Mind Body Mama: Honest Scrap

My writing teacher Kate Hopper has done me a tremendous honor by passing on the Honest Scrap Award. According to Kate, “The Honest Scrap Award is given to blogs that are found brilliant in content or design.” Thank you, Kate, for my very first blog award!

All you mama-writers out there—yes, I mean you Liesl and you too, Sarahvision—I recommend that you invest in yourself and take a chance on Kate’s amazing online writing class. Bookmark her site and keep an eye out for the next session.

Now, to pass on the Honest Scrap award.

If Kate hadn’t done it first, I would bestow this award on Carrie Pomeroy’s Play School. Carrie is an interesting person leading a spiritual life—just what I aspire to be! And she writes about it beautifully. Her blog is ostensibly about homeschooling but I think it is, above all, a meditation on mindful parenting.

Erin White of Hatched by Two Chicks claims we’ve met, but I must beg her indulgence at not remembering: I was pregnant at the time. On her blog, she chronicles life as a lesbian mama in one of our local hill towns. Her prose is delicate and breathtaking.

I’ve wanted to throw an award at Kara of Mama Sweat since created the term Kegel Fartlek. This woman has four kids under five and she blogs about her fitness routine. In my experience, most mamas of little ones struggle to have a fitness routine, let alone inspire others. Kara is also a terrific writer. Her interview with prenatal fitness expert Catherine Cram (written the week her son was born, I believe) and her childbirth workout post are must reads for any expectant mama.

Honest Scrap carries a meme requirement (or request, depending upon how you see it)—recipients must share ten true things about themselves. I like to think I don’t need to be cajoled into honesty on this blog (I did tell you all about my underwear a few weeks ago) but I like to follow rules. So here’s my ten:

1. I grew up in a blue collar family in one of the wealthiest counties in the nation.
2. My father is one of the smartest people I have ever met.
3. I am constantly surprised that I live with anyone, let alone a lover, a child, and an evil cat.
4. A good way to make me very, very angry is to throw a ball anywhere near me and expect me to catch or retrieve it.
5. I have many skills and strengths but have had difficulty spinning them into employment for which I am fairly remunerated.
6. Knitting makes me tense.
7. I love box-bottom folders, Pierce Brothers coffee, and mystery novels.
8. I once registered for a poetry workshop with the writer Katha Pollitt and she annoyed me so much on the first day that I switched into someone else’s workshop. The someone else turned out not to be nearly so famous or memorable. Now when I read Pollitt’s smart, progressive, important essays I wonder: was she really that annoying, or was I just 19 and crazy?
9. I have a passion for radio. As a child I listened to Mystery Theater in bed at night and I have stronger memories of the Star Wars radio program than the movies. I listened to them with my father.
10. I am a good, plain cook.