VIDEO: I didn't die from embarrassment and B-SCHOOL!

Hello all! Hope your weekend is going swimmingly. :)

Subscribe to my Youtube Channel HERE

I just realized that I hadn't posted this video here, sorry! I had big news on MONDAY and I'm only just now sharing it here on my blog. Where has my head been? 

I start MONDAY. I can't wait!

FOLLOW MARIE FORLEO on YOUTUBE:
https://www.youtube.com/user/marieforleo

FOLLOW DANIELLE LAPORT on YOUTUBE:
https://www.youtube.com/user/whitehot...

Hope you all have a BEAUTIFUL WEEKEND.

Wishing you love with extra cheese-

Nacho Mama

VIDEO: Where's YOUR Cheeseburger?

Hello all!

Had a "forehead slap" moment this afternoon and thought I'd share.

That burger was FANTASTIC. And I didn't have to spend any money!

Doesn't always seem like the things we most desire are things we actually already have?

HAPPY HUMP DAY!

If you are viewing this anywhere but on NachoMamasBlog.com, then you are reading stolen content. Click away!

Wishing you love with extra cheese-

Nacho Mama

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Hope you're spending the day together with the people you love!

Wishing you HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY with extra cheese-

Nacho Mama

A Mexcellent Playlist for Your CINCO DE MAYO CELEBRATION!!

Lighting a vela for YOUR Cinco party!

Hola everyone!

As a Mexcellent-American and a native of Southern California, this day is always a little funny for me. Even though Cinco de Mayo is a holiday we NEVER celebrated in my family when I was a kid, I really love that this country takes a day to celebrate Mexican culture, crafts, food and more! HOWEVER...even here in America's Finest City ("I can see Mexico from my house!") Cinco de Mayo celebrations often take a few, um, liberties. 

Yes, I'm talking about the music.

HAPPY MAMA'S DAY WITH EXTRA CHEESE! #VIDEO

I am so full of gratitude for all of the beautiful women who have shaped who I am today, I have been truly blessed by their placement in my life. In their honor, especially the ones who are no longer here with us, I wish you all a Happy Mother's Day filled with color, joy, music and love!

Wishing you a Happy Mama's Day with extra cheese-
Nacho Mama

My latest post for Mamiverse....Military Families

Hello Everyone!

I am very pleased to announce that I have recently started writing for Mamiverse! I can't believe the company I'm in-even Daisy Fuentes writes for them (which reminds me, I must tell you my "Daisy Fuentes" story at some point). One thing I really like about my new gig at Mamiverse is that it pushes me to tackle topics I wouldn't necessarily cover here at Nacho Mama's Blog. My first post was about Culture Clash and the "book ban" in Tucson, Arizona.

Yesterday they published my piece about Latinas in the military, not only the mamis, the sisters, the wives and daughters, but the women who are themselves actively serving. There was one interview that didn't make it into the final piece, due to time constraints, but I wanted to share it with you here. And of course I want to say thanks to all our military families for your sacrifice and strength!

Oh Mama! Reader submitted #VIDEO

I just love reading all of your comments and emails-they really make my day! This past week I was stressing out a lot trying to plan the "perfect" birthday party for my son. I thought it might be fun to go to Mission Beach here in San Diego, where they have a great playground right next to the water, but for some reason I had this nagging feeling that Mission Beach might be a terrible idea! But WHY?

Sure, it's a great car, but what's on the roof?

Then I got a very sweet email from reader Mark Nevin in England (really? Wow!) with a video of a song he wrote he wrote for his wife called "Oh Mama!" - he said he hoped it would put a smile on my face. It did! Not only because I loved the song and the video, but because it helped me remember what was bugging me about having my son's birthday party at Mission Beach! Check it out:

THANK YOU Mom Blog Magazine!

WOW! What a week! I've been doing a lot of work on my podcast, lining up some guests FABULOSAS for you all-so stay tuned :)

This morning my twitter account was blowing up! Seems the "Mommalogues" show I do over at SheKnows.com got a mention on Mom Blog Magazine. It was a lovely surprise. In case you haven't seen it lately-here's a recent episode.

Hanging with the Momfia on "He Said She Said" #HSSS

Aaron, Me, Beth, Theresa and Ophelia Later on "He Said She Said" Photo via hsss.tv

I don't know about you but I am SO FULL!!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our family and friends-I hope yours was as lovely and relaxed as mine was! If you're like me and are too chicken to brave the mall today, take a moment and check out the most recent episode of "He Said She Said"-my fave local web show! Hosted by hunky Aaron Heier drag diva Ophelia Later, this week they dish with my friends, Momfia founders Theresa (@RockOnMommies) and Beth (@HipMamaB) and ME about boobs, bullies, blogs and um, other "b" words.

Click HERE to see our whole segment!

Wishing you a happy recovery with extra cheese-

Nacho Mama

PS-did you know today is National "Eat Pie for Breakfast" Day? It's true!

From the Archives: My Big, Fat American Thanksgivings

This post was originally published at Rock On Mommies in 2010

I grew up in a BIG Mexican-American family. And we did everything BIG. Especially holidays. And ESPECIALLY Thanksgiving.

It was probably our biggest and most difficult-to-navigate holiday.

Christmas was easy: Christmas eve with Dad’s side of the family and Christmas Day with Mom’s side. But Thanksgiving was a NATIONAL holiday. A day to celebrate alongside our neighbors, regardless of color or creed, as AMERICANS. Splitting up Thanksgiving over two days would be un-American! 

So here’s how I spent every Thanksgiving of my childhood:

First, we’d head to my dad’s parent’s house. All the adults would squeeze into the living room and they’d drag picnic benches into the kitchen for us many, many kids. Dad’s family usually served the meal around noon. (I know!) The food? Was SO. GOOD. We’d gorge ourselves on the rich “American” fare we truly only ate once a year: Turkey, Yams, etc. Everything swimming in butter. Only “American” music would be played: big band, Mathis and Doris Day. After my Aunt Maria’s delicious homemade pumpkin pie, we’d end our festivities with, what else? A BIRTHDAY PARTY. Oh, yeah! Several family members had late-November birthdays and my grandparents would take advantage of having the whole family under one roof. So we’d bust into the 2-hours-old “leftovers” and then, naturally, we’d have cousin Becky’s butter-filled layer cake for dessert!

(My dad, left, and his brother Jess with their post-Thanksgiving birthday cakes)

Then we’d head over to Mom’s family home. You know, for Thanksgiving.

It was a short trip from East Cedar Street to West Cedar Street, where my mom’s parents lived. They served the meal at 4pm-which meant we had to leave the birthday party early. Mom’s family was just as big and it was just as tight a squeeze to seat everyone. Only problem? The food was better at the first house. It was! With Mom’s family, you could bet that the giblet bag had been baked inside the bird. Or that the mashed potatoes would be too thick to penetrate with a steel serving spoon. Or that the bread could be used to shatter the windshield of your worst enemy. (Before you get insulted, Aunt Sheila, may I remind you that they literally could not slice that bread with a saw.) And we were SO FULL. But we HAD to eat! So eat we did. And the fact that the food was so much better at the first house was always very quickly mitigated by the fact that the laughs were so much bigger at the second house.

By nightfall, my parents, my sister and I would be too full to sleep. We are blessed to eat and we are blessed to laugh, but take it from me: over-eating and over-laughing should only be mixed on very, very special occasions. It’s the American way.

What were your crazy Thanksgiving traditions? I can’t be the only one!

Wishing you love with extra cheese-
Nacho Mama

WATCH ME DAILY at SheKnows.com!

I am so thrilled to announce that I am part of the daily "Mommalogues" webshow over at SheKnows.com!  You can now tune in daily and watch my take on all things mami-related, the good, the bad and the chancla!

Click HERE to be taken to my "Mommalogues" page, which will have links to my daily vlogs, like THIS ONE, about toddler meltdowns.

Thank you all so much for your support, your comments and your tips!

Wishing you love with extra cheese-
Nacho Mama

Are your kids bilingual? Would you like them to be? HBO Latino GIVEAWAY

I feel very blessed to have been raised in a bilingual household. I even attended bilingual school through the 4th grade! I truly feel this is why I am able to see the world from more than one point of view, a skill which has seen me though many difficulties. I've tried to raise my kids to be bilingual as well, but I somehow always lapse into English, despite my best intentions. So when I was approached by HBO Latino to review their kids' show "El Perro y El Gato" I was very excited to see how my kids would receive it.

They LOVED the show! Especially my 2.5 year old, who pretty much only speaks English. It's muy cute, easy to follow and the animation is very cool. Even my gringo husband picked up a few new words! Here's just a little taste...

Don't you just love it?


There's a NEW "El Perro y El Gato" special that will be airing TOMORROW MORNING (September 15th) at 7am on HBO Latino-don't miss it! And here are some links for you to keep ahead of everything going on at HBO Latino:

www.hbolatino.com

www.facebook.com/hbolatino

www.twitter.com/#!/HBOLatino

www.youtube.com/hbolatino

PLUS the folks at HBO Latino have generously agreed to send one of YOU a set of "El Perro y El Gato" DVDS!!

If you'd like a little help teaching your kids (or your spouse-or yourself!) Spanish be sure and enter!

Here's how:

1. Leave a comment below telling us if you've seen the show, or why you'd like your kids to see it.

2. "Like" Nacho Mama's Blog on Facebook (and leave a comment below letting us know you did)

3. "Like" HBO Latino on Facebook (and leave a comment below letting us know you did)

3 entries per person, winner will be chosen at random and announced here on Monday, September 19th. Contest ends at midnight Sunday, September 18. Open to US residents only.

Good luck and don't forget to catch the NEW "El Perro y El Gato" special that will be airing TOMORROW MORNING (September 15th) at 7am on HBO Latino!

Wishing you mucho amor with extra queso-

Nacho Mama

Disclosure: I was gifted a dvd of El Perro y E Gato for review by HBO Latino, who are also providing the dvds for the giveaway, the above is my true and honest opinion.

BLOG HOP! 25 things you don't know about me....yet.

The lovely Christine of Everyday Mama issued a challenge to the rest of us: share 25 things your readers don't know about you. So, without a great deal of preamble, here goes!

1. I graduated from my Catholic high school wearing a black Hefty garbage bag. It was an outdoor graduation and we had a flash floods, torrential rain and no backup plan.

2. I know all the words to Marty Robbins' "El Paso". I feel this is such a remarkable achievement that I have listed it on my resume.

3. "El Paso" is not my favorite Marty Robbins song. It's "Devil Woman".

4. I skipped 2nd grade. As far as I can tell this has had no great effect on my life today, except that I never learned to write in cursive and graduated high school at 16.

5. I can recite the alphabet, backwards, in under 10 seconds. And yes, you can totally call me on that.

6. The celebrity I'm most often told I look like? Linda Ronstadt. Been hearing that one since I was in kindergarten.

image via Wikipedia

7. I only like Heinz ketchup. Get outta here with your Del Monte.

8. I met my husband in the drama department of our local community college.

9. EVERY program on the new Oprah Winfrey Network makes me cry. What is she trying to prove?

This network should come with a year's supply of Kleenex. image via Wikipedia

10. When I was 18, my mom and sister dragged me to some charity event and I complained the entire time-until I won a trip to Disney World in the raffle.

11. Speaking of raffles, I am a total raffle whore.

12. I ADORE Las Vegas. The tackier, the better. If the casino doesn't have ashtrays in the toilet stalls, why bother?

Freemont Street, the Happiest Place on Earth. image via Wikipedia

13. I am completely incapable of driving a stick shift without crying.

14. I have totally flat feet. We're talking Full Flintstone, folks.

15. I have worn the following fashion trends in public: rubber bangles, knickerbockers, a cape, dayglo, plastic shoes, mismatched earrings, a bucketful of fake pearls, bolo ties, leg warmers, fingerless gloves, overalls, "sneakersocks", fishnet stockings with ballet slippers, all manner of too-large menswear.

16. When I was 10, I got caught in a riptide and had to be rescued by a lifeguard. Muy Baywatch!

image via Wikipedia

17. My dream car is the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. Which I will never own, because I will never be able to drive it. (see #13)

18. I had a rather traumatic birth after which half of my face was paralyzed for quite some time. There's no visible evidence of it now, but I don't see or hear as well on that side.

19. Despite growing up in San Diego, I've never been to the horseraces at Del Mar-even though it's something I've always wanted to do.

20. I also know all the words to the Dead Milkmen's "Punk Rock Girl". That one? Is not on my resume.


21. I feel about Target the way that Holly Golightly feels about Tiffany's.

22. When I lived in the NYC area, I once went to the top of the World Trade Center and loved it, even though I am terrified of heights.

23. I was also in NYC on September 11, 2001.

24.  Even though I love the beach and swimming in the ocean, I've never been surfing.

25. I got my very first Barbie for my 17th birthday from my friend Robert. She was awesome. My mom didn't believe Barbies were healthy for little girls to play with-until she had a granddaughter.

Thanks Robert! image via Wikipedia

OK, how about just one thing we don't know about you?

Wishing you love with extra cheese-
Nacho Mama

PS-that was so much harder than I thought it would be!

What's your "Good Day" soundtrack?

I had a great day today! I got a lot of work done, a blog post submitted to SDMomfia, and had lunch with a dear offline friend. We even had sushi, which I love. Then? I had a great afternoon with my husband and kids. It was a beautiful, cool, late summer day here in San Diego.

I have certain songs that I reserve for days like this. Today, because I got soooo much done? I felt like...

Best. Superhero theme. Ever.*

I know, all the comic-book nerds would argue that the Spider Man theme is better. To them I say: Let me see you dance to it. That's right, you can't dance to the Spider Man theme and look cool. But Wonder Woman? You can get down all day to that one!

I also love this song because Wonder Woman was one of the few primetime shows my dad would let me watch as a kid-he had a GIGANTE crush on Lynda Carter.

Do you have a "Good Day" soundtrack? What's on it? I'm always looking for new tunes to add to my playlist :)


Wishing you love with extra cheese-
Nacho Mama

*Actually, the BEST version of this theme song is from the show's first season, it's just that Youtube wouldn't let me embed the video here. But if you search "Wonder Woman Season 1 Intro" on Youtube you'll hear the AWESOMEST version of this already awesome song.

Making a short story long: My Story

My Mama Lola opening the Christmas tablecloth I made for her when I was 6 years old (with help from my mom of course!) Making her smile was one of my favorite things.

I’ve had a flair for decor and style for as long as I can remember. I was always re-arranging my room as a child (I even remember hiding my clock radio so I could have “background music") and I loved drawing and writing.  But I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. My dad was a very well-known interior designer and it never crossed my mind that I could do what he did, even though he was my biggest cheerleader. You see, in the culture of my family there is a unwritten law that you’re a failure if you do what your parents did. I can understand why, my grandparents were farmworkers who wanted their kids to finish school and have careers, but it really got in my way! I struggled to find my purpose and my place.

The Met-I was always RACING up those steps to get to work on time! (photo via Wikipedia)

Because I loved art, I got my BA in Art History and landed a job at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, far from my home in San Diego. I was married to the love of my life and had a very stable job, but I had no creative outlet whatsoever.  I devoured design books and magazines like Doritos. Soon my friends at work started asking for decorating advice. Then they started asking me to actually design things for them. Finally they kindly said, “Why are you working HERE when you could BE A DESIGNER?”

Somehow hearing it from someone outside my family helped all the pieces to fall into place. I applied to a heap of graduate programs, telling everyone I was “just doing it on a lark.” In my heart I secretly wished to get into the exclusive and famously tough program at the Pratt Institute. One by one, the rejection letters came in. I began to tell myself that I’d been a fool to believe that I had any talent, that my dad was the designer, not me and I just had to accept that it was never meant to be. My hands trembled as I opened the letter from Pratt, the last to arrive, and I could scarcely believe it when I read that I’d been accepted! I knew immediately that my life would change forever.

Pratt Institute-you have no idea how much I miss Brooklyn! (photo via Wikipedia)

It was tough, but I loved every minute of it! During my second year one of my designs was featured in The New York Times, a tremendous honor for any designer, let alone a student. That summer my husband and I took a trip home. On the last day of our visit, we sat on my parents’ sunny back porch with my dad and planned out the next 5 years. I’d finish school, apprentice at a firm in New York, then move back to San Diego where I’d join Dad’s firm, taking it over when he retired. Then my husband and I would start our family. After that conversation, I felt like I finally had a purpose and a place.

The very next day, back in New York, I threw myself into my schoolwork with more enthusiasm than I’d ever felt before. My phone seemed to be ringing off the hook that day, but I was not going to be interrupted! When I got home that evening I finally checked my phone and saw it was my mom who’d been calling. I figured she just wanted to know how my first day back had been. I was wrong. She was calling to tell me that my dad had just been diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer.

I was too paralyzed with panic to know what to do. My wonderful husband, who knows me better than I know myself, said, “We have to go back. Now.” We packed our bags and took the first available flight back to San Diego. We were told that Dad could go at anytime and that he should never, in fact, have lived long enough to be diagnosed. Then, a few days after we arrived, I became pregnant. Even though it was 9 years ago, I still refer to it as “the week my life was hit by a truck.” After that my husband and I spent our time helping my parents, fighting to save my father’s design firm, selling our home back east and nurturing our daughter.

Dad with my daughter on the steps of the tiny house where he was born, in the Colonia of Oxnard, Ca. The calla lilies were planted by my Mama Lola over 60 years ago.

It was extremely difficult to uproot our lives and leave our friends but I would have done anything to help my father. For as long as I could remember he'd done everything in his power to make me, my sister and my mom, feel how special we were to him. He delighted in celebrating every seemingly insignificant occasion in our lives with parties, gifts and love. He marked every moment of my pregnancy with fanfare, as though I were a queen, and lavished his unborn granddaughter with presents. Remarkably, Dad lived long enough to be present at my daughter’s birth and for her to remember him. He passed away just before her 2nd birthday. He was 57 years old. The years that followed were a blur of sorrow and work that I would never have survived without my husband and my kid. Through all the grief and the enormous workload I'd taken on (helping to finish the projects Dad had started before he'd passed) my husband always had the right thing to say when I needed to hear it, even if I needed to hear it at 3am. Even our baby daughter helped by lightening my spirits during those very dark times when I just couldn't face what had been lost.

It’s been a painful journey but now, years later and after the birth of our 2nd child, my husband and I honor my dad’s memory by living his philosophy, “Celebrate life. Celebrate all the good things and keep celebrating them, no matter how small.”  I know now that celebration is the only way through grief and loss, two things that every human must experience. I also know that it's important to surround yourself with beauty, with things that are meaningful to you and with people who love you for who you are. I feel so blessed to have been able to make my living bringing beauty into people's homes, businesses and lives.

Me with the editorial staff of San Diego Home and Garden, shooting a spread on a home in La Jolla.

I’ve made it my mission to show people how they can celebrate all the good moments in their lives, no matter how small, as much as possible, until joy and gratitude become a reflex. I call it “Life, with extra cheese.”  Because cheese is good, but extra cheese is better. Beauty is good, but more beauty is better. The same goes for friends, laughter and glitter. And love? You can’t ever have too much, you can’t ever give too much and you can always make more.

Wishing you love with extra cheese,
Margo (aka Nacho Mama)

VIDEO POST! Do YOU have a "Tweeting Face"?

Save me from myself-PLEASE!

Wishing you love with extra cheese-
Nacho Mama

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO *THE ORIGINAL* MOMMYBLOGGER, ERMA BOMBECK!

If you consider yourself a "mommyblogger" you have this great lady to thank!

Photo via wikipedia.com

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERMA BOMBECK!!

Most of us were in diapers when she exploded onto the national scene. Long before we could even imagine such a thing as Twitter parties, Klout scores and Facebook groups, she was there.

I vividly remember my mom and her friends when they were my age, laughing at Erma's column in recognition at the challenges that faced the modern mom.  A generation ahead of re-tweeting and wall-posting, women clipped Erma's columns and mailed them to each other, with passages underlined, circled and often with comments like "That's my David!"  I also remember how they passed around battered copies of her many, many books to be enjoyed on those rare occasions when Mom could get enough time to sit down with a cup of Sanka and read, for Pete's sake!

She wrote with accessible, limitless humor about not only the joys of motherhood, but the most profoundly challenging moments of a mother's life as well. Erma and her husband had adopted a daughter after they were told it would be impossible to have children-then they birthed two sons. Any blogger can relate to Erma's story: she started her career writing on a plank that had been propped up on cinder blocks in her bedroom. Her first professional gig, writing for her local paper, earned her exactly $3 per weekly post, ahem, column.

Eventually she would be a nationally syndicated columnist (her column ran from the mid-60s to the late 90s) and best-selling author. Most of her books, like my personal favorite Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession, are still a relevant read today. And questions like "What kind of a mother would wash and dry a measuring cup after it only held water?" still make me laugh.

Erma died in 1996 from complications of a kidney transplant. But her words still hold a treasure trove of wisdom for all of us. I know that whenever I have a particularly bleak day, I bring to mind what is perhaps my favorite Bombeck nugget, "If you can laugh at it, you can live with it."

On behalf of mommybloggers everywhere,

Happy 84th Birthday, Erma! We love you and thank you!

-Nacho Mama

Everything I know about child-proofing, I learned from my dad.

Seems like everyone in the blogosphere is sharing their New Year's Resolutions! This year, my husband and I have some pretty simple goals: to take better care of ourselves and to get the house organized. We believe that if we take care of these 2 things, pretty much everything else that currently challenges us will fall into place.

In that spirit, I wanted to share this post-my "audition" post that got me my coveted contributor spot over at Rock On Mommies. Hope you enjoy and please don't be shy with your questions and comments!

***

As a professional interior designer, I’m always surprised how shy people sometimes are with their questions. I always tell them, “I’m your decorator, not your pastor!” No matter what kind of design challenge you may be facing, I’m here to tell you that there are many people out there in the same boat. In the decorating world at least, you are never alone!

For instance, one of my most common queries has to do with an issue I have grappled with myself:

How do you child-proof your home without completely turning it over to your kids?

You don’t want the kind of house where the kids aren’t allowed to touch anything ever, but you don’t want a Lord of the Flies situation either. And what if you work from home? What if you’d actually like to have a friend over for a margarita? What’s a modern mom to do?

Unfortunately this issue was not covered at my fancy-shmancy design school (cue ironic trombone).  So when I became a mom, I had to follow the example of the only interior designer I knew who had faced and conquered this challenge head-on: my dad.

My mom worked as a teacher, but my dad ran his budding design business from home.  And like so many of us moms today, he did it with two noisy, messy kids and a dog in the background. And he did it successfully. Even though it was almost 30 years ago, many of the tricks he used can be adapted for today’s mommy. Here’s a shortlist of the tips my dad used to keep us kids from destroying our home, his business and my both my parents’ sanity:

1.     Get help. When dad decided to start his business, it was clear he would have to work from home. So my parents closely examined the family budget (remember we were essentially living on a teacher’s salary) and made some serious cuts. That way they could afford to get a sitter for a few hours a day, enough to get phone calls and client meetings done. If you simply do not have the resources to hire, please consider trading with other moms or anyone you trust with your kids.

2.     You can’t childproof all of the house all of the time. As a designer, Dad knew that you can only control your environment up to a point. So he designated the front of the house as a “kid-free” zone. Which is not to say we weren’t allowed in there at all, but our stuff (toys, books, shoes, crumbs) was forbidden. If we brought it into the room, we had to take it out. That way he could schedule meetings anytime we had a babysitter without having to clean up first. Also? Dad knew that you could (and should!) furnish a home in a manner that is stylish and durable. All the furniture in entire house was sturdy and easy to clean.

A kid-friendly living space? Yep!

3.     Don’t break the sound barrier. Back in Dad’s day, that meant a separate phone line just for the business (which he kept on a shelf too high for us to reach). Today, with mobile phones and caller ID, things are much easier! I like to use a free service called YouMail, www.youmail.com, which lets me customize my outgoing message. Business clients get a “businessy” message and the family gets a cute message from my kids. Be sure you only answer calls when you are ready to do so. Even though people say they understand, they really hate having to talk over the sound of “Mom? Mom?”

4.     Nothing is more precious than your kids. I still wince when I remember how many pricey objet my sister and I broke over the years. Let’s just say it could have paid for a year of college and keep it at that. Even though my parents would get upset at first, they would never dwell on broken stuff, which really helped us kids to feel like it was our home, too.

I realize this isn’t child-proofing in the “corner guards and toilet locks” sense, but growing up in a designer’s home helped me see that there really is no such thing as “child-proof.” Like everything else in life, living harmoniously with your kids requires patience, balance, and a sense of humor. I guess the goal is to have a home (and a life, for that matter) that is not so much child-proof as child-friendly.

Wishing you a Happy New Year with extra cheese,

Nacho Mama

Stress-free Holidays? Almost...

I recently had one of those "lightbulb moments" about holiday stress. You can read about it over at Rock On Mommies! (sorry to make you click to another site-hope that doesn't stress you out!)

Do you freak out every holiday season trying to make everything perfect?
Yeah, me too. Now all I have to do is change my definition of "perfect."

Wishing you HAPPY HOLIDAYS with extra cheese,
Nacho Mama

Nacho Mama's Weakly Reading

I don't know about you, but I've always been a voracious reader. My saintly husband (Nacho Daddy) and I were married for nearly 8 years before we had our first child. Until then, I would go through a book or two a week. Every morning I would get up early, pour myself a cup of coffee and settle down to read a few chapters before beginning my day. And the silence!


Now, of course, I am shaken awake by at least one set of little hands (that I am eternally grateful for, don't get me wrong!) As I wipe the 5 hours of sleep from my puffy eyes, the demands begin: breakfast, diapers, clothes,  pack lunch, etc. Sometimes I can get a few seconds to pour a cup of coffee in between tasks, but often I perform them in something of a stupor. After the first few years of motherhood, I could feel my brain turning to mush. Reading? Limited to safety instructions and nutritional facts. Reading had always been a part of who I was-without it, who was I?

Fortunately with baby 2 came some other wonderful things to help satisfy my need to read.

First of all, during my pregnancy I discovered blogs (tiny choir of angels). I could actually get tips and engage in adult conversation with other moms, other designers, etc. on my crazy mommy schedule! I could ask a question at 3am and someone out there would have an answer. That was HUGE. I feel so bad for moms who had to cope with the isolation of those first few months without anyone to talk to.
Blogs are especially great for moms, because posts are generally the perfect size for the amount of time that we can devote to reading throughout the day. I like to check in with my favorite blogs (some of them are in the blogroll, right) while preparing dinner and right after putting the kids to bed.

The second thing that helped was audiobooks. So often we moms have to give up our reading time simply because we need to keep our hands free! With audiobooks, I can "read" a book while picking up toys, mopping, folding laundry, etc. Right now I'm listening to Amy Sedaris' new book, Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People (absolutely hilarious btw-especially if you're crafty). One tip though: take a minute and listen to the preview before you decide to buy an audiobook. Sometimes the person reading the book has a voice that is annoying or worse, boring.

One of the fun things, though, about being a "bookish" couple has been watching our kids develop a terrific interest in books themselves. My husband also lost his reading time when the kids came along. Now that they're a little older, he can get the time to read, but the 2 year old enjoys hiding his reading glasses. And he can't read without them-or can he? Two weeks ago, for his birthday, he got one of these from his sister:

Now, I'd seen people at coffeehouses and in airports with these, and I must admit, they seemed kind of dumb. Why read on a screen when a book is so portable already. Now? I TOTALLY GET IT. In just the 2 short weeks since the Kindle came to our house, my husband has read 4 books without his glasses, because he can make the text as big as he wants. He can get thousands of classic books for free (our 7 year old is halfway through Alice in Wonderland) and the screen somehow comes very close to simulating the experience of reading the printed page. The only question now is whether we need a second one. Ok, it's not a need-it's totally a want. But between my husband and our kids, I have yet to read a whole book on it. I'll keep you posted :)

Finally, the other awesome thing that happened in my reading life was that our city put their library system online. Now I can search for books, even audiobooks and videos, and put them on reserve (at any hour of the day!) They get delivered to my local branch which is a very short walk from our home. I love the public library system! Even though I'm an Amazon affiliate, I always check the library first for the books I'm interested in. Sometimes I'll like a book so much I go ahead and buy it for our home library, sometimes not.  The important thing is that we are once again a household of readers. And that is worth more to me than a lifetime of silent mornings.

Wishing you love with extra cheese,
Nacho Mama