-----------I just woke up and still feel really tired. I'm gonna skip today and see y'all Thursday.











           

            
8:25am

Marcie Rendon
me too 




i just got back from ubergrandmaschoolrun











           

            
8:28am

-------- 
here i sit, in this coffee shop, answering emails and heart missing each of you - i will see you on thursday!




ubergrandmaschoolrun..... can that be a verb or only a noun?











           

            
8:29am

Marcie Rendon
as i left the house at 7am i thought goddamnit i forgot my computer but with dog and lunch bag and cup of tea and keys i couldn't imagine returning into house for one more thing 




uberetc - english ojibwe verbish











           

            
8:30am

---------- 
animate or inanimate? or does that depend on the time of the day? i mean.... mornings, y'know.




(i am trying to show off the ojibwe that i've been learning.... did i succeed?)











           

                        
8:32am

Marcie Rendon
LOL better than me  LOL

in a past lifetime I must have been a very bad taxi driver who accidently ran over someone or robbed people of their fares by driving them miles out of their way because this lifetime I spend inordinate amounts of time driving here and there, one person here, another there, never a fare in return.

what?? i don't have any pictures of me in a car? will need to rectify that shortly.

and so we are into the end of the first month of the 2015-16 school year. Once again on driver duty. Why you ask? It is the same question I ask. My answer is this: I want this grandchild to have a chance to follow her dream. To maybe know what her dream is or can be. She is so willing to give up on herself and let others dictate what she should do and how she should do it. She is the one to try make everyone happy, please them all, at any cost to herself. And so I drag my tired old self out of bed each morning at 6:25, get her at 7, drop her off at 7:44 and repeat the process at 3pm.

I also avoid making catty remarks about other folks’ perfect children. The ones going to law school and making the deans list and doing community service. Some days all I can claim is that my children keep the social workers and treatment providers employed. But this I also truly know. My children are very good people. There is no pretense there. They do not hurt other people-either with words or action or side-eye looks. They are not cruel or pretentious.

I took one granddaughter to the zoo on Sunday. She has allergies. We brought a water bottle for her because her throat was scratchy. I said I was thirsty and she said, “You might catch what I have or I would share with you.” Very thoughtful for an 9 year old. She also walked slowly with me although she very desperately wanted to run to see the chickens. All of the children in that daughter’s family ask me, “Grandma, how was your day?” It is very sweet considering how many folks drain me each and every day without thought or consideration.

Maybe at another time I will write more about a very patriotic event I recently attended where I had to grip my chair to stop from dropping to one knee as 3-400 folks stood for the national anthem. Oh, it was so tempting – but I practiced ultimate self-control. It wasn't a football game.

 

Well, it has been awhile since posting here...
     most of the children are with their respective parents...it has taken a longer while to recoup and even began to think of what to do with myself without the parenting responsibility.  although, there is still one child needing a ride to and from summer care - and at a minimum, every other day visits from the rest of the crew
  i will post a couple pictures of the boat from plastic bottles we made a couple weeks ago - as we have said many times: hope floats


and then there is the snarkeyness that somehow just creeps into my viewpoint.  i went to see the Hopeman Family Collection of Art at the All My Relations Gallery here in Minneapolis.  Beautiful art, looking at each individual piece of art one has to have their breath taken away by the work of Sam English, RC Gorman, Kevin Red Star, John Nieto.   Just beautiful work.   However, my mind asked:  just how many paintings of Indians with feathers can you display in one room?   i told myself to be quiet but, the question kept popping up - and the reception area of the gallery was filled with folks i never see on Franklin avenue.   of the 'lighter shade of pale' variety.   like, i don't see them in Aldi's or walking the ave...   but there they were to see the beautiful paintings in the Hopeman family collection (i tried to look them up on line but never did find a link - so i am only assuming they are rich and white).   


there are also paintings by the Kiowa Five on display - who really did happen to be six, but the sixth was Lois Smokey (whose family paid the rent for the Kiowa Five) - a female from Anandarko....   who (i can only shake my head and relate)  quit painting, moved home to raise a family and took up beadwork....   stolen shamelessly from Wikipedia:   Flora Bell Schrock, Smoky's niece, said in 1995, "Aunt Louise was a hard worker... for her family. [She] started doing some beadwork, too. She really enjoyed it. And I think she had ambition [that] could have furthered... [her] art ability... But after she got married, she said, 'It's just impossible now with the children.'"<sup>[6]


and fritz Sholder - who barely, with his 1/4 blood quantum, barely makes it legally into the 'indian art' category - according to the site: Fritz Sholder: Indian/Not Indian - Sholder said he was raised white, not actually Indian....he said, 'you can't be anything if you're a quarter'.   but - he is the one designated as the one who changed 'indian art'....    oh, the complications, dualities, and dichotomies of Indian-ness and what happens when others are left to do the defining...  this indian guy whose german father was a teacher at the indian boarding schools which were created to assimilate the indian....   which is not to say his artwork isn't incredible - quite stunning in fact.....   all that said,    i do find the 'lighter shade of pale' folk's fascination with half-breeds quite fascinating....   he is lauded for painting indians with beer cans but the other paintings in the exhibit are all Indians with feathers....   ok, one is sitting in full regalia sitting on a horse smoking a cigarette...


ok...enough art snark...


back to boats made of plastic bottles and rabbit traps and snares in the back yard (which the rabbits have been quite successful at avoiding).</sup>

free and next to free ways to have fun in the winter

*build an igloo in your backyard

*ice fishing

*snowshoeing/skiing/hiking in city/county parks

*roast hotdogs and marshmallows on a grill in your back yard

*invite friends over to play board games:  monopoly, scrabble, yatzee

*minneapolis has an: ice carnival; a holidazzle parade; and an 'art shanty' event where local artists create 'art house' installations along the lines of the fish houses for ice fishing on lake minnetonka-folks walk around on the frozen lake and look at the art installations - this year they are also having performance artists perform on the ice 

*minneapolis public library:  you can 'check out' passes to the russian museum of art, the swedish institute, the foshay tower - maybe other cities have similar programs

*over the holiday season churches frequently have christmas programs, advent nights, musical choir performances and concerts - check local newspapers and bulletin boards for these events which are almost always free and family friendly

*private schools (and some public schools) also have holiday programs that are open to the public

*when my children were smaller, agencies like the Lions, Vets organizations, etc sometimes had santa days that were free and open to the public - again community newspapers and bulletin boards

*other cultural events that are often open to the public:  Kwanza, Hmong New Year, 

*go christmas caroling with friends

*hand out cookies or other holiday treats to homeless

*again, churches sometimes have Nativity pageants outdoors with real people and live animals - most children are not as denomination-centric as adults and they always love live animals

*pick a local school and attend their sporting events (community and high school tickets are always cheaper than major league sporting events) - you don't need to have a child attending the school to support your neighborhood school

*take a late night walk with friends and family on a full-moon night - incredibly beautiful

hope for the best, prepare for the worst

as i opened the local news online this am i remembered how in the past few years i have shut my phone off at night and then checked the local crime news each morning before i turned my phone back on
major grannie tip:  if you 'just know' there is going to be impending bad news, make sure you get a good nights sleep and then do your best to prepare for the worst

so, i have gotten a brief reprieve from that particular piece of drama; of course there is always new and different drama but being able to sleep at night and read the national or local news before checking the crime page is a good step in the right direction

so far today i have gotten three children off to school; moved canning jars to the basement, sawed off the trees that have volunteered in the yard and am now getting ready to watch an episode of Wired.  a friend sent me the entire series - some friends know exactly what one longs for and never gets

success...

writing with grape stained fingertips as picked grapes this labor day, hopefully sometime this evening they will become juice
will try to get back to regular posts here as time has passed and so many interesting tidbits have occurred and so many tips have been learned and not posted...  soon, soon folks

trying to write on my blog and grannie is failing

not your milk and cookies grannie: grannie sends em to camp

not your milk and cookies grannie: grannie sends em to camp: how did: "appropriate language, appropriate clothes and remember you are sisters, be kind to each other" become: grandma said, "don't make a...