Author: Shane

Quote Monday stays up late

/ Shane / Leave a comment

::Talking about Evie and Mama switching places::
Me: “I guess I’d have to read Mama a story and tuck her in downstairs.”
Evie: “Yeah! And then I could stay up late! And wash dishes!!”

Evie: “I saw a picture of Jiggy Nye.”
Me: “Who is Jiggy Nye again?”
Evie: “A cold hearted scoundrel who mistreats his horse Penny.”
…
Sara: “Tell daddy about Josephena.”
Evie: “A girl whose wishes and hopes are as big as the Texas sky.”

I think someone’s been spending a little bit too much time with the promo copy.

Ollie: “Do grownups who don’t have kids eat?”

MLK and the 6 year old brain

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Martin Luther King Jr. day was on Monday, and the kids were off school for the holiday. (Sorry for not posting this on Monday, but I didn’t want to step on the giveaway post!) I’m sure this is the first time that Evie has really realized there was such a holiday as MLK, so she was a little confused about what exactly this entailed.

“Do we leave out a gift or cookies or something?” she asked the night before. She seemed a little worried that if she didn’t leave *something* she ran the risk of angering the ghost of Mr. King. After all, Santa leaves presents overnight, as does the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, so it stands to reason that the Good Doctor would as well.

(“Can you imagine the ghost of Martin Luther King creeping around your house at night? What would he leave?” I asked my co-worker. “A dream” was his (obvious) response.)

In preparation for MLK, Evie has been learning a lot about civil rights leaders in school; Martin Luther King as well as people like Ruby Bridges, Rosa Parks, and Cesar Chavez. This of course leads into discussions of slavery, race, rights, the underground railroad and assassination. These are all sort of heavy topics for kindergarten, so I have to admit I was interested to see what Evie thought about all of this. These topics carry so much baggage that it’s practically impossible to see them on their own, without all of the history and controversy and discussion that swirls around it. But Evie’s coming at it from a completely blank slate.

Her take was refreshing: she doesn’t get it. At all.

A 6 year old is basically obsessed with fairness. “He has more in his bowl!” “Ollie, count how many raisins you have!” “Why does daddy get the extra pancake?” “Ollie took two turns on the scooter! He’s not letting me have my share!” To Evie it is inconceivable that someone should not be treated equally. EVERYTHING should be equal ALL THE TIME. Any unfairness is inherently wrong and should be rectified. Immediately.

This is not to say that little kids are somehow blind to race. *Quite* the opposite. I think that biologically speaking it was probably very important for children to quickly distinguish and distrust “outsiders”. I think when parents pretend that racial differences don’t exist, children just think we’re crazy. Our approach has always been to acknowledge that yes, that person is different than us. Isn’t it great that we aren’t all the same? (This does not always go over very well. If you recall, childhood does not treat people who are “different” very kindly, however you define different.)

In any case, when the ghost of Martin Luther King slipped down our chimney Sunday night, I’d like to think he smiled that, 46 years after his death, a little blonde haired, blue-eyed girl wanted to leave some milk and cookies to her favorite mythical being: the patron saint of fairness.

We’re not there, Mr. King, but we’ve made some progress.

Double giveaway!

/ Shane / 8 Comments

What’s better than a free giveaway? How about TWO free giveaways?

My good friend Alexis runs an amazing sewing business out of her home. She can make all kinds of things, but I’m telling you right now, this is your go to shop for homemade muppet merchandise. You heard that right, homemade muppet merchandise. If, for some reason, you’re not in the market for muppet merchandise, she can work with you to make pretty much anything you want (she’s that good!)

To celebrate our individual awesomenesses, Alexis and I are doing some cross-promotional giveaways.

Over on the ThreadAbell facebook page, I am giving away a free paperback of OOMPH: A Little Super Goes a Long Way, which contains my story “Random Play All and the League of Awesome”.

OOMPH is an anthology of the tremendous potential of trivial superpowers. From the promo copy:

Oomph: A Little Super Goes a Long Way explores what it takes to be a superhero with just a little bit of power, where heroes and heroines use their small gifts to great advantage.

Sometimes you don’t need a big lever to move the world.

Sounds amazing, right? Dare I say…super?

All you need to do to enter is to “like” the ThreadAbell facebook page and then leave a comment on the ThreadAbell facebook page about a favorite post from my blog (and there are SO many awesome posts to chose from!).

So easy, right?

But wait, there’s more!

Alexis is giving away a headband here on my blog. I can personally certify the awesomeness of her headbands, since she’s made some for Sara:

Sara ThreadAbell Headband

ThreadAbell Headband

(Note: this is just an example headband, impromptu selfie-style, not the headband that is up for grabs!)

All you need to do to enter is to “like” the ThreadAbell facebook page and then leave a comment on THIS BLOG POST telling me what your favorite item is from the ThreadAbell Etsy shop (and there are SO many awesome items to choose from!).

Just to re-iterate, comment HERE to win the headband, comment THERE to win the book. And in any case, like her page!

A winner for both drawings will be chosen randomly from the respective comments on Sunday, January 26th (6 p.m. Central time). For those entering the drawing for the headband, make sure to leave your email address in the comment form so I can contact you if you win.

(And, for those of you who don’t win, OOMPH is available in paperback, as well as for the Kindle or Nook. If you’ve already read the book, please leave a review on Amazon!)

The Bead Chain Experiement

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Alright you guys, this is cool.

It’s a little bit difficult to explain, but you know those little beads on a chain, like maybe you’d see as the cord of a lightbulb? It turns out they have some pretty crazy, almost supernatural looking, properties.

It’s easier to show than to try to explain, but once the beads get going, they continue to go until the jar is empty, shooting into the air as if they’re propelled, or almost like gravity has been reversed.

It’s definitely worth watching the video, which also includes slow motion footage.

Mind, blown.

The Little Goat

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The weekend before my birthday we were looking for a place to go out to eat. We don’t go out often, so when we do we usually try to make sure it’s somewhere we’ve been wanting to get to (in other words, we want to make sure it’s worth it and not waste our chance). We have other concerns as well; with two small kids we want something that’s casual and kid friendly, and probably not too expensive.

In this case, we settled on The Little Goat.

For those who are not local to Chicago, The Little Goat is sort of the little sister of chef Stephanie Izard‘s extremely popular Girl & the Goat (Stephanie Izard, you may know, was the winner of the 4th season of Top Chef). In Chicago, both restaurants are very well known.

I’ve never been to Girl & the Goat (and probably never will be), but I have to say that The Little Goat absolutely lived up to its reputation. Most likely because of the weather, but we were able to sit immediately, with no wait. It was exactly what we were looking for: absolutely casual, the kids were not out of place at all, and the food was amazing.

When you look at the menu, it doesn’t seem like anything special. Breakfast food, sandwiches, burgers. However, there really is something about a good chef, who can take something you’ve had a million times before and just make one little difference, like kimchi on a reuben, or just using really, really good bread, and suddenly it’s the best reuben you’ve ever had.

I tried the sloppy goat, the pork belly pancake, and (my favorite) the “Los Drowned” (a braised beef sandwich with au jus, but so much more than that). Even the smoked fries were amazing. One of the best parts of the meal was the “Little Goat” coffee, which is espresso with spices and steamed goat’s milk. I’ve seen it described as a “coffee/chai mashup” which was pretty accurate I think.

In other words, highly recommended, and I will definitely go back.