An Introduction

I am Kim Thompson Hamer, not Kimberly Thompson Hamer, but Kim. My parents gave my two sisters and I one syllable names. They didn’t want anyone knick naming us. So everyone did. I have been called Hamer, Hammer, and Kimmy. I have yet to thank my parents for that decision. Lately I will answer to momma, honey and if said in a sing songy tone, hey you.

My Childhood was spent…running up and down a hill sledding, door bell ditch playing, lady who gave out butterscotch candy, no car driving, big back yards street with 32 houses, and 24 kids. I was never bored

I have had the mumps, measles, and other childhood illnesses, but we are not sure if I have ever had the chicken pox.

I got through childhood with only 16 stitches and 1 broken bone, my leg. I learned to use my cast as a weapon 3 days before I got it off. I was 4 years old. Apparently they were really long days.

One time my dad taught my sisters and I how to punch. Soon after our lessons, I punched a boy for making my sister cry. My youngest sister punched a boy for making me cry. My middle sister punched me. My dad was proud of all the punching.


In search of myself....
I have biked 3,421 miles across the country. I have backpacked through the Colorado Rockies and walked, trained and hitchhiked 2, 649 miles across East Africa. Oh and I have been to Europe, twice…once on a bike.

I had giardia, which you get from drinking untreated water and have contracted a weird illness in Uganda that my grandmother still takes about.

I was once an EMT (think ambulance). I have given CPR, and saved 4 lives. I have delivered a baby on a bathroom floor and I have watched a 16 year old go from alert and scared slide quietly and quickly into death.

In search of myself, I have lost myself. I became a bulimic. I ran away from home, not returning for a year. I tried to commit suicide.

I was too short to be a fashion model….I thank God for that everyday.

Then one day, I stepped out of my own way....
and met my husband who proposed to me, in a quaint New England town square under a fire yellow orange big leaf maple tree and my response to his proposal was was “Are you sure about this?”

Only one of my children was born in a hospital. Two were born, at home…on purpose. My nick name is Mama because a mom takes care of her own children, a Mama takes care of all the children.

I have been hospitalized for post partum depression and, yes, I thank God for the experience too.

My car has a bike rack and a surf rack on it that gets used…..often.

I do not own a minivan and will not go quietly into the night driving one. Even though, I know once I own one, I will wonder why I didn't get one sooner.

I have gotten mad enough at my children that I have thrown a sock out of the window of a moving car, squirted them in my frustration with a water bottle and said some of those things the experts say you're never supposed to say to your children. I am here to claim all that in my motherness, and to let you all know that I know you moms have done that too and…..we have not been struck dead.

We have two saving funds for each of our children. One for education, and one for psycho therapy. I make a lot of mistakes as a mother.

I talk very quickly when I am excited.

I write.

I swim, bike and run all in one race. Once I was a homeschooling, triathlete mother. But now I am just a triathlete mother.

I am afraid of not living my dreams, so I read them to myself ever day.

I am one year old…in the journey into a life without a parent.

I will work at staying married until I die. I do not want to die anytime soon.

I can change the oil, spark plugs, battery and the tires on my car, but I let the mechanic do it so he can earn money.

At the age of 41, I finally like my body!

I laugh loudly.

My children’s names are Langston, Pallas and Ezra…two were named for the writers and one for the Goddess of Wisdom. They have no middle names because they have hyphenated last names and I didn’t want anyone to knick name them. I am sure they will thank me for this one day.