• Last updated 11/15/12 by Melanie Mayo

This giveaway has ended. Thank you to Barefoot Books for sharing this fun read! The randomly chosen winners are Tracie and Claire. You will both be contacted by email. Congrats!!! If you didn’t win you can still grab this book and many other great selections on the Barefoot Books website.  —– Today, Jan 23rd, is the Chinese New Year and we’ll be celebrating with a fun giveaway from Barefoot Books (publishers of some very awesome and totally unique reads for kids)! Two lucky winners will receive a copy of The Great Race, a beautifully... read more

• Last updated 12/27/11 by Laura Grace Weldon

Years ago we started a new tradition.  Slacker New Year’s Eve. No more loud, crowded events. No more babysitting nightmares. And no more driving back home in the early morning hours on icy roads. What a relief. Instead we stay home with the kids. We put lots of goodies on the table, including snacks that are rarely seen in our fussy-about-nutrition household. We get out amusements like board games and videos, build a fire in the fireplace, and basically slouch around together. It’s fantastic. After all the holiday rush it feels downright indulgent. A key element of... read more

• Last updated 11/21/12 by Cynthia Mosher

aussiegall Flickr photostream CC by 2.0 Frenzied sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become holiday shopping traditions. Both are about grabbing up deals before someone else gets them. Not much about the spirit of giving. Not fun either. There are alternatives. They offer the satisfaction of exchanging wonderful presents while also shifting holiday gift-giving in a positive direction. Here’s how.   Enjoy tradition or create new ones. Some families choose to generate their own traditions that have little emphasis on gifts but are... read more

• Last updated 10/23/12 by Melanie Mayo

  One of the most important steps you can take for the planet is to avoid tossing food-waste into the trash. Lynn from Green Halloween shows you how easy it is to compost natural décor, edibles (including candy) and other food-scraps left over from Halloween festivities. Visit Green Halloween for more links and details on carrying out the tips in this video. Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson are the mother-daughter founders of Green Halloween® and authors of the book, Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the... read more

• Last updated 10/23/12 by Melanie Mayo

Candy Experiments by Loralee Leavitt   I loved candy when I was a kid, but when I became a mother, I worried about my kids eating too much of the stuff. Still, I’ve never banned it from our home. Now, when my children come home on Halloween night, examine their candy, and go to bed without asking to eat a single piece, it’s not because I’ve forbidden it. It’s because they have better ideas about what ?to do with it. It began with a simple question three years ago, when I was overwhelmed by our collection of Halloween candy. An afternoon with too-generous... read more

• Last updated 10/23/12 by Melanie Mayo

Halloween is truly a kid's holiday—good friends, creative costumes, event-filled parties, all with a cool spooky theme—who could ask for more? Oh yes, one more thing, the treats—lots of sugary candy treats! With all the fun of this holiday comes a parent's worst fears, too many sugary treats in your kid's possession and the arguments that ensue over this treasure trove. If you don't feel like contributing to the neighborhood children's tooth decay, consider giving treats that are healthier.     Here are some suggestions: Naturally flavored and... read more

• Last updated 1/17/13 by Melanie Mayo

I was born one minute after Christmas, and I’ve always felt special because of it.* So when, on my birthday six months after Tim and I got married, our nephew Nick was born, I suddenly had my own birthday buddy—somebody with whom I could share this specialness—as well as ensuing birthday celebrations. That was 24 birthdays ago, many of which Nick and I have celebrated together. The last two Decembers, though, he’s been on the other side of the planet in a tiny third-world village in Mali, and I’ve wondered when we’ll be in the same room for a birthday... read more

• Last updated 1/18/13 by Cynthia Mosher

    Good Times! A Meditation for Mother’s Day:   May I lead with my heart.     May I forgive quickly. May I walk towards what I am wanting. May I bring my full, dynamic-self to the table.     May I invite my child to participate in my best vision for our life together.   May my inner-contentment spread to my... read more

• Last updated 1/18/13 by Cynthia Mosher

This giveaway this closed. If you didn’t win you can still order Intrigue’s delicious natural chocolates on their website or buy some when you are in Seattle! Use  code IntrigueMothers-05042011 to get 10% off through 5/19/11. The five random winners are: Comment #19, Laurel Comment #28, Shannon Comment #42, Tori Comment #60, Maryanne Comment #61, Manda C. Congrats!! Please contact me at webeditor [at] mothering.com with your shipping address! Mother’s Day is almost here and we have a very special giveaway to help... read more

• Last updated 1/22/13 by Cynthia Mosher

Mother and child in Southern Sudan Photo by: Christopher Scott/IRC Thank you to the International Rescue Committee for this guest post. In Southern Sudan, women—who share the same joys of motherhood as your own sisters, mothers, daughters and friends—have a one in seven chance of dying during childbirth. That is simply one chance too many. Every year, over 500,000 women worldwide die from complications during pregnancy and childbirth. The vast majority of these deaths happen in the developing world. Almost all of them are... read more