Kudos to Trader Joe’s. When I discovered an expired product on the shelves this morning, the manager immediately sent an employee over to whisk the remaining examples away. I wasn’t even through the checkout line when I saw him head to the back with the expired bags.
Of course, the bags were pretty badly expired. It’s not March anymore, people. But yay for them for fixing the problem quickly.
I’ll say it right up front. This is not an unbiased review. I happen to love reading Girl’s Gone Child, by Rebecca Woolf, and I had high expectations for her first book. Rockabye: From Wild to Child is the backstory to Girl’s Gone Child, the story of how she grew up, quickly, and adjusted from a fun-loving party girl to a fun-loving mom.
This is a love story, but it’s not quite the love story that we’re used to hearing. It’s not romanticized or filled with gauzy clouds and sleeping babies. Instead, it’s a raw, honest story of what it means to fall in love with your husband, to go through childbirth with a sense of humor and a bit of fear, and to transform yourself into a mother-creature that is still true to the woman that lives inside.
Rebecca pulls no punches, telling her readers, as always, what it was really like to be young and single in L.A., accountable to no one, but yet everybody’s safety net, and then, the incredible 180′ turn that she had to make when she discovered that she was pregnant.
And she keeps having to consciously make that turn. Early motherhood is challenging, as many of us can attest. Rebecca puts it down on paper, though, admitting to questions that run through many a mama’s head, late at night. (As she puts it on page 108, “What life am I living and where do I belong? … Will I someday understand or at least get used to this? Will I ever sleep?”) She eventually answers her own questions and learns to love being a mom, playing in the sandbox, but she still occasionally has fantasies about changing it all around again, having a nanny, going to work, living in a big fancy house. This mom explores her possibilities, only finally coming to the conclusion that we are each doing the best we can in the world, raising our children and living our lives according to our own choices and circumstances, and that’s okay. As she says on page 164, and I wish this could be shouted from the mountatintops, “She is doing what she has to — balancing her worlds, her loves, her selves.”
What Rebecca has to say is something that, really, we all need to hear. There is more than one way to be a mother. There is my way, there is your way, there is her way. (Provocative question, page 148: “Who are we to tame our children before they even understand what it means to be wild?“) We each do this mothering gig in our own way, and choose our own sense of balance in a way that makes sense to us. In this book, Rebecca Woolf demonstrates clearly that you can be a mother and a woman with your own ideas and loves and ambition too.
That is a powerful message for today’s mom.
Thanks, Parent Bloggers, for giving me the chance to review this book just as it hits the bookstores.
This post original to Toddler Planet and Review Planet and may not be reproduced without permission.
A friend to many in the blogging community got some terrible news this week. Lisa at Clusterfook has developed cancer for the third time. She fought and won … twice … but now it’s in her organs. That’s bad, if you didn’t know that already. Her friends Karen and Miss Ann are organizing a raffle to help her fulfill her last big wish — taking her daughters to Disney for a week of good memories to help overshadow the difficult ones of the past few years.
I thought, why not go to the source and ask for some help with this goal?
In March, many of us mommybloggers were contacted by Disney with an invitation for an all-expenses-paid kid-free holiday to enjoy the Magic Kingdom and talk to them about how better to connect with bloggers. I’m not going, because I’m swamped with radiation, taking care of my kids, and starting up work on my new Women in Planetary Science website, but I do appreciate the invitation. There was also some scheduling trouble with this event, and so other mommybloggers aren’t going either. But it seems to me that the news at Clusterfook and the Disney invitations might just combine to be the perfect storm.
Why not ask Disney to sponsor Lisa’s trip with her family? I sent my contact the following email on Thursday morning:
Dear Michelle,
Thank you again for the invitation to visit Disney mid-April. I regret
that I was unable to go, since I am so busy right now with my kids and
my business. You did ask for ideas, though, and I have a simple idea
that could bring you and Disney lots of goodwill in the blogging
community.There’s a mommyblogger out here (Lisa) who has just been diagnosed
with cancer. For the third time. This time, she received the news
that we all dread — the cancer has spread to her organs and
throughout her body. (You can read about it at
http://clusterfook.com/2008/03/31/dear-blog-friends/) Some of her
blogfriends are in shock and want to do something to help her. They
found out that her fondest wish is — get this — to take her young
daughters to Disney before it’s too late. (Read this post by Karen
here: http://karensugarpants.com/2008/04/02/angry/). There’s a vast
network of moms that would like to help her (she got 135 comments in
the first 2 days!) and are scrimping and saving themselves to help her
raise the money to go to Disney with her kids.My proposal to Disney is this: Would you be willing to sponsor her
visit? Would you consider offering the family free lodging and
tickets for a week or so so that they could have this special time
together?I suspect that dozens of bloggers would write about Disney’s
thoughtfulness on their blogs in gratitude. Me, for instance. I get
1500 hits a day, and I’m by no means one of the largest bloggers out
there….Please consider helping us help our friend.
Thank you.
Susan
Michelle responded right away and said she’d see what could be done. This is what I got back from her, several days later:
Susan,
Thank you for your patience. I spoke with a member of the Disney
Community Relations team here and they suggested you reach out to a
special program we work with in situations like these, called Compassion
Partners. This is a great program that offers individuals confronted
with a life-threatening or terminal illness complimentary admission to
several theme parks in Central Florida. This might be an option for your
mommy blogger friend.Contact Donna Tafat, the Compassion Partners Program Coordinator, at
407-396-1114. I am hopeful that she can assist your friend in fulfilling
her dream.Thanks for reaching out to us.
Well, maybe Donna Tafat can help. I don’t know. But it seems like a weird response, just after they “reached out” to bloggers to find out what makes us want to write about them.
Posted originally at Review Planet.
WordPress.com introduced Prologue today, a suspiciously-Twitterlike platform for group mini-blogs. It’s an interesting idea for groups working cross-country, or anywhere they are not co-located. Prologue is like a virtual water cooler for individuals to post their ideas, comment on others, and start conversations that may no longer arise spontaneously when so many telecommute. Privacy settings are the same as for other WordPress.com blogs — password-protected, public, or public but not available to search engines.
It sounds like a great solution for project-based communications, and I may even use it for future projects, but one thing that I think it will NOT do is replace Twitter.
I’ve only been using twitter for a little over a week, and already I’ve found it indispensible. Want to start a conversation? Join one? Keep up with your friends or meet fascinating people? All can be done on Twitter quickly and easily. In the last week, I’ve found new web sites to read, kept abreast of the news, formed friendships, and become aware of new events across the world and in my own back yard. I’ve also used it to keep friends and family informed of medical updates as I’ve been in and out of the hospital this week and recovering. It’s been an amazing time to be sick, as it were; technology is keeping me close to friends I knew and friends that I never would have known otherwise, even though I am sick in bed.
So welcome, Prologue, but long live Twitter!
Today, PBN asked its bloggers to write on the topic, “Where does my time go?” Canape asked me a few days ago to write about what charities I support. I’m combining the two — not because I’m not a big meme fan — but because I firmly believe that one of the best ways, if not THE best way, to support your favorite charities is with the gift of time.
When all the bathing, feeding, teaching, and playing is done, where does my time go?
1. Dog rescue. Since 2001, we have taken in a new dog approximately every month, helping him learn and grow from (typically) a shy, discarded dog into a pup ready to be a beloved member of a household. We work with a fantastic local organization which I would absolutely love to name if it wouldn’t be too identifying for me. But it might. So I’ll leave it at that. You can find fabulous dog and cat rescues in your area via Petfinder!
2. The Washington Animal Rescue League. Until I became pregnant (and shouldn’t be around so many cat litterboxes), hubby and I volunteered there, walking dogs and cuddling cats, every Sunday afternoon. I desparately want to start walking dogs there again, but can’t do it with the boys until they’re older. But I encourage you to do it or donate if you support the cause! Or just check out these photos of their NEW cageless facility!
3. A local women’s and children’s shelter. I just organized a book drive for a local women and children’s transitional housing organization, and I’m really happy about that. Last year, I was a tutor for a mom with a 1 year old; our kids often played together while I tutored her in physics. It was pretty great, and I’m hoping to do more with them as I can.
4. Sally Ride Science Club. When I was at work, I would give annual talks at her science festivals in the DC area. I think this is a fabulous organization, and I just love it.
5. Best Friends Animal Society. Do you know about this fabulous sanctuary in Utah’s Angel Canyon? It leaves me breathless beyond words. This is where most of our dollars go, since it’s too far for us to travel for hands-on work. It’s one of the few national organizations to which I feel really good about donating money (mostly I favor donating time and money to local start-ups, as they are closer to the need; just my opinion). They take animals that even shelters and rescues are hard-pressed to help, provide them with all the therapy and love that they need, and find them new homes.
Bravo, to all these fine folks!
Want to talk about your favorite charities? Want to talk about where your time goes, and be entered to win a $200 registration to BLOGHER, courtesy PBN and Light Iris? Consider yourself tagged!
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