Story Time is Saved!!

I can say with some assuredness, our efforts to protect the public library from budget cuts were largely responsible for the success of doing so.

Sadly, our parks took a big hit.


As a Mother Acting Up, a regular mama, a citizen, a worker, a tax payer, I'd like to be hooked in to a regular updating of what exactly our local government is working on, when proposals go up for vote, and how we can be the village that makes a consistent difference for our children by raising our voices. Anyone have notions of this? As friend Kate points out, such systems are in place nationally, but local efforts should also be in place somehow. If they don't exist, we need to make it so.

For Better or Worse.

Working on the life makeover.

Fuzzy side view.

Time for a drastic change: goodbye twelve inches.

Me. Only in Space.

Come on by. Be my friend.

Template for letter to support the public library.

(For greater scoop on the library cuts, look here.)

Template for letter to send in support of the public library to: MetroCouncilBudgetAndFinanceCommittee@nashville.gov

Dear Public Servants,

I write today to request that you represent the many Nashvillians who oppose budget cuts to our public library. As a citizen and a parent strongly vested in community building and cultural offerings on an equal playing field, I ask you to stand strong for our public library’s programming.

The proposed cuts would reduce children’s programming at the downtown library alone by a minimum of one third, thereby denying our smallest citizens a rich cultural resource and punishing our city’s next generation of leaders by our misguided sense of balance. I encourage you to contact me to speak further about this issue, and thank you in advance for your response.

With all good wishes and hope for all our children,

[Name],

[organization if applicable]

[titles, like these: mother, outreach coordinator, community organizer, tax payer]

[address]

File under grousing. (Not hunting)

It’s the house of puke and poop here. Started Sunday night with me vomiting myself into incapacitation all night into Monday, and since, pooping myself silly. My Beloved Mister had to stay home from work Monday to care for Ziggy, as for the first time ever, I was unable to do anything for him at all but nurse him. I’m still fevering on and off and having diarrhea, though it’s down from the constancy of previous days. Ziggy's been running a fever of 102 since yesterday and having some diarrhea also. I only checked email for the first in days yesterday.

I am hopeful we can catch a bit of a damned break here soon!

We won’t attend our MAU Mobilize the Mamas action & playgroup tomorrow; I don’t think we’re in the clear for passing anything along even if we suddenly feel better by then, and honestly, there’s just too much here for me to do right now.

I feel like Loretta Lynn in One's on the Way, but I'm the urban mama of a singleton and with the pukes and poops and the diapers stacking up needing washing and the kitchen sink plumbing backed up and pooling in the yard, I need to get a handle on it and be grateful for indoor plumbing. Period.

From this point forward, I’m just working to get well as get as much packed and / or purged / picked up by World Relief by the end of next week as possible. My in-laws are here a week from tomorrow for their annual summer visit and I want things to be manageable for a fine visit and not as much disorganization when they were last here at New Year when we were also mid-move.....

At this point, to keep stress down, I’m pretty singularly focused on getting in my work hours this month and doing what needs doing here and arranging to get everything moved. My heart is breaking over missing out on the big family beach vacation the second week of July -- due to this move!-- and I have to hand it to my sister (oh she of much planning and organization) who is right: my life is always a mess and something always seems to invade to muck up plans, so our little family isn't worth planning around.

My wild child is alternating between feverish gibberish and wanting to nurse, nurse, nurse, and telling me “don’t like that!” while pushing away the offending item. (He really does think he's already two!) He’s also taken breaks between this and that to smash saltines all over the floor (while saying, "Daddy just cleaned that!") and to write with highlighter marker all over the couch.

This. Too. Shall. Pass.

I am so flipping far from a saint, and since we’re supposedly not given more than we can handle, I know that an easier time (big picture) is coming…

Public Library Budge Cuts -- Act Now.

Please share widely!!

There are severe—to the tune of $800 K!! -- budgetary cuts proposed for the Nashville Metro libraries. These cuts would deeply affect the Main downtown library including our superb story time and children’s programming, but also other branch days & hours of operation as well as staffing. These cuts go up for vote beginning Tuesday. One of the great equalizers and community builders, the PUBLIC library brings art, literature, culture and a haven to all walks of life in our city. Keep it so!

*Even IF you’ve already written to your council person, the budget committee needs to hear from its constituents—I am told that this is the only way to have your voice heard and to possibly STOP these cuts.* A simple email in support of the library and in opposition of the proposed cuts will do the trick. Please send your email here: MetroCouncilBudgetAndFinanceCommittee@nashville.gov

(Need a template for an email? Holler.)

Here’s WSMV’s piece from last weekfeaturing Nashville MAU Deanna Pilkenton.

And here, Suburban Turmoil in yesterday’s Nashville Scene gives the issue some ink.

MBH on Mothering Mag's Mommy Chats This Week.

Ms. Booty Homemaker, in the capacity of MAU outreach coordinator & Nashville MAU community organizer is on Mothering's Mommy Chats this week: Wednesday June 13 at 1 PM Eastern.

Come by and talk about community building, mother activism, and summer family field trips to visit elected officials.


And here's the transcript from last month's pre Mother's Day chat.

Happy June.

IM000452, originally uploaded by paigelabab.

Huh?

IM000456, originally uploaded by paigelabab.

Whatever makes you think *I* like ketchup?

What's out there?

IM000455, originally uploaded by paigelabab.

Ferry? Check. Hot dog truck? Check.

IM000415, originally uploaded by paigelabab.

Seeds and Stems.

My Beloved Mister, if nothing ever else, still makes me laugh my ass off.

And of course, there's plenty else. Some of it ill-fitting, some an uphill climb, some just right cozy like a comfy chair or porridge of the proper temperature. We'll have been married for five years this October, and this week marks the anniversary of the same vintage of one of the darkest and most relationship changing chapters of our time together.

Last night, laying in bed with the fan rattling and the baby boy suckling away and the books surrounding us, a library copy of Barbara Kingsolver's "Small Wonder" poking me sharply in the hip, I laugh and laugh and laugh myself silly when my Mister says, "You gotta wash that thang!" I'd commented on heat and neglect and bother. I'll leave the remainder of the conversation to your imagination. Given my propensity for idiotic bursts of hilarity, your made-up version will likely be better than the real thing.



"Uh oh," says Ziggy, for the umpteenth time. "Sumpin' down there."

He points to the place between the head of the bed and the wall. Once upon a long, long, long time ago, maybe a book fell there, but nothing since, though to hear Ziggy tell it, it's a regular happening, like, every few minutes some nights.

"Mommy! Uh oh. Uh oh. Sumpin' down there."

"What is it?" I ask, hoping to convey the proper concern despite my exhaustion and the mental worry beads I'm massaging over how to pay the latest round of hospital bills, put a deposit down on the new (as yet unfound) place, set aside the tax money from earnings, and hire someone to move all our heaps of stuff instead of doing it ourselves in dribs and drabs.

"Goldfish crackers!" says Ziggy, wholly delighted with himself.

I laugh. The Mister laughs from where he's pasting up the boy's toothbrush.

"Uh oh, Mommy! Sumpin' down there."

"What is it this time?"

"Bug!"

The next time it is graham crackers. I fully expect the bug to graduate to eating or baking the blasted things between the head of the bed and wall.



Somehow I conned the Mister into changing foul poopy (thank you, eye teeth!) diaper number three last night.

While he's cleaning up the heinie and preparing the boy for bath, something suddenly reminds me that I've forgotten to share Ziggy's latest joke and I run in to tell him that it's, "Junie Moon, August."

Clever boy.



Yesterday early morning the Mister and I make plans of action as if we are battle ships or pirates at sea or even a mostly happily married couple raising a baby and working too hard for as much fun as we'd like. We settle on a yard sale date, agree on timetables and budgets and familial requirements with regard to this unsettling of our lives that's been thrust upon us by our landlord couples' decision to sell the house we live in and begin the scraping of toxic paint sooner rather than later. We agree, in far less silly words, that there's a rainbow at the the end of all this somewhere. (The lovers, the dreamers, and me; all of us under it....)

I skitter out to the backyard, coffee in hand and quickly beckon the Mister out to see what I'm on about. All my seeds have sprouted, including the difficult cilantro and the butternut squash that I felt sure Ziggy and Bert the Dog had pulled from its place.

From the Swiss chard to the Black Beauty zucchini, these seeds will make stunning little transplants that I plant to pot right up with its carefully cultivated lasagna bedding, to find a home where the rest of us land in the next month or so.

Only my rosemary, started from a small organic plant, suffers and dies a way bit by bit, unhappy in the ceramic pot given us by a friend who hauled it from Kansas City to be at our wedding to eat hot chicken and dance with the bride.

And maybe it's suiting. The herb for remembrance seems to tell me, some things perhaps should just fade away and be forgotten.


Scraped all together, rolled up tight, this is a good life.

Support the downtown public library!!

At storytime today we learned that there has been a highly *unpublicized* campaign to cut the downtown public library (main branch) budget!! This goes to vote soon, and should the move pass, the main library will reduce its hours, opening at 10, and thereby reducing children's programming by *at least* 2 storytimes per week.

I spoke with Mary Mary and the director of the children's programming after the storytime, asking what could be done in support of them and to whom we should address our concerns. They asked that all who do NOT support these budget cuts contact their district council person and let them know your thoughts. If you don't know what district you live in, who your council person is, or the contact information for said person, please look here.

I share with you the letter I wrote to my district 6 councilman, Mike Jameson. It is heartfelt and comes from a real mama's hope for her son and her husband and her community at large, not from a slick professional, even though I can be that when necessary. Feel free to use it as a template, crib from it, or whatever might be helpful.

Dear Councilman Jameson, I write to you today to ask for your support of Nashville’s downtown public library, its main branch, and a central part of my --and many other-- families’ lives. As we do near weekly, my 20 month old son and I headed to the public library downtown this morning—it is such a rich and wonderful community resource for all of Nashville Metro as well as our city’s visitors. We generally go to storytime, have snacks and play in the courtyard by the fountain, and spend plenty of time finding just the right books and sometimes DVDs to bring home for our family’s enjoyment. The theatre where storytime and the puppet shows are held is magnificent and the children’s programming has been an absolute delight. Our son adores Mary Mary, The Professor and Library Pete, their songs, and the puppets. If you haven’t spent time witnessing these activities yourself, I highly encourage a little library storytime; we’d be glad to share a morning with you there anytime. In addition to being exposed to literature and arts (the library shows films!, hosts fine art shows!, puts on lectures and programs of all stripes!), my husband and I love that our family is part of the fabric of our community—that the public library is just that: public. We also regularly visit Representative Cooper’s office to share our hopes for our community as well, now that his office is located at the main library. As National Outreach Coordinator and Community Organizer of our local Mothers Acting Up community (www.mothersactingup.org) I followed the request of other community mothers to choose our beloved downtown public library as our alternate gathering place when the public parks aren’t weather amenable for our weekly Mobilize the Mamas play and action group. As mothers leading our families and our communities, we want to support the institution that our tax dollars pay for, and joyfully inhabit the space that we feel so fortunate to access, along with all kinds of folks from our greater community. For these reasons, I was heartbroken to learn at this morning’s storytime that there are budgetary cuts that may compel the main branch of the public library to reduce their hours, and to cut back on children’s programming next month. I ask for your vote in support of maintaining the library’s current hours and programming. More than anyone, our city’s children would be done a great disservice should the funding (and thereby magic!) for our main library be diminished. I look forward to hearing from you on this matter. In public & peaceful parenting, Paige La Grone Babcock, for [MBM & Ziggy], too

Dear Universe.

Dear Universe,

The short of it is that our family needs a new place to rent at the very latest by July 31, but even better by July 1 or July 15.

What we need:

2 / 3 BR home, or at least 1 good BR with an office study or alcove for my work

Fenced in yard – must be OK for sweet hard working family with toddler, (exceptionally nice) dog and mostly outdoor cats

Safety is important.

$700-750 + utilities is the what we’d like to pay

We’ve been in East Nashville for 5 years, but are willing to look in other neighborhoods.

Thank you Universe. We know you’ll provide.

And y’all will holler if you hear of something!

Many kind thanks,

MBH, for the Family Booty

(S)wept up.

So here's the thing that has me in fits of weeping: my garden.


It's thriving, you see, but we'll have left the premises prior to it bearing fruit.


I received a call from my landlord today, saying they were going to sell the house. That was his opening gambit after he asked if we could talk for a few minutes. Ah, I said. (Thinking to myself, it's okay, we'll be here the rest of the year, then we'll be looking to buy.)

Whammo. No dice.

Well, we already have a buyer, he says. But since you have the kid, we'll give you until August to get out.

So that's doable. August, I think. it changes up some plans, but it's doable.

We'll be there tomorrow to start scraping the house to paint it.

Dear readers, if there's one thing you know about me, it's that I'm the mother of a baby. A toddler. An under two wild wonder. I am a family woman.

Scraping a house vintage 1939 with this orally fixated tiny human living on premises is simply out of the question.

I counter to the landlord that tomorrow is problematic and ask for a delay. Fine, says, he. But it buys up our extended time here.

And so: here we are. I called My Beloved Mister at work, but he was so slammed and a bit stressed sounding, I chose to wait before sharing our BIG NEWS.

And I'm wondering for the gazillionth time what karmic joke, what Universe plan is at work, for since marrying as madly in love individuals with dreamy dreams to live out, we've experienced one challenge after another, one displaced dream following another, and frankly, it's rent the fabric of our commitment, and has damaged the tether that once was so effortlessly hopeful and even danced between us.

But all of this, even the mothering part, I handle and think of what comes next and how quickly to move on purging, finding a new place to hang our hats, even leaving the neighborhood which has likely not only outpriced us as owners, but now as renters, too.

And then, while washing up lunch dishes, I look out the window at my garden, and I am awash in tears.


Digging in, both figuratively and literally, the garden held my hope for all things here, even making (somehow) the likelihood of no more children bearable.


And so it goes, fits of weeping and winnowing.

Car seat safety.

Car seat safety is serious business, so the rest of life can be fun!

Thanks to pediatric RN & Child Passenger Safety Tech Karen for the hook up on this information.

Her advice during my first year of motherhood made the choice to be an extended rear facing family easy, even though that meant the added expense of moving from the Britax Roundabout (which we LOVED) and spent a fair piece on, to the Britax Marathon. I SO should have taken the advice of my sister-in-law who also has tall babies, as our Ziggy outpaced his rear facing Roundabout before he hit weight limit. At 27 pounds, Ziggy has six pounds yet to go prior to hitting the rear facing weight limit. Once he does, we'll have both the Roundabout and the Marathon for forward facing in our vehicles.

Pokey little life of mine.

Lasagna style, in the ground and in pots, here's how our garden grows thus far: straight eight cucumbers, bright lights swiss chard, paste tomatoes, green to gold bell peppers, dill, cilantro, chives, oregano, rosemary, Mexican sunflowers, broccoli (Ziggy's favorite!), cantaloupe, butternut squash, Black Beauty zucchini....

There are also small beds and pots of vinca, impatiens, petunias and a white lacy border plant whose name I do not recall.

More to come with the additional bed construction completion, including: flat leaf parsley, sweet basil, cosmos, giant sunflowers, wando peas, scarlet runner beans, black filet bush beans, heirloom brandywine tomatoes, cooking carrots, some more seeds for succession planting, plus the lettuces and pumpkins and other goodies for later in the season.

When there's more time, I'll post some photos of my work in progress, and leave you with these of my fellas checking out an extra large garden slug.