WRESTLING WITH SCHOOL LIBRARY CLOSURES

It’s no secret I love libraries, and ensuring we keep libraries (and librarians) in our schools has become a cause near and dear to my heart. It’s important that all of our kids not only have ready access to free books that they can choose for themselves, but also a physical space in school that’s a calm, quiet oasis. The space, however, is of little use if it is not run by a trained school librarian. School librarians are specialty educators who foster children’s life-long love of reading and teach important skills such as research and internet safety. Perhaps most importantly, they make children and their interests feel seen and valued.

I was lucky to recently have a guest post on the stellar Betsy Bird’s awesome School Library Journal blog Fuse #8. Please check it out, as well as the other excellent content there. Thank you, Betsy!

Fuse #8 Guest Post: Wrestling with School Library Closures

http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/03/24/guest-post-wrestling-with-school-library-closures-by-j-f-fox/

END OF WEEK ESCAPE . . .

All Together Now

Here we are. Socially isolating, hunkering down, homeschooling. It’s surreal and scary at times, and all of our moods seem to be changing hourly. Family time that was once fleeting is now constant, with all the good and bad that goes along with it. Is the universe forcing us to reassess—our relationships, jobs, environmental impacts? When will it end? We don’t know, and not knowing is scary. I’m trying to focus on what we might get out of all of this when we come out that unknown other side.

“All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me. . . . You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”

—Walt Disney

Adversity forging growth is an age-old theme in stories. It’s positive and purposeful and all that jazz, but how do we handle the metaphysical “kick in the teeth” while we’re smack dab in the middle of it, trying to homeschool and work and cook every meal and not go insane. According to another creative fellow—maybe we don’t fight it head on.

Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.
—William Shakespeare, Henry VI

Although Shakespeare’s speaker sounds less than totally confident, there’s something to be said for letting go a bit, not fighting so hard against the forces beyond our control. So, what do we do?

We wrestle.

When I wrote Friday Night Wrestlefest is was a much lighter time and felt like a much lighter theme—a family having a fun night in together doing something silly—an alternative bedtime book for real families, with real energy, being rambunctious and blowing off steam at the end of a work/school week. Honestly, however, the whole thing is making much more sense to me now in our current lifestyle. Here we are, all together, looking for kid activities nearly constantly. Searching for ways to bond and not want to strangle each other. Wanting to pull each other closer even though we are already tripping over top of each other. Desperate to release energy and wiggles and steam. Finding creative ways to occupy our minds and rediscover our senses of humor.

And so . . . We wrestle.

And invite you and yours to join in the movement.* Make it a new Friday ritual. Be creative, be close, be safe, and take life one hold at a time.

PARENTS: Please note, we recommend supervised, safe parent-guided wrestling.

***Instagram your family wrestlefest pics with the hashtag:

#FRIDAYNIGHTWRESTLEFEST

or tag: j.f.foxbooks

Want to know more about the importance of physical play for kids? Check out:

https://www.highlights.com/parents/articles/6-reasons-roughhousing-good-children

“It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”

—Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Of Orcs and Eggs

As the late, great Anthony Bourdain once said:

“What nicer thing can you do for somebody
than make them breakfast?”

I couldn’t agree more, though as much as I enjoy cooking, I am not the primary breakfast maker in our household. This isn’t because I don’t like breakfast—or my family—I just find functioning in mornings incredibly challenging and always have. As a kid, I was known to come downstairs with a blanket over my head and not allow anyone to speak to me until it was removed. SO, I’d heard about this breakfast burrito hack from the Interwebs and been meaning to try it for a while, but the opportunity had simply not arisen. (I had simply not arisen.)

This weekend my older son and I were having a leisurely morning upstate. My husband and younger son had gone out snowboarding leaving just the two of us, which is rare. My ten-year old was up first and snuck a little Ipad time while I snuck a few extra Zzzzs. Symbiosis at its finest. Then, in typical kid fashion, as soon as I’d unpeeled my eyes and assumed a vertical position, he asked me to help him build some Lego—namely to help him find pieces which is pretty much my designated Lego role. In general, I prefer to freestyle, with both Lego and cooking. I’m hardly a rebel but not always great at following instructions either. His idea was to make our own version of a Lord of the Rings scene with Orcs.

I grabbed some coffee and started to dig in the big Lego bin, pulling any medieval-looking weapons, brown and black legs and capes, grumpy faces, helmets, shoulder shield thingies, flames, bones, etc. I offered up a few pieces of golden armor and weaponry, which were hastily dismissed as, “Too flashy.” The Orcs are a rugged, earthy crew. Nevertheless, like a band of meandering hobbits, we got there in the end, and were both pretty pleased with the result. Behold.

ORC RAIDER CAMP

And who am I to deny you a few close ups?

Please note the spit-roasted turkey and pot of fish. Orcs get hungry, and so did we. The next order of business was breakfast. Since we’d bought some tortillas the day before, it was time to try the breakfast burrito/tortilla hack. Here’s our basic ingredients (salt not pictured):

People had recommended the Zhoug sauce from my second home, Trader Joe’s. Try it!

1) Mix up an egg (. . . or two or three depending on the size of your tortillas) with some salt and pepper. We had little tortillas so I used one egg.

2) After adding some sort of fat to the pan (I like ghee, butter or avocado oil would work nicely too), pour egg in and allow to spread out flat like you are making an omelette. (Note: We had a big pan and a small tortilla. Similar sized pan + tortilla would be better.)

3) Let the egg set a bit. When it is still just a bit undercooked, slap a tortilla on top of it!

So easy a ten-year old can do it.

4) After a minute or so, flip to brown the tortilla a bit. You’ll have something that looks like this.

This is where a similar-sized pan/tortilla would help.

At this point, some people add cheese for more of a quesadilla effect, but my one child doesn’t eat dairy and this particular child eats cheese, but not melted. Cut to our next step . . .

5) Remove from pan and add toppings. For my child, some not-melted cheddar and Zhoug sauce. It’s a bit spicy, so we went easy.

6) Fold.

7) Cut and eat.

For my version (Gluten- and dairy-free), I used corn tortillas and no cheese and dolloped some of this avocado-tomatillo salsa from Sam’s Club on top. It tasted like chilaquiles, which is a win in my book.

This salsa is really good and doesn’t have any junky ingredients. I am not paid by Sam’s Club or Trader Joe’s, but I’m open to it. #willworkforfood

I love recipes that are really just techniques you can put your own spin on, and this is definitely a great one. My son loved it and it’s seriously so easy he could make it himself. Needless to say, we had a great morning, improvising with Orcs and eggs and spending a little one-on-one time together. With everything swirling around these days, it was a nice little reminder:

“Where there’s life there’s hope, and need of vittles. ”

—J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings