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

Cook Up Some Fun with Lollipop Rascals' Baking Sets!

 

We love to cook in our house.  Or I should say, I have passed down my love for cooking to my oldest daughter, who offers help to Mom for anything kitchen-related.  This includes stirring my morning coffee, shaking the salad dressing, and even pouring her own milk.  So the prospect of baking her very own cookies from start to finish excited her to no end, and well, even Mom took pride in her enthusiasm for anything culinary-related.

The baking kit came to us courtesy of Lollipop Rascals, a wonderful web-store which offers the highest quality in educational toys and gifts.  And by educational, I don't mean flash cards and numbers games.  I'm talking fabulous book sets (It's Me! is one of our favorite nighttime reads), award-winning puzzles, themed-based toys and accessories, and excellent costumes. 

But we really liked the baking set. 

In fact, we are in favor of all things cooking and baking-related so the fact that Lollipop Rascals features an entire Rascal Chefs section is more than just a little bit awesome.  Introduce your child to baking in a gentle, fun way, while still producing a delicious finished product with any one of these baking kits.  Have a budding paleontologist?  Check out the Green Dinosaur Cookie Kit.  Have a princess on your hands?  Then the Fairy Princess Cookie Kit is for her.  There's so many ways to incorporate cooking into your child's life, and Lollipop Rascals will give you many insightful ideas.  Also, many of the baking kits are now up to 45% off - so there's really no risk!

In honor of Halloween, we are happy to give away a set of Witch Pop Up Cinnamon Spice Pumpkin Cookies (beware - these are DELICIOUS!!), and Paint-Your-Own Ghost Cookies to one lucky reader.  Simply visit Lollipop Rascals, and tell us what you like best about their site.  Contest will run through Wednesday, October 28th at midnight.  Open to US residents only.

All products reviewed were provide to me at no cost by Lollipop Rascals.  All views and opinions reflected on this blog are my own and were in no way influenced by any outside party.

PBS Kids Interviews ME!

Not sure why I felt the need to keep waving at the camera, but anyhow...

PaperBack Swap, Anyone?

I can't believe it's taken me so long but I've finally discovered the most useful, fabulous, fantastic website ever (sorry FB, Twitter, Amazon, Alexcaseybaby.com... ok, well, maybe not ever).  At least in the world of books, this is one serious find. 

Get this - PaperBackSwap.com gives users the opportunity to trade books with one another - FOR FREE!

I mean, consider the alternatives: I myself am a library geek but I must say, I hate waiting for my holds to come in.  It could take months before my requested reading gets to me and then I have to pick it up and make sure it's returned on time.  Amazon (or any book store) remedies the waiting part, but I'm shelling out thousands of dollars per year on books that get read and then add to the clutter in my house.  So PaperBackSwap.com is truly the best solution to my book dilemma!

It works like this: you sign up and post 10 books to the site that you are prepared to trade.  Once you list 10, you are awarded two free credits, each good for one book.  People "order" books from you - you are prompted to respond that you can or cannot ship said book (some people have conditions like: "I have an allergy to mold - if your book is moldy or old, please do not send."  You then either proceed with the shipping or not).  The system evenallows senders to print the postage from their computer along with the shipping label.  You then wrap the book in the computer paper label and give it to your mail-person.  Only catch is that the sender pays shipping (around $3 typically) but when you order books, they are completely free to you!

So, since yesterday I've listed 15 books and shipped six.  Not bad for day one.  Now I just need to stop shipping and start shopping!    

Chicken Soup for Mom

It seems like every time I turn around, I see a new member of the popular series, Chicken Soup for the Soul, lining the shelves at the bookstore.  I can even remember when these books became all the rage 15 years ago.  15 years!  Seems like yesterday that everyone was clamoring for a copy of the original.  And since then, the popular series has garnered over 200 titles, has sold over 112 million copies, with titles translated into more than 40 languages.

Pretty impressive.

One of the most popular segments are the books in the For Moms series.  Chicken Soup has included Mom in over 15 books - andwith good reason.  Moms are the bane of our children's existence.

Ok, maybe not exactly the bane.  But moms do rock (if I may say so...).  And the newest member of the group is about moms and their daughters.  Chicken Soup for the Soul: Like Mother, Like Daughter is a compilation of 101 stories about moms and their daughters.  Any mom can relate to some of these anecdotes.  Some are heartwarming, others sad, while some are just true.  No matter what, any woman who calls herself a mom will find something that hits home.  And any mom of a daughter will recognize that this series of short stories speaks to the inherent bond that exists between them.

Have a son?  There's one for you too.  Chicken Soup for the Soul: Moms & Sons is also a compilation and honors the relationship between moms and their boys.  A different type of relationship, moms of sons will be able to find something relatable in this book. 

Just in time for Mother's Day, you can Win It!  We are giving away a copy of one of these books to two lucky readers!  Just let us know which you'd like to receive and why you would like to receive it.  Is it for a gift?  Something you'd like to share with your own kids?  Just let us know!  The winners will be selected on Monday, May 4th.  Only open to US residents.  One entry per person please!

Handle With Care

Can you love a book and hate the ending?  I mean, if you plow through the story, all 496 pages of it in record time, ingesting every page, feeling each emotion, then SCRE-E-E-E-CH!  It's the last chapter and you finish reading and you're like, WHAT?  Did that really happen?

I think that's just a chance any Jodi Picoult fan takes when reading one of her twisty stories.  Typically, the unexpected ending is a delight, but in this case, it was just reminiscent of another of her stories and a bit of a disappointment.

But the first 493 pages were sheer bliss. 

Picoult's 16th book, Handle With Care, is about a young girl named Willow who was born with a severe bone disease which ultimately means she will suffer hundreds of broken bones as she grows, as well as lifetime of pain.  Throughout the course of her life, she will grow even more disabled and subsequently need extensive medical care as well as expensive medical devices to help her maneuver through life.   

Willow's parents are blue-collar people and struggle to make sure Willow has what she, and her older sister Amelia, need.  So when her mother, Charlotte, hears that she has the opportunity to get her hands on enough money to ensure a seamless financial future for her family, she goes for it.  Only catch is that she has to sue her OB (and best friend) for "wrongful birth" which basically means the doctor should have offered termination as an option for dealing with her impaired fetus, and failed to do so.  In English, this means the mother is saying that had she had the choice, she would have chosen to abort the fetus.  Keep in mind there are children to bear witness to this claim, and fragile emotions to balance.  So the crew goes to court and hashes it out before a judge - Charlotte blaming her friend for medical malpractice and her friend wondering how this could have ever happened.  In the meantime, adolescent Emily is wading through her own lonely life and Willow continues to break bones.

The story is compelling.  It arouses moral and ethical questions in any reader's mind, as do all of Picoult's awesomely written novels.  Seriously, Jodi Picoult is like a Goddess of words, and her imagination and attention to detail is second to none.

But I just didn't like the ending, m'kay?  

And the War Rages On...

If you're a mom, then you know the one.  It starts as a tiny feeling inside of us the moment we find out we're pregnant and often continues until our youngest child goes to school.  I mean, what mom hasn't had a should-I-stay-home-or-go-out-to-work debate, if not with others, then within herself?  The if-I-go-to-an-office-everyday-am-I-a-bad-mom struggle or the how-can-let-go-of-that-great-salary deliberation.  The great mommy debate continues and it seems to be louder than ever.

So it's incredibly appropriate that today marks the release of a special new book for moms everywhere: Chicken Soup for the Soul: Power Moms.   This book doesn't celebrate one choice over another.  Instead, it gives voice to the "power of choice for stay-at-home and work-at-home moms" by sharing 101 stories, written by women, some well-known, others less so, but all sharing one commonality: all are moms who have made a choice somewhere down the line.  Some chose to stay home and take care of their children full-time while others ventured back to the workplace.  Others chose to merge the two and work from home.  But all are stories of choice and strength and all reflect a certain honesty rarely found when discussing this topic.

As an avid reader, I admit to skipping straight to the stories contributed by two of my favorite authors: Jodi Picoult and Jane Green.  While Picoult's story offered a glimpse into the life of a work-at-home-mom turned stay-at-home-mom who chose to then moonlight as a writer (and a damn good one at that), Green's story took a different angle by shedding light on being a single mother who can still be super-mom while spending half her day doing what she loves, writing.

There are 101 stories in this book, and chances are every woman will find several to relate to.  And while I might not have the strength, courage or wherewithal to make the same choices as many of these women, I respect them for the decisions they made, and chose to write about. 

In Chicken Soup for the Soul: Power Moms, you'll read about how Liz Lange raised her children while building a maternity clothing empire, how author Wendy Walker wrote her first novel from the backseat of her minivan, how Melora Hardin of NBC's The Office helped her daughter overcome  a fear of heights and how grateful husbands stand in awe of their do-it-all wives. 

Sound inspiring?  You can find Chicken Soup for the Soul: Power Moms everywhere today, or you can win it!  Two lucky readers will win a copy of this new book.  Simply tell us a tidbit about your choice.  Anything from why you're glad you made the choice you did, to one thing you might regret, or how you came to make your decision.  Two winners will be chosen on Sunday, March 29th at midnight.  Open to US residents only!

Since I was lucky enough to receive a copy of this book, I'll share that as a work-at-home mom, I felt grateful this morning when my daughter was sick with the flu that I had no boss to call to tell I wouldn't be in.  I was lucky about a month ago to be home to see my youngest daughter take her first steps.  But to say that I don't sometimes envy those women who actually had to drive to their office (as opposed to settle into their small workspace just off the living room), well, that might not be the whole truth...

eat pray love.

So I'm back at it.  After 2 babies, too many sleepless nights to count and waaay too much mindless tv watching to numb the exhaustion, I've finally settled back into my first, and only, true love - reading.  And I'm back with a vengeance.

I've been through a bunch of really good ones lately, but worth writing about is Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I know it's not new, but I've been out of commission so you'll have to bear with me.  Truth is, I don't often run right out to pick up the new HOT seller because quite honestly, they typically bore me.  I put down the Da Vinci Code after a few chapters, the Tao of Poo couldn't reel me in, and Harry Potter, I didn't even try.  So you can imagine my delight at the way Eat Pray Love grabbed me from page 1 and continued to wow me until the end.  But I'm not surprised.

It's about a woman who, after a nasty divorce and a sad relationship, is in search of peace.  In order to find peace, she needs to understand herself, her choices, her inner voice.  And with courage I could never muster, she leaves the life she knows and sets off on a year of travel to Italy, India, and Indonesia. 

So the story is wonderful.  The writer has wonderful wit, a caustic humor that I relate to.  But not only that, she experiences life in some ways so similar to me.  Her description of depression, how it finds us no matter how hard we try to escape it, was so poignant, so well-written, so damn true!  Gilbert talks about food like it is her religion (and it seemed almost to be for a while in Italy!).  Her account of the pizza she eats in Naples is so, well, so...  Well, see for yourself:

   "I love my pizza so much, in fact, that I have come to believe in my delirium that my pizza might actually love me, in return.  I am having a relationship with this pizza, almost an affair."  

See why I love this writer so much?  Her words drip with emotion, almost so much so that you can feel what she's feeling, taste what she's tasting (almost), see what she's seeing.

I enjoyed her journey through India, her discipline through mediation and her struggles in achieving this discipline.  Truly, I was awed at her focus, her complete success at having found a way to move her spirit.  My feeling is that Book Three, Gilbert's 3-month stay in Indonesia sort of combined her experiences from the previous months - as in, she somewhat returned to her indulgent (though less gluttonous) side that she unleashedin Italy, and still maintained the inner peace she discovered in India, through daily meditation.  The conclusion sort of brings the reader (and Gilbert) full circle.

In any case, I loved it.  It was a great read, perfectly balanced with humor, truth and well, an education in cultures that I may never get to know otherwise.  If you have a few minutes in your day for taking in a great novel (some days that means enjoying just a few paragraphs while peeing!!) pick up Eat Pray Love. 

Namaste.

Calling all Rookie Moms!!!

One of my favorite sayings is that motherhood is the lonliest feeling in the world.  Unbelievable to some, but completely understandable by many.  Many new moms admit to feeling isolated upon the arrival of their bundle of joy.

Two super writer-mommies (or is it super mommy-writers?) aim to dispell that maxim with their new book, The Rookie Mom's Handbook.  Written by Heather Gibbs Flett and Whitney Moss, this almost pocket-sized book is a guide to 250 activities to do with (and without) baby in those first 12 months.  Much like myself, these moms were motivated by their need to have at least one activity planned per day, lest they go insane without any routine, a phenomenon often brought on by a new little one.  But the "activities" offered by these moms isn't your run of the mill "stroll to the park and back" or "go to the mall and walk around."  It's tips, tricks, advice and recommendations no new mom should live without.

For example, #5 tells mom to "Just Say No."  Many new moms don't embrace their newly acquired right to use this often scary word, for fear of hurting someone's feelings.  These moms encourage it (as do I!).  #24 is "Join a New Mom's Group," my own personal advice to all new moms as well.  #50 instructs the frazzled new mommy just to "Let Her Be," as in, leave that kid alone for 5 minutes, she'll survive!  All the way to 250, these experienced "new" moms offer up great advice for rookies, in an honest and relatable way.  My personal favorite is #213 - "Hit On Another Baby Owner."  Hey, you both have babies the same age.  You both need friends.  Go for it. 

In addition, the Handbook also offers simple instructions for new and daunting tasks like how to make your own baby food, how to get in some exercise without running to the gym, how to take baby to a grown-up restaurant, without pulling your hair out and so on. 

I love this book.  I think you would love it too.  I KNOW your new mommy friends would definitely get something out of it.  Buy it at Amazon today!