Doing more, having more, except more space.

I need help sorting out my stuff.

I have too many books and Matilda wants me to get rid of some. I have collections of books about maternal feminism, books about literature, novels I've read, novels (classics) I haven't read,  poetry books, art books, other non-fiction books, a box of plays, and the children have books - novels and non-fiction and picture books. Since I've been studying this time around I have been accumulating books on education, and gathering books that will help me teach English and Drama. Since I've had the storytelling job I've been gathering books about storytelling using puppets and props. I've been using the picture books to inspire the storytelling job as well. And I've been using fabrics that I've kept stored for years. For my playgroup job I've been using the kids' cds that I've bought over the years. And for uni I've been using everything - artbooks, music, poetry. So, you see, it's hard to decide what to get rid of.

I want to do more of my own creative work too. I know that having the stuff around doesn't necessarily mean living more creatively, eg the barely used piano. It just means living in mess.

So, what books should I let go of? Everything that you could get from the library? Everything that is available digitally, even though we have no digital reading devices?

That's another thing I need to review. I've never had a mobile phone. The kids have never had a DS or an ipod. We don't have ipads, or e-readers anything like that. There are lots of reasons why (don't need other bills to pay, we don't need them, the way they are made - the sourcing of the elements and the worker's conditions, we don't want to do things just because everyone else is (lets talk to children about peer pressure; adults aren't exempt), the fact that when everyone was getting mobile phones I had my hands full dealing with little children and didn't have anyone to call anyway. Clancy likes that I don't have a mobile phone because she sees many mums on their phones ignoring their kids and sees this as sad for their relationships. There have been times we've sat down in a waiting room and each pulled out a book to read, and the people around us have been shocked. That shouldn't be so remarkable.

But another reason is that these devices would just be lost in the mess of our house.

I'm wondering at what point is not having these things kind of oppositional and obstructive. When every day of one week someone says to me 'I'll text you', or 'text me', and I say, 'Sorry, I can't'? So far, at times when a mobile phone would have been handy, I've just asked people for help (broken down car) and people have helped me. Most other times I see people using them it isn't for emergencies ('I'm just leaving Central station.' 'Do you want the blue one or the green?'). I've never heard anyone give instructions for an emergency tracheotomy using a mobile phone. But I do wonder if I might be more involved with my siblings and friends if I had a mobile, and I need to get on top of apps as learning tools, because technology is supposed to be embedded in all learning at schools now.

Also, it's time to fix up the children's bedroom. Matilda is starting high school next year and needs her own desk. She likes order and shares her room with two messy sisters. The girls have been saying that our house (old, rented, cracking walls and peeling paint) isn't as orderly and functional as the houses of their friends. True. They're wondering why we are the only family they know who have mismatched chairs at the dining table. Our furnishings have been pieced together with all the care of a student share house. They want some design elements. (Damn you, Grand Designs and renovation tv shows!) They'd like an anteroom to keep their bags and shoes and hats - that's not going to happen. Time to get a loft bed with a desk underneath, but we'd better paint the room first. That's a big job for us.

What to do? All advice welcome and seriously considered.

Advocacy and Agency

I have received a notice about an upcoming conference by MIRCI in Toronto on Motherhood Activism, Advocacy, Agency. I receive these kinds of notices quite frequently. The reason I want to share this one is because I was struck by the range of titles the speakers at the conference have written. And by the kind of work women are doing - advocacy work that is important. I'm finding it reassuring and inspiring that women are doing this work. So here is the list of Confirmed Keynote Speakers:

Cindy Sheehan, Peace and Social Justice Advocate

Gayle Brandeis, National Staff, CODEPINK: Women for Peace

Tara Brettholtz, President, Mothers and More

Deborah Byrd, Lafayette College, co-editor of Teaching Against the Isms

Cheli English-Figaro, President Emerita of Mocha Moms, Inc.

Rachel Epstein, Coordinator, Sherbourne Health Centre's LGBTQ Parenting Network

Robbie Davis-Floyd, University of Texas, Austin, author of Birth as an American Rite of Passage

Ariel Gore, founding editor of Hip Mama

Fiona J. Green, University of Winnipeg, author of Feminist Mothering in Theory and Practice, 1985-1995

Diana Gustafson, Memorial University, author of Unbecoming Mothers

Pat Gowens, founder of Welfare Warriors, editor of Mother Warriors Voice.

Erika Horwitz, author of Mothers' Resistance to the Western Dominant Discourse on Mothering

Amber Kinser, East Tennessee State University, author of Motherhood and Feminism

Jeanette Corbiere Lavell, President, Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC)

D. Memee Lavell-Harvard, President, Ontario Native Women's Association (ONWA)

D. Lynn O'Brien Hallstein, Boston University, author of White Feminists and Contemporary Maternity

Andrea O'Reilly, York University, Founder/Director, MIRCI

Karen Shain, Policy Director, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children

Wow. So, on International Women's Day, I want to say thankyou to all the women who are doing this kind of work.

And to all the people who work in agencies that provide microloans, train community health workers, dig wells, distribute mosquito nets and other work in developing countries - thankyou.

I'll end with some quotes distributed by MIRCI on International Women's Day.


"[Mama]...maintained traditional family values and still worked toward change. I have come to realize that I can be a mother, educator, wife, feminist - each identity not exclusive of the other but impacting on each other and on my development as a woman."
- Karen Diaz, Author



"Empower women and you will see a decrease in poverty, illiteracy, disease and violence."
- Michaelle Jean, Journalist; Stateswoman



"Feminism's agenda is basic: It asks that women not be forced to 'choose' between public justice and private happiness."

- Susan Faludi, Journalist; Author



"A free race cannot be born of slave mothers."

- Margaret Sanger, Nurse; Activist


For facts and figures about gender inequality, click here:

http://www.unicef.org/gender/index_factsandfigures.html