Two times in a row Medium rewarded me with a bonus for my engaging stories. In April I received the $500 and in May $50. And there are other inspiring writers on this wonderful platform such as Tom Handy or Rajesh Vairapandian Kristina Segarra Liv Mello and Joanna Henderson who received $50, $100 — or even got $500 (again).

Top 1,000 Writers in April

Medium explained that the stories of the ‘Top 1,000 writers’ in April made an impact, therefore they were rewarded with a ‘onetime bonus for high member engagement’.

Still, the second wave of bonuses left a lot of writers scratching their heads…

My husband does all the cooking. He does it better. That’s the reason he does the cooking and I’m very thankful for it.

But in the eyes of my monster-in-law, I’m the one supposed to cook and my husband is a ‘poor thing’ incapable of using a saucepan. He shouldn’t ‘cook’ in the kitchen but ‘man’ the BBQ.

Maybe I should stand up and say to her:

‘I see your point. We have the vagina. Therefore we do the cooking, cleaning and everything else. They have the penis so they work, earn the money, sometimes ‘assist’ us and take the…

Early on in the pandemic last spring, our next-door neighbor told me in the hallway that she thought she and her husband were either going to divorce or become alcoholics. My neighbor is a mom of two. She has two daughters. One was about two years old at that time. The big one was six. A school-age child and a very young child who went to the crèche.

Four people in a small apartment

It had just been announced in the media that children were a particularly high risk and could be asymptomatic carriers of the virus. It was recommended to refrain from contact with grandparents…

Aloha! I’m Kristina God.

Yes, it’s my real name! As an employee at Maui Airport stated, ‘apparently God is from Germany and she’s a woman.’😉

My life’s motto is: ‘In love with inspiring stories’💕, since my writing journey started early in my childhood. As soon as I could hold a pencil, I started writing short stories.

As an adult, I’ve fueled my creative hunger by studying journalism, comms, and marketing. I became a consultant, and later on, worked as a Brand Manager.

A few months ago, my husband recommended a Medium story. Immediately I fell in love with the inspiring community and I said to myself: Let’s give it a try.

Since I’m multi-passionate and play many roles, I write about parenting, love, life, & storytelling✍️.

Thanks for making my words a part of your day!

Sleep is healthy for your brain. It can wash toxins that can lead to Alzheimer’s from your brain cells. Recent research from Boston University states that we really need sleep in order to keep our brains healthy.

What happens if we sleep with interruptions? Then your brain doesn’t get a car wash. It becomes full to the brim with toxins and if we don’t get enough shut-eye we never get them washed away.

As a new mother, I’ve experienced a lot of restless nights of sleep. In fact around 90% of mothers report getting less than eight hours of sleep…

My most successful story in regard to claps (2.5k) so far is about a bug. A software bug.

When Medium updated their software for the Medium App in May, a software error made it possible to clap more than 50 times.

Meanwhile, the bug has been fixed (I informed Medium’s engineering team about the funny faux pax) but the new version which you can see on your mobile device is still buggy.

I’m planning to write a new article about it. Something like ‘Bug Busters’ similar to ‘Myth Busters’ or ‘Ghost Busters’.

In case you find some software bugs, let…

As Kristina Segarra wrote about the second bonus wave, I’m also very grateful for being one of the top 2,000 writers on Medium. $500 is a big deal and definitely makes writing for Medium worthwhile — besides it being worthwhile because I enjoy it.

For the amount of money I received in May ($50) converted into euros (because I’m from Germany) minus taxes, I can buy my son a pack of swim diapers for our summer holidays. 😋 Yeah!

Now there are surely one or the other among us who will ask themselves again, why not me? …

In the early days of motherhood, out of the blue, I started to have high blood pressure and a racing pulse. I called the doctor and he said it may be hormones playing tricks on me. Although I still was in the postpartum period, I couldn’t believe this was the ‘real’ reason why my pulse was so high.

My baby was around three months old at this time, still in the stage where he was waking up every second hour and needed nursing back to sleep. …