Brett’s new job
May 21, 2007 The Story of My Life
No, not a work-out-of-home job — he’s the new homemaker. He’s doing all of the cleaning and virtually all of the cooking. So tonight I showed him how to make a menu plan for the week and then make a grocery list from the menu plan. We’re using this book because the recipes are incredibly easy, very healthy and awfully good. Up until this week he’s been managing on the fly, which means a lot of take-out.
You know, helping Brett figure this all out makes me realize how much work I was putting in on top of what work I tried to do here at my laptop and I’m so, so, so, so glad to get help. No wonder I’ve felt like I was thisclose to a nervous breakdown for the last three years.
I know I often come across very negative about the whole writing mommy/no childcare thing but that’s because I know there are lots of other parents tearing the hair out trying to get things done and so many times we feel like it’s our fault for not being more organized, more ambitious, more whatever when the truth is, it’s nigh near impossible. Not that some people can’t do it and do it well but I sure couldn’t and I always felt like crap for it. So if you’re blaming yourself for not keeping all your balls in the air I tell you that it’s not you — it’s the impossibility of the juggling act. FYI.
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Taking a breather from my assignment
May 21, 2007 Adoption, Writing
I’d say I was about, oh, I don’t know — a little less than halfway through? This is a really hard assignment because so much depends on the organization. How it works is that the client had me submit an outline and then handed it back with suggestions and now I’m writing to the outline. But it was such a general outline that I have to keep stopping to think if there’s a better way to communicate the ideas to the audience. And guess what this assignment is about. Go ahead, guess.
ADOPTION.
It’s a very basic adoption overview (domestic adoption — both infant adoption and foster-to-adopt). Because it’s very basic I have to keep my voice out of it but obviously I want to make some of the distinctions that get muddied in basic adoption overviews absolutely clear and that’s hard. Also the legalities vary so much state-to-state and there’s not room to go over all of the possibilities so I’m trying to stay very general but also give a basic idea of the specific issues that can come up. But I did get to add some stuff I wanted to see in a basic overview (and the client already approved this part — you can get a sense of the dispassionate voice I need to use for this, too):
A note about the use of the words “birth mother”: Many adoption professionals caution that using the term “birth mother” in domestic infant adoption before surrenders are signed is inappropriate. While “birth mother” is still commonly used in adoption literature to refer to a woman considering an adoption plan for her unborn child, the term “expectant mother” is becoming more common. This is because using “birth mother” before surrenders are signed encourages a woman to distance herself from her unborn baby, coloring her decision inappropriately.
I’ve probably already said too much about this assignment so I’ll shut up now.
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My family is away
May 21, 2007 Writing
Brett is playing Schneider to my mom’s, Ann Romano (only without any sexual tension, one hopes). Anyway he took the kids over there to install her screen door and I’m cranking out my project due on Wednesday. I have today and tomorrow to work on it and then meetings on Wednesday afternoon.
I wrote, oh I don’t know, 800 words I guess of the essay I wanted to write. I’m using it as a reward as I work on this other thing. I get to work on it when I get my job done.
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I revamped my writing site
May 20, 2007 Writing
I made it more corporate writing friendly. See, if you do corporate writing and magazine writing, the magazine editors don’t want to know about because there’s worry about conflict of interest. Only problem is a lot of magazine writers have to do stuff on the side to make a living so you’re supposed to make sure that your two lives don’t overlap. To me, this makes sense if you’re writing, say, for a gardening magazine and on the side you do PR for a fertilizer company. It makes less sense to me if you’re writing (like I am) email blasts for a medical association and you write about toddlers throwing fits. So I decided since the fit-throwing toddlers don’t make as much money as the email blasts, to go with the blasts for now. Which means I’ve totally given up on magazine writing. Except for essays where there aren’t the same ethical dilemmas.
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Tags: essay
I just had an idea for a new essay
May 19, 2007 Adoption
Well, it’s a new direction on an old essay and I got so excited to work on it but I have other pressing stuff to do first. I hate that.
Jessica is coming over tonight and Madison bought her a purse with hearts on it but that purse broke so we had to get a different one. Then we filled it with chocolate kisses and Reese’s cups. I found out why Madison wanted to buy Jessica a purse — because Jessica always lets Madison dig in her purse. And, says Madison, Jessica shares her gum. When she told me that the purse went from a nonsensical 3-year old gift to one that I found really touching because it’s about their relationship to each other.