Julie Pippert: Using My Words

That's it, folks. I've hit the big 35 lbs gone. I was going to celebrate by flashing briefly a photo of myself from the fashion show---preferably in the gold sparkly suit (so not me)---but my friend keeps citing "work" and "busy" as reasons for not emailing me the photos she took. Yes, so busy we had time for a two and a half hour lunch yesterday. ;) To assuage your disappointment, I will instead flash a brief series of photos of the kids from Easter. Before the photos, I need to provide a confession, a caveat, and a note. One confession: I forgot my camera and so my mom used hers for all the photos---this is a problem for everyone because it meant my inner bossy control freak kept annoying us all. One caveat: My children hate the camera, HATE it, and ABHOR being photographed. Every single photo in which they look at the camera involved a bribe. Suffice it to say that unlike in years past when I confiscate all candy, they got to keep all candy. One note: The...

I often wonder where the line between avaricious gossip and news reporting falls. If it falls at all. In high school I was an editor for the school paper, features as it happens. This was the best job ever. Not only did it look good on college applications, include fabulous experience, and get me straight into J-school at a prestigious university but it was also loads of fun and very glamorous. Our newspaper teacher took the newspaper very seriously. The side benefit was that Mr. G decided that even though we were teenagers, we would learn to run with the big dogs. He got us press passes and invites to real Media Events. For example, I went to movie screenings and got interviews with real Movie Stars. We covered not just school events, but community and real news, too. Back then, you typed stories on a typewriter, sent them off to the typesetter, who sent back long, wound reels of copy. As an editor, I not only handed out assignments, ran many myself, and reviewed articles, I also did ...

Remember to always be the ideal mom! Success is indicated by the docile, well-behaved child holding steady and ready at mom's calm and in-control side. Her Bad Mother and Mothergoosemouse were talking about this whole " all moms go to Heaven " deal. This will probably be a big fat newsflash: I am no saint. If you ask me, I am more likely to say I am consigned to the fires of hell than to the pleasures of heaven. This is because---if you ask me again---I'm likely to be far more critical than forgiving of myself as a mother. I have confessed that I: * yell at my kids * frequently lose the upper hand * often feel inferior to the task And that's just in the last month. Seriously. If I am really honest, I probably am near or in tears at least once a week. You try raising special kids. You know, the ones who have teachers who speak of them using A Tone. And lots of Euphemisms Oh, wait. Your kids are special too? Sorry. I got caught in my own whirlpool of self-centered...

I'm back in town and haven't had Internet access since last Friday, which was surprisingly fine (although I'm sure it will hit me once I start surfing and see how much I missed). I realize I've had the same post ( oh! the horrors! ) up boring you all for days and days. So, considering that, then admitting I've only got a bunch of uncompleted drafts and nothing at all final, but wanting something fresh and new, I give you visual DNA. Thanks to OmegaMom who tuned me into this. Read my VisualDNA ™ Get your own VisualDNA™ Also...I got some really interesting comments about the justice and forgiveness question Mary gave me in the interview. Would anybody be interested in selecting a specific day or week and posting in a roudtable about justice, forgiveness, how they work together, which is more essential, etc? Let me know! P.S. If I owe you a reply here or via email I will be in touch soon, I promise. :) copyright 2007 Julie Pippert

There will be no weigh-in today. It is pointless. The blood loss is counteracted by the water retention. TMI? Too bad. ;) So instead I'll talk about my kids. The very best thing about my kids The best thing about my kids is that they will continue playing around and on my body when it collapses on the floor of the playroom after day that basically went: 4 hours sleep + early morning meeting regarding large fundraiser this month + late morning meeting regarding fundraiser this month + playground time with kids + vacuum, tidy and clean house + mow lawn + laundry + review re-re-re-designed book + entertain children + stuff dozens of eggs for egg hunt in morning + deliver eggs + run errand to drug store, bookstore, pet store + buy birthday present for birthday party tomorrow + wrap present + bank + balance bank account + look wistfully at unresponded to comments on blog....and sheesh I feel too tired to go on. And that was my deal at about 4 p.m. between "mow lawn and shower"...

I'm not known for being a quiet, laid-back, well-behaved person. In general, this is a source of great conflict for me. On the one hand, people like me bring about necessary revolutions. On the other hand, people like me cause revolutions. I'm not a peaceful person in a perpetual state of grace. This morning, nine other mothers and I sat and knotted rosaries at a friend's request. We took a twenty foot length of twine and twisting it around our finger, created 10 Hail Mary knots (also known as a decade) with one larger Our Father in between. You're to create five decades, which you then bring together into a center piece with one more Our Father knot and a crucifix. As with any act I perform, I required exact, precise instructions about how to create this rosary perfectly. What is the exact distance between Hail Marys and the exact extra distance to the Our Father? How do you keep the three loop from sliding and becoming a lump instead of a neat knot? How do you end up...

I award this: to Good Times by Gwen at Woman on the Verge because it blurred through so many complex issues so eloquently and intriguingly, I kept going back for days to read, re-read, ponder, and consider. If you haven't read it, do. If you still aren't convinced: beginning with a brief "book group" like discussion of The Poisonwood Bible , Gwen outdoes Kingsolver with her own, personal essay about being raised abroad as the daughter of missionaries. I didn't even wait for the Perfect Post call. Before I even commented, I sent the link to MommaK. Thanks to MommaK and Lindsay for the Perfect Posts. *************************************************************************************** After my Confessions of a Not-so-Fatty McFat on Friday, Bones put the screw to me with this question: I want to point out a double standard, and then ask whose double standard it is. I'm honestly not sure. It is so perfectly okay for boys to have a big ass and a Buddha belly...

There's nothing a good nosey rosey (like me) enjoys as much as an interview. The past couple of weeks I've been reading and loving the many different interviews on my favorite blogs. And, as always, what goes around comes around. The fabulous Mary of Life, the Universe, and Everything sent me some interview questions to answer. Let's see if I can be half as interesting as everyone else. :) Actually, let's see if a long-winded overthinker (like me) can even come up with an answer. ;) Looking back, what do you think was your greatest intellectual influence? This is a sort of chicken/egg question for me. I think my nature is to be supremely curious, always. As long as I can remember, I've had a driving need to know. Everyone around me caught on to this, and that I also was graced with enough intelligence to understand (most of) the information in front of me. This meant I got the smart label, and it became very important to me to fulfill that label. So the major thing...

Every Spring my local women's club---social, yes, but also charitable and very down-to-earth by which I mean "shares appreciation for wine and dancing on tables"---has a fashion show. The local chi-chi boutique chips in and outfits models who parade about one of our tonier member's magazine-worthy home, around a pool or lakeside. The models are us. Yes, that's what I said. Every year I model in a little fashion show. You get to go to this chi-chi boutique where you select clothes that look good on you with a personal fashion expert advising. Like "What Not to Wear," only slightly nicer. Yes, only slightly. And no free money. Just a 20% off coupon. 20% off still doesn't buy me a t-shirt on clearance, by the way. But oh I love those clothes. My appointment with the professional is on Monday. The assistant called yesterday to get some information about me. Here's what you should know about me: if I was a gorgeous black woman, Tyra Banks and I could ...

Slowly but surely wins the race, right? I hope the rest of Lotta's Future MILF's are doing well. Yesterday I posted about bullying . (By the way, comments remain open. So feel free to write out your thoughts if you want.) Lisa Stone wrote today in support of PBS Teachers learning now's Andy Carvin who declared today Stop Cyberbullying Day . (Thanks for the heads-up on that, Elisa.) Also, today, Amy Goodman interviewed Professor Philip Zimbardo, an expert on bullying and victimization (to say the least) and author of a new book, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil . It's interesting how things flow together, or how you see/find/hear things when you are aware of them My post yesterday wasn't a coincidence. It had been on my mind for about two weeks, and then a variety of different events motivated me to finally post my thoughts. It's been fascinating to hear thoughts and opinions, heartbreaking and troubling to read others' stories, a...