Solo Mother

I can’t tell you how chuffed I was when I watched Colin Powell on Face the Nation this past weekend. If more leaders would stand up and stand against the hate, the smear campaigns, the bigotry and the ignorance that is running rampant in our country, we could turn this game around and be a compassionate, generous, intelligent leader in the world again. YES, Mr. Powell. A seven year old Muslim American boy should be able to dream of being President. And so should his sister. We are not a nation of the old boy network, and to rely upon …read more

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I saw Vicky Cristina Barcelona recently, and it sparked a conversation in my brain that has been loud, chaotic, passionate and basically out of control. I suppose it was a good movie.
It got me thinking on the nature of love. I know, what a great thing for a single mother with a full-time job and a full-time kid to be revving her noodle with, right? But I listened closely to the spaces in between the great moments of the movie, and heard so much more about love than the broad strokes of passion and duty painted by the movie …read more

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Besides your fabulous suggestions on how to get organized, I love these:
Mimi the Sardine lunch bags…
The Ah Ring
Fannfare’s courage in the face of her own shizznits.
Elizabeth Bear
The King of Everything, who just survived his first sleepover. Here. He and his best friend are sacked out, in quite the civilized way. Tomorrow, his grandfather is cooking the boys pancakes. I am slipping into the office early and working late, sewing up the last of the gaps before I jet off to the Democratic National Convention.
Go, us.
Image courtesy of Mimi the Sardine

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Just saw Woody Allen’s new flick
Vicky
Christina
Barcelona
I don’t like Woody Allen flicks. I loved this one. It’s rendered me speechless with too many things to say. I’d recommend seeing it, single mothers, and then sit and ponder the kinds of love you have in your life, the kinds of love you’ve pined for, what you’ve had and lost, what your heart craves. There is no perfect love, and those who seek it are perfect fools. Discuss.

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There’s an article in the Washington Post today that made me chuckle. A Va Va Voom BOOM! Burlesque is back, baybee. And it’s hetting up significant portions of my home town.
I took a walk on Friday night with a friend, not following the historic tour of the U Street corridor, persay, but glad enough to stop and read the signs, gawk at Duke Ellington’s childhood home, at the hep cat clubs where all the most amazing people used to play; marvel at the sites of once-elegant hotels and businesses that had catered to the folks who lived in that part …read more

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Deborah Ng over at Simply Thrifty wrote a lovely post about the other gifts she and her husband have given her son, who celebrated a birthday yesterday. Gifts of artistry and competence. Gifts of creativity and time spent with family.
Don’t ever put yourself down for what you can’t buy, single mothers. Give your children what they really need, and you’re going fine.

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This morning I was late to work. There was no way I’d miss this morning, or any other morning like it, from now until forever.
The King of Everything has been promoted to Kindergarten.
He was sad, thinking he hadn’t received an award, and although he didn’t get one for great attendance, or for honoring the school code (although I would have hit that little girl, too, if she’d climbed on my back, knocked me to the ground, and started choking me… but she didn’t get a good conduct award either), he got one for excellence in reading, and the little …read more

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The Boy came back today, exhausted and glowing like a house with every light on. He’d had a fantastic time at Yankee Stadium, and will be able to tell his own sons someday that he saw the Yankees play in the house that Ruth built. He and his buddy T Man managed not to drive the dad nuts, I think, and behaved well together, even when the sudden storm that sprang up Saturday night knocked out the train they were on. The three didn’t get to their house until one this morning.
He still didn’t want to leave.
I’m so proud …read more

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My mother gave me two amazing gifts for my birthday.
After our fabulous waffle brunch, she took the kid swimming, and loaned me a Steven King novel. Brain candy. Pure and utter brain candy. I settled into my couch in front of the fireplace and read. For hours.
I think it’s been at least seven or eight months since I’ve done that. My home was utterly devoid of the litany of a child’s needs, wants, questions, curiosities, hurts, dreams and desires. I played some classical music — light, airy Dvorak, not serious Beethoven — and read. I heard myself for …read more

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We each of us harbor crazy dreams, hopes, wishes that you know in your sane moments can never come true. Often, the biggest mistake we make about people is imposing upon them what we see as their potential to become, rather than accepting the skin they are in, physically and metaphorically, at the present moment in time.
As you move through your life and interact with other people, please take a moment and listen to your internal conversation. If you hear yourself sighing in a swoony inner voice, “He (or she) is just perfect, if only…” STOP RIGHT THERE.
Is it …read more

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