ElementalMom

I said that to my husband, as we were discussing our days, over dinner. “The house is a wreck,” I said. Bless the man, he laughed at me. He sees things differently. There are piles of laundry, both clean and dirty. Sure, all the diapers are folded and put away, and the laundry to be [...]

I was invited to give this speech before the California State Senate, in its hearings regarding the Midwifery Board of California, and whether or not midwives in California should be allowed to attend those attempting vaginal birth after cesarean, or VBAC. I ended up not delivering it live, due to being seven months pregnant and [...]

Through sheerest good luck, I met a woman the other day who does all kinds of incredible travelwriting. And she’s got this awesome hook, of riding cool motorcycles through fascinating places. I’m frankly in awe of her. She’s got the writing career I’d only halfheartedly dreamed of having, sort of allowed my life to wash [...]

Most of the people I’ve run into know that Monday, January 16, is a holiday. No post. No banks. No work, for a lot of people. And when I nudge them “It’s Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday” they say “oh, yeah. Right.” and go on with their plans for the day. For shame. He had [...]

“Yellow” says Is. “Your eyes are turning yellow.” While chatting our way through a passable luncheon at a local establishment, Is and I were discussing writing. And just like that, the Inspiration struck for a piece. I quickly rattled off the first few lines, and then, as it does, the rest hung, waiting for me [...]

My God. I thought I was just here to write. This blogging thing is more complicated than I thought. I feel like the guppy set loose in the big bad sea, with nothing but Google to protect me. I guess it’s part of my inherent type-A-ness, but if I’m going to do a thing, I’m [...]

Jason was cleaning out our entertainment cabinet, and oh hurrah, found a videotape I thought I’d lost. It’s the record of our excursion, back when we were fairly newly a couple, diving on a liveaboard exploring “The World Famous Cod Hole“, which is a dive site way up along the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. [...]

Ohmygod!!!! You guys!!! 175 of you read this blog yesterday! I am just flattered and overwhelmed blessed and stoked, deeply deeply stoked beyond all rational description. This blog was something I started kinda for the kids, and kinda as a place to nurture and incubate my fledgling writing career, while I worked up the confidence [...]

I’m currently re-reading one of my favorite chits of escapist literature… An Embarassment of Mangoes by Ann Vanderhoof. It’s a tale of two Toronto publishing folks who pack it in for two years and go sailing around the Caribbean. What I still can’t understand, and I’ve read the book many, many times, is why the [...]

Kestrel is seven months old. In the last five days, we’ve had precisely one accident. Things are going great. Things are also going great in the mobility department; he’s crawling, he’s pulling himself up to stand, he’s just a motile creature. Needless to say, I cannot even hope to keep him on the small piddle [...]