Summing up the lessons of 2004, (continued from previous post)
June: Grappled head-on with whatever underlying discontent I might have had in being "just a housewife." Struggled valiantly to find a framework or storyline that coherently explained the causes of my discontent. Succeeded in attributing it to many historical factors. Moved on.
Discovered Gladys “being domestic need not ruin your life” Taber in an old bookstore. Became a member of the Friends of Gladys Taber.
July: Relieved to find out I was just young enough to slip under the gauntlet of the New Momism. Read book review by Zelda Bronstein who puts the work of the new feminism so eloquently: "the job remains to be done. Two jobs, actually--recovering the work that makes the earth a home and recovering the feminism that respects such work and the people who do it".
Feel solidarity with other women who just “get it”, like Barbara Ehrenreich, not Cailtlin Flanagan, (who makes a good living knocking down straw women). Begin study of Pearl S. Buck’s non-fiction.
August: Saw an Ikea store for the first time; think people are in love more with the idea of the little playhouse size show-houses, and the fact that they seem well-cared for, than they are with the actual products. Manage to find way out of store.
September: Kipp starts kindergarten. The deluge hits. Other mothers offer much sympathy and advice. Revisit the “house with for rooms” proverb (one of my own personal favorite blog posts). Rearrange home office, sit on the floor and read The Women’s Room. Decide I was not mis-educated at all—just ended up with many practical gaps, that’s all. Anyway, realize the happy humming house is only possible via the happy humming mind.
October: Defend “those dreadful mommy blogs”; cook, read, blog, work—happily, before that fateful November day.
November: The private peace and happiness I sustained for the brief month of October suddenly just isn’t enough. Pearl S. Buck’s rousing reprimands in Of Men and Women swiftly kick me in the rear, towards greater social and political conscious. On a personal level, become preoccupied with planning for life after the work of raising small child is over. Prepare adequate feast for Thanksgiving (brine first turkey!). Begin to feel, in the wake of this election, very uneasy about racism and the evil that results from viewing people only as racial groups rather than individual human beings.
December:
Realize that the texture of daily life grounds and sustains us, even in times of emotional and political upheaval. Keep my hands busy, making school lunches, tending to Kipp’s daily needs, preparing for the holidays. Read The Quotidian Diaries by Kathleen Norris which elucidates the power of both religious and domestic ritual to vanquish spiritual torpor. Order Jil Ker Conway’s memoirs from alibris.com.
Further food for thought is on the way. . .
8:45:38 PM 
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