Visit MSNBC.com to see Nadia Suleman, the mother who gave birth to Octuplets this month.

Nadya, mother of 14 children, the last litter being Octuplets, says she wanted a very large family after being an only child. (Note to my friend Rebecca – let this be a lesson to you – have two to prevent your child from longing for 14.)

There were a few odd questions in the Interview. Do you have the right to have 14 children?

Last I heard, we lived in American and we’re allowed to have as many or as few children as we like.

She isn’t on welfare so just shut up about her “right to have children she can’t afford.” (If she were to go on welfare – so is half the country due to the current unemployment crisis so get over it.) This is America – we ALL “have children we can’t afford.” Gimme a break already. We can’t “afford” either one of ours save for the fact that we seem to manage feeding and clothing them and sending them to school and taking them to the Dr. every now and then.

This woman reminds me of Angelina Jolie quite a lot actually. I think it’s the lips, cheeks, hair. And the love of babies born of childhood and adolescent pain and loneliness. It’s a shame her dream doesn’t come with Brad Pitt or Jon Gosselin, or another hot, dedicated father who loves the large family equally.

Her fertility logic – that she wanted to use up the embryos before she quit so they wouldn’t be destroyed or stay frozen – makes sense. I’ve always wondered why people who oppose stem cell research are fine with in-vitro and then throwing away embryos. It has always seemed a contradiction in values to me. There’s a certain logic in resolving the conflict by having them implanted “knowing” that they won’t all make it.

I mean, obviously she was thinking the doctor would implant 6 and 3,4,5 would not survive and she’d increase her family by 1,2, or 3. The odds of the implantation resulting in two split eggs and all the others surviving are less than 1 in a kajillion.

Has to be an Act of God, you just can’t plan this kind of science. One million rich families could try to make this happen and it wouldn’t.

But, who can blame Nadya’s mother for leaving? Her poor mother only wanted one child so that’s what she had. Now she’s been raising 6 children and her crazy single daughter is bringing home 8 tiny babies. Tiny babies are cute an all but they pretty much equal hard labor.

Welcome to the new profession of Celebrity Motherhood Nadya. I wonder if its queens Kate Gosselin and/or Mommy Duggar sent gift baskets or email tips on how to negotiate with PR people and the media? I’m sure she could use the pointers.

Post from: Blisstree

Celebrity Motherhood – Octopulets Mom Joins Ranks

Duh. Moment. That’s when you realize it’s completely asinine to have not done something before.

You know. Like insist on Equal Pay for Equal Work for Women, including mothers. And if you violate that out of some good old boy mentality or some other equally stupid and archaic reason – then you get sued and lose lots of money.

Duh.

Can’t tell you how relieved I am to finally be able to read that news and not want to kick some sense into my representatives head.

Well, actually my personal representatives – Conservative Texans – still need someone to kick them in the head because they are too stupid to get it.

Gladly, they are currently outnumbered!

Seriously thinking of running against them.

President Obama sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law yesterday.

This means that companies will be held accountable for screwing women out of equal pay for decades and decades.

If I were in an HR department right about now – I’d be checking some employment records and making sure – real sure – I was paying my female workers equally.

Take a moment to tell your Congress Person how proud you are (or not, depending how the voted) that they finally did the right thing by following this link via Momsrising.org.

Also check out the AAUW’s Position on Pay Equity, The group is quite good and giving voters easy access to how their representatives voted on key gender issues.

Gender discrimination in the United States of America stops now. Because we decided.

Image Source: Momsrising.org - go visit and join the rising of mothers in this nation who are finally going to be treated with respect.

Post from: Blisstree

Equal Pay! Hurray!

At our Extended Family Christmas Eve Party on Wednesday we had a great time.

We did stockings and presents for the children.

Then sent them out to play with their goodies while the adults did a White Elephant Exchange and a game of Christmas Bingo.

No one liked the gifts we brought. Oh well.

Most sought after gifts included a lava lamp, a really tacky ugly phone in the shape of a golf bag, and a really nice set of frames. We scored a tool box and an emergency kit. We tried to score a box of batteries.

We spent our Christmas Day at home with our own little nuclear family. Being lazy and learning to use our cool gadgets and toys.

Our big gifts were ipods this year. Running and exercising is a lot more fun if you’re listening to a book or podcast or great music.

All the kids CDs are scratched and skip so they got them too.

We had biscuits and sausage gravy for lunch, waffles and whipped cream and fruit for lunch and wings for dinner. All day we ate as much of my mother’s Christmas candy as we wanted.

My husband and I took turns going to for a run. It was so warm we ran in shorts and tank tops.

We watched Miracle on 34th Street and made popcorn with our new popcorn maker. Half the kernels didn’t pop (my 1970s one pops nearly every kernel).

Zack got a mouse costume which is so very A Christmas Story. We have mice and he always says, “There’s a mouse in my room.” And now there is for sure.

Ainsley climbed a tree and ripped her new tights.

The lid handle broke off my new crock pot.

It was a perfect Christmas.

I can’t wait to hear about yours.

Photo Source: Empowering Girls: So Sioux Me.

Post from: Blisstree

Perfect Christmas

He’s redeemed the whole male gender.

Until he graced the planet I wasn’t sure the rest of them were worth dealing with.

Now, I think men might be all right since he’s joined the ranks.

Not sure what happened to bleep up some men – but, my clear goal is to NOT SCREW THIS ONE UP.

He’s a good one. Inherently good. Abnormally compassionate, sweet, loving, open and kind. Tough. Funny. Smart. No baggage, no grudges.

Did all men start like this? What the hell happened?

Photo Source: Empowering Girls: So Sioux Me.

Post from: Blisstree

Redeeming Men

Last July when I went to San Francisco for Blogher’08 I stopped in a tourist shop and picked up some San Francisco Sour Dough Starter. I gave my mother a package and another to a friend.

I kept a package for myself and began following directions. It said to put the starter in a warm dark place for several hours. So, I figured the oven would be great.

My husband preheated the oven for some wings. Plastic bowl melted all in my Sour Dough Starter and my foray into fancy breadmaking was foiled.

Now, it’s probably not that complicated for Marye Audet who writes Baking Delights.

But, for me it’s proven to be quite a challenge.

My good friends made wonderful bread every single day like clockwork. They gave me another starter.

I decided to get creative and added garlic and parmesan cheese to my “sponge” and pretty much killed it. Don’t add that to starter – add that to dough.

I have ruined 3 sets of starters, mainly because I did not understand the steps that involve “the sponge” and “the starter.”

Maybe this has happened to you before – where you read the directions over and over and over and every time you draw a blank. Huh?

I logged onto

All Holiday Cafe to see if Katelyn Thomas could teach me how to use the starter to make more starter and a sponge, but no. She did have a lot to say about Making Gingerbread Houses, but the kids and I already did that.

They say the 4th Starter is the Charm.

No one says that, but, practice makes perfect, right?

When my friend gave me the last starter and announced there could be no more because he was moving to Alabama I Googled Sour Dough Bread and found these great instructions by S. John Ross.

And now I’ve been giving bread away all season. It’s so easy to make two snakes and braid them into a holiday wreath or a candy cane. This would, actually make my friend Jen from Jlogged.com very proud. I even took it as a white elephant gift for my Toastmaster’s party and my Vow counselors loved it.

Making dough has also been keeping my 2 year old Zack out of trouble. He likes to roll and pound and squish and smack it.

Post from: Blisstree

Sour Dough Bread

Its evidence of God and Santa if any was ever needed.

Bratz will no longer be on the shelves after Christmas, the courts ordered the molds broken! The name can no longer be used.

More info over at Empowering Girls: So Sioux Me

Image source: Empowering Girls: So Sioux Me

Post from: Blisstree

Barbie Killed The Bratz

I thought Kate Gosselin was the only woman on the planet who had twins and then Sextuplets.

Turns out Betty and Eric Hayes had 2 sets of twins and then a set of sextuplets, one of which has cerebral palsy.

The image of her older brother, Kyle, volunteering to make Rebecca, his charge because he knows she finds his presence calming, was truly one of the most touching examples of a young man, as I’ve seen in a long time.

The difference between The Hayes and The Gosselin’s family style is marked.

One thing I noticed is that the mother, Betty Hayes is much more laid back than Kate who has some sort of perfection disorder. Kate has all these very specific rules about how things absolutely must be for her to be okay. It must be exhausting to live under that kind of pressure.

Because everything must be done just so, the parenting style is to get the kids out of the way and serve them.

Betty, liberated from that, seems to enjoy her role much more. Her kids help around the house. This does make it more chaotic – but, they also LEARN how to participate in the making of a home and it looks like a lot more fun. My parenting style is much more like Betty’s. My children will be self-suffecient and capable when the move out of the house.

And yet, I find Kate more entertaining and relatable.

I, personally, thing TLC’s Monday line-up is the best thing on TV.

I love to see family life in such a positive light.

Some environmentalists believe having such a large family is bad for the environment. I disagree.

I think it’s about the quality of human being you’re raising. Have you seen My Super Sweet 16? Those kids are generally raised in very small families, but they’ve been so over-indulged that they are hyper-consumers and bad human beings.

I’ll take a large family raising good humans over a small family raising bad people any day. So would the planet and its environment, I imagine.

I even enjoy watching Michele Duggar manage her home schooling, ultra-conservative bunch of almost 18 children. Who cares if she believes Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs? She can manage 17 children by herself, while pregnant, with a smile on her face and I heard her children say She NEVER yells. Imagine that.

Another thing I love about these families is the example of marriage. Every one of these men Matt Roloff, Jim Bob Duggar, Eric Hayes, to Jon Gosselin are examples of good guys. Really great men who are devoted to their families. It’s nice. Makes me appreciate my husband – also a real family guy. I love a guy who can say, “You’re a princess who pooped in her shoe. Oh, well, it could be worse,” as he handles his daughter’s diarrhea crisis in a public restroom.

These families – every one of them – can teach us something about valuing children and family and being happy.

They all strike me as . . . happy.

Roloffs and Gosselins

Post from: Blisstree

Twins, Twin & Sextuplets

I would probably use far more expletives around my children if my husband didn’t crap his pants every freaking time and correct me as if I am the “naughty” child and he the parent.

Susie-Do lets her kid say “oh shit,” my husband would flip his wig. Somehow her kid knows not to say it in public. Some people are very touchy about cussing or potty mouth.

Sometimes an expletive is just plain called for.

I’ve discovered that my self-censorship in my everyday life has resulted in my behaving as though I have curse-word turrets syndrome at my book club.

Because I can.

It’s like I hold it in all month and every curse word I’ve held back comes gushing forward during that singular evening with my adult girlfriends. They just laugh hysterically (and probably wonder what I’m like at home).

It’s an indescribable pleasure to let the F-Word fly freely.

Post from: Blisstree

Curse-Word Turrets

I was really glad I took the day off to go on this field trip. Look how much more fun school is than staying home with Mommy.

Post from: Blisstree

Pumpkin Patch W/ My Pumpkin

Zack put the camera down.

Seriously, give Mommy the camera right now.

Give. Me. That. Camera. Right. Now. Or You’re Going To Time OUT!

Photo Source: My 2year-old son Zack.

Post from: Blisstree

Zack Cameraman