This is one of my favorite thank you cards from Postable, a new discovery I made thanks to BlogHer ’13 in Chicago…. In a nutshell, you upload all of your mailing addresses (or send out a message asking your friends and family to click a link and they fill in their address) OR you fill them each in manually. I sent out a Facebook message with the link to my account and people quickly and easily typed in their address, saving me from having to do them all one by one. (I hadn’t stored addresses on my computer before because I was pretending it was a party like in 1999.) Postable is a new-ish company that’s worth checking out, friends. It began when two young boys named Jesse and Scott met at camp in 1982. Well, okay. It didn’t actually begin right then, but that’s when they met. I love stories like that. […]
We walked through the grass that’s getting too long again, across our yard and into our neighbor’s yard, cut through their driveway and stood on their shiny brown stoop. Elsie was in only a diaper because she was about to have a bath and get ready for bed when I realized we should visit her preschool (yes, at the next door neighbor’s home) before the morning since it had been a while since we’d been inside. She stepped confidently in, but then when the whole family was squatting down to welcome her and tell her all the wonderful things she’ll be doing, her face crumpled with overwhelm and she put her arms up to me, to be held. Home. She said. Bye. I consoled her and showed her toys. Our neighbor told her she could have pancakes or waffles in the morning. She just stared, her big blue eyes all wet. Home. We […]
I still read non-electronic books most of all. I love to read, so much, flipping paper pages and taking in stories. Memoirs and fiction are my favorites. Sometimes, I’m up too late and Morning Heather is then mad at Night Book Lover Heather, but it’s worth it. Below you’ll find what I’ve read recently. For more on me, books and thoughts on books, I’m on GoodReads. 1 Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Semple I love this book. I love Bernadette, her confusion and spark, her wit and her love. I love how the author pulled this together and I love that I couldn’t put it down. 2 The Expats by Pavone This book was a page-turner, but honestly, I didn’t love it. I like it, yes, because the author is a great wordsmith, but as for plot, I thought it went a bit overboard with the “secrets” theme. 3 Room by Donoghe I […]
Our little acorn grew into a baby and then a toddler and now sometimes I think she’s fifteen, hands on her hips, shouting out orders. On Monday she will start preschool, right next door. The boys will begin school at their new school and for part of the day it will be me, just me, catching up on life and writing and other work. Tonight I tucked Elsie Jane in, several times. She was over-tired from a long day and couldn’t get to sleep. Her pink owl blanket was never quite right, according to her. It barely fits to cover her feet now and she calls Mama Mama Mama my bankie off! Before long it won’t go over her feet at all to cover them and I’m guessing this will frustrate her. Growth can do that, huh? I’m not ready! Hopefully a new bigger blanket will do, until it doesn’t. Earlier today, we […]
(To read the original post on PTLS click here. And then the next one is here.) Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. This is not medical advice. I cannot give medical advice and don’t claim to have all the answers. I am simply a woman telling the story of her experience after tubal ligation. If you are considering having a tubal ligation, PLEASE do thorough research. Get your doctor to openly talk about what they’ve heard about post tubal menstral flow and what it does to hormones after the blood supply is cut off to the ovaries. In some women, this appears to cause major problems, including me. A part of me wishes no one had ever come up with a name for what can happen after a woman has a tubal ligation. (Post Tubal Ligation Syndrome, or PTLS.) Calling the symptoms anything that sounds medical makes doctors roll their eyes because […]
{Just Write simply means that I “just write” without hesitation, not stopping to edit. I end up saying what the page says, not on purpose, sometimes clearly, sometimes not. Feel free to join me.} We sat out on the front porch in the seventy degree beautiful Minnesota evening weather and went through the year book from 1993. It was the weekend of our 2oth reunion and we are two friends from fifth grade on, still sitting together when we can, like on the night before our reunion. Her big brown eyes are the same and her naturally curly mane of brown hair. Actually she looks the same, only better. I noticed that about so many people this weekend. Twenty years have gone by and they look better than ever, like they’ve grown into themselves, maybe even found out that they are as great as I always thought they were and then got all […]
I was in my early twenties, it was winter and the friends I had grown up with were in town for the holidays. We were younger and had fewer responsibilities, most of us. Some of us by choice and some of us just…because. There were a few of us with families and/or real jobs and all those other “grown-up” things. I was not one of those. I was partying a lot and wanting to stay unattached to real responsibilities, but I didn’t even realize that’s what I wanted. I thought it just was what it was, but I was wrong. The truth was that I had a really unhealthy relationship with alcohol, starting back then, right then. Not only that, I had a really unhealthy relationship with myself. I would drink so much that my insides would hurt, while my liver fought to process. I blamed it on other things, like maybe an […]
August 26th is the first day of school. 13 more days and we’ll be in a totally different stage of life, just like that. Today I was easily annoyed and trying to forgive myself. We moved, we’ve been Together a LOT this summer and it’s been so good, but still. Together. We’ve had a sick week and haven’t been able to do much of anything and I’m ready to knock some walls down, or something. Asher came up to me, looked at me with his Asherness and he asked if I would help him sort the Legos, by color. Really? I asked. All of them? YUP. We need to do that so then we can make a Lego city and be able to find all the pieces! Oh…okay, just let me finish my coffee and then I’ll help you. (My eyes were only half open.) I went to the playroom, still in my […]
Last week, after my friend Ann wrote a hilarious school supplies list on Ann’s Rants, I left a comment on facebook for her, mentioning that I didn’t even have the school supplies list yet. This got me thinking something like, I should probably figure out how to get a school supply list for both Miles and Asher. Yeah, I’m quick like that. School starts August 26th here, and we have a couple of busy weeks ahead of us, so after Ann’s post reminded me to print out the lists, I headed to Target solo as soon as the opportunity presented itself. I love Target shopping alone and on this day I had a plan. I can do this quickly, I told myself. A kindergarten and second grade list can’t be that complicated…I know! I’ll pretend like I’m in a race! Super Target Sweep! (Just so you know, before I started in on the […]
There is something recognizable, the same, about people who have an amazing mother. It seems like a part of their inherent personality, but it’s more than that. It’s what they’ve had instilled in them, day after day, by her example and teaching. OH, to have people see that in my children. This is a loved soul, I think, when I meet them. A soul well-loved. Too many people in the world don’t get to have that sense that someone is there and crazy in love with them no matter what. Sometimes an aunt or a friend or a cousin or a grandma fills that gap, showing the child what true Love really looks like, and sometimes no one does. At night I pray in my kids’ rooms. That they will feel wholly loved despite the times I have failed at showing it. That whatever is in the way, in them, would fall away […]
Give me air conditioning and a cold drink and the goose bumps start. Miles asked me what they’re for, these goosey bumps, and I can’t think of the answer, even though I know I’ve learned this somewhere along the way. Little tiny bumps all over our skin, raising the little hairs. How strange. My kids so often remind me what’s strange. Life, our bodies, our sayings. Goose bumps. I don’t know, honey. That’s a good question. I can’t remember, I’ll have to look it up. I say this while feeling all drained out. Just tired, but being here with them is where I am and there are many questions like this one and things to do. I want to be nowhere else, but I’m all drained out. It can be over 100 degrees outside and I still get them, by the way. The goose bumps. So I bring a sweatshirt to coffee shops […]
Never has this little old corner of the worldwide interweb been so busy. After a post I wrote about my boys LOVING Minecraft, I received more feedback than pretty much ever before, that I can recall. It’s like suddenly the human masses were walking the streets of New York and I was the corner Starbucks. Everyone came in! Skinny hazelnut latte! Extra foam! Extra hot! No whip! There was so much yelling! And everyone wanted my view of Minecraft to be just like theirs, and many didn’t seem to notice that I was joking around. Strangely, after all of the shouting faded away, I learned to appreciate how much my boys love Minecraft. I mean, I have to admit, I still don’t want to play it and I will probably never fully understand it, but I’m certainly more educated and I dig its educational value. The gamers and even the teenagers and the […]
