To School or Not To School

About a year and a half ago we made the decission to home school our son. It was probably one of the hardest decions we made as a family. Today marks the day we decided to try school again :)

We found an amazing school that we feel will help our son be the person we know he can be.  Nothing is set in stone but the application is in and we are well on the way to no longer being able to be called a homeschooling family. Keep your fingers crossed that is all goes smoothly and my sweet boy will be in school in January?!? Wow!

Mothering Magazine Article on New Toy Legislation

Toy Safety Legislation: Good Intentions Lead to Catastrophic Results for the Natural Toy Industry

Imagine Christmas morning without Selecta, Haba, Sarah's Silks, Etsy toys, or American toys from small, creative mom-and-pop natural toy companies. It reminds one of the Grinch who stole Christmas—and unfortunately, it is days away from coming to pass. That's why we desperately need your help to contact your representatives in Congress and share your concerns.

Parents everywhere have been deeply concerned and up in arms about the unsafe state of toys in the USA. We've been happy to see laws formed to ensure more safety for children everywhere. It's been disappointing to find out that the law is not retroactive—but now, there is even more disappointment at hand. The new testing protocols will ironically hurt and undermine the one group that has been a toy safety advocate for children all along: safe, principled, small and independent toymakers and sellers.

The new toy safety law, if not amended, will require every toymaker (including the ones we love so much on Etsy) to test each toy at a cost of $500 to $1500 per toy. European toy companies will also have to retest their toys, at the same expense, with a company that tests to American standards. This sounds fair, until you consider that Europe has an established, exceptionally thorough and successful testing system in place, and the tests would be redundant.

Increased toy safety is absolutely the right direction for our country; however, a poorly nuanced law like this one, as it stands, will devastate the very best parts of the toy industry and leave only companies like Mattel and Fisher Price standing. Please write and/or call your representative to share your concern.

CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE

EXAMPLE LETTER

Here's an example: Holztiger is a beloved German toy company that produces wooden animals and figures, painted with clean, non-toxic paints. If they were to meet this new law's testing requirements, instead of only having to test a vat of paint, which could be applied to 300 different animals, they have to test each animal or figure individually. A small company like Holztiger would have to spend $150,000 to $450,000 to test 300 toys. And this would need to be done on a regular basis—at least annually, but possibly with each production run.

Sarah's Silks is a beloved and popular source for playsilks, canopies, and more. They produce their silks in a Chinese village within a program that allows mothers to be work-at-home-moms. Sarah's Silks also runs a Waldorf school in China with the proceeds from its business. They would need to test each color silk four times, given the four components of the playsilk.

Yesterday, Selecta, a German natural toy company, announced that they will no longer sell their toys in the USA. "This is just the beginning of the disappearance of natural toys in the USA," said Rob Wilson of Challenge and Fun, an online natural toy store.

Says Adam Frost of TheWoodenWagon.com, "We are very selective in the manufacturers we work with. In our discussions with these workshops, we've been told by many that they are satisfied that their toys and stuffed animals meet or exceed all safety standards, and that they would not be able to bear the expense of testing. (The same of course is true for small American manufacturers who produce their goods in this country.) This would in effect cut off the supply of all those toys that have been held up as exemplars of good craftsmanship, the imaginative and natural toys to which many parents have turned since the lead scares began to happen a year or more ago."

Article from the Babywearer

TBW Statement Opposing the Consumer Product Safety Commission Improvement Act There is little more important than keeping children safe. However, The Babywearer is gravely concerned about the impact of the pending Consumer Product Safety Commission Improvement Act. We believe that if this Act is enforced, there will be serious economic consequences on the child/baby product industry, and specifically to manufacturers of babycarriers.

The Act would require ALL manufacturers - including small business owners who sew their products by hand and artisans who sell to help support their art - to submit each piece of their product for cost-prohibitive government-approved testing. Each component - buttons, threads, fabrics, padding, etc. would need to be tested independently for lead content. The cost and extent of this lead testing would be impossible for any small business to afford.

Thousands of small businesses will be forced to close. Consumers will have fewer products to choose from. In the babycarrier world, the only products that will remain will be ones those that are manufactured en masse - and are widely considered inferior to those made in smaller quantities.

The date that CPSIA is set to be enforced has already earned a nickname by many experts: "National Bankruptcy Day."

Please write to your Senators and Congressperson and express your concern about the CPSIA.

More information:
Petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/e...SIA/index.html
About the bill:
http://www.cpsc.gov/ABOUT/Cpsia/legislation.html
Read more about what's being dubbed National Bankruptcy Day here:
http://nationalbankruptcyday.com/

Holidays are Crazy!

Often I am so busy running about that I spend little time reflecting. I bet most of us fall into the pattern of the unreflected life with our crazy scheduled. As the holiday approach I find myself thinking more and more about people and places I have known.
I grew up in a valley nestled between ever changing mountains and never realized just how much I loved those mountains.



When about 6 years ago we move to Chicago it hit me that I missed geography, who knew? This last September we moved to the bay area (really back to the bay area) and I am finaly able to look again at mountains.

CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN

Posted by Ezra Klein on November 7, 2008 10:01 AM

On Monday night, at the Obama rally in Manassas, Virginia, I stood by the press railing watching the most poignant scene I'd witnessed during the whole campaign. There were two small children, both on their father's backs. At the beginning, they were about 10 feet from each other, staring anxiously at the stage. One was black, the other white. The little white kid had an Obama sign, the little black kid didn't. They took stock of each other. Soon, the little white kid leaned all the way over to try and give his sign to his new friend. The fathers, noticing, moved closer to each other. And the kids held the sign together. I had forgotten my camera, and was begging others to take pictures. April Winchell, however, succeeded:

Proud To Be An American

For the first time in my adult life I am proud to be an American! Last night was probably one of the five most memorable events in my life. It is right up their with my first date with my husband, our wedding, and the birth of my two children. Why, you ask? Because I watched the dawning of a new age, the first step of the country I love becoming a country to truly be proud of!

Last night I sat on my couch with my mom and two cuties watching on my laptop MSNBC (we are going without tv) the election coverage. My husband was at work watching the coverage with his co-workers. Theo my 7 year old son who has been doing his part to campaign for Obama for the last year was dancing around singing "Yes We Can." (You should hear some of the park conversations he has had about the state of the country. That boy is too funny sometimes.) Well, here we are at the point of no return the states are being called....no way Pennsylvania, could it be real. Obama/Biden won Pennsylvania!!! Until that point I hadn't realized how worried I really was, that horrible knot in my stomach finally loosened. Once we won Pennsylvania I knew we Won!


Obama campaigned with a message of change and hope and that is exactly what I feel. As a country we are poised for change and I am so hopeful for the coming years. We as citizens, as people, as friends, and as families have an obligation to make change happen, to strive for greatness and reach our goals of environmental stability, equality, the economy, healthcare for all, and peace. I say to you, "Yes We Can!"

As overjoyed I am with the victory in the presidential election, I am embarrassed and sadden that in this day and age that Ballot Measure California Proposition 8: Ban on Gay Marriage won. This is the first time in our history as a Country that we have taken away a right. We have come so far and yet it is not far enough. So to take a quote from our President Elect's running mate and our Vice President Elect Joe Biden, "When you get knocked down, Get up!" Proposition 8 has knock us down and as a State I say "Get Up!" We need to fight for the rights of everyone to have the ability to marry.

Thank you to all of those who voted and worked on so hard to make this happen for all of us. I thank you for the promise of hope for myself, my family and most of all for my children. President Elect Obama and Vice President Elect Biden I am here and ready for change I promise to be one of the many proud Americans to work hard and do my part as a citizen for these United States. Just Ask! :)

Talk to Your Parents About John McCain

Are you really my friend?

Facebook really are you my friend?
It has been a long time since I have even thought about my hometown...a speck stuck between beautiful mountains in upstate New York. Really, you could drive through it and never realize with all of our three stop lights. I had spent almost 18 years of my life in the small town and never really found my place, so when I left it never even dawned on me that I would ever miss it. It has been about 12 years since I have step foot in my hometown. Crazy!
Last week I got a Facebook friend request from an old friend from my old camp....ok, so I was not great at the whole camp thing and ended up as a 12 year old assistant camp counselor. Let just say I am not a big joiner. Well, this request was from one of the counselors that I worked with and became friends with. She and I have spoken through out the years on and off and it had been 4 yrs since I had spoke to her. It was wonderful to hear from her, really I missed her.... not that many people know me that well and it is sometimes nice to be reminded of who you are.
Of course I added her to my friends list:)
What I hadn't realized at the time was that adding her meant that on Facebook I would see all the other people I went to camp with....
In my haste to Make Friends I added tons of people that I hadn't thought about in forever...sometimes forgetting that really I didn't like them 15yrs ago and really we are NOT Friends! So, other Facebook users how do you politely say "um sorry but really you are not my friend."
Here is one example of someone I would rather not have on my friends list;
So in highschool I was a skater, I know it really doesn't seem like the kinda of thing I would be, at least if you met me today, but I was baggie pants and all....
Most of my friends were guys from other surrounding towns and we would all get together at Raves on the weekends. I was one of the youngest in my group of friends and made a practice of staying over at other peoples houses when we went to Raves so as not to come home at 4 a.m. and have to explain myself.
One of my friends (lets call her X )was dating a buddie (lets call him Y)of mine and I was going to crash at Y's house with a bunch of other people. I was the only other girl which apparently was an issue to X.
Ok, It is like 2 a.m. and Y comes over and asks if I can stay at someone else's house that his house was packed. So, I asked around and I was going to say with a girl I kinda new but had never been to her house or anything before.
Y drops us off at this other girls house. We are getting ready for bed and her dad wakes up and starts screaming at us. He is was not pleased with the time we arrived home and wants to drive me to my house, which was about 45 min away. I was freaking out and call Y, by this time it was like 3 a.m., Y's mom answers and I apologize and explain what is going on. Y's mom was hysterically laughing and got him on the phone. Luckily, Y's mom knew me and liked me!!!!
Y tells me to stay put and he will be their in 10 min.
After laughing his butt off Y tells me that my good friend X had been uncomfortable with me staying at his house. Y was pissed he said at her and himself for not being a better friend to me and felt really bad. He gave me a long lecture about friends and said I needed to pick better ones...I introduced them...oops.
Y broke up with X over the whole thing and I stopped talking to X.......
Anyway I am not even sure if I ever told her why or that I knew what she had told Y.
Ok, she of all people is now my Friend on Facebook.....Argh!

So, dear readers of my tragic highschool drama what would you do?

New Look

With the new year we decided to do some decorating and here are just a couple of things we bought from some lovely etsy sellers.