Great Community Events

If you are a type who likes to visit music and other performances, the new Middle School's PAC (Performance Arts Center) is close to home and affordable.
My kindergartner son and I attended the Jazz night last night. It was a great experience. No problems parking, like in downtown Portland, upscale facility (hurry before it starts showing wear and tear!), and of course it's close to home. The bands were wonderful (listen to the short sample).

Plus you can leave when you have to, if you have a young child. Great!
Tonight there will be another event, it starts at 7pm, check it out!

Safe Home

If you are like all those green and anti-toxins families - I am certainly trying to be like that - you might find this simple checklist very friendly and helpful. Walk around your house and make sure your house is safe for you and your children.
You may also want to bring the same habits to the workplace. Less is definitely more in this case - less toxins, more healthy years.

With summer - or at least sunny days - upon us, it's important to shield skin from the harmful sun rays. It's just as important - if you choose to use a sunscreen, which is wise - to choose one wisely. Read carefully the ingredients listed on the box/bottle/tab. Research before you buy and apply. Here is a good start for your investigations, the EWG's database.

Seedlings are growing fast! UPDATE on the Garden Project

In fact, maybe even too fast! It's just April out there, and early April at that. Once they are this big, there is no stopping these guys, they will grow fast! I am getting a little concerned that they might be too big by the time it's safe to plant them outdoors - the weather forecast is frost on Tuesday night, and overall, low temperatures for the foreseeable future. It's how it's supposed to be in April, of course, although we got sidetracked by the unusual heat waves throughout March and early April. Now back to normal feels almost unseasonably cold!

Anyway, check out the peas!

Garden Project

Here at Canal and High School (just because we share the campus, really), we have started our seeds for the school garden which will be right behind the Canal Building.
I got a few charges (delivered to me, by the way, very nice), and they are sprouting. See for yourselves. I wonder if anyone else is posting updates anywhere.
The first ones to appear were seedlings from cups labeled "P", for peas. The other ones I have are beans, and the "B" cups are not ready to show their green yet, but they will soon, I am sure.

Picture day racket

So, you get a notepad (why do you need it? doesn't it cost money to make?) and address labels (tons of them at my house) in a charity envelope asking you for a donation. That is both wasting good money (and trees) and sending you on a guilt trip. After a while you grow more insensitive to these things, but at least they don't have your child's picture on them!
At school, they take your child's picture - even though you didn't ask for it - and then send them home, saying that not only your child is so cute but that you will also be helping the school by purchasing these (extremely) expensive pictures. I wouldn't have bought them, but my son said he really wanted them, so I gave in, but made him pay for them himself. Either way, I think it's racket, sponsored by school. I will be happy to support school through simple donation - where I can donate (and write off my taxes) - and in an amount that I can afford at a time, instead of paying $22 for two pictures. Of course, you might argue I didn't have to do it - I will argue that I didn't ask to be in that position to begin with.
What if I don't return the pictures and don't pay? It's not honest, obviously, but just like with address labels, shouldn't you expect that some people may just forget to pay? (I personally didn't make it within the 5 day window, in fact, I didn't even know about that window until it was already too late) So, basically, if the pictures are really that expensive to make - who is paying for those pictures that aren't returned? Or are returned? I am so confused by this, and don't think that the only connection to the community should be money-related. It seems that a lot of things are fund-raising related. I think that this rant is exacerbated by the fact that there are no spring conferences for parents, and I am still feeling upset about it. End of rant, have a great day!

Please feel free to leave a comment and convince me that I am unreasonably overreacting. ;)