Today I’m hosting the Be Enough Me link-up on Just.Be.Enough. The topic is 5 things that make you smile and I’ll tell you one thing about what’s on my list: it’s not my son (though he does make me smile). Want to see what’s on my list? You’ll have to come over there to find out.
And while you’re at it, write something and link up with us!
A lot of things about my life aren’t as expected after my experience with PPD, as shared (in abundant detail) here. One of the things I didn’t bank on was the effect PPD would have on the spacing of my kids.
I’m sharing my thoughts on that in a guest post on The Mommy Matters today. I can’t even remember how I first met Courtney, but I’m very glad I did. She’s an absolutely beautiful person and a great writer. She’s one of those honest types I cherish. Her photography is amazing. As in I-almost-don’t-want-to-look-at-it-because-it-makes-me-feel-inadequate amazing. But I overlook that because she also does amazing design work and offered a blog design giveaway, which I won! Whee! (I’m WAY excited about that.)
Anyway, this isn’t about my artistic inadequacy. It’s about Courtney being a wonderful host. She’s started a new series called Feature Friday and has invited me to kick it off. I’m incredibly flattered and have shared a post that is very close to my heart. Please come and read.
Comments off here today. Come and talk to me at The Mommy Matters!
Julie Klam, author of Love at First Bark: How Saving a Dog Can Sometimes Help You Save Yourself
In any case, while it’s not great literature, this book is a fun read. The book starts with Klam and her husband spending a significant amount of time on a street corner trying to figure what to do with Morris the pit bull, who appears to have been abandoned. Klam is clearly committed to saving dogs, and I was interested in finding out to what lengths she would go.
To great lengths, it turns out. After dealing with poor Morris, Klam gives shelter to a sweet-sounding dog who is unfortunately somewhat incontinent. (Uh, is there another word for it when it comes out the other end too?) Anyway… Clementine sounded like a perfectly lovely dog, and I’m glad there are people like Klam willing to give dogs like her a home.
The third story in the book finds Klam in post-Katrina New Orleans helping a group that rescues dogs. The book jacket boldly claims she dove under a train to save an injured stray, though I found the actual event to be more evocative of Incrediboy than Mr. Incredible. But still, valiant dedication to saving a dog with a pickle jar on its head.
My main complaint with the book is that Klam’s writing appears to be totally free-form. She narrates the events as if the reader were simply along for the ride, sharing her every thought and including jokes that don’t come across terribly well in writing. She includes sidebar stories that, while interesting, don’t relate to the main plot and could easily have been set aside in favour of additional reflection about how the experiences with the dogs affected her personally. Early in the book Klam describes her family’s apartment in New York – which, admittedly, I wouldn’t want to live in either – but I really didn’t get the impression that she needed “saving.” She’s just a dog lover with a soft spot for undesirable dogs, and the love that comes through in her storytelling is enough to make this a nice, feel-good book. As long as you’re not totally fussy about grammar and sentence structure, that is.
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Want to hear other bloggers’ opinions? Check out Love At First Bark on BlogHer.
Have you rescued or adopted an animal? Join the discussion.
I was compensated for this BlogHer Book Club review but all opinions expressed are my own. I’m picky about writing but I do really like dogs. Oh, and this post contains affiliate links. Just so you know.
Early this morning I got an email from the organizers of the TEDx event I spoke at. “Your talk is up on the TED website,” they said nonchalantly, as though that one short sentence hadn’t just caused my heart to skip a beat.
Before I had even watched it, my husband had posted it on Facebook. I did sort of want someone to watch it and tell me what it was like, but that wasn’t quite what I had in mind…
“Did you watch it?! Is it awful?” I asked him.
“I saw it live. It was great,” he replied.
Husbands are so not helpful.
I was nervous. This is me crying on stage in front of strangers and it was posted on the TED website. I started to watch it, panicked, and stopped. I boiled the kettle and considered pressing play again while I was waiting, but wasn’t quite ready. Finally, with tea and toast in hand, I sat down to watch it.
I’m not sure how I expected to feel about it. Proud, I think, which is how I felt after the event. But I have to be honest: other things are outweighing the pride right now. I know I’ve written about all the things I spoke about – the tears, the rage, and the accusations – but for some reason having this video out there is…different.
But I’m going to share it with you anyway.
It is what it is and this is my story.
(If you don’t want to watch the whole thing, the juicy part starts at the 4-minute mark.)
And speaking of being enough… Did you see my piece on Band Back Together about the origins of Just.Be.Enough?
And next week I’ll be at Just.Be.Enough. on Monday hosting the Be Enough Me link-up. Join us!
Write, post, link-up, share your story and your voice.
Be part of carrying the weight of confidence and share our mission
to empower, inspire, and remind women, parents and children
that the time has come to celebrate ourselves!
(Remember you can also write on a topic of your choice.)
One of the best things about buying this house almost nine years ago (and moving from an apartment) was really getting to enjoy Halloween. That first year we started several traditions we’ve stuck with ever since, one of which is the totally awesome pumpkins my husband carves every year. Last year he did this guy:
The wonderful thing about Tiggers is they make good carvings.
Some past masterpieces (he has a thing for comic strip characters):
Help! I'm stuck in a pumpkin!
A cherished neighbor undeserving of such a fate.
He also likes ogres, like this one:
I'm grumpy.
And this one (oh wait, that’s not an ogre, that’s my husband):
I'm grumpy too.
I’m typically more of a two-triangles-and-a-mouth sort of pumpkin carver, though I did a pretty fancy haunted house last year. It got the Pumpkin Master Seal of Approval, so I consider it a success. I’m going to continue that particular tradition this year and do another inverse design – a simple but classic glowing black bat.
Connor is now getting in on this tradition as well. His very first jack-o’-lantern:
Apparently his style of art is more abstract.
He drew the features and dad did the carving, and thus the artistic tradition continues.
In addition to doing several pumpkins each year, we hang bats from the porch and bring out the glowing ghosts. Some of our neighbours do great decorations (sound effects included) so we always have a great time walking up and down the street looking at them.
But the best part of Halloween for us is handing out candy.
Friends of ours do fireworks and hot dogs on Halloween and we always really want to go. It would be fun but we never want to miss the trick-or-treaters, so we stay home, order Chinese food, and take turns calming down our dog when the doorbell rings.
Every year, in preparation for the big night, my husband and I engage in the Battle of the Halloween Candy. It goes like this:
He wants to be “that guy” on our street so he likes to go to Costco and buy full-sized chocolate bars.
I think that’s a bit much, especially because we get the same teenage kids coming back over and over because we’re “that house.” But I know he’s going to buy them anyway so I at least try to convince him to wait until close to Halloween so we don’t eat them all ourselves.
He buys them early.
We eat them all ourselves.
Okay, not all of them. But in the past we have been known to be a little light on candy by the time the 31st rolls around. But not this year!
Handing out big bars of chocolate certainly makes you look cool, but to me Halloween is about a big bowl of individually-wrapped candies. It’s about choices and options and different-coloured gummy things, and this year I’ve got a whole stash.
I’ve got Sour Watermelon Slices, Peach Slices, Sour Cherry Slices, Tangy Wild Strawberries and Sour Grape Slices. I have Big Foot (Big Feet?) and Green Thumbs and Hot Lips. I’ve got gummies and sours and jubes and jellies.
I’m going to pit my BIG bowl of candy against my husband’s chocolate bars. I’m going to dive wrist-deep into the bowl and grab a whole handful of different kinds of candies and listen to the satisfying shush-and-rustle as they drop into treat-laden bags and pillowcases. And then I shall compare the lasting looks of delight on those children’s faces to the fleeting awe of those who get a whole candy bar.
Okay, so there’s no guarantee I’m going to win the award for the Best Treat Giver-Outer. But I’m totally going to have fun trying.
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Disclosure – I am participating in the Allan Candy Company program by Mom Central Canada. I received compensation (and candy! glorious candy!) for my participation in this campaign. The opinions in this post are my own.
My husband and I had fun reminiscing about Allan Candy’s rabbit-ears logo and corner store candy trips as kids. Here’s some info about their candy:
Allan Candy is a Canadian company and all of their halloween candy is peanut-free and proudly made in Canada. Their line-up includes Allan Intense Jubes & Jellies, Allan Chewy Rascalz and Allan Fruit Buddies, which can be found at stores like Wal-Mart and Loblaws.
