Great post addressing the recent "mom enough" controversy.

http://www.boston.com/community/moms/blogs/24_hour_workday/2012/05/motherhood-mom-enough-advice.html

The economy is not the best and a lot of us are struggling. For this Mother's Day, I want to help all my mommy friends battle one of our biggest concerns; finances.

Top money-saving tips for moms:

1. Think about every purchase.

Whether you keep a written record of every time you spend money or look at something and come back later to buy it, make sure you stop and think about every purchase you make. Sometimes, you decide that it just isn't worth it and you save yourself money. When making a big purchase, make sure to stop and think about how much you would use that purchase if you didn't change anything in your life. Realistically, buying a treadmill isn't going to get someone who sits on the couch all evening off the couch. It will just be another place to throw laundry.

2. Coupon.

I know what you're thinking. I thought it too. "I am NOT doing that. What a pain to save 40 cents." Well, it turns out that it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to save hundreds of dollars. And the only difference between those that coupon and those that don't is how much money they save. I spend an average of 30 minutes a week prepping my coupons. I'm lazy. I watch TV and cut and sort coupons after the kids are in bed once a week. Then, I'm ready to go to the store. I'm also not one to take a big binder of coupons. I have a little book and it works great and fits in my purse.

Go to a website like http://www.couponmom.com/. Join. It's free. Read the little tutorial and just start. Here's my trick: if it's on sale and I have a coupon and it's something I use, I buy as many as the discount will allow. If it's not on sale or I don't have a coupon, I only buy it in case of emergencies. Most things come on sale and most things have coupons at one point or another. Wait and stock up.

3. Join a co-op for produce.

Check out localharvest.org, bountifulbaskets.org, coopdirectory.org or any other co-op site and start investigating. Yes, you spend a little effort to get your produce, but it is often as little as an hour a month and the payoffs can be fantastic. You can get a huge box of produce for $15. Between co-ops and coupons, I have reduced my monthly food bill by 70% and we eat a ton of healthy food. We are a fruit, veggie, and whole grain family.

4. Hand-me-down-clothes.

Look for hand-me-downs for the kids. Let people you work with, relatives, friends, whoever you know that you love hand-me-down kids' clothes. A lot of people have clothes that their kids have grown out of that are in fabulous shape and are just sitting in a box somewhere. In addition, there are some wonderful stores that sell used clothing for incredibly reasonable prices. While some kids are hard on clothes, some kids grow so fast, the clothes are hardly or not at all used.

5. Start exchanges.

By now, you probably know other people with kids. Some of them you may like. Some of them you may not. But all of them have DVD's, books, time, and memberships. Take the time to talk to these other parents about what they have and an exchange you could start. Your kids will love the new movies and books even if they have been pre-loved. Babysitting exchanges are one of the most wonderful inventions I can think of. And some memberships can be swapped for a weekend so you and your kids can try something new.

6. Support your friends.

Make sure to use your coupons wisely when stores are having toy sales. You need a closet full of "presents". When your friends know that your kid will show up with a gift to a birthday party, they get invited to all the parties. While parties are not usually a parent's favorite activity, they are awesome free activities for your kids. The price of admission is a present.

7. Groupon.

There are about 5 million daily deal offers now. Check them. In my area, they are for kid activities and items about 1/6 of the time. When  they are, the deals can really be worth it. If you can pay for your kid's birthday 6 months in advance at half the price, you'll be very relieved when it rolls around.

8. Free days are awesome.

Take note! Many different places offer free days. Have an idea of when they roll around. Who offers free stuff all the time? It may seem cheesy to you, but if your kids have a Build-a-bear, you can make an outing of taking the bear to see where it was "born" and getting it a new ribbon. If you combine that with Ben and Jerry's free ice cream day, you have a complete hit of an outing for the price of gas to get there.

9. Kids love the bus, the train, etc.

It's amazingly easy to entertain the kids for a Saturday morning riding the public transportation in the free zone and then stopping for a picnic in a park.

10. Pair up.

Whether you are buying things from a warehouse club, getting an online bulk discount, or on a pre-measured co-op program, don't go it alone. I don't want to pay less for things only to see them go to waste. Get a spending buddy and you save even more. You can split the cost of the produce or other items you can't use all of with someone else. Plus, it seems that those who save together find other ways to help each other out and you develop a really lovely friendship.

Great blog post on discovering yourself as a single mom.

http://minimerrillfamily.blogspot.com/

If I ran the world, well, let's face it; things would be AWESOME! But more than that, the following would be true:

1. There would be no spaces in my car where my keys can fit, but my hand can't.

2. The makers of orange juice would take half of the safety seals on their product (seriously, a plastic ring you have to cut, a bullet-proof lid on so tight you need pliers, and some sort of plastic pull-off cover?) and put them on yogurt containers (why did they get rid of the lids??? Those suckers roll out of the bag and hit the floor with a serious explosion.)

3. It would really be called "sunscream" like my daughter calls it. When you get it in your eye AGAIN this year, you'll understand.

4. There would be one type of glue/sealant/caulk. It would work on absolutely everything.

5. Fresh vegetables would come in little plastic packages you have to tear open, which make children inherently like them, and they would be able to sit out in the car for hours at a time without spoiling.

6. My neighborhood would have sidewalks.

7. People would have to get a license to run for public office and that license could be revoked for any number of reasons.

8. I would only have to go to work when my children are screaming. I could stay as long as I want and daycare would accomodate that.

9. We would get rid of holidays with obligations attached to them and replace them with "holidays" that randomly occur when the weather is nice out.

10. People who directly affect our safety (bus drivers, the people who clean hospital rooms, daycare teachers, police, etc) would be paid the most. Pay would reflect your direct impact on the people you serve, not the inverse.

This. Absolutely this:

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=20125924&nid=757&title=lessons-learned-from-political-war-on-women&s_cid=queue-6

"Women are reliable, they make smart decisions, and they understand economics. Further, they know what they want and they don’t need men—whether in the White House or in the home, to tell them what they need."

"What do women want? They want to be treated equally and fairly in whatever choice they make. They are smart, they understand the effects of their choices, and they move the economy. Whether they choose to be in the workforce or at home, it’s time we treat them like they are the equals that they are."

I have heard that we are a nation of the sleep-deprived. I'm beginning to believe it. Articles cite stress, overwork, long commutes, TV, and everything in between for our nation's lack of sleep. I blame children. The people I know without children seem to spend an obscene amount of time in bed. Those of us with kids never seem to spend enough.

Recently, I was talking to a girlfriend about sex and marriage and if marriage really reduces the amount of sex for people. She told me that ever since she had kids, she can't even get to her bed to find out. How true and how sad.

It seems like the time when children are asleep is the most valuable commodity for parents who desire everything from a clean house to an intimate moment. How do you pack an adult life into that fine line between when your kid sleeps and you do?

Recently, I realized I was overpacking my life. This realization happened when I looked down into the drawer I had open in the kitchen and saw a bag of carrots. How many things have I misplaced? How many activities have I been doing with half a sleepy brain? I mentioned this carrot moment in a couple of forums and got some interesting responses. It seems that every parent I know has had a carrots-in-a-drawer moment. At least my moment didn't involve missing clothing!

I also found out that a lot of parents are hiring babysitters or asking family to watch their kids just so they can sleep. What does this say about us as a nation? Why can't we sleep?

Lately, it seems like I want to stay in bed and the kids want to be up. The other morning, they woke me up with, "wake up Mommy. We are hungry and don't know how to cook."

I think that's what it comes down to. They don't know how to cook, clean, do the taxes, pay the mortgage, or iron my clothes. Once I get them taught all this, I plan to sleep. For a week.

As a nurse, I'm completely offended at our national dialogue on medical care right now.

1. We are debating whether people can decide NOT to purchase health insurance.

Are you serious? Working in Emergency Rooms for a few years, I know that everyone in Emergency medicine gets completely fed-up with the people coming to ERs for non-emergency care. "I have a blood blister." "I'm out of my meds." Why do they come to the ER? Because we are not allowed to turn them away by law. The effect is that providing treatment for those things slows down the process and people die waiting for care. In addition, we all pay more to cover those people who cannot pay. If I am required by law to treat people, they should be required by law to have insurance so that people do not die waiting for them to be treated for non-emergency problems and so that everyone does not have to pay higher rates to cover them.

2. Why are people so up in arms about government making decisions about their health care and end-of-life care unless they are women? If we can't have "death panels", why are we talking about allowing my employer to decide what procedures I can have?

3. If we are going to regulate women's health care, the government should handle it the way they do for other areas.

Government has no place telling my doctor to perform certain procedures or provide information which is contradictory to practice or research. But, they do have a role in making society behave in how we impact others. Here's my thought: If I can't have more than 4 cats in the city, why can my neighbor have 27 children? Maybe that's the role for government. Make sure that there are limits on the number of children and legislate that you have to have them licensed and tagged every year.

Children have a rich life. It's even richer in their heads. I have always enjoyed seeing the world through my kids' eyes. It really cracks me up. Some of my recent favorites:

6. The dog talks, but only to Mommy.

I love being the personal interpreter for the dog. Such power! You see, our dog talks, but only I understand her. My children keep asking me "what's she saying now?" I guess my suggestions that "she doesn't like that when you [jump on her, hit her, poke her in the eye, pull her ears, lick her eyeball, etc.]" have somehow brought my kids to believe that I am actually listening to some secret language that only the dog and I share. What is strange to me is why children are so much more responsive to the secret language of the dog than they are to the language I am using with them.

5. Time has nothing to do with a clock.

Both the kids are at different places in the understanding of time, but neither of them are quite there yet on the clock. What they DO understand is that there are specific times for things and they live their lives by those times. When Orion asks what time it is, he will only be confused if you tell him "4:30." What he really wants to know is whether or not it is "snack time" and if he can argue you into it if it's not.

4. Stories ALWAYS begin with "Once upon a time."

It doesn't matter if the story is "Once upon a time, I want soup." If it starts with "Once upon a time", it is a story. If it doesn't, it is NOT a story. Period.

3. A knock, knock joke is absolutely anything that starts with "knock, knock." You had better laugh.

2. Years are not what you think they are.

A year is not 12 months, 52 weeks, or 365 days. A year is "my birthday" and a lot of other days that just don't matter.

1. The dark is scary, but only if you don't have a flashlight.

Yesterday, it took me 30 minutes to get Orion to put his shoes on because his feet were afraid of his shoes. "It's dark in there!" Anything dark is currently "spooky" or "scary". But, the current favorite game is to turn out the lights and sit in the dark, passing around a flashlight, telling stories. Which all begin with "Once upon a time..."

Do you know what's going on?

Are you angry?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/womens-reproductive-rights_b_1345214.html