Our neighbor’s peaches.

My grandmother’s wooden bowl.

My mother’s garden chair.

A warm, late Spring morning in Central Texas with air full of birdsong.

This is the stuff of which memories are made.

And that’s why there’s a new masthead on the site and Facebook page.

Because some memories are meant to be preserved and shared, much like sweet, sun-warmed fruit fresh from the tree.

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

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Science as song.

What’s not to love?

(In the car, I like to sing the ladybug part.)

This catchy little ditty appears on They Might Be Giants CD/DVD “Here Comes Science,” which is a huge hit around our house. As in we listen to it at least once a day, but sing the songs far more often. Another favorite? The one about the paleontologist:

Oh, and then there’s the one about how science is both REAL and AWESOME.

The CD is a couple of years old, but here’s what the cover looks like, in the event you run into it at a used CD store.

If you see it, get it–especially if you’re like us and supplement your kid’s education via carschooling.

You can also purchase “Here Comes Science” via Amazon.com.

Explore More:

• The RW&G Homegrown Kids page and Pinterest board are always available to be read. (Well, assuming that WordPress.com is operating and Pinterest isn’t overrun with visitors.)
• Earlier this week I put up a site badge for Gifted Homeschoolers Forum at RedWhiteandGrew.com. They have a Pinterest presence now, too.

***

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Cacti are tough, y’all. Resilient. Hardy.

Much like mothers are.

Have a great day.

***

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I’ve always wanted to go DIY with an idiomatic expression, and this one fits.

And it’s how I feel. Like deep-fried foodstuffs, baby.

But not the fried butter.

That’s just nasty.

In all seriousness, there’s  lots of cool things coming my way this month, both professionally and personally.

I promise to fill y’all in on some of the details very soon, but in the interim, know that I’m intentionally scaling back posts here at RedWhiteandGrew.com.

See, after several months of weekday postings (by the way, it does exactly what “they” say it will do for your blog’s visibility*), I need to tinker with the schedule. Yup, real life is intervening. I’m going to try switching to posting just once or twice a week.

Spoiler alert: Be on the lookout for an interview here next week with designer Lorena Angulo! 

Plus, don’t forget the May book giveaway!

I’ll try my best to keep some daily action going over on Facebook and Twitter, but if you want to be “in the know” re: RW&G, then be sure to sure to grab the RSS feed.

When I spill the beans about what I’m up to, then I’ll do it here first.

Now I’m off like… well, a dirty shirt.

Ciao, y’all.

P.S. Ran across this description of RW&G last week and it gave me a terrific chuckle:

Thanks for the delightful review, Fish Out of Water Homeschool!

I just hope that comparison isn’t some foreshadowing about my ending up in the slammer. Because that would really suck, perhaps in a way similar to the taste of deep-fried butter. (Not that I’ve ever tried it because… ick.)

*Also surprisingly helpful to your blog’s visibility? Participation in the whole Ryan Gosling meme thingy. Seriously. Most popular post ever on here. Go figure.

This is Matt. He sells peaches. Specifically, he sells Texas hill country peaches from the Fredericksburg area. He said that the ones pictured were plucked yesterday, and he’ll be stationed behind the Willie’s Grill & Icehouse in Leon Springs most days (not Sundays) for awhile.

Wanna see another photo?

And, yes, I bought some.

Of course.

They’ll hold us over until the fruit on our neighbor’s tree ripens.

One of the great things about homeschooling (and, yes, afterschooling) is that you get to think at depth about hot topics like childhood bullying (including relational aggression) and hitting.

For me, I’ve always seen these issues as multi-dimensional problems. On the one hand, with children, there’s emotional and physical manipulation tactics being employed that simply must be addressed to ensure safety and well-being. On the other are issues related to conflict management.

The second set of challenges is, in many ways, the most significant because it is a life skill. That’s why, for me, books that restrict the conversation to “it’s wrong to hit” or “be nice and sunny to everyone” come up short.

The way that I see it, if one seeks to stop physical and emotional aggression a playground (or in the board room), then one must have a handle on peaceful means to negotiating lasting resolutions. Moreover, one must come to prize the protection of emotional and physical safety. And although we don’t talk about it much as a society, sometimes one must be prepared to accept that the most sensible course of action is to completely sever all ties with a repeat aggressor–especially when it comes to relational aggression actions like exclusion, shunning, gossip, social humiliation, withdrawing attention or friendship, and cyber-bullying. (Yes, I’m thinking about “mean girls”–or my new preferred term “bullies in disguise.” )

Pictured above are a round up of books that we’ve used to get at this issue, to really try to peel back the layers to the problem.

Here’s the list, in no particular order:

• We Can Work It Out: Conflict Resolution for Children by Barbara K. Polland
• How to Behave and Why by Munro Leaf
• Talk and Work It Out (Learning to Get Along) by Cheri J. Meiners
• What Does It Mean to Be Safe? by Rana DiOrio (discussed here previously at RW&G)
• Three books in the “A First Look At…” series by Pat Thomas, who is my favorite go-to author for thorny childhood issues: Is It Right to Fight?, I Can Be Safe, and Stop Picking On Me

I’ve placed this group of books in a special category over on my Amazon store so that you can take a closer look at them and check out other reader’s reviews. Many of them are in your local library, too. Note that while We Can Work It Out is out of print, it’s worth locating a used copy online, if you can.

What about you and your family–how do you approach issues of interpersonal conflict, bullying, and aggression? Any favorite books or videos to recommend?

Update: This site, LoveAndLogic.com, was recommended by a RW&G Facebook fan, Mandy. It looks good, so I’m mentioning it here.

It’s that time again! Time to announce another book giveaway.

This month’s featured giveaway is Homesweet Homegrown: How to Grow, Make, and Store Food No Matter Where You Live by Robyn Jasko.

This is Robyn:

And this is an excerpt from Robyn’s email to me:

In addition to raising awareness of GMOS, organics and heirlooms,  HSHG encourages people to start their own modern homestead, complete with grow guides for 25 crops, easy recipes by vegetable, diy garden projects, canning/fermenting and food storage guides, and plans for starting a garden no matter where you live.

This book was inspired from my site Grow Indie.com, which I started with the mission to empower people everywhere to have the tools, know how and moxie to grow their own food.

You can read more in this press release.

Here’s the scoop on the giveaway:

Giveaway details:

• The contest deadline is 5:00 PM on Friday, May 25, 2012.

• To enter, simply leave a note in the comments section of this post and/or:

• Tweet a link to this post (just copy me @redwhiteandgrew so I *see* your tweet!)
• Leave a comment on my Facebook page.
• Repin the giveaway pin on Pinterest. You’ll find it on this pin board later today. [UPDATE: Here's the pin.]

Each of the above actions by you counts as a separate entry. That’s right, you can register up to FOUR times for this contest.

• The winner must be a resident of the continental U.S. (Sorry, Canadian and Australian friends!)

• I’ll announce the winner in an update to this post and on my Facebook page during the week of May 28. The winner will be selected by a random drawing.

• Can’t wait. You can always go order a copy.

Dawn, Jenny, Alicia & Me

Last week, I got to attend a reading by Jenny Lawson of her new book, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened.

That’s me on the right, looking like I’ve just turned her into a puppet.

(Hey, we were at the end of a long line. Weird stuff happens. Like what she’s holding in her hand, which is explained completely here. MATURE CONTENT IN LINK. And, no, it wasn’t one of us who gave it to her. But she volunteered to put it in the shot, and we said “Sure!”)

If you follow my social media feeds, then you’ve probably heard a lot this already. Yeah, I was sort of… gushy.

You know what? I’m still excited about this event because…

1. Lawson is a fellow Central Texan of a certain vintage who launched a blog and then got to write a book. She’s originally from West Texas, though, and I’m from East Texas and everyone knows that West Texas women are waaay funnier. I have stories that I could share someday, but this book pretty much proves it. Plus, Lawson and I were both nominated this year for the Bloggies and she WON after having declared herself the Susan Lucci of the Bloggies. I volunteered to be the new Susan Lucci. *Fingers crossed.*

2. The book itself is awesome. I may never look at the name “Jenkins” again without having to stop myself from laughing.

Like her blog, however, it’s for mature readers.

Which begs the question: why did they park us all near the kid’s toy section? Weird.

3. A couple of days after we saw her in San Antonio, she landed at the top of the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list. (I’d already predicted this would happen. But still… awesome.)

4. Before the big event, I got to go out to dinner with two of my favorite local gals, Alicia Arenas and Dawn Cole. Alicia (@aliciasanera) is a career coach and has a site and blog about business stuff. Dawn blogs about, well, Dawn things. Her Twitter feed (@lettergirl) is pretty fun, too. Gal bloggers should stick together. And we should see each other more often. Definitely.

5. The takeaway of the evening still resonates, even a week later.

I originally shared it privately on Facebook, but it merits a mention here.

Because it’s true.

Oh, dang… there’s another reason…

6. Lawson, like my mother, has rheumatoid arthritis. Like me, she’s prone to anxiety. (Mine is very mild by comparison, but I have my crippling moments.) I think it takes such courage to speak your truth to the world when you’re fighting these battles.

You go, girl.

Explore More:

• You can go buy Lawson’s hardcover book here or via Kindle. Right now, the book is about 50% off what I paid for it. Which sort of makes me jealous. But then my copy is signed. So there.

• Humor is not really my thing–or at least I don’t think of it as my thing, but this post about the ambulance is pretty funny. And I guess the one about “Fang.” Like I said, the West Texas gals are much funnier.

Per a conversation that I had with Crown Publishing via Twitter on Friday, Michelle Obama’s book, American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America will be released on May 29, 2102.

This is about a month later than earlier press reports had indicated. (See original press release.) You can preorder now.

Note that there is now a Facebook page for the book, which several RW&G FB fans are now following since I posted this:

Really looking forward to reading this book and watching the reception, which should be interesting.

Explore More:
• ”American Grown” and it’s context of U.S. victory garden is explained here.

• Follow RW&G on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. You can also subscribe via RSS feed.

This photo was the closest thing that I could get to a still-shot of our resident mockingbirds. 

(I have another name for them, but it’s not suitable for a family-friendly blog.)

They set up a nest this spring in our rose shrub, near the victory garden. Last week, they began to assault our poor cat. They’ve even outsourced some of the pestering by enlisting a sparrow to follow the kitty and tweet out her coordinates. 

(No, I’m not kidding. I watched this happen over the course of two afternoons.)

And then one evening, one of them came for me. Yes, I was dive-bombed. 

Apparently, the bird didn’t care for my roots showing. (What’s with this new trend to calling it “ombre” and pretending that it’s stylish?) 

Or maybe, more likely, he was trying to protect his precious baby from the poorly coiffed and manicured woman spreading rosemary cuttings in his vicinity?

Whatever the motivation, that bird was TICKED. OFF.

Which led my friend Pam to say: “Well, he is the state bird of Texas. Makes sense that he’d be a little feisty.” 

She’s probably right. Sigh.