ElementalMom

No, I’m not Catholic. Neither is my stepfather, The Bear. Having had a brush with death once in my life, I can tell you that if you were ever exposed to the Catholic faith, it will rear up at those critical times. As the car I was in skidded across black ice on Siskiyou Summit [...]

In the spirit of the season, my family’s been working its way through biographies of religious figures. “2000 Years of Christianity”, “Muhammad: The Last Prophet”, “Dalai Lama: The Soul of Tibet”. It’s been really enlightening to think about what it must have been like living with these real human extensions of Deity. Somewhat mercifully, man-on-the-street [...]

It is cold. This time of year, as everything curls in upon itself, except of course Death, who has begun his visits. I can smell his breath. I’ve smelled it before. I know enough to salute as He passes by, and not to hate him for the work he does, both untimely and unnecessary, beneficent [...]

(click to enlarge) Everyone who knows me is probably sick to death of my crowing about my ecstatic triumphant homebirth VBAC last May. My personal support posse has listened to my evolution, from typical medicarchy-controlled hospital birth, to organic, natural, mostly unassisted homebirth. I have, admittedly, become somewhat of a zealot. So it is with [...]

Due to the encouragement of my friends and the beneficence and patience of my hubby, I’m going to be spending my Saturday writing queries. A query is a tool by which you grovel attractively in order to get your words seen. In print, that is; I’m already being seen, albeit by a smallish audience of [...]

I sent the following email out to some of my nearest and dearest yesterday… So after much agonizing over what to do next, the decision was made to do a full bypass on (my stepfather’s) leg. He’ll be on the table, they estimate, 3-5 hours, and has a fairly terrifyingly high probability of dying on [...]

One of my New Year’s Resolutions (which I do at Celtic New Year rather than Gregorian New Year) was to get my financial house in order. I was finally going to face all the ugliness head on, and do the research to get the right answers. The fruits of that research are going to be [...]

Today was the funeral for Amanda’s Noah. I lit my yahrzeit candle this morning. And I damn, damn, damn the primary cesarean. So many doctors, motivated only by greed and by hurry, and not at all by any oath to first do no harm, play the dead baby card, and make that first cut. It’s [...]

I haven’t posted recently. Two events have rocked my world. Two tragedies, to people I only know online, but somehow, it really matters. First, Debra’s baby Quinn went back to heaven. At just over a year of age, he went to sleep and just never woke up. I’ve known Debra online for just over three [...]

Since starting out on my own journey of finance education, I’ve skated through a number of the entry-level, self-help finance books. They’re all a little different, and they seem to target a different mindset, or level of personal damage. Ideally, you’ll recognize yourself in here, and pick up a book yourself… or, let us know [...]