It's Sunday, and I'm not depressed!

Sunday nights are when Darrel and I sit down to compare calendars. This was an essential act back when we shared a vehicle; it's still an important time to clarify expectations, coordinate schedules, and act preemptively to help our calendars be reflections of our values. Unfortunately, the combination of looking back over the weekend (and all the things I wanted to do but didn't) and looking forward to a week too full to manage makes me feel overwhelmed and depressed, and I usually go to bed grouchy on Sunday nights.

Thankfully, tonight is different, partly because tomorrow is a "holiday." DJ is off school; Darrel has to go to work as usual, so I've already abandonend any hopes of getting things done tomorrow, and will be instead satisfied if I make it through the day without yelling at the kids. (sidenote: at times recently I have seriously contemplated adjusting my parenting style so that every time my child says "NO!" they get slapped upside the head. I've been preparing my children for a world of reason, negotiation, logic, discussion--the world as I hope it is. But what if the world is not like that? Perhaps blind obedience would equip them better, and make my life a little less challenging.)

There are also a number of fun things coming up this week. Call me irresponsible if you want, but I am skipping out not once but twice during the first week of harvest. Tuesday night Darrel and I are going to a B&B near York to celebrate our 13th anniversary. Saturday is DJ's birthday, and we're heading down to the Outer Banks for a quick rondevouz with my dad and his family at his beach house. It's good to have things to look forward to!

It's also been a fun weekend--a wonderful time Friday night at the PASA dinner (thanks Patrick and Helena!), a fun picnic with my dad, grandfather, and two of my dad's siblings on Saturday, and a delightful bike ride to Artsfest today. I even got a nap--this morning I was in the nursery, and dozed off. Obviously, I wasn't watching anybody else's children.

Our family gets looks when we go out together on our bikes (at least in this neighborhood)--me pulling Marina in the bike trailer, Darrel pulling DJ with the tagalong. We're planning to do the Capital Area Greenbelt Association Tour De Belt on June 7, so we officially started training on Wednesday. The Tour de Belt is 20 miles; so far I've ridden 4. Tender tailbones, here I come!

I've been thinking some about family dynamics in urban settings, or more specifically, in Allison Hill. I'm looking for resources to give me insight into the culture(s) of poverty and the parenting patterns that are associated. Why do parents make the choices they do? Why are students doing so poorly in schools? What are the values that families hold, and how are they transmitted? If you have any books to suggest, let me know. Clearly the best way to gain this sort of insight is through personal relationship, but that seems unlikely for a variety of reasons.

On a somewhat random, somewhat related note, I've started following a blog of someone I never met. I forgot to mention that in my list of rules--I generally only read blogs of people I know. Anyway, it's a short term commitment for me. http://onfoodstamps.blogspot.com/ is the account of a woman's experiment feeding herself local, organic, vegan food on $35/week (the average amount of food stamp allotment in her state of California). It's intriguing and insightful, though it sometimes seems like she doesn't quite get it. One post described how stressed she was because food preparation was taking so much time--she was spending 20 minutes peeling carrots. In the next blog, she talked about working out at the gym for 2 1/2 hours one evening. It renews my commitment to make Joshua Farm affordable, though I am having a hard time making space in my schedule to do the market analysis, surveying, and outreach to the low income populations in this neighborhood. I'll put that on the list of things to do next week.