This Christmas Eve perhaps more than ever before I am struck by (or stuck on) how quickly the years pass by but also by how much changes in a single year, measured Christmas to Christmas. Last Christmas, my recollection is that we were focusing on the rise of gasoline prices and not the decline of… Continue reading Happy Holidays 2008!
Category: Kids
St. Louis County Putting Kids First: Please Vote Yes
With the presidential election just a few weeks away and the candidates continuing to make their cases that the other guy is bad (or worse) versus telling us why we should feel good about voting for them, it is good to know that there is something on the ballot in St. Louis County that one… Continue reading St. Louis County Putting Kids First: Please Vote Yes
Attention: Giving It and Getting It
Dave Pollard writes in How to Save the World that "What people seek from others more than anything else, is attention and appreciation." He references an earlier post where he wrote, "It’s really all about attention, and paying attention. The attention we pay to others, and that others pay to us, defines us, far more… Continue reading Attention: Giving It and Getting It
A Personal Note: Matt Gossage Leaves MICDS
Matt Gossage, the Head of MICDS (Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School) announced last week that he was leaving to head the Cannon School in Concord, N.C. My youngest son is in the seventh grade at MICDS and has been at MICDS since the first grade; my hope is that he will remain… Continue reading A Personal Note: Matt Gossage Leaves MICDS
Blog Stalking Parents…Fair Game?
The Weekend Journal has an article about yet another innovative way to join the blogosphere, spying on your children. Big Mother is Watching (available by subscription) tells of a mother (unfortunately working "outside the home" as a marketing consultant….giving marketing consultants and mothers a bad name) who caught her daughter behaving badly by monitoring her… Continue reading Blog Stalking Parents…Fair Game?
In Case of Emergency
As the finger pointing continues over Hurricane Katrina along with the cries for leadership I wondered how many parents sitting in the room knew what that the emergency number was or had it written down….on easily accessible, old fashioned paper. The school had sent it to us numerous times along with “the plan”. But like the exit maps on the back of hotel doors and the location of emergency exits on airplanes, in movie theaters, or a fire escape plan from our own homes , it wasn’t top of mind enough to be of much use in case of an emergency. And the finger pointing and calls for leadership should really begin with ourselves…
Katrina Tragedy
Sam started school this week and last night his homework included an assignment to list the characteristics that make America unique. Watching the selfless police and rescue workers who no doubt had to leave their own families and homes to assist others, the grim determination of those pushing shopping carts loaded with earthly pocessions, the doctors using canoes to bring in medical supplies, the homemade “help” signs made from who knows what, held up by rooftop survivors, the we are all in this together attitude and the every man for himself attitude of the looters…all that captured the American character. And of course, all the bloggers that urged us to donate and provided links to the Red Cross, Feed The Children, and links to links.
Not Your Parent’s Cliff Notes
Are many blogs just like Cliff Notes? You don’t read the story, you read about the story…over and over and over again. I think bloggers should at least add a personal comment or two when they post a “new flash” quickly excerpted from someone else’s blog or the morning news…otherwise what’s the point?
Andy Milonakis
Andy Milonakis is a very funny guy…if you like his humor. We do…just don’t know why….
Fat Cat
We have two cats, we were supposed to have one. Last summer we adopted a 13 month old part Maine Coon Cat named Michelle whose name was immediately changed by my sons to Tiger. They insisted she looked like a Tiger. She was meant to be a kind of starter pet….the kids really wanted a… Continue reading Fat Cat