Happy Monday! I’m blogging over at The Motherhood Muse this morning. If you haven’t seen this beautiful site, you are in for a treat! See you there.
16 Nov
Monday Memory: ManaMana
Seriously.
Sesame Street rocks.
The old one, the original one, not this new glossy, boring version that my kids refuse to watch.
Where would all children of the ’70s be today if it weren’t for Sesame Street?
I remember sitting on my family’s worn-out brown and gold woven couch in my footed pajamas, watching the beloved puppets frolick about on the stoops of their urban apartments.
I am who I am today because of them. It’s true.
So when I saw this clip on another blog recently, I had the mother of all flashbacks and immediately dragged Small Boy and Big Sister in front of the computer. This is what you’re missing! I cried.
Seriously. It just makes you smile, doesn’t it?
12 Nov
Top 3 Thursday!
Today it’s all about one of my very most favorite things in the whole wide world: BOOKS!
The Alchemist, by Paulo Coehlo
Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett
Love that Dog, by Sharon Creech
(May I add a fourth? Whatever, it’s my list. I just finished The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. One of the most creatively written books I’ve ever read. Heartwrenching and beautiful, and I can’t get the characters out of my head.)
How about you? I’m always looking for new titles to add to my bookshelf. Please share!
10 Nov
The Motherhood Paradox
In the same breath that Motherhood is lauded for her miraculous beauty, she is mocked for her fashion sense and lack of opportunity to comb her hair. She is filled with boundless and overwhelming love, the force of which can bring her to her knees. While she’s down there, she can be found sweeping graham cracker crumbs into the dustpan while the baby spits up and the toddler cries, wondering whether she is being Punk’d.
A woman in the throes of motherhood can hardly comprehend the enormity of the power she wields, an ungainly wand with which she can nurture self-respect, honor individuality, impart wisdom, guide values. Yet she realizes that this authority becomes moot when confronted by a child who has transformed into a screaming beast when told that she would not be purchasing a one-ounce piece of plastic molded into the shape of a dinosaur.
A mother is strong, stronger than many would believe. She can summon the energy to lift a car off of her baby, protect her cub from bullies, and lobby for her pup’s educational needs. She be sick, sleep-deprived, and coffee-stained and still accomplish five errands and three meals. Yet a mother has a weak spot – that part of her where worry festers. Is she doing enough? Will her children be good people? Will it hurt them to eat chicken nuggets again tonight?
Motherhood is a beautiful, unsightly, joyful, frustrated, courageous, fearful, proud, disappointed, calm, and chaotic contradiction. It is an overwhelming responsibility whose rewards sometimes seem too few and far between; but, oh my, the rewards are sweet. The times they confide in you. The times they let you hug them just a little bit longer. The times they say, with their eyes big and round, “I love you, Mommy.”
7 Nov
A Moment of Zen
It’s raining, again. I lie in bed, the early morning light just beginning to filter in through the closed curtains. The quiet is broken by Big Sister’s voice pleading at the closed gate protecting the stairs from small bodies in the night – “Help! I’m trapped!” – followed by Small Boy’s gentle request to be released from his crib of captivity – “WAAAAAAAAAHH!”
Downstairs, the music of a typical morning. Emptying the dishwasher while simultaneously pouring cereal into a bowl and smearing strawberry jam onto toast. Shouts of “MINE!” blend with giggles and the noisy slurping of milk from cups. Little feet padding around in a game of take-the-toy-from-little-brother. The protests of a Small Boy who hates having his diaper changed. The protests of a Big Sister who…well, who knows what she’s upset about this time. Toy boxes emptied onto the hardwood floor. Nursery rhymes on the stereo. Rhythmic bouncing on the mini-trampoline, brought inside at the end of summer to offer some form of energy-release. Stories being read. Train sets being built. Laughter.
I lie in bed, the light of the morning now filling the room. It’s my turn to sleep in, a luxury Hubby D. and I offer each other on the weekends. Tomorrow, it will be me downstairs, emptying the dishwasher, making breakfast, reading stories, building train sets, drying tears. But now, in this moment, I relax, responsibility-free, and enjoy the sounds of my beautiful family…from a distance.
29 Oct
Brief hiatus…
Hi all! I’m taking a short break from blogging out of necessity as I get the Young Writers Studio up off of the ground. Or at least standing vertically. 
Thanks for your patience! The young writers in my community thank you, too. Because they’re cool like that.
13 Oct
WOW: Family Relationships
Today I’m participating in a mass blogging! WOW! Women On Writing has gathered a group of blogging buddies to write about family relationships.
Why family relationships?
We’re celebrating the release of Therese Walsh’s debut novel today. The Last Will of Moira Leahy, (Random House, October 13, 2009) is about a mysterious journey that helps a woman learn more about herself and her twin, whom she lost when they were teenagers. Visit The Muffin (http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/blog.html) to read what Therese has to say about family relationships and view the list of all my blogging buddies. And make sure you visit Therese’s website (http://www.theresewalsh.com) to find out more about the author.
* * * * * * * * * *
I could blog on and on about my family. I feel blessed and humbled by the people in my world, both those I’ve been with since birth and those who became my family later on. I’ve got powerful relationships, strained relationships, nonexistent relationships, beautiful relationships. I am honored to witness the relationships that have blossomed between my husband and my children, my brother and his own small family.
Really. I could blog on and on.
But there is one relationship that I am on the outside of, that is beyond my understanding but touches me on a level so deep and powerful it evokes tears even on a good day. On September 14, 2004, my mom celebrated her birthday by going out to a nice dinner with her husband, my stepfather. Not long after arriving home, she received a phone call from me. The next day, she drove the two and a half hours to our house, bringing with her a bundle of white flowers and enveloped me in the only embrace that could offer any comfort. A mother, comforting her baby, who had just lost her baby.
All I could do was apologize. Plans had been in place for months to celebrate with a huge party the following weekend; within hours the event was a nonissue. My mom’s response? Next to her own grief at losing her first blood-related grandchild, she told me she was honored to share a birthday with our little angel. That it was a wonderful – sad, but wonderful – gift.
A few months later, I was at their house one evening, and she invited me upstairs. Leading me to the window in a guest bedroom, she pointed up at the night sky and asked me if I saw it. “That’s her star,” she told me. “I look at it every night and see her there.”
It’s been five years now. Every year Hubby D. and I (and later, Big Sister, and later again, Small Boy) return to the place where we scattered our daughter’s tiny ashes and release a flower into the stream. And every year we return to see a beautiful bundle of white flowers on our table. “To Ella, Love Grandma.”
I am humbled by their connection, honored by their presence in each others lives.
13 Oct
Kreativ Blog: Pass It On
And on to Part 2. Here are the recipients of the Kreativ Blogger award, from yours truly. And, hey, if you’ve received it before, great! Just means you’re doubly awesome.
5. Write Like Crazy: Where Young Writers Gather
6. Chalk It Up!
7. MotherReader
12 Oct
Kreativ Blog: An Honor!
Thank you, Jenni from Write the Journey. I’m honored. Touched, even. You made my day. And, apparently, you made my computer crash, too. Just kidding!!!!! But it did crash right after I received this most wonderful award, and so I was only just now able to set about thanking you properly and telling you that I think you rock, too. XO
So I’m supposed to tell you seven things not many people know, and then nominate seven more bloggers. Okay, then, here goes!
1. When I was in high school, I was one of two “white girls” out of 25 on our hip-hop dance team.
2. Throughout my 20s, I would cry every time I got drunk. Really. I could be having the time of my life, but you could bet money on the fact that at some point in the evening I would be in the bathroom, sobbing. Why? Who knows! To my patient girlfriends…bless you for sticking by me!
3. I’ve played piano since I was five. I went to college on a music scholarship. While I was there, I realized that music would always be a hobby, never a profession. I haven’t played much in the last few years.
4. Right about the time my driving record is cleared of a speeding ticket, I get another one. I don’t have an excuse for this. I just drive faster than I should.
5. The first time I ever skipped a class in high school, I was walking down the street with two friends and my mom drove by. Can you believe it?
6. I planned to major in communications and become a journalist when I headed to college. My first communications class was a speech class at 8 a.m., five days a week. I missed it a few times. Barely passed it. Changed my major to one where the classes were offered at a reasonable hour.
7. My family has three guardian angels: Hubby D.’s mom, whom I never had the privilege to meet, my Grandma J., and our Bigger Sister, who died before she was born. We like to imagine that they are sitting around a table together eating fresh-baked cookies and laughing at our antics.
Stop back by tomorrow, and I will pass this lovely torch to seven blogs I love to visit.
