It’s spring, the weather is getting better (sort of) and on a recent trip to the local mall, one thing became very clear to me.

Tis the season to feel fat.

Why would I notice this? And at at the mall of all places?

Well for one thing, it was packed. Clearly, other people don’t rely on the mail service for their shopping needs the way I do. The second thing I noticed was the droves of women crowding around the shoe wall in the local Sport Chek.

These women were three deep, there were running shoes everywhere, and even with the handy little gadgets in their hands to check inventory, I couldn’t get someone to even look at me to ask them a question. When I finally grabbed my own shoes off the shelf, someone almost took them away because we were the same size. It was surreal.

And the reason they (we) were all there? One lady who had one hand on her stroller and the other on a Starbucks Skinny Mocha, summed it up fairly succinctly:

“I need these shoes to be comfortable. So I don’t quit running after a week. Because I’m fat and I need to lose weight.”

Yup.

She didn’t look fat to me, but the heads nodding in agreement all along the shoe wall said that there were others who were there for the exact same thing.

And as I wandered around, peeking into stores here and there, I saw a lot of different types of women in the mall. Women walking out of bathing suit stores with a facial expressions you might only expect to see if someone is chasing you with a chain saw, women rushing past the cupcake store as if a big gooey hand is going to reach out and suck them into a vat of icing against their will.

After a winter of rain, cold, and eating cookies, Moms everywhere are realizing (as we do every year) that hiding behind our sweatshirts isn’t going to be an option for much longer. And let’s face it, those hot pink and blue retro Capri pants the stores are coming out with in a homage to the 80′s don’t fit very well after eating 6 months of muffins or while sporting a muffin top.

So that’s why I find this recent story on Good Morning American fairly horrifying. The K-E Diet is being used by new brides to lose 10-20 pounds before their big day, and it works by strapping on a feeding tube and wearing it out and about for 10 days.

For $1500, you too can hook up your feeding bag and lose weight. It’s simple, and with no running required, I’m sure the women are heading toward the Doctor promoting this in droves.

I won’t even go into the complete weirdness of wearing a feeding tube as you go about your daily business. Or,  how odd you look using one when feeding tubes are associated with illness. No, what worries me about this is if brides are doing this, those brides will eventually become mothers.

And once they’re mothers? Baby weight, lack of time to exercise, bad eating habits fueled from long nights of coffee and no sleep – All of these will contribute to weight gain, and once you gain weight, what are you going to do? Head back to the feeding tube.

Not only will this contribute to a viscous cycle of weight loss and weight gain, it sets a really ridiculous example for our daughters. Which makes me angry when I consider how I’ve already heard a few 9 year olds say “No thank you” to a tiny slice of birthday cake in case it goes to their still baby sized hips.

It remains to be seen whether this diet, like so many others, will be a flash in the pan. In the meantime, you’d be best to avoid the shoe wall at your local sports store between 10 and 4 pm on Saturdays. You’re likely to get hit in the head by flying shoes.

No matter if you have one kid or four, you know that each child develops differently. And because they develop differently, you don’t sweat the small stuff like developmental timelines all that much. Or maybe you do.

A recent study released by the Journal of Pediatrics has given parents a reason to relax over their 2 year old child’s lack of talking. The study found that a lack of forming words at age two has no bearing on future development. In other words, if your child isn’t speaking as much as their little buddy, you don’t need to worry that they will lag behind for the rest of their lives.

In general, the study found that:

• Toddlers who begin speaking later than their peers will not develop future behavior issues. In other words, late talking is not an indicator of how your child will be for the rest of his or her life.
• Although late talkers may exhibit emotional and behavioral problems when they are 2, the problems will dissipate when the child begins talking
• The children in the study were followed until they were 17, and 80% of them were fully talking by the time they entered school.

There are many reputable websites like BabyCenter that will provide you with timelines for development. For example, by the time your child is 18-24 months old, he or she should be (according to BabyCenter) saying somewhere in the range of 50 words. By the time they are two, they should be stringing words together. And that’s great, if your child actually sticks to the timeline.

But here are a few things that timelines won’t tell you:

• Some kids will excel at one area and then lack in another. For example, one child may be able to walk then climb on everything by the time they are 12 months, which is actually above the curve according to the timeline. In this case, their speech may be lagging behind because they are just too darn busy perfecting the climbing (aren’t you lucky) to work on the talking.
• Boys develop certain skills later in life, like talking. This doesn’t apply to all boys, but seems to be a general trend.

If you find your child is not talking by age 2, there are a few things you should immediately check for:

• Has your child had his/her hearing checked? Although it may appear that they can hear you when you are speaking to them, there are different types of hearing that apply to language. Ask your doctor to refer your child for a hearing test.
• Have your child checked for fluid in his/her ears. Frequent ear infections can cause a build up in fluid that results in everything sounding like its underwater. Your child may need tubes to alleviate the fluid.
• Take your child to a speech therapist. In your initial consultation they will look for signs of other issues that may be leading to the speech delay.

It’s stressful wondering why your child isn’t talking by age 2, but there are steps you can take to rule out issues which could be causing the delay. At the end of the day, your child could simply be a late talker.

Stop searching Google and reading Yahoo Answers. Relax, take your baby for a walk or sit down and play with them. Try to talk to them, and then listen. Chances are, your toddler is saying things that you just haven’t deciphered yet.

The biggest letdown on SuperBowl Sunday isn’t missing the American commentary on the game, it’s missing the commercials.

If you are blocked due to Canadian TV, here’s the link to all of the commercials, all in one spot:

SuperBowl 2012 Commericals

And if you missed the half time show featuring the always inspiring Madonna, here’s a link to a clear video of it. 

For the second time, the Chicken Soup for the Soul series is focusing on Canadians with a new book due out on November 1st, 2011. I was lucky enough to have a story about my Grandpa and my Grandparents farm in Saskatchewan chosen for the book, and because I’m so excited about, I’m giving away a copy on Survive Parenthood!

You can enter to win one of two ways:

1. Tweet the following on Twitter with the tags #ChickenSoup and #OCanada, and @ me with the tweet. For example: Win a copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul: O Canada on Survive Parenthood @kidswap #chickensoup #ocanada

Unless you actually @ me, I won’t see your entry.

OR

2.Like our Facebook page and leave an ‘Add me” in the comments section: https://www.facebook.com   /SurviveParenthoodMagazine

The winner will be selected randomly on November 5th, 2011.

As a writer, there is nothing more amazing than seeing your story in print, and as someone who grew up on the Prairies, its even cooler to be able to give people a glimpse into what it was like to grow up there. Even if you don’t win, you can grab a copy at numerous retailers both online and off including Chapters, Walmart, and Amazon.

The world lost a true genius today. It doesn’t matter if you are an Apple person or not, you really had to admire Steve Jobs. All of his gadgets and gizmos are the reason that I become a tech writer.  He helped me survive endless, sleepless nights with my babies, entertained them with with magic books, and gave me the opportunity to make friends I would have never known otherwise.  I can’t imagine life without my gadgets, and I can’t imagine a world without Steve Jobs.

I read online somewhere that he liked to answer email from customers and fans, so I emailed him once. I don’t know why I did it, I guess I just really admired him, and I wanted to share an article I wrote about Macs vs PC’s. I’m pretty sure it would have made my life to get a reply.

As I sit and write this, my son is watching a Netflix movie on my iPhone and my daughter is reading a book that was just released today on my iPad. I didn’t have to leave the house with 2 sick kids to get it either, all I had to do was touch a button.

I’m lucky to live in a world that is blessed with the dreams and innovations of Steve Jobs. Your genius will not be forgotten Steve.

Below is the 2005 Stanford commencement address that I have always found inspirational.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you for everything Steve.

Although you may have been disappointed that they didn’t announce the iPhone 5 today, Apple isn’t going to leave you hanging. Coming to Canada and the USA on October 14th, 2011, the new iPhone 4S has features that will have me trading in my practically new iPhone 4 just to get my hands on some of these fun new techy additions:

• Cards will let you design and send greeting cards straight from you iPhone or iPod Touch. You can use your own photos, and it will be mailed straight to whomever you are sending. For someone like me, who views the idea of sending Christmas cards as somewhat hilarious and unnecessary, this is an awesome feature.
• Extended battery life: That new Disney game ‘Water’ is draining my battery to nothing flat in under 2 hours, but I can’t leave that little croc hanging when he’s so excited for his bath.
• 1080p HD video recording with the benefit of Video Image Stabilization = YES! I am the most horrid person for getting out the video camera, and I use my iPhone for everything. I’m so excited to import the video into iMovie and embarrass my children in full HD quality for the rest of their childhood.
• A personal assistant that goes by the name “Siri.” She keeps track of your appointments, helps you find out vital information that you need “Um, Siri, I’m running out of gas with four kids in the car. Where is the closest gas station?” She’ll read your text messages to you and text them back. Why would you use your keyboard and fingers like a sucker when you could just bark orders at someone virtual and get them to do it for you
• Updated camera with 8-megapixel sensor, 60 percent more pixels than the iPhone 4’s camera and backside-illuminated CMOS sensor that can capture 73 percent more light. And it’s 33% faster, for those covert People of Walmart shots if that’s what you are into
• It’s fast. The core duo chip means it’s lightening fast for apps and games. Now you can get through all 12 of the levels of your favorite free game and hurry into the paid version
• Other fun features: Reminder app, Twitter integrated, and a new Game Center and Safari update

Overall, you should get your name on the wait list for this one if you are an iPhone, new gadget loving type of person. Otherwise, wait it out for the iPhone 5, due next year. At the rate Apple is going, the iPhone 5 is almost sure to include a jet pack, and I can’t wait to get my hands on that one.

Technology moves at light speed. It changes so fast that before we know it our iPhone 4′s will so thin they will give a piece of paper a run for it’s money, and our iPads will not only look up recipes but actually cook your dinner too. But amidst all of this change, you can be sure of one thing: The Internet will retain it’s sense of wonder and stupidity. If it’s too stupid to print in a newspaper or magazine, you’ll find it on the Internet.

For parents, the Internet is either the place where you feel better about your parenting or worse, depending on the day. Here are a few gems that you might have missed this past week:

Should Mother’s Be Sued for Bad Parenting - Time Magazine

I feel for this woman. To be sued because she didn’t send a care package in college or because she made her daughter have a midnight curfew when she was in high school? Sounds like she actually cared, so let’s sue her for $50,000.

OK to start potty training at 18 months, expert says – The Globe and Mail

Really? My son was barely talking at that age, let alone expressing an interest in going to bathroom anywhere but his diaper. If you read on, the article does say you can start at 18 months if its a family decision, but not many people are going to bother to read the entire article. In the five minutes a mom might have to read that, all they will see is 18 month olds potty training and they will feel like their kid missed the bus.

Baby products you don’t need: Parents Magazine

This one is just for fun. I love the baby swiffer. So handy when your floors are dusty and your baby is just learning to crawl. Direct them to the messy spots and watch them have fun.

SpongeBob: You either love him or you hate him. Although he is said to be one of the most popular cartoons on television right now (that little yellow sea creature wouldn’t have stood a chance against Fred Flintstone in his day), SpongeBob is taking heat due to a recent study in the medical journal Pediatrics.

Researchers found that watching shows like SpongeBob hinder abstract thinking in 4 year olds, and can even affect short term memory and impulse control. To view the entire study, click here for the PDF.

The next time your kid forgets where they put the safety scissors you can blame SpongeBob, right? Not necessarily. Critics of the study say that the sampling of children tested isn’t diverse enough to produce concrete information.

At any rate, our handy dandy televisions have always been the source of heated debates and controvery amongst parents. Use them too often and you are one of those parents who have the TV ‘babysit’ their kids. If you don’t turn it on at all or you don’t even have a TV, you are a nature loving tree hugger. Really, a parent can’t win where TV is concerned.

So, which TV shows should you ban your little one from watching, and which would be OK as far as not inhibiting their intellectual growth? I’m sure a study will be coming out about that soon, but in the meantime here are some guesses:

Yo Gabba Gabba

Fast paced? Probably not. Weird as all get out? Definitely. To a parent Yo Gabba Gabba brings to mind what an LCD trip must feel like, despite the fact that you’ve never tried the drug and have no idea how someone could conjure up these things in a sober environment . I can just picture DJ Lance walking down the street somewhere in San Francisco a few decades ago. That outfit would have fit in perfectly.

But your kid does learn about sharing, colors, and musical rhyming, and it’s fun to watch and wonder what the heck is going on. Some parents might have a problem with this show, but I think it’s just harmless (bizarre) fun.

Blues Clues

Have you ever wondered what happened to Steve from Blues Clues? Just for fun, here’s his Wikipedia page, and here’s his new band, Steve Burns and the Struggle.

Blues Clues has long been one of my favorites. It has a good pace, encourages kids to use their minds by finding clues, and isn’t based on the insane (unless you count that talking side table drawer, which is really messed up as far as I’m concerned). I’m not a ‘Joe’ fan, but Steve is in College remember? And he can’t take his little blue dog to College or he’d never get a girlfriend.

Phineas and Ferb

They may be Disney owned and operated, but I won’t let my little kid watch Phineas and Ferb. The themes are adult, sometimes seriously so. I happened to walk past the TV once when it was on, and a little girl was berating her ‘boyfriend’ because he didn’t provide her with enough romantic gestures. I was actual hopeful that I could learn something to use on my husband for a minute there, but when she started yelling at the little boy that she wanted a beautiful, romantic gesture by the next evening or she’d blow her stack? Well I’ve tried that before and it didn’t work for me either, and I definitely don’t want my daughter to think that is something she can pull on any future boyfriends she might have.

No, a four year old couldn’t understand what was being said on this show, but I don’t think it provides tools for learning.  I felt dumber for a few minutes after. I’m glad no one asked me to take any cognitive tests.

Ultimately, the choice is yours. If you need a break or you have to make dinner, you shouldn’t feel guilty about putting on a  show that you are comfortable with. Sometimes that 20 minute break can make all the difference in the world to your sanity. Until,of course, the next study comes that says that 20 minutes of television watching so Mom can make dinner will result in a dumber child.

Sometimes you stumble across news items that are horrifying in ways you can’t contemplate yet too funny not to share. This is one of those times.

JC Penny recently pulled a tshirt from their 7-16 line because it stated that the wearer was “Too pretty for homework.” Consumers, up in arms over the perceived sexist remarks, chalk the tshirt right up there with those ‘cute’ little shirts that said ‘Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them.”

Now, in the spirit of good times, the Huffington Post has come up with some other tshirts that would be banned from schools and stores in about 5 minutes, but they are good for a laugh.

Click through for the slide show of tshirts including my favorite, “How many calories does reading burn?”

When the news hit today that Steve Jobs had resigned as Apple CEO, most of the Internet reacted with shock. As it isn’t clear at this time why he has resigned, those of us who are true Apple enthusiasts could only speculate and hope that this will be Mr.Job’s opportunity to focus on his health and come back stronger than ever.

Although I’ve never made any bones about the fact that I am an Apple geek, covering my house with Macbooks, iPads, and iPhones, I’ve never really wondered why. You’d think that it would just go hand and hand with my love of technology, but I think it’s a bit more.

Moms, whether they have a business and work from home or not, should be grateful to Mr. Jobs. Here’s why:

Steve Jobs is the reason that I can work at home.

I bought my first MacBook in 2007, and the portability of this little baby (yes, I still have it) made it well worth the price. Because I could take it anywhere, I started doing writing odd jobs here and there. I worked at the indoor playcenter because I could pick up wireless internet almost anywhere, I worked in the bathroom while my kids were in the bath.

My first freelance gig online was putting together a 5 minute movie. I could bid on this job and do it easily, because I had iMovie on my computer. When the iTouch came out, I began playing with apps and started reviewing them. I soon moved to an iPad and an iPhone 4, reviewing new apps that would come out and writing tech articles. I wouldn’t write about tech or even be remotely interested if it wasn’t for Apple and Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs and Apple saved my sanity

I’m sure I sound like a horrible geek anytime someone says that they are stressed out with motherhood or feeling uninspired while carpooling. I’ve asked other Moms (in all seriousness) if they have an iPad, because I really believe that the magic tablet makes life easier. I use my iPad to search for recipes for dinner, sometimes letting the magic 8 ball fall where it may and just cooking what it tells me. I read books on my iPad, tucked into bed with the backlight and safe in the knowledge that I am not disturbing anyone. I play mindless games, because sometimes you are just so bored you don’t want to do anything else. At 3 am, while up with a baby who won’t sleep, I’ve watched more Thomas the Tank engine on my iPad than anyone should have to endure.  I’ve taken it with me while I waited in a dark and cold soccer field, finishing an article that was due and passing the time in a way that I never could with my old befuddled pink Blackberry.

I’m serious when I say that every single Mother out there should have an iPad. Motherhood can be sort of isolating. Technology keeps you connected, and makes you feel less alone.

Steve Jobs is inspiring

I’ve never hidden my love for all things Disney and Disneyland. I’ve always talked about how I find Walt Disney to be one of the most inspiring figures in the past 100 years. Some say it was Disney’s vision, his creativity, or his absolute drive to create the world that he wanted to live in: It made him the man he was. I sort of see Steve Jobs in the same way.

For all of us who pound away on the keyboard every day in the hopes of one day getting a big byline or actually having that book published, for those of you who have a home based business creating something new and exciting, or those of you who are selling a product or service: We all need inspiration to keep going. From a business standpoint, it is inspiring to look at a person who created a business in his garage, and then went on to revolutionize home computing.

And so, as I sit with my Macbook in my lap and my iPhone on the table in front of me (someone stole the iPad from me and is currently playing Sticky Trains downstairs), I would like to wish Steve Jobs well and thank him for helping me through the stresses of Motherhood and navigating a business.  I don’t think I could have navigated parenthood as well without all of the magical gadgets that he’s come up with. I’ll bet he never thought of stressed out Mothers when he was creating the products, but I’m happy to have them all the same.