Blog Posts by Lylah M. Alphonse

Getty ImagesThe hardest thing about working during my second pregnancy -- aside from the fact that I had four kids at home for a good chunk of it -- was my morning commute. I was constantly tired from either getting up in the middle of the night with my toddler (or, in the third trimester, from getting up to go to the bathroom every 37 minutes).

The second hardest thing about my second pregnancy was the way I felt that the size of my expanding body was indirectly proportional to my value as an employee. That is to say, I worried that people would see my enormous belly, notice that I was no longer walking so much as lumbering, and assume that I wouldn't be able to do my job properly because I was pregnant.

Not that anyone ever said anything like that to me. I'll admit, here and now, that my professional insecurities were coming from within. After all, my job (as an editor at a large newspaper) requires neither hours of standing on my feet nor heavy physical labor. What it does require is

Getty ImagesI keep running lists of things I never thought I'd say as a parent. You know, things like "Don't lick the microwave" and "Pennies are not for eating" and "No, you can't ride the dog." The other day, as I flaked dried applesauce off of the sleeve of my favorite black blazer, I looked at the "Dora the Explorer" bandage on my cut finger and decided to start another list: My top 10 signs you're a working Mom.

So, with apologies to David Letterman (and possibly Jeff Foxworthy), you know you're a working mom if...

1.) You put things you've already done on your to-do list, just so you have something to cross off immediately.

2.) You've lost weight, and you realize that it's probably because all you're eating is whatever is left on your toddler's plate after dinner.

3.) You've gained weight, and you realize that it's probably because you're eating whatever is left on your toddler's plate after dinner in addition to your own meal. More...

4.) You've arrived at the office with the

I love being up early, but I've never been good at getting up early. I'm grouchy and groggy in the morning, even though I'm instantly awake multiple times in the middle of the night if any of the children so much as wimper. (Hmmm... connection, maybe? Nah.)

Right now, in order to get everyone and everything ready for 8 a.m. camp and school, I need to be up by 6. No matter how much I get done the night before, it seems that I still need that much time to get the ball rolling (or juggling, as the case may be) in the morning. This morning was so hectic, in fact, that I'm considering getting up even earlier, even though the idea of the alarm going off at 5:30 makes me cringe.

Once 9 a.m. rolls around, though, I'm raring to go. The problem is that by then I'm usually stuck in traffic on the way to work, crawling along the highway or hugging the speed limit on a winding back road.

Many experts say that figuring out the times of day during which you're most productive is one of the

Getty ImagesMy preschooler has been having a bit of what I call "Mama Drama" lately, usually right before bed (when she knows I have to log on and work from home once she's asleep) or when I drop her off at school (when she knows I'm leaving so I can go to the office). It starts with a long sad look, shoulders drooping, glancing sideways to see if I've noticed. If I seem not to have, she adds a snuffle and a sniffle, sometimes wiping her (dry) eyes for dramatic effect.

You know the effect Kryptonite had on Superman? Well, for this SuperMom, Mama Drama does the same thing. It kills me.

How many times have you written an email, hit "send," and immediately wished you had an "unsend" button?

Maybe you saw a typo in the split second that the email system was processing. Maybe you wrote the missive in a fit of anger, and belatedly realized that it needed a re-write or several in order to be considered anywhere near diplomatic. Or maybe, in that moment the email was still on your screen, before it flew out into the ether, you saw that you had addressed it to the person you were writing about instead of the person you were writing to.

A May post on the New York Times's Freakonomics blog made me laugh and cringe at the same time. Or, rather, the comments did. I could totally relate. I've inadvertently hit "reply all" instead of just "reply" (who put those two buttons so close together?). I've had horrible typos that I didn't see until it was too late (most memorably, an unfortunate misspelling that made the word "count" into something much more offensive). And there has

Getty ImagesIf vacationing close to home -- or "staycationing" -- is the newest travel trend, I'm waaaaaay ahead of the curve.

We almost always stay home for the summer. I say "almost" because there have been two exceptions: In 2003 we drove to Niagara Falls because the kids were complaining that they'd never been to another country (hello, Canada!), and last week I had to research a couple of family travel stories and so we went to an old-fashioned amusement park and careened down a snow-less ski slope on a bobsled and spent a night in a tree house. It was way cool. The kids loved it. My husband and I did, too, but I think that, while the kids came home re-energized after our little vacation, we parents were more exhausted than we had been when we left.

With gas prices skyrocketing and airlines imposing new and bigger fees for everything from checked baggage to warm soda, "home" is becoming a hot travel destination. Hotels are marketing "getaway" packages to their local clientele. AAA

Getty ImagesI saw this great thread in the Frugal Mom's group at Work It, Mom!, about how to save $100 a month, and I started to chime in, but when my reply grew to, well, blog-length, I thought I'd move it here. (At first, I thought the question was how to save $100 a WEEK, and I went all dizzy. But $100 a month is doable). You've already read about how I get the most out of my grocery budget; here's what I do to save a little more money each month:

1.) Bring your own lunch. If you buy lunch at work, and you spend $7 per lunch, bringing your own lunch four days a week (treat yourself on the fifth, if you want) saves you $28 a week, or about $112 a month.

2.) Bring your own coffee. I drink tea at the office, but I love a good cup of coffee (or three). Invest in a sturdy travel mug and commute with your own coffee instead of buying it on the road; you'll save anywhere from $5 to $35 a week or more. (If you can't live without your latte, put some milk in a container with a tight-fitting

Getty ImagesThere were a lot of questions about my food budget after I wrote about how I spend more on gas than I do on food, and so I thought I'd share a few of my family's tips.

So. Ready? Here are five things we do to keep our grocery bill down:

1.) We use our big freezer. We have a huge freezer in the basement. I love our freezer. I buy meat and divide it into meal-size packages and freeze it. I buy extra bread when it's on sale and freeze it. I cook extra meals and freeze them. I roast tomatoes from our garden and freeze them. I make homemade dairy-free ice cream and freeze it. On hot days, I fantasize about standing over my open freezer and gazing lovingly into its icy depths for long, cool hours at a time, but I restrain myself.

2.) We buy in bulk. What, you don't have a huge freezer in your basement? You can still buy in bulk, just buy non-perishables like toilet paper, paper towels, garbage bags, laundry detergent, and stash those in your freezer-less basement. You'll still