Momania: A Blog for Busy Moms

I’m so glad it’s summer. I love not having a set routine or a set time to get up. I love the kids being able to pursue their own agendas – lollygagging in bed reading a book, filling water balloons in the backyard, creating a You Tube channel. (Guess who’s making the You Tube channel?)

We love to swim in the late afternoons while grilling our dinner. We love to play card games at night around the kitchen table. We love curling up for movies on the couch after a long day of swimming.

Summer also means travel for our family. The kids love seeing new places and crossing states off our list. We will cross three states off this summer when we visit Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons – Idaho, Montana and Wyoming!

We love being on the open road and seeing the West. (Although there are minivan problems. Check out Tuesday’s blog on our minivan dilemma.) I am excited to get them unplugged and back to nature with hiking and camping.

We’re starting the summer off slowly this …

Continue reading Three cheers for summer: What’s your big plan? »

The Boy Scouts of America decided Thursday to allow openly gay boys to join the Scouts but not to allow openly gay leaders.

From The Associated Press:

“Of the roughly 1,400 voting members of the BSA’s National Council who cast ballots, 61 percent supported the proposal drafted by the governing Executive Committee. The policy change takes effect Jan. 1.

“This has been a challenging chapter in our history,” the BSA chief executive, Wayne Brock, said after the vote. “While people have differing opinions on this policy, kids are better off when they’re in Scouting.”

“However, the outcome will not end the bitter debate over the Scouts’ membership policy.

“Liberal Scout leaders — while supporting the proposal to accept gay youth — have made clear they want the ban on gay adults lifted as well.

“In contrast, conservatives with the Scouts — including some churches that sponsor Scout units — wanted to continue excluding gay youths, in some cases threatening to defect if the ban …

Continue reading Gay boys OK, Gay leaders not OK: Does Boy Scout compromise solve anything? »

A few weeks back the dog groomer told me that my dog was suffering from allergies and needed to see the vet.

I went home and immediately called the vet to set up an appointment for the dog.

I hung up the phone, itched my eyes, wiped my nose and realized that I had needed to see the allergist for weeks but never fit myself into the family schedule. I put everyone in our family before me – even the family pet.

I went to the gynecologist on Jan. 30 and brought home the paperwork to set up an appointment for a mammogram but I never called. The paperwork sat on my dresser for several months until I finally moved it to a hanging organizer so I wouldn’t lose it. But it continued to sit.

I finally made my mammogram appointment Tuesday for today. The last thing I can fit in before the kids get out of school.

During those five months I took kids to countless pediatrician appointments, orthopedists appointments, physical therapy appointments, swim meetings, church meetings, birthday …

Continue reading Moms, put YOU on the to-do list! »

I cannot even imagine the stress and grief of the Oklahoma parents as they try to find their children in the rubble of two elementary schools hit by tornadoes on Monday.

There was an awful description in an AP story:

“A man with a megaphone stood Monday evening near St. Andrews United Methodist Church and called out the names of surviving children. Parents waited nearby, hoping to hear their sons’ and daughters’ names.”

I feel so terrible for those families and wanted to share ways that we can help victims of the tornadoes.

From USA Today:

“American Red Cross

The American Red Cross has several shelters open in Oklahoma and Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicles have begun delivering hot meals throughout the affected areas. The Red Cross is also working to link loved ones in Moore who are OK through a website called Safe and Well. Text REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief, donate online, or donate by phone at 1-800-RED CROSS.

“Salvation …

Continue reading How you can help the Oklahoma tornado victims »

Earlier this year we learned from a study that scanning our “friends’” photos on Facebook can make us feel envious and lonely. And now we learn that social media may be causing an uptick  in plastic surgery.

From Time’s Healthland:

“Now the annual poll from the American Academy of Facial and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS) reports that social media activity may be driving an uptick in plastic surgery requests.

“The survey polled 752 of the AAFPRS’ board-certified facial plastic surgeons on the trends in reconstructive and cosmetic surgery. This year, one finding stuck out: surgeons are seeing a 31% increase in plastic surgery requests as a result of how people wanted to present themselves on social media….

“The survey shows that growth in cosmetic plastic surgery outpaces demand for reconstructive procedures. Cosmetic surgery accounted for 73% of all plastic surgery operations in 2012, up from 62% in 2011. Among the more popular procedures are rhinoplasty, …

Continue reading Would you get plastic surgery to look better on Facebook? »

More than half of water samples taken from Atlanta-area public swimming pools last summer had fecal bacteria, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Thursday.

From The Associated Press:

“Investigators found the gut bacteria in 58 percent of the samples taken from about 150 pools in Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties. They were gathered from municipal pools or pools at waterparks, apartment complexes and clubs.

“Municipal pools — where young children in diapers are common — were worst, with 70 percent of samples tainted.

“No illness outbreaks were tied to the pools.

“Proper chlorine and pH levels should kill bacteria. But health officials advise people to shower before the pool, and not swim if they have diarrhea.”

I was talking to my mom on Thursday morning about which water parks we could take the kids to when we visit Atlanta this summer. I was also thinking about trying to get a limited membership to neighborhood pool …

Continue reading More than half Atlanta public pool samples had fecal bacteria in 2012: Will you dive in this summer? »

A mom recently told me about a scenario at an elementary school where some Mean Girls bullied her daughter. The girls are supposedly the daughter’s friends and the moms are supposedly the mom’s friends. She wrote to the teacher for help but she is afraid the teacher won’t help because she thinks the teacher is afraid of those moms. She knows that the moms had dressed down the teacher about some other incident that happened earlier in the year.

I told her she should give the teacher a chance to respond but then if she doesn’t go to the principal. She is concerned the principal won’t care because the principal is an interim principal who is leaving at the end of the year.

It’s interesting though that it seems like the little girls are emulating their moms – being pushy and bossy.

What do you think? Have you had a case in your class where the teacher was afraid of dealing with certain parents? Do you see the patterns of Mean Moms then Mean Girls? What steps should …

Continue reading Are teachers afraid of Mean Girl Moms? »

Every year my little trailblazer wants a birthday theme that is not readily available at Party City. Long before you could find anything at the store, even the Turner Store, Walsh wanted a Ben 10 Party. Then it was Moshi Monsters. Last year it was Skylanders.

This year, he wants Minecraft. Luckly we now have Pinterest where I can gather ideas for a makeshift Minecraft party.

He basically wants everyone to bring their laptops and play on a server together, but I want it to be more festive and active than that.

I have three activities in mind. One lady showed a painting craft on nylon bags. She let the kids paint a creeper face using a plastic stencil. I think you could do T-shirts or bags if you found the right color.

Another mom used Jello and Rice Krispies Treats and icing to make Minecraft party food, but I think it would be fun to give them those tools and …

Continue reading Planning a Minecraft party! I need your ideas »

The New York Post is reporting that some rich families in New York City have been using disabled tour guides to bypass lines. One of the tour groups named in the story writes on its website that the story is inaccurate. Here’s a summary.

From the AJC:

“The New York Post is reporting some wealthy families are now hiring disabled people to pose as family members so they can jump ahead of the Disney masses.

“My daughter waited one minute to get on ‘It’s a Small World’ — the other kids had to wait 2 1/2 hours,” the Post quoted one mom, who hired a disabled guide through Dream Tours Florida.

“The Post reports the “black-market” Disney guides can be rented for $130 an hour, or $1,040 for an eight-hour day.  The guide will escort a family through the park in a motorized scooter with a “handicapped” sign on it. At each ride, the group was sent to an auxiliary entrance at the front of the attraction.

“You can’t go to Disney without a tour concierge,” said …

Continue reading Did rich moms use disabled tour guides to bypass Disney lines? Have you used a disabled relative similarly? »

Angelina Jolie announced Tuesday in a New York Times editorial that she had a preventative double mastectomy. She learned she carried a gene that gave her a 87 percent chance to get breast cancer.  Her own mother died at 56 of breast cancer after a 10-year battle.

Here is more from the AP:

“The Oscar-winning actress and partner to Brad Pitt made the announcement in the form of an op-ed she authored for Tuesday’s New York Times (http://nyti.ms/17o4A0f ) under the headline, “My Medical Choice.” She writes that between early February and late April she completed three months of surgical procedures to remove both breasts.

“Jolie, 37, writes that she made the choice with thoughts of her six children after watching her own mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, die too young from cancer.

“My mother fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56,” Jolie writes. “She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will …

Continue reading Would you choose a preventative double mastectomy like Angelina Jolie? »