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Did you know that Katie Couric has just scored an interview with Sarah Palin? In preparation for this upcoming interview, Katie Couric put up a post and video on NYC Moms Blog and wants YOUR input on what to ask Sarah Palin. Click HERE to see Katie's post and video... and be sure to leave a comment!
Regardless of your political affiliation, this is one interview that you will NOT want to miss......
... cross posted from our sister site, NYC Moms Blog.
My eyes still well up as I think back to the crystal clear New York morning that would eventually have a black cloud forever hovering above it.
September 11, 2001
I lived 200 yards from Ground Zero. My memories of that morning are fragmented and splintered.
I remember my oldest son and my one year old baby were marveling at the glorious blue sky…when BAM! A plane came crashing into the Twin Towers.
The three of us looked at our window in disbelief.
Did we really see that?
Are those flames rising above the Tower windows?
... cross posted from our sister site, NYC Moms Blog.
It's been almost four months since my husband's epiphany that going to a job he loathed, just clocking in his hours until he could finally retire was not the way he wanted to spend the next 15 years of his life. And so, being that he's attempting to redefine his career goals-- or what he wants to be when he grows up, I've felt compelled to break out of my comfortable but not so well-paying freelance writing career and hit the pavement in search of a full-time job.
While I've gone on some interviews, I have to be honest, being that I live on Staten Island, my commute into Manhattan is at least and hour and then some each day-- which means leaving before my kids sit down to breakfast and getting home when they're ready to be tucked into bed. It's the dilemma every working mom faces-- the fact that when you're working full-time-you're probably going to get very little face-time with your kids.
I know I'm hardly the first or last mom to feel this way, and maybe if I had gone back to work full-time after my kids were born, this would be a non-issue for me but the fact is I'm having a really hard time making that shift to full-time worker bee.
Click HERE to continue reading at NYC Moms Blog.
... cross posted from our sister site, NYC Moms Blog.
My hard drive crashed this week, and I feel like I've been enlisted in a detox and recovery program without my consent. If I could take it in for immediate repair I would do so, but instead we had to schedule an appointment days out with the Apple store, and it's likely that an actual repair could take even longer.
The first 24 hours were the worst. I paced around, fueled by nervous energy. I couldn't stop thinking about getting online. Just for five minutes--just a little hit. You know, long enough to tell my online communities why I'm suddenly out of reach. I walked aimlessly through my apartment wondering, What is it that I do, exactly? That is, when I'm not tweeting or checking and replying to email, or writing articles and blog posts.
I had no idea.
... cross posted from our sister site, New York City Moms Blog.
What to do? How to choose? A third? Even a fourth? I’m too old for that I suppose. They grow lanky now my little ones and only need help with homework. They tell jokes - real jokes and have amazing stories of days all their own with me visible only at the beginning and the end. There is much to love in this new realm- many new bits to enjoy. Listening to my daughter recount her sleepover adventures at a friend's house. High-fiving my boy when he successfully sounds out "almanac". We share new books before bed now - more complex stories - making our way toward reading the classics together.
Still those baby days hang both fresh in my mind and lost over eons of growth. I remember the Pampers smell but can no longer conjure it at will. Baby talk and tiny hands. Round bellies and kissably soft necks. Baby food airplanes and potty chairs. I miss it. I loved it. Does that mean I should go back or simply live with the sweet sorrow of its departure? And if I did, would there be enough of me for number three? Would s/he be stuck in a bouncy seat, pacifier in mouth, watching our crazed family rush by like the cars on the West Side Hwy? Eagerly waiting to engage whenever the walk light illums “safe crossing”?
... cross posted from our sister site, NYC Moms Blog.
I never thought it mattered much what celebs were doing. Sure, it seemed ridiculous some of the predicaments they found themselves caught in, but I cared only enough for a minor chat after drop-off or at a birthday party. And, I have to admit, I didn't really understand the big deal with steroids. If ballplayers wanted to risk their lives to hit more home runs, wasn't that their own issue? I'd heard the arguments about athletes being role models, but I didn't really get it. Can't you just talk with your kids about right and wrong? I would smugly suggest. And I did. When Jamie Lynn hit the news - we discussed how having babies was better when you got older. When Eliot Spitzer fell from grace - we carefully discussed honesty and fidelity. When Miley/Hannah showed up on the cover of Vanity Fair - we discussed proper attire for a 15 year old. But I'd never really seen those people as role models - well, maybe Spitzer in a leader of our state sort of way - but well, I was nine when Nixon resigned - politicians are different. In any event, I had it handled, you know, easy. Ha - I can be so naive.
This baseball season, my boy has become a die-hard Yankee fan. Sure, he's watched games with his dad in years past, he's played tee ball for two years. But this year he's taken to watching every game, he holds back tears when they lose, and he reads the sports page in the mornings when he has to go to bed before the game ends. He loves the game and plans to be a "player on TV" when he grows up. And his favorite Yankee? Alex Rodriguez. Who has, in the last week, been linked to Madonna in the tabloids although he has a wife and children. Um, yeah, role models. . . .
... cross posted from our sister site, New York City Moms Blog.
Every Monday morning, I drop my eldest daughter at preschool and then grab coffee next door with my friend Kristin. My 18 month-old focuses intently on her croissant as I peer across the small, wooden table at my friend. My eyes always quickly find their way to the wedding bands hanging around her neck. His wedding rings. Just hanging there.
A month ago, Kristin's husband died of cancer. He had been battling the disease for seven years. They fought tirelessly together, committed to beating this horrible, evil thing. And then one day the call came. He had died. He was 39 years-old. They had been together for 22 years. They have a 4 year-old daughter.
People said well meaning things like, "Well, at least he's no longer suffering." Everyone was so desperate to find some kind of silver lining they couldn't see the pain they caused Kristin with their words. Suffering? Kristin knows her husband would have done anything to stay on this earth with his wife and his daughter. He was not concerned with enormous suffering. He was concerned with living and loving and providing for his family.
I look at my friend across the table and I, too, always fear saying the wrong thing.
....cross posted from our sister site, New York City Moms Blog.
I know a lot of women that are completely skeeved out by the idea of having maternity photos taken, or belly casts made. Not me. I am so proud of my body and my giant baby belly. I love everything about being pregnant, the way I feel about the world and about the way the world sees -- and treats -- me. I even love the comfort of the maternity clothes and the responsibility of making a life. For me, I've spent a lifetime feeling uncomfortable in my own body. I've spent years and thousands of dollars trying to shape myself into something I don't really ever believe I'll be. I have hips and a belly and breasts. I am self conscious from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep, and likely in my dreams, as well. But with pregnancy, I feel like it's the only time I ever look good. It is truly the only time in a woman's life that it is socially acceptable to have a large belly.
For me, pregnancy is a celebration of a body that I have such a hard time loving.
Click HERE to continue reading on New York City Moms Blog........
....cross posted from our sister site, New York City Moms Blog.
The New York Times magazine
featured a blogger on the cover this weekend. Because the Times is my
home page I'd seen the tease for the article but diligently waited for
the paper to arrive so I could read it with my Saturday morning coffee.
I was a little put-off by the languid, self-indulgent photo on the cover but flipped to the page eager to read about Emily Gould,
a blogger who'd been at the task much longer than I. I'm not a regular
blogger - only posting here with NYC moms et al, but I haven't yet
witnessed the downside to this universe myself. One friend has had a
bad (very bad) experience. But, on my end, perhaps I'm too tame, not
"out there" enough but I've been ok. I was curious to read about
another blogger's experience.
So I'm reading along - the article is heavy in the love interest,
navel-gazing department. I'm not that target - being 40-something,
married with children. I lost interest and started skimming the
sidebars for tidbits - but mostly she'd lost me at the break-up with
her boyfriend over a blog post. When I reached the end of the main
section the article directs the reader to a page further back in the
magazine. I opted not to continue. Instead I turned the page and found
myself confronted with photo
of a man propped in a hospital bed, braces on his legs and arms,
pillows tucked under him in various places and what looked to me like a
pained expression on his face. Next to him in a recliner covered in
blankets with two little kids snuggled in next to her is his mother.
Click HERE to continue reading this post on New York City Moms Blog.....
...cross posted from our sister site, New York City Moms Blog. Written by Katie Couric.
Sixty
percent of kids in New York City schools will not graduate from high
school. Not to be a Debbie Downer, but when I read that on the wall at
the Leadership Academy School in Harlem
I was pretty shocked. The school’s founder Deborah Kenny explained that
part of the problem is that quality teachers get frustrated by the
system, having to teach for tests rather than really develop a child’s
interest in learning.
I had heard of the Village Academy Schools in Harlem before I visited. There are three of them including one high school and President Bush visited one last year during a push for No Child Left Behind. He commended them on some pretty impressive statistics; 98% of the academy eighth graders passed the state math test. The average in NYC is 46%. And, by the way, those math scores are the highest in the whole state of New York.
I could tell instantly that the school was different. First of all, they have a silent hallway policy. By enforcing a no talking rule and walking in single file line, the Village Academy can keep control. Kenny, who is also the founding principal, told me that’s where most incidents of violence or bad behavior occur in other schools.
CLICK HERE to see the YouTube VIDEO of the visit and to continue reading this post.
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