At Bodies in Motivation, I'm ripping my heart out and wearing it on my sleeve today. If you go over to read, go easy in the comments, would you? It's not a hard thing to share, really, as it's no surprise to anyone who has spent any amount of time with me, but it's still not a carnival ride to remind people I'm a flawed girl with a hard past. My eating disorder is the giant elephant in the room I've been avoiding since I started chronicling my weight-loss goals post-baby (10 lbs lost so far, which isn't a whole helluva lot, but I'll still take it). I don't like avoiding awkward topic points, though, so I wanted to finally address it. It's probably why I over share, so I won't ever be accused of holding back.
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In other blogging news, I'm working on getting something new up and running, and it's monopolizing a lot of my free time, so I haven't been able to update my "Post of the Day" sidebar feature as much lately. I bookmark a lot of blog posts throughout the week, though, so here's a few you should go read:
She Just Walks Around With It's really awesome post on breastfeeding. I know we collectively decided that breastfeeding isn't all that controversial a topic -- you do what's best for you and yours, the end -- but Kristy makes some great points in her post, and I enjoyed reading it a lot. Thought you might, too.
Mommy Melee's "Tribes" post. I found this site when the whole Dooce/Maytag insanity hit the Twitter fan. I thought her comments on the whole messy subject were so full of grace and well-articulated, I decided I liked her before I saw how ridiculously cute her two boys are. This post, about needing help raising our children, is so good and spot-on. We can't do it alone, we shouldn't have to do it alone. It takes a village, and that doesn't make a single one of us incapable or weak. It makes us a community.
Sweet Juniper's "Chypre." My words won't do this post a bit of justice. So, here's a passage:
"They fall in love with every new city, every town they see on this trip
through upstate New York and Vermont. The impetuousness that brought
them to the west coast and back still tempts them to try new lives. She
starts crying in Middlebury, Vermont, as it hits her that one day she
will see her kids off to college. One day they will be gone, he thinks.
Someday again it will just be her and me.
Some men see women
like these two see towns. They see possibilities in each. They wonder
what ifs. But when he sees other women, he can only wonder how lucky he
was to find this one when he did."
God, I hope everyone alive is loved like that by someone.
Kristin's "Scenes from a Drink." Kristin is making a pledge to give up drinking, and I was inspired by her desire to lead a healthier and happier life. Since becoming a mom, I have felt the grip of stress tighten around me like never before, especially with all I have to juggle each day. I find myself wanting a glass of wine or champagne or a frosty beer at the end of a hard day more often than before, and there's nothing really wrong with that, but I also want to deal with my stresses without the help of alcohol. I want to curb my intake because I think it's important my son always gets the best version of me, and I think it's important that I'm consistently checked into my life. Not that there isn't a time and a place for champagne in my life, but I think many of us could probably cut back on the fatty foods we eat, the stiff drinks we drink and the amount of reality TV we watch, you know?
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I took down my old blog roll recently because it was gathering dust, and I was adding a lot of really cool, talented men and women to my regular reads list without adding them to my links list. So, I'm updating, and fixing some gross oversights (html is a real bitch, and somehow links were wrong and some of my favorite reads were just plain missing). But, I'd love to know who your favorite reads are. Who am I missing. Whose words have changed your day lately?