DotMoms

The Mother Board: Say Om

Need a post-holiday zen moment? Check out the new site Mama Says Om, http://www.mamasaysom.com/, a blog filled with uplifting art, photos and philisophical musings on motherhood (with a few yummy recipes tossed in for good measure).

Mama Says Om, written and beautifully "decorated" by four moms, describes itself this way: "Parenting is hard. The world moves around us in a spastic rhythm, a swirling chaos of day to day activity: work, school, meals, rest, noise, play, comfort, nurture. Finding the breath to everyday life is an art and often we find ourselves hyperventilating. We look at parenting as a spiritual and often humorous endeavor. We write from the heart about those things that give us breath. Ignore the chaos in your own life and visit with us; it'll all still be there when you get back."

Sounds like just the ticket as we clean up the wrapping paper, put away decorations and get ready for back to school!

We want to hear from you! Have a favorite website that you find interesting, informative or just fun? Send it to Cooper at [email protected]. Every Monday we will feature a new site here at The Mother Board on DotMoms.

The Mother Board: The International Children's Digital Library

If "being on the same page" is a way to spread peace and harmony this holiday season, then the International Children's Digital Library at www.icdlbooks.org is on to something. This program, through the University of Maryland, seeks to collect and digitize 10,000 children's books in 100 languages. In the last three years, they have worked well toward that goal, boasting a collection of close to 1,000 books in over 30 languages to date. Through the site you can read children's books translated to English from Farsi, Hebrew, Spanish, Chinese and many other cultures. The stories depict what any child loves to read about: hopes, dreams, fairies and monsters. And the site shows, through words and lovely illustrations, that we aren't so different after all.

We want to hear from you! Have a favorite website that you find interesting, informative or just fun? Send it to Cooper at [email protected]. Every Monday we will feature a new site here at The Mother Board on DotMoms.

DotMoms love Dadcentric

DotMom Charlene has a great (and exciting) Web site suggestion for this week: Dadcentric (www.dadcentric.com) -- Not Your Mother's Daddy Blog.

Charlene writes, "Dadcentric is a great group of daddy bloggers that pulled together their own blog a la DotMoms, less the mom-ness. :)  I think we need to give our male counterparts some props!"

Thanks Charlene, great suggestion. I checked it out and if Pierre's (MetroDad) recent post about dads who change diapers ("Men who change diapers change the world") is any indication, I predict we DotMoms are going to have a thing for the Dadcentrics.

We want to hear from you! Have a favorite website that you find interesting, informative or just fun? Send it to Cooper at [email protected]. Every Monday we will feature a new site here at The Mother Board on DotMoms.

The pumpkin gutter

This time every year, Scott Cummins, a Texas-based artist, updates his website, www.pumpkingutter.com, with photographs of pumpkins he has recently carved. Well, carved doesn't really do justice to Cummins' work, I'd say sculpted is more like it. Take the pumpkin version of Leonard Nemoy's head (top left), for instance.

The crazed, if not drug addled, looking pumpkin we created just a few short days ago is  decaying in the front yard. Makes me think if we only have a short time to enjoy it, why not try to create art from our squash? Except Cummins did say he's been carving pumpkins like these since he was 16 and each pumpkin could take a couple hours...

So, no matter, what do you say, Halloween 2006 -- a Mt. Rushmore pumpkin display (above right)?

If you are now inspired to make a pumpkin worthy of a web site, visit www.pumpkin-carving.com, it is filled to the brim with carving tips, a brief history of pumpkin carving, suggested tools, design ideas and, even, ways to extend your pumpkin's "life span."

Well, for us, maybe next year. I kinda like our crazy, grinning, moldy guy.

We want to hear from you! Have a favorite website that you find interesting, informative or just fun? Send it to Cooper at [email protected]. Every Monday we will feature a new site here at The Mother Board on DotMoms.

Sorry, gotta go!

We want to hear from you! Have a favorite website that you find interesting, informative or just fun? Send it to Cooper at [email protected]. Every Monday we will feature a new site here at The Mother Board on DotMoms.

You've certainly, at one point or another, been stuck in a phone conversation that goes on and on forever. Don't you sometimes wish for that one, little interruption that allows you to say to the person on the other end of the phone, "Sorry, gotta go"?

Well, now you can just log on to SorryGottaGo.com and find the perfect excuse to get off the phone. Want the sound of a doorbell to ring in the background? Just click on the link and "ding dong!" There is the sound of a door slamming (oh, gotta go, my husband's home), or plaintive meowing (I have to go feed the cat), or a crashing car (someone just ran into the fence).

I don't know if I would actually ever do it, but for a good laugh, log on and listen to the sounds and imagine how much fun it would be to use them.

I used to believe

We want to hear from you! Have a favorite website that you find interesting, informative or just fun? Send it to Cooper at [email protected]. Every Monday we will feature a new site here at The Mother Board on DotMoms.

Visiting "I Used to Believe" (www.iusedtobelieve.com) -- a collection of ideas that adults thought were true when they were kids -- takes you right back to age five.

Here's a sample:

"I used to believe that ham came from hamsters."

"I used to believe that my thumb got smaller the more I sucked on it."

"I used to believe that if you ate bananas you would grow a tail and become a little monkey."

When you think about all the things you used to believe, it sure makes you wonder about the daily, mini-dramas going through your own kids' heads, doesn't it? 

Other people's grocery lists

By Cooper

There is something strangely addictive about perusing Bill Keaggy's collection of 800-plus Grocery Lists. Maybe it is the voyeuristic fun of reading lists that consist of items like "chicken -- big," "burrito for Steve," or "case of cheap beers."

Keaggy loves to collect, and his main site -- www.keaggy.com -- features, among other things, photos of rocks shaped like shoes. So, after reading the grocery lists, check out his main site, too.

Have a favorite website that you find interesting, informative or just fun? Send it to Cooper at [email protected]. Every Monday we will feature a new site here at The Mother Board on DotMoms.

Introducing: The Mother Board

By Cooper

Welcome to The Mother Board, a weekly DotMom feature that will highlight a new website, suggested by you!

Our first site is Mother Proof.

Ever try to wade through car reviews and realize the writer has likely never had the joy of driving a car filled with kids? Mother Proof makes sure we get the inside scoop on family-friendly vehicles (and then some) according to all those unique needs of ours -- even if we pretend we don't drive a minivan.

Have a favorite website that you find interesting, informative or just fun? Send it to Cooper at [email protected]. Every Monday we will feature a new site here at The Mother Board on DotMoms.