When things get really hard, at home because I am overwhelmed, at work because I feel disenchanted, or politically because I feel absolutely hopeless, I remember to put things into perspective. Personal, professional, and political perspective gives me hope. I remember that if I feel this way, someone else must. I am not, after all,…
Tag: motherhood
Homeschooling for the Emotionally Unleashed
Every single finals week for the past five years, Celaya, an already emotional child, becomes high strung and irrational. Her eyes well up with tears, her voice begins to crack, and her head will hang down at the unlikeliest of slights. I know quite well that I am raising an empath. I have seen her…
Energy Never Dies: Passion Provides
I can come home, as I did last night, after an eleven hour shift of standing on my feet and talking to kids about history and government, and write a thousand word essay. I can finish an eleven hour shift for the second day in a row, as I did tonight, still full of energy,…
Family Friendly?: Christmas, Kids, and Cusswords
Warning: “bad” language ahead. “Fuck!” I said, starting to get irritated. “Goddamn it.” My five year old said, sitting on the counter and watching me. Yea, we definitely could not be featured on the family friendly television channels. I burst out laughing, all irritation vanished, and I remembered this was supposed to be fun. We…
Halfway Through Crazy: Stop to Rest
I have taken on this 25 days of writing challenge called “blogmas.” I am now halfway through crazy (Trust me. Crazy.) So I took a day to stop and rest. Blogmas One of the Facebook blogging groups I am in introduced me to this idea of blogging every day in December, ideally with a Christmas…
Self Love: This Is What I Look Like
I once had a girlfriend, my best friend, in the seventh grade, call me ugly. She laughed, and she was being funny. She thought she was being funny. But yes, she giggled, and called me “ugly.” Girls can be so mean. So very mean. I shrugged it off. I don’t know why it didn’t break…
Love the City of Hayward: San Felipe Park
Of all the parks in Hayward, California, San Felipe park is my favorite. Many of you know I homeschool. Homeschooling is a joy and a pain. I know I am giving my child complete freedom to learn out of genuine curiosity, I know she is free from a harsh and rigid system I disagree with…
Changing the Voices in My Head: Running Through Anxiety
I never had anxiety before I had kids. When I was a kid, I was fearless. I began to get a sense of my mortality in my twenties. “Okay,” I thought, “death is real, and I could die.” But still, I wasn’t going to, not for a long time. Never did I think I would…
For the Children: Insisting on Moral Capitalism
Today, more than ever before, we must insist that our businesses, the ones making money off of us, treat us like humans. We must ask questions, challenge standard practices, raise our voices and/or withhold our money. If we are marching forward, willingly or otherwise, into an even more extreme form of capitalism (and we certainly…
Five “Selfish” Reasons You Should Stay Home When Your Kid Is Sick
It started last night: “mama, I have a sore throat.” This is a sign that my five year old has an impending cold and plans on staying down for at least a day. Sure enough, when I went into her room this morning, there were tissues scattered on her bedroom floor from the numerous times…