Polacco’s books are wonderful for reading with elementary school children and on one’s own.  Polacco is prolific and both writes and illustrates her books.  She is one of the rare authors who are able to do both extremely well.  Her stories (many based on her own childhood) are oh-so-human, so engaging, so interesting, so ready to transport you to a different place and time.  As for her illustrations–well, facial expressions have never been so well captured.  (Intriguingly, Polacco earned a PhD in art history and is an expert on Russian iconography–but her pictures are earthy and achingly real, her texts down to earth and accessible).  Some of my favorite titles are Thank you, Mr. Falker,  Just Plain Fancy , Chicken Sunday, and The Keeping Quilt. 

After forgetting about Polacco for a while, just last week my love of her work was renewed by a title I’d never seen before: Rotten Richie and the Ultimate Dare, a partly (mostly?) true story of a conflict with her brother and how it all ended happily ever after.  Since sibling contention is an ongoing issue in our home, and I’m always hoping and looking forward to the day that my children can write their own happily ever after endings, I just adored this book.  Check it out!

P.S., Already familiar with Polacco?  What are your favorite titles?

Well, I don’t live in a war zone, but the Red Cross tells me that every 2 seconds in the United States someone needs blood.  I can donate as often as every 56 days, but my blood’s shelf life is only 42 days.  In fact, last year a study suggested that patients who are transfused with blood older than 28 days are more likely to suffer infections.  So, the fresher the blood, the better.  That means the more donors the better.  The difficult part is that donors are hard to get.  Less than 38% of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood.  Of those eligible, most don’t donate.  There are a lot of us who are squeamish and afraid of needles!

But if you are someone who can donate, consider the cancer patients, the new mothers, the car accident victims, etc., who may need your blood.  Some day you could be the one who needs blood or your mom, sister or daughter, your dad, your brother, your boss, or your best friend.  Or several of you.  One thing is almost certain: if you can donate regularly, you will help people.  The need for transfusions is rising 6% every year, and the number of donations isn’t rising that fast.  We hope for artificial blood, but it’s still a hope for the future.  Today what’s true is that if you can donate blood, YOU ARE NEEDED.  If you can’t donate, you can help by volunteering, organizing a blood drive, or my personal favorite:  babysitting for someone who wants to donate!  (The donation process takes almost an hour start to finish and no one wants to take small children to a blood donation center).

I have long admired the blogroll at Visual Anarchy.  Not only does it show the blogs Lis likes, it also shows the title (with a link!) to the most recent post at each blog.  I don’t know if this sort of thing is available for WordPress (she’s on Blogger) and my links are less visible anyway because you have to click the link button on the homepage.  So, hopefully CommentLuv will help generate the same sort of community feeling–at least for the commenters who have blogs.

I’d love for you to try it (and let’s be honest here, I’m always hoping for comments) and let me know how it works for you.

I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven . . .

Matthew 5:44-45

If a child picks on your child at school, and says, “Nate, you’re so dumb, you can hardly read!”  And then Nate comes home and tells you about it, would you share this scripture with him?  Is it a good idea or a bad idea to label the day’s tormentors as enemies?  Why?           

I have three children.

1. Child #3 (Kate)’s speech therapist came for a home visit.   I explained that I was pleased that she is saying a few more words and phrases, but frustrated that I have gotten nowhere with “articulation practice,” where I am supposed to help a 2 year old practice the sounds that are difficult for her to make.  (Do you see a problem with this plan?)  I may be a bad person, but I actually felt pleased when said 2 year old first covered her mouth, then turned around and put her bottom in the air after the speech therapist pushed her to make the “k” sound a few too many times.  [It isn't just me!]  Ultimately #3 hid and refused to say goodbye.  Oh yes, speech therapy is going well.

2. I asked child #2 (Duncan) to empty the dishwasher.  He said he was hungry.  I said, “Great!  Because I have a special treat for you right after you get that dishwasher finished!”  It was more than three hours before he got any food because it was more than three hours before he was ready to empty the dishwasher.  I suspect he might have eaten some of the trail mix that was supposed to be the special treat while I wasn’t looking though.

3. I didn’t take child #1 (Amelia) to Shakespeare for Kids although she desperately wanted to go, because she spent the entire day doing her chores and homework.  Shakespeare is supposed to be a reward for doing her chores and homework well and quickly.  We are not there yet.

One huge success today was that we found some large grid paper at Office Depot.  [Amelia explained to me during a review of her homework that the reason I cannot read her numbers is because I am not trying hard enough, but I don't know, I think it might be something else!]   The smaller quad ruled squares were too small for Amelia to fit her numbers in.  I think the large grid paper might represent a significant boon to her future in math.  It is important for your math answers to be readable in settings other than standardized tests!  Unfortunately, Amelia hates the paper. She is no fan of anything that would make her look different from the other kids. I hold out a weak hope that once she sees it’s useful . . .

The bad news: my vehicle is easier to steal than I ever would have imagined! It’s a good thing big boxy people carriers aren’t in high demand.

The other day Amelia (9 years old) and I were talking and she mentioned that she would like to be a mother as soon as possible.  My first reaction (after seeing way too many famous teens with babies in the news lately) was WAIT A MINUTE, think that over!

But this is Amelia we’re talking about.  Naturally, she hadn’t meant to say that she was yearning for teen pregnancy.  She blushed when I mentioned it.  She was simply expressing her current feelings about motherhood.

For a moment after she left and I had my thoughts to myself, I was quite flattered.  HEY!  I must be doing something right if my daugher watches me and wants to be a mother!  But another second or two brought greater humility.  Amelia is privileged to be surrounded by good and caring mothers.  Her aunts and grandmas fit that description, as well as classmates’ mothers, women in the neighborhood, and mothers in our church congregation.

I am thankful that Amelia has been so fortunate.  I am also thankful for her tender heart, her capacity to love, and her desire to teach.  I pray that at the appropriate time her Heavenly Father will bless her with the opportunity to have a loving marriage where she and her husband can welcome their children with joy.  I pray that she will not find it difficult to conceive and bear them. Finally, I pray that years from now, when things are crazy for her, with toddlers clinging in the kitchen while laundry piles up in the bedrooms, she will not forget that this was what she wanted so much.  I want Amelia to be a child today, but I look forward to seeing her as a mother tomorrow.

The first thing to say in defense of competition is that it motivates us as few other things can. Competing with others pushes us to achieve more than we would otherwise achieve. The drive to prove oneself leads us to get up early, to work late, and to spend a few extra minutes in order to ensure that our work, whatever it is, is absolutely our best.

Competing with others allows us to discover what we are capable of. When we look in awe at what others have done, and do, we get a glimpse of our own potential. The first man to run a sub 4 minute mile would not have done so had he not seen someone else run a near 4 minute mile first. Competing pushes us to look further, to see if there is not one extra inch, not one extra ounce, not one extra effort that we could eke out beyond what we formerly thought was our very best.

Competition also teaches us important lessons about life. We learn to be good losers. We learn about disappointment and failure and how to respond. We learn to be more humble, more realistic about our own abilities. We learn both that there is a time to persevere and a time to think about redirecting our efforts. Competition can also teach us how to be good winners. Competition teaches that being the best is temporary and based more on luck than we’d like to think during the short time we are on top. This helps us to be compassionate and humble. We achieve our best when we are closely matched to high achieving peers and we find ourselves rooting for them as well as for us, because the journey to excellence is too lonely and difficult to face alone.

Finally, competition uncovers true excellence by identifying excellent performance and those who excel. The remarkable nature of a given performance and performer is only fully appreciated through comparison. When we discover a peer in any worthy human endeavor who is not incrementally better than, but substantially superior to his peers, this is something for all of us to celebrate and enjoy. We do not benefit by encouraging everyone to be neither best nor worst in music, art, athletics, mathematics, and textile construction. We need our friends and neighbors to excel in each of these categories so that they can share with us in those areas where we ourselves are lacking. When we compete against friends who have greater gifts or determination than we, we learn something about excellence in the endeavor in which our friend excels. Competing in that endeavor leaves us not just with skills honed through striving but also with a new ability to appreciate the meaning and importance of our friend’s success.