A Happy Monday On A Tuesday

Happiness is.....

Cuddles with my kid while waiting for dinner (that I didn't cook prepare microwave).

A husband who understands that having painted nails isn't enough when you are a kid - they have to sparkle too!

(This is not a Panera Bread commercial, although we did eat there yesterday, and it was really good. Ignore the label and focus on the sparkly nails)

Making Thomas stand by a brick wall while I take approximately fifty pictures.

(see - he doesn't even look annoyed)

A haircut.
And giant green leaves painted on a wall, because that randomness makes me smile.

Happiness is....time spent with family.

What is making you happy today?

Blog Against Child Abuse - January 2012 Edition

Welcome to the January 2012 Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse! I hope everyone is having a good new year.

Healing and Therapy:
-Meg from Megs submitted, Moving In.
She wrote, "Because of the trauma and abuse my body endured, it's been really hard for me to accept the "body experience." I'm often detached and unwilling to listen to what my body tries to tell me. I've recently realized it's time to "move back in" and this is what I wrote about it (beginning at paragraph 3)."

-Lauren from Self Help and Recovery submitted, Shame Is Your Enemy.

-Mike McBride from Child Abuse Survivor submitted, Successful Healers.
He wrote, "I found an article that I really thought was applicable to survivors in their healing process, even though it wasn't about healing, and wrote about the tips that were given and how they apply!"


Survivor Stories:
-Michelle I'Anson from My Life as a Strife Survivor submitted, The Harshest Lesson.
She wrote, "Learning to love myself has been hard."

-Joan Angel from Angels of Secrets submitted, On Angels Wings.


Aftermath:
-April Nicole from A Whisper From My Heart submitted, Speak Up or Stay Quiet.


In The News:
-Charles Chua C K from All About Living With Life submitted, P.L.E.A.S.E. Spend Time With Your Child.


Poetry:
-Rick Belden from Poetry, Dreams, and The Body submitted, Poetry on Video: Falling Through.

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The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse is a monthly event. The purpose is to raise awareness about the serious issue of child abuse and to share important posts with others who may not be frequent readers of an author's blog, and expose one's work to a wider audience. There are so many wonderful bloggers who are contributing to the cause of ending and recovering from child abuse. If you, as a reader or author, know of other blogs that you find helpful, please encourage them to submit to an upcoming issue of the Carnival Against Child Abuse; and please bookmark that page so we can continue to receive high quality submissions from a wide swath of bloggers.

Many thanks to all of you who shared your hearts and stories with us, and to all of you who read the submissions and show your support. You keep this carnival, the awareness, support, and healing going each month.


To provide another way for you to stay in contact with the blog carnival, and make sure you don't miss any updates; you can like the Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse Facebook Page. 

Thank you for raising your voice and speaking out against child abuse! 

Reading Between Interruptions

When I think of a book I've read in the past, I usually remember the place I read it. I received Between Interruptions: 30 Women Tell the Truth About Motherhood in the mail, and it sat in my to be read pile for about a week, until the day I grabbed it on my way out the door to run errands. I pulled it out of my bag at the DMV, and started reading. My husband leaned over and complained about the wait, and I was surprised to see almost two hours had passed without me even noticing it - I was that engrossed in these women's stories.

I was a little skeptical of this book at first. Collections of essays (or short stories) aren't usually my favorite. But I found that even the authors whose lives and experiences are completely different than mine really pulled me in, and I was able to find commonality in our journeys as mothers.

In her introduction to the book, the editor, Cori Howard (founder of The Momoir Project) said, "I wanted to provide a space where mothers could talk about the huge transformation involved in becoming mothers. I wanted them to explore the difficulties they've had in the process of becoming mothers; the choices and decision they've faced and how they've handled them; how they've managed the identity crisis, the career crises, the relationship crisis." I think with Between Interruptions, she accomplished her goal. It is an honest and interesting book.



Legal Stuff: I was provided a free copy of this book to read and review by TLC Book Tours, but I did not receive any further compensation. All the opinions are mine, and I was not required to say nice things.

Waiting To Be Picked Up

The room is dark during the day. A small sliver of sunshine sneaking between the curtains is the only light we have. We whisper in the dark, sitting snugly next to each other.

Bits of stories.

Advice.

Information.

The sliver of sunlight has long faded when she comes in the room. We watch silently as she kicks off her flip flop, drops her clothes in a pile on the floor, and changes into an old t-shirt and pajama pants. She flops on the bed and looks around the room. Light from the lamp with the purple shade illuminates her face.

We always know what kind of day she had out in the world by what she does next:

On rough days, she heads to the shelves on the left, and reaches for something light and fluffy.

On good days, she walks across the room to the the shelves by the closet - usually pulling a journal and pen out of the cabinet on her way back to the bed.

On days she has been to class, she pulls out heavy tomes from shelves on the right, and scatters them across the bed. Notebook directly in front of her, she makes notes and highlights, occasionally reading something in a whisper we can barely hear.

On days when her head is pounding and she needs to escape from the pain (and the world around her), she angles the purple shade away from her face and reaches for a stack sitting on the desk beside the bed.

Cuddling under the covers, she reads until we see the sliver of light sneaking again between the curtains, and then falls into a deep sleep.

We keep watch over her room during the day, and keep her company late into the night.  She loves us, and we love her. We know all her moods and secrets. We want nothing more than to be held gently as we share our stories and knowledge and advice. We are her books, and the best friends she has ever had.

The dictionary defines personification as “the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.”

Tell a piece of your story from the point of view of an object who bore witness.

Grandmother's Smoke Breaks

I found myself thinking about my grandmother tonight. When I was small, I called her grandmommy - grandmommy and granddaddy where my father's parents. But I clearly remember being ten years old, sitting in her backyard, and deciding that I would call her grandmother.

After my granddaddy died, his nephew came to visit. It was always an issue during his visits that he smoked. Not only would he go outside to smoke so as not to bother my grandparents, he would often go to the neighbor's house to smoke with her in her garage.

And we weren't supposed to mention the smoking. No talking about things like that in my family.

But on this visit - it seemed things had changed. Grandmother would go outside and sit with him on the bench when he smoked. She would declare with glee that she was going out for a smoke break. I believe there was even some giggling.

I thought about that tonight, and wanted to ask her questions. Things I did not ask when she was alive. Of course I wish I could ask the hard questions, but tonight I wasn't thinking down dark paths. I just wanted to know what it was they talked about on those smoke breaks. And why the sudden change in her attitude towards his habit.




This was my Sunday morning five minute stream of consciousness writing. I've dumped my brain, feel free to dump yours with Fadra.