- Where is the mommy war for the motherless child? :: Rage Against the Minivan
- French school lunch menus :: Karen LeBillon
- On comparing yourself :: (in)courage
- Simple summer style :: Simple Design
- For those of you who don’t comment on blogs :: Chatting at the Sky
The winners of yesterday’s giveaway from UPrinting are Jen and Emily. Congrats! Look for an email in your inbox soon.
- Exciting news from our poet-in-residence: her first book of poems is now available! It won’t be on Amazon for several months, but you can get it right now from its publisher, Peace Hill Press. What It Is Is Beautiful, by Sarah Dunning Park, is both funny and really encouraging. If you’re overwhelmed by toddler antics, bottomless piles of laundry, or the humbling sense of responsibility that comes with motherhood (or know someone who is), check it out!
And now, Sarah’s thoughts on being a Tiger Mother…
Tiger Mother
on flat feet and stocky legs
into her first classroom,
where we sang and clapped
and flapped our wings—
until the following year,
when I grew too pregnant
to bounce her on my lap,
and we had to quit
toddler music class.
When the new babies
could walk and talk
(and in fact, didn’t ever stop),
I tried again:
this time, I’d drop them off
and speed away
for milk and eggs,
or I would sit, mute,
in a waiting room,
gulping down the quiet.
I read Battle Hymn
of the Tiger Mother,
and imagined myself
as zealous as Amy Chua:
we’d devote our time
to proficiency in scales
after lessons in tying shoelaces—
but the next day
my only goals were to fry eggs
and to finish a batch
of laundry.
That spring, it rained
and rained some more—
I heaped our schedule
with enriching indoor activities
while the ground outside
filled to capacity
and rejected the endless water,
sent it running off
in streams.
I herded the kids
under a sagging umbrella
to rush from car to class,
forgoing sidewalk worms
and an apple-green larva
spied under a leaf.
One evening
as we pulled in our driveway,
late for dinner again
and most of us in tears,
my hair prickled at the scalp,
my tigress claws clenched the wheel,
and I roared—
until they rolled out of the car
like cubs, tumbled into puddles,
made for the cover of the trees,
where they could
poke a stick in the dirt
and gather worms in peace—
just like I wanted them to.
© 2012, Sarah Dunning Park. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
About Tsh
Thanks for linking!
I was so happy to see this article linked-up to. Thanks for writing it Kristen! I just discovered your blog a few months ago as my husband and I research adoption. I appreciate your very real, but still positive approach to everything!
Sarah G @ JoyontheJourney´s latest post: Happy Anniversary to Us!
Beautiful poem! Thanks for sharing it, Tsh.
Hannah D.´s latest post: Sentence Diagramming Challenge
Just what i needed to hear this morning…so touching
If you’re overwhelmed by toddler antics, bottomless piles of laundry, or the humbling sense of responsibility that comes with motherhood (or know someone who is), check it out!
Lessie´s latest post: Yorkshire Terrier
If you’re overwhelmed by toddler antics, bottomless piles of laundry, or the humbling sense of responsibility that comes with motherhood (or know someone who is), check it out!
You can even track nutritional information and cost breakdown of all of your recipes and menus! And for those of you that love going paperless, you can use Plan to Eat’s mobile app to carry all your menu planning with you.