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Welcome to Arras Theme!
Arras Theme is a WordPress theme designed for news or review sites with lots of customisable features.
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Recent Posts
- Psaltery & Lyre’s New Site
- 123 Psaltery & Lyre: “Agricola Dreams of Flying” by J. Rose Lara
- 122 Psaltery & Lyre: “Communion: a love poem (a villanelle)” by Rachel Bollinger
- Book Review: Philip Metres’s Sand Opera
- 121 Psaltery & Lyre: Rachael Matthews, “Horsehead Nebula”
- Book Review: Monica Ong’s Silent Anatomies
- 120 Psaltery & Lyre: Rachael Matthews, “Return, pt. III” and “Gaia”
- Book Review: Claudia Rankine’s Don’t Let Me Be Lonely
- Book Review: Matthea Harvey, If the Tabloids Are True What Are You?
- Book Review: LoterÃa Cards and Fortune Poems: A Book of Lives
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Tag Cloud
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parenthood Archive
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Finding My Path to Motherhood
Posted on November 15, 2013 | 8 Comments–by Ginger C. Hanson, PhD As a genXer, growing up in an active LDS family, I struggled with the seemingly contradictory messages I heard about the role of women in society. My parents and church leaders encouraged me to pursue an education. The messages I […] -
Motherhood Is Not the Essense of my Personhood
Posted on May 11, 2013 | 26 CommentsDear Kennedy, Marin, and Stuart, Mother’s Day is tomorrow. Mother’s Day is not my favorite–for a whole host of reasons I’m quite sure y’all know about because I tend to not self-censor much with anyone. That includes y’all. I woke up this […] -
“Motherhood” in six short words
Posted on May 6, 2013 | 15 CommentsA few months ago, I was lucky enough to spend three blissful days reading, writing, walking, jogging, eating, and mostly gabbing for hours with four amazing women. (Before this weekend, I had never met these women in real life-only virtually–which kinda makes it one of […] -
Mormon Moms Meet Yale
Posted on May 4, 2013 | No CommentsFor the past few years, I’ve been a part of a wildly ambitious ward project that my friend, Lia Collings, spearheaded. It started out as a modest collection of essays, one that was doomed to remain un-read by anyone but our immediate families, and now […] -
Parenthood Juggle: We Co-Get-It-Done
Posted on April 12, 2013 | 4 CommentsWhen I was a young mother, a series of events occurred that changed my life. In 1995, a woman the same age as me became a widow. She had three children, roughly the same ages as mine. One day, her husband took a nap and […] -
Stages and Flexibility: My Communications Career Juggle
Posted on April 8, 2013 | No CommentsBefore becoming a mom, I spent three years in magazine editing and high-tech public relations. The birth and adoption of our first son coincided with a move across the country for my husband Glenn to begin doctoral studies. It made sense for me to stay […] -
Parenthood Juggle: Wanting it All
Posted on April 5, 2013 | 1 CommentI was intent on having career (not just job) options with my humanities degree, no matter what educational step I took next. -
Parenthood Juggle: Piano Lessons are Worth It
Posted on March 22, 2013 | 5 CommentsI didn’t yearn for a career. Sometimes it feels like-looking back-that I just fell into it. I was an excellent student in high school, but never felt like I knew what I wanted to do one day when I grew up. One […] -
Parenthood Juggle: Full-time mom/part-time rocket scientist?
Posted on March 6, 2013 | 3 CommentsOnly since September, when I participated in measuring the noise from a solid rocket motor, have I been able to claim the “rocket scientist” title, but it’s been almost 13 years since I got my Ph.D. in physics and watched my path to part-time physicist […] -
Parenthood Juggle: Musings on Gender Roles in Mormonism
Posted on February 8, 2013 | 4 CommentsSo if you're a stay at home dad, awesome. I salute you as a brother. If you're a full time, cookie baking, stay at home Mom with a Master's degree? Very cool. I love white chocolate with macadamia nut cookies. -
Parenthood Juggle: Figuring It Out As You Go Along
Posted on January 30, 2013 | 7 CommentsHow have we taken care of our little ones? The first year of my son's life was a complicated, sleep-deprived blur, and I'll spare you the details. -
Guest Post Invitation: The Parenthood Juggle
Posted on December 28, 2012 | 10 CommentsI want my daughters (and my son!) to be able to read about other women's struggles. How did they go about deciding what to do and when? -
20 Psaltery & Lyre: Joshua Lyons, Two Poems
Posted on October 18, 2012 | 1 Comment"I lay down in my bed, nobody / beside me tonight because / I have the boy." -
Babies and Grad School
Posted on October 3, 2012 | 16 CommentsToday’s guest post is written by Caitlin. My first week of grad school ended in an emotional break-down, not unlike one of an adolescent who came to a new school and had no friends. I sobbed to my husband that now that we left Utah […] -
21 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Half a Foot (or Church)
Posted on February 26, 2012 | 14 CommentsThe "nicer" men are about the patriarchal structure of the church, the more likely it is to be perpetuated. The best way for men to promote change in this context may be to act like authoritarian jerks. -
20 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Half a Church
Posted on February 19, 2012 | 60 CommentsI have brought my daughter, dressed up and nervous with anticipation, gift in hand, to a birthday party where the boys will decide what games to play and what the rules will be. . . -
Mind the Gap
Posted on February 1, 2012 | 20 CommentsI recently re-read Carol Lynn Pearson’s amazing No More Goodbyes: Circling the Wagons around Our Gay Loved Ones for the second time because a woman in my very-Mormon book club picked it for us to read. For me, it was at least as inspiring […] -
Roller Coaster
Posted on January 5, 2012 | 2 CommentsA year ago, I was living in a daze. I was spending most nights curled up against my 11 year old daughter's back as she lay on her side in her bed, willing her pain to dissipate, even hoping to absorb it myself. -
Santa and I
Posted on December 22, 2011 | 7 CommentsThe year I turned four or five, we drove to my grandparents in central Wisconsin for Christmas. Actually, we did this for most years of my early childhood- until I was 8 or so and we moved to Florida. Making the 1100 mile […] -
Bearing One Another’s Burdens
Posted on October 26, 2011 | 16 CommentsAnyone who knows me even the least little bit knows that I’m quite open and honest about my failings as a parent. The list is long. Embarrassingly long. Nothing about parenting has come naturally to me and I have not enjoyed much of it (ouch, […] -
Finding Peace
Posted on September 22, 2011 | 4 CommentsForgiveness. As babies and young children, we can’t help but forgive those that wrong us. We have no choice…. we are too dependent. But somehow along the path to adulthood (and independence) we lose that. Maybe rightly so- I think there […] -
Slipping through God’s Fingers
Posted on September 7, 2011 | 20 CommentsIn August, I underwent a 40-hour training to become a guardian ad litem or a “CASA” (court-appointed special advocate) for children in the foster care system. I was surprised to learn how many kids in our little town have been removed from their parents’ homes […] -
Crash Test
Posted on September 1, 2011 | 2 CommentsThe thought of any inexperienced driver in charge of a 4,000 pound machine makes me very nervous, but anticipating my own flesh-and-blood inexperienced driver sends me almost into a panic. -
We Are Pioneers
Posted on July 28, 2011 | 4 CommentsAs I was telling my Kindergartner earlier this month that we're all pioneers in some way. Whenever we stand up for what we believe in or do something because we know inside it's a good thing to do, we are pioneers. -
The Gluttonous Baby
Posted on July 21, 2011 | 10 CommentsFor as long as humans have made objects, there have been baby dolls. It’s an almost universal phenomenon that young children play with dolls. Especially if they have younger siblings or see babies being taken care of in their daily life, little […] -
Operation Stop Arm
Posted on July 15, 2011 | 4 CommentsMy neighbor Sheri and I watched motorists pass our children's school bus for years. We took video, called the police, reported tag numbers, complained to the public school department of transportation, pleaded with the PTA for attention to this matter. We were met with "there is nothing we can do" around every single corner. -
‘Men’ in the Dock
Posted on June 22, 2011 | 14 CommentsThis is a post about men. This is a post about women. No wait, this is a post about ‘men’. This is a post about the relationships between women and men, ‘men’ and ‘women’: in a time of war. Of course, the work of feminism […] -
Papa, Watch me Fly!
Posted on May 27, 2011 | 5 CommentsOn Sunday nights, we gather all the piles of clean laundry into the living room and fold it while watching a movie. The kids were not amused by my choice last Sunday: “Yentl” (now stream-able on Netflix!). They don’t like to watch “old” movies and […] -
The Illusion of Equality
Posted on May 22, 2011 | 21 CommentsToday, a guest post from Helen. I read a review of Rebecca Asher’s book the week it came out in print, and decided to order it straight away. One of the most exciting things was reading a book written right now, talking about things happening […] -
Parental Involvement: The Gold Standard
Posted on May 11, 2011 | 22 CommentsWe hold these truths to be self-evident-that all good parents are involved in their children’s education. They bring food (homemade . . . that goes without saying) to teacher appreciation breakfasts and lunches. They chaperone field trips. They watch very long spelling bees. They sit […] -
BUTT-erfly T-shirts for Mother’s Day
Posted on May 4, 2011 | 13 CommentsMy first child was born on January 5. The months between her birth and Mother’s Day were, um, let’s just say they were difficult. She cried all day long and into the night. We spent hours pacing the halls with her while she screamed, listening […] -
The Joys of Parenthood
Posted on April 27, 2011 | 33 CommentsWhy do we have such a hard time admitting to the realities of parenthood? This morning a dear friend of mine who has just given birth to her second baby posted a question on her Facebook page. She has another child who has just […] -
Fff… family
Posted on April 19, 2011 | No CommentsI just read this today and loved it: http://www.literarymama.com/columns/perfectlynormal/archives/2011/ffffamily.html A great reminder that not all families look alike (which clearly we should not need reminding) and that for some people, celebrations that revolve around families are not celebrations at all. -
Helping an Orphanage in Ethiopia
Posted on April 14, 2011 | No CommentsOne of my dearest and oldest friends (one of two friends without whom I would not have survived high school) and her husband are adopting two babies from Ethiopia. She recently sent me this email that I am sharing here: ; Hi Friends and Family– […] -
The Grass is Always Greener
Posted on April 13, 2011 | 12 CommentsI just got back from a fancy schmantzy conference for educational researchers in New Orleans. I submit proposals every year and hope to get one in-even though I know I’m out of my league. Whenever I’m lucky enough to get to go, I experience an […] -
Delousing the Kids
Posted on April 6, 2011 | 4 CommentsThis beautiful poem was written by my dear friend, Dayna Patterson, after patiently listening to me whine about our 2010 lice-capade. It will be published later this year in a chapbook called Mothering. Dayna has another chapbook that was published recently called Loose […] -
An Unlikely Prayer of Thanksgiving
Posted on April 6, 2011 | 9 CommentsLast summer, Brent and Stuart went to get a haircut. While there, the stylist discovered that Stuart had lice (gasp!). We soon discovered that Marin also had it (double gasp!). Kennedy managed to escape unscathed. From my perspective growing up, it seemed like the only […] -
My Own (not-so-little-anymore) Dancing Boy
Posted on March 23, 2011 | 5 CommentsMy son Stuart turned 8 in February and was baptized as a member of our church last Sunday. (Children typically get baptized when they turn 8 in the Mormon church, so he has been looking forward this. It’s something of a rite of passage.) […] -
“Do you want to end up living under a bridge?”
Posted on March 17, 2011 | 10 CommentsThis is, reportedly, what my daughter’s second grade teacher asked her class during a fit of frustration over their less-than-enthusiastic preparation for the looming standardized testing. Several other parents and I were concerned, but felt trapped in the status quo and didn’t really see […] -
Celebrating the Man As Well As His Cause
Posted on March 3, 2011 | 13 CommentsA guest post from a reader, Debra. Names matter. They do. My life experience has taught me this. Names are important as they are references — signs – that direct us to meaning, and often to a particular point in time – in history. In […] -
Black Swan
Posted on February 11, 2011 | 7 CommentsToday’s post is from a guest that we’ll call ‘White Cygnet’. I didn’t expect Black Swan to strike at my Mormon roots. I found the film both disturbing and moving (once I could calm down from its “thriller” effect), but surprisingly the part that spoke […] -
Forbidden Fruit
Posted on January 26, 2011 | 45 CommentsSo, I just finished reading an absolutely fascinating book called Forbidden Fruit: Sex and Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers by Mark Regnerus, a professor at University of Texas-Austin. The book focuses on how religiosity influences teenagers’ sexual attitudes and behaviors. (See the […] -
London Calling
Posted on January 1, 2011 | 18 Comments[UPDATED] I took a call from London at four this morning -- that's 11 AM London time. It was my fifteen year-old daughter in tears at having discovered that she and her roommate had slept through their alarm, gone unnoticed by chaperones and ultimately missed the coach ... -
Memories
Posted on December 16, 2010 | 4 CommentsA grateful resident presented me with a chocolate turkey, wrapped in beautiful multicolored foil. Then she looked around her room, reached over to her bedside table, and handed my brother a mushy brown banana. -
Care to join me for guitar practice, anyone?
Posted on November 10, 2010 | 8 CommentsBut when you have three kids who all have to be in three different places at the same time, the babysitter plus me still doesn't cut it. I often attempt to do way more things in a short period of time than is humanly possible -
Fei Hua (Chinese for “wasted words”)
Posted on October 27, 2010 | 15 CommentsI got to my office one morning and this cartoon was taped to my door: I knew right away who had put it there. It was Co-worker A, a man who shares many of my parenting frustrations. We often trade eye rolls about […] -
Keeping My Hand In
Posted on October 19, 2010 | 18 CommentsFour years on, I'm in a slump and I'm really just keeping my hand in. -
Urban Camping Part I
Posted on October 13, 2010 | 34 CommentsMy husband and I have tried lots of different divisions of parental responsibilities over almost 14 years. When we started out, he was a student and I was a teacher, so I was the primary breadwinner. He was responsible for getting Kennedy (our […]