I saw this really cute and funny article – kids (2nd graders) answer why God made moms. Here are their answers:

Why did God make mothers? 
1. She’s the only one who knows where the sticky tape is.
2. Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born. 

How did God make mothers? 
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.
3. God made my Mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts. 

What ingredients are mothers made of? 
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean. 
2. They had to get their start from men’s bones. Then they mostly use string, I think. 

To read more, visit City-Data.

Emma & Rebecca working hard on the red carpet.

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl Movie Review

By Rebecca, 9

Kit Kittredge is a girl who is worried about her friends, family and how to make her dream of becoming a writer come true. Abigail Breslin plays the part of this ten year old with great empathy, kindness, sensitivity and perseverance.

Set in the 1930′s during the Great Depression, the movie Kit Kittredge is about a young girl’s determination to become a reporter. When she encounters “hobos” (wandering people who have lost their homes, jobs and families because of the financial impact of the Great Depression), she decides to write about their lives. Kit thinks it would be a great angle to tell their story from a kid’s point of view.

Kit’s family is also affected by the hardships. To help keep their home, Kit’s father goes to Chicago to seek work. Kit’s mother begins to rent rooms in their house to various individuals such as a mobile librarian, a dance instructor, a magician and Kit’s classmate Sterling and his mother.

We also meet two hobo children who work for food doing repairs around the house. Unfortunately, many people in town believed that hobos were responsible for a rash of robberies. It was exciting to see how Kit recorded evidence from each robbery, which in the end actually helped to solve the mystery of the thefts.

Parts of this movie were very moving. I was touched by how much Kit loved her father. Breslin was great in portraying Kit’s shock when she saw her father eating at a soup kitchen. I loved the friendship between Ruthie, Sterling and Kit. Ruthie remained true to their friendship, never turning her back on Kit even during rough times.

There are many light and funny moments too. For example, the boarders had fun putting on a magic show. Joan Cusack (the Mobile Librarian) was very amusing and believable in the role of the scatter-brained librarian. And Grace, the dog that Kit adopts, occasionally stole the show with her sweet and loving doggie expressions.

The many twists and turns in the plot kept me guessing. This is a great movie, with a beautiful setting and terrific actors. You’ve got to see it!

All mothers are working mothers.
-Author Unknown-

You know, when I was younger, I thought my mom had the best and easiest job in the world. She could stay at home all day, cook whenever she feels like it, help us with our homework, read books with us, play with our coloring books. I thought she had the least stressful job in the world. Oh was I soooo wrong. Only as I got older, I realized how it’s the MOST tiring job in the world, most stressful, but definitely most rewarding.

To all the moms out there, here’s to you and your unwavering support and overflowing love!!!

Nina

While everyone I know love summer, I don’t. I don’t like the uncomfortable feeling of being sweaty. While most of the time, it’s sunny and warm from my side of the globe – Philippines is, after all, a tropical country – I love when the rainy season comes.

It’s now starting to rain here in the Philippines. As much as I do miss open-footwear weather, I just love the peace I feel when it rains. I love spending my weekends in bed, with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate.  I love the “relax-ness” of it – no one is rushing to get to their dream summer destination, you don’t feel the need to always be in an air conditioned room. Some might say its “lazy weather”, but I say it’s the weather that is most conducive for you to get to know yourself better. Summer inspires you to go out, go to the beach with friends, the rainy season gives you a chance to take a breath, look into yourself and have a better relationship with yourself.

Other pro’s of the rainy weather? Well for one thing, lower electricity bills. You don’t have to turn on the AC all the time. You save on water because you don’t feel the need to take a shower every 20 minutes. You save on clothes and laundry because you don’t always have to go and get changed. See, lots of perks!!!

Ahhh rain, oh how I love you so.

XOXO,

Nina

When my husband and I got engaged, we witnessed a strange phenomenon. For me, the occasion was mostly filled with well wishes and oohs and ahhs at my gorgeous engagement ring. My girlfriends and sister immediately began speculating at what kind of wedding dress should I wear and how I would do my hair for the big day. My husband however, received entirely different responses. When he shared his news, he received jovial, but not quite supportive slaps on the back, accompanied by little gems of wisdom from his married and unmarried friends. Gems such as, “well, your life is over now!” That’s not to say he didn’t hear positive comments now and then – he did, but not often.

My husband and I puzzled over this. It seemed a strange welcome into the married club. At first we thought, misery loves company, but could all these seemingly happily married men really be that unhappy? It wasn’t until I became a mother that I really understood what was going on.

When I became pregnant with my daughter Maggie, I was overwhelmed with joy and expectation. I had it all planned out! My husband and I loved to go out with friends, we loved to vacation, and a baby was just going to add to the fun. We’d get a babysitter once a weekend so we could have date night. We’d take two vacations a year. One for the family and one just for the two of us. When I would share my plans with single friends, they would nod in agreement, and promise to visit all the time once the baby was born. My married with children friends had slightly different responses.

I’ll never forget how, after I detailed my plan to my then boss (mother of three), she just smiled slightly and said “really, that’s a nice plan”. She was almost smug and I have to say it irritated me! Why couldn’t I have it all? Other people, strangers mostly, began to disperse the “gems of wisdom” that were so generously bestowed on my husband during our engagement.

Some gems, I supposed at that time, were meant to be helpful. “get your rest now, you wont get any sleep once the baby is born”. That was a favorite of mine. Like you can actually save up sleep tokens. Other gems focused on my body. Generally, its considered rude to comment on people’s size, especially strangers. However, when you are pregnant, it seems as though the rules of etiquette no longer need to be followed. Strangers would reach out and touch my belly without asking. HELLO PERSONAL SPACE!! And touching my enormous belly was always followed by heartwarming comments. Comments such as, “wow, you are huge!!”, “are you sure its not twins?” or my favorite, “you look terrible”. I’m not entirely certain, but I’m pretty sure that if I tried these comments on non-pregnant women, id be considered pretty rude. And finally, the return of “your life is over!!”

I now understood the frustration that my husband felt when he was told over and over that his life was over. “you’ll never sleep again”, “you’ll never go out again”, “say hello to sweatpants, and goodbye Victoria’s Secret”. It was relentless. I once again was forced t wonder why people weren’t more supportive. Why did people want us to be unhappy?

I have three children now, and I think I finally know the answer.

After Maggie was born, things changed. Single friends slowly stopped calling to see if we could meet for drinks. There was no more staying out until 2am. There was no more sleeping in on the weekends. In fact, just as people had warned, there was very little sleep at all! We didn’t take that family vacation until 3 years later, and 5 years later, we still haven’t taken a trip without the children. My life as I knew it was over, just like “they” said.

However, the part that everyone forgot to add to their gems of wisdom was that a new exciting life was just beginning. I don’t stay out until 2am, or sleep in on the weekends. I do very little for myself, in fact these days showering every day is a luxury! But the truth is I don’t want to do those things anymore (except maybe shower). Sure, partly because I’m always tired (a state that your body quickly adjusts to), but partly because I would much rather curl up on my bed with my three lovely munchkins and read Go Dog Go!! For the fifteenth time this week. My life as a single childless woman was over, and my new lie as a wife and a mother had begun.

So were the people with “gems of wisdom” really trying to make us feel bad about our decisions? I don’t think so…I think they were, in their own way, saying welcome to the club. Not the misery club as it would first appear, but the rest of your life club. They just forgot to add to the “your life is over” gem that a new fulfilling and exciting life full of unimaginable love and emotion is about to begin. So the next time I’m about to embark on a life changing event. And someone passes on a valuable gem of knowledge, I will smile and say, “aren’t I lucky?”