I was just doing a bit of Spring cleaning in my email inbox and I saw an email from Samantha asking to come in and blog...so here I am.
Life has been hectic over the last few months. My kids all have their birthdays in the March/April timeframe so it seems that between birthday parties with one side of the family, and then the other, and then with friends, we have no weekends left to do anything else. I'm officially all partied out! Thank goodness that I don't have to celebrate Easter at home - we're going to Mom's for supper!
I'm still working from home, writing technical documents for an engineering firm. What was originally 20 hours a week plus occasional overtime has become 25 hours a week with numerous bouts of overtime. I love what I do, and feel very much appreciated by my boss, but it doesn't leave me much time for anything else. My children's writing is at a standstill.
In February, I was excited to receive an email from a local publisher who had seen my website (through links to SCBWI) and was interested in meeting me for possible freelance work, writing pre-school board books and activities. I wasn't sure how I would fit that into my already busy schedule but could not pass up the chance to be published in the children's writing field so I was ready to roll up my sleeves and do whatever it took. Well, as things always have a way of working out, the publisher decided that the timing on her end was not right and put that project on hold. She is supposed to get back to me - later. Oh well, perhaps later will fall in a slow time in my technical writing. Who knows? It was still really nice to have a publisher knocking on my door without my having pounded on hers first! That doesn't happen very often!
I'd love to stay and blog some more, but the dishes are still waiting for me in the sink and the loads of laundry still have not learned to load themselves into the washer, so I will take my leave until we blog again!
Ahhhhh, Spring. The time of the year when the flowers begin to poke through the dirt, children can play outdoors after dinner in the Daylight Savings time twilight, and couples the world over unite in holy matrimony.
And while I love a good petunia or game of Kick the Can better than anyone, it is the latter subject upon which I would like to touch today.
The Spring Wedding Invitation.
(insert Jaws theme music)
We all get them. And whether we RSVP in a timely fashion or not, we all also feel obligated to follow up with a gift for the happy couple who share a 50/50 chance of making it to anniversary one – traditional gift? Paper – as in a ream of the stuff from their friendly, neighborhood divorce lawyer.
But I like to be more optimistic than that. I just passed the sixteen year mark in January – traditional gift? He let me hold the remote control in bed that night – and know that it is possible to go the distance.
That being said, I like to channel this optimism into the gifts I choose for newlyweds. I want to get them something that can last, something that holds up, something that, sixteen years from now, can still make them a batch of margaritas to take the edge off ... well ... sixteen years.
Yes, a blender.
I have, lo these many years, purchased all and sundry brands for both myself and as gifts. I have dabbled in all price ranges. I have shown no brand loyalty as I search the world over for the one blender which will make all others look like a spoon with buttons.
In my quest, I have tried cheap brands which emit smoke when you even think about crushing ice in them. I have invested larger amounts only to find myself still humping the thing back and forth on the counter as it attempts to gargle some roasted tomatoes and garlic. My current blender is a gorgeous piece of artwork – etched glass container, brushed copper base, space age buttons.
Does it work?
Hell if I know. It’s too pretty to mess with. But damn, it looks good on my counter.
But as I sat here over the weekend, staring at yet another wedding invitation on my desk, I was determined to find a better, way, a better gift, a better blender.
And boy howdy, did I ever.
Allow me to introduce you to the Blendtec Company, a division of K-Tec, founded by a man named Tom Dickson.
Tom initially revolutionized the home wheat milling industry (no, I did not know there was one either) by harnessing a versatile vacuum cleaner motor with a rotor and stator micronetic-milling chamber (just nod like you know what the hell that is and keep reading).
With that being such a successful invention, Tom set his sights on the rapidly expanding smoothie movement. (No, that has nothing to do with those celebrity endorsed high colonic spa treatments.)
Long story, short – Tom created what is now the most desired, most used blender behind the scenes in restaurants, smoothie joints, and yes, that corner cappuccino stand with the mermaid lady in the green circle. (Forget the Prince – that Ariel chick really wanted legs so she could get her daily Mocha Frappuccino fix.)
With its sturdy base hiding a motor which rivals the energy once housed at Three Mile Island, and a unique square blending chamber, the BlendTec blender is a godsend for any user frustrated by repeatedly having to stop mid-blend and shove a spoon, spatula, or hand grenade into the blender to get the items to move downward.
But why should you believe me or Tom? Especially when the average price tag on one of these blending babies is just shy of $400. After all, seeing is where the real believing takes place.
Tom already thought of that. And for quite a long time now has been quietly making short videos to demonstrate the power behind the machine.
Starring in Will It Blend?, Tom doesn’t just show us that the Blendtec can make a smoothie out of fruit and yogurt. Hell No! He makes a smoothie out of a whole chicken and a can of Coke!
Cochicken, anyone?
Not impressive enough for you? How about watching the power of the Blendtec disintegrate a rake handle? An entire plunger?. A golf club shaft? Forty ball point pens? An iPod? Marbles? Or my favorite – a dozen glowsticks, resulting in, to quote Tom, "A 12 hour lantern."
I promise you, once you watch one Will It Blend episode, you will be hooked (It truly appeals to the destructive little eight year old boy in all of us.). I have included both the plunger and the glow stick episodes for you here, but they may all be found via YouTube.com by typing in the words Will It Blend. Personally, I think the backing music is so 70's groovy, I want to don some bell bottoms and watch an old episode of The Love Boat.
So next time you are stuck trying to come up with the perfect wedding gift for those starry eyed newlyweds, give them something they can really use. A Blendtec blender will insure that that can effectively crush ice for their margarita parties in the beginning, and effectively destroy all their partner’s belongings when he/she catches him/her cheating with a coworker in the end! ("In the end" as in the end of the relationship, not as in the location where the, ahem, cheating took place.)
Will It Blend? His shoes? Her hair extensions? Her Coach purse collection? That stupid book of poetry in which he declared his "unwavering devotion"? Her Lee Press On Nails? His Xbox controllers? Her precious Manolos? His Boston Red Sox bobble head collection?
Sure it will! And I bet if you surf YouTube long enough, you’ll find Tom demonstrating all of the above!
(Personally, in looking at my own spouse's collection of things that drive me insane, I would love to see if the Blendtec could take on 40 holey pairs of Fruit of the Looms and 85 tshirts he refuses to part with, all of them more closely resembling tshirt molecules than actual tshirts ... Skidmark Smoothie, anyone?)
Learn more about internationally read author, columnist, and media personality Linda Sharp at www.lindasharp.com , check in with her daily via her popular blog, Don't Get Me Started (American Idol addicts get your recap fix here!), and pick up a copy of her latest release, Femail: A Comic Collision In Cyberspace available at booksellers everywhere.
Happy Spring and welcome to Mom Writer’s Literary Magazine - a collection of mom writers!
I would like to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy New Year! I am so excited as we have a wonderful issue this spring! We have added some new names and faces to our team that I would like to share with you. Our new Copy Editor is Jessica Ramsey Golden and I am thrilled to have her as a part of our team. Also joining MWLM is author, psychotherapist and popular speaker Denise Roy with her column, Momfulness. Welcome Jessica and Denise! Our regular columnist, Stephanie McCarty, will be joining our Cover Editor Tracy Lyn as co-Cover Editor. Thank you Stephanie! Our former Senior Editor, Samantha Gianulis has been promoted to our Managing Editor position and our new Senior Editor is Jane Hammons whom has twice been nominated for Pushcart Prizes and teaches advanced writing at UC Berkeley. Welcome Jane!
We had the honor of interviewing two sensational writers this spring. New York Times Bestselling Author of The Bitch in the House, Cathi Hanauer joined us to talk about her latest novel and Martha O’Connor, whose explosive debut The Bitch Posse, that is attracting lavish praise, visited with us as well. We have two fiction book reviews and a special guest review and our cover story this issue features award-winning humor columnist, author and parenting blogger for The Boston Herald, Meredith O’Brien!
On another happy note and thinking ahead to the summer, I am thrilled to announce that Mom Writer’s Literary Magazine will be going to print starting with our two year anniversary issue in June! Please checkout our homepage for more details and order now to save 25% on a MWLM print subscription delivered straight to your front door!
Once again we have an awesome MWLM Give-Away! We will randomly select two winners from our MWLM Newsletter subscribers to win MWLM brand new T-shirts, hot off the press! If you are lucky enough to have your name drawn, you'll receive an email from editor@momwriterslitmag.com asking for your mailing address. So sign up today and Good Luck!
The MWLM Blog is here! Check it out (http://momwriterslitmag.typepad.com/) and let us know what you think at editor@momwriterslitmag.com.
We hope you enjoy our spring issue and we shall see you again in June 2007!
I wait for this all year long (similar to awaiting the first day of school, fatigued by endless craft projects and dramatic statements of "I'm bored, Mom!").
Change is kind of like love - to be feared, to be celebrated, it can hurt you but you can't fight it. And when you just accept it, that bridge you were on lands you in a world of fresh opportunity.
Yeah, yeah, yeah...I hate sounding sentimental so let me switch to baseball. Eleven days and we change from pre-season to regular season. I love baseball. I love spring food. I love experiencing spring break vicariously through the college kids in my suburb, through my kids as they sleep in and allow me time to write.
Change...fear of it can be packed away and forgotten like winter sweaters and wool pants. I'm ready to have some fun. I'm badly in need of a tan. I spy purple flowers that give me an aromatic lift when I think too far ahead.
We have some great news to share! Our dear friend and colleague Dr. Christiane Northrup will launch her new cutting-edge Public Television special—Menopause and Beyond: New Wisdom for Wisdom this weekend, March 3rd. This upbeat and eye-opening show—which covers everything from heart health, hormones, and having the best sex of your life—will air throughout the month of March on PBS. Thank you in advance for your support! Together we can encourage some of these 40 million midlife women (and the 20 million more to come) to embrace the second chapter of their life and refuel their soul!
Change Your Life and Your Misconceptions about Menopause!
“I’ve been to the mountaintop and I’ve come down the other side and I can tell you that the news about menopause is really, really good! The days of ‘one-size-fits-all-medicine’ and the Father Knows Best version of ‘Here, take this pill and you’ll feel fine, ma’am’ is obsolete. It’s over. It’s not about raging hormones meant to torture you. This is a time to reinvent yourself. It’s a time to fuel your life not by what others think, but by source energy. It’s a time to mend all the unhealed parts of you. That’s why I call it the ‘wisdom’ of menopause. And this information is equally relevant for men.” — Dr. Christiane Northrup
Do you dread getting older?
Do you worry about unbearable hot flashes, sleep deprivation, and the end of your sex life?
Are you considering hormone replacement, but you aren’t too sure of what the controversy is all about?
There are 40 million American women who are 50 or older, and 20 million more who will reach menopause within the next decade. If you’re one of these women, New York Times best-selling author and today’s leading expert on women’s health issues Dr. Christiane Northrup wants to dispel some popular misconceptions and let you in on the good news: The second half of your life is designed to provide you with more pleasure, prosperity, and fulfillment than you have ever dreamed possible!
Menopause and Beyond: New Wisdom for Women, which begins airing in March, is based on Dr. Northrup’s long-anticipated revised edition of The Wisdom of Menopause—the book that women around the world have embraced, including Oprah Winfrey, who sought Dr. Northrup’s wise words when she turned 50 and faced “The Big M.”
In Menopause and Beyond: New Wisdom for Women, you can hearDr. Northrup’s new perspective on menopause where she’ll refute the stereotypic definition as a frenzy of hot flashes and hormonal mood swings, and instead prove that it’s an illuminating chapter in a woman’s life—one with wonderful gifts and challenges to discover. Most important, she’ll provide you with a blueprint for making sure that your menopausal years are the happiest and most vibrantly healthy years of your life.
During Dr. Northrup’s all-new public television special—Menopause and Beyond: New Wisdom for Women, you’ll learn:
● Guaranteed ways to lose weight permanently and balance your hormones with diet
● Why you should heed the messages behind your mood swings and hot flashes
● How to experience the best sex of your life after menopause
● How to achieve vibrant cardiovascular health as well as what the real indicators of cardiovascular disease are
● Why an individualized approach to HRT, including bioidentical hormones and nutritional alternatives, works best
● How to lower your risk of all cancers, including breast cancer
● To cultivate midlife beauty better than any cosmetic product or surgery ever could
● Why stress of all kinds, including emotional, physical, or nutritional, can fuel hormonal imbalances…and provide an unparalleled opportunity for growth
● How changes in the midlife brain prepare us for living with more wisdom than ever before
And more!
With impeccable scientific and medical credentials and more than 25 years of clinical experience as an ob-gyn physician, Dr. Northrup has given millions of women uplifting messages of hope, health, and healing for the female body and spirit. Now Dr. Northrup can change your life and your misconceptions about menopause. See her in this groundbreaking new public television special—Menopause and Beyond: New Wisdom for Women!
It’s time to update your thinking and embrace menopause as an exciting time when you can change your life for the better. Dr. Northrup explains how.
See Menopause and Beyond: New Wisdom for Women when it airs throughout the month of March! Check your local public television station for airtimes and dates. For more details, visit Dr. Northrup’s new Website: www.drnorthrup.com
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