Feature Pieces Worth the Read
Postpartum Depression
A couple of weeks after I gave birth to my son, my husband routinely would ask me “On a scale of one to ten, how do you feel ?” My mental state was in question and I remember standing by the garden in those first weeks and answering,”About a 4″ . And then eventually, I remember reaching a 7. And it’s even been only in the last year that I felt capable of a 10. I felt overwhelmed, incompetent, full of frustration, anger, and just plain exhausted. All symptoms of what I would soon understand was postpartum (or postnatal)...
read moreThe Stories We Live
On the phone recently, my Mom recounted a story about the last time I had a baby. She laughed as she told her version of that fateful day in the delivery room. Her portrayal of me as a labor room dictator was slightly unsettling. Stories can be both comforting and unsettling. Storytelling impacts, creates, and continues our cultural and individual perceptions of self. I can see how I tell certain stories to remember, substantiate, and explain who I am, where I’ve come from, and what I believe. And I know other people are telling their...
read moreTrouble at the Table : Part 2
This is the second part of a two-part post entitled Trouble at the Table, in which I review and summarize Karen Le Billon’s book French Kids Eat Everything. It was actually one of those reads that changed my life and my kid’s by default. I hope I do it justice. Neither his food pickiness nor my astonishment over it seemed to diminish as my child grew from a three to a seven year-old. “Do you know what a good cook your Mom is?” my husband kept asking him. This justified my dismay but did nothing for his food fears. I have...
read moreTrouble at the Table
My family’s tomato soup episode was one of those final moments when I knew we were in trouble at the table. I had heard the husband strike a bargain with our 7 year-old Picky-a-saurus. Whatever treat the child was requesting could be had after he ate and finished his cream of tomato soup. OK, the kid says. And I know this will not end well. Sure enough, there were tears aplenty and extra drama( partly from hunger) all for the fear of this unknown food. And it was one of the most uncomfortable un-enjoyable meals I have ever endured. It was a...
read moreBuddy Buddy Butthead Revisited
As today marks the year anniversary of the return, after a weeks abrupt absence, of our cat Butthead, I felt the urge to share the story once more for those who missed reading it the first time. It’s a good one. Enjoy. At 9am on a mid-October Saturday, my husband had called me at our home in Denton from his cell phone. Neither of us recalls the reason for this call. Before the line went dead, he utters the equivalent of “Freaking cat” and probably more unheard expletives. Our cat Butthead had stowed away in the back of a moving truck...
read moreThe Tale of Four Squirrels – revisit
The same week from hell that was my birthday found us looking skyward searching the roofline to source out the noise we kept hearing. It was a loud clattering and hard to ignore. So when I saw the little heads peeking out of the aluminum soffit hole, I knew we were in trouble. And when I saw the shreds of wood falling onto my porch, I was even more aggravated. Not only was the Fokker family nesting in my eaves, they were shredding my house. My son and I looked up the definition of rodent one day out of curiosity. It simply said “those that...
read moreThe Desperate Need for Differences
When I travel, I enjoy the immersion in the different places and sites and people who are strange, new, and beautiful. To me, travel means a further comprehension of differences in cultures and being in awe of the world’s diversity and our personal uniqueness’s. The world mirrors the differences between me and you. And we represent the world. I am an idealist but there is a different perspective that much of humanity shares. Unfortunately, humanity has a bad case of ‘us and them’ and it may be our undoing. The world is brimming with...
read moreVacate Home
(Originally published on Divine Caroline in September of 2009) Ask my husband about his family’s vacations and he will deliver a chirpy recount of playing guitar at beach campfires, sleeping in a pop-up camper, and the frolicking multitude of cousins. My fractured family vacation memory is one trip to a cabin. There was yelling involved. Add the 15-mile endurance hikes complete with gorp and hard-earned sleep on the ground, a coincidental side effect of divorce and my mother’s new beau, and I don’t have much for the great outdoors or...
read moreThe Personal Equation
Twenty years ago, I remember giving a guy friend some advice. He lived at home with his Mom and they had a rip- roaring dysfunctional volatile relationship. I suspect this was the same thing she’d had with his father. I said, “Choose not to play the game with her. She’ll keep trying to engage you but she’ll give up after several failed attempts and you’ll change the relationship”. He was baffled. Change his reaction? But he had always made the same choice. He had no idea how to not choose to react that way. Mothers install the...
read moreMy Face
I worked on this and then put it down. But to maintain and create an audience, I finished and offered it up for publication. So, if you are not a friend on my Facebook page, or reside in Easton and regular reader of the Talbot Spy, enjoy a feature-length article I wrote on my ascent into Facebook. Go to http://talbotspy.com/my-face/ . Share this:FacebookTwitterGoogle +1EmailPinterestPrint
read more
