Up to the Challenge

WE DID IT! Today marked the final day of United Way of King County's Hunger Challenge week.

During the five-day challenge we have been on a budget of $22 a day for food (the maximum amount our family would qualify for on the state' Basic Food program. According to DSHS Secretary Susan N. Dreyfus (who also took the challenge this week) one in 13 people in the state of Washington uses the DSHS Basic Food program. That stat shocked me.

Our family learned so much this week. The kids' did a ton of math, and not only did they have their knowledge about the value of coins reinforced, they acquired the knowledge regarding the true value of money. Money is what keeps us fed and clothed and housed. They also had their awareness raised about how many people - from Haiti to here in Seattle and everywhere in between - battle hunger.

During the challenge, for the first time, the kids experienced what it's like to manage a budget and make tough choices that come along with that reality.

For me, there were numerous "ah ha" moments. One was that pocket change can mean a meal for a family. Another is that our family wastes waaay too much food. (For example, I resolve to never dump another container of yogurt down the drain because it went uneaten and past its due date.) And now if someone asks me how much a week our family spends on food, I could give them an informed answer.

While we had no trouble making budget this week, I can't help but think of the weeks where it would be a real challenge - for instance when there's a birthday or holiday meal to prepare. It makes me realize that you'd HAVE to be under during normal weeks to have a war chest for those special days (of which there are many).

To celebrate our successful completion of the challenge, we splurged with a Papa Murphy's pizza (thankfully, I had a $3 off coupon for it!). Here are our Friday totals:

BREAKFAST = $2.53
CJ = Pop Tart & dry Cheerios = .20+.19 = .49
Bee = Cheerios (.28), milk (.12) = .40
Me = Cheerios (.28), milk (.12), coffee (.37 ) = .77
Xtian = Cake (.50) & coffee (.37) = .87
LUNCH = $3.83
CJ & Bee = yogurt (.67*2) = 1.34
ME = Vege Chili = .89
Xtian = Vege Chili (.89) + apple (.29) + banana (.25) + soda (.17) + = 1.60
DINNER = 11.42
Papa Murphy's pizza = 10.99
M&X salad (.25 lettuce, .08 green onion, .10 tomato)= .43
SNACKS 6.13
Bee = orange = .19
CJ & M = banana =.25*2 = .50
Kids = pretzels = .20
Kisses = .25
Sharps & Barley Pop = 4.99
TOTAL: $23.91, which is $1.91 over the daily budget, but we have been $3-6 under every other day, so I figure we started with some in the kitty.

I will sing the Hunger Challenge out with: "Hunger Strike." It has been going through my head all week. Performed by Seattle grunge rock superstars, its music video was filmed at Discovery Park, right here in lil ol' Magnolia! (I could point out exactly where each shot is

SUPER MARIO SUITE: Friday morning means Musikgarten, and this week the kids' homework was to practice holding their glockenspeil mallets properly (pinched between thumb and forefingers, palms down, arms and elbows up).

We turned their morning mallet practice into a game. They took turns thumping out the beat of a video game theme and the audience had to guess which game it was. If we were stumped (which was almost every time) the musician would give us a clue. It's funny how something as simple as that turned boring homework into something so fun that they didn't want to quit playing it when it was time to go to music class.

The big news of the day at music was they both got their very own glockenspeils, complete with a handy dandy carrying case. Exciting stuff!

VALUE BUBBLE: So we're in one of our favorite places in Seattle - the Ballard Valu-Village - this afternoon and as we're cruising between the backpacks and beat up furniture, CJ starts to lag a little and I say, "C'mon Dude, hurry up." CJ doesn't say a word, but I hear a male voice respon, "That's OK, you can call me Dude." I look over to find it's a dude with a purple beard. He looks harmless enough, so I smile and chuckle and we continue on. A couple aisles later I'm ready to leave the store and I say to CJ, who's lagging again, "C'mon Cutie!"

As soon as I said it, I thought, "Oh crap. I suppose purple beard guy ..." and sure 'nuff I hear the now familiar voice say, "And you can call me Cutie, too. I get called Cutie all the time."

Oh Lord.

At that point I note that the man is dressed in purple from head to toe, to match his beard, presumably.

Next 'Cutie' asks me if he can show the kids a trick. "Um, OK ... " I acquiese with a fair amount of trepidation. Purple Cutie Dude breaks out a small bottle of bubbles and blows a bubble about the size of CJ's fist. It floats down and right when it's about the level of the kids' faces, the guy grabs it and in a flash presents it to them on his palm. The bubble has "magically" become solid.

Needless to say, the kids were amazed and enchanted. Here they are in the middle of Value Village, getting their own private magic bubble show. Purple Dude blew two more bubbles - smaller this time. He grabbed each of them and "transformed" them into little clear little stones with stickers on them - a heart for Annabelle and a snowflake for CJ. They were THRILLED.

I told Dude that now the kids were going to expect to see him every time we go to Value Village and he said he performs at nearby Carkeek Park all the time and he gave me a business card. Turns out we had met the (semi) famous Gary Golightly, a/k/a Bubbleman. Apparently he's a hit on the birthday party and park circuit. His Web site is pretty interesting reading, including his "bubbleosophy" and his "autobubbleography."

CJ desperately wants to go see his performance at the park. We'll see what we can do to accomodate him. ;)

MOON SHINE: Tonight's full moon - the first full moon of 2010 - will be the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. And we won't be able to see it, because there's 100 percent cloud cover. "Aw man!" Annabelle groused when told what she'd be missing.

"How can we get rid of the clouds?" CJ asked. I told him he was out of luck.

Why is tonight's full moon so special? As I read on Space.com, on average, the moon is 238,855 miles (384,400 km) from Earth. The moon's orbit around Earth isn't a perfect circle, rather it's an elliptical. In each orbit of the Earth , the moon reaches this closest point to us, which is called perigee. Once or sometimes twice a year, perigee coincides with a full moon, as is the case tonight. That makes for a bigger and brighter full moon (about 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter) as compared to the rest of the full moons this year.

Another interesting factoid: The first full moon of the year is called a wolf moon, a term that has its roots with American Indians, who apparently believed wolves were howing at the full moon on cold winter nights.

TURN ON YOUR HEARTLIGHT: Tonight was a family movie night. We'd finally be watching E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. We talked a bit about what 'terrestrial' means, and how someone/thing that's extra-terrestrial would be not of this earth.

We have an E.T. storybook and I got it out to read it to the kids but as I flipped through it, I realized that would really ruin the magic of the movie, so I told them they'd have to wait until after the movie to read the book. Naturally, that prompted them to spend the balance of the afternoon trying to sneak peeks at the book.

I did play Neil Diamond's E.T.-inspired song "Heartlight" for them on YouTube to help tide them over.

The movie was a hit. (How could it not be? It's sweet, sad, funny, clever, and has aliens!)

Even though it was a happy ending, Annabelle cried at the end, of course.