Blog Posts by Dory Devlin, Shine staff

Yahoo! TVI can't tell you how many times I have thanked the heavens that my girls have Tina Fey. The "30 Rock" writer/producer/star of SNL fame makes smart cool, and none too soon.

Before "30 Rock" I was hard-pressed to pick a favorite TV working-woman role model that I'd want my girls to watch week in, week out. Sure, there are all those smart, edgy crime-fighting women on the CSI shows, but where are all the geeky girl writers/students turned smart women who literally run the show?

She's on NBC on Thursday nights. And here's Tina Fey on being a working mom in this week's Parade Magazine:

"The life of a working parent is constantly saying, 'This is impossible,' and then you just keep doing it."

"I think my generation has been slightly tricked in that you're trying to have it all. And sometimes your body will not let you wait as long as you want."

On her concern over her toddler daughter's affinity for Disney princesses:

"All that might creep back into our culture. That a girl would

iStockphotoHear that collective sigh all around you? The week is over. It's time to pour your creative thinking into how to unwind from the work week with some downtime -- without spending a ton of dough. That's what this weekly Downtime post is all about.

My kids are getting older, but they still love the occasional family game night. It's getting tougher to find a Friday night with all of us home. But it's a rainy, cold night here in New Jersey, everyone's home, and game night is looking like the perfect end to a hectic week.

No kids around? No worries. Game night has no age limit. Grab some friends, pull out the Scrabble board, Pictionary, or whatever favorite game will help you ease into the weekend with some good company and lots of laughs.

iStockphotoBlogging Away Debt has a good post about how reading through past credit card statements can make the murky maze that leads to debt suddenly and shakingly clear.

Tricia started writing the blog in 2006, when she and her husband became new parents and decided it was time to end a lifestyle of living beyond their income. They had $37,614 in credit card debt, which is now down to $13,699. Nice going. Her memory was short about the burst of home purchases after moves and buying a new home, but the card statements are pages long to prove it.

"I'm glad that I am taking some time and reviewing old statements," Tricia writes. "Now it's fresh in my mind how we got into the situation we are in and I can work to make sure it doesn't happen again once our credit card debt is paid off."

Wise words for everyone.

These scenes play out more times than I can believe: I run into a friend who tells me in her most awe-filled voice she has seen my husband doing the week's shop at the grocery store, again! Or another marvels at how he has gladly volunteered to carpool a van full of boys to baseball tryouts a half hour away. What a keeper, they say. What a guy.

And he is all that. But it takes everything I have not to say, "What year is this?" I'm constantly astounded that in 2008 it is still a big deal if a husband and wife share child-care, errand-running, meal-making, and house-cleaning responsibilities to get through the week.

The latest round of reports signal we keep moving in the right direction. The Council on Contemporary Families summarizes several recent reports that show men are doing more to help with the kids and the home with every decade: "Men and women may not be fully equal yet, but the rules of the game have been profoundly and irreversibly changed." In one study, a sociology

Some days, personal space in the office doesn't seem to exist at all. Those cubicle walls are really for show, aren't they? You can hear everything going on around you even when co-workers have the best of intentions. And when they don't...well, dealing with annoying co-workers in cramped quarters is tough, but imperative.

Author Stephen Viscusi says you need to do it head on in this CNNMoney/Careerbuilder.com piece.
"Remember, they are peers, not the boss," says Viscusi, who wrote "On the Job: How to Make it in the Real World of Work."

See if you can identify the annoying co-worker you know best. The TMI (too much information)? The Gossip? Then check out his tips for dealing with them. Got your own tips? Don't hold back.

If you're heading out to look at homes to buy this weekend, time, and the housing market, are still solidly on your side.

Home prices have dropped so quickly in many housing markets that home valuations, the difference between what a home is valued at and its actual market price, are the lowest they have been in four years, CNNMoney.com reports.

A report by the Cleveland-based National City Corp. and financial analysis firm, Global Analysis, finds more than 88 percent of the 330 housing markets have lower housing prices, making homes more affordable, at least for first-time home buyers.

If you're selling your home and not getting the price you need to buy a new home, it's not good news. And if you're in the 21 markets (6 percent) where homes remain overvalued, it's as if the bubble never popped and foreclosures are not commonplace.

Thinking about taking the plunge into home ownership? Here's a comprehensive mortgage calculator from Yahoo! Finance to help you square the numbers.

iStockphotoUnless you're as anal as Monk, you know you've got some untended piles of financial papers hanging around, probably where they shouldn't be.

The Motley Fool's Dayana Yochim knows it, too, because even she lets her bills, account statements, and business receipts roam from unfiled pile, to desk drawer, to closet box without any true order.

She tackles "our piles of shame" in this terrific piece, "5 Steps to Taming Financial Clutter," just in time for taxes.

NBC TodayIf you've been thinking about re-entering the work force after staying home full time with your kids for a few years, check out this NBC Today Show segment from this morning.

The piece features a great option if you want to explore several job openings but tapping into your network of past colleagues and friends is not leading to anything right away: recruiting firms like Mom Corps, which focus on placing moms who have opted out of the work force for awhile into flexible jobs that harness their years of professional experience.

Leslie Morgan Steiner, the Washington Post On Balance columnist and author of "Mommy Wars," stops by to provide some tips for stay-at-home moms who want to and/or need to reenter the work force.

Top of the list: Be determined. "You cannot project ambivalence to potential employers or waste valuable interview time justifying your choices," Steiner says. Amen. Check out all of Steiner's tips, and get inspired.