Momathon Blog

Set of free personalized cards at Shutterfly

 

I have been a member of Shutterfly for several months, and every week or so they email me special offers on cards, prints, and more.

This week the promo offer includes a set of 12 FREE personalized cards at Shutterfly until March 3, 2010. The stylish 4x5 cards make a perfect gift for a friend or for you. To order the cards go to this link and sign up for a free Shutterfly membership.

 

Bedtime stories go high-tech in webcam video that links parents with kids

This geeky mom predicts the new webcam-based storytelling service will be a success story. A Story Before Bed for kids is both smart and snuggly fun.

Amazing how a story brings comfort and sweet dreams to your kids, even after you have read the same story a hundred times. Now a new high-tech application, A Story Before Bed brings parents and children together at bedtime storytime via webcam.

Developed by Hillel Cooperman, A Story Before Bed allows children to read along with a loved one--no matter where they are. The service allows parents, grandparents or any avid bedtime readers to record a story from the program's library into a webcam and kids can replay the narration back whenever they want. 

Cooperman is developing an iPhone/iPod application for the innovative and cozy A Story Before Bed. Can't wait to download that app.

How old do you feel? It's all attitude

Next time you are feeling old, consider the peppy piano couple, Marlow and Frances Cowan, who played impromptu piano duets in Mayo Clinic's Gonda Atrium while they were visiting the clinic one week. He's over 90. She's in her mid 80s. They've been married for over 62 years.

Here's the charming story behind their piano duet at the Mayo as well as their life philosophy

Marlow and Frances Cowen on Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know at the Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines, IA on May 16, 2009.  

Knitting for charities with author Debbie Macomber

 

 

Ever wonder how you and fellow knitters can raise funds for a charity by knitting? Avid knitter and bestselling author Debbie Macomber's book Knit Along with Debbie Macomber: Charity Guide for Knitters includes tips, knitting patterns, and guidance to help your craft bring comfort to individuals in need. ($16.95)

Book includes simple to intermediate knitting patterns that can be used to support newborns in hospitals, the military, and many more charities. Patterns include:

• knit blankets
• sweaters
• socks
• hats
• mittens
• slippers
• vests
• helmet liners

For more great reads, check out my reading list on Momathon books.

Knitting with author Debbie Macomber

 

In this unique craft series by Debbie Macomber, book lovers and knitters unite. Macomber's latest knitting book in the series, Knit Along with Debbie Macomber: Hannah's List, is the companion book to her novel in the popular Blossom Street Series. The book will be available March 8th. It includes 15 projects inspired by the characters in her book. This is her 10th book in the Knit Along with Debbie Macomber series. ($12.95)

A few of her other knitting books:

       

 
For more great reads, check out my reading list on Momathon books.
 

Spay Day Saves Lives

 

The heartbreaking truth is approximately half the 8 million dogs and cats brought to shelters each year are put down. Unfortunately animal shelters don't have the resources to end the pet overpopulation epidemic.

Together we change this tragic trend. Please spay and neuter your pets.

The 16th annual Spay Day is Tuesday, February 23. If you would like to support this event, go to this Humane Society of the United States link for events and sponsorship opportunities.

You can support the HSUS and Spay Day by entering the free Spay Day 2010 Online Pet Photo Contest presented by VISA and Zazzle. The contest will be judged by professional photographers and plenty of prizes to go around. 

(Image at the top of the post "a dog and it's boss" by: Pixie Addict)

Childhood obesity: Will we live longer lives than our kids?

In the rush to get everything done in a day, maintaining a healthy lifestyle with healthy meals and exercise often seems impossible. If you are like me, then getting take-out or fast food is a big temptation when you feel like you have no time to cook dinner. Unfortunately, when eating out becomes the norm, eating healthy is not always an option. 

Childhood obesity is a growing trend that threatens about one in three kids in the U.S. Increasing rates of obesity in America means that for the first time in our history, kids may face a shorter lifespan than their parents.

That's why First Lady Michelle Obama is encouraging doctors, nurses, parents, and community leaders to join Let’s Move, a nationwide campaign to change the trend and solve the epidemic of childhood obesity.

The First Lady's nationwide initiative's goal is to raise a healthier generation of kids. Let’s Move aims to give families the support needed to live healthier lives by eating healthy and getting more exercise.

4 key components of Let’s Move

1. Improve the information and tools families need to make healthy changes.
2. Improve quality of food in schools.
3. Improve access and affordability of food including eliminating "food deserts" in the community.
4. Increase physical education for kids to get them moving.

Does your dog fit your personality?

Which dog is for you? Adopting a dog is adopting a forever friend. A slideshow created by the clever folks at WebMD.com offers a glimpse at how to find the best dog for you according to your hobbies, your health, ages of your family members, and much more.

(Image: WebMD.com)
 

She did it! Lindsey Vonn wins the gold in women's downhill!

It's the Vonn-couver games!!!! I don't think this downhill event could have been any more exciting. Before I had kids, way back when I was much younger and a little nuts, I thought racing was a good way to spend the winter. Now I'm the unofficial Ski Bum Mum and I'm happy to sit back and watch the racers charge down that extremely challenging course.

(Image: Facebook--Lindsey Vonn) 

Lindsey Vonn won the gold in one of the most treacherous downhill courses in 20 years. Vonn was cruising down an icy course at over 70 mph. She survived the ice chunks. And the bumps. And, oh yeah, just a few giant ruts carved deep into the course by previous racers. I thought I was going to die when I saw Lindsey favor her bruised right shin in a turn near the top, putting nearly all her weight on her uphill ski. Yikes. A dangerous move on a challenging course like that, but she managed to make it through the turn and regain her picture-perfect form. She sailed through the rest of the course--flying off the final jump for some big air near the finish. She came down on her left leg, favoring her bruised right shin. A risky move, but she did it! And the rest is history. Way to go Lindsey! 

A big shout out to Vonn's amazing teammate Julia Mancuso who captured the silver medal in the women's downhill.

As you know, I've mentioned in my blog before that Lindsey and I hail from the same state and even grew up racing on the same "little hill" in Burnsville, Minnesota. That's where are similarities part. Lindsey is a racing phenom. I can't believe her incredible talent. I was the racer always catching a ski tip on a gate, spinning out, and crashing. (Yes, I was the drama queen of the course.) 

Lindsey started out skiing on a "little hill" in Minnesota

So what's the big deal about racers and Minnesota? There isn't even a mountain in Minnesota. The vertical rise at Buck Hill where Lindsey raced is just a tad over 300 feet. You need a mountain with a vertical of over 2000 feet to run a downhill event. That means at Buck Hill the young racers need to go down (and then up the lift) on this "little hill" dozens and dozens of times just to get in 400 gates or more during a practice session. 

Here's the scoop about the little hill where some amazing racers learn how to race, thanks to Jeff Baenen via the washingtonpost.com:

"Vonn was little Lindsey Kildow back then, just a 6-year-old learning to ski at Buck Hill under the eye of her father Allen, a competitive skier himself and a coach for the Buck Hill ski team... 'This little hill produced a lot of good skiers,' said Erich Sailer, who taught Vonn at Buck Hill and continues to coach there. Sailer, a member of the U.S. Ski Hall of Fame, also coached three-time Olympian Kristina Koznick and two-time Olympian Tasha (Nelson) McCrank."

You can read more about Lindsey Vonn in Minnesota via the www.washingtonpost.

iPhone app takes on global warming skeptics

I love The Skeptical Science iPhone app. And believe me, I will have plenty of opportunities to use it in my little town. Sure it won't help me win every argument with global warming skeptics. But I'll keep using this app and supporting mother earth because as my daughter tells me: We love polar bears, penguins, lady bugs, blue sky, and the fish in the sea. 

According to a report by Leo Hickman in the www.guardian.co.uk:

"I'm not sure this is going to quell the climate wars raging at present, but it's an interesting development nonetheless. An Australian solar physicist called John Cook, who runs the popular Skeptical Science website, has developed an app which "lets you use an iPhone or iPod to view the entire list of skeptic arguments as well as (more importantly) what the science says on each argument". So the next time you're caught at the fag end of a wedding reception in an interminable one-way conversation with a reactionary uncle who's boring on about how "the climate's always changed", just switch on this app, hand them your iPhone, and proceed to the bar."

So far the app has 90 rebuttals to global warming skeptic arguments.

Thanks to this clever app developed by solar physicist John Cook, I'll know exactly what to say the next time someone tells me to stop worrying about polar bears starving to death on melting ice. 

It's so Etsy: Baby teddy bear ear hat for newborn

Baby photographers get your cameras ready! This olive green beanie hat with teddy bear ears and ear flaps is hand knit by KnittedByNanny on Etsy. Knit with Australian wool with mohair trim. $25.00

Can't wait to hear the songbirds again this spring

 

 

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter.

Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here.

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun.

And I say it's alright.

--lyrics by George Harrison, The Beatles

(illustration © Chris Olson at Luna Blue Studio blog)

Do kids make us happier?

 

If you are like me, then you try your best to ignore the grim studies paraded in the media recently that say kids suck the very life out of marriages. On occasion after a really really bad day with teenage hormones raging in the house I almost believe these researchers, but more often I really doubt their findings.

I would love to set up my own research study to prove them wrong, except I don't have the credentials to attempt it. So, I did my own "informal study" to disprove the findings that kids make us unhappy. And, yes, I was a biased researcher. And, yes, I probably skewed the findings just a smidgen. Kids in my research make us laugh more, cry just a little, but smile much more often.

My research proving kids REALLY do make us happy is not verifiable, but I had fun doing it. And then I read a scientific study with all the appropriate measures in place that actually supports my study. Eureeka! Thank you, University of Glasgow. And thank you Babble.com writer and psychotherapist Heather Turgeon for writing about this study. The University of Glasgow study tracked 10,000 U.K. households and not only did they find kids make us happier, according to Turgeon they found the "biggest boost to life enjoyment came with two or three kids."

Two or three kids makes you even happier? Okay, this study is really bucking the trends. According to Turgeon:

"Knowing that their findings buck the prevailing wisdom (and most other recent studies), the Glasgow team explains that their data paints a rosier picture of parenthood because they isolated certain variables, like age, sex, and marital status. Married people with middle-class incomes were the ones who reaped the most kid benefits, while unmarried couples or those under extreme financial hardship fared less well. The authors of the study say they think kids improve quality of life when it’s the “right time” for the couple."

Sure, we don't always feel joyful while we change a diaper or meet with a school counselor about tardiness. But to survive this parenthood gig we learn when life gets tough we have to also look at the big picture. And my kids have picked up on this too when they say, "Hey, at least I didn't dump a can of Pepsi on the laptop like so-and-so." And they do have a point. I might not realize it when I am scraping molten chocolate bar out of the dryer, but tomorrow is bound to be better.

(Photo by ^riza^)

Ski Bum Mum: Amazing Olympic video updates on your laptop

Can't get enough Olympic news coverage?

Now you can get the latest Vancouver 2010 video, slideshows, and news on your laptop. Just download the NBCOlympics.com Widget seen below.

Ski Bum Mum: Go virtual at the Vancouver Games

If you read my blog, then you probably know that I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Winter Olympics--especially skiing. In another lifetime I was an alpine racer and a racing instructor. Fast forward a few years--okay a couple of decades--and I'm so excited to be following one of the best skiers ever--Lindsey Vonn. She started racing on the same "hills" I raced on as a kid back in Minnesota. The fact we hail from the same state is the only racing similarity I share with Lindsey. She is phenomenal. I really had a lot of fun racing, but I also had a talent for catching a ski tip on a gate, spinning out, and crashing. (I blame it on my goggles fogging up.)

Okay, enough nostalgia. This year keeping up with the athletes and the stats at the Vancouver Games in 2010 is even easier thanks to some pretty amazing techie gizmos.

If you want to keep up with Lindsey, become a fan on Facebook or Twitter

 

 

 

Unfortunately Lindsey Vonn has a shin injury this week and I know from experience how painful that can be. I still will be following her and praying that she heals quickly and brings home the gold. 

Keeping track virtually

The thing is, with the freaky weather out in Vancouver some event schedules might change. I don't want to miss anything, but I can't sit by the TV all day. Thanks to the widget below, you can track the women's (and men's) alpine skiing schedule and results with the Widget below:

If you want to track the overall medal count, check out this widget:

You can track almost anything happening at the Winter Games using the Widgets of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

Valentine's Day spending trivia

 

Budgets are tighter this Valentine's Day and just like the saying goes, it's the thought that counts. Jewelry, fancy bouquets, and chocolates have been the staple of Valentine's Day spending for decades. But this year more people are shopping for more practical gifts. Does that mean your bouquet of red roses will be a bouquet of tulips? 

The average American consumer is expected to spend $103 on Valentine's Day this year according the NRF in a report in Current.com. Sounds like a lot to me, but in 2008 consumers on average spent $20 more. 

I love the fact that Valentine's Day falls on a three-day weekend this year. A perfect time for travel and dining out. But the timing is not so good for the flower industry, which is often closed on Sunday.

Why do women love Cupid's day so much? Could be the fact that men do the bulk of the Valentine shopping. The NRF says men spend twice as much as women on gifts.

The day of hearts is special for our other sweethearts too. Researchers found that even though couples are planning to spend less on each other this year, they are spending more on their pets, friends, and co-workers.

(photo: Claudia - Assad)

 

Be mine

Everything sounds so much sweeter en francais.

 

 (Image above © Chris Olson)

Valentine's Day is fast approaching. Sunday. A day all about love. And big expectations. Dreams of romance. A day full of promise. Full of hope. 

It comes every year--whether you like it or not. It can be confusing. And complicated. The same questions every year... What to do? What to say? What to give? 

So, what are you giving your sweetie? 

Kids, go ahead and doodle on the walls

The Frames wallpaper in the The Land of Nod collection is perfect for every kid who loves to draw--on the walls or on paper. Made for doodlers and young Picassos, hundreds of blank picture frames in a myriad of shapes and sizes cover the wallpaper. All you need to do is hand your kids (or the grownups) a box of markers. (Frames Wallpaper, $40.00)

Have fun!

(Photo: The Land of Nod)

Betty White in a Super Bowl ad? You go girl!!!

 

If I'm even half this cool at 88, I'd be sooooo happy.

Betty White is unstoppable. 

Watch the sneak preview below on YouTube.

Go Red for Women Day

 

Wear red today--National Wear Red Day--to promote awareness of heart disease and strokes in women.

One in three women die of heart disease in America. 
 Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women in America. 

The good news is women have control over many of the risk factors linked to heart disease including: 

smoking
high blood pressure
high cholesterol
high stress
lack of exercise
obesity

Talk to your physician to find out what you can do to lower the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. 

Unfortunately, too many women shrug off the risks of heart disease in women because they think it's a man's disease. Spread the word--talk to your girl friends about the importance of taking care of our hearts and our bodies.

Going out tonight? Spread the word about preventing heart disease and ask your family, girl friends, and co-workers to wear red. 

 

 

(Photos: Go Red For Women)