On Tuesdays, I usually share the stories, writing related posts, book reviews, and book releases I’ve come across over the past week. Last week I was fortunate to host an author and his nonfiction book Taking Action for a Better Tomorrow. I had planned on doing another stories, etc. post today, but I must also be a person with a life to live. I’m a busy wife and mother. Even though I never, ever had any plans of being a stay-at-home mom, it’s where I’ve found myself for nearly three years now. Recently, thanks to a lovely mom sharing another lovely mom’s story, I’ve been trying to take my role to heart,…
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The KonMari Method Won’t Work in My Household
I grew up in a cluttered house. My mom did her best to keep it tidy, but it wasn’t easy with 3 kids and a husband who collected furniture (we once had four tables and desks in the family room, not counting the coffee table). I wasn’t the tidiest kid and my closet was where a tornado lived. But, as I got older, everything started to have a particular place to live. There was still a lot of stuff, but everything had a home. I still carry that with me. Everything has its own place, and I’m not happy when it’s been moved. Just as my husband when he moves…
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On Blogging and Blogging Fatigue
First of all, I don’t even know if blogging fatigue exists, but it should. I’m exhausted. And I’m too tired to actually look it up. Second of all, this was supposed to be a post about how to be a blogging mom who is engaged with the community. But…blurg. I really hadn’t actually planned to write a blogging mom series. It just…happened. The first 3 posts went well. I had fun writing them. Then came the final engagement one. I had plans, an outline of sorts. But then I realized it was kind of stupid. With so many social media platforms out there and with bloggers seemingly on every single one of…
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How to be a Blogging Mom Who Doesn’t Over Share
How much sharing is too much? This bounces around my head all the time. I have certain boundaries regarding my husband and children, though will shamelessly share everything about my cat. Recently, I found out one of my college classmates was this year’s commencement speaker at our alma mater. Since we graduated 9 years ago, she has become an insanely successful person (and she deserves every bit of it). But I also recently learned she became engaged to a longtime boyfriend her followers didn’t even know existed. Which makes me wonder: how much sharing is too much? Did she keep him private to give herself an oasis of privacy? Did…
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Father Fridays
Food will be taking a back seat this month. Here in the States we celebrate Father’s Day on the third Sunday in June. In honor of that, The Lily Cafe will be featuring a series of fatherhood posts written by The Husband, as well as a dad or more. Dads, if you’re interested in being featured, you are more than welcome! Please feel free to leave a comment or contact me through the Contact page. I’d love to feature you and how fatherhood has impacted you.
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Mother’s Day is About My Children
I have a fantastic mother. No, really. She’s amazing and wonderful and I want to be just like her. Growing up, I did my best to take care of my mom on Mother’s Day, to let her know I appreciated her. Whatever she wanted, my dad, siblings, and I did our best to give it to her. She was never demanding, but always asked for the things that were important to her. As a mom-to-be 4 years ago, I was looking forward to Mother’s Day. Of course, I knew my child was going to be young for a number of years and wouldn’t understand the day. But he would one…
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Let’s Talk About Cancer
Cancer affects all of us in some way. When I gave a lecture on cancer immunotherapy I posed this question to my audience: “how many of you are impacted directly or indirectly by cancer?” Nearly every person in the audience raised their hand. For this post I wanted to introduce myself to the community, at first by engaging in dialogue about the recent events involving school shootings. However, I decided to leave that for another conversation so I can research this topic further and truly provide a complete perspective. In the future, I hope to share ideas on a variety of subjects and areas including: politics, history, science, technology, anime,…
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Dreams
Melanie had never been one to inspire anger in anyone. She was kindness itself. Yet, that night when he went to bed beside her sleeping form, he was angry at her. And he didn’t know why. Uriel never became angry with Melanie. But he dreamed of anger, directed at her. * * * Melanie watched him fearfully as he examined an assortment of knives, daggers, and swords. Uriel had tied her down on the bed, the heavy rope nearly cutting off her circulation to her hands and feet. Then he turned to her, empty-handed. “Uriel—” “Quiet, Melanie,” he snarled as he slowly walked to the bed. He held out his…
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Raven, Chapter 2-b
Lady Nyana Almi sniffed and turned her head slightly, the flowers laced into her jet black hair wavering with the turn, as she caught sight of Lord Sarlik and his daughter. Beside her, her husband glanced at Lord Sarlik and then to his wife. It was Nyana’s family that had been enmeshed in the feud for generations; he had merely married into it. But he had quickly become a willing participant after Lord Sarlik had hospitalized his brother. “Pay them no mind, love,” Lord Emeri Almi said softly. “We knew that today was a pleasant day and much of the nobility would be out in the gardens. It was inevitable…
