When I posted last month about my decidedly mixed experience with book clubs, I never expected that my trifling essay would strike a nerve with so many of my readers, many of them fellow bibliophiles searching for the perfect book club experience. In the comments section of that post, via e-mail, and in the Twittersphere, [...]
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I’m sharing my thoughts about writers and woodpeckers today at JWorld Café, the Poetica Magazine blog. Please click over and check out my post and the blog’s collection of essays on writing and the creative process. Image: Pileated Woodpecker/Grand Pic by Eric Begin via Flickr under a Creative Commons license.
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I am very pleased today to welcome my neighbor Jen of Momalom over for a chat. I first met Jen and her sister Sarah when they launched their Five for Ten event last fall. I had just started blogging and I was most fortunate to be welcomed into their warm, wise, and wonderful community of [...]
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The lights are on, but no one’s home. That’s right: I’m over at Momalom today, musing about something I lost and wondering whether I should bother looking for it. Intrigued? Well, click on over, read my guest post, and then stay awhile to check out Jen and Sarah’s wonderful blog where they riff on sisterhood, [...]
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My buddy Maria at Mom of Three Seeks Sanity tapped me to join her and Liz and some other bloggy friends in playing a game of “What’s in my bag?” This exercise reminded me of Nicki’s and Big Little Wolf’s public explorations of the contents of their wallets back in January. My nosy nature enjoyed [...]
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This weekend Husband and I had some old friends and some new acquaintances over for drinks. As I was making small talk with a gentleman I had just met, he said, “So, Kristen, Husband tells me that you’re a writer.” Now, as Husband had informed me after meeting him a few weeks ago, this guy [...]
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This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green, Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes, Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between Where the wood fumes up, and the watery, flickering rushes. I am amazed at this spring, this conflagration Of green fires lit on the soil of the earth, this blaze [...]
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Today I am happy to welcome my neighbor Stacia of Fluffy Bunnies over for a chat. Stacia is a new friend of mine, but hers quickly became one of my favorite neighborhood hang-outs. I love her perspective on parenthood “the glass half-full way” and marvel at the way she extracts universal lessons about life, love, [...]
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There was a lot of talk last week about our hyperconnectedness and the challenges it presents. In her guest post at Motherese, Becca wondered about her need to be constantly connected. At An Attitude Adjustment, Jana asked whether the Internet can sink a relationship. And, at Motherlode, Lisa Belkin offered a forum for “mommy bloggers” [...]
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I am a European mutt. The daughter of a dad who is half German, a quarter Irish, an eighth English, and an eighth Swedish and a mom who is half Czech, a quarter German, and a quarter Irish. All that makes me a quarter Irish. And I’ve got the freckles, sunburn-prone complexion, and Catholic guilt [...]
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Regular readers of Motherese may recall that I am a big basketball fan. I grew up playing basketball and even coached it for awhile. As a basketball fan, there are no weeks I like more than the ones that are upon us: the three weeks in March known to college athletes and couch-potatoes everywhere as [...]
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Today it is my pleasure to welcome Becca of Drama for Mama as my latest guest in the Won’t You Be My Neighbor series. (Thanks again to Amy of The Never-True Tales for initiating this wonderful meme.) At Drama for Mama, Becca crafts posts so resonant to me that I often feel like she’s plucked [...]
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On Tuesday, Big Little Wolf wrote about avoidance and procrastination as life strategies. Her post prompted me to reflect further on a conversation I had this weekend with Husband about how my taste in entertainment has changed and evolved over time. I was a history major in college. At my school, junior history majors chose [...]
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As you probably know by now, I am an avid reader. My adoration for Anne Lamott and Judith Warner notwithstanding, I am pulled quite strongly to fiction. But despite my love of a great piece of literature and my newfound passion for writing, I cannot imagine writing fiction. I am currently rereading Harry Potter and [...]
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I am delighted to be sharing a piece today at The Kitchen Table, a new site dedicated to women exploring issues of faith. As the editors so cleverly put it, their new endeavor is not so much “Chicken Soup for The Soul,” but rather “Espresso for the Spirit.” Please click over to revisit my post [...]
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The news cycle leading up to the Academy Awards and its focus on the year’s top movie performances got me thinking about the roles we all play in our own lives. In many of my relationships, I play a leading role. I am my parents’ only daughter and my brothers’ only sister. I am Husband’s [...]
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I didn’t quite fit. In every good way. My legs were too long. My arms were cramped, the left one falling asleep under me. But it was perfect. As I was about to get Big Boy out of his crib after his nap yesterday, he asked, “Can you get in, Mommy?” And, instead of laughing [...]
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It’s been three weeks since my move to WordPress and I think I am finally starting to figure out how things work over here in my new space. Since my move, a number of readers have asked me about my experiences here and at Blogger and I thought, in the spirit of community, we might [...]
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I just finished reading The Help, Kathryn Stockett’s novel about African American maids and the white families they hold together in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi. In the novel, two maids and a well-to-do white woman collaborate to write a book about the experiences of these domestic workers. Throughout The Help, all three must alternately reveal and [...]
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I’ve written before about my passion for plans, my delight in following directions. This weekend, I took those tendencies to extreme lengths, abandoning my instincts and trying to adhere to an agenda that did not work. We started potty training Big Boy on Saturday. In advance of this big day, I did some (admittedly scatter-shot) [...]
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Commenting on Comments and Thanking Those Who Do
Mar 05
Today my good buddy Jane of Theycallmejane’s Blog and I are doing a house swap. She’s keeping an eye on things here at Motherese while I keep the home fires burning at her place with a guest post of my own. I have to thank Aidan, my bloggy fairy godsister, for introducing me to Jane [...]
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