My little chefs

There is not much scarier than turning your back for a minute and finding that the water you put on to boil for spaghetti has macaroni from a box of kraft macaroni and cheese in it and your *three* year old son is holding a package of cheese sauce. I have to admire his cooking skills though. I'm not sure I could make kraft macaroni and cheese by myself when I was three. My other little chef helped me make chocolate chip cookies and actually left some of the cookie dough behind. Then she said I'm a good cook, aren't I mommy! So cute.....

The Feminine Mistake

I finished reading this book by Leslie Bennetts last week. This book has I know been highly controversial. I though it was extremely well written and touched on a very uncomfortable truth. This truth of course is that taking time off from work to care for your children can leave you in a very vulnerable position should the dream you have not work out. She also talked a lot about how difficult it is to get back into the workforce after being away for a while. From my own experience I am definately finding that to be true. Of course it is always difficult to know if the reason you didn't get that job is because another candidate was more qualified or if you didn't get the job because you stepped off your career path to care for children. One criticism I've heard of this book is that it concentrates like so many other books on middle and upper middle class mothers who opt or don't opt out of the workplace. I believe that this is not a fair criticism since in reality you need a relatively high income to make that choice of whether to stay home or not. Poor mothers really have no choices unfortunately, and often are pushed into unfortunate situations to provide for their families, a reality which sadly could make it's very own book.

Pray For My Son

The poor little guy has conjunctivitis.....

How to Tell if a Catholic is Driving Too Fast

Interview

I'm interviewing on Friday at the St. Joseph County Public Library here in South Bend Indiana. My children and I have gone to this library since moving to South Bend and they've always enjoyed the creative and stimulating children's spaces and I've enjoyed the many services for adults. (Rosetta Stone online from the library anyone?) At any rate I have been reading Tame the Web blog to learn new developments in libraries and technology since the author Michael Stephens was for a long time the special projects librarian at SJCPL.

Down and Out for a While

We've all had colds and ear infections here for a while. I am still at my worst unfortunately. Earlier last week I was also writing job applications and interviewing at Davenport University. Add also traveling to Canada for my 40th birthday and we had an eventful week.

Excited!

I just found out that my local public library that I just love is hiring for a new adult reference librarian. I've been looking for work after being a stay at home mom for 4 years and let me tell you its a jungle out there. I love when new jobs pop up just when you've found out that you haven't gotten other jobs you've applied for.

Freedom Writers

I just watched this movie last night. I was expecting the usual overly sentimental story of an idealistic young teacher saving kids from the inner city in Los Angeles, but I found the movie to be refreshingly honest as to the difficulties that a teacher who really cares might find teaching in an inner city school in the United States where the students are all but forgotten. It really struck me how she had to work two extra jobs so that she could buy her kids books to read. I'm also reading Educating Esme by Esme Raji Codell, also an idealistic young teacher in an inner city school, this time in Chicago, and was amazed to find that she had to do the SAME THING. Obviously educating young people in public schools has stopped being a priority somewhere along the line......

A contradiction?

Is it just me or is there something ridiculous about riding around town in a huge Hummer covered with flags and bumper stickers that say "We support our troops"? I wonder what they're supporting our troops about. Job security maybe?

Haircuts

Today I took my kids to get their haircut. Christina says she looks like a princess now! She is so easy to please. I'll post pictures when I can. They look so cute.