The Mamahood

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."