Because it's good to get away for a bit, and because I'm still feeling the postparty crash, and because I don't want to end up a runaway mom, I had to get out of the house yesterday. Alone. So I packed the computer and a notebook and headed to the bookstore.I perused the magazines and grabbed a copy of Writer's Digest because Anne Lamott is on the cover and Mothering. The interview with Lamott is brief, about her return to writing fiction. Her best advice for writers is still to write sh*tty first drafts and to write every day, the same advice she wrote about some seventeen years ago in Bird by Bird.
Mothering has a lengthy article on cloth diapering, one I'd recommend to anyone who is thinking about cloth diapering in the future. It's quite comprehensive and takes up about twenty pages. It's followed by another article on Elimination Communication (or How to Teach Your Infant to Use the Potty). The gist is you figure out when your child is "eliminating", make a cue noise like psssss, and hold the kid over the toilet. It's Pavlovian baby training, and it makes a lot of sense. Still, it's weird.
After grabbing a coffee, I flipped open my computer and read this chapter from The Artist's Way. The book is about unlocking your creativity and it's predicated on two things: morning pages (handwriting three pages first thing every morning -- no filter, just writing) and artist dates with yourself. It's really simple and it's supposed to give your inner artist a chance to play. If you're a creative type, you should give it a glance.
Through my new obsession I learned that it's 'Roid Week on Flickr. In order to participate you have to have an actual instant film camera, not just an app on your smartphone, so I'm out. But I did a quick peek on eBay to see how much Polaroid cameras cost, and they are cheap! The kicker is that the film is expensive (because they didn't make it for a while, though I think that's not true anymore). After telling Adam, he said his parents might still have their old Polaroid and maybe I could have it. Um, yes, please.In the meantime, my Droid will have to do.
2 comments:
OK, so many things. First, I always love Anne Lamott. Second, I was JUST reading that cloth diapering article in Mothering over my lunch break, and third, a good friend waved The Artist Way in front of me last night and said I had to read it immediately. So I have a lot in common with this post :) Glad you got some time away - I imagine it was so refreshing for a mom of a 1 yr old!
I love this. Who knew we'd get our hands on these at the same time? I need to get my hands on The Artist's Way. After you read it, would you please let me know if I should buy it? I'm interested to hear your thoughts.
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