• Our favorite holiday tradition grew out of necessity. It seemed that there was a yearly struggle as Christmas drew near to find ways to keep the kids occupied. When school vacations arrived, too often there was no one for them to play with, and boredom would quickly set in. I can only listen to so many choruses of 'I'm bored' before I feel compelled to do something to distract them.

    We started with holiday crafts. Some were simple, the old gingerbread house kit, while others were more involved, like making ornaments. And while other crafts went by the way side, our tradition of making ornaments each year has lived on.

    The beauty of making ornaments is that the difficulty of the project can evolve and grow with the kids. We began so many years ago with the ready to paint ceramic ornaments from the local craft store. We'd gather some acrylic pain kits and spend a few afternoons making ornaments. They were a nice inexpensive way to pass the time. And, they made for lovely

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  • Each holiday, I find a clever food that I can make with my 3 year old daughter. Since Thanksgiving is around the corner, I thought it would be fun to create cupcakes in the shape of a turkey. We took features from a few cupcakes I saw online and added some of our own. These turkey cupcakes are the end result, however, you can easily simplify them based on your time constraints and what is in your pantry.

    I used my daughter's left over Halloween candy corn for the beaks, tails and feet. The head is a donut hole and the cupcakes are pumpkin with maple cream cheese frosting. Pumpkin cupcakes wound up being a good choice. Not only are they delicious, but the cupcake itself is the same color as the donut hole and the ginger cookie tail (bought at my local grocery store). To simplify the cupcake, you can skip the frosting and the turkey will still be adorable. The cupcake recipe I used is so moist that it doesn't need frosting anyway.


    Or if the ginger cookie tail is too much, you can omit

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  • For the last year and a half, I've been working on a book about the increasing involvement of mothers in the world of politics as a result of our new social media world. When I submitted my manuscript (what feels like a decade ago!), few were really writing about or analyzing the idea of motherhood and politics. I did a lot of research to go along with the essays I'd collected for Mothers of Intention, but it was pretty manageable even in a post-Sarah Palin world.

    Something happened in the last year and now just about every political pundit wants a piece of the pop culture political motherhood pie. Yet, recognizing the actual power of mothers in the political arena is rare. More often when there is commentary, such a crazy idea is scoffed at, unless they're talking about a handful of high profile women, including Palin and some of her anointed "mama grizzlies."

    As I get down to final edits in these days before the 2010 mid-term elections, I've been thinking about what the lessons

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  • Have you ever heard of Project Censored? The group does a terrific job of writing about under reported stories. They are a favorite among investigative journalists and other media savvy people. Well, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month (or Breast Health Month, depending on who you ask) and two things crossed my desk this week that could fall under the category of "Under reported Breast Cancer Stories."

    One is that Black women are more likely to die of breast cancer than white women; they also get diagnosed in later stages of the disease. Now, I knew that already, but what is new here is a study which concludes this is happening clearly because of race, not because of other factors - like, say, not having enough medical insurance.



    Women's e-News just reported that: "Researchers at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. say they were surprised to find that among women with health insurance, African American and Hispanic women experienced greater delays in diagnosing breast

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  • Until you've heard your father-one of the healthiest men you know-say, "It's not as bad as it sounds, but...I have a brain tumor"…
    Until you've heard your father's brain surgeon say, "This is the worst news I could possibly have"…
    Until you've heard your father's 20 other doctors say, "We can't explain why he's still alive and the cancer hasn't come back (or why we can't seem to do anything to improve his quality of life now that he has defied all odds)"…

    Until then, LiveStrong bracelets and t-shirts may seem like the latest trend, rather than the badges of honor that represent overcoming the worst days of your life.


    Until you've seen one of your closest friends stick ice packs down her shirt at parties because radiation has her burning up…
    Until you've heard your doctor say, "We'd better order a mammogram and a fine-needle biopsy"…
    Until you've heard a 16-year-old girl sob in front of hundreds of people at Relay for Life because her mom won't ever see her graduate from high school, or get married…

    Until then, pink ribbons might seem frilly and October-y, rather than the symbol of hope and progress that's so desperately needed.

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  • Want to hear a scary story? 10 years ago I ran my first marathon. It was with my twin sister, Robin, in Dublin, Ireland. A marathon in the year 2000 - how cool is that, right? We trained and fundraised with the Leukemia and Lymphoma's Team in Training. An awesome and amazing experience.

    Fast forward four months later to February of 2001....I was in a car accident on Valentine's Day. The seat belt caught me hard and I suspected some cracked ribs and whiplash. The next day I was checked out at the doctor's office, but came out not with a neck brace, but with a cancer diagnosis. A routine xray had revealed tumors filling my chest - Hodgkin's Lymphoma was suspected, but it would take 3 weeks of anxious testing ("staging") to confirm the diagnosis.

    Discussions about freezing eggs (there wasn't time, my oncologist at Stanford recommended starting chemo right away before it spread to my abdomen and pelvis), worrying about "what if," long talks with survivors who had advice and

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  • I've seen breast cancer try to beat generations of women in my family. My mother. Two of her sisters. My grandmother. All were robbed of some or all of their breasts. All faced their mortality much too early, and came out fighting. All of them beat cancer by fighting it tooth and nail, fighting like girls. Last night I read a post on Stacy's blog about the strength of women as they fight breast cancer. And it's true. We are strong. We do fight like girls.

    But even as I applaud all these strong women in my life for their courage and strength in fighting this horrible disease, I hide like a coward.

    I carry a kernel of fear inside me that flares up in the shower every morning, as I wonder if today will be the day that I first feel that foreign lump,Read More »

  • Its been an interesting thing to be a part of, 31 Days of Pink. It started out as a fun challenge: "Will I remember to do it? Will I be able to wear pink for 31 Days? Will people notice a pattern?"

    For the first two weeks or so, I had a great time. I found about 14 different tops, and vlogged each one. The vlogging part actually helped me, on a personal level. It helped to make me more comfortable with vlogging and seeing myself on video. But, of course, that wasn't the point of this exercise.

    By the 3rd week, I found an old pair of pink earrings, a pink watch, pink sneakers and my pink wellies could, pretty much, help me make it through the rest of the month. The vlogging got old. I can promise you, I wore pink all 31 days. It didn't seem necessary to vlog about it or share it every day.

    Which, unfortunately, is where I might have failed this exercise. The point wasn't to wear pink every day. The point was to wear pink and raise awareness. And while many friends knew to look and

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  • October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but I really don't need anyone making me any more aware of the disease than I already am.

    Both my mother and grandmother died of breast cancer over 30 years ago, and one of my aunts is an oncology research nurse, working on breast cancer.

    So I'm well aware.

    I'm well aware also, that breast cancer, although the disease I hear most about, is not the number one killer of women. That honor belongs to heart disease.

    But apparently heart disease doesn't have nearly the crack team of pr people that breast cancer does, because you'd never know it was the leading killer by looking out at the vast sea of pink ribbons. Breast cancer has an Awareness Advantage.

    I wonder what the point of all this awareness is? I mean, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want women to stop getting mammograms or doing self-exams, or for goodness sake to put researchers out of business. But why not put our efforts behind eliminating the Big Number One for a

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  • Women with children bring a unique perspective to the political process. It's no big secret I believe that and I'd like to think at this stage of the political game, it shouldn't be a surprise to other politicos.

    But one of the candidates for governor in Oklahoma has taken that idea beyond its logical conclusion.

    Republican candidate Mary Fallin actually claimed in a debate with her Democratic opponent Jari Askins, that she was more qualified to be governor of Oklahoma because she's a mother -- that her motherhood status was a "key difference" between her and Askins, who happens to be unmarried and has no children.

    Listen, I'm all about taking mothers more seriously in the world of politics. But it borders on the ridiculous to set aside all other background and qualifications (Fallin is a congresswoman and Askins is Oklahoma's Lieutenant Governor) of these candidates and ask people to vote on the basis of their ovaries and marital status.

    Fallin's remarks made the crowd

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