Thank you so much to Rachel Turiel of 6512 and Growing for hosting day 9 of the Use Your Words virtual book tour. I first discovered her blog after we both posted as part of the March of Dimes’ Fight for Preemies fall campaign, and I felt an immediate affinity with Rachel as a fellow preemie mom.

Please check out her lovely post about Use Your Words and why she writes through motherhood. A teaser:

Giving my stories a voice frees me from being buried by them, helps me to unravel deeper meanings, and allows me to press pause on the fast-moving train that is our lives.

Rachel is smart and talented (and in more ways than you can imagine: she grows things, butchers things, and climbs things, to name a few). And I love what Rachel says about why she blogs:

This is why. My friend Amy, also a mother, made the observation that in pre-child life when an intense period of time occurred (travels, beginnings, a slice of life so poignant you could eat it), there was inevitably an end to that period, after which reflection and insight came rushing in like a toddler who’s just discovered running. In parenting there is no end (we hope most fervently), just more, of everything. Those fleeting gems like how at 4 years old Col called robins “red belly breast birds” (you’d think “robin” would be simpler) or how Rose at 2 explained that she can’t see out the tall window because she’s “too big” will collapse under the scaffolding of tomorrow’s story titled: how Col wore three dresses and ran around the garden begging to pull carrots. So, my efforts to slow the fast moving train long enough to see precisely how the morning sun glints off the sooty smokestack, is this blog.

Being able to share our stories helps free me from being buried by them, and reminds me that although it sometimes feels like life (and the chaos of children) is happening to me, really it’s just life happening.

This is the story of how Col and Rose kept me and Dan from climbing Sheep Mountain, but instead showed us the meadow voles scurrying around our campsite.

Please stop over to 6512 and Growing and leave a comment (or write a 600-word essay) for your chance to win a copy of the book and be entered into the contest for grand prize.