This Is Childhood

Summer: long ago & some writing

One month ago today I picked Grace ad Whit up from sleepaway camp and turned 40.  It feels like that was a hundred years ago!  Today I just want to highlight a few writing- and web-related things that happened over the summer and recently.

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This is Childhood, the book that Brain Child magazine published from our series about the various ages of childhood, is on sale this week for 40% off.  It’s just $6!  What a great birthday or holiday gift … just an idea.  I’m thrilled that my piece, This is Ten, an excerpt from the book (spoiler alert: it’s the end of the book) is on the site today and the link to purchase the book is easily available there.  I hope you will consider it!

 

photoI published Navigating by the Stars on Medium, a site I’ve come to really admire and respect.  For those who think I don’t write about Matt enough, here’s a rare example of a story all him.  It talks about our experience, a few months after we met, climbing Kilimanjaro.  I am proud of this piece and hope you like it.

 

photo(1)I was thrilled when Tabitha of Team Studer profiled me as one of her Moms Next Door.  Her interview, which includes a lot of pictures, is here.

 

 

 

Also: are you on Instagram?  I love it and even when I wasn’t writing here I was sharing photos there.  Please come find me!

This is Childhood: NINE

Today Denise from Universal Grit considers NINE.  She words made me giggle (Taylor Swift is on repeat around here, too) and they also made me cry.  We are coming to the end of This is Childhood and we are now (with eight last week, now nine, and next week, ten) firmly in the land where I live.  And it is so poignant as to be, sometimes, unbearable.

Please read Denise’s lambent words about nine-ness.  Comments are closed here, but I’d love to hear what you think of what Denise has written.  I love every word.

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This is Childhood: EIGHT

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Amanda Magee is one of my favorite writers.  Her work regularly brings me to both tears and that kind of head-shaking, vigorous-nodding reaction that says someone is inside my own head.  Today she writes about eight, and, well … wow.  I’ve got an eight year old still.  With eight, This is Childhood enters the realm of where I live – the end of early childhood.  And Amanda’s words are predictably gorgeous.  Comments are closed here, but please visit Amanda’s site, read what she says about eight, and share your thoughts.

 

You can see all of the other This is Childhood posts so far here.

This is childhood: SEVEN

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I have had two seven-year-olds.  And I will never have one again.  Tracy Morrison’s gorgeous words about this unique, complicated, effusive age made me cry (well, okay, every single This is Childhood piece has made me cry).

She giggles as she pulls away slightly and says “I’ve decided that I’ll never be too old to love you.”

I gasped when I read this in Tracy’s piece, recognizing the affectionate seven-year-old soul and also knowing the precipice of self-consciousness that lies ahead.  Please read Tracy Morrison on seven.  For those of you who haven’t had a seven year old yet, there is so much to look forward to.  And for those of you for whom, like me, seven is in the past, I guarantee that this piece will pull on your heart.

This is childhood: SIX

Bethany Meyer, whose writing about mothering, both hilarious and deeply touching, is a new find for me, beautifully tackles SIX in this week’s installment of This is Childhood.

Please click over to read Bethany’s words, which had me in tears from the mention of lost teeth and abandoned training wheels all the way to the end, with its heartfelt, Gangnam Style farewell.  You won’t be sorry.

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