Where to start. I have put off actually writing this because, um, a) I am lazy and busy all at the same time these days and b)I am a silly geek who makes mountains out of molehills and creates stress where there was none. Awesome.
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Can I just leave it at at that?
No? Blogging is about sharing some of the stuff of life?
FINE.
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So, Book 4. I somehow found the personal blog of the amazing wonderwoman of a blogger Rebecca Woolf over a year ago. I fell in love with her blog, From Wild to Child, right away. I think it was her writing style, her stories of life back in the day that really got my attention; I found I could really relate to her, in general. So, as it turns out she is also on Twitter, so I followed her. Damn I love twitter.
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I soon realized she has also written a memoire style book sharing the details of her own adventures in life, through dating, an unexpected pregnancy/turned marriage/family, sharing her reactions as a woman, mother, and daughter throughout. I decided to add it to my wish list for the holidays, and sure enough, it arrived under the tree. Perfection! What does a rational person do? Read the book, thinking 'cool, i understand it so much more since i read the author's blog' and move on to Book 5. What do I do? I tweet her and tell her I am going to read it and am really excited. She replies! Yay! How cool is that, I think. I do love me some technology! So, I send her a favourite line or two, to solidify my geek status, and now she follows ME on the twitter. I know. Weird! SO now, like, um, I feel like I really need to do a fantastico-best-ever-review-of-all-reviews-ever-written-by-anyone-EVER to do justice to this AWESOME book, and all I feel qualified to really do is a fancy cut-and-paste style grade 7 book report. Zoiks! (run on sentences ftw!)
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So there. That's what's up with the delay in the 52-Books-in-52-Weeks Book Challenge. (Intimidation, you can just stand up and take a nice curtsy and then move to the side.) I will try not to let the Intimidation factor stall this process any longer. Let's just hammer this out the way I have for the other 3. k? k.
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So, The Book. Like I said above, I loved it. To let you in on the details, I will blatantly steal the text from the Amazon site, because I assume they got it from the publisher, and they seem to say it best. And I am pressed for time. So, onward: a description of Rockabye: From Wild to Child by Rebecca Woolf.
Rockabye is the lively memoir of a spontaneous young city-girl who becomes unexpectedly pregnant. That city-girl is Rebecca Woolf, who at 23, after the "holy shit, I'm pregnant" realization, decides to keep the baby, marry the boyfriend (in Vegas no less), and figure out how to wed her rock n' roll lifestyle and impending motherhood.
With humor, honesty, and renegade insight, Rebecca makes the transition from life as an odd-job doing commitment-phobic, chain-smoking, irresponsible party-girl to life as a work-at-home mother with a different kind of social life. Throughout, Rebecca doesn't relinquish the token qualities of her free-spirited, pre-baby self; rebelling against both the "soccer mom," and "young mother" stereotypes, challenging herself to grow up without outgrowing her dreams, and most importantly embracing motherhood without a map.
Rockabye explores the coming together of mother and son and their mutual coming of age. How does Rebecca adapt to motherhood? By acting on instinct and maintaining a strong sense of self, breaking rules (sometimes her own) in the process and building her own adventures out of legos and alphabet blocks.
I read Rebecca's tell-all account of girl-growth in 2 (yes two) sittings. I loved it. Easily. I found that once I picked it up I couldn't put it down. That good. I remembered the feeling, a familiar old friend of a feeling like I once had when I was 12 and reading Are You There God, It's Me Margaret for the first time. That good. It's a great account of growth and motherhood and moving from girlchild to girlmother. I loved that - that she remains true to her core, showing how one can still be her true self and a mother. It inspired me.
Her writing style flows and surprises, the tone feels authentic, like you are getting a peek in through the back screen door and witnessing it all yourself. I was grateful for the insight, and can't wait to see what she publishes next. I loved it. Have I said that enough? I feel like I should write and write and put in all my favorite quotes but GD, I need to press publish - I'm like 10 books behind on the book reports! So that's that. I really loved this book. Period.
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I'm sorry Rebecca, a professional book reviewer I am not.
there was a time when i followed my horoscope. there came a time i abandoned it, not wanting to think about all the workings, the possibilities of bs, or not.
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today i saw this, and instead of deleting the e-mail upon receipt like i usually do, i took a glance at what it had to say. I thought it was worth posting, and sharing. Because regardless of who you are, and what day it is, i think it applies to us all each and every day. I love it!
Your dream projects are moving a little closer to reality today -- but only if you provide the motivational force. You shouldn't fear rejection or disbelief, and most people are ready for nearly anything.
Temple of the Dog reminds me of April and my life in the 90's. Each song below has a socio-religious feel to it and I am in a socio/anthro state right now, so lets just go with it. Moving on. That's all there is about music from me today.
Onward! Lemme set this up real quicklike:
a) My husband's family lives in Portugal. Our next trip has always included a trip to Madrid, Spain, a mere 5-hour drive from Lisbon.
b) I have a fascination with art in an anthropological, culture way. I love old books. I search for old books when I do my rounds of my fave 2nd hand store *treasure hunting* spots.
c) I also love to garden a lot, worked and lived on a working farm as a teenager, back in my horse-girl days and have recently been thinking & researching a lot about starting an Urban Community Garden in my own neighbourhood. We live in an area without one, with apartment buildings and green schoolyards all around me, and no real close access to local produce. I am feeling a need/drive to do something real in my community.
d) Have I mentioned the pets? I have had them all including horses, still have 4 as we speak (touch wood, Fatty is getting old!) and generally treat my pets as my buddies. They have great lives. I want to come back in another life as one of my own pets, actually. They have it that good.
e) Sorry if this seems choppy, one last thing to add. I promise.
f) I have been thinking of religion a lot. No specific one, but what the deities represent, and why, how our cultures view religion and the stories behind the icons. How they change over time. Looking deeper into the myths behind them I've also found myself staring at the new 360 view of the Sistine Chapel the Vatican has launched online. Reading Travelling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kid for my 52 books challenge has seemed eerily co-incidental.
So, the entire point of this? I picked up this very cool anthology of french literature published in Quebec in 1877 for $3 a while back. Yah. Sooo cool. I decided to pick it up today, remembering there was something in its pages somewhere. Out popped a prayer card thing, in french, from April 16, 1942. It's a card of St. Isadore.
Being only functionally bi-lingual and not able to fully comprehend the blurb on the back I googled St. Isidore and came up with this:
Isidore was born to very poor yet very pious Catholic parents in Madrid, Spain. His parents were unable to support him when he was a youth and sent him to work for a wealthy landowner, John de Vergas (He ended up working for him for the rest of his life).
He married a very religious woman named Maria Torribia (also known as Maria de la Cabeza). She, like Isidore became a saint. They had one son who died unexpectedly as a child. Their grief inclined them to believe their son's death to be a sign from God and consequently vowed to live a life of perfect continence.
Isidore frequented Holy Mass every morning but often reported to work late. Late, though he was, his plowing was nevertheless accomplished by angels that resulted in three times more productivity. His coworkers and his boss witnessed such miraculous events and accorded Isidore with great respect.
St. Isidore loved the poor and loved the animals. The miracle of the multiplication of food occurred when Isidore fed a flock of starving birds and on another time when Isidore shared his food with a large group of beggars.
Isidore died on May 15, 1120 at 60 years of age and was canonized in 1622 along with four very notable Spanish saints. St. Isidore is known as the patron of Madrid, Spain as well as Leon, Saragosa, and Seville. He is also considered the patron of farmers, peasants, day laborers, and rural communities.
My only point of this is: I think community gardening and farming might be for me! I think finding this card at this time, today, might really mean something. Either that or I'm just looking for something. Or I'm crazy. One of the three.
That trip to Madrid we're planning on taking later this year is starting to take on a familiar theme. Awesome! Weird!
Being only functionally bi-lingual and not able to fully comprehend the blurb on the back I googled St. Isidore and came up with this:
