Teaching TheKiddo™: Lesson 7

Remember The Rules; Know When To Break Them.

Your life will be full of rules. You’ll constantly be told what to do. You’ll always have someone telling you what you should and should not be doing.

It has already started. Your Mami and Papi make rules for you. Your teachers make rules for you. Your coaches make rules for you.

There are rules for games, grammar, learning, and life.

For the most part, those rules are designed to protect you, teach you and help you grow. So learn them. There are times, however, that you’ll want or even need to break the rules.

Like now.

There are a variety of grammar rules I just broke with that two-word paragraph. I did it on purpose. I did it for a reason. And it worked.

Maurice Sendak was masterful at breaking the rules of grammar. "Where The Wild Things Are" is an opus of sentence fragments an run-ons. It's also a book that you request in both English and Spanish on a regular basis. 

I know the rules. So I know when breaking them is the right thing to do.

Learn your rules. 

Follow them. 

Brush your teeth. Wash your face. Do your homework.

In time, you’ll know when breaking the rules (or even a little civil disobedience) is the right thing to do. Just be sure you know why you’re breaking the rules.

Papi will back you 100%.

Happy birthday North Haven Gardens

We visited our favorite plant and garden store today, North Haven Garden. And we stumbled across their 61st birthday. Happily, Trailer Cakes was there with some delicious cupcakes. It made our wandering around even more enjoyable.
While TheBetterHalf® attended a class about planting from seeds, TheKiddo™ and I looked at plants, checked out the chickens, and amused ourselves by making up stories about what we encountered.
Most of the time, we're easily amused. All we need is one another and our imaginations.
For more fun, we'll need to attend one of their Garden Happy Hours. Wine and lessons about gardening sounds like a great combination.

Urban Gardening

Today we got to harvest some onions and shallots from plot #1. In fact, we harvested over 15 pounds of onions. Not sure hom many shallots we'll have after they've cured for a while. TheKiddo™ says, "A lot." So I'll go with her measurement for now.
We also planted some pumpkins and watermelons. Between the melons we put down today and the cantaloupe that is already growing, we should have plenty of fruit to enjoy this summer.

Deep Ellum Dining: Pepes & Mitos Mexican Café

Pepes & Mitos is unquestionably my favorite tex-mex restaurant in Dallas. Even if it is another one of my Deep Ellum staples that was discovered by the frosted-spiked-dbag coifed fellow on Food Network. So far, it hasn't made it hard to get a table. And that's a good thing since we've been known to wander over just because we were craving chips, salsa and beer.

Their chips are usually freshly warm and crispy. The accompanying salsa is delightfully delicious with just enough heat to get your attention.

I tend to have the Tacos Al Pastor (pork, not chicken) on every visit. I cannot help myself. They're too tasty to ignore.

The Tacos Norteños are delicious, too.

Frankly, it's impossible not to enjoy the food here.

Light reading

TheBetterHalf® has been working at a Scholastic book fair this week. That's always a good thing, because she'll come home with all sorts of books for TheKiddo™that didn't require us to dip into the bank account.

This week, however, she brought me a book too!

It's "The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe" by Theodore Gray. I'm loving it. Can't wait to share it with TheKiddo™ (though at six, I know she's not ready for it).

Teaching TheKiddo™: Lesson 6

Keep Your Word

This one is as simple as it seems.

Do what you say you will. Don’t do what you say you won’t do.

There’s no need to lie, shade the truth or prevaricate. Just keep your word. The world will be a better place.