Coffee Addicted Mommy - parenting

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Coffee Addicted Mommy

WEB ADDRESS: http://coffeeaddictedmommy.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Pull up a chair, grab a cup of coffee, and let's chat! Are you a mom with a sense of humor? Then you will LOVE this blog!

MY REVIEW:
These days, raising kids is more stressful than ever. Moms and moms to be will enjoy this blog about what it takes to raise a kid in today's world.

The ever so sacred Girl's Night Out
Before I was a mother, I rarely felt the need for a girl's night out. Although I worked 40+ hours a week, I was perfectly content to spend the weekends and evenings at home. Home was my break, my rest place. Yes, I had some light housework to do, but frankly, there wasn't much. Since I hate cleaning and we lived on two salaries, we had a cleaning lady. So, other than laundry, cooking, and whatever school work I brought home, I spent most my time at home relaxing.

I spent a lot of time with hubby. On weekends, we'd either go out on dates, go to parties, or on double dates. About once every few months, I'd go out and grab a bite to eat with a girlfriend, see a chick flick, or go shopping with my mom, mother-in-law, or sister-in-laws.

If I did need some quality girl time, I could always travel! About 6 years ago, my sis and I took a sister's trip to San Francisco. Also, about once or twice a year, I'd travel to go see some of my closest girlfriends. We are all spread out now in places like New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

A regular girl's night out was just not in place back then. Probably because I knew I could go out whenever I wanted.

Now I am a stay at home mom. Home is my work place and my rest place. Who am I kidding? Mostly my work place! This fact really hit home yesterday.

After spending 3 hours practicing animal cupcakes (pics posted on my FB page!! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Coffee-Addicted-Mommy/277475352313970), I picked my son up from preschool. I coaxed him into the car without a fight (phew!), and gave him his lunch to eat in the car. When we got home, the tantrums began. He didn't want to get out of the car so just getting him inside the house was challenging. Once I got him in, it was just about time for nap. Enter: the naptime battle. After I finally, FINALLY, got him in his bed and closed the door, I breathed a quick sigh of relief and started tackling my to do list.

First on the list is always: eat lunch. Yes, I have to put this on my list. By this time, it was about 2:00pm and I still hadn't eaten. As I sat down to eat my lunch, I noticed the baby monitor going crazy. I could hear the thumping sound of my child jumping on his bed. I could also hear his loud chipmunky voice singing at the top of his lungs. "I'll give him until 3:15", I told myself, "Maybe he'll fall asleep by then!"

After over an hour and numerous check-ins, I realized this kid wasn't going to sleep. I was so tired I could barely keep my head up and had not gotten to anything on my to do list!!! SO FRUSTRATING!

Fast forward to 6:00pm. I was looking forward to getting A to bed early since he skipped nap. I fed him dinner and was about to start on dinner for hubs and I when the phone rang. It was the hubby, telling me he'd be late.

Ok, breathe in, breathe out. This meant I'd now be responsible for every single nighttime battle too. Just the fight to get him into the bathtub resulted in a 30 minute tantrum and crying spree. (The boy, not me, although I seriously thought about crying too!) Eventually I got him in the bath and ready for bed. For some reason, he didn't want me to leave his room at bedtime so he decided to cry and scream then too. Luckily, the child must have been so exhausted that he quickly passed out.

About 7:45, I finally sat down and ate a bowl of cereal for dinner. The hubby showed up around 8:30pm and of course, everything was done. When I told him I had a bad day, he just couldn't fathom it. According to him, I didn't have to go to work and I got a 3 hour break in the morning while our son was in preschool, so how could my day had been bad?

How indeed????

Back to my original topic: girl's night out. As you can see from the story above, I now LIVE for girl's night outs. Or ANY girl time I can get! It's become such an important part of my life. I live for the chance to dress up and have a peaceful meal (and wine!!!!) with my closest friends. I know most of my momma friends feel the same way.

How far would you go for a girl's night out? Would you risk your life?

I did.

A few weeks ago, I found out my sis was coming to town for President's Day weekend. She is 13 months younger than me and my best friend. I love to go out to dinner with her when she visits. This time, I decided to invite two of my momma friends along. We spent the entire week before talking about how excited we were to get out and go to one of our favorite sushi restaurants.

The night finally arrived. The whole day there had been miserable weather and there was a chance of snow at 9pm that evening. Around 5pm, it started snowing. "Dammit!" I thought.

"I hope my friends don't want to cancel!" I told my sister, "I'll text them, but I doubt they'll cancel. One has three kids, one has two under the age of 3! I'm sure they need to get out. Besides, the roads don't seem too bad."

I texted both of them and lo and behold, both mommas still wanted to go out. Sis and I barely thought twice about our decision to go. The snow was light, my sis has an SUV, and we're from the North so we KNOW how to drive in snow.

As we drove towards the restaurant, the weather got worse and worse. Still, I didn't even think about turning around. We were so close to our GNO and we'd been looking forward to eating sushi ALL week. When we went to get off the exit, the car was swerving all over the place. You see, in the south they are not prepared for bad weather so the roads are not taken care of as swiftly as they are in the north.

The roads were so bad, I called my friend and told her we were going home. (The other momma was in the car with us). Although she was already at the restaurant, she agreed. We drove 20 miles an hour back to my house. It took us about an hour and it was the longest hour of my life. The roads were slick and the snow and ice were still coming down.

At the time, I saw my life flashing before my eyes. Now I just think it's hilarious that we were willing to put our lives in jeopardy just for the chance of a nice 2 hour meal without the hubbies or the kids. Not that I blame us. Girl's night out really is that sacred.

By the way, we've rescheduled dinner for this weekend. There is a zero percent chance of snow. ;)

RECENT POSTS:
--The ever so sacred Girl's Night Out
--The MOM code: It takes a village
--Nailed it!
--Valentine's Day!
--Stay-at-home NOTHING
--Why can't we all just get along? by: guest blogger...
--Bladder after baby
--TEN Million Moms
--Naptime-a mother's holy grail!
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New reviews published twice a week.
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Check out my kindle BOOKS!:
Whose Body, by Dorothy Sayers (the Annotated Edition)
The Coldest Equations (science fiction)
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
The Lady and the Tiger...Moth

Dancing Fields (traveling, family)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Dancing Fields, by Anastasia Stanmeyer

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.dancingfields.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Writer Anastasia Stanmeyer muses about life and finding the extraordinary out of the ordinary. Her witty, insightful writing comes from the perspective a mother of three, world traveler and professional writer who lives on an organic farm in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts.

Description of the author from her blog:

My name is Anastasia Stanmeyer. I’m a writer by trade, by default, by purpose. I’m also a lot of other things: journalist, gallery owner, wife, mother of three, dog owner (two times over), chicken owner (30 or so hens with one very protective, chest-butting cock), organic vegetable grower, all-around farmhand, PTO (not PTA, although the same idea) director, cultural council member and the list goes on. I also spend my time driving around quite a bit, with one son passionate about trumpet (private lessons), another son just starting piano (more private lessons), art programs squeezed in for both boys, and our littlest one finally going to preschool. So where does that leave me? Right here. Writing. Back (finally) to exploring my world, both inner and beyond. And realizing, once again, my fodder is endless.

I find that the similarities and the challenges are many between myself and my contemporaries. We’re faced with the daily grind, the triumphs, the valleys, and all the while don’t want to lose our voice and our individuality as we divide ourselves into the many pieces that get distributed by our obligations.

My life has changed dramatically. For twelve years, I lived in Asia (Hong Kong and Bali) and traveled throughout the region, writing stories of human trafficking and the AIDS epidemic, meeting with Mother Teresa in her Home for the Dying and the Dalai Lama at his Government in Exile, accompanying a Vietnamese family forcibly repatriated to Vietnam, and interviewing sex workers from northern Thailand, Burma, China, the Philippines, Bangladesh and elsewhere. And the stories go on and on. I find my attention now focused primarily on raising our family in the western Berkshires, a dramatic shift in life, yet one that I have embraced wholeheartedly. I’m pulling back the reigns a bit, though, taking a few steps back and looking at myself and what’s going on around me as an observer. And writing about it, because that’s what I do. And that’s what I need to do, for my own peace of mind. And sanity.

MY REVIEW: I enjoyed the blog a great deal.

The author writes well - as may be expected since she's a professional author - and takes the reader on a variety of journeys - both physical and mental.

If you're interested in travel, in family, in the human experience, you'll enjoy this blog.

Sample post
(At least, one half of one):

The RV, Walmart and entering darkness
I’ve been on the road for the last four days on another planet. OK, you’ve heard that before. And, OK, maybe I didn’t cross any national borders or break through the outer atmosphere into another planetary dimension. But I did cross several time zones yet remained on the same land mass.

We were long overdue for an adventure. We decided to hit the road for two weeks, leave the dogs and the chickens and the nearly ripened vegetable gardens in the very capable hands of a young friend and avid rugby player named Greg. Where were we to go? Quite honestly, we wanted to go back to Bali, to visit our old friends and neighbors, and to take the kids on a memorable journey across still-active volcanoes and pristine terraced rice fields. We wanted to return to where was once our home.

That didn’t happen. Instead, we found ourselves smack in the middle of a Phoenix, Arizona, in record-temperatures of 115-plus degrees. It was the kind of heat that was foreign to us even though we lived in subtropical Bali. It was the kind of heat that smacked you when you walked out of the hotel room, and the shade gave no relief.

Overnighting at a Phoenix airport hotel that I cashed in with our airline points, we hit the road the next morning after making a stop at CruiseAmerica. (I quickly realized that their RVs are everywhere on the road in this part of America, easily identifiable by the blatant U-Haulesque advertising on all sides of the exterior that includes a website address and 1-800 number. This was a far cry from our farm setting in the Berkshires.) From the outside, we didn’t know how we could fit five people and an overwhelming amount of luggage in this vehicle. We even asked for a larger size RV, but they were all rented. Surprisingly, once inside, this glorified minitruck was roomier than our first apartment in Asia, a 100-square-foot flat in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. When I put things in perspective, they become much easier to accept.

RECENT POSTS:
--Devils Garden
--Coming of Age at Monument Valley
--A Wasteland or the Promise Land?
--Music for the Road and Grand Canyon for the Soul
-The RV, Walmart and entering darkness
--DUM ditty DUM ditty DUM DUM DUM…

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Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
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Check out my kindle BOOKS!:
Whose Body, by Dorothy Sayers (the Annotated Edition)
The Coldest Equations (science fiction)
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
The Lady and the Tiger...Moth

Typecast (parenting)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Typecast

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.iamtypecast.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Typecast is not your average parenting blog. In fact, the title is somewhat of an oxymoron. The author, Nickie, is a young grandparent with a a myriad of life experience and is trying to break the mould of typical parenting. With a grip on social networking and a honest approach to everything, each update on the Typecast blog will leave you wondering how Nickie manages to cram it all in.

Nickie OHara is wife to one, Mum to three and Nana to two. She is trundling through life, coping with whatever is thrown at her. She works full time, is studying for a degree with the Open University and tap dances in her spare time.

MY REVIEW: This is a fascinating parenting blog - not for young parents who have toddlers but even more difficult, parents who have teenage children! The author lives in England so, for American reades, it will take some getting used to (we speak American, they speak English!) but it is certainly a fascinating read.

Sample post

Too Accommodating?
from Nickie @ Typecast
Earlier today I had agreed that a friend of the youngest of my brood could have tea and stay the night. They had been to Halfords earlier in the afternoon, eyeing up some mag wheels for BMX bikes (aside: I love how his priorities have changed since going to high school. A few months ago he was happy with an hour on the park and an ice cream from the corner shop), called in at his friend's house to pick up a change of clothes and a toothbrush but rang me to say that they would be a little later than expected. I asked why. He explained that his friend was having his tea before coming to our house. So I asked if Jake was being invited to eat too as we were ordering take-out a little later but he said that he wasn't. He simply hadn't been asked if he wanted anything to eat. Am I alone in thinking that is unusual?

When I was younger, being invited to a friend's house for tea was a rare occurrence and considered a treat. You planned for what seemed like ages, talked about it excitedly and usually went home after school with said friend rather than setting off on your usual route home. A sleep-over was even rarer, almost non-existent.

There has always been a constant stream of stray and random children through our house. I've enjoyed having the children's friends over at our house, more so that I knew where they were and there was no excuse for wandering the streets aimlessly. I wasn't an Enid Blyton mum - there was no freshly squeezed lemonade made by Cook - but the contents of the biscuit tin usually took a bit of a beating. We had little tea parties for friends after school occasionally and birthday parties were always fairly traditional; at home, party food, games and a cake. I have no shame in admitting that it was because we could never have afforded soft play parties or magicians. A minimum of £100 before birthday presents? Plus, we were different by having these parties at home.

Recently habits seem to have changed. I know my children are a bit older now (the two at home are 17 and 11) but at weekends it appears to be the norm to be asked if so-and-so can stop for tea or if Mate X can stay overnight. I know I have probably made a rod for my own back by saying "Yes" most of the time but it seems to be happening almost every weekend now. They don't want to be out hanging around on the local park in the dark or getting drunk on the bowling green- for that I should be grateful, I suppose. Maybe I am the unusual one for being so accommodating?

RECENT POSTS:
--What is a QR Code?
--Parenting 101? Not in this house.
--To Have And To Hold, Until Death Do Us Part.
--Cybermummy Sponsorship Required
--Looking Back Over My Shoulder

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Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
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Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure HuntersRush Limbaugh Report

More Than Just A Mother (Parenting)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: More Than Just A Mother, by Elinor CArlisle

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.morethanjustamother.com

BLOG DESCRIPTION: A no holds barred account of parenting, this blog is not for the faint hearted. With posts about recycling vibrators, having crushes on other mums and that infamous account of needing a wee on the motorway, this blog is for all those women who are more than just mothers.

Emily Carlisle lives with her husband and three small children in the Cotswolds. She is a freelance writer and has just finished her first novel.

MY REVIEW: This is a fun blog, both for parents and for people who don't have kids but like to read reviews of various computer items (such as the Hexbug). The author is based in England (for about a year I believe blogs available for subscription on Amazon were strictly from the US, but for the last few months, British blogs have been available, and people from the UK can subscribe to all blogs, as of course can people from the US.)

The author writes well (indeed, she is a professional writer, having just finished a book) and is amusing. So check it out.

Sample post

Why doing reviews could be bad for your bank balance

Next year I'm going to be cutting down on the number of reviews I do on the blog. This is in part because the last product I reviewed, the Hexbug Nano, cost me £160. With an individual Hexbug retailing at just £8.99, that can't be good business sense.

The Hexbug Nano is a battery powered micro-robot which scuttles about your floor like a cockroach on acid. When it meets a barrier - or another Hexbug - it changes path and hurries off in another direction. When it's flipped on its back the Hexbug will simply right itself and carry on regardless. It's unstoppable. These collectible fellows work by the power of vibration, so they make an intense buzzing noise as they scurry about your house. Geeks will love them - there's all sorts of collectible stuff you can do online to find and register particularly rare Hexbugs. They are perfect stocking fillers and great gifts for guys.

When they arrived I turned each Hexbug on and scattered them on the floor. The children squealed delightedly and chased after them; I couldn't help but lift my feet up onto my chair - they're just a little bit too realistic for me... The kids built Lego mazes for them, they tried them out on the kitchen table, the bathroom floor, the hearth - which is where it all started to go wrong.

Quick as a flash my son's Hexbug scuttled into the fire place and through a tiny gap in the gas fire. Immediately the entire grate began to rattle as this malevolent toy vibrated its way through the hollow frame, the noise growing steadily until it sounded as though a thousand centipedes were tap-dancing on a tin roof. My husband looked at me in horror as I grabbed the Hoover and tried to suck it out, to no avail. He bent a wire coat hanger and fed it into the gap where we'd last seen the Hexbug, but it was useless.

Two hours later, having taken the fireplace apart and still not located the Hexbug, we admitted defeat and grabbed the yellow pages. The engineer was far from reassuring.

"If it's gone up the gas pipe you've got real problems - we could have to evacuate the street."

He came out to us straight away. Well, so would I if I charged £160 for my mere presence. The Hexbug was lodged in the entrance to one of the pipes and was retrieved with a pair of pliers.

And that is why doing reviews could be bad for your bank balance.

I've got five Hexbug Nanos to give away to readers of More Than Just a Mother, so just leave a comment below to enter. If you want to double your chances of winning, just tweet "I've entered the #HEXBUGUK giveaway with @MTJAM". Oh - and keep them away from the fireplace.

RECENT POSTS:
--Having a Mummy Crush
--Frost
--The End
--I smell dead people
--On the twelfth day of Christmas my children sent to me...

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NEW Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Retro Reviews published Tuesday and Thursday.

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Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

Susan Katz Keating (politics)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Susan Katz Keating, by Susan Katz Keating
[Note that the blog is listed twice, one as $1.99, the other as .99. I've given you the link to the 99 cent version!]

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.susankatzkeating.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Sometimes serious, other times snarky: Author, national security insider, and Expert marksman Susan Katz Keating on PTSD, FUBARs, brilliantly executed missions, and much more.

MY REVIEW: Susan Katz Keating is the author of Prisoners of Hope:: Exploiting the POW/MIA Myth in America in 1994, as well as Women of the West, Native American Rivalries (Native American Life), and Saudi Arabia (Modern Middle East Nations and Their Strategic Place in the World).

She's a Republican, I'd wager, and supports the troops. Check out her blog, it's pretty interesting.

Sample post:

What Next From Saudi Clerics? Adult Breastfeeding Edict Boggles the Mind
Flat-out nuttiness from Saudi clerics: women should breastfeed adult male non-relatives. That way, the men become family members, and it's okay to mingle with the chicks. This is the sort of thing that makes me wonder if dangerous mind-altering chemicals from the oil fields have leeched into the Saudi water supply. How else to explain such lunatic ideas...

RECENT POSTS:
--Courtney Keating on Restrepo: A Guest Post
--Response on That Michael Yon SOS...
--Danish Med Team Needed STAT to Field-Triage the Ranting Michael Yon
--Resisting the Impulse to Hog All the Web Traffic on Chuck's Post: Teaser on Solution to Israel Situation
--What Next From Saudi Clerics? Adult Breastfeeding Edict Boggles the Mind

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Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

Science Codex Climate and Earth News (science and technology)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES, with reservations

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Sciene Codex: Climate and Earth News, by Science Codex

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.sciencecodex.com/earth

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Science Codex posts articles on the latest science findings from all over the world.

MY REVIEW: There are several science codex blogs, this particular one deals with Climate and Earth News. Unfortunately, it's one of those blogs where you do not get the complete entry, you have to click a READ MORE button, which takes you to the web. Now, I'm running Kindle System 3.3, perhaps the new Kindle System update which I have yet to get, fixes this problem. If you've got the very latest Kindle system, try subscribing and see if it works for you. If not, just unsubscribe before the two week trial period is up.

If you're in to science - and in this day and age you should be - you'll enjoy these blogs. It's the duty of every American to become an informed American. Don't fall behind in the technology of the day!

RECENT ARTICLES:
--Cerrejonemys wayuunaiki: New thick-shelled turtle species lived with world's biggest snake
--Discovery - a pattern in Earth's long-term climate record
--Cold atoms and nanotubes come together in an atomic 'black hole'
--Nanotechnologists reveal the frictional characteristics of atomically thin sheets
--NIST researchers holding steady in an atomic-scale tug-of-war
--Early Earth absorbed more sunlight -- no extreme greenhouse needed to keep water wet
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Ms. Cairo writes two blogs of her own:
Winged Victory: Women in Aviation
Volcano Seven">