Marinmom’s Weblog


All About Martial Arts (CNJ, age 7)
January 10, 2008, 4:19 am
Filed under: Children, bay area, boys sports, lucky

belts

Martial arts is a hard technique. This is the order of the belts.

White, yellow, yellow-white, orange, orange-white, blue, then blue-white, green, green-white, purple, purple-white, brown, brown-white, black, black and then 5 stripes. Then a black belt with a gold stripe.

Punches

One punch is called the jab. The other is a hook punch. There is a cross punch too. I forget what the kicks are called.

And I think it is sort of fun, but not the best. Because they are a little hard on you sometimes. Like they make you do at least white belt with four pieces of tape or higher.

It is on Mondays, Wednesday and Friday. I am a white belt with one tape, my friend Danny has two tapes, my friend Andreas is a blue belt with a white stripe and two pieces of tape.

(Written by CNJ, typed by his mom)



Traveling mom
August 25, 2007, 12:07 am
Filed under: Africa, Children, Motherhood, Parenting, bay area, beaches, camping, dining, travel, weekend getaways

As a full-time working mom, I often wish I could travel with my kids more often.  I am limited by the American standard of two weeks vacation (who came up with that?) and by money or lack thereof.  Traveling with a family of four is expensive unless we go camping and my husband refuses to have anything to do with tents.  I dream of taking my family on safari to Africa, a historical tour of Boston or even just a long weekend a few hours drive away.  For the past few months, I have felt trapped.  I live in an affluent community and often hear of my neighbors far-flung adventures to France, Italy and Costa Rica.  One family I met recently actually owns an island off the coast of Spain.  I am not trying to compete with that, but how can I give my kids the experience of foreign shores when it is completely out of my reach.  Sometimes National Geographic just does’t cut it.   I recently took a few days off work to explore my own backyard, we went kayaking (SeaTrek.com), to  three beaches (Stinson, Muir Beach and Pt. Reyes) and had some friends over for dinner.  Not Africa, but a start.  At least I got of the house and out of my routine.  I am now looking for adventures around every corner.  Chinatown, the Mission District, volunteering at a homeless shelter they are all in the bay area and it is time to explore.  My kids won’t be able to talk about Parisian pastries but they can surely try a new cuisinejust around the corner.  So I wonder, do any of you have tips for getting out without going broke, weekend getaways on the cheap or even how to get your husband to camp.