this woman’s work

You are browsing the archives from 2007 October.

I’m such a loud-mouth. I got in a debate with Jessica’s lovely boyfriend about (gulp) religion. Well, not religion so much as religious beliefs. And the thing is, I think we mostly agree only the language we’re using is different.

Sorta.

Other than that (and he’s so gracious that all the heated voice-raising was on my side) we had a nice visit tonight. Jessica carved the kids’ pumpkins (they look great, by the way) and Madison leaned in and said, sighing, “I love it when you visit!”

Man. I can’t believe we got in an argument about religion.  When am I going to learn to keep my mouth shut???

I need to see if I can work this out here. I find it easier to free-write with an audience (creative exhibitionist that I am). I’m working on an essay that I hope to turn into the first chapter of this book so I can hurry and get the proposal on out like NOW and I’m stuck, as always. This is really long and mostly pointless rambling (I’m typing this sentence after putting 900-ish words of freewriting below the cut) so feel free to skip it. And if you go ahead and read — welcome to the disjointed, babbling, back and forth process that is me free-writing.
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I can’t get my pictures to open up like they used to so I was trying a new plug-in, which also failed. Still, here’s a pic! Can you believe this child is only three? She’s wearing sizes 5/6, her shoe size is 13 and last time we checked she weighed 52 pounds! I wish I had a scanner — I’d scan pictures of Jessica at the same age. I think Madison’s feet are bigger (so maybe she’ll end up taller) but she is growing at the exact same rate that Jessica did!

 

And here’s a pic to show, yet again, that they are two peas in a pod, eh?

 

 Finally, not to neglect my son, being forced against his will to ride an ostrich at the Merry-Go-Round museum on our trip. (This picture cracks me up — he’s so dead serious.) Madison was riding a pig, by the way, in case you were wondering.

 

 

Jennifer tagged me with this:

As part of this blogging challenge, Melissa from Banana Migraine tagged me with this reading meme: “The rules are simple: List your (and your kids’) current seven favorite children’s books, along with their authors. Then, if you’re so inclined, tag seven fellow bloggers to do the same.”

Madison’s:
1. Best Best Friends by Margaret Chodos-Irvine (pink underwear! pink cupcakes! conflict!)
2. The Daddy Mountain by Jules Feiffer (daddy loves it, too)
3. Once Around the Sun by Bobbi Katz (she and Brett quote this to each other)
4. An African Princess by Lyra Edmonds (she got this book from Jessica’s fiance’s sister for Christmas last year)
5. On the Way to the Pond by Angela She Medearis (this is a pretty boring early reader but she took a fancy to it)
6. The Cuddlers by Stacy Towle Morgan (Noah loved this book even more than she does, truthfully)
7. The Napping House by Audrey Wood (because, really, who doesn’t?)

Noah’s:
1. Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary (I limited him to ONE Beverly Cleary book)
2. Ginger Pye by Eleanore Estes (he went on a kick this summer and read all the Moffat books, too)
3. Mandy by Julie (Andrews) Edwards (can I just say how pleased I am to have a boy who reads across gender expectations?)
4. Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (he listened to these on tape a long time ago but this is the first time he’s read them)
5. Frindle by Andrew Clements (he loves all of this guy’s work)
6. The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket (actually he likes them all but is the last one he re-read)
7. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (he just read this and liked it a lot)

Noah likes books about ordinary kids best — thus his continued love of Ramona and Henry as well as his binge on Eleanor Estes books this summer. It’s also why he read Mandy. Sometimes he’s stuck for a book to read and he’ll come downstairs to where most of the kids’ chapter books are (about 1/3 are up in his room) and ask me to help him pick something out. I keep trying to get him to read some of the fantasy series that I loved but he always sighs and rolls his eyes at me and says, “I just want a book about regular kids.”

From Shakesville:
“[T]he premise is that you will attempt to find 5 statements, which if you were to type into google (preferably google.com, but we’ll take the other country specific ones if need be), you’ll find that you are returned with your blog as the number one hit.”

For this site:
1. Primal Wound at Our House
2. this woman’s work (over Kate Bush! goodness!)
3. Christine Northrup can bite me (only I spelled her first name wrong)
4. Your Daily Moomin
5. Woman at Work

My clips site gets the top rank for Dawn Friedman now, which is good. I was looking at my google analytics to find the keywords and my favorite one (and I’m not even on the first page for it) is, “What the hell is Dawn doing?” To which I reply, “I have no idea but she better shape up or she’s outta here!”