My journey with the video for TV producers continued for another week before I posted it this morning. Even working with someone in the film industry, there were technical problems that created a buzz in the background of most of our footage and lighting problems with the rest. Since I’m editing in iMovie, I moved into the Mac store with a sleeping bag and a coffee maker yesterday. OK, not really. But I did spend 7 ½ hours between two Mac stores and a nearby Starbucks downloading, editing, and fixing the problems with my little promotional interview with the help of the wonderful trainers from Mac's One to One program. In the end, I think it’s fine, though it did raise interesting questions about what Quakers call [...]

Most of you know by now that I have a book coming out in two weeks on the Serenity Prayer. Some of you also know that I've had no child care since July, a situation that has been testing my own serenity of late. Rather than writing a long blog post about the spiritual lessons I've been given this week, I'll share the bloopers from my attempt to make a little video that my publicist can send to TV producers. I hope others find this as funny as our family did. So here's where I am now: 1. I've accepted that school doesn't start until Tuesday and resolved to have fun with the kids, despite all the book publicity work I could be doing; 2. [...]

For those of you in the Philadelphia area, Martha Kemper will be performing her moving one-woman piece "Me, Miss Krause, and Joan" at Abington Friends School on September 26. (Heads up for members of our meeting--we will be having a session with Vanessa Julye that night, so it will be a tough choice.) Proceeds will go to the Women's Center of Montgomery County and the Right Sharing Fund of Abington Friends Meeting (where Martha is a member). I saw Martha perform this autobiographical piece during the Philly Fringe Festival last year and was very impressed. It weaves together the story of Joan of Arc, whom Martha admires along with her acting teacher Alvina Krause, with the story of Martha's own journey to become an actress. I thought [...]

I went to see that hit chick flick Julie & Julia for the second time last night because my daughter was dying to see it and because I can never get enough of Meryl Streep. For those who don't know, it's the story of Julia Child in Paris when she first found that cooking was her passion, alternating with the story of Julie Powell in New York half a century later as she blogs her way through Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (which I can't help noticing is ranked #3 on amazon today). After months of struggle and frustration, Julie gets covered in the New York Times and receives a slew of phone messages from editors, clearly the break that lead to her book and subsequent [...]

I'm sitting on the beach of a beautiful Vermont lake, as my kids and hubby sleep. I don't hear the loons this morning, just the crashing of gentle waves. And here I am checking my email and blogging, since Internet comes in here intermittently and probably won't where we're going next. This vacation has shown me how hooked I've gotten on technology, though I justify my early morning email peeks with the fact that I have a book coming out and need to be in contact with my publicist. It's true that it's been helpful to be in touch, but I can't help suspecting that I'd be tempted, even if I didn't have that excuse. Limited Internet access is also clarifying how much unnecessary email [...]

The fracas over health care reform is making me think of George Lakoff’s book The Political Mind, which I reviewed a year ago. Lakoff discusses what he calls “privateering”—the privatization of previously public functions like education, prisons, and even security in Iraq—pointing out that government is accountable to the public in ways that corporations are not. The point seems relevant to our current debate since many Americans are afraid that health care reform will mean that government will get between them and their doctors, even though right now private insurance companies get between them and their doctors, a situation people seem to take for granted. (Some commentator made this point yesterday, but I can’t remember whom to credit.) We can vote out our elected officials if [...]

It’s that point in the summer. Camp is over, and my kids are sitting around arguing about whether Paul McCartney’s bare feet on the Abby Road cover prove that Paul is dead and that guy whose been collecting his royalties (and paying his alimony) all these years is just a big faker. By the way, did you know that you can listen to Beatles songs backwards on Youtube? That’s just one of the things I am learning from my ten-year-old these days.  It seems every August I write a blog post about how I feel called to both motherhood and writing, two callings that chafe quite a bit this time of year. This year the kids are quite a bit better at amusing themselves, though arguably, not [...]

I finally gave away my mother’s wedding dress a few weeks ago. When she died three and a half years ago, I didn’t linger over her possessions or procrastinate their disposal. She paid rent by the month, so there was an incentive to get going on the task, which fit my disposition anyway. After a year of caring for my mother, keeping vigil in her apartment during her waning hours, I was prepared to let go.

So, this is my inaugural blog post over here in the new digs. It’s been fun to see over four years of blog posts move with me. Skimming down the list I’ve realized that there are common themes that seem to repeat: children and consumerism; work/family balance (especially in the summer); simple living struggles. I found one that seems particularly timely, even though I wrote Pool Politics four years before a private pool in suburban Philadelphia made international news...