The day is half done, so to speak.  I’ve been diligently working away at my computer all morning, doing this and that, fiddling with the other… but I haven’t really got anything done.
Welcome to my brain on Mondays (yes, yes, the rest of the week too, but work with me here).  No one has the corner on the market in disorganization, and if you’re anything like me, all the self-help, organizational, motivational drivel in the world will amount to only one thing: another excuse to procrastinate.
EAT YOUR FROG
That’s a phrase that the wise Shani and her friends coined and it …read more

Isn’t that strange?
This year, god willing, will be the year we finally get divorced. Neither of us has any money, so this has to be amicable. I don’t even want to say anything about my ex anymore. He hasn’t lived up to his obligations, and I’m sad for him. I don’t get it. It’s his life.
I’ve watched the King of Everything  blossom these past three years, surrounded by love and people who hold him to the highest standard while helping him reach those very standards we set for him. He is kind, compassionate, rowdy, bright, inquisitive, and naturally gifted with …read more

As a single parent, I find myself with everything to do and no time to do it, and no one to turn to for help when it’s bedtime or breakfast and everyone is in a hurry and there’s a panic to get it DONE. It can leave us feeling harried and out of sorts, grumpy and out of touch.  So…

Next time your kid says something to you, stop what you’re doing and listen. Really listen.
When you are next faced with a choice between getting down on the floor and playing with your kid or doing the dishes? Get down. Dishes …read more

I stumbled on this contest and to be honest? Maria’s story struck so many chords in me, I had to vote for her. She writes of being trapped in a situation for eight years that took the brilliance and life out of her, ballooning her weight, dulling her hair, robbing the sparkle from her eyes. But she’s back, and joyous, and I’m thrilled for her.
(BTW, Marian’s story cracked me up — an unfortunate typo about the skinny models she used to work around offers a very different image than the tiny-waisted, slim hipped gamines she tried to evoke: “there …read more

Last week, I asked you to tell me who you are, single mothers. How did you get here? Did you choose? Did you lose? Were you married, divorced, widowed, none of the above?
My story is pretty simple, and if you haven’t lived the bone-crushing agony of loss, the numbing sensation of being trapped and forsaken by time itself, you might think mine is a pretty amazing story.
But it’s not, really. People ask me how I do it, and seem to want to praise me — and single mothers like me, and you — for doing my job.
And from the …read more

I love the diversity of our community. Women like Mikki Morrissette, started her parenting career as a Single By Choice Mom, and makes her living advocating for healthy, educated choices about becoming a single mother.
There is the lovely Rose, who was a single mother of five, survived a difficult marriage, abuse, and the uncertainty of fleeing what she knew for a future without fear. She’s now married to a lovely man, and I’m still waiting for her next CD to be completed.
There is the dynamic duo of Dr. Leah, the Sanity Fairy, and her erstwhile cohort, Rachel Sarah, who bared …read more

So, Bristol Palin is a single mother, an unwed teen with a baby to deal with.
I guess the shotgun wedding didn’t work out… although it’s what our once and, I hope not future, vice-president wanted for her daughter.
Bonnie Erb has a lot to say about that whole debacle, and you can read all about it on US News and World Report.

What do you think about abstinence-only education, birth control, forced marriages, teen pregnancy, and that whole tangled web?
And as an aside, I walk by a Planned Parenthood nearly every night on my way home from work, and there is inevitably …read more

I’ve been cleaning up files tonight, wading through the detritus of the destruction of my marriage, and came across this oneiric essay I wrote two and some odd years ago, when I lived in Dubai with my husband and our small son.
I thought I would share it with you…

My life in the UAE has very little in common with the life my husband leads.
I navigate the nuances of mothers, of women of a myriad of colours, from darkest litchi nut to palest ivory; from women who show shoulders and cleavage to women who leave only their eyes exposed to …read more

This “Tell me about it” is almost a year old, but it’s still making the rounds on the Net as a little boost for harried mothers everywhere. Read Why don’t friends with kids have time and laugh at the writer’s snippy efforts to ‘understand’ why moms with kids don’t have time for her.
Seems to me like the writer is as much workas any kid would be, and the rewards significantly less.

Our One Heart is giving away a romantic night for two at a swank resort in Oregon:
The lucky winner will receive a Romance by the River package for Two (2) that includes the following:

One (1) night accommodation
A bottle of Champagne
A box of chocolates
Overnight parking
Dinner for two at Aquariva

Head on over to Our One Heart for instructions on how to enter to win — you have until the 28th.
I love seeing how peoples’ minds work. Erin over at Irascible Crayons wonders if the first law of thermodynamics applies to love… I think she might be on to something… and she’s kind …read more