Someone's Always Hungry

So I read another book about mommydom this weekend. It's called Somebody's Always Hungry and it's by Juliet Myfanwy Johnson. I loved the title immediately. The book is a series of essays, progressively dealing with life as a mom of small children. It's not an advice book per se, but I cheered when I read this:

"Then for the next two years ignore everything you read, everything people tell you. Trust your guts." I wish I'd read that when Ironflower was a newborn. Although it's not like I didn't need a reminder.

I also loved (though this look at my impending future also made me shudder) this quote about what your lungs feel like when you're very pregnant:

"In their natural state, the lungs are a comfortable yuppie gay couple living in a spacious loft apartment in Soho, and this baby is a three hundred pound redneck cousin who's come to visit. Naturally, they're devastated." Isn't that a fabulous description? I can practically see the overall-clad cousin sprawled on the Pottery Barn couch. My lungs are already shuddering in anticipation.

What is great about Johnson's essays is that they capture both the humor and the joy of being a mom. A lot of times it seems like writers focus on one or the other (and those people who claim that it's all joy all the time REALLY ANNOY me), but never really combine both. This book combines both so well that it reads just like a real diary of motherhood. There's a great bit where she talks about how happy it makes her when she discovers some new friends live in the exact kind of chaos and mess that she and her family live in. And isn't that the reason why a lot of us blog? To share our messiness?

Another thing I loved about the book is how it is so clear that she loves her children but she admits to yelling. That's a tough one for me to admit and it makes me feel better to know that loving mothers DO yell sometimes.

Reading Someone's Always Hungry made me appreciate what I have and giggle at the same time. I highly recommend it.