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Apricot (and other) Madness, By Claudette E. Sutton

8/19/2019

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In some circles, the summer of 2019 will go down as the Season of Apricot Madness.
​

 Trees all over Santa Fe produced a bounty like never before. It seemed everyone was looking for ways to eat, bake, process or give away their fruits before they rotted on the ground. My Facebook feed filled with friends’ photos of ambitious creations — and one dramatic shot of a branch that broke under the weight of this year’s unprecedented crop. 
My husband, Charles, had to prop up two branches on our tree that had drooped so low to the ground they blocked the path to the front door. Working together and in alternating shifts, we spent our free evenings and weekends freezing, drying, pureeing, making jam, chutney and cobbler, and we still had trouble keeping up. When I put out a call for people to come and get some, a friend replied she’d love a bag or two — until a mutual friend begged her to take hers first. 
 
The stately old tree just outside our front door was an inheritance from our house’s previous owner, the woman known to the neighborhood kids as Grandma Rogers. She planted it long before we moved in 30 years ago. On average we’ve had a harvest about two years out of five. A late frost often zaps the tiny fruits before they can mature, making a good yield a real summer delight. I remember our son as a toddler reaching up to the low branches to pick his own “apity-tots.” This year a few spring snows and frosts threatened the tree’s delicate white blossoms, but they managed to thread the meteorological needle. Summer rains provided the extra boost. 
 
I’ve gotten so accustomed to news of adverse weather — record heat waves, epic fires, increasingly extreme storms — that I almost don’t quite know what to make of this environmental good fortune. I don’t want to overthink the joy of fresh apricots, but I can’t pretend that this bounty or the lush rains facilitating it are the norm, either. As our climate in the Southwest grows drier and warmer, these lovely trees, introduced by early Spanish settlers, may become embattled. Until then, we’ll reap the bounty.
 
In the midst of this apricot mania, we were jolted by a darker madness: violence, intolerance and hate. In one horrific weekend, our domestic revelry was shaken by mass shootings with overt racist motivation in El Paso and Dayton. The sense of tranquility we were trying to preserve in jars of jam and trays of cobbler was fractured. 
 
Hate crimes bend all laws of space and time. A mass shooting across the country has a physical and emotional force as if it happened right here, right now. 
 
What a challenge we face, we parents and teachers and friends and mentors, as we try to raise children in the midst of political and environmental turmoil. How do we reassure children about their fears, when we struggle to cope with our own? How do we navigate the turbulence, while remembering that children thrive in an atmosphere of safety and stability? 
 
I’ll be honest: Parenting for me has often involved acts of faking it. In times of national or familial trauma, I try to project a sense of calm I don’t necessarily feel in the moment. Back when my son was in preschool, he asked about the Los Angeles riots that followed the Rodney King beating. (How had he even heard about them?) I first saw TV reports of Columbine while he was in bed with a cold. I had just dropped him off at middle school when I heard on the radio of the 9/11 attacks. Each time, I wondered how to explain the seemingly inexplicable, in ways appropriate to his age and curiosity level. How do I project a sense of stability and safety, when the world feels so unstable and unsafe? 
 
Needless to say, this is never easy — which is why Dr. Chelsea Fleishman’s article “Easing Their Fears” (also translated into Spanish, “Un alivio a sus temores,” by Flor de María Oliva) is so on-the-money. Dr. Chelsea offers coping strategies that teachers have shared with her, as well as her suggestions for when and where to seek help in addressing a child’s deeper, underlying concerns.
 
Raising children is a challenge under any circumstances, all the more so when we do it in isolation. Yet Jessa Cowdrey, of CHI St. Joseph, notes that children today have an average of only 1.5 meaningful adults in their lives. Home visitation and other support programs decrease insulation and build support networks that reduce abuse and neglect. In her “Child Well-Being is a Community Responsibility,” Cowdrey urges us all to reach out to parents who need support, and report any suspicions of abuse for the sake of children’s health and safety. 
 
Many of our longstanding local institutions provide prime spots for learning and exploring in a safe, enriched environment. You may think you know everything about the Santa Fe Children’s Museum, for example, but Kat Lopez’s article “Open Play” highlights offerings that you will be surprised to discover.
 
Our Santa Fe Public Library is another constant treasure, beloved for its books, programs and wise librarians. During the school year, a library can build on classroom lessons or take children's interests in whole new directions — without costing you a dime. See wonderful Walter Cook’s article “Time to Read” for a plethora of titles for all ages. 
 
Natanya Civjan’s “Culture Club” article chronicling a visit with her children to the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, launches what we hope will be a regular feature, spotlighting Santa Fe museums particularly well-suited for building family memories and cultivating a new generation of museum-lovers.
 
Gloria Valdez takes us further afield on a day trip to the Moriarty Pumpkin Patch — with a recipe for tasty, colorful Jack-o’-lantern Rice.
 
If you avoided the Santa Fe Plaza during the crowds and heat of tourist season, Kristen Cox Roby’s article “It’s YOUR Plaza, Too” will inspire you to explore downtown Santa Fe on journeys that will fit any young child’s attention span and appetite, and any parent’s budget.
 
Communities in Schools of New Mexico, the focus of this issue’s “Noisy Acorns” advocacy column, serves about 50 percent of our public school students with supplemental food, school supplies and clothing, individual and group support, and case management, to provide extra stability many families need. Sonja Thorpe Bohannan’s “Helping Hands” follows one exemplary site coordinator, Stephanie Walther, through a day at Aspen Community School. 
 
Back to school means back to math class. If that triggers objections in your household, Josh Rappaport’s “Bunnies and Turtles and … Algebra? Oh My!” offers tips and tricks for helping your child with math homework. James Taylor, director of the Math Circles Collaborative of New Mexico, offers a fascinating way to explore and enjoy the often-neglected “M” in STEM education.
 
All in all, there is so much in this wonderful issue to reassure us of how Santa Fe is supporting a stable, safe world for children. Our Fall Calendar and After-School Program Directory will point you to an ever-increasing number of classes and drop-in activities specifically for kids, as well as programs especially for parents. These programs help families find the friendship and connection we need in turbulent times. They help us build the courage that puts the “ape” (I couldn’t resist!) in apricot. 
 
What gives you courage? What gets you through? Share your stories, questions or doubts. We love hearing from you.
 
And lastly, as I announced in my "Family Meeting!" column in our Summer 2019 issue, I am looking for a new owner for Tumbleweedsafter almost 25 years. If you are interested in exploring this possibility, please call J. Erika Munde, at Sam Goldenberg and Associates, (505) 820-0163. She'll be glad to talk with you.
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Family Meeting! By Claudette Sutton

5/22/2019

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Hey, everyone! Grab a snack, get your favorite stuffed animal and come on into the living room. Time for a family meeting!

This summer, Tumbleweeds begins its 25th year. Almost 100 issues, hundreds of writers and advertisers, thousands and thousands of readers! It’s a good time to be looking back, and looking ahead. ​

You may have heard this through the grapevine, but I want you to hear it from me: I’m looking for a new owner for Tumbleweeds. 

Rest assured, Team Tumbleweeds and I plan to keep publishing until the new owner steps in, but change is afoot.
 
Back in the summer of 1994, when I revamped my little newsletter The Tot’s Hot News for toddlers and preschoolers into the first issue of Tumbleweeds,my little boy was about to enter first grade. Today, he’s 30. Longtime readers have watched him grow up in these pages. You’ve read about my husband’s fishing trips, and the passing of our beloved dog Emily, and the months we spent in a hotel after a burst washing machine hose flooded our house. You followed the last years of my parents’ lives and the ongoing misadventures of our impish cat Misty. You accompanied us through the growth and changes in Santa Fe for two and a half decades—or whatever period you’ve been raising or teaching children in this town.
 

It’s time to make room for a new set of stories.

​Tumbleweeds is still going strong. Despite all you’ve heard about the decline of ad revenue for daily and weekly publications, Tumbleweeds ad sales for most issues of the last year were our strongest ever. We have several new advertisers in this issue, and some who have been with us since our very first issue.

We’re still winning awards. We tied for second place for the highest number of award points in the New Mexico Press Women 2019 Communications Contest—including first place for editing and design in the magazine/magpaper category. We won first place for Will McDonald’s personal essay “He’s Leaving Home,” about his son’s departure for college, and Jocelyn Salaz’s food article “The Secret Ingredient” about making biscochitos with her family; second place for my “Notes from Claudette” columns and Josh Rappaport’s “Practical Math Adds Up to Enjoyable Learning;” and third place for Katie Weeks’ “Observe, Explore, Design & More,” and our office assistant Diane Smogor’s “Inspiring Science.” McDonald’s essay went on to the National Federation of Press Women Communication Contest for first-place winners from all state chapters and took second place. Two years ago the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce honored us as the 2017 Family Friendly Business of the Year.

So we’re still hot.

But it’s time for Tumbleweeds to be someone else’s baby. Our new owner might be a young mom or dad, or perhaps an involved grandparent. It might be a pair of co-owners who divide responsibilities, or perhaps an organization that absorbs Tumbleweeds into its existing operation. He, she or they will have the opportunity to take an established publication into new content areas, new geographic regions, new media outlets and new stories. 

This is an opportunity for a fresh set of eyes to observe and respond to changes in the family community. Back in our early days, one of our frequent contributors (the late early-childhood educator Phyllis Nye) used to submit articles handwritten on legal pads. In this issue, we have an article by Ashley O’Malley, president of the Santa Fe Mommy Meetup Group—a way for parents to connect that we hadn’t even imagined back then. Her article, “Fresh-Air Fun,” reads like a good friend’s recommendations of the city’s best parks, playgrounds and hiking trails for children, all field-tested by Mommy Meetup and Hike it Baby members. What changes in our ways of connecting might lie ahead? 
 
You’ll find O’Malley’s article translated into Spanish by Flor de María Oliva, “Diversión al aire libre,” reflecting another change Santa Fe has experienced in the past 24 years—a burgeoning community of Spanish-speaking parents. 

Tumbleweeds has seen a proliferation of arts programs in its lifetime—including the excellent Dragonfly Art Studio—whose director, Oceanna Holton, offers an indigo art project to do in your home or summer program; see “Blue Beauty.” You’ll see many exquisite examples of indigo (which predates Tumbleweedsby only a few millennia) at the 16th Annual International Folk Art Market, July 13 and 14 on Museum Hill. Look for details in the sidebar to Holton’s article, and in Tumbleweeds’ summer calendar starting on page 28.

We are fortunate that so many nonprofits have been serving the community for decades, including the New Mexico Wildlife Center, founded in 1986. Director Melissa Moore takes us behind the scenes into the center’s hospital, where abandoned or injured animals are rescued and returned to the wild or kept at the center as “animal ambassadors.” 

Carmen Harris takes readers onto trails around and outside of town to look for signs of animal presence in places where they normally reside in her lovely article “The Wonders of the Wild.” Which is nothing ... Youth Services Librarian Walter Cook takes us across the universe, in his “To the Stars and Beyond!”  

This year’s state legislative session brought more action for children and families than we’ve seen in recent years—many successes, some failures—highlighted by James Jimenez, the executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, a nonpartisan children’s advocacy organization we have admired for years.

Changes in children’s technological awareness in recent years are unfortunately supplanting their awareness of their natural environment. Retired teacher Lynn Grimes shares an inspiring art and writing project she led in Jill Miyagawa’s second-grade class at Turquoise Trail Charter School, based on the gorgeous picture book The Lost Words; see “There’s a Word for That!”

And while so many things change, others stay the same. Grandparents are still nuts about their grandchildren. Gloria Valdez writes about visiting Albuquerque’s Tingley Beach with her grandkids, an easy drive from Santa Fe and perfect for a summer day trip, in “Off to the Beach!”

Whether you’ve been picking up Tumbleweeds for 24 years or this is your first issue, you’re part of a family of people around town and around the world (and some in the next world) who have read, written for and advertised in Tumbleweeds.I called you all together for this family meeting because I wanted you to hear of these changes straight from me—and because I suspect the new owner may be someone who already reads and loves this publication. If this might be you, or your organization, please email me of your interest and tell me a bit about yourself: claudette@sftumbleweeds.com. 

​Where will the new owner take this publication? I look forward to seeing. In the meantime, dig in to this issue, and have a great summer!

​Claudette Sutton is Tumbleweeds' editor and publisher.

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