urbanMamas Portland

Eversave, a local daily deal website, is giving away a wine tasting class at Wine Up! Wine Shop to one of our lucky readers!

Here’s the scoop for the weekend. For more ideas on what to do this weekend, check PDX Kids Calendar and the urbanMamas calendar page.

There are still lots of Chinese New Year activities going on around town to celebrate the Year of the Dragon.  PDX Kids Calendar did a good job gathering them here.

Penny the Puppeteer performs Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar at the Off Broadway Central Lutheran Church on Friday at 10:30.  Free coffee, tea, and stickers!  $5 each or 4 for $17. 

Free admission to the Portland Art Museum this Friday from 5 to 8!  Get to see all the museum has to offer without the admission fee.  

Head to the Troutdale Library from 3:30 to 5 for a free movie viewing of The Jackie Robinson Story.  Best for older kids and teens.

Here's hoping for some sun.  On Saturday from 9:30 to 12, head to the Smith and Bybee wetlands to see and learn about winter birds.  Best for ages 10 and up.  Advance registration required.  Free!

Come to the Scottish Rite Center between 11 and 4 on Sunday for Mochitsuki 2012.  Ring in the Year of the Dragon with traditional and contemporary Japanese activities (like arts & crafts to take home), entertainment (like Portland Taiko), and food.  $4-12.   

The Gregory Heights Library is hosting a Vietnamese Music Ensemble, which will play traditional music performed during the Harvest Moon Festival.  Saturday from 1 to 3.

Celebrate National Puzzle Day at the Gresham Library.  Design a landscape, family portrait, or anything else you’d like to take apart and put back together.  For teens.  Saturday from 1:30 to 3.  Free!  The celebration continues at the Holgate Library on Saturday from 2:30 to 4, and is intended for preschoolers through grade 5. 

Have you checked out the new Kindie Music venue Jam on Hawthorne?  This Saturday from 5 to 7 is your chance, as Mo Phillips gets down with his fun and zany tunes.

Join Portland Opera to Go! for a 50-minute, kid-friendly presentation of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel.  At McMenamin's Edgefield on Sunday at 12.  Free!

The talented young musicians of the Portland Youth Philharmonic perform their Chamber Orchestra Concert at the Wieden & Kennedy Building on Sunday at 4.  $15-20. 

Hope this gives you some ideas. Have fun out there! And don't forget to double-check event details by calling or checking the website of the venue, performer, or host organization.

I've never been what you might call "great" at organization. I love to have organized spaces, I do -- I even enjoy the process of organization when, from time to time, I put my mind to nothing but. What I don't have much (ever) is the space and time to do that. I have an inspiring idea on how to organize something, or a fantastic open afternoon, or some great reason to get neat and clean (sadly, this is often "I want to take a picture and there is a mess in the background" -- but any port in the storm, right?).

Thank goodness for my youngest sister, Abby. She has been a babysitting rock for me through the years, and would regularly undergo spurts of amazing effort. I would come home from a run or a meeting to see something like the above scene: a transformed space, neatly labeled, using the supplies on hand, no more. This, a little free-pile bookshelf set on an awkward-shaped square table with little plastic boxes and a big plastic box, has been in use for over a year -- I just have to keep it organized. And the boys always know where to find everything.

My sister Abby had a baby this summer, and since then, I've been flying solo. Thank goodness for Asha and her organization chat a few days ago to keep me inspired. I've been trying for months (ok, over a year now) to get a huge pile of paper -- that grows all the time from two boys in school and many reams of writing group notes -- organized. She had the great idea of tackling the pile of papers for just 15 minutes at a time, setting a timer and planning to go back to it the next day. Boston Mama Christine Koh posted a link to this on Pinterest -- a pretty, pretty use for clipboards to organize children's art and papers.

Which comes to the topic of Pinterest. Lately, Pinterest is how I've been staying inspired to keep organized; although I've heard many lament that the site is nothing but eye candy for craft ideas (and none of them actually get done), I've slowly been incorporating the ideas into my to-do lists and -- ok, I'll be honest -- doing things just so I can take photos and pin them. Nothing gets me going like a little repinning!

How do you keep your house organized with all the papers and art supplies and toys? How do you stay inspired? If you, like me, just don't ever feel like you have the time to focus (and, when you do, the kids are busy totally annihilating another room of the house), how do you make it happen? Or do you just throw up your hands over periods of weeks (I'm ashamed to photograph my dining table) and let the mess prevail?

Also check out this huge list of organization resources -- which I haven't yet had time to click through. If I did, I wouldn't have time to keep the pile of papers under control!

At the turn of the year, we love to make resolutions.  Many might like to make resolutions of the health variety: I resolve to eat better, I resolve to exercise more, I resolve to lose weight.  A few weeks might go by, and our resolutions might slip.  In fact, over a third of resolutions are broken by the end of January.

Then, there is a twist.  On January 1st, the NYT ran an article discussing new studies in the realm of obesity: once obese, are we always obese?  Some studies show that we can get stuck in a fat trap, once fat.  Obese individuals who successfully lose weight will only regain all that weight (and more, possibly) in due time.

Depressing?  Yes.

What can we do about it?  Well.  There is much focus now on "upstream public health", tackling the root of the cause, preventing the fatness before we even enter (and get stuck) in the "fat trap".  This got us thinking about programs that affect our children, making sure that programs are designed to keep them active, to make sure they have access to healthy food, to help them be safe when active.

We live in a busy, complex world.  Our lives can be overwhelming.  How can make living a healthy lifestyle easy for people of all socioeconomic backgrounds, races, etc in our modern world?  Our lives are complex, and the environments that shape our health behaviors are too.  Work, school, urban or rural infrastructure all of these these can attract us to or deter us from eating more fruits and vegetables and moderate exercise.  How can we make this utopia of walkable/bikable cities with access to affordable fresh produce for all a reality for all?  What do we, as parents, see to be barriers to that reality?  What do the experts think we can do to change?  What are your top priorities for change?  What do you do in your day-to-day life as small steps toward keeping the family healthful?

* Keep the conversation going at a screening & panel discussion of "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead", next Monday, January 23, 6-9pm at Living Room Theaters.  100% of proceeds of the $35 ticket go towards EcoTrust's Farm to School program.

Here’s the scoop for the weekend. For more ideas on what to do this weekend, check PDX Kids Calendar and the urbanMamas calendar page.

This Friday through Sunday from 10 to 4, the Oregon Zoo will open its Veterinary Medical Center to the public for tours.  Free with admission. 

Get artsy at a creative recycling and green crafts workshop at the Warehouse Café.  Suitable for all ages.  $5/child.   

The Community Music Center hosts its monthly Family Friday concert this Friday at 7:15.  Featured this month: Classical Revolution PDX.  Admission is free, with a suggested donation of $5/person or $15/family.   

It’s Pirate Palooza at the Southwest Community Center this Saturday from 6 to 8!  Climb aboard the pirate ship for an evening of swashbuckling adventures!  $10 for the first child/$5 each additional day-of, or $8/$4 in advance.   

Save money, live healthier, and connect to valuable resources for sustainable living at the Fix-It Fair this Saturday from 8:30 to 2 at the Rosa Parks Elementary School.  

Listen to some African Storytelling by Massene Mboup.  Children ages 4 and up are invited to enjoy Massene's unique and charming storytelling style.  Saturday at 11 at the Lake Oswego Library.  Free! 

Kidical Mass's bike ride this month is an extra active one!  Meet at Westmoreland Park on Saturday at 1 before heading over to the Oaks Park Roller Rink for some roller skating.  The bike ride is free, admission to the rink is $5.25/person with an additional $1.50 skate rental fee.

It’s Chocolate Fest at the Convention Center this weekend!  Saturday from 11 to 6 and Sunday from 11 to 5, savor chocolate from the NW and beyond.  Some proceeds help support the World Forestry Center.  $7-10.

Portland Opera to Go presents Hansel & Gretel at the McMenamin's Grand Lodge Hotel.  Enjoy this lively 50-minute English adaptation of Engelbert Humperdinck's fairytale operate Hansel and Gretel.  The perfect way to introduce your little one to the world of opera.  Sunday at 12.  Free!

This Sunday get twice your kindie music fix.  Mr. Ben opens for Laura Veirs at the Village Ballroom.  Doors open at 3.  $5-10.

Remember shrinky dinks?  Reuse plastic containers and make quick and easy shrinky dink jewelry.  Appropriate for ages 4 to 104, but children ages 12 and under must be accompanied by a grownup.  Please click here to sign up.  Sunday at 1.  $5. 

Hope this gives you some ideas. Have fun out there! And don't forget to double-check event details by calling or checking the website of the venue, performer, or host organization.

I know my oldest has years to go before he hits the teen years, but I've felt for a while now that his behavioral struggles give me a window into who he will be as a teen -- he's got all the talking-back chops and punky authority questioning that any self-respecting teen boy would. Lucky me: I get to practice conversing with a teenager years before my time!

Sometimes I agonize over this (mostly when someone else is overhearing me and Everett in a tense debate over privileges and responsibilities, speckled tightly with the occasional bit of bad language). But thanks to some new research from the University of Virginia, I could just go ahead and embrace it. These debates with me now and in his teens will help him resist peer pressure among his friends and stand up to problems on the job. In other words, our arguments are lessons. According to NPR:

"[In the] study, 157 13-year-olds were videotaped describing their biggest disagreement with their parents. The most common arguments were over grades, chores, money and friends. The tape was then played for both parent and teen...

"[The researcher, Joseph P.] Allen interviewed the teens again at ages 15 and 16. "The teens who learned to be calm and confident and persuasive with their parents acted the same way when they were with their peers," he says. They were able to confidently disagree, saying 'no' when offered alcohol or drugs. In fact, they were 40 percent more likely to say 'no' than kids who didn't argue with their parents.

"For other kids, it was an entirely different story. "They would back down right away," says Allen, saying they felt it pointless to argue with their parents. This kind of passivity was taken directly into peer groups, where these teens were more likely to acquiesce when offered drugs or alcohol."

How you argue is important. If you "reward" children who develop a persuasive argument, bargaining thoughtfully instead of using begging, whining, threats or insults, you will teach them how to not just get along with other teens (and to stay clear of dangerous problems like drugs and binge drinking), but how to successfully manage relationships as an adult -- even and eventually, marriage.

I was, for once, proud of my parenting skills -- something I tell the boys every (sometimes many times a) day is to use their problem solving abilities to come up with a solution that doesn't involve physical aggression or anger. Now, this doesn't work very well between the boys many days, but I often see the persuasive kid show up for a really great and -- often -- even courteous! -- debate with me or another adult. And that's something to be proud of.

On an afternoon run through a park, I passed a cluster of teens, all of them happened to be female.  They were standing in a circle, maybe 5 or 6 of them.  Maybe more?  There were puffs of smoke rising from the center of the circle.  From a distance, it seemed that they were hanging out smoking cigarettes.  And, recalling my own teen years, I thought: "who doesn't hang out with a gaggle of friends and smoke at that age?"

As I came closer, I realized that they were actually passing a small pipe.  And, I realized that they weren't smoking cigarettes, they were smoking marjuiana.  I ran past them, not stopping.  I thought to myself, though: "should I stop?"  If I did, what would I do?  What would I say?  What would you do?

Here’s the scoop for the weekend. For more ideas on what to do this weekend, check PDX Kids Calendar and the urbanMamas calendar page.

The Portland Boat Show is on now, and continues through this weekend.  Kids can make their own wooden boats to take home for free.  At the Expo Center through Saturday from 10 to 9, and Sunday from 10 to 6.  Free for ages 12 and under, $10 adults.

Head to Powell's Cedar Hills Crossing for Book Fan Friday, a workshop for kids 10 to 18 who love to write.  This month, Rosanne Parry offers a look at how book covers are made.  Friday at 4:30.  Free!

Winter weather is the perfect time for bread making.  Check out Kids Can Make Bread at the Midland Library on Friday at 4 or at the North Portland library on Saturday at 11.  Free!

School of Rock and PDX POP NOW! present Best of Portland on Friday at 8 at the Crystal Ballroom, anall-ages music benefit featuring local teens playing the best music from the Portland music scene.  Laura Veirs, among others, will be making appearances.  $14 in advance, $20 at the door.

This Saturday beginning at 11, the Kennedy School hosts its annual J.R.R. Tolkien Birthday Bash.  Enjoy kids' fun, live music, performances by Willamette Radio workshop, the Lord of the Rings trilogy on the big screen, and more.  All events are free and all ages are welcome.

Saturday from 12 to 5, the Portland Old Time Music Gathering hosts a number of kid-friendly options at the Scottish Rite Center.  Among other festivities, join Professor Banjo for music and a song workshop, take part in a kid's open mic, and take part in a family dance.  Free!  

On Saturday from 3 to 5, teens can make a 90-second film at the Northwest Library. Multnomah County Library, with the help of author James Kennedy, will be hosting a 90-Second Newbery Film Festival on March 3, 2012. The contest: Make a video that compresses the story of a Newbery award-winning book into 90 seconds or less.  Free!

World Sounds continues at the Children’s Museum this Sunday, with music from Fools in Paradise at 11 and 12.  Free with admission ($9).

ComedySportz 4 Kidz is this Sunday at 2.  Best for the 12 and under crowd, get ready to laugh and have fun at this improv show with lots of audience participation.  $6 kids, $8 adults. Please call for cancellations.

Plus there are several free museum admission offers this weekend.

• Head to Fort Vancouver for free admission all weekend.   
• Family Day at the Washington County Museum is Saturday from 10 to 2.  In addition to free admission, you can take part in fun activities like scratch foam printing and pioneer clothing dress-up.   
• And Sunday is free museum family day at the Portland Art Museum from 12 to 5.   Enjoy exhibitions through art making, music, interactive activities, demos, and performances. 

Hope this gives you some ideas. Have fun out there! And don't forget to double-check event details by calling or checking the website of the venue, performer, or host organization.

Today, a friend told me, "It's twin Tuesday."  Almost every Tuesday, he and his wife go and spend time with the twins who were born of his sperm, which he donated to a friend so that she and her partner could be mamas.  They never imagined to be this close to one another, to be spending so much time together and to even be taking family vacations together, but they are.  And, it feels right.

We have other friends, also a two-mama family, each of whom bore a child.  Each of the donors remained active in the kids' lives.  "Dad-nors" as they were called.  Again, the extended family unit could not feel more right, with dad-nors joining in on birthday celebrations every year.

Good friends recently became two papas to a 7-month old boy, and they celebrate the day of each month that represents the day that they "got" (adopted) him.  Having had wanted to be papas for a while, they couldn't be happier that it is all smoothly falling into place.

Our families are not restricted to a mama, a papa, and child(ren).  We are so much more than that, with all sorts of definitions that are encompassed by "papa" and "mama", with more than one active mama or papa in any given life.  I would love to hear you share your own experiences with families of all configurations, and celebrate the diversity of our urbanMamas families.

Monday, Monday! Can't trust that day.

I should know by now, after having considered this topic week after week last November and January in the days leading up to the LEGO competition -- LEGO club was Mondays and Wednesdays after school, and thank goodness for the Wednesdays, because some weeks that was the only day club met.

Monroe is going to "speech group" as part of the services he receives from Multnomah County ESD. It's great; he adores his teacher and the other members of his class are sweet kids. He looks so forward to it each week. I love it, too, because even though it's 45 minutes it makes a nice routine for me -- I run during his class so I know I have a guaranteed weekly 4-some miler. No excuses possible.

But, it's on Mondays! I forgot how inauspicious this day was until PPS gave its students that extra day of break on January 2nd. Monroe missed the first day of the year and he'll miss next week, too, for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Lucky Thursday kids; they get to meet every single week in January.

So if you're contemplating which day to put your child in a class that meets according to the public school calendar, be warned: every other day (every other day!) every other day of the week is fine...

Last night at 8:30pm, my first-born (now an eleven-year old sixth grader) came into my room.  "Can you sign-off on my report?"

This was the report on Ancient Egypt that has been in process for months.  Originally due the Wednesday before winter break, their teacher delayed the due date to the Friday before winter break.  I suppose enough students were expressing concerns with the deadline, so he again delayed the due date to the Wednesday after winter break, then to the Friday after winter break, and then - finally - the final, drop-dead, absolute, no-more-delays deadline was the Monday after winter break, TODAY.  

"Sure," I said.  "Let me just skim it first."

The intro page had formatting issues (inconsistent font, weird paragraph breaks), the second page had two typos, the fourth page had incomplete sentences, and conclusion page did not make any conclusive statements.  What ensued was a tense two hour session of refining the entire paper, her dad taking the lead with this effort...  while I stewed.

I remember once, when I was in sixth grade, I told my parents at 9pm on a Sunday that my science project was due the next day.  In a tizzy, I made the solar system out of paper mache and attached it to cardboard, staying up until about 1am.  My dad came in at that time and said, "why don't you get some sleep?" and he went on to stay up hours later painting it for me.  I won 3rd place in the science fair that year.

I hate procrastination.  And, I hate my kids staying up late.  I am a huge sleep advocate and stress about their sleep consumption.  I was so, so, so upset last night.  Why did not we (the collective "we" including myself, my daughter and my husband) finalize this report weeks ago, even over winter break?  Procrastination is much too easy.  What is your approach to homework (long-term assignments especially) that won't leave the bulk of the work to the 11th hour?  Do you do progress check-ins?  Do you trust that the final product is "final", and skip the review all together?

Since getting in the habit of making my own stock from roasted chicken, I’ve been experimenting with soups. Last night’s fare received 5 thumbs up, so I'm sharing, in case it gets cold enough to actually merit a pot of soup:

Ingredients:

½ red onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

2 tbsp Olive Oil

2-4 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb chicken sausage, cooked (I use bulk sausage, but you can sub beans or meat substitute for veg option)

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp dried oregano

2 quarts stock

1 cup orzo (or other small) pasta

1 bunch of kale, chopped in 1” strips, stalks removed

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a stock or soup pot: Sautee onion, carrot, and celery in olive oil over medium low heat until the celery and onions go translucent, stirring occasionally (~10 minutes). Turn the heat down if they start to brown. If your sausage or protein is not already cooked, you can do that while the veggies cook down. After the veggies are soft, add the garlic, thyme and oregano and cook for a few minutes more.  Add one quart of water and chicken (protein of choice), and bring to a simmer over medium high heat.  Add 2 quarts of stock and bring to a boil. Add 1 cup of orzo pasta, and after the soup starts to boil again, reduce heat to maintain a simmer. Let simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally (this is usually when I clean up all the dishes and dispatch dishes and drinks to the table to be set) (or chop the kale) (don’t forget the drinks, or else you’ll have to get up after you’ve just started eating) (and no one likes to do that). After the orzo is cooked, add the kale, and cook only until soft, 1 or 2 minutes. Turn the soup to low heat and season with salt and pepper. Because there were so many greens in the soup I didn’t feel the need to serve salad, but salad would still go nicely with this soup. We enjoyed ours with well buttered garlic toast.

Here’s the scoop for the weekend. For more ideas on what to do this weekend, check PDX Kids Calendar and the urbanMamas calendar page.

Free admission to the Lan Su Chinese Gardens is happening now, and through January 9.  Enjoy those beautiful gardens for free!

You can also enjoy free admission to the Children's Museum this Friday from 4 to 8. 

Head to the Hillsboro Library on Friday at 7 for Seriously Funny Juggling with Curtis Carlyle, a fun fusion of juggling, comedy, and audience participation.  Free!  

The grand opening of Art a La Carte, a kids art studio in Sellwood, is this Saturday from 11 to 4.  Enjoy craft projects, face painting, live music, and more fun.  Free, with a suggested gift of an art supply or recycled good.

There are two chances to see Penny the Puppeteer perform Mr. Moose's Winter Walk this weekend - at the Fairview Columbia library at 11 and at the Kenton library at 3.  Free!

YEA Academy, a youth empowerment, leadership, and activism workshop, meets this Saturday from 11 to 4 at the Mt. Scott Community Center.  This is a program for 12-17 year olds who want to make a difference in their community or the world.  Participants will learn ways to bring about a change on social justice issues they care about.  Advance registration required. 

Feeling a little crafty?  Head to SCRAP on Sunday from 1 to 2 for a fused plastic bag crafting workshop.  You'll make a zippered pouch out of your unused plastic bags.  For ages 4 and up.  $5.  Sign up here.

The Children's Museum's 7th Annual World Sounds celebration begins on Sunday.  Enjoy the music of Naya PDX: Native American Youth and Family Center at either 11 or 12.  Different artists will be performing most weekends through the beginning of March.  Free with admission ($9). 

There are two great ways to celebrate the New Year this weekend.  On Sunday from 12 to 3, head to the Japanese gardens for the O-Shogatsu New Year's Festival.  O-Shogatsu, Japanese New Year, is the most important festival of the year in Japan.  Enjoy it with your family!  Free with admission ($6.75 to $9.50, free for ages 5 and under). 

Then head to the Gresham Library for a Slavic New Year celebration, complete with music, dancing, crafts, and authentic Russian treats.  Sunday from 2:30 to 4:30.  Free!

Hope this gives you some ideas. Have fun out there! And don't forget to double-check event details by calling or checking the website of the venue, performer, or host organization.

Note: As a fair warning, this post has been written after a night of very little sleep. I’m not making excuses, just stating the facts as they are. If it’s incomprehensible or confusing, consider yourself warned. If you are scared of reading something incomprehensible or confusing, perhaps you’d best skip this one. And every other one I write ;-)

 Baby boy is now 13 months old. He’s getting good at taking more than three steps at a time before flopping down on his diaper-padded tush. He’s starting to say more words, probably more than even I understand yet. And we’ve started that long, long process of weaning by eliminating night nursing. He actually took to sleeping through the night like a champ. However, after all the excitement of the holidays were done, and we started back to our weekly routine I think his world was a little rocked. Why do I think this? Well, it started at around 2:45 AM, the screaming. Before I looked at the clock I thought “wow, is it 6:45 already?” Nope. Maybe he’ll fall back asleep…

… 5 minutes later, still screaming. My darling dearest and I were wide awake. “what’s wrong with him?” he asks. “I don’t know…” I respond. In my head I think… he ate lots of dinner, so not likely hunger. He doesn’t seem to be sick or teething. He took care of all his bowel needs just before bed… so what could it be? Can 1 year olds have nightmares? (he sounded terrified!) Can he be getting another molar? Does he have a fever? Is his night light freaking him out? “I’ll go check on him…” says my darling dearest. *Whew* I think to myself. I’m trying to avoid going back to the nursing all night thing, and I’m afraid if I go to him, he’ll scream even LOUDER if I don’t nurse him.

I listen in… the screaming gets worse. My darling dearest is not having any luck calming him down. After 20 minutes he gives up . Just then, baby boy settles. The quiet is nearly deafening. My ears are ringing. “There was a smell in the room, and I didn’t check his diaper, maybe he had pooped?” my darling dearest says. “No, couldn’t be, he just did that before bed. It’s probably the diaper you smelled” I respond. But he must know, so he goes back in to check…  and in so doing, he wakes baby boy, who begins to wail again. My heart was breaking, but what could I do? Twenty minutes more passed, and my darling dearest gave up again. Five minutes more, and he still hadn’t settled…

I couldn’t take it anymore. It was my turn to go in. I had a plan, and it didn’t involve boobs. It involved the Hokey Pokey. So I picked him up, and he pushed away at me, trying to escape, it seemed. He wailed even louder but I hugged him close and started singing quietly in his ear “you put your right foot in, you put your right foot out…” doing a little dance to go along with it. By the time I got to the hands, he’d stopped screaming and was just sniffling a bit. By the time I got to the hips, he had settled his little head on my chest and relaxed completely. When I got to the head, his arms started to droop and his breathing settled a bit. Finally I just hummed the tune as I ran out of body parts. I gently placed him in his bed, which woke him a bit and set him screaming again, but he quickly settled in and I rubbed his back until he finally fell asleep. I snuck out very VERY slowly, careful not to set him off again. With all the silence I was able to enjoy a little thought to myself: “Maybe the Hokey Pokey *is* what it’s all about”…

I crept back into bed, wide awake.  Thirty minutes later: “WAHHHHHHHHHH” *sigh*

I'm sure my friend Brandy didn't make up the word "resolutionaries," but I saw it first on her Facebook page and so we're going with that. "Resolutionaries: people who you see in the gym in January." It's not just in the gym, of course, but shopping for vegetables instead of candy bars and filling the coffee shops with their laptops, writing a screenplay, maybe, and taking walks with their kids.

As 2012 dawned beautifully today, I ran up to Mt. Tabor and it was like those gorgeous 80-degree Sundays in June -- you know the ones. The ones that happen every few years, when everyone has taken a walk with their spouses and their children and their friends -- generations of family with walking sticks and strollers, on foot and on bikes. People were everywhere, running and holding hands and laughing. New Seasons was entirely out of organic black-eyed peas. It will be an auspicious year. (Mine will have to be auspicious with white northern beans and chili beans -- thank goodness I'm only affectionately superstitious.)

 I'm a little woozy with resolutions. I make some, but often I don't make them right away, or just promise myself to commit a little better to things I'm already doing. Like running: I try to always run on New Year's Day, but often I've run on New Year's Eve as well, and (if things are looking up) a few times on Christmas week. My cycles of commitment don't so much follow the Roman calendar as they do the school calendar and my own personal cycles.

But still. I've committed to a few things that seem perfect for the new year, and so far so good. I won't promise to do these every day all year. But I'm trying to become more consistent, more present, more focused at:

• Baking bread. I started a big batch of no-knead bread on Christmas Eve -- I'm doing another tonight.
• Writing for myself first. Instead of starting each session of writing (and, if auspicion shines around me, each morning) with a piece of writing for pay or for a blog like this, I'll write something that pleases me, even if it's just a few sentences. (I did it tonight!)
• Getting up before my kids. It was pretty easy today (there has been some major, major sleep deprivation in our house). But even if it's 20 minutes or so earlier, getting up first makes such a difference in my day and my ability to be present for the boys.
• Doing things instead of waiting for someone else to __. I've been waiting for someone to help me with the living room painting. Someone to help me fix the front gate and the window. Someone to fix the ceiling so I could clean off those shelves. Etc. Etc. Today I cleaned off those shelves! And I'm almost done with the living room painting. And there will be more...
• Asking for help. I'm never good at it. I've been trying...
• Saying "yes" to friends. I say "maybe" a lot and know that means "no." I'm going to try to say "yes" more. Three so far in the past few weeks have warmed my heart!

Are you a resolutionary or a committed life-changer each new year or a more (umm?) creative cycle follower like me? What will this year bring, you hope, for you?

You know what I mean: the organizations one supports these days bombard you in new and different ways. Gone, for the most part, are the address labels and thank-you cards showing up every month in your mailbox. Today, it's emails (sometimes two or three a day!) and the pledge drives. I was surprised to hear the one-day pledge drive NPR put on this week; reinforced with, yep, daily emails reminding one that the December 31 tax deadline was fast approaching. I've even been getting emails this afternoon. The political campaigns are almost there!

In the spirit of end-of-the-year lists, the urbanMamas team put our heads together and picked 11 favorite local (and a few with lots of local impact) non-profits that are worth the endless communication and begs for just-five-more-dollars...

1.Portland Fruit Tree Project. It makes us sad to see a sidewalk or a front yard littered with spoiling fruit from perfectly good fruit trees. It makes us even sadder if that's our own fruit tree and, due to babies or work or the craziness of family life, we haven't gotten to picking it. Portland Fruit Tree Project to the rescue -- the organization matches volunteer pickers with volunteer tree owners, and half of all the fruit picked goes to the Oregon Food Bank. It's the Biblical concept of gleaning, gone 21st century.

2. OPB. Say what you will about pledge drives and stereotypes of Northwest denizens, most of us get all of our news from OPB. As local television has become more and more sensationalist, fear-creating and celebrity-focused (no, I don't care to know what's going on with the latest reality TV star), OPB and its NPR affiliates are doing the kind of in-depth investigate news and serious journalism that explores topics we really care about -- from autism to breastfeeding to those beautiful stories about families that make us cry (I cried twice today already!).

3. Community Cycling Center. OK, so we love a good bike nonprofit, but this one's particularly great: in addition to being a great neighborhood bike shop for its Northeast Portland community, the nonprofit gives camps, classes, and ongoing support for low-income young people to "broaden access to bicycling and its benefits" and "bikes accessible to people of all ages, abilities, and incomes."

4. Morrison Child & Family Services. A lot of us have gotten services for our children through the county or the school district, and those of us who've been through it know how little they can provide due to budget restrictions and enormous needs of our children. Morrison Child & Family Services fills a gap with "a comprehensive continuum of mental health, substance abuse and prevention services for children from birth through age 21."

5. Growing Gardens. We're all passionate about how life-changing access to good, local, organic food can be; but not all of us have the money or bandwidth to get the good stuff. That's why we support Growing Gardens: the nonprofit organizes "hundreds of volunteers to build organic, raised bed vegetable gardens in backyards, front yards, side yards and even on balconies," supports "low income households for three years with seeds, plants, classes, mentors and more." The "Youth Grow" and "Learn & Grow" workshops and work parties help teach all ages of community members about eating and growing good whole food in backyards, porches and community gardens.

6. SMART (Start Making a Reader Today). Love the library but have a hard time with returning books or making time in a work day to get there before closing time? Wish your kids had better access to a variety of new and classic picture books? And for the low income families among us, it's even harder. SMART sends red book bags filled with books home every week to a bunch of preschoolers who are in early intervention programs and selected day care and preschool programs; kids just bring the bags back every week or two and get a new one. No hassle and kids and parents get lovely new books to share together. I've found many of my now-favorite picture books through SMART bags, and I love how simple it is to impact families with this program.

7. Playworks. I've seen Playworks in action so many times that it brings tears to my eyes just typing this. I shake my head at the "it gets better" campaign which seeks to bring "awareness" to bullying. I firmly believe that bullies are not criminals just waiting to turn 18 and go to jail, but real kids who just are dealing badly with anything from a developmental delay to learning disability to a difficult home life. Playworks is a much better approach to playground problems; whether it be leaving children out of games or aggressive behavior; by teaching older kids to be "junior coaches" that have skills to help younger kids work out problems. I've seen junior coaches negotiate arguments about rules for tag that were about to escalate into shoving and fists; I've seen them start new games to involve all the kids on the playground. Playworks, works, and I'd like to see it at every school.

8. Wordstock Festival. As a writer, I love Wordstock for the access to fantastic authors and workshops cheaper than just about anything but the occasional reading at Powell's. But Wordstock isn't just for writers; it's for readers, too, and kids of all ages get in free. With all the high-cost conventions and festivals and museums and camps, Wordstock makes me giddy -- for $7 to $12 for adults, or even free for volunteers, Wordstock gives free books and author readings and access to interactive storytelling activities for a blissful weekend.

9. Bicycle Transportation Alliance. After many years of believing that the BTA didn't spend much of its advocacy time on child and family biking issues, that has been changing and I, for one, have been keeping my membership up to date. The BTA is one of the hardest-working advocacy groups in Oregon, and we believe this kind of advocacy makes streets safer, not just for bicycling families, but for all of us (especially pedestrians -- and our kids are all pedestrians sometimes).

10. Oregon Environmental Council. As I struggle with three boys, each with a different sort of developmental disorder that challenges my everyday, I look more and more to blame environmental toxins -- much research lately supports this, from data that living near high-traffic areas increases attention disorders to research linking autism to high maternal and infant pesticide exposure. And really? Don't we all want our kids to enjoy rivers teeming with salmon and lakes that are swimmable? This nomination comes from urbanMamas reader Brenna Burke, who says: "Oregon Environmental Council is on the forefront of making sure that our families stay healthy and our state's resources remain sustainable."

11. The Dougy Center. This is also a nomination from Burke, who's very passionate about The Dougy Center, which "provides support in a safe place where children, teens, young adults, and their families grieving a death can share their experiences." Burke writes, "the Dougy Center has helped families grieve the loss of a loved one for more than 25 years. It is free for families and provides a service to those it helps that means more than anything. It has personally been a great place of support for great friends of mine."

 (Apologies: this list was later than I intended, and, as I compiled it, discovered was insufficient to the task of representing the many wonderful nonprofits in our community. I've already thought of a half-dozen I'd like to include had I chosen a higher number -- but it's almost the end of the year! Please include your favorites in the comments.)