MamaManagement

We'll start with full disclosure: I love Rainbow Rowell. I just do. Technically, I don't know her. But after reading 3 of her novels, I kinda feel like I do. Regardless, I adore her. So, now that that's out in the open...   Carry On is Rainbow Rowell's newest YA book. She took a brief departure from YA with Landline (which I haven't read yet), but she's back. And not only is she back to YA, but she pulled two characters from her previous book, Fangirl, (loved it!) and wrote a book about them. What makes this even more interesting is that the characters she pulled from her book Fangirl , were actually characters in a book in Fangirl . As Rowell puts it, Carry On is "inspired by fictional fan fiction of a fictional series." Seriously. But this part is only interesting if you've read Fangirl . And you should, too...but you don't need to to enjoy Carry On . Here's my favorite description of the book: Carry On is a ghost story, ...

I have not been posting much lately on MamaManagement. Not that anyone really noticed. But I've been feeling a bit...uninspired...in the blog post arena, of late. And it isn't going to get any better because I'm about to launch into the busiest month of writing there is: November. That's right, folks, t-minus 9 days and counting until the big kick-off of National Novel Writing Month 2015!! I am super psyched for NaNoWriMo! And a little bit scared. This will be my third year participating. And, hopefully, my second year finishing! If you're not familiar with NaNoWriMo, here's the basic premise: Write a novel in one month. Well, sort of. The objective is to write like a maniac and finish 50,000 words in 30 days. That's 1667 words per day. Sound tough? Yeah, well, it's not as easy as it sounds. 50,000 words will get you a solid shorter novel or the beginnings of an epic. Last year I wrote two shorter early grade children's novels which ...

It's October 2nd and everyone is planning their fall activities...I know I am! So I thought I'd re-share last year's post on Family Outings for the Fall. We'll be doing all of these again this year...including the Family 5k tomorrow morning (and it's supposed to rain again!). What are you planning for this beautiful time of year??? Yesterday morning I awoke to a very cold house. Then I walked to my daughter's bus stop thinking, seriously, it's freezing out here...where are my gloves?!?! I came home and looked at the calendar and was shocked to find that it was, in fact, October. When did that happen??? (I know, about a week ago.) Looks like it's time to turn the heat on. Looks like it's time to get out the warm coats. Looks like it's time to finalize the Halloween costumes. And, it looks like it's time to fill the calendar with fun fall outings! (Woot!) We got things rolling this weekend, with our first Fall Family Activity: a 5k c...

This post is going out to all of the tired moms out there. Because I am one of those tired moms this week. I was wallowing in my own little puddle of misery this morning. Feeling tired and overwhelmed and lonely and blue. (My husband is traveling all week, our new puppy is high maintenance, the puppy and the kids keep getting me up all night long so I'm getting no sleep, etc...) Then I thought I'd add a layer of guilt to that by reminding myself how lucky I am and how charmed my life is and how I have no business whatsoever feeling any of these things because, comparatively, I live on Easy Street. Then I added a layer of failure on top of the guilt because I'm "supposed" to be living in the moment and being mindful and if I was being mindful I wouldn't be dwelling on all of this junk and I'd feel better. Then I remembered that I'm not "supposed" to be having "supposed to" thoughts, because it's irrational, unhealthy t...

This book should be read by every mother and her teenage daughter. Moms will remember what it's like to be a teenage girl, and daughters will get just a tiny glimpse into the minefield of motherhood...how easy it is to do everything all wrong when you're trying so hard to do everything right. This book reminded me that if we can all always approach everyone we encounter with the idea that they're probably doing the very best they can with what they've got to work with at that very moment...well, life will be a little easier and we'll all be lovelier people. This book took me back to being a young woman...to being young and in love, and oh so naive about love and boys...a nativity of the heart that never really went away...I just simply got lucky and eventually found the right guy.  But, oh, the heartache every time it wasn't the right guy. Oh, the heartache. This book made me feel (remember) the amazing purity, the clarity of true friendship. The factu...

Is it bad that I like the KidzBop versions of a lot of today's popular songs better than the originals? Not so much the vocals, but the lyrics. I realized this yesterday when driving around with my kids listening to the Kidzbop station on SiriusXM. I caught that moment in a song where they've noticeably changed the words. And I felt...relieved to not hear whatever degrading line had been altered...and not just because my kids were in the car. I realized that I didn't want to hear that junk either. And that realization got me thinking, and then asking: Does liking KidzBop versions of some songs better than the originals mean that I've lost my edge? Or does it mean that I've wizened to the impact of the words we spout freely to the rhythm of fun dance music. As I see it, the beauty of KidzBop is that they remove the misogyny without removing the fun dance beat. As I get older I find myself offended and disappointed on a regular basis by the lyrics in popular...

I've been a little off my game here on the blog lately. I think it's been the end of summer/beginning of the school year switch-over that's had me out of whack. No time to write. But honestly, I haven't known what to write about either. I'm not much of a planner on here. I tend to just write about whatever is on my mind at the moment. And I guess I didn't think you'd have much interest in hearing about summer's last hurrahs and back to school shopping and fall activity/schedule planning. But, there's always space in my world to talk about books...even if I don't have new absolute-must-reads to share. So, today I thought I'd share with you what I've been reading lately and give you a little peek into what's up next in the TBR pile on my nightstand. So here we go... What I've Been Reading: The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton This one was a loaner from my mother. I can't say that I loved the book. Though I didn't hate it ...