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Unlike some of you BirminghamMoms from long lines of Greek and Italian families, I don't really have a singular distinctive heritage to celebrate with food and festivals. Maybe that's why I'm grateful to the Irish for inviting all of us to join in like an O'Neil or a McDonald for one day every year.
This year, Birmingham gets to double dip in a sense. St. Patrick's Day is on Wednesday (wear your green or risk a pinch) but on Saturday, March 20th, festivities will be going full bore downtown.
A St. Patrick's Day Parade , sponsored by the Alabama Celtic Association, will run along 20th street from Powell to Five Points South starting at 11:30. Then at 2 p.m. a celebration (designed to be family friendly) will ensue at Matthew's Bar & Grill on Morris Avenue, complete with a Pipe Band, Irish dancers, and traditional Irish music. Tickets are $10 for adults and kids under 13 are free; proceeds will benefit The Ark, a pediatric cancer research foundation.
This is the second year for the event, and word is kids and parents had a great time last year. The Birmingham International Center has chosen to spotlight Ireland this year, so it's fitting that the city has a mini cultural fair that you and the kids can enjoy.
Note: Yeah, it does seem funny to think of a family-friendly event at a bar & grill, but even that seems authentically pub-like and Irish. Obviously, the early afternoon/evening is the best time for families.
You know times are tough when the Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce is hosting a seminar on couponing. It just goes to show that we're all trying to get the best value for our buck, no matter what part of Birmingham we call home.
The March 24th seminar, Go & Grow: Meet Your Local Grocers, will feature the grocers and pharmacies of Mountain Brook as well as expert couponing instruction from Holly Syx, a homeschooling BirminghamMom with a family of eight. The grocers and pharmacies will be discussing how to maximize their own in-store deals and services, while Syx' couponing guidance will apply to shopping with any retailer.
The Mountain Brook Chamber has made a concerted effort to encourage residents to shop local, and it shows in the care and connection between the residents and their retail stores. The Chamber wisely points out that dollars residents spent within the community ultimately benefit them again as they help support their services and the overall quality of life in the area.
Registration is required and there is a fee; all materials will be provided. Visit the Chamber's website to learn more.
Imagine if we hadn't had mentors with reliable advice. Navigating on our own would have been much more difficult. The Young Women's Empowerment Conference was created so that promising young women between 14 and 19 could receive instruction on topics like preparing for college, financial awareness, and business etiquette in a one-day program that is of no cost to them.
The event is invitation only so that attendees who are intentional about their goals and objectives are able to get the most from the experience. This year's conference is scheduled for March 27th from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. at the Birmingham YWCA. Candidates can apply online and the deadline is March 15th.
If you know a girl who would benefit from networking with other teens and receiving valuable advice in preparing for her future, let her know about the conference application. Then be sure to offer your continued insight and support as she enters adulthood.
Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are the original Bad Boys of American literature, the mischievous-minded trouble makers we can't help but love. Mark Twain (i.e., Samuel Clemens) gave us these characters back in 1876 and they still define our image of childhood.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer has been selected as this year's Big Read, a program designed to revitalize the role of literature in our lives. The fun of participating in the Big Read is that it's like being part of one giant book club, with an abundance of downloads and supporting material available and all area libraries providing excellent programming.
You can read about Tom's adventures along with your kids and enjoy the shared experience. Although you were probably required to read the book as a student, read it again now and you'll find whole new meanings that you missed the first time around.
There are too many events to list, but here's a sample:
* A Musical Afternoon with Bobby Horton and Mark Twain, Sunday March 14, 2 - 3:30, Alys Stephens Center - the musician who produced and performed music scores for ten Ken Burns films, including the documentary on Mark Twain. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children under 13.
* Family Night on the Lawn Music Special, Tuesday April 13 at 5:30, Emmet O'Neal Library in Mountain Brook. Bring a blanket and enjoy old time games and an "Up the Lazy River" musical presentation.
* Tom Sawyer Day at Cathedral Caverns, Saturday, April 10. Scenes from Disney's movie Tom and Huck were filmed at this cavern in Woodville. Bring a picnic and enjoy the cave, music, stories, and children's activities. (The caverns were closed for years and recently reopened as a state park. The facilities are nicer than you may expect.)
* Alabama Book Festival, Saturday April 17, Old Alabama Town, Montgomery. Over 4,000 people come to meet with and hear from favorite authors.
* Last Page Event, Saturday, April 24th, 11:30 - 12:30, Linn Park (coinciding with the Magic City Art Connection) - Jim Aycock will present a one-man show about Mark Twain and a fence will be set up nearby for children to paint.
There are too many family-friendly programs for you to miss out on all this ready-made fun. Every library branch will have several events that are bound to offer entertainment that will bring this story to life for you and your kids.
While we BirminghamMoms might be confident preparing our own taxes or consulting with a professional tax preparer, there are many Alabamians who forfeit hard-earned dollars by claiming their tax refund through a check cashing, refund loan, or similar service. As is always the case, it is those who can least afford the fees who often use these services.
What many don’t fully realize is that they’re being charged an outrageous interest rate for what amounts to a cash advance on their return. They receive relatively little benefit, because although they do get a portion of their tax refund right away (what's left after fees and interest), they could file electronically and receive their full amount in only a few short days.
The United Way's Financial Stability Partnership of Alabama is offering free tax preparation by certified tax preparers in locations throughout Alabama. Reminding clients, “You’ve earned it, now keep it,” the FSP aims to educate more citizens about the program in hopes they will realize it’s worth waiting a bit longer to receive their full refund.
Most of us moms are in frequent and regular contact with the sometimes struggling, low-to-moderate income earning citizens of our communities. Consider an average day, when we might converse with our child care worker, volunteer alongside school lunch room employees or custodians, and chat with a familiar food service worker or store clerk. If you know someone who you suspect could benefit from free tax preparation service, why not tell them about the tax preparation service available to them?
All they need to do is dial 2-1-1 or call 1-866-869-4921 to find a local certified tax preparer. They’ll receive instructions on what they need to bring to their appointment. In addition, if they made less than $58,000 in 2009, they may qualify for tax credits for dependent care, earned income, and Making Work Pay, a program specifically designed for those who are in low wage earning categories.
Every day we rely on hard workers whose efforts we may personally value beyond their compensation in the marketplace. Share this free tax preparation information with them so they can keep what they’ve worked so hard to earn.
To BirminghamMom shelter magazine junkies, I hope you didn't miss the feature on Birmingham in Elle Decor magazine's Jan/Feb issue.
We're used to being a praised in our hometown favorites, Southern Living and our dearly departed Southern Accents and Cottage Living. We can even empathize with Elle Decor since it recently lost its own sister publication, Metropolitan Home, although it's safe to say we southern women weren't Metropolitan Home's largest demographic anyway (loft living in Birmingham is still regarded as an unproven but promising experiment).
The article, by Beaty Coleman, outlines recommended dining and shopping destinations and includes the obligatory salute to Vulcan's bare rump. She particularly favors the "bucolic enclave" of Mountain Brook, even chumming with the "Brookies" and admiring their neatly clipped boxwood hedges (note to Beaty: My own husband discourages my riding through some of these areas for fear of yet another landscape project inspiration).
She also gives a shout out to the "over the mountain" suburbs of Homewood, Vestavia and Hoover, so she's clearly gotten an insider's view of the area. Nonetheless, it's fun to see the city shared with a broad national audience, some of which might discount our own proud claims by thinking we probably just don't know any better.
Side story: Coleman describes the pedestrian-friendly villages of Mountain Brook as being "so accommodating some citizens rarely venture beyond a two-mile radius of home." This reminded me of a guy from Mountain Brook who claimed to have never eaten at a chain like O'Charley's or Chilli's in his life.
Now, I'm not saying he's missed any good food on that account, but there is something to be said for having the typical American restaurant experience. There is more out there - good and bad - than a fennel tart (no offense to Chez LuLu).
Image credit Lena Corwin, Elle Decor
Reading is so important to me that I feel sorry for the folks who never get lost in a good book. Is there anything better than the feeling that you've got to know what happens, yet you hate for the story to end? You sort of decelerate toward the last page, savoring every word up until the very last sentence.
The National Education Association will be celebrating "Read Across America Day" March 2nd, with the work of Dr. Seuss as the featured program. The goal is for every child to be "reading in the company of a caring adult" and there's no reason we BirminghamMoms can't make that happen in our households.
As part of its partnership with NEA, Target is hosting events at its stores from 9 - 11 a.m. on Saturday, February 27th. The event is free and will include Dr. Seuss related activities. You can download fun activities from Target's website as well as the NEA's site.
There's nothing like a Dr. Seuss book to bring a high-and-mighty adult down to his or her kid-like center. Grandparents are particularly effective at these readings, although you don't pretend you don't always strive for a personal best reading One Fish, Two Fish without a flub.
Note: There is a wonderful mural of Dr. Seuss characters on the back wall of Mellow Mushroom on College Street in Auburn. I was admiring it once and the manager at the time said he had actually met Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, when he was a child growing up in another state. Apparently Geisel came to read at his school and the manager, then about eight years old, had a broken leg and was sitting in a wheelchair at the back of the room. Geisel noticed him and asked to have him moved closer to the front so he could see better. Of course, he never forgot this show of thougtfulness. Isn't that a lovely story?
I'm always game for exploiting any feature that will give the kids some extra educational mileage. Thus I was interested to see the exhibit running through March 5th, 2010 at UAB's Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences titled Harry Potter's World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine.
It's hard for a museum exhibit to compete with the entertainment kids expect nowadays (Universal Studios Orlando will soon unveil Wizarding World, a Harry Potter inspired section of its themepark). Ancient books and woodcut illustrations under glass didn't sustain my kids' attention as I had hoped, but the exhibit was fascinating for this BirminghamMom nontheless.
* Parallels with the Harry Potter stories are outlined along the far end of the exhibit and show how author JK Rowling included themes from Renaissance medicine in her work. You'll recall some have objected to these books because of references to witchcraft.
Looking over the exhibit, you're reminded that modern medicine began with witchcraft, astrology and alchemy as practitioners tried all sorts of remedies in a desperate effort to heal. Not until the development of the scientific method and it's insistence on reliability and replication of results did we drop some of these notions. Even still, I will admit having tried many an old wives' tale to remedy colic in a young baby here in the 21st century.
* Ironically, to not believe in witches was considered heretical back in the day. There were actually manuals on how to identify witches (displayed is Malleus Maleficarum, or "Witch's Hammer", published in 1489). Imagine finding this in the bookseller's self-help section! This manual even asserts that Satan "endeavors to propgage the unbelief of witches," all the better to keep you on the hunt for them. What does all this have to do with medicine? It seems physicians were brought in as expert witnesses at witch trials, since they were to diagnose whether symptoms were caused by natural or supernatural causes. If the physician declared the symptom caused by supernatural forces, it was likely someone was going to burn at the stake or be thrown in the river with some stones as weights. Talk about medical ethics! Awkward.
* You may chuckle to learn that magnets were considered magical (how else to explain them back then?) and to see serious references to unicorn horns and dragons among the medical texts on display, but my money says the state-of-the art protocols employed at UAB today will look just as primitive to our decendants in 400 years.
* Look for first edition books and highlights from pioneers of modern medicine:
William Harvey (discovered circulation of blood and the function of the heart);
Roger Bacon, said to be a pioneer of the scientific experiment;
A first edition of the Principia, Isaac Newton's most famous work. Though Newton is revered today for his mathematical discoveries related to laws of motion and gravity, I was surprised to learn he quietly wrote a great deal on the occult and alchemy, topics which were of interest during this time before scientifically based studies. Much of this writing was later repudiated by scientists, but hey, nobody holds this against him.
* Clearly, some topics have had universal appeal since the dawn of the printed word. One book from 1683 is titled, "The Cure of Old Age and Preservation of Youth, Shewing How to Cure and Keep Off the Accidents of Old Age; and How to Preserve the Youth, Strength and Beauty of Body, and the Senses and All the Faculties of Both Body and Mind." Ah, but now modern medicine offers plastic surgery, at least for the youth and beauty aspects. As for the "accidents of old age," I suppose we have The Clapper and Depends.
If you're a grown-up Harry Potter fan, and even if you just have an interest in science and civilization, this exhibit is worth your time. There is no admission fee and the most difficult aspect is locating a parking spot, as street level is the best option.
Check it out at the Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences, 3rd floor of Listerhill Library, 1700 University Boulevard (next to an elevated crosswalk across University).
Interesting note: Look for the exhibit case dealing with mandrakes, a plant mentioned in Harry Potter but better known as part of an interesting little exchange between those madcap sisters in Genesis, Rachel and Leah.
I never go through the tours without having three thoughts:
1) It must be nice to get to (filll in the blank: enjoy this art, walk on this rug, cook on this stove, read in this library, have coffee on this terrace...) .
2) Wow, I would never have thought of that (wreath in that spot, common plant in that centerpiece, use of that color). Must try this at home.
3) That's it, I'm repainting.
By the time I get back to my humble abode, the resolve to pick up a paint brush has left me, but the inspiration remains.
The homes are a master class in staging. There is nary a toothbrush or sink sponge in sight. Instead, burnished appliances gleam under ambient light, collections are grouped in tidy little vignettes, and menorahs or evergreens promise a warm welcome for the lucky friends and relatives who will be dining at this very table soon. Of course, these generous folks are staying in a hotel somewhere while we wander through their homes over the two days. Hope the flowers hold up until their company arrives.
The homeowners really do go all out to have their homes at their best, and hostesses in each room offer a few extra tidbits about the provenance of a furnishing or an interest of the homeowner. An added bonus is the open church building itself, which dates back to 1915 and has all the classical features and materials you would expect. The gardens outside are lovely and the doors and vestibules are festooned with greenery and flowers for the tour.
The tour will be December 12 and 13th. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at the church or at any spot on the tour. Proceeds benefit the IPC Children's Fresh Air Farm and other missions supported by the Presbyterian women.
One year I rode a shuttle provided to reach one of the tour homes and happened to sit next to some girls who were in the know. "My mom lives a few doors down," said one of them, "and she said they were still installing those giant boxwoods at 5 p.m. yesterday." A-ha! This is just the type of dirt I need to hear. As effortless as the IPC team and the homeowners make it all look, it's reassuring to know that it does indeed take significant work to get a home ready for entertaining, even with a staff to help.
This week was Friends and Family day at the school. Several of us moms donned aprons and disposable gloves to help slop dressing and plate up special requests (what do kids have against sweet potatoes?) since the cafeteria would be serving more than twice its usual capacity. After all my years being at the mercy of lunch ladies, I got the experience of eyes silently beseeching me not to let the green beans touch the dressing.
As we fumbled with unwieldy trays and consolidated the aluminum pans, it was apparent we were not in our element. When the line backed up, we furitively tapped the spoons harder and shook the rolls apart in an effort to speed up. One mom confessed, "I'm just happy I don't do this everyday. It will be such a relief to be finished." It occurred to me what a skill it is to keep a food line moving, and the importance of leaving a spot open for the milk carton.
Only the regular lunchroom staff could have been more relieved than we were to see the mini-shift end. While they had done all the hard work of preparing the food and manning the kitchen, we had a new respect for what it takes to serve a hot meal to a few hundred people every day.
So to cafeteria workers everywhere, from school lunchroom personnel to the volunteers at the Jimmy Hale mission, here's a grateful thanks and a promise not to complain when the roll tips over into the gravy.
