The shameless promotion of friends and family

Featured Pick
Advocacy
Birth and Infancy
Friends
Growing Children
Health
Shopping

The Daycare
The Nanny

We all take different paths in life, but no matter where we go, we take a little of each other everywhere. --Tim McGraw
  • Articles
    • Polish Girls and Irishmen by my cousin, Tim Bazzett is an article inspired by the book The Grasinski Girls by Mary Erdmans, another cousin of mine.   Tim's reflections on ethnicity, family and the career choice of "just a Mom" are near to my heart and I can't read this without a tear.

    • Morgan Gibson, our beloved friend, has generously given me permission to publish these poems here.   They have all been published in other places, but never before as a collection.   I hope in the future to have a place on the site that does more justice to his writing, but in the meantime, here they are in the pdf file as he sent them to me.

      Morgan Gibson was the lead-off poet in "The Signature of All Things," a Red Hen film of the Kenneth Rexroth Centenary Celebration at Beyond Baroque Poetry Center in Venice, California in December 2005.   His long "I-Thou Poem" for Kenneth Rexroth appears in the Jungle Crows Tokyo anthology and in the Chicago Review archives.   Gibson is the author of two books on Rexroth, two Buddhist books, and Speaking of Light and other books of poetry.   He was a columnist and a contributing editor of Kyoto Journal and a columnist for Printed Matter.   Gibson taught creative writing and modern literature for eleven years at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and literature and writing at other universities in America and Japan, where he has lived (currently in Yokohama) for over twenty years.   Thank you Morgan!

    • Ben Hansen, my husband, soulmate and friend. And writer.
    • My daughter, Elizabeth, wrote the poem The Women In My Life which speaks so eloquently about our friends and family that I proudly publish it here with her permission.   Thank you to all these women.

  • Books
    • My cousin Tim has written six books: Reed City Boy, Soldier Boy, Pinhead: A Love Story ,Love, War & Polio and Booklover.   These stories are told with that dry sense of humor and wry philosophy that the Bazzetts are known for.   They may be a little too frank or explicit for the more fragile reader, but for the rest of us they're hilarious, tear-jerking and insightful.   In the first book, you'll find my parent's wedding picture!   Tim's Mom, my Aunt Daisy, wrote an introduction to Soldier Boy that makes me wish she would write a book.   (I've heard rumors that she is!)   I have yet to read the newest release, but I'm sure I won't be disappointed.   For a sample of his writing, read Polish Girls and Irishmen.

    • The Grasinski Girls was written by Mary Patrice Erdmans whose Mom is my Mom's cousin.   The book is full of interviews with her mother and aunts, all of them relatives of mine, so you see why I had to put it on this page!   Mary explores the private lives of these white, working-class, Polish-American women in the post-World War II generation comparing them, at times, to our own postfeminist generation.   A wonderful insight into how gender, class, ethnicity, and religion shapes the choices we are given as well as the choices we make.  For a reflection on this book, read Polish Girls and Irishmen by Tim Bazzett.

    • The rest of my book recommendations can be found on my reviews page.   Check it out!
  • Websites
    • Ben Hansen's website, Bonkers Institute. In the interest of full disclosure I must admit that I am the woman behind that man.
    • My brother-in-law, emerson matabele is an artist with a camera who has a soul and spirit as deep and wide as the oceans he travels to create his images.   We are blessed with one he gifted us with in our entry way and it cheers us all in our comings and goings.   His pictures are worth more than any other words I can write, so click on the link and check him out.

    • Laura's Recipes is a food blog by one of the Moms from our own daycare family!   That means that not only are the recipes yummy, but they're practical too, since she's busy raising kids and holding down a full time job.   Not only that, but she inserts her funny, down-to-earth comments on food and family that make you feel like you're laughing and chatting with her around the kitchen table with a cup of tea.   Thanks so much Laura!

    • New Pages is the website of my sister Denise and her husband Casey Hill.   It's a dense resource of news, information and guides to independent bookstores, independent publishers, literary magazines, alternative periodicals, independent record labels and alternative newsweeklies.   Though aimed primarily at the literary world, even if you're not a writer or a reader (I've heard there are such people...) you'll still find interesting musical recommendations here as well as books and periodicals that are off the beaten path; the most interesting kind.   My favorite part of the site is the blog which used to be just snippets from other sites or magazines; now it often has a bit of editorial comment as well, usually by Denise who always is worth listening to.

    • My good old buddy from way back in high school days, Bruce Peterson, is still a rabble rouser and has a the Peace and Justice Radio website to prove it.   There are few people that I admire as much as Bruce for his unrelenting passion for fighting the good fight with such peaceful, mindful humility on this earth.   Brace yourself, and then check him out.

    • Poet's Night Out     The best community poetry contest ever.   Made possible by our local library and a small group of amazing people.

Holiness comes wrapped in the ordinary.
There are burning bushes all around you.
--Macrina Wiederkehr
© 2022 Christine Bazzett