kissing the frog: Around the Pond with the Frog~Weeks ending 11/24/13

November is almost over, and I gotta say, I'm getting tired of Christmas already. It's so sad that it is jammed down our throats earlier and earlier every year. I was having lunch with one of my best friends, whose birthday frequently falls on Thanksgiving. She was saying how much she loves Thanksgiving because it's all about family and friends and eating. Amen.

I keep having dreams about Joey. I think it's because I haven't really worked on my book very much. I do have about 20,000 words - it's just that they are not put together in any sort of semblance that a reader could follow. It's been harder than I thought, bringing up all those old memories and things I haven't thought about for three years. But, I know I owe it to him and to the rest of my family.

My first print article came out in a local magazine this week, which was super exciting (of course, I found a typo in it which drives me NUTS!). It was an article about keeping pets safe in winter, and the feature photo was a little striped cat. Regular readers and friends will know that Joey's favorite stuffed animal was a stripey kitten. The irony of that being the photo on my first real freelance article does not escape me. Without Joey, I wouldn't be writing,

Here's what I wrote:

This list of depression fighting tips after doing a bit of soul searching.
I talked about the problems with the family bed.
I partnered with some other inspirational mamas to create a free e-book on JOY! Go get yours.
I talked about how sometimes I feel like my mothering is just one long epic fail.
I invited another mama to share her grief story of losing her daughter to cancer.

Stuff I loved from other bloggers:

This from Brenna at Suburban Snapshots. We're all doing it, the best we know how.
This ode to best friends at In the Powder Room.
These amazing gift guides put together by the savvy and smart Anna of My Life and Kids.
This general silliness about Thanksgiving by Kristi of Finding Ninee.

It's a big shopping week next week! If you don't want to go anywhere, please consider checking out Amazon.com through the ad on my sidebar. ModCloth, a super cute retro site that I love (in the pic below I'm wearing a ModCloth tunic), is having 50% off sales all weekend. As an affiliate, I get a portion of the sales.