Prairie Robin

It's been quite a couple of months with the children.  #1 son moved back from N Central Iowa, which created chaos and confusion while he stayed with us.  Then there were all the activities leading up to #2 sons graduation....long awaited and often uncertain....graduation. Now I have 2/3 of an empty nest.  Both boys, along with #2's girlfriend, found a little house that they decided to rent.  My house is so quiet and that's a little eerie.

The kids' move has me a bit concerned.  None of them work full time and Dan and his girlfriend will be starting college in the Fall.  Money will be very tight and there'll be a lot of new responsibilities to adjust to.  But on the other hand, they seem to be settling in.  The house they found needed some serious cosmetic work and the yard was an overgrown mess.  In just a couple of weeks, the front porch has been scraped and painted and the yard cleared of brush and debris.  They've managed to cobble together some furniture from yard sales, thrift stores and generous parents and it looks less like "Animal House" than I had anticipated.

Dan and his girlfriend left at 4:00 a.m. for their trip from Iowa to South Carolina to visit his Dad.  Neither have ever driven more than a hundred miles on their own, but they did their research and planned a good route.  My ex sent Dan his old GPS, so they won't get too lost on the way and they promised to call every couple of hours or whenever they cross a state line.  I think  their eyes glazed over with all the "advice" I gave them last night!

In spite of all more worries, the kids are doing what I raised them to do - be independent, responsible adults. 

By 3:30 p.m., my son was a high school graduate.  That may not sound like a momentous event to some, but this Mom was very proud...and relieved.  Dan is a very bright young man who has too much energy to sit still in academic classes.  He'd much rather be tearing apart a car engine or jet skiing on Lake Delhi.  School has always been "optional", a bother that had to be endured.  My wish to have a child go on to college won't be realized with this child, but I also have no doubt that he'll be successful in whatever direction he chooses.  He likes to make money and has bought and sold more cars in 3 years than I've had in 30 years!  And he always makes a big profit.  He likes to work, get his hands dirty and figure out how to fix the seemingly unfixable. 

Today, I'm a proud Mom.

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The weather here has turned towards spring and it's been absolutely gorgeous!  The temps are staying in the mid to upper 60's and we've had sunny, cloudless skies for several days.  After a harsh and brutal winter, the spring is like paradise.  Mark and I put some steak on the grill last evening and sat outside with our glasses of wine while it cooked.  The humidity was so low and we both remembered the god-awful summer weather back in Maryland.  In spite of the winters here, I wouldn't want to go back to that climate again.  I'll gladly put up with a long, cold winter so we can have 5 months of weather like this!

I bought some seeds yesterday and hope I can get them planted this week - pole and bush beans, cucumbers, summer squash and some red and yellow onion sets.  I'll be getting the tomatoes and pepper plants this week as well.  I'm still toying with the idea of a "salad" garden too. I need lots of supplies - heavy gauge wire fencing (to keep the bunnies out), rebar for stakes, tomato cages and fertilizer.  Its a big garden, 15 x 20, so there'll be some cost involved  Thank goodness for a nice tax refund!

We're trying to eat more healthy and "close to the source" which is why we want to grow our own vegetables.  Being carnivores, meat is a necessity and I'm buying that locally as well and making sure it's hormone and chemical free.  Since I can't find a full-time job, my contribution to the family finances is to freeze and can enough to get us through the next winter.  I hope I can do all I plan...it sounds like an awful amount of work.  It's worth it.

One thing I've learned to do since moving to northeast Iowa is to really.....really....appreciate spring.  After a hellish winter of brutal cold, endless inches (feet) of snow and wind that'll rip the skin off your face, a 60 degree day seems like a day in paradise. 

Yesterday was amazing.  The sun was shining, just a light breeze and really warm.  Birds were everywhere - most seemed to like the small brush piles in our year and kept busy taking small twigs for their nests.  A few robins waited by the edge of our vegetable garden plot and grabbed at worms and grubs.

About the garden plot - Mark and I decided that it was now or never to get our vegetable garden plot prepared.  Being folks with few garden tools and even less money to buy them, I supervised while Mark dug the sod up from a 12 x 20 foot plot in our backyard.  It took all day but now we have the beginnings of what I hope to be a productive source of healthy food. 

I've made some serious changes in how I shop and what we eat.  I've done this before but this time I feel very committed to making a lifelong change.  I've had several high school classmates die in the last year and it's made me very aware of my age and my health and the need to control what I can to stay healthy. 

I took a look at what we were eating and began to eliminate what wasn't nutritious, like white flour, sugar and chemicals.  I'm trying to limit our intake of starches like white rice, potatoes and pasta and concentrating on cooking lots of fresh vegetables.  Meat has become a side dish and I try to buy only lean meat and fish.  It's a little difficult because our meat department is made up of predominantly pork, but that's what happens in the #1 state for pork production.

I've found that now I rarely shop in the "middle" of the store - the place where the processed food is kept.  No more mac & cheese, Tuna Helper,  Rice-a-Roni", thing I'd cook when I was too lazy to put thought into what I was feeding my family.  My grocery list is full of fruits and vegetables and we're eating fantastic salads.  The best thing that's happened so far is that we're losing weight.  I'm down almost a full size and have lost 12 pounds.  I'm amazed at how easy weight loss has been when I don't "diet" but eat healthy food.  

So, back to spring.  We'll be outside again today, finishing up the veggie garden and digging some new flower beds.  I'm going to get out the Weber and cook some Beer Can Chicken for dinner.  It  should be a good day.

Serves 6.

Chicken sits on a can of beer for 2 hours in this dish from barbecue expert Steven Raichlen. (BBQ University)

1 whole chicken (4 to 5 pounds)

3 tablespoons of dry barbecue rub

1 can (12 ounces) beer, with 6 holes punched in the top of the can

1. Remove the pockets of fat inside the chicken cavity. Rinse and dry the chicken. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of rub inside the bird, 1 tablespoon rub all over the skin. Use half the remaining rub to sprinkle between the skin and flesh.

2. Light a charcoal fire using the indirect cooking method: Set the charcoal around the sides of the grill. Set a foil .

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled today that the ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.  The only recourse at this point is for the Legislature to bring a referendum to the voters.  My problem with that is if a law is said to be unconstitutional, how can the people vote against that?  But for now, I'm happy for my friends who will benefit from this ruling.

The following is the message I will present tomorrow night to the Delaware County School board

Two of my three children have required special education services.  When we lived in Maryland, obtaining these services was frustrating and difficult.  I had to rely on my training as a paralegal and even went to the extent of getting training in Special Education law just to be able to get them the minimum amount of help they needed.

 When we came to Delaware County, I was shocked at the ease in which my children were helped, both in the middle school and high school.   The IEP team bent over backwards to design plans that would meet the challenges that my children had and their Skills teachers, Stephanie Maury and Jim McDermott, were able to bring them to a level of achievement beyond what I thought possible.  This couldn’t have happened without the presence of special education associates in their classrooms. They are a vital and irreplaceable part of the IEP team.

 Most of these children spend one period a day in a Skills classroom and 3 periods in a general education setting and their difficulties don’t end when they leave that Skills class.  Special education associates are a bridge between Skills and the other classes and they are there to help the students apply what they have been taught in Skills to those other classes.  I think it is asking too much of a regular associate to be aware of the individualized help that special needs students have and it would be to the detriment of all the students they try to assist. Without the specialized one-on-one help of the Special Education Associates, it is my firm belief that my children would not have been able to function in the regular classrooms. 

The following is the message I will present tomorrow night to the Delaware County School board

Two of my three children have required special education services.  When we lived in Maryland, obtaining these services was frustrating and difficult.  I had to rely on my training as a paralegal and even went to the extent of getting training in Special Education law just to be able to get them the minimum amount of help they needed.

 When we came to Delaware County, I was shocked at the ease in which my children were helped, both in the middle school and high school.   The IEP team bent over backwards to design plans that would meet the challenges that my children had and their Skills teachers, Stephanie Maury and Jim McDermott, were able to bring them to a level of achievement beyond what I thought possible.  This couldn’t have happened without the presence of special education associates in their classrooms. They are a vital and irreplaceable part of the IEP team.

 Most of these children spend one period a day in a Skills classroom and 3 periods in a general education setting and their difficulties don’t end when they leave that Skills class.  Special education associates are a bridge between Skills and the other classes and they are there to help the students apply what they have been taught in Skills to those other classes.  I think it is asking too much of a regular associate to be aware of the individualized help that special needs students have and it would be to the detriment of all the students they try to assist. Without the specialized one-on-one help of the Special Education Associates, it is my firm belief that my children would not have been able to function in the regular classrooms. 

I was an enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama and that's an absurd understatement.  Not since Barry Commoner in 1980 had there been a candidate that seemed different, more in tune with doing the right thing...listening to the people...not owned by corporate interests.  I had thought I was so far out of the mainstream that I would  never be able to participate in everyday politics.  Obama's victory in our Iowa caucuses, his nomination as the Democratic candidate, winning the general election and his inauguration were indescribably emotional events for me. 

Now I have this unsettling feeling of uneasiness.  The economy is in the toilet, unimaginable amounts of money are being thrown at the problam and nothing seems to be working.  I know it'll take time and very little time has gone by, by I still can't believe this approach will work.  People....real people...are losing their jobs and homes, unemployment compensation and applications for food stamps are soaring, everyone is nervous.  People are getting really angry.

Barack Obama is walking a very precarious fine line between listening to Wall Street monied bigwigs and Working People.  I just hope we aren't on the losing side.