If Walmart Paid Its Employees a Living Wage

I posted this on Facebook, but wanted to share it here. Tell me your thoughts. I think Walmart should raise their wages.

Hummel Park

A few weekends ago we went hiking. It's kind of sad to hike right now because everything is still brown. There is hardly any leaves on trees yet. It was still fun!

When things look brown they look more aged, and prehistoric. That's a good thing. 

I got some photos of Isaak, but Mica was running the whole time.

Nature Around Nebraska Right Now

Tree bark

An old mossy log

No log at all - It decomposed

This looked like a shark tail sticking out of the ground to me

A hut that the kids built the year before at camp

Do you like to go hiking?

WW: Dario's Brasserie {Linky}

We went out for our 12 year anniversary to Dario's Brasserie. Yes the kids came along this time.

While we waited for our food, we took pictures of each other.

Kale Smoothies

Daddy doesn't like kale very much. I do. I think it's just as good as spinach leaves that we are used to eating.

I've been trying to find a way to sneak them into our diet.

We all like the smoothies that I make for breakfast.

It's super easy, and gets kale into our diet.

I broke it down for a family of 4 and a family of 2. I first made it with orange juice, but this morning made it with water, and it was good as well.

April Fools Part 2

I forgot to write about the trick played on me.

Yes I to was fooled on April Fools Day!

Mica brought home a paper of things he needed for a skit he's going to be in soon. I know he's preforming in the Music and Art Festival later this month. I didn't think anything of him needing things for this skit.

On the list were:

• 7 metal hangers
• A package of sequins 
• 7 paper clips
• Red felt
• Mica choose: Bananas, so we need 1 bundle of bananas. 

*We need these things by tomorrow!

I said, "Well we're lucky that we have metal hangers, some people do not have those anymore. Mica we'll have to go to the store to get these other things, I don't have some of this stuff. You really need these things by tomorrow?!"

Mica said, "Mom there is more on the back!"

I flipped the paper over and it said, "April Fools! Really we are running low on tissues and soap, so if you have any of that, that would be great to send to school tomorrow."

I was had. In the end Mica/his teacher got me.

Sing, Sing a Song Saturday

Sing, Sing a Song Saturday is all about me discovering something that is different. I don't want to post things that you and I have more than likely heard before. I want to find something different. It could be from another country, someone singing from the streets of NY, and more.

This week I'm putting up something that you may know. The group is called Pomplamoose. I've heard of their songs, but I wanted to show case their videos as something different.

Source

They are an American musical due, which features Californian multi-instrumentalists, real life couple Nataly Dawn and Jack Conte. They started the summer of 2008, and sold 100,000 songs online in 2009. I think that's a pretty big first year jump! They are known for mixing rock music sounds with electronic and jazz.

Happy Get Lucky

Like a Million

Check out Pomplamoose's website.
Like their Facebook page.
Follow them on Twitter.
Follow them on Instagram.

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. Rules are simple. Leave ONLY the ACTUAL LINK POST here and grab the code below and place it at your blog entry. You can grab this code at LadyJava’s Lounge Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.

PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!

Random Little Tid Bits

1. Isaak doesn't walk anymore. He jumps, bounces, and runs into things. He looks like a drunk 5 year old when he runs into stuff. 


2. Isaak's obsessed with kissing, and eyeballs. He jokes about kissing people on the lips, and laughs. Oh we've corrected him. I remember Mica doing the same when he was Isaak's age. When we ask Isaak what he wants to eat? He says, "Eyeball Soup" and giggles like it's the funniest thing in the world. It must be Kindergarten humor. 

Sometime I should make him some eyeball soup just to see what he'd say.





Source - It would have to look more realistic than this one though.



3. Mica had a dry spot under his chin. He's never been dry there before. I had him apply coconut oil for awhile. Then we tried lotion. Now he has a huge pimple there. Poor kid! It's too early for puberty. I've been putting a hot washcloth on him to try and get it to go away. Honestly I'm at a loss for the poor kid. If lotion and coconut oil don't fix the dryness issue, and clog up his pores, what's a boy to do?


4. I like rules, but only sometimes. I'm not big into blogging rules. For instance I don't like when people say on their blog, "You have to put WW in front of your post, and put my badge on your blog to link up." I don't have time to put your badge on my site, and what makes your site so much better than others to have a special WW badge? Sure have it, but why demand it? Often times I link up, and just comment. They usually are the ones that never comment back anyhow. 


5. I eat 4 times a day now: Breakfast, 10 AM snack, lunch, 3 PM snack, and dinner. Sometimes I miss eating a snack after dinner. For 1 of my snacks it's usually humus and veggies, or gluten free crackers. Apparently many of my students have never had Humus before. I've heard a lot of, "What's that?!" When I tell them they stick their noses up in the air and say, "Yuck!" I think humus is GOOOOD! 

I should start drinking my steamed veggie broth in front of them. It looks way worse than eating Hummus.

Have you had Humus? Do you like Hummus?

Homemade Hummus made by Daddy with Pine Nuts on top.

April Fools

I usually don't play a whole lot of tricks on April Fools Day.

Thinking back there was only one year where I played a few. My Dad (Grandpa) took Metamucil to work every day. I poured it back into the container, and replaced it with salt. Then I tied his 1 pair of shoes together. He has 15 AAA (super narrow) clown feet, so he has to special order his shoes. He was super made about me tying his shoes together. As far as the Metamucil went, he thought one of his students did that. He was concerned that someone was out to get him, so I came clean. Then I was in trouble.

He should have known that I would get him someday. He played enough tricks on me. I was just getting him back. ;)

This year I brought April Fools Day back.

I saw way too many wickedly fun ideas online to not try them out.

My rules are:

• Nobody gets hurt!
• I'm not too wasteful with my tricks.
• I don't play too many tricks. Pissing people off isn't my thing. I just wanna have fun.

At 10 pm on April Fools Eve I took Isaak potty, while Daddy moved Mica into Isaak's bed. I then moved Isaak into Mica's bed.

In the morning they both said, "Why am I not in my bed?" We asked them the same question. Then said,

"April Fools!"

They didn't think that was very funny. We did.

I asked both boys at different times if they wanted a Brown E and they both said, "Yes!"

"April Fools!" 

That's when Mica lost it and cried because he didn't have tricks for us. 

The Brown E's came to work with me. 

  

Just about everyone here fell for them. Just about everyone helped assist others for falling for the Brown E's. I heard, "Oh man that's not cool! I was really hungry!" and "These aren't gluten free Brownies!" 

I also gave my students a fake term paper. Only a few didn't fall for it. I had handouts, a PowerPoint with examples. I told them administration wanted me to implement it because there isn't enough papers in the classes here for accreditation.  I was to write a 7 to 8 page paper about a current design trend, or product. 

I used this as an example:

I gave them all the requirements, and asked if they had any questions?

No one said anything. I saw a bunch of them taking notes as I talked.

 "April Fools!"

Did you play any tricks on anyone this year? 

I know Theresa did at Theresa's Mixed Nuts check it out here.

Crying and Crying Again

Mica rarely cries. He's a pretty happy kid overall.

On April Fools Day he sobbed because he couldn't think of any pranks to play on us.

The day before he said he had tricks to play on us, but I guess they left his brain, or he never had any tricks officially planned to begin with. I gave him a hug, and told him it was ok. I said, "Mica you have all day to think of something."

Then on Wednesday Mica was sobbing for 15 minutes because he didn't want to go to school to eat breakfast. 

Our boys just don't eat breakfast at school. They don't eat there for a few reasons.

1. It's free. Sounds like an odd reason right? Who doesn't like free things? I'm a blogger, I love free things. I also know our country is in some serious debt. I personally don't agree with free breakfast during the school year, and free lunch during the summer. 

Do I feel bad for kids that do not get breakfast? Yes! I really wish those parents thought about that before they had them. Maybe they could apply for free, or discounted meals. I just don't think they should hand them out for all of US's public schools.


2. When my kids eat breakfast at home I'm in control of what they eat. The school already has them at lunch time.

Breakfast came up because Isaak's teacher included a note that for this week she'd like for the kids to come eat breakfast in the classroom, which is a special treat, so he was going.

We told Mica he had a choice: 1. Eat something small at home (spinach leaves, fruit and water), and eat breakfast at school, or 2. Eat a full meal at home, and wait in the car with Dad until school starts. Mica  chose to go eat at school.

After I gave him his snack basically, he decided to change his mind.

Anyone want to guess why he didn't want to eat breakfast at school?

I was thinking he was bullied, or something. Nope!

He didn't want to sit next to people that eat cereal. WTH! He cried about it for 15 minutes. I said, "That's most of American kids, Mica! That's what your Dad ate growing up!" Mica called them, "Weird cereal eaters!" 

No judging on the color of their skin, what clothes they wear, or their religious beliefs. Nope! He was judging them based on what they eat. Odd!

Get this! Last night after dinner the boys were both still hungry, so I offered them cereal, and they both ate it. I kept calling him the, "Weird Cereal Eaters"!

This morning we gave the boys a choice again...because the Kindergartener's are hanging out in the classroom all week in the morning. Mica looked and saw that they were having cinnamon rolls. He said without a tear, "I want to eat breakfast at school today." 

WW: Artsy {Linky}

Mica created this image - King Tut.

Isaak is so proud of this continuing paper project. The trouble is, I have no idea where to put it. He's not finished with it yet.

I had the idea to have the boys make me a wig out of Duplos.

Mica came up with this:

Isaak came up with this: