#wdncw Daily mood #fthepatriarchy
Mood every day. Not measurable. Somehow every day I can‘t imagine it getting worse…somehow the day before is topped by something more outlandish.
Happy Diwali! Our neighborhood goes all out for Diwali, fireworks have been going off for over an hour. Oliver is not a fan at all. Our kind neighbors shared sparklers with my youngest. I also love that my daughter was telling me all about Diwali because they learned about it at school. She was saying that tonight is the best night because of all the fireworks & that it‘s light driving out darkness. We had one rude neighbor who came out &
Oliver has discovered sticks. Kids in our neighborhood have been playing with them & leaving them outside, so Oliver naturally wanted to join them. I had texted my oldest some photos of the dog since he‘s in college. He said it looks like the dog is giving you the side eye. I texted him the 2nd photo & said he‘s always giving me the side eye. Oliver has also tried peanut butter & he‘s in love. He has some days where you think wow this dog is so
so-soThis was a meh for me, the 10 year old really liked it. I don‘t know what it was but I didn‘t really like reading it. I don‘t know if he was to make the next hero of a series be a female (like the next Percy Jackson). Or that the female character had her period during the story & it was written exactly how a man would right about a girl going through her period (although I think it‘s important to highlight what girls go through I think that
pickListened to this over audio & loved the narrator. Such a sweet, cozy story perfect for this time of year. Similar to House in the Cerulean Sea. Are there really too many stories about finding your family/the ones you call family, keeping each other safe, understanding past traumas & having the room to heal? Especially since we know that there are too many people in our society that have been hurt by being told they were too different.
That & OMG WTF is going on around here, some days hourly.
Per Janet from “The Bad Place.” Reminder on Indigenous People‘s Day that Columbus was not a good guy. He killed & exploited people, not to mention he didn‘t discover America. #realhistory #honesthistory
This is beyond frustrating/devastating/inexcusable. It has been bad enough that they have pretty much dismantled the civil rights division for the OSE. This is just another FU to parents of disabled children. You can‘t administer the law that abides IEPs & 504 Plans if you‘ve fired everyone. I know that this is a developing story but wanted to put it out there to call your reps please. This is Eugenics. #ranttime
pickThis book is more relevant than ever. Reading this is like reliving every day of the current administration. It‘s horrifying to know we‘re watching Facism unfold in real time. This is the book for you if you want to learn how to combat against Facism, know what we‘re up against, & continue to push back on this new unsettling reality. “Facist politics preys on the human fragility that makes our own suffering seem bearable if we know that those we
Southern Poverty Law Center‘s Learning for Justice program has lots of great resources. Especially about teaching what can be hard history subjects. The FBI has also recently cut ties with the SPLC. Which is a bit sad & scary since the SPLC monitors hate groups in the US. Just wanted to share additional info that could be beneficial: https://www.learningforjustice.org/
Since it‘s been another long week & it being Nobel Prize week. I thought I‘d share some cute puppy photos. Oliver is now 20 pounds & growing quick. He has his good moments: sleeps in his crate thru the night, lets us know that he has to go out. The other exhausting moments: he‘s in full teething mode, he tries to eat everything off the ground when he outside (mulch, rocks, flowers, dead worms, dead baby snakes, leaves). He‘s a great dog, just
#wdncw about sums up 2025 so far.
Another Banned Book, reason- it shows the elf‘s butt. My daughter absolutely loved this book when she was little. She thought it was hilarious & silly that you could see the elf‘s backside. How people get from something like a part of anatomy that we all have to the point that it‘s pornographic is beyond my level of comprehension. It‘s a silly story & when read in silly voices that‘s all it is. I feel bad for kids who are denied the silliness of
Banned book: This is a favorite in our house. A few years ago I started buying more diverse stories & this one was love. My daughter wanted to know if I knew how to make fry bread. I never understand the whole, we have to ban this because it makes kids feel bad. It doesn‘t make kids feel bad, it makes them curious. They want to know if it‘s a tradition we share. The only people it makes feel bad is people that become defensive over the past.
As we all know it‘s Banned Book week. This is from some of the highlights from the linked article. One positive in all this mess is that for the 87 book challenges last year there were 70 pushbacks on those challenges. #readwiththebanned #readingispolitical #realhistory #honesthistory #readingisresistance
The APA (American Psychological Association) wrote an article in July about the importance of kids reading diverse books. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2025/07-08/fighting-book-bans-censorship?utm_source=...
pick“Ahead of her time, she challenged a patriarchal system & a doctor-dominated world, compelling both to be better & fairer. She did it all alone, bolstered only by her belief that she was right, in a world that continually told her she was wrong. She fought every day of her life to make things better, dedicating her life to others, wanting justice for all.” Finally finished this #shesaid selection. So good, nonfiction that doesn‘t read like NF.
#wdncw that I am very excited that Bad Bunny will be doing the halftime show for the Super Bowl. Although I have conflicting views on the NFL. I am happy that whoever is picking the halftime shows is making bold choices. Representation is important & matters. No matter what some may think we live in a multicultural world. 🇨🇺
Time to read more scary sh!t. Few pages in & it‘s like a playbook for the current administration. Attacking universities, promoting anti-intellectualism, twisting propaganda, creating a mythic past (our country was once great) & creating a state of unreality where conspiracy theories & fake news replace facts.
In case you haven‘t heard Reading Rainbow is coming back with Mychal the Librarian! So happy that he‘s going to be able to share his love of books with more kids & families.
My daughter could start in band/orchestra this year at her school. She chose the cello. The instrument is about as big as her but she is excited. We are trying to match her enthusiasm as we listen to the sweet (screeching) sounds as she‘s learning how to play. She was adamant that she wanted to play the cello from the start. She‘s also seen someone on YouTube play “Pink Pony Club” on cello & it‘s motivated her more.
pickPicked this up at the DC book festival since it is Maryland‘s One Book selection. The book is a collection of poetry about the authors deep dive into searching for her family‘s roots to slavery in MD. Her family is connected to one of the largest landowner in MD. Frederick Douglas was enslaved by this family. The poems highlight the authors family, the house, Douglas, Harriet Tubman. The book also holds very artistic renderings of the past.
pickThe similarities to today & what happened 100 years ago are eerily similar. Replace the white hoods with red hats. My hope with this story is that the white hats were defeated. That through the persistence of journalists, lawyers, & others pushing back they were able to defeat the one group trying to destroy our country from within. The only problem is that too many people in this country (SC, lawmakers) are too afraid to stand up. I guess they
pickLesson #17 is our current state: “Listen for dangerous words: Be alert to the use of the words extremism and terrorism. Be alive to the fatal notions of emergency and exception. Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.” There were 4 shootings in 24 hours this weekend. When the violence is done by another white male, there is an excuse. But no laws are made for gun control. Instead anyone on the “left” has now been labeled as an
It‘s the best when you can read your favorite Halloween books to your new love. She was reading him The Hallo-Wiener.
Finally mailed my Fall card swap cards. Sorry for the delay between my mom being at our house for a week & then being sick I lost track of time.
Meet Oliver, we adopted him last night from one of our local rescues. He‘s slowly settling in. The name inspiration was not the book but my husband‘s grad school mentor, Dr. Oliver Smithies. While my husband was in grad school Oliver won the Nobel Prize. His mentorship & guidance made my husband the scientist he is today. Oliver had such a huge impact on our lives, so we found a way to honor him.
Gavin Newsom was Colbert last night & he said what many are thinking (& fearing). He said Dems need to stop “writing a strongly worded op-ed” or other weak performative stances & f-in do something to push back. He‘s fired up & ready to lead. He‘s pushing a path of resistance forward. Definitely watch his interview if you‘re with the resistance.
#wdncw #mood #readingispolitical As a mom of an Autistic child his & our family‘s life have been made political. Not to mention, we believe in: science, vaccines, protecting the environment, freedom of speech, love is love…the list is endless.
Autistic mothers don‘t need to be blamed or shamed. What we need is support.
As we‘re free falling into Facism this Fall, I figured I‘d better be prepared. I stopped by my local bookstore on Saturday. Found a new sticker & found 2 other books that I‘ve been searching for. #banningbooksisbananas
#ranttime As the WH is about to announce the “cause” of Autism like it‘s some f-in game show contestant. Reminder that Causation does not equal Correlation. Just because a pregnant woman might have taken Tylenol (the one safe pain reliever during pregnancy) does not mean that it caused Autism. Then recklessly recommending Leucorovin (a cancer drug) as the treatment is not science. My husband (a geneticist) read the study that they are basing their
pickSince moving to MD I‘ve become a little obsessed with learning more about Minty Ross or as we know her, Harriet Tubman. Tubman was born on the eastern shores of MD & a significant portion of the Underground Railroad runs through the area. This book explores Tubman & other Black women that were spiritual leaders in the early 1800s. Tubman had visions which researchers now attribute to seizures she most likely suffered after her head injury.
pickListened to this one over audio, narrated by the author. Bishop has lead an extraordinary life. Her story was so interesting to listen to.
pickVera is always fun to listen to. Fun to listen to on audio. Love how Vera continues to find ways to bring people together. The story brings up the difficult topic of human trafficking. I do appreciate that the author highlights real & hard subjects.
pickThe book is based on a photograph brought to the Holocaust Museum in DC. There were so many important & sad points made throughout the book. There are so many people & families that were murdered that historians feel that they still don‘t have the full story. That there has been so much whitewashing & pushback on researchers. Making it difficult to access archives or digger further into the past. My grandmothers family left Poland in the early
#wdncw that we have a horrible cold & I‘ve totally taken advantage of reducing my parenting duties. When my kids were younger I‘d keep pushing through when I felt horrible. I felt like I needed to still do everything (not to mention my husband was in grad school or postdoc & working 50- 60 hours a week). In the last year or two I‘ve realized that I don‘t have to do everything when I‘m sick. I have a capable partner. Tonight I didn‘t cook dinner
Interesting article by Ta-Nehisi Coates for Vanity Fair. “Words are not violence, nor are they powerless.” https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/charlie-kirk-ezra-klein-tanehisi-coates?s=...
A page on Threads, Whiteness Studies, has listed several important books that are very relevant to our current timeline. I have a few & read a few but found many new ones to read. Linking list if anyone is interested. It links to a Black owned bookstore. https://shop.mrwelltravelled.com/collections/whiteness-studies #antifabookclub
John Grisham is writing a new NF book (out 6/9/2026) about the case of Robert Roberson. He‘s an Autistic man (diagnosed after his conviction) on death row in Texas. The Autism Society of Texas is having a discussion coming up. Our jails make up too many people with developmental or mental health disorders. As a mom of an Autistic child & kids with mental health conditions it‘s terrifying to dwell on the police/prison complex in this country.
#Shero I can‘t imagine what it was like for her to know that 6 of her fellow justices basically crapped all over the 14th Amendment today. For her as a Latina woman to know the racism that is permeating in the halls of the Supreme Court. It‘s just sickening. #ranttime
#ranttime ugh, I mean seriously. How to say you‘re racist without explicitly stating you‘re a racist. Someone on Threads was saying we all need to go around shouting our old high school Spanish phrases to confuse them. My favorite always has been, “Por favor, donde esta La biblioteca?” #FRacism Someone also said that years from now John Roberts SC decisions will be seen along the same lines of Roger Taney & Dred Scott.
