scared to go on my own."  And the first thing she said to me when she woke up was, 'I wonder what the story time books will be about today.  I hope raccoons or school because I want to hear The Kissing Hand."  Then after story time (about the moon-- she loved it and the astronaut helmet she made out of a paper plate) she picked out a book about princesses and happily "read" it out loud to herself the whole way to pick Cooper up from school while I listened to HRC, a book made poignant and relevant by our supremely horrific political moment (also, Clinton was apparently beside herself with grief after losing the 2008 primary bid, which just makes me feel even worse for her now).

The sun is shining.  It's unseasonably warm here.  I have a cookie the size of my face in my bag to eat for dinner at my desk.  I am working on a new project.

And yet, I am still so sad and hopeless.

Ironically, something that brings me great comfort is Barbara Bush's 1990 Wellesley commencement address, a speech I like so much that I quoted it in my own UW commencement speech in 2009.  Bush said, "Your success as a family, our success as a society, depends not on what happens in the White House, but on what happens inside your house."  This is probably the most political line in Bush's whole speech because it really gets at the heart of Republican small government/ anti-social- safety-net philosophy, and as such, it has always bothered me.  Today, though, I find it comforting if I take it on its face  (I am raising 4 kind children who won't vote for hate, etc) and if I think about the smallest Trump government imaginable.  Baby steps.  Thanks, Babs.