As Yet Untitled

There is a little blog I love to follow called Bonzai Aphrodite . It is written by this incredibly genuine, intelligent vegan woman named Sayward, who writes all about the vegan lifestyle, gardening, and raising her beautiful little boy. It makes me feel inspired every time I read it, and you should definitely check it out. One of the things Sayward does every Friday is post something she calls, "Le Love List." It is a compilation of all the wonderful things she is loving in her life at the moment--a kind of thankfulness list that lets her remember she has a lot to be grateful for, and encourages others to share what they are grateful for too. I think it is a great practice, so I thought I would take a minute to share some of the things I am loving in my life at this moment as well. So here is a short list of things I'm in love with this week: We planted: tomatoes, zucchini, rosemary, basil, oregano, lettuce, and lemon verbena. 1. My Garden I am not a huge fan of s...

Today I have been a mother for a month. It has taken me a long time to write this post, the post about my birth experience and my transition into motherhood. Most mothers, when recounting their birth, whether completely natural, totally medicated, or surgical, look back fondly on the experience. They will wax nostalgic about the pain and the sweat and the exhaustion, dreamily opining about the magical, miraculous moments when they first met their precious child. My birth experience was somewhat different. It was not magical. It was stark, clinical, and cold. I knew a week in advance what would be happening. My amniotic fluid had simply run out and the baby was simply out of room in my wonky, deformed uterus.  We woke up early on a Wednesday morning and checked into the hospital at 5:30am. It was chilly and I was shaking with nerves. I have always hated hospitals, medicine, and most of all, surgery. But surgery--the biggest surgery of my life--was the only way they wo...

What romance may look like. Romance is perhaps one of the most scoffed-at genres of fiction. Readers picture glossy covers featuring busty women in various states of undress, looking longingly into a tan, muscular man wearing some type of breech/boot combination. Because of this, the Romance genre is generally a reader’s dirty little secret.   Not the kind of books you take with you no public transportation, or leave sitting on your living room table for people to see. But there are three romance authors who, while not raising the genre to the heady heights of Literary Fiction (though as you can tell, that doesn’t bother me a bit), have made it respectable and written some damn good characters along the way.   Enjoy their work, and feel free to leave their non-bodice-busting covers lying around wherever you like.       1. Nora Roberts Nora Roberts           I discovered Nora Roberts by chance when I wa...