My Articles:
Happiness is Lemonade and Xanadu
My summer vacation took me back to the neighborhood where I grew up. I recalled sweet memories of endless lazy summer days spent frolicking in my best friend’s pool. We’d daydream about our futures – hers of a white picket fence with 2.5 kids and mine of traveling the world and writing the great American novel.
We’d cap off our evenings playing freeze tag and hop scotch with a gaggle of neighborhood kids on the biggest, flattest lawn until our moms beckoned us home one by one. We jumped on our bikes and pedaled home, the air thick with honeysuckle; the buzzing harmony of crickets warming up for an evening symphony.
Upon returning to my old stomping grounds, 30 years later, now with my five and two -year-old daughters in tow, I was amazed to find the neatly manicured lawns and sidewalks once teeming with life, oddly quiet.
We spent one week at my childhood home leisurely walking our dog along the rolling hills, ample time to see and be seen. We saw very few people. It felt like a ghost town. Continue… »
The Induction
My best friend once told me that as soon as you become a mom you should grieve over and bury your old life. Only then, could you truly embrace motherhood. I believed her, well, sort of, but I did not heed her advice.
Five years into motherhood and two kids later, I’m still grasping at vestiges of my “old self,” the one that could do what she wanted, when she wanted.
As evidence of this, I looked forward with great zeal to an upcoming family ski trip to Lake Tahoe. My excitement centered around the fact that I would join my family three days into the trip. Three WHOLE DAYS on my own—no kids, no husband, no responsibilities. The mere thought of it made me giddy. Continue… »
What’s New with the Writing Mamas!
Our Writing Mamas and Papas are making a name for themselves in all kinds of places. Check out what’s new this month with our members:
Jessica O’Dwyer had a piece in the Marin Independent Journal on February 8th about her book, Mamalita: An Adoption Memoir. View it here.
Steven Friedman and Li Miao Lovett both had their work showcased on KQEDs Perspectives, recently. Read and listen to Steven’s piece here. And you can find Li’s piece here.
Welcome to Mom’s Diner
By fiftiesweb.com
“Waitress…waitress, my food’s cold and I need some more water. Oh yeah, and you forgot to bring me another fork.”
This is what I imagined I heard in my dazed reverie as I leaned against the kitchen sink. But you can just replace “waitress” with “mom.” I shrugged off the shroud of sleep deprivation that has become my constant cloak these days and dashed to the refrigerator to retrieve the requested item.
I held a lot of jobs during school—from retail to personal trainer to staff writer at the school newspaper. But for whatever reason, I was never a waitress. I always chalked it up to my own shortcomings in diplomacy or perhaps never the right opportunity. But I occasionally thought I was missing out on some teen-aged rite of passage by eschewing the food industry.
And then, I had kids…. Continue… »
