This just in from Momsrising.org:

Remember last month when we asked you to demand that Congress and the states stop treating part-time workers like chopped liver and provide them with unemployment insurance? Well, after nearly 10,000 of your letters to Congress, the New York Times reported that President-elect Obama and Congressional Democrats are now proposing an extension of unemployment insurance to part-time workers! [1]

Give yourself a high five, then let’s keep the ball rolling, or more aptly, keep that broccoli going down the hatch.

Tell your Congressional Representatives to support the Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act (UIMA) as part of the economic recovery …read more

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 …read more

Susie Homemaker (My Mom) is Coming To-Do-List:

* Steam clean the couches

* Mop floors

* Dust and lemon oil shelves and furniture

* Rake leaves

* Vacuum

* Make a Birthday gift

* Laundry

* Caulk shower

* Clean bathrooms

* OxyClean Zack’s floors

* Kid’s rooms

* Magic Erasure door jams and walls

* 5 Blog Posts (so I can spend time with my parents).

Is anyone going to do the 6 month Oprah and Peter Walsh Clutter-free Challenge?

I’ve been conciencious about working on the clutter. After the show I put 3 pair of shoes in a donation bag I keep perpetually going.
I’ve gone from this:

To This:

Extreme Makeover Home Edition – with hottie Ty Pennington – is filming in Maricar’s neighborhood.

Maricar is the writer of Keeping the Castle here at b5media.

It will be a rare opportunity to get another perspective of what goes on behind the scenes of miracle makeover television, so stop by her first three posts and then subscribe so you don’t miss it.
Extreme Makeover Home Edition in Mid-Michigan
Extreme Makeover Home Edition: The House
Extreme Makeover Home Edition: Saturday’s Progress.

In other parts of the World Y from Joy Unexpected found no joy when Trading Spaces came to her neighborhood, she found it …read more

You know what I find fascinating?
The religious conservatives, by which I mean the specific people in my life, who have always been the biggest influences on my own Internal Mommy Wars are in full, unequivocal support of Sarah Palin and have no doubts that can be both an effective mother and vice president.
Then why do you doubt that I can be both a great mom and fulfill my professional ambitions using the gifts and the calling God gave me? I wondered, as I lay sobbing during one yoga practice last week. If there is some distinction between …read more

I don’t mind cooking. It’s growing on me actually. I like to create and be creative and I’m actually a pretty dang good cook.
I tend to make food I wish I were rich enough to order in a restaurant every night.
I’m going to share my cooking trick with you:
Google your ingredients.
Go to the Google search window and enter whatever ingredients you already have: tomatoes + asparagus + chicken or beef + broccoli + mushrooms.
The results will be delicious and you won’t have to think of a recipe to cook. Which really, is the worst …read more

This just in from AAAUW, American Association of University Women:

Thanks to the tireless work of AAUW members and supporters for more than a decade, the House of Representatives passed (247-178) the Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 1338) last week.

All Democrats present voted for the bill, and 14 Republicans crossed the aisle to vote yes in favor of equal pay. See how your representative voted, and contact your representative about their vote. Thank the representatives who supported the Paycheck Fairness Act. Express your extreme disappointment to those representatives who voted against this bill, and urge them to support pay equity legislation …read more

Today is the last day of my family vacation. My brother, who I only see once a year, left this morning. My other brother, who I only see once a year, left last night.

Bitter. Sweet.

Sweet cause I did get to see them and we’ve had a great time with virtually no drama – but bitter because I have to leave them and won’t see them for a year. SAD.

But really, really bitter because I have to DRIVE home. UGH!!!

I do. not. want. to. drive. home.

Even in a black shiny Chevy Tahoe Hybrid with XM radio and a DVD player and …read more

Dear Kate Gosselin,

I’m a huge fan (I watch for you, not for the kids) and I think you really should be Time’s Person of the Year, as I suggested and you should win an Emmy because you’re have about the only show on TV I can still watch with my kids.

After the most recent cupcake episode where you very tensely said you didn’t want the kids to put the frosting on so they wouldn’t get dirty . . . well, I want to offer you a little advice about dirty kids. Not because I think you should be perfect – …read more

I was checking my statistics for Blog Fabulous when I noticed my story Anal Retentive Compulsions in 2008 was still being read. How’s that for accountability?

That was my story where I declared my New Year’s Resolution to get be so organized I could be classified as anal retentive compulsive, you know like Kate Gosselin and my mother.

It’s July. I looked around my office and the exact same pile of clutter was shoved in my drawer. The same exact pile of “get to this later” was in the same basket it’s been in for literally YEARS. Still no filing system. …read more