The Mamahood

Bargains Galore

I've always been in awe of my mother, who manages to score amazing deals—like the totally cute, 75-cent lavender dress she bought for my oldest daughter, which has survived dozens of wearings by both of my girls and has likely averaged out to less than a penny for each wearing. My deals tend to be more of the 20-percent off variety. Good, but exactly not setting the world on fire.

That's why I've been religiously following my friend's blog, Hey, Check This Out, where she's collecting the craziest deals, coupons and freebies out there (apparently, she's my generation's mom to watch). So far, I've scored a few fab freebies that will be coming in the mail, and I'm keeping my eye out for some of those amazing bargains that I can brag about to my mom.

Cooking With Friends

I love to cook, but often, after spending the day slaving away over a hot laptop, the last thing I want to do is figure out what to make for dinner. I hear a lot about people who like to make big batches of soups, or multiple casseroles at one time and freeze one for posterity (and preservation of sanity), but I've never been skilled at making that work for me.

But if I could make the meals while gossiping with my girlfriends over a hot stove (perhaps with a nice glass of pinot noir in hand)? Well, that'd be my idea of a good time. That's the concept behind the Cooking With Friends blog, which offers tips, recipes and suggestions for starting your own cooking club.

Another excuse to get together with my friends? Totally worth it!

Cheaper Eats

I always marvel when I hear about the coupon masters, who can essentially get their grocery stores to pay them to take the food off their hands, or the people who are so adept at home economics that they can feed their families on pennies a day.

I'd love to be able to say that my family is that frugal, but despite my best efforts at shopping sales, buying in bulk from Costco, trying to limit prepackaged foods, and utilizing the occasional coupon, we still end up in the $1,000 range to feed a family of four and three pets each month. In part because we've cultivated expensive tastes in our kids. (Our daughters beg for sushi.)

So I was intrigued to read $30 a week, a blog of one couple's attempt to try to feed themselves each week on just $15 a person. They definitely have some recipes I'm dying to try (pistachio pesto, anyone?), but I have to admit I'm a little skeeved by a few of their tactics (i.e. dollar store grocery shopping). Which is probably why I'm paying $1,000 a month to feed my family.

My forays to the farmer's market have actually helped keep our grocery bill in line—other than the occasional splurges from the marekt, llike that fabulous homemade strawberry jam at $7 for a small jar. But I still have a long way to go before I can get down to something resembling $15 a head for my crew.

This Takes the Cake

I'm no Martha Stewart, but even my amateur cake decorating skills far outstrip the "professional" work exhibited on this fun blog. Enjoy!

Mission Declutter

It's too bad that shows like Clean Sweep seem to operate solely out of Southern California, as my husband and I could definitely use professional help shoveling through all the crap that accumulates in our house. And it seems that our packrat tendencies could be contributing to our tendency to pack on the pounds as well...a recent study showed that clutter (particularly in the kitchen) can lead to clutter around the hips.

So I was happy to find the The Unclutterer, a blog dedicated to ditching the excess—and helping you find a spot for everything you keep. I'm planning to keep it on my must-read list to motivate me to clear out the excess. So far, I've reorganized two very icky drawers in my kitchen—including scrubbing out our molasses-drenched spice drawer (don't ask), and replacing the sticky, ancient bottles of Chinese 5-spice powder and oregano with these cool metal tins of our favorite herbs and spices from Dean & Deluca. I feel lighter already.

P.S. Our dishwasher is back in service, after the repairman (who didn't have any dishwasher parts with him, since he's a "washer and dryer guy") cleared out a milk bottle top that seems to have caused the issue. There was drama even that day, as our protection agreement didn't show up in the system, and he couldn't take his own customer service rep's word for it...so he couldn't start work on the dishwasher. They were finally able to shoot the info to him on his computer after he had gotten into his van and started to pull away. Yes, Sears still sucks.

Free Money!

If you haven't signed up for Ebates yet, now's a good time. (If you haven't heard of it, it's a site that offers discounts at various e-tailers, and you get a nice fat check every quarter of all the money you've saved...I earned $14 in my first quarter with them.) But if you sign up now through February 14th, they'll double their usual "signing bonus" from $5 to $10.

Give it a try!

Santa's Surprise

We keep the UPS, Fed Ex and USPS folks hopping, as we do most of our shopping online. So when the Fed Ex truck arrived yesterday with yet another package, I didn't think twice about it. Except I didn't quite recognize the store as somewhere where I'd shopped. So when I finally got around to opening it, I discovered that I'd won a cute mom-and-daughter set of Karen Neuburger PJs, courtesy of one of my favorite sites, Mommy Trackd. They're sporting the mouse from one of my daughter's favorite books, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and they're so cozy that they're worth breaking my "no mom-and-daughter matching outfits" rule...especially when my daughter got such a HUGE kick out of our matching ensembles.

Nesting Fashionably

We're expecting our second child in oh...about two or three years. (I'm not an elephant--I'm just in a long line waiting for the opportunity to adopt again from China.) So we're starting the long, slow process of turning what's now our teeny-tiny, filled-with-crap spare room into a cozy spot for a little boy or girl to (hopefully) sleep.

And I've become addicted to the blog Nested, which showcases so many cute and unique projects and goodies that I'd need to stock a dozen nurseries before I'd be able to use all of the ideas I love. (This cool, cozy nursery is my current favorite.)

Now if only someone could clear out the old clothes and books (and speed up the wait for our son or daughter), I could really get started.

Cupcake Heaven

Ah, back to school. That means bake sales, elementary-school, bring-every-kid-in-class-a-cupcake birthday parties, and well, that it'll start being cool enough to make baking a little more enticing.

Many of the experimental recipes on The Cupcake Project aren't exactly kid-friendly (tomato with basil frosting, or chocolate-stout), but some of the decorating and flavor combos might lead to some brilliant inspiration before your next PTA event. Or it just might lead you to grab a Guinness and some dark chocolate. Either way, deliciousness.

Calling all mamas!

Anyone else tired of hearing about the "Mommy Wars?" If you believe the media, mamas just can't seem to get along these days, and stay-at-home mamas and working mamas are waging a bitter battle over who's better.

But we don't buy into that. Here in the Mamahood, we can all get along--working mamas and stay-at-home mamas; single mamas, partnered mamas and married mamas; adoptive mamas and bio mamas; soccer mamas and slacker mamas. We hope you'll join us to weigh in on what it means to be a modern "Mama."