A special shout out to @aijustice.bsky.social for helping answer some of my questions today about helping a detained friend. Y’all had some great people working your hotline and have an amazingly helpful website. Thank you for all you do ❤️

A family friend was detained by ICE at a regularly scheduled USCIS appointment in FL over a month ago. I've been trying to help the family as they are abroad & do not speak English. So far I've found 95% of the phone numbers listed online for ICE/DHS facilities are disconnected or never answered

DHS tweeted this yesterday. Little more than 24 hours later, ICE agents just shot and killed a legal observer in Minneapolis.

If you are not in Minneapolis, It is important that you spread the word how bad it is. Everywhere in the city is seeing ICE. They are speeding, kicking in doors, taking people at bus stops. Yell at your electeds. They are taking daycare workers. Parents dropping kids off at school.

This.

me every single day

Needed a mindful and mindless art activity, saw this rice-map-drawing and watercolor as a #Sketchbook2026 over on IG. I think I’ll try to do all 30 w/ the kiddo. Might need to get her her own paint to keep the peace… www.instagram.com/reel/DTDS2NU... Entry 2/30: Rainbow maps

Everything is stupid. let’s do some good. On January 17, I will send these hand knit mittens to someone! Maybe you! Donate to any org in next msg or some similar org. Literally just go support some good group, and send me a pic of the receipt. Every $5 is an entry. Boosts welcome!

We were traveling over New Years, I wasn’t able to cook up the greens and black eyed peas we grew this year. Now the question is, since we’re back home: do I make black eyed peas and greens tomorrow or will that cause further disruption in the new-year-greens-ceremony?

Hmmm…

A thing I’m really glad we decided as our family vacation norms ~10years ago when we became a family of 3: Eat out 1 meal a day, sandwiches & the like for other meals. Fancy coffee & pastry afternoons. Each member of the fam gets to pick 1 adventure for the vacay. We play board games at night.

I haven’t put nearly the dent in my TBR pile as I assumed on this vacation. But I made sweet progress on this knitting project and a few other mending projects. So. That’s a win.

Yesterday the kiddo and I teamed up and tried to convince hubs that a houseplant is an acceptable vacation souvenir. He remained unconvinced because the pottery didn’t say the location. So the kid and I settled for some witchy tea from the plant/apothecary store 😂

Oh yeah! Today I unlocked “can knit and listen to an audio book” levels. Making progress on the seed knit cowl.

Had a long car ride to learn into imperfection with a new craft today. Seed stitch test swatch made with recycled yarn before I moved onto the pretty yarn for the actual craft. I have a goal of knitting a cowl before the end of winter break.

In 2019 I bought the kiddo a pair of Elmo chopsticks while in San Francisco visiting for Desmos Fellows weekend. Since then, about once a month, she’d try to use them, get frustrated, and swap back to a fork. Tonight she successfully used them while eating dumplings! Perseverance and patience 💚

Needing blue sky networking help: I am looking for someone with familiarity in Immigration Law who might be willing to talk with me and help me understand the system a bit. In particular I am in need of advocacy advice for a detained family friend. (South Florida specific would be ideal)

Looking for suggestions: If I were to find myself in need of patty paper, but wanted to avoid Am@zon, where would you send me to purchase said patty paper? I'm am building out an idea for a conference presentation on MP5 and student-choice with geometric constructions & we'll be folding things.

I’m not on here often, but saw this on a dyslexic group I’m in & wanted to share: If you hate the new iOS glass update, you can make it slightly more tolerable: Settings Accessibility Display & text size Toggle on the “reduce transparency” button. It still isn’t great, but it sucks less.

Today, the Republican leadership in the legislature failed the people of North Carolina.

In this representative democracy, the people choose their representatives - not the other way around.

The calming cardboard folding and taping moment I needed in this *gestures to the world* The kiddo wanted a dragon mask to add to her Halloween costume this year. I found a template and started assembling. Some fun mathematical thinking went into this build.

New episode!

NCTM is next week and if you pay me a cool $20 I'll get those slides nice and fixed up for you

If you'd like to watch two amazing people build some cool graphs in Desmos and learn a thing or two (probably more) along the way. Here ya go.

I feel seen.

I’m not on here much these days. But it felt like a good time to pop in and say: it’s double poke season y’all. Flu +Covid 💉💉 You can schedule your shots now in a lot of states. They didn’t ask about pre-existing conditions (tho I do have them). In and out in under 10 mins.

COVID vaccine update: Pharmacies in these states won't give you a shot unless you have a prescription. CVS: CO, FL, GA, KY, LA , ME, NY, NC, PA, UT, VA, WV, DC Walgreens: AZ, CO, GA, IN, LA, MO, MT, NM, NY, OR, SC, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI CVS is not yet offering COVID shots at all in MA, NV, and MN.

I had some time today to download and try my hand at a few of the Bloom class of origami folds. They were a lot of fun, data set with select crease patterns available here scholarsarchive.byu.edu/data/85/ (YT video of the researchers who found them: youtu.be/YMV43l1nnoM?...)

Kolam tiles are back! At the old price for a limited time! talkingmathwithkids.com/shop/kolam-t...

LFG. Get louder, folks. School funding is so overwhelmingly supported that it might just be the issue that helps Senators and Representatives finally find their, um, courage.

What Annie said. Call your reps. Did it on my way to get the kiddo from summer camp today. Money being withheld by federal administration for: North Carolina: $185.8 million My county: $5.8 million

Note to self. Dive into this and play with the math next week

North Carolina, more storms and flash flooding are expected in central parts of the state, including areas that experienced flooding from Chantal. Do not go around barriers or attempt to drive through flooded roads.

Overnight we saw roadways flooded and damaged and some people had to leave home in central NC. NC Emergency Management, NCDOT, and the NC State Highway Patrol are working closely with communities to keep folks safe. Please follow the advice of local officials.

some people are gonna need a few days in the fetal position and some people do best when immediately given a task and some people need to immerse themselves in joy and comfort we have to let everyone grieve and feel this shit however their own nervous system needs. this is gonna be a long fight

‼️ Y'all, House Republican leadership just told their members to go back to their offices. The floor has emptied. They don't even have the votes to pass the procedural Rule that's needed to get to a passage vote on the bill. 👀 There's still time to make noise --> 5calls.org

👋 Hi friends! Things got very bad very quickly at work, so I'm back on the market. DM's are open here; you can get in touch here with leads, tips, questions, and any late-breaking berry-picking info: talkingmathwithkids.com/contact

Some alt text: “The Senate & the House failed to come together to meet the needs of NC before the start of the new budget year… Our teachers, law enforcement, & other state employees deserve real pay raises so we can recruit & retain the best.“ Also says federal cuts to Medicaid are irresponsible

Probably 1/3 of my time as a Peace Corps community health volunteer was facilitating learning sessions on vaccines & traveling with heath teams on vaccine tours. We’d walk hours to the most remote parts of our community to bring 💉 to the community and provide other health services and bring supplies

We've got a form for next year! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Vaccination schedules on the CDC website have already started changing under RFK Jr. So we published a guide to the evidence-based vaccine recommendations in place *before* all 17 members of the advisory panel were abruptly dismissed by the new admin. www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-... 🧪

@summerofmath.bsky.social ‘s box of mathematical delight arrived yesterday. Today the kiddo (9yo) is exploring the Curvy Truchet Tiles. #tmwyk thread incoming.

It’s been a while since I logged in here because, ya know, 😬 *gestures around* But also, call your reps and tell them how you feel. Do it often. If your reps are trash like mine, also send them spam mail. Lots of it.

Have you followed along with Math On-A-Stick and wondered what it would take to make this kind of joyful, creative math happen in your locality? Well, let's gooooooooooooooo www.mathhappens.org/math-at-the-...

“The UN Humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, told the BBC this morning at 14,000 babies could die in Gaza in 48 hours if they did not reach them in time.” Take 5 minutes to call your reps right now. 202 224 3121 www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The comment period for this ends in 3 DAYS. Please leave a comment telling them EVERYONE should be able to get covid boosters. www.regulations.gov/commenton/FD...

Good news: The FDA finally approved the Novavax Covid-19 vaccine. Bad news: There are new restrictions that will create lots of problems for people who want to get the Novavax Covid-19 vaccine.

Crazy how long this conversation has been going on

I like that sometimes in this job I text my husband things like: Me: do we have calipers at the house? Hubs: somewhere I'm sure we do. Me: can you guess where, because it's not in the 3 obvious spots and I find myself needing to measure the diameter and height of 50 blueberries... Hubs: whhhhy?