Mompreneurs

It's been a while now since I worked outside the house. In that time, it's funny how often I've formed friendships with other moms who are home full-time with their kids without ever thinking to ask they did before they had kids. I've had friends who for years had no idea that I was ever a teacher. And I was shocked when, after knowing a friend for months, I found out that she was going back to work as a doctor. I had no clue she was ever a doctor.

Recently, several of my friends have jumped back into work by starting their own businesses. I love seeing moms come up with creative solutions as they re-enter the work world and I love discovering that my friends have talents that I never knew they had. My friend Keri-Ann recently decided to put her love of baking to the test and sold out her pies at the farmer's market. And just today, I learned that my friend Corey designs reusable bags and is starting a crafting blog.

In honor of all of these creative friends, I thought I'd share a couple of their websites:

Corey's reusable bag company (formerly thegoodgiftbag.com, the new site is in development): http://goodbaggage.com/

Hilary's name dots: http://www.kidecals.com/

And I'll celebrate creative family as well:

My mom's palettes: http://possumproducts.com/

Enjoy!

Throw Up and Motherhood

Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials. ~Meryl Streep

This winter I signed up for a Nia class on Tuesday mornings at my gym. A friend had originally recommended it to me, insisting I try a class at her gym (as I wrote here). I enjoyed it so much that I decided to make it part of my weekly exercise routine.

Unfortunately, in a brilliant oversight by the gym, the class starts at 8:30 and the gym childcare starts at 8:45. Rather than decide not to take the class, I begged the dance teacher to let Noni sit in and watch the class for the first fifteen minutes each week. She agreed that it wasn't a problem as long as Noni was quiet. And for the first class she was as quiet as could be until the fifteen minutes passed and then, not wanting to leave, she started screaming "NOOOO!" when I tried to take her to the childcare. Since she had spent the first fifteen minutes sitting so quietly and playing with her mini Disney princesses, I figured it shouldn't be a problem just to keep her there for the next hour. I asked the teacher at the end of the class if that would be alright in the future as well. I am pretty sure that she had to fight some serious urges not to roll her eyes, but she's very hippie and polite and I think it runs against her nature to set rules in her class. And so, every Tuesday I head to Nia and Noni and her princesses come with me. The princesses dance quietly on Noni's lap while the rest of the class dances out on the floor.

It was all going pretty well until today. It started out as usual - with Noni and her princesses hanging out in the back of the room. But then, right at the end of the class, Noni said in a really loud voice, "My belly hurts!" I took one look at her with her hand on her mouth and immediately ran over. And then she threw up. And then she threw up again. And again. All over. All over the princesses, her backpack, her dress, her shoes, my coat, her hands, my hands, and, of course, the dance class floor.

At that moment, my heart went out to Noni for being sick, but I'll admit that I also shrank in horror at what everyone in the room must be thinking. I imagined the whole class gasping in disgust and running out of the room. Instead, within seconds I found myself surrounded by five different women, all of them handing me paper towels and one of them even helping to wipe up the floor. Each one of them told me not to worry, of course kids can get sick anywhere, and began to console Noni in soothing voices.

As they stooped to help me, I felt an immediate great love for all of the other moms out there. Because at that moment I realized that there is not a single mom in the world who doesn't look at a two-year-old throwing up in a dance class and think, "I have been there" and feel a great sympathy for both the child and her mother. And so I thanked them for their help and cleaned Noni up as quickly as I could. Then I left the class, smelling of throw up but feeling truly grateful for the connection between mothers all over the world.