Lent is my favorite season of the Liturgical year. I love it for a lot of reasons. For one, I’m secretly a melancholy girl full of laments. I connect to the idea of a season that’s not about celebration but about ashes, confession, and removing a little of our cultural addiction to ease so that we can recognize how much our comfortableness makes us unaware of our need for a savior. I love the liturgical beauty of entering in to... Read more
Listen, I love you readers and you don’t deserve this but I’m going to complain for a second. Thursday is street cleaning day on my street. That means I can’t park in front of the house, which is usually okay. After all, for our first year in San Francisco, I always parked three to four blocks away from the house. But, today, at 39 weeks pregnant, when I didn’t find a spot anywhere closer than 3 blocks away, at the... Read more
As I type this, my toddler is asleep on my lap. He woke up early from naptime, disrupting my writing time, and promptly snuggled up against my 9-month pregnant belly (which, honestly, in its constant state of Braxton-Hicks tightness, can’t be that cozy) and fell back asleep. I’ll admit I played with his sweaty post-nap hair and his face is more than angelic right now. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to type. I’m doing some sort of yoga upper body... Read more
Okay, so I’m admitting I’ve been a failure of blogging lately. Seriously, I know you’re sick of hearing about how I’m uncomfortably pregnant/scared of giving birth/learning something important about suffering. (See proof here, here and here. Good grief, lady.) So I’ll shut up about it now and move on to more exciting things, like Thankful Tuesday! Which brings us back to how I’m thankful for Sandra McCracken’s beautiful hymn “In Feast or Fallow,” which is quickly becoming my prayer as... Read more
Why does “full term” have to feel so…full? I once read a lovely book (which I really ought to read again…and you should read as well) called Great With Child, in which the author (Debra Rienstra) refers to herself as “ripe” at the end of her pregnancy. I keep thinking about that. I feel ripe…teetering on the edge of sweetness and rottenness. I should be picked from the tree soon or else I’ll be one of those peaches I had... Read more
So, yesterday I came across this blog post about Katie Holmes and an apparently “overheard” conversation (I can’t find the link, by the way) regarding her (and Tom’s?) decision to try for baby number two. Her reason for the second baby? “Suri would love a brother or sister to play with. I think it would be good for her. It’s hard to say no to her.” First, I’ll say this: Poor Katie. If all my overheard conversations with girlfriends were... Read more
As I write this, I’m resting after a good day of hard work and accomplishment. I love feeling like actual events happened in my day. I connected with dear people, loved my kid, accomplished tasks (groceries: more vinegar so my hubby can pickle more onions!), and rested. I also had some contractions. Of course, I’ve been having Braxton-Hicks for a few months now. I mean real contractions. These were small but they let their force be known: little reminders about... Read more
There are some moments of parenthood in which you are suddenly struck with the realization that there is no one more heroic to your child than you. There is no one they know who could come close to your genius, your humor, your success. I remember having those typical “My dad can beat up your dad” conversations with my fellow 4-year-olds back in the day. To believe that there could be any father faster or smarter or more handsome than... Read more
Yes, my friends, it has been one full year of bloggerdom. And in honor of my anniversary at mamamonk.com (which was actually last Wednesday, but I was too lame to celebrate on that day), I will now list what a year of blogging has taught me: I do have time to write! It’s amazing what you can make yourself do when you know that people might actually read it. I am a selfish, selfish person. (The more I write about... Read more
Just as an addendum to yesterday’s post, my mother in law sent me this prayer today. It’s the Collect (from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer) for her church’s service next Sunday. It’s perfectly fitting: Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no... Read more
Micha Boyett
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