M.A.M.A. Mothers R Making Art

WHAT: The ProCreate Project, the Museum of Motherhood and the Mom Egg Review are partnering for bi-monthly on-line presentations featuring M.A.M.A. – Mothers are Making Art.

WHEN: The 1st and the 15th of each month words and images will highlight the joy and the challenges of being both a mother and an artist.

WHERE: Online is the place! We will host works of art about mothers and mothers-to-be; featuring academic and creative writing in order to promote women internationally and generate cultural exchanges and opportunities.

WHY: We are determined to explore the extraordinary experiences of mothers and how, by means of channeling these new and powerful energies a person can cultivate both motherhood and art. However, support is needed and awareness must be raised to facilitate this process and to finally empower it.

We strive to give voice to all women, make acceptable room for “feelings,” sensations, and interpretations without judgment; we want to make space for mothers in the arts to display their work and move a conversation about “the art of motherhood” forward. LINK to BLOG and Exhibits

@ProcreateProj  @MOMmuseum @TheMomEgg #JoinMAMA

Project AfterBirth

NEWS RELEASE
Thursday 16 July 2015

We are delighted to announce Project AfterBirth’s:

OFFICIAL EXHIBITION SELECTION

Project AfterBirth presents the first ever international open art exhibition on the subject of parenthood. The exhibition will feature unseen and rarely shown artistic responses to lived experiences of pregnancy, birth and early parenthood, in a variety of visual, performance, literary, film & digital disciplines, by 30 international contemporary artists.

The selection panel spent many days over the past two months viewing the (more than 150) works submitted from all over the world in response to the open Call For Artists, reading through all application documents and deliberating over which of the many exceptional artists and outstanding works on offer to put through.

Due to the personal and intimate nature of the exhibition’s subject, many of the works and accompanying artist statements had a deep emotional impact. This, together with the quality, quantity and variety of the submitted works, made the selection panel’s task far from easy. However, as you will agree from the list of names below, Project AfterBirth promises to be a tremendous exhibition.

Most importantly perhaps, our experiences over the last two months have confirmed how much great contemporary, innovative work has been made and undoubtedly will continue to be made on the subject of pregnancy, birth & early parenthood in the 21st century. As the first ever open exhibition on the subject, Project AfterBirth will only scratch the surface of what is out there. It is therefore crucial that the lingering taboo status of parenthood in the contemporary art world and its perceived inferiority as an artistic subject, continue to be challenged at every opportunity.

It will take more than Project AfterBirth to change things, but through the exhibition and an anticipated (funding dependent) inter/national tour, community engagement programme and research project we are in the process of developing, we hope to make our mark and, along the way, inspire other arts professionals and organisations to adopt a more inclusive approach and develop opportunities for work on the powerful subject of parenthood.

So here, then, our selection of artists for Project AfterBirth’s exhibition:

1. Alison O’Neill (UK)
2. Amanda West (USA)
3. Belinda Kochanowska (Australia)
4. Carole Evans (UK)
5. Chris Anthem (Beirut/UK)
6. Clare Archibald (Scotland)
7. Courtney Kessel (USA)
8. Csilla Nagy (Hungary)
9. Danielle Hobbs (Australia)
10. Debbie Lee (UK)
11. Eti Wade (UK)
12. Geoffrey Harrison (UK)
13. Helen Sargeant (UK)
14. Hester Berry (UK)
15. Ione Rucquoi (UK)
16. Jana Kasalova (Czech Republic)
17. Jenny Lewis (UK)
18. Josie Beszant (UK)
19. Laura James Wray (UK)
20. Lu Heintz (USA)
21. Madison Omahne (USA)
22. Magda Stawarska Beavan (Poland/UK)
23. Marilyn Kyle (UK)
24. Rachel Fallon (Ireland)
25. Rocio Saenz (Mexico)
26. Ruth Gray (UK)
27. Sacha Waters Freyer (USA)
28. Sarah Sudhoff (USA)
29. Tareg Morris (UK)
30. Trish Morrissey (UK)

Project AfterBirth’s exhibition launches at White Moose gallery, UK, from 2nd October until 13th November 2015.

To keep up to date with all developments, please join the mailing list via the form below.

Project AfterBirth‘s exhibition selection panel members were:
– founders/curators Mila Oshin & Kris Jager (Directors, Joy Experiment, UK);
– Stella Levy and Julie Gavin (Directors, White Moose, Devon, UK);
– Martha Joy Rose (Director, Museum of Motherhood, New York, USA);
– Helen Knowles (Director, The Birth Rites Collection, Manchester, UK);
– Francesca Pinto (Head of Development, Photographer’s Gallery, London, UK).

#PrimeMind

A woman whose TED talk on authenticity was viewed 20 million times; a breast cancer survivor who left her career to create bathing suits with integrated prostheses; a raw food expert who saw a need for healthy airport food and did something about it; a woman who dedicates her life to speech therapy for the facially disfigured and a super model who believes Every Mother Counts and fights for worldwide maternal health. 

These are just a sampling of the extraordinary women whose essays and portraits are captured in the PRIME book. The search for engaged and passionate women started simply enough with friends and associates, but quickly expanded as many referred other inspirational woman creating a chain of connections that spread worldwide. The beauty of this organic selection process is that, from start to finish, the women of PRIME are inextricably linked. Support this project by clicking on the kickstarter campaign link. 

Also featured in the book is Mamapalooza and Museum of Motherhood founder, Martha Joy Rose. See her new Wikipedia page here.

Join Us - May is Mothers' Month

JOIN US! May is Mothers' Month:

Museum of Motherhood

MaMaPaLooZa

HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY

______________

Please help benefit the Museum of Motherhood by making your online book purchases using this link:

May 6-15, 2015. Go to (www.bn.com/bookfairs) for ANY book purchase. Click the button “Start Shopping.” To benefit the Museum of Motherhood collect your purchases in the check-out process and in the Payment section, scroll down to the bottom where it says Check this Box if this is a book fair order. When you check the box, type book fair ID# 11455805 in the provided box. Questions about an order: 800-962-6177 Thank You!

Why I’m a digital humanist: I believe in open access, free, peer revel viewed work in the academy (and beyond). My project for Hester Eisenstein’s Sociology of Gender class at CUNY, The Graduate Center is online here.

I will be editing this essay based on your feedback and comments. Portions of it will be highlighted in my thesis (2015).

Electric Mommyland; Writing a Sociological History Through Auto-Ethnographical Art and Music Performance Towards a Deeper Understanding of Everything Mom

Thank you so much for helping to make this a collaborative project. [LINK]

Story of Mum at the Museum of Motherhood

Art and Community Making with "Story of Mum" founders Pippa and Penny Best, and Suzi Banks Baum of FeMail Art at the Museum of Motherhood in NYC.

MamaBlogger365 - Getting Rid of “The Talk” by *Dr Mama* Amber Kinser

I find it strange to still be hearing adults refer to “the talk” when they mention discussing sex with their kids, as if there were only one. As if you could possibly cover anything significant about the human body and desire and maturity and emotion and the entanglements of these in sexuality. Not to mention STDs, pregnancy, parenthood, sexual identity. And forget about constricting gender binaries. Or the problems of the notion of “virgin.” Or broken hearts. These are all critical elements in communicating about sex and they certainly can’t be covered in something as momentary and isolated and awkward as “the talk.”

Click here to read more.

The Museum Of Motherhood is the first and only facility of its kind, celebrating the “her”story of mothers around the world. We need your help -- please make your tax-deductible contribution today!Visit the Museum of Motherhood, NOW OPEN in NYC - Tues.-Sun., 10:45-6:30.

Photo courtesy kfjmiller | MorgueFile

MamaBlogger365 - It’s Simply Complicated by *Dr Mama* Amber Kinser

Mothering is both harder and easier than we make it out to be. It’s tricky trying to figure out, in a given moment, whether this moment is the kind where you should lean toward: this is really not that complicated… breathe… just move forward with purpose and trust what you already know. Or whether this moment is the kind where you should lean toward: not all answers are evident, get some input from people you trust… it feels hard because it IS hard… you are going to make mistakes and this is OK but search beneath the surface to find what isn’t volunteering itself to you. Most moments are probably the kind where we should do a little of both, and this bothness is the great intellectual puzzle of parenting, through and through.

Our children are not going to turn out the way we thought they would. It’s exactly that simple. Even if you are a solid planner and executer of the plan, even if you’re one of the incredibly hip and open-minded parents who thought your plans or hopes for them were loose and totally open to their interpretation, even if you’re otherwise really good at “letting go” and “releasing it.” And, admit it, this fact is pretty disappointing.

And then that other fact—that you have the gall to be disappointed (it’s so some other generation)—is disappointing. You worked so hard to avoid “disappointment” in your mothering practice. It sounds so trite when you hear someone say your children will go their own way that it’s nearly impossible to grasp that you haven’t already accepted it. (I mean look how YOU turned out, relative to what your parents had imagined for you, for heaven’s sake).

Click here to read more...


The Museum Of Motherhood is the first and only facility of its kind, celebrating the “her”story of mothers around the world. We need your help -- please make your tax-deductible contribution today!Visit the Museum of Motherhood, NOW OPEN in NYC - Tues.-Sun., 10:45-6:30.

Photo credit: Ducks in A Row by beglib |MorgueFile

MamaBlogger365 - Celebrating 10 Years of Nurturing Your Success® by Coach Julie, RN

For the past 10 years, I have been coaching, educating, inspiring and motivating you to be your personal best. Ten years! It’s been an amazing time of growth and change. I feel so blessed to be helping you maximize your potential and to be your personal best as you navigate through this lifetime.

Of course, it’s not just about you; it’s also about me! I could not do this work if I were not on my own personal journey toward being and living my best life. Nurturing Your Success was born shortly after my third lay off in 2001. I took some time to assess what I really wanted for myself and my life, how I wanted to contribute to society, and what was really important to me. I needed to define ‘success’ so I could then learn how to create it because the path I had been traveling did not seem to be getting me the results I wanted.

What I learned through this period of self-discovery was that more than anything I value personal development and being the best we can be – we just don’t always know how to be great and that is the focus of my work with Nurturing Your Success®. I also returned to psychiatric nursing, which supports my efforts to help us accept ourselves and be all we are capable of being.

Click here to read more!

The Museum Of Motherhood is the first and only facility of its kind, celebrating the “her”story of mothers around the world. We need your help -- please make your tax-deductible contribution today!Visit the Museum of Motherhood, NOW OPEN in NYC - Tues.-Sun., 10:45-6:30.

MamaBlogger365 - Give Sorrow Words by Patti Ashley, Ph.D.

February 4th will mark the 42nd anniversary of my father's death. Every year on that day, I remember the morning I awoke to the excitement of a rare event in Virginia Beach, Virginia -- snow, and then I heard the sound of my mother's voice saying "Patti, put your robe on and come downstairs."

I remember sitting at the kitchen table a short while later and being told to eat a piece of toast. I can still see that piece of toast on the plate and feel the lump in my throat that was refusing to allow the bread to pass through it. I went back to school within a week, and I recall a daze that fell over me, as I walked into a familiar setting feeling completely out of place.

I continued on with my life as I was told to do, somewhat removed from the "normal" adolescent dramas of playground fights and lost lunch money. My life seemed very different from my peers'. I wondered often why no one would talk to me about this loss. What is it really like to lose a father at the age of eleven and how does a child cope with that type of grief?

Click here to read more!

The Museum Of Motherhood is the first and only facility of its kind, celebrating the “her”story of mothers around the world. We need your help -- please make your tax-deductible contribution today!Visit the Museum of Motherhood, NOW OPEN in NYC - Tues.-Sun., 10:45-6:30.

Photo credit: dorne | MorgueFile

MamaBlogger365 - Fine; I'm Flawed by *Dr Mama* Amber Kinser

OK, so fine. I’m a flawed human being. I don’t always act in my own best interests. I don’t always act in my children’s best interests. But I do try. Sometimes this mother in me comes out who is more like what I think my own mother was like. Resolute. Directed. Consistent. Grownup. And other times, well. Let’s just say less so.

I’ll grant, for example, that shooting whipped cream into my mouth directly from the can is one of those things you do when you’re, say, nine. And I’ll grant that teaching my children this uncouth habit by poor example, to my partner’s complete and total dismay and probably disgust, is something that… well something my mother wouldn’t do for one thing. And OK, yes, me walking through the grocery store with my two children when they were younger, all of us trying to not be seen spraying whipped cream into our mouths is, it could be argued, less than stellar mothering practice. But I’d like to say in my own defense that… well, I don’t actually have a defense for that one.

Click here to read more!

The Museum Of Motherhood is the first and only facility of its kind, celebrating the “her”story of mothers around the world. We need your help -- please make your tax-deductible contribution today!Visit the Museum of Motherhood, NOW OPEN in NYC - Tues.-Sun., 10:45-6:30.

Photo credit: vilhelm | MorgueFile

MamaBlogger365 - Resolving to Remember Potato Chips by Karrie McAllister

My mom has been hobbling around on her bum knee for years. If the weather was colder or if she spent an exceptionally long day chasing after grandkids, it was pretty obvious in the cockeyed shuffle she perfected. But enough had finally been enough, and she recently went in for knee replacement surgery.

The procedure itself went well. Her recovery in the hospital was as it should be, long, painful physical therapy, and mediocre (at best) food. None of this was new to her, because she had her other knee replaced just a few years ago so she knew exactly what she was getting herself into.

On her third day in the hospital, I went to visit her for the first time since the operation. I walked in and when our eyes met, I immediately saw that quiver in her chin, that automatic response that somehow keeps our eyes from turning into water faucets. No mother ever wants to break down in front of her children. We instinctively want them to always see us as strong, unbreakable, and the care-givers, not the ones who need the care. Having faced a number of heath hurdles myself in the past year, I know this feeling all too well. But here I was, staring my mom in her watery eyes.

Click here to read more!

The Museum Of Motherhood is the first and only facility of its kind, celebrating the “her”story of mothers around the world. We need your help -- please make your tax-deductible contribution today!Visit the Museum of Motherhood, NOW OPEN in NYC - Tues.-Sun., 10:45-6:30.

Photo credit: Crisps In Bowl by Petr Kratochvil

MamaBlogger365 - How to Do Nothing for 31 Days by Elizabeth Kathryn Gerold-Miller

While individuals vary in their levels of ambition, I am pretty certain that most mothers are unaware of the overambitious manner in which they approach their normal day. Wake up, get the kids off to school (or set on their homeschooling curriculum), and survey the house. Set to work on the part that needs the most tending to, while reviewing the day’s calendar in your head and mentally tackling the first chore on your to-do list for the day. Delegate to tomorrow’s – or next week’s – to-do list that pile of papers sitting on your desk, unless there is something in there with a looming deadline.

My New Year’s Resolution this year was very different from my normal list of ten areas in which I can improve. I decided I needed to “reclaim my time”. I had to limit how much of my valuable time I gave away outside the home, so that I had something left over to give to my family. There is nothing really pressing to do once Christmas is over, so why not give myself a period of rest during the month of January? So I set about to do as little as possible for 31 days.

My husband is permanently like-minded, seeing the home as his haven for rest after his long work day. If he is home, he is most likely on the couch. I joined him on New Year’s Day, resting and napping and watching television with the children. In the middle, I made homemade pizzas and cookies with the kids. Then we went back to resting. That was a great start to the year.

I had also given myself a week off from taking writing assignments in between Christmas and New Year’s so that I could be fully present to the kids. So when they started school, I started working again. But I restrained myself in bidding on work, so that I would not be overwhelmed with overlapping deadlines, nor would I have to work past the time the kids got home from school.

This strategy worked out great. I was able to go through my days at a normal pace, get my work done plus the basic housework, and be sitting in the window with newspaper in hand by the time the school bus arrived. I could be completely present to the children, helping with homework, and making dinner while they worked in the next room. I left some chores for them to help with, such as carrying the laundry downstairs and setting the table. My two younger children had a re-awakened interest in playing the piano, so I pulled out my beginner’s book (which is 30 years old) and started from Middle C.

Over the Christmas vacation the DVD player had ceased reading disks, but the VCR still worked. So we reorganized all our old VHS cassettes and reacquainted ourselves with some really good old children’s movies. Some of the original Walt Disney movies, such as Dumbo, my littlest one had never seen. She would pick one out and we would cuddle up on the couch for two hours.

During high school testing week, my teenage daughter accompanied me to the Catholic school to help me in my volunteer hour overseeing the kindergarten lunch period. Afterwards, we stopped at our favorite Chinese restaurant. We were great friends for a couple of hours – until I reminded her she needed to clean her room. I also got to go to one of her track meets.

After each day, I was completely happy with how I had chosen to spend my time that day. At the end of this month, I am feeling rested and ready to prepare for tackling my busy spring season. My family is happy and secure. Can the job of Mommy be done while doing next-to-nothing? I think my month-long experiment has proven that it can be.


Bio: Elizabeth Kathryn Gerold-Miller is a regular contributor to Mamazina Magazine. She blogs at The Divine Gift of Motherhood.

The Museum Of Motherhood is the first and only facility of its kind, celebrating the “her”story of mothers around the world. We need your help -- please make your tax-deductible contribution today!Visit the Museum of Motherhood, NOW OPEN in NYC - Tues.-Sun., 10:45-6:30.

Photo credit: Single Cup by Petr Kratochvil

MamaBlogger365 - With Relish (please) by *Dr Mama* Amber Kinser

I’ve written before about the importance of not being too invested in the “highs” of mothering, about how mothers clinging steadfast (or frantically) to the feelings of “success” is unwise, not fruitful, not empowering. It’s an unkind thing to do to yourself, really, to let your sense of self-worth hang on standards that are dictated by absurd mothering standards at one end, or your children’s ridiculous and naïve standards at the other, or false but no less sensationalized images of motherhood that surround us at the other (and yes, this continuum has three ends -- just go with it). I do think that this is so very important, and so very very difficult. So I want to write today without losing sight of this.

I’d like to invoke the memory and/or recognition of how sometimes, it just works. Sometimes, it’s easy. Sometimes, it just flows. I want to sit down to that, chew on that, taste that. With a little relish, and for just a few moments. I mean look, I’ve been dragged through it as a mother. Slammed doors, cops, crushed morale, total disregard, collusion, lies, eye rolls, hospitals, perceived judgment from my peers, actual judgment from my peers, insensitive demands from the people I work for, taxing demands from the people I live with, dinners dinners dinners, the relentlessness of it all.

But then every once in a while....

Click here to read more.


The Museum Of Motherhood is the first and only facility of its kind, celebrating the “her”story of mothers around the world. We need your help -- please make your tax-deductible contribution today!Visit the Museum of Motherhood, NOW OPEN in NYC - Tues.-Sun., 10:45-6:30.

Photo credit: sideshowmom | MorgueFile

MamaBlogger365 - Moms of Twins and Postnatal Blues by Dr. Joan A. Friedman

Recently I consulted with two mothers of twins seeking help to understand why they have felt persistent guilt feelings since the birth of their twins a few years ago. In both these cases the birth of twins was spontaneous and natural – with no fertility issues. Initially, neither of these moms relished the idea of having twins. Both felt robbed of the traditional rituals and experiences that normally accompany the birth of a singleton.

One mom was enormously disappointed that her longings for a vaginal birth were frustrated when the obstetrician informed her that a C-section was imperative given the position of both babies. Moreover, after the birth of the babies born at 37 weeks, she was not emotionally prepared for their week stay in the NICU. As we spoke together about these experiences, it became clear to both of us that her gnawing feelings of self- condemnation and inadequacy were directly related to her inability to give herself permission to feel anger and sadness about how much the twin birth had disturbed and disrupted her romantic expectations about motherhood. There was no one with whom she could share these expectable ambivalent feelings.

Sadly, twin moms often do not have access to others that can empathize with the enormity of their situation while understanding that these feelings have nothing to do with not loving or wanting their children. Twin moms need this specific support to trust that negative emotions associated with adjusting to motherhood do NOT erase or minimize the love and concern they have for their babies.

Another mom spoke to me about feeling depressed and disconnected since the birth of her twins. She shared a harrowing story of having to spend months on bedrest in the hospital until she gave birth to her healthy twins. She had been told that it was of the utmost importance to stay positive during the hospital stay because becoming upset might induce contractions. She had never had the opportunity to understand the emotional impact of this experience. I explained that if traumatic feelings from past experiences are not revisited and relived, we dissociate. In other words, we push aside or “forget” threatening thoughts because it feels enormously uncomfortable to think about them. However, the price we pay for protecting ourselves in this way can develop into a self-destructive and depressive quality that interferes with our feeling connected and adequate. In many cases excessive guilt covers up unconscious or conscious feelings of anger and sadness.

A British psychoanalyst named Dana Birksted-Breen discusses postnatal blues in a book entitled Spilt Milk: Perinatal Loss & Breakdown, edited by Joan Raphael-Leff. She found that women who coped well with the experience of having a baby tended to modify their idea of what a mother should be like from an idealized one to a more realistic one.

Bio: Joan A. Friedman, Ph.D. is a psychotherapist, critically acclaimed twin expert, mother of adult twins, and an identical twin herself. She is the author of Emotionally Healthy Twins. She has just completed her second book entitled My Self, Your Self, a breakthrough book that offers guidance to adult twins adjusting to difficulties traced to their twinship. Dr. Friedman is an avid spokeswoman and advocate for fair treatment of twins in the media, education, and psychology.

WEBSITE LINK: www.emotionallyhealthytwins.com

The Museum Of Motherhood is the first and only facility of its kind, celebrating the “her”story of mothers around the world. We need your help -- please make your tax-deductible contribution today!Visit the Museum of Motherhood, NOW OPEN in NYC - Tues.-Sun., 10:45-6:30

MamaBlogger365 - You Don't Need to Have it All by Kim Jennings

You don’t need to “have it all.”

Wait a minute. I grew up thinking that I’m not only supposed to want it all, I’m also supposed to be able to get it. I am woman! Yes… work hard, get a good education, a promising career, find the man (a relationship based on equality of course), the big house, the nice (yet sensible) cars, the white picket fence, and the 2.3 children. Then, and only then, I’ll be happy with my accomplishments, at my attainment of what’s important – the image of perfection, the American Dream.

Somewhere along the way, while focusing on a path I thought I was *supposed* to follow, a nagging voice in the depths of my being started whispering to me. And the things it said were hard to hear.

“Who are you?”
“Where are you really going?”
“Why are you doing this?”

The voice got louder… and louder still. Then one day, it screamed. It screamed so loud, it stopped me in my tracks. Stopped me in my life. But I didn’t know what to do about it – not yet. It was frightening. All these questions… hitting at the core of the person I’d thought I always was. Hitting at the core of everything I thought to be true, and everything I believed. And what did it scream to me?

“You are unhappy. And the only one responsible for it is YOU.”

How could this be? I worked hard, got a great education, and on working my way up to running an organization that was doing important work. I had met a wonderful man, and was well on my way down the path of the American Dream.

The thing I didn’t realize, right until that moment, was that in no way whatsoever was this ever really MY dream. The earth seemed to shake below me. All that time, all that work, everything I had done – wasted. Completely wasted.

Or so I thought. That was just detour number 1.

What followed was detour number 2. If I am unhappy, I convinced myself, then I need to do more “valuable” work, in a career that would have more opportunities up the ladder. The voice got quiet for a while, biding its time to see how detour number 2 played itself out. I found a career in IT, where I could make more money, even if it meant going back to school. It all made perfect sense. Off I went again, in pursuit of advancement and attaining goals that only seemed important at the time.

And then, it happened. Marriage, house, pregnancy… motherhood. But it didn’t happen overnight, and the voice started to whisper, quietly at first, then louder and louder.

“You are unhappy. And the only one responsible for it is YOU.”

It wasn’t the 50-60 hour work weeks on top of the 90-minute commutes each way to work that was responsible for my unhappiness. It wasn’t the time crunch of 3AM feedings, then exhaustedly trying to pump milk in a back office room in between management meetings. It wasn’t all-night server installations. A couple of years later, it wasn’t getting out of work on time to avoid child care late fees adding up dollars per minute. And a few years after that, it wasn’t wondering how to meet the deadline with my paid time off dwindling and needing to get out to the school project fair on time.

It wasn’t that I wanted it all. I sure had plenty. But a good amount of it wasn’t what I really wanted. And the only one responsible for it was me.

The beauty of this part of my journey that I didn’t “get it” the first time. I wasn’t ready. Sometimes I still wonder if I am.

So now, as I embark on my new part-time work schedule, making more time for home and family and more time for my musical passions, I am at peace with the amount of time it took me to get to this place. I am listening to the voice and thinking through what I really want. And it’s not perfect, and I’m not done, and I haven’t “arrived,” and I certainly don’t have it all.

After all the years I spent trying to “have it all,” it’s going to take time to work towards “having what I want” instead. I’m more than okay with that. I’m glad I heard the voice, listened, and did something about it. I am glad the voice screamed at me. I wouldn’t have listened otherwise.


Bio: Sitting still has never been easy for acoustic/indie/folk singer-songwriter Kim Jennings. A singer, piano and guitar player for years, the songwriting bug only bit her in 2007. Not three years later, Kim released her debut CD "My Own True North," co-founded the indie record label "Birch Beer Records" with fellow singer-songwriter Dan Cloutier, and launched the We Support Local Music blog along with the "I Support Local Music in Massachusetts" Facebook page.

Named to Metronome Magazine's Top 20 Hit List for 2010, and voted Best Female Vocalist in the 2010 Worcester Music Awards, Jennings keeps a busy schedule, performing as often as she can and running her record label. Not bad, considering that in her "free time" she's also a part-time working soccer mom.

Keep up with Kim Jennings and her musical projects at
www.kimjenningsmusic.com, www.birchbeerrecords.com, and www.we-support-local-music.com.

The Museum Of Motherhood is the first and only facility of its kind, celebrating the “her”story of mothers around the world. We need your help -- please make your tax-deductible contribution today!Visit the Museum of Motherhood, NOW OPEN in NYC - Tues.-Sun., 10:45-6:30.

MamaBlogger365 - You're Not the Boss of Us by *Dr Mama* Amber Kinser

If we had a nickel, collectively, every time someone told a mother what to do, we’d have enough money to really change things. Because there simply is no shortage of such people, no absence of such advice or admonishment, no end in sight to the ways that others get all up in our business.

Take for example something as seemingly simple as that totally unhelpful charge to “enjoy every minute” because it “goes by so fast” that Glennon Melton wrote about in her blog at the Huffington Post this week*. Of course “every minute” is far from simple in motherhood, and enjoying each and every one of those is even farther. So now I can feel inadequate not only about how I mother but also about how my day is full of moments I am not enjoying, Melton suggests. Nice. That’s helpful. Thanks. You know what, I’m going to invoke a retort I’ve heard my kids and lots of other ones deploy in one form or another over the years: Quit bossing me around!

And then there’s the family dinner example....  click here to read more!


The Museum Of Motherhood is the first and only facility of its kind, celebrating the “her”story of mothers around the world. We need your help -- please make your tax-deductible contribution today! Visit the Museum of Motherhood, NOW OPEN in NYC - Tues.-Sun., 10:45-6:30

Photo credit: alvimann|MorgueFile

MamaBlogger365: "Scientific Studies" in Effective Communication (or lack-thereof) by Kate Fineske

Ladies and gentlemen...
The Captain is speaking!

Except that he's not…

You never realize how important communication is,
until you can't communicate with someone.

And my youngest (although he understands every word that I say to him) is not quite able to communicate verbally yet.

Physically he communicates: He smiles at appropriate times, he laughs when he finds something is funny, and he has many effective gestures that help such as:

• All done! = Arms go up (or if he's in a foul mood the sippy cup gets thrown)
• I want that! = Points to what he wants, along with tapping me on the leg
• I'm mad! = Just a look (every mom knows that look!) followed by a very loud screech

Except, the bottom line is: Although my son can often effectively physically communicate, he hasn't quite started consistently verbalizing. And it reminds me over and over (and over!) how important effective communication is.

Because I can FEEL his communication frustrations.

No! That's not what I meant!

When you can't communicate properly it is FRUSTRATING both for the child and the parent!

And on the flip side, often I find that - like my youngest son - I have my own communication issues.

When it comes to my personal communication as a mom with my own friends and family - I've often found that I lack a good, solid communication technique.

I've discovered many scientific theories and hypotheses as to why I have problems appropriately communicating as a mother and adult...

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The Museum Of Motherhood is the first and only facility of its kind, celebrating the “her”story of mothers around the world. We need your help -- please make your tax-deductible contribution today!Visit the Museum of Motherhood, NOW OPEN in NYC - Tues.-Sun., 10:45-6:30

MamaBlogger365 - 2012~A New Year for Mothers by Patti Ashley, Ph.D.

My youngest daughter is expecting her first baby in April of 2012. As I reflect on how things have changed since her grandmother was born in 1914, I realize how far women have come in less than one hundred years.

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The Museum Of Motherhood is the first and only facility of its kind, celebrating the “her”story of mothers around the world. We need your help -- please make your tax-deductible contribution today! Visit the Museum of Motherhood, NOW OPEN in NYC - Tues.-Sun., 10:45-6:30.

MamaBlogger365 - Sticking to the Issues by *Dr Mama* Amber Kinser

Last January, inspired by the Jewish Near Year tradition, or more specifically that of Yom Kippur’s solemn day of atonement that follows the new year, I wrote several posts, beginning with a piece on food, and followed by pieces on work and time, in which I plotted out what I saw to be my “wrongs” of the year previous. My goal, of course, was to then right them in 2011.

I had thought this post was going to be about how I was rather unsuccessful; I think these will always be core points of struggle for me. But after writing out the post, I’ve had to come up here to its beginning to say that I’ve not done a bad job of working on some of my “issues” overall, though I do have some work to do on them in 2012. I feel uplifted, and sort of caught by surprise, by the realization that I did, in fact, make progress last year. I think I’ll turn my focus toward celebrating that and away from critiquing myself for the areas where I’ve seen less success. So hooray for that (my friend Lori Ann tells me she appreciates my participation in bringing ‘hooray’ back.)

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The Museum Of Motherhood is the first and only facility of its kind, celebrating the “her”story of mothers around the world. We need your help -- please make your tax-deductible contribution today! Visit the Museum of Motherhood, NOW OPEN in NYC - Tues.-Sun., 10:45-6:30.