Caroline Mitchell Carrico

37

Here’s a bit of honesty for you: I don’t like being pregnant. There’s this weird pressure to be in good spirits (which is impossible to be at all times no matter the state of your uterus), deny the anxiety of impending childbirth (which really hurts) and be ok with people who are not medical professionalsContinue reading “37”

2016 in books, January

For all but the last weekend of this month, it was too cold to be outside. However, it was perfect to lay my hugely pregnant self down on a couch, cover up with a blanket and escape into books. Tenth of December: Stories by George Saunders My LibraryThing secret Santa sent me this book, which arrivedContinue reading “2016 in books, January”

2 years

I have a loving, smart, funny 2-year-old. 2-year-old. Which means that somehow two years have passed since my kid came into this world. He loves to read. In fact, he loves it so much that we had to make it a rule to only read him a book one time each day. Otherwise, we’d spendContinue reading “2 years”

2015 in Books, December

In an unsurprising (to me) turn of events, I’m not reading as much these days. I’m in my third trimester, and everything, including reading, takes more effort. Any moment when I’m not building block towers, at the museum, supervising crayon time or cooking meals, I try to sleep. My girl is growing fast, making herContinue reading “2015 in Books, December”

A year’s worth of books

By my rough count, I’ve read 63 books this year, not including the countless number of kids books I read aloud. It’s a respectable number–nowhere near my peak, but not too shabby when I take into account everything else that happened in 2015, which notably includes raising a toddler and growing a baby. Part of theContinue reading “A year’s worth of books”

Faces

Have you ever watched a toddler’s face? There is nothing guarded or held back. Emotions play out in all their ferocity and quickly flicker back and forth. Anger turns to elation when the blocks finally stay stacked. Happiness becomes sorrow when a loved one leaves the room. My favorite toddler face is a mixture ofContinue reading “Faces”

Another season of waiting

As I sit here drinking my coffee, ignoring the plaintive cries of my toddler for a few more minutes, two candles are glowing in the background. I wrote last year about my love of Advent, a feeling that gets stronger each year. This season I find myself waiting for many things–my students to turn inContinue reading “Another season of waiting”

2015 in Books, November

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann Fantastically good writing. Honestly, when I read the blurb on the back of the book I wondered how anyone could write a novel based on a man walking between the World Trade Centers on a tightrope. The plot was not what I was expecting, but it was expertlyContinue reading “2015 in Books, November”

Sister Suffragette

Originally posted on The Pink Palace Family of Museums:
A major political battle that took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was the fight over women’s right to vote. In Memphis, Martha Elizabeth Moore Allen was one of the city’s most prominent suffragettes. She was born in in 1851 in Plymouth, Indiana,…

Showing up

Sometimes all you can do is show up. There are not words to heal a broken heart or replace what was lost too soon. You cannot fix the unfixable or fill the hole that is left. All you can do is be there and listen. And say it sucks. And ask for stories that tellContinue reading “Showing up”