Sick Day

Costa Rica

It took me a while to sort out my pictures from Costa Rica, especially wedding pics I want to get just right. I'm also experimenting with a new tool to display them, and hooking everything to my website. Seems like forever since I was actually there!

Wendy and Johnny are just gorgeous to look at, so my "work" was easy. I was lucky to get to do this for them.

Here are a couple favorites, click to enlarge. I have two galleries on my website (www.jenogarekphotography.com), one for general Costa Rica pics, and one for the wedding. Scroll down under the slideshow to see them. Happy surfing!

Thrift Store Queen

I have been shopping at thrift stores off and on since I was a teenager. I think it's one of my best developed skills actually. And I have been having the best luck lately! I got a new lamp, new purse, a pair of Uggs (which, to be fair, are hideous but great cold weather slip ons), camera bag, baking pan, insulated food tote, leather JCrew belt... It's as if every time something occurs to be that I've been needing, it materializes in front of me.

I also got Ada this cute little purse, and Logan a blue backpack!

Free Range Kids

I'm reading an excellent book called Maphead. It's written by Ken Jennings, longtime Jeopardy! contestant and trivia nerd, and the book is about maps and geography - it turns out I'm not the only one with some affection for this field.

In a section I found really startling, he talks about our cultural shift away from exploring the community around us during the last generation, particular kids. He talks about how:

• 71% of us walked or rode bikes to school as kids, and only 22% of kids today do.
• The radius around home where kids are allowed to play has shrunk to 1/9 of what is was in 1970.
• Between 1981 and 2003, kids' free time dropped by 9 hours per week.
• In 2009, a mom in Mississippi was threatened with child endangerment charges for letting her 10-year-old son walk 1/3 of a mile to soccer practice.
  

Most shocking to me, when contemplating why kids don't wander, "American parents often cite "stranger danger" without seeming aware that only 115 US children are abducted by strangers every year - almost a one-in-a-million occurrence, not something to base a lifestyle on. Yet 82% of US moms cit safety concerns as a reason to bar their kids from even leaving the house."

When mentioning all this to a friend, she told me about a book called "Free Range Kids: How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts With Worry)", and it's on my must-read list. I'm sure you all know me as a cozy homebody, but I played outside with the rest of the kids growing up, and I want that world for Ada and Logan too.

Movie Tip

Well, I've been traveling, moving, and sick, so a little quieter than usual! But I'm clawing my way back to regular life.

I thought I would take a moment to pass along an unexpected movie recommendation. When Game Change was suggested to me, I think I likened it to watching a re-enactment of grass grow. My expectations were, ah, low.

This is a movie about Sarah Palin's involvement in John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. And it's fascinating. It's not a caricature of Palin, although the likeness is startling. It's a behind-the-scenes of what really happened, and I thought it was gripping.

Game Change is an HBO movie, so if you have it, dvr it, pop some corn and enjoy.