sunday

sunday
Originally uploaded by khollean.

sunday, after church, we went over to our gutted building and used the main entrance for the first time in a long time - since June 2005, at least.

I'm glad you were born

from the writer's almanac:

It's the birthday of novelist and poet Margaret Atwood, born in Ottawa, Ontario (1939). Her father was an entomologist who spent every year from April to November studying insects at a forestry research station in northern Quebec. Atwood said, "At the age of six months, I was carried into the woods in a packsack, and this landscape became my hometown." She had no access to television or movies, and few children to play with. So she spent all her time exploring the woods and reading.

She only began to attend full-time school in Toronto when she was 11 years old. She wrote, "I was now faced with real life, in the form of other little girls—their prudery and snobbery, their Byzantine social life based on whispering and vicious gossip, and an inability to pick up earthworms without wriggling all over and making mewing noises like a kitten."

Atwood decided she wanted to be a writer at a time when there was almost no such thing as Canadian literature. There was actually a year in the early 1960s when a total of only five Canadian novels were published in the whole country. Her first novel, The Edible Woman, came out in 1969. The Handmaid's Tale became an international best-seller in 1985.

no wonder Cat's Eye rings so painfully true.

meanwhile, it's a good day. perfect weather and excellent yard saling: I got some big clunky brown clogs with buckles, 2 pair of zippered ankle boots, 2 pair of jeans that fit, assorted nice tops, an old point bar ballcap, 2 mini metal lunchboxes (1 boris & natasha, 1 monopoly), and the kids bought a 3rd rock from the sun video. I also bought a stack of books at the library sale.

right now the kids are howling with laughter at john lithgow.

Support the Latino Health Outreach Project in New Orleans

Healthcare providers working with LHOP yesterday morning were seeing patients dressed only in t-shirts and jeans, with inadequate socks. They are asking for donations of jackets, sweatshirts, mittens, gloves, hats and wool socks, with the request that all socks be bought new. Donations for LHOP can be sent to
the Common Ground Health Clinic at 1400 Teche Street, New Orleans, LA, 70114

time

as I turned my calendar pages over this morning, I realized that it's time! time to make the calendar. so, people, mothers, fathers, partners, kids, friends & allies, send me your best stuff, by December 1, to the mama calendar coleen murphy PO box 741655 new orleans, LA 70174 coleen@bust.com
calendars will be available on or around December 20, 2006, for $12 a piece, payable by check, cash, money order or paypal. advance orders are what make the calendar project possible. ask about wholesale pricing for orders of ten or more.
here is what the cover of the 2006 edition looked like:

the mama calendar is a community building-consciousness raising resource by, of, about and for progressive, feminist, activist mothers and their families, friends & allies everywhere. it is a celebration and a call to action, a thing of beauty to last the year.
edited by coleen murphy, the calendar features photos of mamas, babies, children, dads, and friends, as well as a guide to mama-made zines, alternative parenting resources, recipes, recipes for revolution, great dates in radical mama herstory, and the work of numerous artist/activist/mamas. recent editions have featured ayun halliday, victoria law, laurel dykstra, sonja smith, trula breckenridge and heather cushman-dowdee, among others.
check back here periodically for the latest information on next year's edition.