"How's the campaign going?"
It's the question I get most often. It's also the question I'm never quite sure how to answer.
Good? ... Great! ... Your guess is as good as mine. ... We'll see May 17th!
The truth - I suppose - all depends on what you're measuring.
This weekend we hosted a Winter ONE-derland party in honor of Felix's first birthday. Considering this child was born during a snow, it seemed like an appropriate theme. Well, the weather had other plans and it was 70 and sunny! I could have hosted the dang party outside!
For my 30th birthday, I created a list of 30 things I wanted to do. One was to write a historical fiction short story. This is the story and as Ruby keeps calling to me here lately. I thought I'd share it here.
One of Nicholas's New Year's resolutions was to try freezer meals. He'd prepped meals for the week on and off through 2015 and wanted to see how it would work to prepare an entire month's worth. Then, we could just pull a meal from the deep freeze, throw it in the crockpot, and on a busy day dinner would be waiting for us.
As someone who works in social media, this is the question I get the most often.
“I don’t really understand Twitter. How does it work?”
I’ve slowly come to understand that people aren’t really asking me how Twitter works. Explanations involving character limits and hashtags rarely get me anywhere. What people are really asking me is how do I make twitter work for me?
Welcome to Flashback Friday, where I delve deep into the hoards piles of my childhood memorabilia so that we can reminisce, laugh at the bad perms, and finally prove that merely throwing away your NKOTB door hanging does not diminish your love for Jordan Knight.
I’m a keeper. I keep things. I keep photos and souvenirs and clothing and every single issue of my high school newspaper (and college...and middle school...and elementary...don't you dare judge me).
There are a million reasons I keep. I’m an only child and always had my own room to pile high with mementos. I come from a long line of keepers. I’m a historian at heart.
The reason doesn’t really matter - what matters is that we exploit this stuff to maximum entertainment capacity!
Let’s begin at the beginning. I’ve been journaling for as long as I can remember. Recently, whilst sorting through the piles, I found my very. first. diary.
I hope you have a fantastic firework-filled Fourth of July. Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays, not only because I knew every word to Lee Greenwood's "Proud to be an American" at the age of 7 but because families and friends can gather together without the pressure some of the other big name holidays can bring with them. No massive meals or presents or church schedules to figure out - just barbecue, sunshine, and unapologetic patriotism.
Tell me. Politics aside (just for today!), what's your favorite thing about America?
I'll share my husband's answer at the breakfast table to get us started.
"Waffle House... WHAT!?! It's open 24 hours!"
Indeed. God bless the Waffle House and God bless America!
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Since high school, running for higher office has been one of my long-term goals. However, no matter where I am in my life, actually taking the leap into elected office always seems like something I should do in the future - far into the future. When I move home to Kentucky or when I'm more established in my career or when I figure what career I actually want to do or when I have kids or when my kids get older ...
You get the idea.
Watching Kiley Lane Parker's documentary Raising Ms. President made me realize for the first time that maybe I haven't been delaying my dreams because of realistic personal limitations but because of the subtle societal influences that hold women back.
I'd love to hear from men and women. Have you ever considered running for political office? If so, what seems to be standing in your way?
Yesterday, the New York Times published an excellent piece entitled American Way of Birth, Costliest in the World. Following the struggles of several families without maternity coverage, Elizabeth Rosenthal examines the way maternity care is priced and the impact of high costs on care.
This about sums it up:
“We’ve created incentives that encourage more expensive care, rather than care that is good for the mother,” said Maureen Corry, the executive director of Childbirth Connection.
I truly wish I could say I’m surprised. I am not.
As I’ve said before, our system is broken. We spend more money on birth and get worse outcomes than any other industrialized nation. I saw the uphill battle I would face inside that system and decided to opt out.
I chose to have a home birth. Let me tell you what it cost me.
