The Kids Are All Right

I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I picked up this month’s book for the From Left to Write book club, The Kids are All Right. I got through it in one weekend, partly because it was such an easy read. Told from the viewpoint of four siblings they recount the difficult childhood they managed to survive after losing both parents one right after the other.

I can’t say that I can relate to losing my parents when I was a kid. Because I didn’t. I grew up with both parents in a pretty normal suburban upbringing. But surprisingly I did find some things in this book that I could relate to.

Wordless Wednesday – Banned Books Edition

Happy Banned Book Week!

Books, books, and books. Where would I be without them? WHO would I be without them? It’s an eerie thought.

There are only three kinds of people in this world who ban books.  Granted this theory may be slighted tainted by pop culture, but you’ll get the point.

1. Crazy church going folk’s ala Footloose.
2. Crazy Nazis ala Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (oh and World History 101)
3. Crazy Fictional Governments ala Fahrenheit 451 (a book which I read in school but has ironically been banned in many districts over the years).

Room

This months Left to Write book club book was Room by Emma Donaghue. It’s a haunting tale told from the point of view of a five year old boy who is raised by his mother in small room/shed cut off from the outside world because they’re being held captive.

This book was so sad and disturbing to me because though it’s technically fiction, for me all I could think about was Jaycee Dugard and watching the almost exact same thing unfold in this book as I watched unfold in reality on TV almost exactly one year ago only 30 minutes from where I sit writing this post as my children sleep safe and sound upstairs in their beds.

To All the Pets I’ve Loved Before

Blossom

I haven’t had a dog since I was in high school. Through out my childhood we had two dogs a black lab named Shadow and a white mut named Misty. Both were good and loving dogs.  Shadow moved on to a friend’s farm and Misty passed away when I was a freshman or sophomore in high school.

My mom did eventually get another dog but not until sometime after I graduated and not long before I moved out of the house.

Beauty and the Beast

There is something about the theater that is so full of magic that I can’t help but be swept away every time I get the chance to go. And if you add in a little Disney magic to boot, you’ve got a night to remember. And that’s exactly what I found when Cheyanne and I had a girl’s night out in the city. We went to the opening night of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at the Golden Gate Theater and were mesmerized from the moment we sat down.

I freely admit that I have done my share of trash talk when it comes to Disney Princesses. But I always feel that Beauty and the Beast (even in the pre Disney/original version of the tale) stands apart from other fairy tales because when you look at it, the person in need of rescue is Beast more than Beauty. And at the end of the day it Beauty who has saved the day, not the prince.

Friday Round Up

Another busy week here at the homestead. Though admittedly it’s a little sad as the new school is ever looming. But we managed to find some fun stuff to do around town.

Tuesday we took a walk through Sycamore Grove and played in the creek enjoying some classic Mark Twain type moments.

Then Tuesday night Patrick & I headed over to Wente Vineyards where we rocked out to Huey Lewis & The News on a perfect summer night.

Thursday was back to school shopping and another trip to Sycamore Grove with Grandpa!

But Hey, I worked too!

Examining the Past

This month’s book selection for the From Left to Write book club was the stuff that never happened by Maddie Dawson. The premise is that are main character, Annabelle, must finally choose between the man she’s been married too for 26 years and the man that got away who’s she been carrying a torch for all along. I hate to spoil this book, but I will so tread cautiously and I will warn you before I do spoil the ending.

Though this book instantly had me thinking about the past, it actually got me thinking about it indirectly more than directly. You see my first paid writing gig was for a website called JamsBio. It was a website where people could write a memory associated with a song. You would choose a song and write a story about the memory associated with it.

The War on Moms

Last week on WomenCount Radio (the Blog Talk Radio show I host on Thursdays) I interviewed Sharon Lerner author of the new book, “The War on Moms: On Life in a Family-Unfriendly Nation.” I also got the chance to read the book before hand and it gave me a lot to think about it. The book basically is a look at how in the United States mothers face so many challenges when it comes to simply raising out children.

Take for instance,

• Only 42% of working mothers stay home for the first 12 weeks of their babies’ lives.
• The United States is one of just a handful of countries that do not offer paid maternity leave. Nations such as Germany or Australia dole out money just for having kids. And after infancy is over, there is free, high-quality childcare in France, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden.
• The average cost of keeping one infant in a child-care center is greater than tuition at public college

And that hardly scratches the surface of issues facing moms, and doesn’t even touch on the other side of the coin, women who stay home and the challenges they face. Personally I have been a working mom and a WAHM.

I gathered a handful of links to posts about the challenges mothers face in hopes of doing the same thing the book does, which is show that we are not alone in our challenges as moms. We’re all doing the best we can.

From Mommyhood: Next Right – Between Home and St. Elsewhere

From Mother Knows Less – Working Moms v Stay At Home Moms

From Just Mommies – 6 Things Nobody Told You About Being a SAHM

From Godsy Girl – The Top Five Challenges Facing Women in 2010

From The Queenof Spain: Make Me

From My Blogalicious – Just Call Me Sisyphus

I would love to add more links to this post so if you’ve written something about the challenges you’ve face as a SAHM, Working Mom or WAHM please leave the link in the comments.

And here’s to ALL moms!