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Book Review of The Gift of an Ordinary Day: A Mother's Memoir

The Gift of an Ordinary Day: A Mother's Memoir
reviewed on


I really enjoyed this book. It is a memoir of a mother whose 2 boys are entering highschool and college at the same time that she decides that the family needs to live in a more rural area instead of the suburbs.
There are a few themes going on in the book, one is her struggle to assert her own needs and direction in life, even though if affects her whole family greatly. Another theme is her struggle to deal with her children trying to find their independence and becoming moody teenagers. A third theme is things that remind her to be grateful for her life-- such as friends who get sick. She wants to be a good mom, but she also wants to do what she feels pulled to do in her own life. I"m not a mom yet, and I found this struggle interesting and instructive to read about.
Her path is a little bit alternative-- she and her husband sell their suburban house to endure years of transitory time in between houses, and that decision is a little hard to understand. But I guess we all have moments where we wish something was different in our lives and struggle to figure out how to address it. The way she talks about how important the idea of "home" is to her helped me shape what my ideal home would be.
I didn't always identify with her, and I question some of the things that she left out of the book (she hardly ever mentions her husband), yet I really appreciate that she continually tries to grow and remind herself to be thankful for the things that she has every day.