The Rise of Inactivism, Pumpkin Bread, and Murder, He Wrote

My mother told me today that I'm a "doer" and thank goodness for that! But we "doers" tend to do too much and that part sucks.

How is it that other well-meaning parents can easily sit back and let the other parents do all the work in a school environment? Sending your child to school means, on some level, that you have a responsibility to be a member of that"community of parents". We all have a common bond which is sending our kids to the same school. So how is it that I can feel a sense of responsibilty on some level and others cannot?

I eagerly volunteered to be a part of the parent teacher group after a year of complete inactivity. Sensing that it would be GOOD for us if we had a parent group and that the school felt support from this group of parents, I offered to help lead a group of willing volunteers.

Aside from the handful, and I do mean handful, of willing volunteer participants, the entire parenthood of the school is, for the most part, inactive. Completely uninvested.

But the show must go on. And on it does, with the same cast of characters over and over again. It's really a shame because it would be a hell of a lot more fun if we met some people and felt like we were accomplishing something. Now I'm just BUSY and overwhelmed. Busier than I would have liked.

I realize that this isn't everyone's "thing". I also realize we're not a co-op and lots of parents may have chosen the school for that reason (it was a consideration for me too!) so I'm not necessarily MAD at these folks. Just disappointed. Disappointed that there's only a handful of us "doers".

Separate from this, is the realization that it's PUMPKIN BREAD TIME! YAY!!

For years, my entire family has been using the same pumpkin bread recipe. We all have it and we all make it through December. It's SOO good. But we all O.D. on it and put it away for a year until we can make tons of it again and eat it again, get sick of it again and put it away until next November.

I don't know if anyone has messed with it at all over the years but I know it's foolproof. You can't mess it up unless you bake it to death.

If you want it you need to let me know. I MIGHT share it with you.

Lastly, go out an buy Murder, He Wrote by Donald Bain, my stepfather. He is an EXCELLENT writer and this is his autobiography. He's a very interesting man, of course, and a hell of a lot of fun to be with. We have had many raucous, hysterical dinners over the years. He's led an amazing life which continues to be amazing with all sorts of new opportunities these days. It's a great read into a very cool guy. You'll like it. Buy it. And then tell me how much you enjoyed it. :-)