Just a few of my favorite things things from this week. None of them have a thing to do with Brad and Angelina getting divorced . Sorry not sorry.

·:    When Someone Tells You They Cannot Afford Something, Be Kind – It’s fantastic advice on it’s own but yes, let’s also talk about why preschool has to be so damn expensive? And exclusive.The issue with the expense goes without saying. We NEED more pre-school programming that’s affordable for lower income families. Something I noticed as someone who worked in both public and private pre-schools was that the private ones talked a lot about “celebrating diversity” but they were really exclusionary when it came to accepting students of diverse backgrounds into their program. Scholarships were rare for low income families. The programming was not any better (in my opinion, both as a early childhood educator and a parent) than anything that would be considered publicly funded. The kids in Head Start and UPK  were actually experiencing diversity and learning so much from each other about other cultures, languages, and just life in general.

This diverges a bit off Katy’s main point,though. Just MYOB about why people can’t afford something. Sheesh.

:· A new podcast about the spiritual sustenance of leaders in social justice movements, Fortification – Only 2 episodes so far but I’m feeling inspired and uplifted.

·: I’m in love with the idea of Conflict Kitchen. It’s a restaurant in Pittsburgh that only serves food from countries the U.S. is in conflict with. “Each iteration is augmented by events, performances, and discussions that seek to expand the engagement the public has with each country.”
The restaurant’s current focus is Haudenosaunee cuisine. I was so happy to see products from The Iroquois White Corn Project being used . If you’re ever in the Rochester, NY area, do go visit the  Ganondagan  center.

:· The Black Girl Dangerous podcast is back for a new season with new host Raquel Willis. This episode discusses Colin Kaepernick’s protest of police violence against people of color is the U.S. and this was before the most recent shootings. The discussion highlights the importance of what Colin and others following the example are doing. I see poor people dismiss protest like Colin’s sometimes because of his position of privilege but THAT is exactly why it’s important . Any time someone with privilege speaks out for marginalized people ,even if it risks their own security and status – I think that’s noble and notable. 

And that’s that for now, unless you count some of the links I’ve shared on the Facebook page this week. Really should get into the habit of rounding them up here.

Oh,also! Happy Bisexuality Day! I don’t have a specifically bi-pride flag but my regular rainbow pride flag hasn’t been taken down since the Orlando Pulse shooting. I love how it looks like my dried up sunflowers are holding up the flag in this pic.

We have the car back again. Fixed to the tune of $434. Yikes.
We had an electricity shut off notice for today. Our actual bill was only $33 BUT we had one hellacious bill from this past winter (because old house and space heaters) that I was still paying. I had a payment plan in place that was $109 on top of what our new charges would be. Once you’re late on the payment agreement, you get hit with a shut off for the whole amount. I fell behind (because car). The shut off amount was $575. They let me pay $300 today to keep it being shut off as long as I pay that remaining balance within the next two weeks.

Yikes all over the place. Between the car repairs,renting the u-haul for the days there was no bus, and the electric bill – that was rent money. Rent not paid for September yet.

On the plus side, we were able to get to the food pantry this week. Some produce plus the basic canned foods,rice,etc. It’s a huge help. The EBT  SNAP balance is zero.

We’re up for SNAP recert in October. We probably will not be approved. One of our college kids is living at home and just got a job. Her income will count as our  household income total then.

I’ve also felt under the weather this week. It’s par for the course as school has just started and kids are bringing me home all their new germs. My symptoms fit the basic human flu but I could have cat scratch fever.
All over my Facebook feed this week , my cat lover friends are posting the CDC’s advisory to cat owners about cat scratch disease. I looked at the symptoms. They fit. I’m totally not ruling it out.  Because that would seem about right for this week.

I took this picture Friday on the way home from the post office. Not in our car. Walking.
Fixed car not fixed. Hopefully we’ll have it back this week. The work that had been done as of Friday afternoon was $260-ish with another part and more work needed. I have no idea what the final bill will be.

The 18th of the month. Rent still not paid. Electric shut off pending for this week. This month blows.

Positives: The walk was nice on Friday. The post office is almost exactly 2 miles from our house . It took about 40 minutes to get there. On the way home was a bit longer since it’s uphill. Before moving here, I walked everywhere. My body noticed that it had been awhile. I’m still feeling a little achy today. I think I will try to make a walk to the PO a once a week thing even after we get our wheels back. Or maybe I’ll finally get air in the tires of my brand new bike. That would be cool,too.