The Stupidest Bike Lane in America - Continued

The Stupidest Bike Lane in America

In light of the very high gas prices, I know many folks are looking for alternative transportation choices. Bicycles seem a logical choice. They are fairly inexpensive to purchase and maintain, easy to operate, and give you the added boost of physical activity! Sounds like a win-win.

But are bicycles safe? Surely a good way to make bicycle riding safer is to utilize existing bicycle lanes and petition for more lanes. However, I guess that all depends on who is designing the lane. Watch this...

One of the Reasons I Love Gardening

Fried green tomatoes – I can taste them now!

FRIED GREEN TOMATOES

Slice tomatoes real thin
Dredge in flour/bread crumbs mixture with garlic salt & onion powder
Fry in hot oil until browned
Sprinkle breadcrumbs & Parmesan cheese over tomatoes

We Saved Humble ISD High School Gymnastics!

In a recent post, I asked readers to sign a petition to save High School gymnastics within the Humble ISD. I am pleased to announce that Humble gymnastics were saved, so thank you to everyone that signed the petition. The electronic petition received 2983 signatures, and there were another approximately 2000 names on paper that were submitted to the school board.

The Lessons We Teach

You may recall a recent post about my youngest daughter’s desire to contribute to a worthy cause, only she wanted to give more money than I felt appropriate. Later, I questioned my handling of the situation, and whether I might have inadvertently given her the wrong message. You can read that blog posting here.

As it turned out, she didn’t contribute twenty dollars to the charity fundraiser. Rather she emptied her piggybank of all its change, keeping that twenty-dollar bill for herself. It was still a considerable donation.

A few weeks later, my parenting skill (or lack thereof) came back to haunt me again. This time I was taking my children shopping – with their own money. My oldest daughter had only one of her two twenty-dollar bills. When I questioned her about her missing twenty, she responded that she had donated it to the charity fundraiser at school!

“You didn’t ask me,” I said.

To which she replied, “I was afraid you would say no.”

Ouch. Now that felt like a punch in the face. What kind of a parent teaches their kids not to give?

I really feel like I blundered this one. How do you think a parent should respond when their child wants to give away money or a favorite toy? What if a child gives something away without first consulting the parent? Let’s hope I manage future lessons better and I would love to hear your thoughts.

How Clean is Our Air?

Recently there has been a lot of talk about how dirty and polluted the air is here in Houston. It can be particularly bad for people with asthma or compromised respiratory function. I visited the site to see just how bad it is, and well, we got an F in ozone and a D in particulate pollution. Just out of curiosity, and especially for us Houston transplants, how does your home state/city compare? Click on the map below, or visit http://www.stateoftheair.org and then add your comments to this post.

What's the State of Your Air?

One-Sentence Stories

I stumbled across an interesting website recently. The premise for the site is to write a one-sentence story. Many are very interesting. Some are powerful. They are all fun to read, so don't say you haven't been warned. Here's the site, www.onesentence.org, and a few of my ideas. Try it…it's harder than you think.

Torn between two lovers, I found my answer in the forlorn eyes of the one driving by while I sat in the car with the nonchalant man.

One look into your newborn eyes and you became the most important person in my life.

After all the anger and bitterness, the pretense and lies, I did what any teenager would do to get out – I got married.

Healed from her divorce, she loved and laughed again, only to have it all prematurely removed by death.

I would love to hear some of your one-sentence story ideas!

Free Stranger Danger Class

Please help me get the word out. Rising Sun Karate Academy in Atascocita is offering a FREE Stranger Danger seminar for children ages 3 and above. It is being held today, April 19, at 4-5pm, and they are located at 18411 West Lake Houston Parkway, Suite 500, in Humble, Texas.

Perhaps you've heard about the recent abduction of a 7-year old girl from a school bus stop in the area. Click here to view an article on the recent kidnapping.

Child abduction is something that no parent would ever want to go through. The least we can do as parents is prepare our kids if the worst should happen and teach them how to avoid dangerous situations. That's what I'm hoping this class will reinforce.