I’ve been in the same book club for nearly ten years now. It’s a pretty diverse group of women but we have one thing in common: we love to read. One Sunday a month we gather at the host’s house and discuss the themes, character, and merits of a different book. But after the discussion is over, we spend almost as much time choosing our next book. We come armed with literary magazines, Amazon links, and recommendations for friends, and usually have about 10-12 books in consideration at . . .
What I Want You to Know About Struggling With Obesity
What I Want You to Know is a series of reader submissions. It is an attempt to allow people to tell their personal stories, in the hopes of bringing greater compassion to the unique issues each of us face. If you would like to submit a story to this series, click here. Today’s guest posts is by Samantha. What I want you to know about struggling with obesity is that it affects every aspect of my life. It influences not only my self esteem and outward appearance, but my personality, . . .
Nine Inch Nails meets Carly Rae Jepsen and the result is . . . kind of awesome?
When I was a teenager I was a huge fan of Nine Inch Nails, and Head Like a Hole was on heavy rotation on the cassette-player in my car. Fast-forward to today, and I’ve got four picky back-seat DJ’s, with Call Me Maybe on repeat play in the minivan. So for some reason, this mash-up of Trent Reznor’s angry anthem backed up with bubblegum pop beats just tickles me to no end. Please to enjoy: HT to The Verge. . . .
early March photo dump
The last week of February was a bit of a doozy. I was dealing with some severe allergies the very week that the kids had “ski week”. Ski week is a week where the wealthy inhabitants of Orange County head to their ski chalets while the rest of us scramble for childcare or try to finish our work in the presence of bored children. In addition to having all four kids home, I also had 3-4 people working on the kitchen. While I lay sick on the sofa trying to write. It was not a fun week. The . . .
Tide pools
A couple months ago the good folks from Small Fry were here in Orange County, and we met up to shoot a little film for their blog. If you aren’t familiar, Small Fry is a children’s lifestyle blog, and they’ve got an amazing team of filmakers who capture these great vignettes of family moments. When they asked if we would be interested in being the subject of one of these filmed, I jumped at the change, because I had a feeling it would end up being this wonderful keepsake of our family. I was . . .
Reflections after a no-media week
The older kids’ school requested that families do a “media-free” week last week. It was an idea I liked in theory but the timing couldn’t have been worse. They’d had winter break the week prior, which meant all of them were home so I got very little work done. I was playing catch-up and could have benefitted from the quiet that throwing on a movie can provide. Still, I wanted to win the teachers’ approval honor the school’s wishes and so we declared our home media-free for 7 days. Surprisingly, . . .
CAMP: a movie about abused children and the power of relationship
Some friends of mine have produced a new movie inspired by Royal Family Kids Camp, an amazing organization for foster kids that our church partners with. Royal Family is a network of camps for abused, neglected and abandoned children, pairing each child with a mentor for the week. CAMP is a feature film about one such story. An investment advisor volunteers to go to camp to impress a new client, but finds himself paired with an angry, troubled 10 year-old camper named Eli. . . .
that’s what SHE said: feeling old vs. feeling fat, our relationship with screens, a child’s reaction to Black History Month, sexual abuse on the mission field, and more . . .
I'd Rather Feel Old Than Feel Fat | Jezebel Hating myself for being fat, when I was young, was paralyzing. Feeling terrified of getting older, at my current age, is galvanizing. It's a different kind of self-hatred. Hatred of fatness is based in cultural norms, which are made-up, but getting old is real. It means something. When you don't know who you are yet, there's constant anxiety that you're doing "you" wrong (i.e. my body itself is what's holding me back). But as soon as you're . . .
On lying to my children
In our last episode of Mama Said over at Babble, Sarah and I are confessing the lies we tell to our children. Some of mine have to do with balloons, and my stabby hate of them. How about you? Do you ever lie to your kids? . . .
Questions of Eternal Significance: Do you enjoy winter weather?
This week we have been experiencing some really beautiful weather here in Southern California. It has been surreal to post pictures on Instagram of my kids basking in the sunshine, and then scroll through my feed to see so many pictures of sledding children and snow-covered houses. I almost feel guilty about posting the photos of us cavorting outdoors while so many people are in the middle of snow storms . . . but then again, I am reminded that not everyone abhors winter weather quite the way I . . .
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