The Daily Grind of a Work @ Home Mom...

Facebook Etiquette a la Daily Grind

It has to be done.  I mean, someone needs to step-up to the plate and let people know what the proper etiquette is if you're going to join the 200 million+ and use Facebook.  Have you had an account for years?  This post is for you too. ;)

• Friending every single person you've ever known, and/or every single person you meet, is cheesy.  Take it from me.  Just because I met you once in passing does not mean I want to see pictures of your dog and kids nor does it mean I want you to have access to my innermost status updates.
• If I didn't like you then, I'm not gonna like you now.  It's possible that we're both on FB.  In fact, it's likely.  But if we had no great love for each other back then, one swift click of the mouse is not going to change that.  Let's be honest with ourselves and skip it.
• Maybe we did like each other back then, so please do Friend me!  But if we haven't had contact in 20 years, it'd be considered polite to drop a short note.  Just a little, "Hey!  It's been years!  We're both on this thing, nice to see you!" or something equally as generic will do.
• Don't ignore me.  If I actually bothered to send you a note, again, mind your manners and write back.  It's just common courtesy. 
• Don't collect Friends.  Seriously, I have to wonder about people who have 1201 Friends.  There's just no way you actually have that many friends. 
• Shameless self-promoters need not apply.  'Nuff Said. 
• About your status.  Keeping in mind that a status update is simply meant to be a brief glimpse into what's going on in your day, it's good to keep it just that.  that you just got lucky, that you just let loose some excess gas, that your child just took a dump on the toilet are NOT solid excuses for a status update!  Try to keep it entertaining, light and most importantly, try to make it appealing to your wide variety of Friends.  My rule of thumb: if you wouldn't say it in real life, don't say it on FB.
• About those photos.  I'm all about the photo albums on FB.  But those pics of your child sitting on the toilet sporting an ear-to-ear grin?  Keep it for the (private) family album.  This is cute to no one but you.  Period.

And there you have it.  Though I'm by no means a FB guru, I am someone who spends lotsa time perusing the thing and in my time have picked up a thing or two about proper etiquette. 

Next up, Twitter-quette.  Here's a sneak-peak:

• Say it in 140 or don't say it at all.  If you need to continue your message in 4 subsequent tweets, you're saying toomuch and completely devastating the entire purpose of Twitter.  For a good example of this, see @KirstieAlley...

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RIP MJ

I just finished watching Michael Jackson's memorial service.  While I didn't begin my day with plans to watch it, I have to say that I'm glad I did and that I was moved by it.

When I first saw the news alert that MJ had been taken to the hospital in apparent cardiac arrest, I IM'd my sister what I'd learned and wrote "Can you imagine if Michael Jackson dies?"  It was the same day Farrah Fawcett died and I believe Ed McMahon was the day before.  Iran was chaos, unemployment numbers were reaching new highs and the economy was, and is, crazy low.  I felt like the world's mood followed the recent weather - grey, rainy, and just down altogether.

Obviously it wasn't an hour before news of MJ's death spread like wildfire, no - faster than a wildfire - across the world.  Instantaneously, it was all MJ all the time.  Every news station was carrying emerging details, some accurate, others less so, surrounding this mysterious death.  

The world was in a state of shock.

I heard people who were upset that MJ's death was upstaging Farrah.  How ridiculous.  If we were actually engaging in a game of 'my death is bigger than your death', I hate to say it, but MJ would win (did I really just say that?).  I actually hadn't known much about Farrah until I watched her documentary which aired about a month before she died.  I felt like I got to know her a little bit in those few hours, and I got to like her as well.  I thought about her every day after that, and was sad when she died.  But while her death was a tragedy, it was hardly a shock.  Nor did it hold any mystery.  MJ's did.  And so, the world wanted to know about the seemingly constant developments.

MJ was also about as big a star as one could be.  Granted his celebrity was often shrouded in strange goings-on as well as negative press, but he was, after all the King of Pop.  Personally, I can recall going to see Michael Jackson's Victory tour in September of 1984.  I was 9 years old and it was the first concert I had been to.  I remember wearing earplugs so as not to burst my fragile, young eardrums.  Tickets cost a whopping $40, considered outrageously expensive at the time.

Even then, there was an air of mystique around him.  Reporters in this 25-year-old piece which aired on Canada's CBC, contributed to the weird rumors that swirled about MJ, including that he talked to mannequins and lived with animals. 

Based on what he would later endure, these allegations were child's play.

Years later, his death is as big as any news of his life.  Only now, we've come to pay tribute to this musical genius, and we seem to have forgotten what we did to him while he lived.  Suffice to say, MJ was put through the wringer, publicly ridiculed and accused of lewd and illegal behavior.  I can't really remember what my thoughts were at the time of the trial, but based on my ambivalence on the topic, I don't think I ever felt passionately one way or the other.

But now it doesn't matter.  But for some reason, it's bugging me that the same media who brought him down is working overtime to inflate his memory to enormous, almost God-like proportions.  I'm grateful to people like Brooke Shiels and his daughter, Paris, for making sure the public knew he was simply an awesome friend, and a wonderful daddy. 

From what I've seen, read, and heard, throughout his life, Michael Jackson only wanted approval.  And it's sad that only in death is he finally achieving what he sought after during his 50 years on earth. 

Mom Bloggers on Fox News

A few weeks ago, I was contacted via Twitter by @Sara_Underwood, anchor at Fox25 News in Boston, asking if she could use a screenshot of my blog for a story on mom bloggers.  Not shy about sharing ;), I invited her to use what she liked.  So while I was not interviewed for the piece (but see my friend @BostonMamas fab spot), I'm proud that my beautiful blog design (by Domestic Chicky Designs) was deemed fab enough by Ms. Underwood to decorate her piece with.  

Maybe next time I'll even get to talk on camera. :)

See the piece here: Mom Bloggers or below.

I know it's weird but...

Have I mentioned that grocery shopping is one of my favorite things to do?  I think it has to do with the fact that it combines two of my most adored activities - shopping and food.  Makes sense, right?  And just as you won't catch me shopping for clothes in any old dinky little shop, neither will I hit a grocery store simply because it's local or convenient.  I'm all about quality, cleanliness, ease-of-use, and selection when it comes to shopping for food.

And lately - fun.

Fun grocery shopping?  How is that possible, you might be asking?  Well a) I bring my 3-year-old (I know, but she's fun to be with!) and b) I've started shopping mostly at Stop & Shop because they have these cool new handheld scanners that I like using.

HUH?

Ok, so if you want to join the fun, look for the Scan It! area when you enter the store - it looks like this:

Scan your Stop & Shop card and a scanner will light up.  Remove it from the base and start shopping.  Scan your items as you place them in your basket (who doesn't love to scan stuff??).  There are scales with easy-to-locate codes which allow shoppers to weigh and scan their produce.  Another fun feature is that every few minutes you'll hear a cha-ching! noise which is an alert to a sale price on an item you might want.  I have definitely been taking advantage of these mini-sales.  Users can see how much they've spent and how much they've saved.  You can bag as you go, so you save even more time.

So to recap - you scan and bag your own stuff.  Then you go to one of the self-checkout lanes, scan the barcode that awaits there, scan any coupons you might have (if you're not on the S&S mailing list, I suggest you get on it since they send coupons all the time and really, 10% off my weekly $150 grocery bill does make a difference), pay and you're outta there.

You could actually accomplish your grocery shopping without ever talking to a soul.  This might make you weird and anti-social, but it's totally do-able.  And according to my research, it saves shoppers an average of about 10 minutes in the store.  On the other hand, it is said that shoppers using the Scan It! system tend to spend a few dollars more on their order.  But here's what I think - while that small device is constantly nudging me to buy this or that on sale, I'm not surrendering to its charm unless it's an item already on my list or something I buy anyhow.  So if I'm spending a few dollars more it's to save in the long run.

At least that's what I tell myself. 

And like I said, it's fun, right?

To see if your local store has rolled out the Scan It! program, click here.

What goes around comes around.

Look, I don't condone violence.  I don't think using force solves problems, nor do I think it gets a point across.  But Perez Hilton, I do believe in karma.

Karma: that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect.

Cause: Perez Hilton is long since infamous for offering up his own crass reviews of Hollywood gossip.  He is not shy to opine on, well, anything related to, well, anything.  This is truly critiques without boundaries.

Effect:  He got the crap beat outta him.

Only surprise here is that it hasn't happened sooner.  And remember when I said I don't condone violence?  I also think Hilton got what was coming to him.

Have you watched his loooong vlog which tells his side of the story?  In it, he appears distraught (understandably) but makes some remarks which prove that this "guy" thinks the rules of engagement don't apply to him.  After going through his version of the event, Hilton goes on about how he likes to write about the drama in other people's lives, but that he doesn't want drama in his.

Uh, SERIOUSLY?

Ok - this is deranged on so many levels.  First, if you're the biggest gossip in town, people are NOT gonna like you.  And you know, don't be surprised if they talk crap about you too.  After all, you invented the no-holds-barred approach.

Second - don't you, as a citizen of the world, have some responsibility to it?  Like, are there boundaries at all?  Clearly not since you attack mere children and go on and on about their looks, their bodies, their talent.  (hey, Bruce Willis, where were you when Fight Club broke out?)

Third - why aren't the celebs that he slanders on a daily basis suing this loser?  What about verbal assault?  Imagine sleeping at night knowing you make your living spewing libelous and horrible crap about others on the Internet?  Knowing that what you contribute to the world does nothing other than pollute it?

EW.

Perez Hilton is playing a victim.  This guy needs to get real.  He victimizes the people he badmouths every day.  They are not present to defend themselves against his ridiculous words, the way he was present to defend himself in the fight.  He could've walked away.  He could've taken the high road.  Instead, he hung around (who wouldn't have hit the guy?) then proceded to Tweet/cry to the public.  Words aren't gonna get you very far this time, Perez.

Here's the real issue.  What is this world coming to?  Why are we so anti-everything and everyone?  I know, I know, I blog constantly about the reality TV "people" and have called them d-bags and boring and whatever else I have thought.  But do Heidi & Spencer really count anyway?  Joke people, joke. ;)

Bottom line is anyone who dedicates their life's ambition to gossip and the mean-spirited dissemination of information deserves to get cracked in the face.

Maybe it'll be an improvement anyway.

 

Next Up: Sleep Sack

Congratulations!  If you're reading this then your baby has graduated from the swaddle and is ready to move on to the next phase of his/her sleep career!  Hopefully by now he/she is sleeping through the night (with the help of the perfect swaddle of course).

Next up, the perfect sleep sack!  As a stickler for safety, you already know that babies should have no blankets in their crib until, well, ever (until they hit the toddler bed).  If you're like me, then you're constantly concerned that baby isn't warm enough or cozy enough.  After all, there's nothing more peaceful than slipping into a cocoon at day's end.  In order to do this safely for your post-swaddled child, choose a great sleep sack.  

So, it's summer and while I don't want my 20-month-old daughter to overheat while she sleeps, I do want her to be cozy (and yes, my 20-month-old is still in her sleep bags and has been since 5 months).  And, true story - I was just about to purchase a muslin sleeping bag by Aden & Anais when I was sent one to review (seriously, I was).  The reason I was going to check these out was that, to the dismay of our frequent house guests, we aren't huge fans of A/C and wait until the last possible second to put it on so our house tends to be warm at night.  The 100% cotton muslin used to make these sacks allows for a nice breathable layer over my baby, while keeping her cool and cozy.

I guess it doesn't hurt that they're so cute as well.  We chose the Bee style, but all the styles are just delicious and will hold up famously in the wash.  Best part, they come in actual sizes that fit bigger babies.  The small is up to 6 months, medium is 6-12 months, large fits 12-18 months, and xl is said to fit 18-24 but I can see it going beyond that on my daughter (who is average size).  

Win it!  Aden & Anais is graciously giving away a muslin sleep sack to one lucky reader.  To enter, simply visit their sleeping bags, and tell us which one strikes your fancy!  For a second entry, subscribe to my feed or let me know that you already do.  A winner will be chosen randomly on Friday, June 27th at midnight.  Open only to US residents.     

A Special Dinner

It was hubby's birthday yesterday.  We went out for a grown-ups night out over the weekend so last night was about being with the kids and celebrating.  I wanted to make something special for dinner but I had a little problem - I'm back on the wagon and didn't want to eat fattening so I had to find something delicious, but still low in fat.  I settled on chicken in lemony sauce, steamed asparagus, and one of my husband's favorite restaurant-foods, mushroom pasta.  It was all delish and all made with little or no fat.  The chicken was great but the pasta was phenomenal (I'm making it for him again tonight).  I made up the recipe by piecing together a few I had found on the web.  I searched for easy low-fat mushroom pasta and ended up making this:

White Wine Mushroom Pasta:

Ingredients -

•  Olive oil for the pan
• 1 package of Baby Bella mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 cup white cooking wine
• 1.5 cups chicken broth
• 1TBSP all-purpose flour
• 1TBSP butter or margarine
• 1 Package of your favorite fresh pasta

In a large pan over medium heat, heat the olive oil and toss in the mushrooms, sauteeing them until they are tender.  Add wine and stir for a few minutes, until it is steaming.  Add chicken stock and stir.  Combine the flour and butter or margarine and add it slowly to the sauce, stirring constantly.  If there are pieces of butter, break them up with the spoon.  Let it simmer.  Add the cooked pasta noodles to the sauce and serve immediately.

This takes about 15 minutes and serves 2 for dinner.  Yum.

Think Your Baby Hates Being Swaddled?

I see dozens of visitors per day who find their way here by Googling "my baby hates to be swaddled."  Typically, this search leads them to my post about Aden & Anais swaddles, but I'm hoping this post, dedicated to all you moms who have babies who fight the swaddle, will be helpful, enlightening, and at best, help you get a few hours of extra sleep.

Let me start at the beginning.  When I had my first baby, I knew nothing.  I had never changed a diaper, burped a baby, or done much more than hold my niece and nephew.  So after groping my way through the first week, I decided to join a New Mom's group (if you live in Boston, Isis Maternity ROCKS) and meet some new moms who were going through the same stuff as I was and maybe even learn something.  

I seriously underestimated just how much I'd learn in these first few weeks.  But if I were forced to pick the one most vital thing I learned at my new mom's group it would be the importance of swaddling my baby.

My motto?  Swaddle early, swaddle often.  And oh, not every swaddle is created equal.  But the key to the perfect swaddle, as I was taught, is to wrap the baby very tightly.  My mom used to tell me I was putting my baby in a straight-jacket, and could she even breathe?  Yes, it was like a mini straight jacket, after all, the idea is for baby not to startle him/herself awake so keeping them snug is the idea.  And yes, she could breathe, not to worry.

Start with the right blanket.  Those teeny tiny fleece-like jobs they wrap baby in in the hospital are NOT, I repeat NOT swaddle blankets.  The best choice is one that is large and stretchy.  I used thermal blankets that were 100% cotton since they have great stretch and they breathe (another good choice is Aden & Anais).  It should be at least 30" x 40" and I found Gerber made a good, inexpensive choice.

So, big, stretchy, breathable.  Now here's what you do with it:

1. Lay the blanket in front of you in a square (none of the folding any corners stuff - just a square or rectangle).
2. Lay the baby down in the top-middle of the blanket, neck outside the blanket.
3. While baby's arms are snug by her side, take the upper left corner and fold it over her body on the diagonal so her left shoulder is covered.  Bring the blanket down under the right side of her body and wrap it under VERY SNUGGLY, leaving the right arm out.
4. Do the same with the right side, only wrap the blanket snuggly under the left side of baby's body.
5. Now you have all this material at the bottom.  Fold all that material upwards toward baby's chin.  baby usually sleeps with her legs in a frog-like position and this is comfy for her so be sure to account for that when snuggly folding the material.  Now wrap each side of the material under baby, pulling it around her little body SNUGGLY.
6. Voila - straight-jacket-like swaddling.

If you do this properly, there's little chance your baby will break free.  When my girls were infants and didn't move around much, I would re-inforce this whole thing by wrapping another blanket around it, basically securing it completely.

Sound crazy?  Research has shown that swaddled babies sleep longer and more soundly than unswaddled babies.  And since sleeping and eating are the bane of any new baby's (and parents) existence, need I say more?

Oh, and your baby DOES NOT HATE TO BE SWADDLED (or at least, most don't).  He or she might not enjoy the act of being wrapped tightly and messed with, but once he or she is asleep, chances are he or she is thanking you in their own way - by sleeping longer.

  Extra swaddling tips:  After laying your baby down tightly wrapped, roll up two receiving blankets and tuck them next to her body for extra coziness.  Keep in mind, she's just spent 9 months all warm and curled up inside Mom's belly - anything less is just unacceptable!

 

Journals Unlimited

I'm a writer.  I mean, literally, a writer.  I'm a person who writes.  In this age of total technology, I'm someone who still writes notes, letters, and lists.  I use a calendar and actually use a pen to input info.  Sure I have tools that would do this for me, but like I said, I'm a writer.  And like any writer, I'm always searching for proper ways to host my words.

Ok, maybe that's a stretch, but I do love books and journals that make my record-keeping simple.  I recently ran into Journals Unlimited, a 12-year-old company that offers dozens of hard-cover journals for every type of enthusiast you can think of.  Golfers can use their book to remember the courses they've played and the highlights of their game.  Teachers can keep a special journal of their experiences.  Chefs can record their favorite creations in one place, and with dozens of themes, it's likely everyone will find an appropriate journal to call their own. 

I received a few treats to test myself, including the Baby Care Journal, the Babysitter Notepad, and my personal favorite, the mini Out of the Mouths of Babes Journal.  The Baby Care Journal will come in handy for any new mom who is looking to keep track of their child's day.  The book can be filled in by anyone, and allows space for details like how the baby slept and napped to what he ate/drank, how many diapers he wet and even what kind of mood he was in.  Seriously, I wish I'd had one of these for my daughter's babysitter when I went back to work after she was born.  The Babysitter Notepad is just that - a pad that facilitates instructions for the babysitter, including phone numbers, what's allowed like TV or snacks, suggested play ideas, bedtimes, etc.  This tool leaves little room for confusion for the sitter.  And like I said, I LOVE the Out of the Mouths of Babes Journal, simply because I have a 3-year-old who says memorable things 10 times per day and otherwise I'd never remember them.  Believe it or not, I keep track of these adorable things in my journal and am sure we'll love to have this years from now.

All this to say, these theme journals from Journals Unlimited are wonderful for anyone who enjoys putting pen to paper.  They come in 3 different sizes and can be personalized for a special touch.  I will definitely be bookmarking this website for the next time I'm racking my brain trying to come up with great Teacher's gifts!

Buy it!  Enjoy 10% off your order at Journals Unlimited - enter promo code MOM10 at checkout.

Win it!  So the folks at Journals Unlimited have been generous enough to offer the same great bundle of gifts that I received to one lucky reader.  To enter to win, simply visit the site, and comment below on your favorite item.  For a second entry, subscribe to my feed (or let me know if you already do).  Contest is open to US residents and will close on Monday, June 15th at midnight.  One entry per person please.