Writing about nutrition

I've just posted a follow-up to a conference call Agriculture Secretary Vilsack had last week with mommy bloggers. It's important, if a little frustrating, to get more involved with issues of policy.

Read the long version at my blog, Crunchy-Chewy Mama.

Read a shorter version with a little more attitude in my column at the Washington Times Communities.

"Getting there" with writing

I may have been a little sick, but at least I got a submission off to the Moving Words Poetry Competition. After having had a computer crash and loss of a lot of pieces about 6 months ago, I was pleased to find three (well, two that were written and one that got quickly re-written) poems that addressed this year's contest theme of "getting there." Even if I see nothing from the submission (I was an honorable mention two years ago), I am just so glad I didn't miss this deadline. And that I found three poems I can perhaps send out.

I also revised a short story that I started over three years ago to submit to my New Years Resolution writing workshop to discuss tomorrow. And I've started talking with some folks about upgrading my blogs and, more importantly, finally getting myself a writer's site, the absence of which has held me back from submitting some essays I would really like to send out. I've also been avoiding working too hard to ready poetry submissions because of I don't have myname.com. I own the domain; I just have to do something with it!

There is still a ways to go to build up the writing presence that I wish I'd started working on before I became a mom, but it feels good to hit a few personal deadlines.

Now back to that freelance architecture writing...

Time for mom?

I guess time management experts consider my time writing this to be part of my 30 hours of weekly "leisure time," so I'll keep it short. Brigid Schulte has written about this elusive free time concept with regard to moms in the Washington Post Magazine. Definitely interesting stuff. Better stop multitasking and actually listen to my husband.

Why family around can make Mama's life easier

See my recent post, "Ill Take a Village. Please." at DC Metro Moms Blog about missing the extra hands that helped entertain my son over the holidays.

At least this week he was back to school and re-started a Spanish class, which gives me half day of help on Thursday and keeps me from entering the weekend totally depleted and ready to hand the boy over to Daddy for 48 hours.

Writing opportunities

Here are some submission deadlines I want to keep track of:

January 10 - Parenthood anthology - http://cityworkspress.org/submit.html
City Works Press seeks poetry, fiction, prose and art on motherhood and/or fatherhood for our upcoming anthology. Give us your moments of sublime joy as well your dark nights of the soul. Talk about birth, nursing, relationships, adoption, same-sex parenting, high tech conception loss, etc. Tell us what it means NOT to have children. Limit 2,500 words for fiction/prose or 4 poems. Please attach a short bio.

January 22 - Moving Words Poetry Competition - http://www.arlingtonarts.org/cultural-affairs/moving-words/moving-words-poetry-competition.aspx
Poets who live within the DC Metro transit zone* are invited to submit up to 3 poems for the MOVING WORDS Poetry Competition. This year’s competition calls for poems that address the theme “Getting There.” Poems must be 10 lines or less, including stanza breaks (but not including the title).

January 31 - Hot Mammas case study - http://www.hotmommasproject.org/faqs.aspx
The 1000 to 1500-word main body of the case has the following primary sections:
1. Introduction
2. Background with emphasis on “aha” leadership moment
3. Primary professional issue/challenge/learning
4. Primary personal personal/family/life challenge

February 26 - Bethesda Literary Festival Essay Contest - http://www.bethesda.org/specialevents/litfest/EssayFlyer-Interactive.pdf
What is your approach to life? Reveal your personal philosophy. Essays should be limited to 500 words or less.

Startting 2010 as a writer

A friend sent me this piece by Ann Patchett that is inspiring but daunting. Can I commit to a daily writing practice for 32 days, starting tomorrow. And if I do, will it stick? What if I can't sleep at 2 a.m. and so getting up early to write means I'm going to be a total mess later in the day? What if I get up early but so does my son, but not my husband?

With all these variables I shudder to think about actually trying to control, I think I will just try to work on the approach to the writing. To seriously spend 20 minutes just writing, not for a blog, not revision, and not with any audience in mind. That doesn't mean I can't also do other productive writing at other times in the day. I need to! But let's try to get acquainted with the process as a meditative, intentional and undistracted act.

Happy new year!

The million-dollar question

During our week home sick together, my son did a lot of whining and a lot of snuggling. But he also came up with plenty of interesting things to say, including this question he asked of me while I was peeing:

"When are you going to get a penis?"

My response about that he would, sadly, not be growing a uterus any sooner than I would be growing a penis did not, I'm afraid, appear to satisfy.