Carry on, warrior Thoughts on life unarmed

Refreshingly frank, if somewhat gooey entries from a blog (monastery.com) offer advice on parenting and exhaustion to women trying to be tolerant Christians and helpful wives. Raising three kids in the Florida suburbs while wife to a software salesman, and part-time model (with perfect teeth), Melton shares her comments on life's adorable moments, such as letters of encouragement to her grade-school son, Chase, if he is being bullied for presumably being a homosexual, or reminders to herself to "quit chasing happiness long enough to notice it smiling right at [her]," yet tinged with some excoriating, revelatory, and self-forgiving details that raise the work out of the merely platitudinous. A self-described "recovering everything," that is, former alcoholic, bulimic, smoker, and ongoing shopaholic, Melton reveals some truly desperate moments of her life, such as a premarital pregnancy in 2002 that prompted her to get sober, an early abortion that has allowed her to be more accepting of others' failings, a "twisty, mapless" marriage that has proven ultimately sound and gratifying, a recent diagnosis of Lyme disease, and a six-year attempt to adopt a Guatemalan child that was rejected by the agencies because she and her husband were considered to be "too much of a risk." Writing, or as she calls it "living out loud," is for Melton a bracing therapy to chase away loneliness, learn humility, and banish the fears of revealing the less than flattering sides of herself. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

A wife and mother's reflections on being imperfect and loving it. When people from her church started telling blogger and momastery.com founder Melton that she and her family seemed so "perfect," she was dismayed. Rather than continue to let others believe that she led a trouble-free life, the author decided to become "a reckless truth-teller." In a memoir that is also an inspirational guide to daily living, Melton tells the story of how she learned to carry on through the inevitable trials of living "without armor and without weapons." For two decades, she writes, "I was lost to food and booze and bad love and drugs." Her problems with alcohol and drugs led to arrests, a criminal record and difficulties getting a job. Although she was happily married, Melton's relationship with her husband had begun as a result of "confusing sex with love, and [winding] up pregnant." Then one day she was diagnosed with Lyme disease. Melton credits a deep faith in God as well as strong connections with her family as being the cornerstones of her personal success. But as with everything else, learning to make those relationships work was a daily challenge. As a wife, Melton had to be willing to not only understand her husband's needs, but be honest about her own and find effective ways to communicate them. As a mother, she had to learn to forgive herself for allowing her anxieties "to pour out like gasoline on [the] raging fire" of her children's tantrums and other difficult behaviors. Only by living in a state of loving vulnerability would she be able to do what she desired most: touch others and be touched by them in return. Gentle words of wisdom from a woman driven by "senseless, relentless hope."]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.