Mommy of Many®

This week’s show is sponsored by Aveeno Baby!

With 2 months of this deployment behind us, I thought it was a good time to brush up on the ways I can keep my kiddos feeling connected to Clay for the rest of the deployment. Here are some great ideas on how to help your kids feel that their deployed parent is a daily part of their lives.

Have a great idea for a show? I’d love to hear it! Go to the “contact” page or leave me a comment.

Thanks for visiting the site and for listening to the show! Please take a minute to visit our sponsor, Aveeno Baby.

 

 MOM 31 [15:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It was brought to my attention that my first show wouldn’t play. Bummer! Good news! It’s fixed. So, if you’re new to the site and you want to hear a little about each of the kiddos and why I started this adventure or if you missed the first few shows and want to catch up, click here. It’s a good place to get started!

While you’re here listening, take a minute to subscribe to the show. It’s quick and easy! Just click the button to the left that says, “iTunes”. While you’re there, don’t forget to leave a review, telling the world what you think of the show (be nice!). Don’t have an iTunes account? Take a minute to sign up!

Still wondering why in the world you should subscribe or what it’s all about? Take a look at Chassy Cat’s show . While you’re at her site, help her out by clicking on the Aveeno Baby ad! Yep, we’re all working together to show the great people at Aveeno that our listeners/readers care.

Thanks for visiting!

Good night~

Wow! The School year flew by! Kateri arrived home Saturday evening and JJ will be here soon. The whole year was a learning experience! We will do some things better next year, but it’s been good for all of us. There’s no question that both kids are in the best schools possible. They’ve met wonderful people that will be a part of their lives forever.

We’ve made it past the 2 month mark for this deployment! So far, so good! We are still waiting on a return date, but if it keeps going the way it has, we’ll all be fine.

This week’s show is sponsored by Aveeno Baby! Please take a minute to visit our sponsor.

 

 MOM 30 [15:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (194)

This week’s show is sponsored by Aveeno Baby!

Happy Mother’s Day! I hope that each of you moms get a special day. If you don’t have any special events planned, be sure to spend a little time remembering some of your special mommy moments.

Since it’s a Mother’s Day show, I decided to talk about a couple of “Mommy issues” I’ve encountered over my years as a mom. I give you permission to chuckle at me as you listen. Sometimes the things we end up doing as parents can be funny!

Thank you for visiting the site and for listening to the show. You can always email me at Jen@MommyofMany.com or use the “contact” button. Please take a minute to visit our sponsor, Aveeno Baby.

Have a great day~

 

 MOM 29 [14:52m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (173)

Sarcasm is a fact of daily life. We encounter it in movies, cartoons, jokes, casual conversation and in regular communication with almost all of the people we talk to. Our kids learn how to incorporate it in to their speech, thought and communication. But, little children look to us, as parents, to help them form their reactions and understanding of interpersonal communications. If we use sarcasm with our little kids, it undermines the process. I enjoy it as much as the next person but feel strongly that we need to give our kids straight-forward answers to their questions and to save the sarcasm for joking with friends or our older kids, who know all-to-well how to use it and understand it.

Thank you for coming to MommyofMany.com and for listening to the show. Please take a minute to visit our sponsor, Aveeno Baby.

This week I was able to speak with Casey Sprague, a military spouse, mother of 3 and a successful Silpada Designs Independent Rep.. I am inspired by Casey and her accomplishments because she started her business while her husband was deployed on an IA (Individual Augmentation) to Bahrain for 1 year. She’s another shining example of the strength and resilience of military spouses. I hope you too are inspired by her story.

This week’s show is sponsored by Aveeno Baby. Please take a minute to visit our sponsor.

Thank you for stopping by and for listening to the show!

 

 Mom27 [18:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (242)

This week I was able to talk to Pilar Hari who is a military spouse, mother of 3 and the co-founder of Focus Families. I hope you enjoy her story of how the military has touched her life and the life of her family.

This show is brought to you by Aveeno Baby! Don’t forget to visit our sponsor.

Thank you for visiting MommyofMany.com and for listening to the show.

 

 MOM 26 [14:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (214)

Yesterday morning, Gabi woke-up just as I was going out the door for my class at the Apple store. I kissed her good-bye and told her I’d be back soon.

When I pulled into the driveway, she came running out, flung open the side door of the van, looked around and said, “where are the apples?”.
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Alright listeners and readers, I hope you’ve been keeping those clicking fingers in good shape because you’re going to need them starting tomorrow! That’s right-all the “hurry up and wait” has been changed again. I’m super excited for this opportunity, so help me by making sure you visit our sponsor. You still have a whole day to get your finger in shape if you’ve been slacking over the last couple of weeks. So, this week’s show will release tomorrow and I thank you in advance for your support!

Have a great day~

This week’s show is my take on the whole texting thing. I see where it comes in handy, but more and more it’s becoming the way that our kids are communicating with each other. I feel that kids who are younger than high-school age still need to build social and personal relationships before taking on the nuances of the language of texting. Being able to say things to people in the impersonal world of texting, where the tone and, often, meaning of your words can be misconstrued opens the door for kids to feel “safe” in saying things to each other that they wouldn’t normally say in person. I know that there are other arenas where this is also true, ie; email and IM, but it seems that texting is the preferred form of communication right now, so that’s what I chose to focus on.

As always, I welcome your comments. You can also email me at Jen@MommyofMany.com or use the “contact” form to the right.

Thank you for listening to the show~

 

 Standard Podcast [9:11m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (176)

I think that after 3 1/2 weeks of deployment that today was the day that I got into a good groove. One of the things I’ve wanted to do while Clay is gone is to get back to going to the Y. I felt challenged by the idea because Luke-Xavier hasn’t ever lasted there for more than 15 minutes. He throws himself on the floor and screams until they come get me. But today! Today he threw his fit and they just let him throw it until he was done and then he got up and went outside and played. Whoo Hoo! I’m glad that they finally took my approach to the whole fit-throwing thing. So, now it’s up to me go keep up a good routine of going so that he knows it’s just part of what we do. So, don’t tell anyone, but I haven’t actually worked-out there in about a year (maybe longer). Instead I’ve used it (all 15 minutes at a time) to think about show topics and get some writing done. But in the next few weeks if he keeps being good, I’m going to have to find a class and start working this on this body of mine!

After the Y, Luke-Xavier was beat and fell asleep in the car. When we got home I put him in bed and then was able to catch snails with Gabi. Let’s just focus on the “with Gabi” part of that sentence. Icky snails! It was a nice time with her. She’s definitely surrounded by brothers, because for all the wishing she does to become a princess, she LOVES bugs and snails!

Then it was onto a new show idea! Today I was able to record the first of a series of interviews that I’m doing about women and the military. I’m talking to different women who have been touched in some way by the military, whether they are spouses, have or have had a military career or maybe were children in a military family. Today’s interview was with Pilar Hari. She’s a Navy spouse of 19 years, the mother of 3 and the co-founder of the non-profit organization Focus Families. The show will be up in the next couple of weeks. I hope you find her story interesting!

So, after the excitement of trying something new for the show, I was back into the “M.O.M.” routine and picked kids up from school, took Mariah to an appointment (with time enough for a little bonding stop) and then back home to make dinner. I feel like it was the first night since Clay has left that I really embraced the whole nighttime routine as mine. Usually Clay brushes the kiddos’ teeth, reads the stories and tucks them in. It’s funny to say “usually” because his schedule varies so much, but it just seems like it was “his” thing. But tonight I didn’t drag my feet or assign tasks to the older girls. I gathered everyone around, read 2 stories, said prayers, led them to the bathroom, brushed teeth, clipped nails and tucked them each in. Go M.O.M! It’s just after 9 pm and I feel drastically different than I did last night.

Let’s hear it for the routine! Let’s hear it for the whole “deployment reality” finally sinking in! Let’s hear it for M.O.M getting in the groove!

Good night~

You may notice the absence of the snazzy banner that was to the left of the show, yesterday. Well, it’s because we decided to play a game I affectionately call, “hurry up and wait”. In all my years of being a military spouse, I’ve been a part of this game on numerous occasions. This time I got to play it with our sponsor. But, the important thing to remember is that there is, in fact, a sponsor!

So, now that I’ve gotten you all excited about the product line and the sponsor itself and you’ve practiced using your clicking fingers, I want you to remember that we’re going to do it all again, starting in May. That’s right, this was just our warm up. So be sure to keep that clicking finger in good shape, exercise it regularly and bring it back here, ready for rapid-fire clicking, starting May first. But for-goodness-sake don’t wait until then to come back!

Keep coming for daily blog and weekly podcast, because you know..

I’ll be here, Doing the Dance of the Children~

This week’s show is sponsored by Aveeno Baby!

In this show I talk about the importance of giving detail to our kids when assigning them a task.

Thank you for visiting the site and for listening. Don’t forget to visit our sponsor!

Have a great day~

 

 MOM 24 [8:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (147)
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This week’s show was inspired by a Change of Command and Retirement ceremony that I attended this week. It really touched me and reminded me of what this life of mine is about and why we are separated from Clay.

 

 MOM 23 [9:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (167)

*note-clicking the picture will not play the show. You can now choose to simply play the show, download the show or open it in a pop-up window so that you can continue to navigate the internet while listening.

Mommy of Many is now a proud member of the MommyCast & Friends, Family Channel! You can find several fabulous podcasts on the channel, everything from technology tips at TechnoGeekery to wonderful stories at StoryNory.

Check it out! You can subscribe to the entire channel or just the shows that interest you.

Have a great day~

A blessed and joyous Easter to each of you! I hope it’s a bright and beautiful day wherever you are. Here in Southern California, it’s beautiful.

Well, if you follow this blog, you know that I’ve had a crazy week. I decided to take the time to talk a little about the emotions of going through saying good-bye to Clay and arranging to leave for my grandmother’s funeral, just one day apart. My kids did a great job of juggling having their dad leave AND having me take a whirlwind trip, while they stayed with a sitter. I want to say thank you to everyone who played a part in making it possible for me to go while keeping the kids’ schedules running smoothly. THANK YOU!

Thanks for listening to the show. Remember to subscribe, it’s free and easy!

The show can be listened to by clicking below. Clicking the picture will not play the show. I’ve changed the way I post the show, which should alleviate any further server problems. Let’s hope!

 

 MoM 22 [9:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (144)