Momathon Blog

Helping the Hungry Children

Did you know that 1 out of 4 people in a soup kitchen line is a child?

In this tough economy, every family is looking for ways to save money and stay within their budget. Often the second largest expense for families is food. Unfortunately lost jobs, reduced wages, and rising costs for things such as medical care and housing has made it difficult for many to buy groceries. 

Matthew Emerzian and Kelly Bozza at Oprah.com have come up with a great list of five easy ways you can help feed the hungry:

1. Locate organizations near you that support the hungry. Find out what they need and help provide it.
2. Donate your time and volunteer at a food pantry/distribution center, a local soup kitchen, or a homeless shelter.
3. Go through your pantry and gather up canned and dried foods to donate.
4. Create or support a local canned food drive.
5. Purchase and hand out fast-food gift cards to homeless people. Buy extra cards to have on hand for spontaneous giving.

Read the entire Oprah article for more ideas and facts on how you can help the hungry. The good news: You and your kids can be part of the hunger solution and make a difference in the lives of hungry families. 

Social Media Helps People Find Stolen Bikes

Yes, it can be a very impersonal world out there and bike thefts are on the rise, but bike thieves beware. Thanks to a community of bike lovers online, someone just may catch the next thief with the help of Facebook and Twitter.

According to Anjali Athavaley at WSJ.com:

Last month, Boston launched StolenBikesBoston.com, where people can register their bikes and send out theft alerts on Twitter and Facebook.

So far, about 240 people follow the alerts on Twitter and 350 on Facebook. Boston police don't track bike-theft numbers, but "we wanted to head off the theft issue because as ridership increases, theft increases," says Nicole Freedman, director of the city's bicycle program.

Want to reduce the chance your bike will get stolen. Check out the WSJ.com article for a video that includes tips and tools for properly securing your bike.

Should Schools Say Goodbye to Summer Vacation?

What would you say if your local school district decided to change your school calendar to a 12-month school year? My first response is YIKES! But after some thought and research I see this not so new idea is catching on for some very good reasons.

Modified school calendars have created a big discussion around the water-cooler. Staying competitive in a global economy puts getting a good education as a priority. Here's what Babble.com writer Jeane Sager says in a recent article:

"Arne Duncan wasn't the new Secretary of the Department of Education long before he started talking big change for America's kids. The former CEO of the third largest school district in the nation, the Chicago Public Schools, wants to say goodbye to the school year as we know it."

If schools modify their  calendar to year around school, they can increase the classroom time and increase learning time. Sounds great for education but what about the benefits of relaxing bodies and rebooting brains over the summer break? Does a modified calendar spell the end of summer as we know it? Here's what Sager says:

"Regarded as a long-standing tradition, even by parents who scramble to find daycare for a lengthy ten-week period, summer break has loyal parent supporters. Threats to the traditional school year have spawned groups like Summer Matters, an information clearinghouse launched in 2001 expressly to give parents ammunition to fight the modified calendar. The site is filled with letters to President Obama that proclaim modifying the school calendar "has been tried and failed for more than 100 years."

How do you feel? I am still siding with the longer summer break as long as parents work with their kids to encourage learning over the summer too. 

UPPERCASE Magazine

Check it out...

UPPERCASE magazine is a richly visual magazine featuring 

great illustration, photography and intelligent writing.

Update: New BPA-Free Bottles

Finding BPA-free drinking bottles and baby bottles is easier now than a year ago. However, you have to do your homework before shopping because some water bottles such as certain brands of stainless steel bottles might appear to be BPA-free, but they are NOT. Why? The epoxy resin that lines some stainless steel bottles has BPA in the resin. One brand that has come under scrutiny for BPA in the liner is the older models of SIGG bottles. Also, if you are using liquid baby formula, you want to contact your doctor to make sure the liquid formula container is BPA-free. Powdered formula containers do not contain BPA according to an article in Boston Globe. If you want to learn more about BPA research, earlier this year I wrote a series of  Momathon Blog posts on BPA-free products. 

So why is BPA a health concern? According to a recent article by Sarah Engler in CookieMag.com:

If you've been following the headlines, you've learned by now that many bottles and sippy cups are made from polycarbonate plastic, which contains bisphenol-A (BPA), a synthetic estrogen that studies have linked to an increased risk of obesity, attention-deficit disorder, brain damage, and even cancer. Safe beverage containers are made from glass, steel, or BPA-free plastics like polyethylene or polypropylene (are typically opaque or labeled with a #2, #4, or #5).

Links

• To see the list of BPA-free bottles the staffers at Cookie Magazine picked click here.
• To read more BPA-free alternatives to SIGG check out TreeHugger.
• To read more about what BPA labels mean check out this article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online

Find Recipes that Match Your Ingredients at SuperCook.com

Ever look in your fridge or pantry and wonder just what you can make for dinner without making a last-minute shopping run? That's exactly the problem solved by the clever folks at SuperCook.com--a user-friendly website that does a recipe search according to the ingredients you have at home. 

To start all you have to do enter the ingredients you have at home on the website, the more ingredients you list on SuperCook, the more recipe options you will get.

Bon appetit!

Geeky Mom: Low Light Photo Solutions

Do your birthday dinner photos look grainy? Can you even recognize the location of that amazing sunset photo you took last year? Low light creates all kinds of problems for photographers. Now a new breed of camera from Sony and Fujifilm comes with redesigned sensors that mark an important step forward in personal photography.

Check out the details at this New York Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/technology/personaltech/20pogue.html

What Makes Babies Smart May Surprise You

Babies and children look at the world with wide eyes that seem to soak in multiple experiences all at once...Mom washing dishes, brother playing with a train set, tree leaves moving in the wind. As grown-ups we tend to want to focus on learning about just one thing, before moving on to a new idea. Our bodies and our brains aren't as flexible as they were when we were very young. So next time your child takes all the mixing bowls or Tupperware out of the cabinet, don't try to clean up the mess too fast. Remember this multi-sensory play time is valuable learning time too.

"The learning that babies and young children do on their own, when they carefully watch an unexpected outcome and draw new conclusions from it, ceaselessly manipulate a new toy or imagine different ways that the world might be, is very different from schoolwork. Babies and young children can learn about the world around them through all sorts of real-world objects and safe replicas, from dolls to cardboard boxes to mixing bowls, and even toy cellphones and computers. Babies can learn a great deal just by exploring the ways bowls fit together or by imitating a parent talking on the phone. (Imagine how much money we can save on “enriching” toys and DVDs!)"

via www.nytimes.com

Looking for a Creative Spark?

Creativity is elusive. You can try to cultivate it, you can try to grow it. But just as easily--and innocently--you can destroy the "creative" idea you worked so hard to nurture. 

Some say creativity can solve almost anything. I have dabbled in the creative side of business since my college days. I love coming up with new ideas with words, art and design. I also worry too much. A new movie, Art and Copy, sums it up best:

"The frightening and most difficult thing about being what somebody calls a creative person is that you have absolutely no idea where any of your thoughts come from and especially that you have no idea where they will come from tomorrow." -- Art and Copy, the movie.

Hearing Too Much Advice from Other Parents?

Raising kids is never easy. Sometimes the most difficult part is not caring for the kids, but handling the unsolicited advice from other parents. What can you say when another parent offers too much advice, or maybe the parent is just plain rude? If you can relate to this situation, check out the new book "Hell Is Other Parents" by Deborah Copaken Kogan. Here is an excerpt:

"Inez is a parent at my daughter’s school, the kind of woman without whom urban public schools like ours would not survive. She works tirelessly on school committees, volunteers every year as a class parent, chaperones field trips, spends her lunch hours patrolling the cafeteria, and uses whatever spare time she has left to write and send out e-mails such as “trip sign-up — please check my list!!” and “Mr. [redacted] needs paper towels and tissues ASAP!!!” She is the parent who sent out the e-mail headed: “tennis ball noise abatement project,” asking for volunteers to help score tennis balls with a knife, so that they might be placed under the legs of each chair in the school, thus eliminating, once and for all, the sound of scraping." (excerpt via  today.msnbc.msn.com)

Books: Babysitter's Business Kit

 

Does your daughter want to be the best babysitter on the block? Check out the American Girl Babysitter’s Business Kit for loads of helpful information including:

• how to care for kids
• please parents
• make smart business decisions
• business cards you can personalize
• client address book
• game pad
• reward stickers
• parent checklists
• book: The Babysitter's Handbook

My daughter is a fan of American Girl books. She recently added the Babysitter's Business Kit to her library. I love her entrepreneurial spirit! (Kit: $12.95)

Smart Shopping: School Clothes

At my house this year, shopping for school clothes involves looking for the best deals. If you want a little help finding your favorite brands on sale, then check out Shop It To Me. This website is almost as good as having your own personal shopper--and a savvy shopper that knows the inside scoop on bargain shopping at all your favorite stores. 

Victoria Smith @ Sfgirlbybay Offers Decorating Ideas

Where do you start your online day? I love design blogs and one of my faves to read while drinking my tea after breakfast is sfgirlbybay by Victoria Smith. Recently Victoria's bohemian modern decorating ideas were featured in Craftzine.com.

A Perfect Summer Day

What did you do this weekend? If you were one of the lucky ones with more sunshine than rain, I hope you got your daily dose of vitamin D at the park or pool. Photo from my hubby: Sunshine at the ballpark.

Video: Roller Skating Babies

So cute. If only Evian had the same effect on me...