Day 2 - Hunger Challenge

HUNGER ACTION WEEK DAY 2:  Our social awareness-meets-math exercise continued today, Day 2 of our participation in United Way of King County's Hunger Awareness Week. Our challenge is to have our food budget this week not exceed an average of $22 per day, which is how much a family of four might qualify for through the Basic Food (food stamps) program.

For the first several hours of the day, big brother Kennedy was riding herd on CJ and Annabelle and helping keep track of what they ate and the associated price tag.

CJ had: peanut butter toast (.45), 27 Cheez-Its (.14), 2 pieces of leftover pizza (.74), peanuts (.25), 3 pieces of (different) pizza ($4.50) for his daily total of $6.08; Annabelle had a cup of cereal and milk (.35), mac and cheese (.74), peanuts (.15), and 2 pieces of pizza ($3) for a daily total of $4.24; I had coffee ($2), animal crackers (1.09) and 2 pieces of pizza ($3) for a total of 6.09; Christian had coffee ($1 ); 2 eggs (.16); sausage (.55); cheese (.32), 2 peppers (.09) and 2 pieces of pizza ($3) = $5.12 = $21.49 and BARELY under the $22 mark. Phew.

PICKING 'N' GRINNING: CJ and Annabelle had a guitar lesson today from Ken. They worked on tuning and memorizing the notes for each string Every Body's Gotta Do All Electric. They also learned a little bit about reading guitar tabulature.  The happy trio also did some multiplication today, as well as had a lesson in the physics of flight, including the concepts of thrust, lift, gravity and drag.

When I arrived home, they were making paper airplanes while listening to Wagner's very inspiring "Ride of the Valkyries," perhaps most famously used in "Apocalypse Now." (They also listened to some Mozart and Vivaldi.)

AND LATER: While CJ was enjoying acting class, Annabelle and I hung out on an old pew and read for awhile before starting up a game of Space Chess. That game's doubly challenging (at least for me), because you have to remember which piece represents what.