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Mom.Me
Real Name: Niesha Lofing Member Since: May 27, 2009 Last Signed In: February 18, 2010 Blog Views: 786 Send To A Friend Sign Guestbook Add as a Friend
Postponing children
Let's play the name game Feeling frazzled? Try this free family organization tool Children's shelter, emergency child care program to reopen What's for dinner: Succulent scallops with garlic mashed potatoes Local psychiatrist offers advice for financially-stressed families Back talk: Should Jon & Kate just focus on their eight? Theme park brings out the worst in mom's memory, best in kids Free family books, products for readers to enjoy Local author offers glimpse into the unknown world of nannies May 09 June 09 July 09 August 09 September 09 October 09 November 09 December 09 January 10 February 10 March 10 Niesha Lofing is a features writer for The Sacramento Bee, covering family, food and green living. Her blog, Mom.Me, chronicles her adventures in motherhood and the issues facing parents today. Moms are busy - let Mom.Me help make life a little bit easier. 
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Apparently the economy is taking a bigger toll on our lives than just impacting our wallets - it's also causing many Americans to postpone having future children.
Has the poor economy impacted your family's size? I'm putting together a story for The Bee on this topic and would love to talk to you. Please e-mail me at nlofing@sacbee.com. Thanks! Niesha Lofing
Air quality officials are asking local residents to cast their ballots on a name for the new Spare the Air mascot.
The Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District held a contest last month asking children 12 years old and younger to submit their mascot name ideas. Of the more than 150 entries, four name suggestions were chosen, a district news release states. The contest, and the mascot, are meant to help teach children about the importance of reducing air pollution in the Sacramento region, the release states. To find out more about the four finalists, where to vote and how to enter to win a family four-pack of movie tickets, go to my blog, www.sacbee.com/momme
I received an e-mail recently about time-saving tools I could download and print for free.
I had every intention of printing the cute organization sheets, which have clever names like "The Balance Sheet" and promise to make my life less chaotic. I put the kids to bed and sat down to print them out, eager to test-drive this wonder organization tool, only to find that our printer is out of ink. Maybe I should have started using the "to do" sheet the Web site offers a bit earlier. The sheets, which you can download for free, are by Mommy Track'd, a parenting Web site that also sells pre-printed versions and other organizational stationary and tools. I'm told celebrity moms like Tori Spelling and Brooke Shields are fans of the site. I'm going to give the organization tools a try, namely the "Eat Sheet," which allows you to plan out a week's menu along with a corresponding grocery list. I'm hoping it helps out my current, pathetic version of meal planning - which consists of me frantically thinking about what to cook for dinner on the drive home while my two hungry, grouchy kids search their car seats for cookie remnants. In the meantime, check out the free Mommy Track'd planning sheets and post your thoughts here or on my blog at www.sacbee.com/momme . Do you think the sheets are helpful or too plan-tastic?
An emergency children's shelter will reopen in south Sacramento thanks to a major grant from the First 5 Sacramento Commission.
The Sacramento Children's Home received an $853,000 grant from the commission to reopen its South Crisis Nursery, which closed two years ago due to lack of funding, said Michael Kressner, a spokesman for the children's home. The organization also has a nursery program in North Sacramento, which has remained open since 1996. The Sacramento Children's Home and First 5 Sacramento Commission are holding a ceremony at 11 a.m. today to celebrate the reopening of the crisis nursery in South Land Park. Click on the following link to read the rest of the story: www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/momme/2009/06/child rens-shelter-emergency-child-care-program-to-reop en.html
This recipe comes with a disclaimer - this is the kind of dinner best enjoyed after the kids go to bed. Add a glass of wine or ice-cold Pilsner and you have a perfect date night at home.
There's nothing quite like flavorful scallops kissed with garlic and drizzled with a nutty reduction sauce of Banyuls vinegar. I adapted this recipe from one I saw in Bon Appetit years ago, and it has been a favorite in our house ever since. Accompanying the scallops are sinfully creamy garlic mashed potatoes, which get their smooth texture from a double-whammy of sour cream and cream cheese (low fat dairy products can be subsituted for the full fat versions). Follow this link to my blog to get the recipe: www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/momme/2009/06/whats -for-dinner-succulent-scallops-and-garlic-mashed- potatoes.html
Spending quality time with family, volunteering and simply putting family expenses into perspective can help decrease stress caused by the sagging economy.
These are just some of the suggestions offered by Dr. Richard Bermudes, an adolescent and adult psychiatrist with Mindful Health Solutions in El Dorado Hills. With many families throughout the Sacramento region suffering job losses, wage reductions and other financial dilemmas, I sat down with Bermudes recently and asked him for some advice for families on how to cope during this fierce economic downturn. To read Dr. Bermudes' tips, follow this link: www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/momme/2009/06/local -psychiatrist-offers-advice-for-financially-stres sed-families.html Jon and Kate Gosselin announced Monday night on their reality television show "Jon & Kate Plus 8" that their 10 year marriage has ended.
As cameras chronicled scenes of the eight Gosselin children getting cute crooked houses and at a rainy Mother's Day brunch, the couple voiced disappointed remarks about their decision to separate.
"It's just not good for us, for our kids, to be arguing in front of our kids," Jon Gosselin said during the show's episode Monday.
Kate Gosselin said the couple has been "dealing a long time with this," and said her goal with the separation is to provide peace for her twins and sextuplets.
"I just need relief now," she said. "I need to turn the page."
But will that new chapter not include a reality TV show?
Follow this link to the rest of the story and to post a comment on my blog:
to make you appreciate your husband's patience.
This weekend was like an odd reality show. The kind that makes you look around for the cameras and producer, hoping someone will yell "cut." It started with my not-so-brilliant idea to take our little nuclear family Saturday to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. My brother works there as a drummer, and I thought it would be a fun way to spend the afternoon and let the kids hang out with their uncle after his shift ended. What a hip mom, I thought. I started prepping for the day-trip Friday night, getting all of our clothes ready and the backpack stockpiled with the requisite fruit snacks, apple juice and fishy crackers. We bought our tickets and parking pass online (the park has a cost-saving deal going right now, just $30 for an adult ticket) and printed them at home. My husband photocopied our son and daughter's birth certificates so we could prove they are 2 and 1, respectively. We took the kids on a 2-mile walk to a playground Saturday morning to tire them out so we could nap them early before heading to the theme park. An hour of traffic and one Wiggles DVD later, we arrived at the theme park in Vallejo. Where is the parking pass? Where are the tickets? Read the rest of the adventure here: www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/momme/2009/06/theme -park-brings-out-the-worst-in-moms-memory-best-in -kids.html
Calling all families: free stuff in exchange for your feedback.
We get a lot of books and products for review consideration, far more than my family can endure. So, in an effort to interact with readers (and actually see the surface of my desk), I'm going to offer some of it to the first people who e-mail me saying they are interested in participating. This likely will become a routine feature for this blog, since my work space is beginning to look like children's supply store. Check out the goods at www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/momme/2009/06/free- family-books-products-for-readers-to-enjoy.html
Tasha Blaine worked as a nanny briefly - just three months each for two different families.
 She thought it would be like babysitting and afford her time to write. It didn't take her long, however, to realize that spending about 50 hours a week with a 1-year-old was a hard job, and one that would result in an overwhelming attachment between her and the little girl."When you're working as a nanny, you're taking care of their intellectual and emotional development too," said Blaine, who lives in South Land Park. Though the work was more complex than she envisioned, it opened her up to a world she had never before seen. One that inspired her to write a book about the lives of nannies which, despite having just been released last week, is gaining national attention and acclaim. "Just Like Family," (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $25, 336 pages) takes readers into the lives of three New York nannies and the families they work for, and on a deeper journey through the nannies' personal lives and the struggles they endure. To read more of this story, go to my blog, www.sacbee.com/momme Blaine also will be reading an excerpt from her book at 2 p.m. Saturday at Avid Reader at the Tower, 1600 Broadway, Sacramento. |
