Schmoozins

5 Minutes for YOU to read, relax and connect with other moms online. We’re here to inspire, encourage & empower you.

That’s the mission that Susan and Janice live by over at 5 Minutes for Mom.  I’ve been following them online for the last four or five years now. I don’t even remember how I first heard about them but the main thing that intrigued me was that they are identical twins and started their work at home careers with their mom running two online toy stores.

I love their site as it’s a combination of several things. They share about giveaways that are going on, jobs that are available, they even have a games section and of course they blog about parenting. It’s not just ‘another site’, it’s a community where moms can go to find informative information presented in what’s often an entertaining way. Susan and Janice also do a great job of promoting the WAHM community. They have a place on their site where they promote other mom blogs, mom stores and mom directories.

Recently they’ve added several sister sites – 5 Minutes For Parenting, 5 Minutes For Faith, 5 Minutes For Books, 5 Minutes For Special Needs and 5 Minutes For Going Green.

If you haven’t checked out 5 Minutes For Mom yet be sure to head over there now!

Wow! That’s the only word I could muster as I sat and wiped tears all choked up after coming across the Give Every Day blog. Started by Stephanie Sheaffer, founder of Metropolitan Mama, this blog details her and her families journey to give every day.

As if giving every day wasn’t an awesome enough undertaking, her family (her husband, her and their 2 children) sold their house to buy an RV and travel cross country as they give every day! Read about The Plan: Sell Everything. Live in an RV. Give Every Day.

Today, February 17th, marks their 12th day on their give every day journey. This site is so worth schmoozin on! Talk about truly selfless people! Be sure to check it out at Give Every Day.

Normally the things that we share here are about women. Not today. This is too good not to mention and it is something that a lot of moms will probably be interested in! I’m going to ‘schmooze’ about Armin Brott, a.ka. Mr Dad and his radio show Positive Parenting Talk Radio.

Positive Parenting Talk Radio

Positive Parenting Talk Radio is a weekly show that airs in the San Fransico Bay area and a number of other markets. Tune in to hear Armin interview guest experts about topics of interest to parents and families. His shows are filled with advice you can use.

Just to name a few of the guests he’s interviewed:

• Heidi Murkoff, What To Expect When You’re Expecting
• Joel Haber, Bullyproof Your Child for Life
• Barbara Meltz, Boston Globe parenting columnist, Put Yourself in Their Shoes: Understanding How Your Children See The World

If you’re looking for great information on topics related to parenting be sure to check out Positive Parenting Talk Radio.

Lifetime is one of my favorite TV channels. They show a variety of shows/movies – sappy, romantic, drama, thriller, etc.

So, it’s not surprising that they just aired the season premiere of their newest show  One Born Every Minute.

I’m sure you can guess what it’s about just by the title. If not here’s a little snippet of info from the website:

““One Born Every Minute” takes an in-depth look at life inside the maternity ward at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, as expectant mothers enter their final stage of pregnancy. From the delivery room, to the operating room, to the front desk, to the nurses’ station, 40 cameras roll 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to capture the high drama, humor and overwhelming emotion of childbirth as new lives begin and others change forever.”

Honestly when I sat down to watch the season premiere I had in my mind that it was going to be just another TLC’s Baby Story. In a way it was but in a way it wasn’t. I found myself laughing, crying and getting irritated throughout the show!

I laughed at some of the women and how they were acting during their contractions. That’s so mean considering I know how much contractions hurt!

Episode One Recap:

My favorite episode one couple was Melissa and Carl. They are having their 2nd baby in 12 months! Melissa was hilarious. She knew she was going to get an epidural. There were no ifs ands or buts about it.

My least favorite couple was Susan and Steven. I totally respect their wishes to follow a birthing plan and being so adamant about no drugs to help the birthing process along, etc but they were way over the top! Her ‘laboring’ sounds really rubbed me the wrong way too.

I related most with Tasha because she ended up having to have a c-section. Things started out normal but took a turn for the worse when the baby’s heartbeat started dropping. Her boyfriend was interesting. I was totally annoyed when he left to go buy a stroller for the baby! But it annoyed me even more when he was sitting there (and Tasha’s mom too) chowing down on all this food while she’s laying there in pain going through labor with their child!

My overall thought was that it’s a good show. I’m looking forward to next week’s episode!

Watch Episode One (To Medicate Or Not That Is The Question)

January is all about New Year’s resolutions, most specifically losing weight and getting healthy. The first few weeks of the month were a craze around the social media world with comments about joining gyms and starting a new diet, just to name a few. Even in the offline world, during the month of January, you can’t walk into a store without being bombarded with weight loss aids, exercise equipment or ‘get healthy’ related items.

Once you make the decision to jump on the bandwagon to get healthy it can be hard to keep your motivation. By the end of this month, which is just a few short days away, probably about 90% of those that started the new year off with a diet or new exercise regiment will have lost their motivation and given up!

People can’t motivate you to stay on track, you have to chose to do it for yourself. However, having a support system in place and others that are going through the same thing can help keep you on track. If you’re looking for a support system and some inspiration let me introduce you to Mamavation.

What is Mamavation?

Mamavation™ is a online docudrama and weight loss support group for moms in social media. It’s both a campaign and Virtual Sorority™ in one.

Who’s behind Mamavation?

Leah Segedie is the mom behind it and there’s no one better to lead digital moms in living a healthy life! She’s on a mission to combat obesity and teach moms that they can lead healthy lives. As her tagline says she’s changing families one mom at a time. What makes her an expert in the weight loss department? Well, she struggled with her weight most of her life but lost 170 lbs and kept it off! In other words she’s been in those shoes before – she knows exactly what it’s like and how hard it is to lose weight, maintain motivation and keep plugging along until you reach your goal.

Mamavation is so much more than just a weight loss support group! It’s about joining in the ‘sistahood’ and creating friendships and camaraderie. You’ll also find:

• Twitter parties
• Challenges
• Mamavation TV
• A forum
• Giveaways
• and much more

So, be sure to swing by Mamavation and join in the sistahood!

My name is Maria Alejandra Pulgar and I am from Venezuela, a beautiful country in South America.

I moved to the US with my family in January 2001. Back then my oldest son was 5 years old and my daughter only 20 months. Both my children spoke only Spanish at the time, but by October that year my son was already fluent in English and my daughter began going back and forth between both languages all the time. There is where my journey into raising bilingual and biliterate children began.

Helping your children to keep their second language or even getting them interested on mastering a third or fourth language is a task that requires patience, resilience, imagination and tons of love.  Because they know you understand them, they will try to keep on talking to you in English all the time. You have to pick your battles though; you do not want your child to stop talking to you altogether. [Read more...]

Heather Pilz knows all about graphic design. She earned a BFA in graphic design and received a diploma in illustration from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. With that kind of background it only seems natural that she brought those talents and expertise online, offering her services to the work at home mom community.

Why the WAHM community?

Heather didn’t start out working from home. It wasn’t until eight years ago when she gave birth to her daughter that her Virginia Beach Website Design company was born out of her desire to put her talents to use but at the same time be home with her baby and bring in an income.

As she began working from home she felt she would connect easily with the WAHM community because she understands the pressure of running a business and a home at the same time. Even more than that understanding, she likes the ‘vibe’ the work at home mom community gives compared to corporate companies.

What kind of services?

Heather offers both Blogger and WordPress designs/customizations. Along with blog customization she’s a talented website and graphic designer providing custom websites, logos, business cards,  blog banners, and signatures. She’s worked with several clients, her favorites being in the wedding industry, one of her long standing clients (for five years now) is ClaudiaLutmanEvents.com.

What’s Heather do when she’s not designing?

When running her own business and a family hasn’t taken all her time, she enjoys paper crafts such as designing hand stamped wedding invitations for the DIY (do it yourself) brides as well as creating birth announcements, baby shower announcements and custom scrapbooks.

It’s not surprising that these leisure activities revolve around design work because she loves what she does! You can check out her scrapbooking/stamping stuff at scrapingandstamping.blogspot.com

As a mom my Wii tends to be my kids Wii.  But there are moments when I kick the kids out of the picture and tell them it is my time to play.  As moms we need some play time both with and without our kids.  The Wii is a perfect example of play for all ages.  But here is where it really gets fun.  There is an awesome group of moms out there aka “The Wii Mommies“.

The Wii Mommies use the tagline “Bringing Fitness Home”.  Playing with a Wii may not seem like a great fitness routine to many people but there are a variety of fitness games available and more that keep being released.  The most popular is likely Wii Fit.  But there are several other games such as AE Active, Your Shape, and Walk It Out.

You might want to consider meeting up with some of the other Wii Moms and having an accountability partner or just sharing the fun you had for the day.

Let’s face it getting in shape with kids under foot is not easy in anyway shape or form.  But having something like the Wii allows the entire family to have some fun while getting fit or just some mom moments where you can play like you were still a kid.  Either way there are several moms out there waiting to chat it up with you all about your Wii.