TodaysMama

Elective C-Sections

Check out this article on TodaysMama.com It comes from our Expand Your Perspective section and is entitled - "Are Elective C-Sections Anyone's Business?" -- I dig this article because I have always lamented the fact that I've had to have C-Sections -- Check out the new discussion on our forum -- the forum is brand new and not announced to the public yet -- but hop on and comment!

The End of an Era

A mother's lament - The Deadbolt Discovery :(

There are certain milestones that come into every mother and child's life - happy and sad. There are cute things like first words, walking, learning letters etc. But then there are the disconcerting milestones that affect your perception of peace and happiness in your life.

I'm talking about the things like learning to climb out of their crib, conquering child proof handles, crawling in places you never thought you had to worry about etc. My latest came when my 4 year old figured out that he could stack some things by the door in order to undo the deadbolt and leave the house. The deadbolt has kept relative order in our home. It's quelled possible mutinys and prevented my children from totally escaping my clutches.

Those days are over. In no time I"ll be installing laser security systems in the yard to keep them from escaping on the sly!

Pool Rules

Here is a peek at my latest post at MamasInTraining, a blog detailing the adventures of the courageous TodaysMama staffers attempting a sprint triathalon -- check it out!

Pool Rules

Aside from peeing in the pool I haven't seen a need to define proper pool etiquette. You hop in a lane and you swim right? Well, I have some questions . . .

We have been swimming at our local community rec center because while I swim laps my husband and the kids can play on all of the pool equipment, it's been working well for us except there are generally more people there. Not only more people to see me in my hotness, but more people to swim with.

So - naturally I went and stood in front of the open lane while I put on my swim cap and goggles just to make sure I snagged the lane. I'm just lowering my goggles over my eyes when some punk comes and cannonballs himself into my lane right before my eyes. It was a little speedo wearing, high school, water polo boy.

I stared at him through my bug eyed goggles with a bit of disbelief and disgust and pondered what to do in retaliation -- was this legal? So I decided to plop myself right in front of the lane with my legs dangling in the water to stare at him for the remainder of his short lived workout.

I'm all for sharing lanes -- but don't you mutually agree on that? (instead of cannonballing past someones face?)

It's on little high school boy. I hope you're there next week. Next time I'm tossing my kids in after you - and who knows if they understand the peeing in the pool rule yet -- :)

Girl Scout Cookie Time!

That's right ladies - it's Girl Scout Cookie Time!!! How many boxes do you buy? In case you're wondering who in the world buys 16 boxes or more -- well, odds are that's my parents! In no time at all I expect to see cases stacking up in thier pantry - and smuggled home to mine!

Happy Meals

Just tonight I noticed how many bits and pieces of Happy Meal toys took up space in my little boys toy bin and scattered across the floor. I thought about how badly I wanted to throw every one of them away for good and was reminded of an article posted by Meagan Francis on TodaysMama just this week.

She's got a strategy for getting rid of those irritating little toys - it involves a car wash and achieves several goals at once! :)

She did reference the few worthwhile toys that have come from Happy Meals - and those toys that make absolutely no sense like the "female human action hero inside the body of a purple plastic armadillo". I might actually keep that one if I were her -- just for kicks and giggles!

Look Ma - I'm on a podcast!

I spoke at a very cool gathering of "Start Up Princesses" earlier this year and the podcast has just been posted to the site.

If you'd like to hear more about how TodaysMama started, how I started a karate dojo in the 2nd grade, and how much I like to say the word "ghetto" CLICK HERE to check it out!

The Mama Millionaire

Kim Lavine author of the Mommy Millionaire was recently on the Todays Show and shared her tips for "mompreneurs" everywhere or should I say aspiring Mommy Millionaires. I've seen these floating around the web recently but thought it was worth recapping - mixed with my own take on each item of course! :)

1. Don't apologize for having kids!
Amen! The cool thing about my business is that if you call my cell phone and you hear my kids in the background - I have nothing to hide - I am TodaysMama! :) You should expect to hear my kids!

2. If you're going to be a Mommy Millionaire, you must accept the fact that you will have to burn down your house and build another one after ten years. This is especially true if you are the parent of young boys.
I've actually thought a bit about this lately. Not only do my children destroy my house, but in my pursuit of growing my business I don't have time to clean my house like I should. I have scribble marks on the walls, toys everywhere, and I find goldfish (crackers) in the strangest places.

3. The argument between working moms versus stay-at-home moms is a moot point.
While I agree with the fact that it's a dead argument I tend to disagree with the idea that we can have it all. The concept itself is what drives women mad. There is a time and a season for everythign and there are concessions to make every step of the way. But to divide ourselves between working and stay at home moms is idiocy. We come in too many shapes and sizes to try to draw those lines in the sand.

4. Just because people have more money than you, doesn’t mean they’re any happier than you.
A quote that I have on my fridge says that two of the most dangerous things in the world are too much money and too much time.

5. Understand that just as money can’t buy happiness, a lack of it can’t take it away.
I agree that money can't buy happiness, but in general those who live in "lack" attrack "lack" in just about everything they do. Wealth is a mentality and a mindset and has a lot more to do with money (but I still can't wait to buy anythign I want at Costco! One day I just want to buy as much toilet paper as could fill my storage room - now that's thinking big!)

6. Understand that business for most people isn’t so much about money, as it is about their hopes, dreams and aspirations.
This is especially true for mompreneurs. TodaysMama recently did a survey with mompreneurs and 90% of those surveyed said they worked for passion over necessity.

7. You need a minimum of $20,000 and a well-written business plan to start even the smallest business venture.
Start is the key word here -- :)

8. Nobody ever got rich by spending money.
Good in theory -- there are plenty of corners to cut, but there is a time and place to invest in your business. One of the most important things as a mompreneur or someone with a virtual office is to invest in your brand. You might be run out of your garage, but for heavens sake don't look like it! If you want your little venture to grow you will have to invest in laying a solid foundation to build on.

9. Becoming a millionaire means learning to value passion and ideas, where others only value degrees and job titles
Amen! Job titles are some of the most pointless things in the world and to be honest I am in fact often embarassed of mine. I think the "ego" could easily be interchanged with "job title". Can you be the janitor and the CEO all at once? If you can't - don't start your own business.

10. Be a positive, big picture person, always striving to work for the highest good of all parties involved, and you can’t help but succeed.
There is not much room for negativity when you are an entreprenuer - it will kill you quickly.

11. Everything happens for a reason. Have faith in this, even if the reward isn’t immediately, or even distantly apparent, it will become so.
I actually love that she references Gods hand and help in her business. I agree and believe that God cares about everything we do - yes even our businesses. I can't say enough about how much help He has given me. I love that she reference "Another saying I’ve heard quoted by successful entrepreneurs: There are no atheists in foxholes."

12. Raising money is the hardest thing an entrepreneur has to do, and nobody anywhere is teaching anybody how to do it.
Agreed! This is hard but it starts in the same way that most things in business do, open your mouth and start networking!

13. Believe in yourself; never stop having faith in yourself or your vision or your product, even if other people tell you you’re crazy!
If you don't believe in yourself, no one else can.

14. It’s a time of great possibility, and you can be part of it!
I'm just going to directly quote her take on this one - because I dig it!
"Experts predict that the next five years will give birth to a new entrepreneurial age, in which young companies will produce new ingenious products and devise new strategies to take their products direct to consumers as retailing giants experience temporary stasis from their mega-mergers. The world is becoming one big global economy faster and faster every day. This can be a good thing, as long as we capitalize on the strengths which are unique to America: innovation, design, cultural exportation. We need to develop foreign markets and export our products to emergent countries around the world that are hungry for anything American. Even a small business can do this because of today’s technology."

15. There is $20 billion available every year in private equity from Angel Investors alone, and it’s growing at an exponential rate of 20 percent each year.
Angels rock! And they bring a much better dynamic than a VC (in my limited opinion and experience).

So -- WOW -- that's the longest blog post I think I've had to date -- brace yourselves - and go get your millions!

Pre-School Registration

Debbie Granick has posted an awesome article on TodaysMama about pre-school choices.

I'm just in the process of registering both my kids for next year and I was debating how many days to put my 3-year-old in for . . . my favorite quote from Debbie: "A happy mommy makes for a happy kid (unless it’s cocaine, spontaneous year-long world tours, or a perpetual state of incoherence that makes you happy). If you have a little time in the mornings to do what makes you tick, you will, without question, have more enthusiasm for your little one when he hops in the car in the afternoon."

Read the rest of the article here . . .

The next president?

If you had to vote today, who would get your vote? Take our latest poll at TodaysMama.com and see what other mamas are thinking!

Work . . . Enjoyable?

Somehow working feels more justified when you hate it. I know it sounds weird but it's true. When you don't enjoy your job you're put out by it, of course you'd rather spend your time somewhere else, and people should feel bad for the amount of time you spend on the job that you hate.

I in contrast love what I do. I love it to the point that it energizes me. I generally come home from a meeting, an appointment or an event happier and more energized about my life, my family, and of course my business. It's weird (and maybe unhealthy) because I even feel guilty about the time I spend on my business . . . not because I don't spend enough time with my family -- but because I enjoy what I do so much that it feels like a hobby or time spent selfishly -- even though my business is both a thing I do out of passion and a thing that I do to help provide for my family.

TodaysMama recently did a survey involving fellow mompreneur's and found that the top things that fell by the wayside in their lives were hobbies and household chores. But they are extremely happy about what they are doing and pleased with the job they are doing as parents to boot. It's an interesting predicament to be in . . . but a good one. Scrapbooking can wait I've got my eye on growing my business! :)

The Woe of Motherhood

I ran across this blogger online today and love what she had to say! Check it out . . .
The Reluctant Housewife -- The Woe of Motherhood

She talks about some of the recent media perception about moms, and finishes it off by explaining just why motherhood is liberating -- I agree!

Allow Card

For when I have teenagers . . .

Two Arizona grandparents developed a card that parents can buy for $19.95 and deposit money onto it any time like a debit card - it works at ATM's and stores that accept Mastercard. It's called the Allow Card. You can monitor spending and even decide which types of stores are off limits --

Sounds convenient to me -- I'm still out on what my opinion is for sure -- is it a nice little spending watch dog for parents, or something that prevents kids from learning to control their spending on their own?

It Happened To Me

Just as I finished reading this month's Parents magazine this morning about how someone's son cut his brother with scissors - It happened to me.

That's right, I had my own gory "It happened to me" experience. I'm really never reading their magazine again this time.

Just as I finished letting my imagination run wild at the thought of my children cutting the tips of each others fingers off my little girl pushed a plastic storage bin onto her older brothers head knocking him into the edge of my snowboard, splitting his forehead open. Off to the Emergency Room . . . luckily this months Parents magazine included just enough information to scare us and then backed themselves up with the Emergency Room Prep section!

Worry Worry Worry

At one of our latest TodaysMama staff meetings we were discussing what kind of Buzz items to include on the website. We wanted to include timely, important information, but decided that we don't want to be the ambulance chasers that reprint "every-reason-you-shouldn't-leave-your-house-today" type of news. Someone mentioned the article from the December 4 Times magazine that referenced the fact that " Nearly twice as many Americans commit suicide each year as are murdered. More than 10 times as many die falling out of bed as from lightning strikes". . .

But we worry; we worry all of the time. Muffy Mead-Ferro wrote an awesome article in December entitled "Worry, Worry, Worry" for the Expand Your Perspective section on TodaysMama.com that I just had to reference again because it was just that good. She talks about the same Time magazine article and about how much we do indeed worry.

She pointed out that "statistically speaking, our children were more likely to be abducted by a stranger in the 1950s than they are now, and even then it wasn’t very likely". This is comforting news to me as I'm paranoid to let my kids play in the front yard by themselves for more than 2.5 minutes.

We worry too much! Her article helps me chill out a bit -- in contrast to the section in Parents magazine called "It happenened to me . . ." (insert dramatic music). Every month this feature tells the woeful tales of the disaters that happen to other families . . . the child who ate the lightbulb, burned themself by sucking on a battery, swallowed money (or a number of other things), or the dresser fell over on them . . . the list goes on -- but it doesn't make me feel any better or more informed about my job as a parent. It adds to my paranoia. In fact - it made me stop reading their magazine.

I'd rather take Muffy's advice and worry more about getting off my cell phone while I drive my kids around town, or worry about whether they should be eating too many happy meals or better yet, taking a minute to just not worry at all!

Quick and Healthy

My new favorite find at Costco -- Edamame -- (aka soy beans). You can buy a big frozen bag and bust out a little at a time. Boil them and put sea salt on them and the kids LOVE them! I think they love popping them out of their pods just as much as they love eating them!