been there

A new Jen Lemen poster

In case you don't know Jen Lemen, she's one of our favorite blogger / artist / soul sisters, and she's created a poster, called Today is a New Day, for CoolPeopleCare. Isn't it beautiful?!?

It's available on Etsy for a week, so go buy one for yourself and one for someone on your holiday shopping list. And while you're at it, you might want to pick up her zine Beginnings. It's wonderful, and I just ordered a whole bunch to give to everyone this year.

And now that you've admired her art and writing, and checked off a bunch of people on your holiday shopping list, go read "No Love Left in the World" on her blog for an extra bit of inspiration today.

The case for informed optimism

This is such an interesting talk from TED:

My homemade Christmas

This year, thanks to Brandie's brilliant idea on The Motherhood, I embarked on a "homemade Christmas" journey.

I love the idea but, oh my, it is both a blessing and a curse, in the most profound sense.

I am truly OCD about the jewelry making, and if I talk about "Sculpey" anymore my husband may send me away. Don't get me started on Decoupage. Or the minatures stuff I am trying to build. Arrrrghhh.

Let's just say I am not naturally crafty. This state of being is a stretch for me and my abilities. But it does have the potential to be worth it, I think.

I'd post pictures of my projects in progress, but my mom reads this blog and I don't want her to see her presents. : )

I am breaking a bit of the rules with some of the gifts, like Pic Pads and photo books (Mom, please ignore), but I NEED MORE IDEAS. I don't have enough to give to my kids and I.don't.want. to.cave.to.the.electronic.ToysRUs.Gods.

Internet, PLEASE give me some brilliant ideas on homemade gifts that children who are consumed by pop culture might appreciate.

If you do, I'll send you a homemade bracelet. A pretty one. Promise.

The BlogHers Act Mini-Site is Now Live!!!!!

Cross-posted at BlogHer: Here is something wonderful to be thankful for -- the new BlogHers Act landing page is live!

The first step is to visit the site dedicated to all things BlogHers Act: Global Maternal Health and take the pledge to save women's lives - by promising to blog about the issues, donate time, donate money or take action -- or all of the above!

Please add the BlogHers Act widget to your site and remember to check back and blog about our monthly topics. This month we are encouraging bloggers to get behind the global issues in maternal health. Take a look at the left side bar on the BlogHers Act mini-site, there are so many resources to be found just through those links alone! Education on the maternal health issue is a huge component of our campaign, so let's get the word out and blog!

Lifelines

Ever wonder how different your life is from that of a woman half a world away, or how similar? The UNFPA has created a new web tool, called Lifelines, to give us a bit of insight into our common, and very different, milestones. Americans for UNFPA describe Lifelines as " a communal space where women can share their life experiences and learn from the experience of others."

With Lifelines, you can put in statistics about your own life - like education, marriage, jobs, relationships and family -- and compare your lifeline to those of other women around the globe. Or you can simply surf and compare the lifelines of women already in the database. The findings are fascinating, especially when looking at maternal health.

One woman in her 40s in Uganda, with little education, has 10 children, has been married since age 18 to someone who "picked her" and is a grandmother several times over.

Anika Rahman , who runs Americans for UNFPA, wrote a blog post for the Huffington Post in which she said:

It's troubling to me that when many Americans think of Africa, Asia and Latin America they only have visions of turmoil and trials. Our TV screens are riddled with images of women starving to death, dying of AIDS, raped by soldiers. The problems seem so far from our own experiences that it makes the women and the seriousness of the situations feel equally distant.

And it becomes hard to imagine that women in Seattle have much in common with women in Senegal or Suriname at all. Instinct might suggest that we are worlds apart, but we all grow up with dreams. We all contemplate marriage and children in some way. And often, we love, laugh and cry at similar situations and celebrate similar passages through life.

… Through Lifelines you can read the story of a 60-year-old from Cambodia whose first job taught her to sew and today she helps victims of domestic violence learn to do so as a means for economic sustainability. You can read the story of an 87-year-old from the U.S. who had her first child at age 27 and safely delivered 7 children in her lifetime. And you can compare your experiences to these and other women in the world.

Womens eNews carried a story highlighting funding for maternal health initiatives around the globe, and linking to Lifelines.

The Pennsylvania Governor's Conference for Women

This week I had the honor of being a panelist at the Pennsylvania Governor's Conference for Women, a gathering 6,000 women strong in Philadelphia. It was really well done - professional, well organized and seamless.

On the panel with me were two AMAZING women, Cali Williams Yost, of Work + Life Fit, Inc. and Debbie Epstein Henry of Flex-Time Lawyers.

The subject was Embracing the Chaos, and we had a great time. Cali and Debbie are smart, smart, smart and fantastic speakers.

(The keynote speaker of the whole event was Doris Kearns Goodwin. She is such an incredible person and speaker and I am going to get her new book on Abraham Lincoln, Team of Rivals, this weekend. I really got the sense from her remarks that she deeply, deeply loves the subjects of her books, her enthusiasm and joy about these figures was so compelling and infectious.)

For the people in the audience of our "Embrace the Chaos" session we created a Pennsylvania Governor's Conference for Women group on The Motherhood, full of links and resources about managing work/life chaos, and I hope people use it.

It is an interesting idea to give participants a place to go after a conference, that includes links to material panelists discussed, as well as a place to continue the conversation. It's a bit of an experiment, and I wish I had printed postcards for people, so they remembered the resource. I am keeping an eye on it though, because for anyone who is speaking, or participating in something, and they want to give audience members a post-discussion online landing space, The Motherhood groups really do have all the tools to do that.

League of Maternal Justice and Parent Bloggers Network - Blog Campaign Against Toxic Toys

The League of Maternal Justice and the Parent Bloggers Network have created a Blog Day on toxic toys and we are completely onboard. From their post:

We're teaming up with the Consumers Union (you know, Consumer Reports!) and Parent Bloggers Network to help spread the word about the toy recalls. They're putting together a blog blast to promote the CU's campaign "Get the Lead Out This Holiday Season," calling parents to action with 12 days of safe shopping (11/23 to 12/4) where you can sign up to become a Safe Shopper and help spread the word at your local stores.

Participation is simple. Just write a post on 11/9/07 (This Friday) on your blog about the toy recalls -- how you're handling them, how you feel about them, or how you are avenging them!

Make sure you link blog.parentbloggers.com and the Consumers Union: http://www.consumersunion.org/SafeShopper

Then send your link to parentbloggers@gmail.com by Midnight PST. We'll link them up here and on the PBN site, as well as on the CU's blog: Get the Lead Out!

And if you're feeling extra vengeful, join their Safe Shopper Campaign. They need 30,000 by Sunday!

We are appalled that it's November and these recalls have been going on since summer, and still there's no end in sight ... or any confidence in the toys on the shelves as we go into the holiday shopping season.

And by the way, hats off to Costco, who we hear is going through their credit card receipts and calling everyone who bought Aqua Dots from them to let the families know of the danger. At least one American toy retailer is taking some constructive action.

As to what we're doing. I represented MomsRising at a protest in front of KKR's offices (KKR owns Toys R Us and Dollar General and hasn't agreed to sign a Safe Toys Code of Conduct), participated in a press conference on the same topic (that Lou Dobbs and a bunch of others covered), cleaned out our toy closet - though clearly I'm going to have to go back in and take another swipe at it, and signed the MomsRising petition.

If there are other ways we should be getting involved, let us know!!!!!

Millennium Goal #5

Back in September 2000, all the nations of the world signed on to the Millennium Goals, one of which was to reduce maternal deaths by ¾ by the year 2015. At the time, everyone -- the leaders of something like 190 countries -- actually thought this a realistic goal.

But here we are seven years later, almost half way there, and there's been no improvement on maternal health. Progress is being made on the other goals but, still, every year half a million women die in pregnancy or childbirth and that number hasn't changed in years.

So, clearly, it's time to kick things into gear. And there are some amazing people working hard to make this happen.

Newsweek maternity-wear story in the works

Tony Dokoupil is doing a story for Newsweek on maternity wear and is looking for pregnant women to interview. Here's Tony's post on The Motherhood:

Forgive my intrusion, but I'm a Newsweek reporter working on a maternity-wear story and I have a quick question for moms and moms-to-be. Now that maternity clothes mirror what's on-the-rack for non-pregnant women, how many moms-to-be are simply buying their favorite styles a size or two bigger at regular stores--avoiding the maternity market altogether? If this sounds like you, I'd love to interview you. Many thanks in advance. Tony.Dokoupil@newsweek.com

If you want to be a part of the story, email Tony, and please say you saw post to The Motherhood here!!!!

Update - I just heard from Tony:

I should maybe clarify: When I say that maternity clothes now "mirror what's on the rack at regular stores" I'm referring to empire dresses and baby-doll skirts and other popular styles that pregnant and non-pregnant women can wear with equal comfort and grace. Given this overlap, I wonder if many moms-to-be are just going to their favorite stores rather than a maternity store for clothes. Many thanks for your help.

Check out The Motherhood.com today - lots of upgrades!

We are so excited to let you know that some of our site upgrades are now live on TheMotherhood!

Groups and profiles are now easier to navigate, we've got RSS feeds and badges!

So, please stop by, spread the word, and be sure to put a badge on your blog!