What I learned in August

1. Hosting a party is fun until everyone leaves and then I mourn the goodbyes intensely for 24 hours.
2. School supply shopping is ridiculously stressful.  But shout out to Office Depot for having the multiplication flashcards I couldn't find anywhere else!
3. If you don't have friends yet, school sucks.
4. Once you get friends at school, it sucks a little less.
5. I get depressed when I'm home alone, and still don't do the housework.
6. Screaming and crying in the car is cathartic when you are particularly irked by a situation.
7. Good teachers are a lifesaver.
8. Tantrums and intense emotions....apparently they are par for the course when you have a gifted child (or were a gifted child).
9. You can't hide your stress from a massage therapist!
10. Settling in a new city takes a lot longer than I want it to.

Celebration - #whole mama

• Today I celebrate eight years of motherhood.  Somehow eight years seem weighty, like it deserves a graduation or something!

• Today was also back to school - definitely worthy of celebration! 

• It was day one at a new school and nobody cried or had a terrible time- woohoo!

• I became an auntie for the 4th time to a lovely nephew.  He is far away and I can't cuddle him, but I got to see him on skype :)
• In the last two days I was tempted into a spiral of shame and self-loathing and managed to keep myself from going down that slippery slope - VICTORY!
• My husband diverted young master away from tantrum at key moment.

Book Review: Wild in the Hollow

RE:  Wild in the Hollow: On Chasing Desire & Finding the Broken Way Home. 

Dear Amber C. Haines,

I was glad to get to read your beautiful book.  I had to refrain from underlining my favourite quotes because I got the hard copy, and I can't bring myself to mark 'real' books, but I would have gone to town on my kindle with the highlighting!

Your boldness in speaking your truth frightened me, because it calls to my spirit that I have the freedom to do the same.  I get scared when my passion rises and my love becomes fierce, even violent.  I sense that I have more power available to me than I ever thought.  That it is a feminine power that I am nowhere close to understanding but I now know is actually feared by those who mock it; giving it new credibility in my own eyes.

Each chapter was like diving into a deep pool, where I would swim as fast as I could before coming up for breath.

You took pain and suffering and wove the words of them into something of beauty.  What more can we ask, that our struggle is worthy of being made good; there is only One who can make it so.


Thank you Revell Books for the free copy for review.