Check Out My Essay "Four Times is a Charm" at Mothering Heights

2nd Annual Mother's Day Online Anthology
A Sweet Treat for you and me !

Below are wondeful essays written by Moms that were invited to be a part of the Online Anthology. Please enjoy and don't forget to leave the author a note (just click on comment) in the area below her essay.






Entries by Title
Click on an entry title below to view the full text of that entry.
"A Short Course in Motherhood" by Cheryl Levi
"A Short Season" by Janine Boldrin
"An Ode to Ignorance: What I am Glad I didn't Know" by Cindy Morgan
"As Mothers, Can We Give Too Much?" by Donna Sullivan
"Because I'm the Mom" by Lisa Romeo
"Chasing Wishes" by Renée Y. Mercier
"Depression Tinged with Joy" by Liza Tobin
"Experiential Learning 101" by Mary Ann Ebner
"Four Times is a Charm" by Liza Marchant
"Hard Work and All" by Jennifer Martino
"If I Knew – Reflections of a New Mother" by Carly Miller
"If Only" by Ashley Jene Hartung
"Instructions" by Nicole Quinn
"It's Just Not About Them" by Tracee Sioux
"Journey to Perfection" by Myriah C. Boudreaux
"Metamorphosis" by Meenu Gupta
"Milo" by Elizabeth Whitemore
"My Time Has Come" by Tami Parker
"Never Normal Again" by Francine Weinberg Graff
"Notes and Candy Bars" by Ann L. Dunnewold
"Oh, the Mistakes I Would Make" by Louise Orlando
"Ordinary Mom" by Sarah Kelly
"Our Wonderful Time Vampire" by Hyacynth Filippi Worth
"Perfect" by Stephanie Snowe
"Right or Wrong Daisy" by Liz Santucci
"Sucker" by Amy Yelin
"The Essence of the Job of Motherhood" by Angie Donnelson
"The First Time Around" by Jessica Haney
"The Great Exchange” by Marcy Hello
"The Secret" by Edie Landis
"Untitled" by Lisa Hein
"Wearing the Ruby Slippers" by Cara McLauchlan
"Well Done" by Sharon Carvalho
"What I Know Now as a Mom that I Wished I had Known Before Giving Birth" by Sally Atwell Williams
"What do I know now that I wish I knew before I gave birth?" by Stephanie Cismoski
"Why I hate my husband" by Whitney Cicero

Announcing "The Mothering Heights Manual for Motherhood, Volume 1"

Real Moms Write about Motherhood in Debut Collection

"If motherhood did come with a manual, this would be it.” -Coast Kids Magazine

LAGUNA BEACH, CA, APR. 26 – The Mothering Heights Manual for Motherhood, Volume 1: What we wish we knew before we became a (short order cook, shuttle driver, laundress) Mother, a hilarious and poignant collection of essays on motherhood, debuts next month in time for Mother’s Day and summer reading. The book is a culmination of the 2nd Annual Mother’s Day Essay Contest held by Christine Fugate, the popular writer of the Mothering Heights column and blog. Twenty-nine essays and four poems were chosen from over one hundred entries from Israel, Germany, Australia, and thirty U.S. states. “I wanted this to be a celebration of motherhood – and for readers to laugh,” says Fugate, editor of Manual for Motherhood. “But some of the essays were so powerful, they had to be included. While we moms need to laugh, we can also use a good cry.” The essays and poems offer stories, contemplations and advice about what it means to be a mother. Highlights include the mommy drive-by, not making meatloaf, and parenting with a coffee can. Serious topics such as finding an adoptive child’s birth mother, raising a child with Down syndrome and recovering from post-partum depression are also featured. Among the contributors are Us Weekly’s film critic Thelma Adams and novelists Patti Callahan Henry and Patty Friedmann. Fugate, a film and television Producer, is excited to also include writers who have never been published. “I started writing my column in an attempt to understand motherhood. I wanted to publish women who are not professional writers –they write because they want to make sense of motherhood.” Additional essays submitted to the essay contest are featured online in a Mother’s Day Anthology at MotheringHeights.net.The Mothering Heights Manual for Motherhood, Volume 1: What we wish we knew before we became a short order cook, shuttle driver, laundress Mother, edited by Christine Fugate (trade paperback, $12.95 Mothering Heights Press, 2008) will be available May 11th at MotheringHeights.net and June 15th at Amazon.com and bookstores.

Cool Map of Catalina Course: Thanks to Fellow Marathoner "Jake"

Manic on Monday

Well, I survived Spring Break number one (my son, Sam's spring break from Montessori school) and I have one week with my three older children in school before Spring break number two (public school vacation for my two daughters)!!!! What's a mother of four to do with that time? Good question. I know the obvious answers... Drive. Cook. Clean. What I really need to do is Read. Run. Write. Reading being priority, because one of my book clubs is meeting tomorrow, April Fool's Day, and I will look like an April Fool if I can not participate in the discussion..... Of course I had ample time over the weekend to read the book, but instead I chose to slip into my OCD behavior and play Sudoku for hours in the evening, while my husband had a meltdown over a cable glitch that made it impossible for him to see the end of the latest episode of John Adams on HBO. Of course, I probably didn't help matters any by reminding him that "it was not the end of the world, and that the epsiode would be available on HBO On Demand by Monday...." But he wanted it then!!!! And I question my kids demanding behavior????

Okay, so today, I will not play Sudoku, I will read a "A Thousand Days in Venice" and will run and attempt to write. Wait, I am writing now, does that count? I better get going, because I have three kids to pick up from three different schools, a communion class, a confirmation class and dinner and homework and whatever else needs to be accomplished this evening and I have less than 30 hours to not look like an April Fool. Oh, shoot, "The Riches" is on tonight too and I still haven't watched the first two episodes of the season which are on my computer waiting to be viewed and our cable problem better be fixed or I will be the one crying about not having an episode NOW! READ. RUN. WRITE. No, I better RUN. READ. WRITE. Oh, I will do the best I can!

My Book Club Dilemma

I am now looking at the stack of unread books on my nightstand asking myself, why did I sign myself up for two book clubs if I can't seem to read the books? Last month I got lucky and one of the book clubs I belong to chose a book I read a few years ago, but aside from that, I have yet to read any of the assigned books, hence the growing stack of books next to my bed and on my dresser. Now I am questioning whether I am against assigned reading, which probably dates back to my school days and wondering, do I quit the book clubs or find a way to overcome my inability to read assigned material? How do I get over my book club dilemma? I mean, I really wanted to read "Eat, Pray, Love" when I saw it at Costco last year, but when it was assigned for both of my book clubs I never got past page 29. I enjoyed the 29 pages I read, but somehow, couldn't finish reading it..... Wait! Maybe this has nothing to do with assigned reading, but another problem. Maybe the issue is time? Maybe I don't have the time to read because I am too busy training for marathons, writing a novel and being a mother, which is the reason I joined the book clubs in the first place: to have a night off once in awhile. Now I just need to find a way to read the books.

On the Path to Victory!

I have considered all of the possibilities... I don't like 5k's. The race is too short and too fast for me. I am in it for the long haul. I have found my race. The marathon. Just as I have concluded with my writing, I am not meant to be a essayist, but a novelist. I have also concluded, I like creative freedom, to write what I want, when I want. Give me a topic and I shut down. I become ambivalent. I want to protest. I love creative control. Heck, I'll get write, I mean right down to it... I am a control freak. But lately it seems that I have settled as a finisher.... not a loser, not a winner, but a finisher. I have finished the tasks I have set out to do, but not won the race or contest. Now its my time. I have decided as of today, I will not be a settler. I will not just settle as a "finisher," but will strive to be the winner that I know I can be. I know what I must do. I need to push myself beyond my own self imposed limitations in order to finish my big race. I now know this, I can make 26.2 miles just as I can write 400 pages....that my fictional life is much more exciting than my Mother Lode on motherhood..... so now I am off on my own course, my path to victory!

It's Time to Rock 'N' Roll- In Preparation for My Next Marathon

It has been ten days since the Catalina marathon. I have had ten days of rest (with the exception of the ten hours I spent last week at Disney's California Adventure.) I am fighting the end of a four week cold, but my body is telling me I need to RUN. I am feeling this nervous energy that can only be attributed to my lack of movement. Now that I have completed 26.2 miles on one of the countries toughest courses, I want more! I want to be in better shape and be ready to "Rock 'N' Roll" down in San Diego on June 1st....... Time to start training. Time to run!