The year after Jane was diagnosed with leukemia, our friend Josiah rode in a bike marathon to raise funds for cancer research. The two of them, Josiah and Jane, were interviewed by The New York Times. I found the clipping, with a crushingly adorable photo of Jane looking starstruck by Her Hero Josiah, when I was packing for the move. I had forgotten all about it; it seems a lifetime ago. I stared at the grainy photo, wondering if the money Josiah raised had helped save some other little girl’s life.
This month, a Bonny Glen reader is going the distance for the same worthy cause. Lawrie writes:
I will be running the Country Music Half Marathon in Nashville, TN on April 28 to raise money for the Leukemia
& Lymphoma Society through the Team in Training program. My goal is to raise $3,600. The easiest way to donate is at the website I’ve set up at http://www.active.com/donate/tntenc/tntencLGibson. If anyone would prefer to write a check, they can email me for my address at
lcgibson@gmail.com. All donations are tax deductible.
Lawrie is about halfway to her goal, with a little over three weeks to go before the big event. Wish her luck, and chip in for a worthy cause if you can!
So have you checked out CafeMom yet? It’s a sister site to ClubMom, and it’s pretty nifty. It’s a social networking site for moms. You can set up a profile, join discussion groups, share pictures, and keep a journal of your own. I’ve been poking around over there for the past few weeks, and there is much to enjoy.
Including! I’ve set up a Charlotte Mason discussion group at CafeMom. If you’d like to come ask questions, share insights, and basically dish with me about CM-inspired home education, click the link below and join the fun!
April 4, 2007 @ 7:41 am | Filed under:
WFMW 
Ha! Joke’s on me. I knew this week’s edition of WFMW was going to be devoted to car tips, and I was all smug in the knowledge that I had a really good one to share. Then I popped over to Rocks in My Dryer for the permalink, and would you look at that. Shannon beat me to it! She writes:
Anytime I print out a Google map for a soccer camp or birthday party or
dentist, etc., I slip it in a folder in my glove compartment for future
reference. I affectionately call this my "Poor Man’s OnStar".
That is exactly what I was going to say, except substitute "field trip" for "soccer camp." (And I didn’t have the funny OnStar line.) Shannon is a great mind and I am thrilled we think alike!
So, okay, I’m not so original today. But I do have another car tip, and this one was tested over 2500 miles *alone* with five children under twelve. The day the kids and I left Virginia, Cally-fornya bound, I stuck a tall plastic drinking cup in my van’s cupholder, thinking I might find it useful for filling up at water fountains or something like that. Instead, I hadn’t gone five miles before I discovered it was a most useful and convenient receptacle for any item I needed easy access to. Over the course of the trip, this included:
• my sunglasses
• my cell phone
• Mentos (What? They help me concentrate.)
• a pen for writing down our mileage
• and also for writing down hotel addresses when I’d call Scott and ask him to find us a room
• Starburst (Oh, hush.)
That cup is still there, coming in handy pretty much every time I get in the car!
