Dean Laterra, the teacher and songwriter behind Groovy Ruby, describes them as “Beatles meets the Go-Go Girls”…perfect description! The music is upbeat and the lyrics have a lesson in them.

Take a look at some of the stories behind the songs:

Right Now - Now is the perfect time to do your part in spreading love
around the world and making it a better place. Hold open a door. Say
hello with a smile. Whatever. Do something that spreads a little love.

It’s Okay - Stop worrying already. Life has ups and downs, but just
keep doing your best and plugging away and everything will be just
fine. No one has ever solved a problem by worrying about it. So have
a little faith and keep swimming forward and life will be just fine.

The Thing about Me - We don’t always have to play the judge and jury.
This tune is about a person who accepts people for the way they are.
No problem. You do things your way….I’ll do things my way… And
that’s OK.

Aren’t those great? And I’m so glad that Princess likes it. In fact, she wouldn’t even let me listen to the radio in the car. As soon as that seat belt clicked, she was telling me “Let’s listen to my CD!” She even made up her own Groovy Ruby theme song that sounds a lot like the Scooby Doo theme.

If you’ve got a little girl in the family, especially one that’s totally into music, get ‘em a copy of Strong Lovin’ & Fun and while you’re at it grab their first CD, Cool Like That.

Or you can try to win one. Just visit the Groovy Ruby website and either listen to some clips or, if you don’t have or can’t use audio on your computer, read the descriptions. Then come back here and tell me which song you think the little girl in your life would really like.

I’ll take comments until Tuesday, Nov 25th at 10 pm CST then choose a random winner.

This post is a part of Family Review Network.

Anyway, Lauren has just released her second CD, ‘Return of Psycho Super Mom.’

Here’s what her bio says about her:

Lauren Mayer is a singer, songwriter, music teacher, comic, and sleep-deprived mom. She is a five-time recipient of the San Francisco Cabaret Gold Award, a Peninsula Arts Grant recipient, and a phi beta kappa graduate of Yale University. Her songs have been heard on A&E’s Good Time Cafe, the Dr. Demento Show, and more, she is the author of several musicals published by Contemporary Drama Service, and she is the co-founder and songwriter for Curriculum Rocks, a company producing entertainingly educational music for kids. She is the mother of 2 boys who introduce her to really cool music, who sing backup on her kids’ CDs, and who inspire her wackier comedy songs.

Here’s what her CD says about her:

She is sleep deprived.
She’d rather have a vodka tonic than a low fat vanilla soy latte.
Her kids annoy her sometimes. (Don’t all kids do that?)
She went from being hip to hating her hips.
Women really can do it all, even if they don’t always want to.
And, most of all, she is hilarious and brutally honest.

I tossed her CD into my suitcase purse and listened to it in the car and I got some pretty strange looks from people who were probably thinking “Why is that crazy mom laughing when she’s in the car by herself?”

If you wanna take a listen, you can preview clips on her website and you can order the CD on her website or at Amazon.

This review is part of the Family Review Network.

We’ve all got 2 problems to think about when we’re shopping for gifts for the kids this year… 1) with a tough economy our Christmas budgets are a little tight and 2) with all of the toy recalls and dangerous chemicals like BPA you never know what’s safe anymore.

Well I’ve got a website for you to check out. Its called Good for the Kids (http://www.goodforthekids.com) and they feature safe, and sometimes hard-to-find, products for babies and kids. Good for the Kids has products by major brands including Ty (the Beanie Babies people), Brainy Baby and Melissa & Doug.

Now I’ve got two reasons why you should do some of your Christmas shopping at Good for the Kids. First of all, their prices are better than places like Toys R Us and Target and I’m not too happy with either one of those stores anyway. (Did you hear the story about how Toys R Us published a coupon in honor of Grandparents Day but it was limited to people OVER the age of 50?? So I guess if you’re a young Memaw or PawPaw, you don’t deserve a discount. And Target, they have delayed two things several times that I ordered back in August that I STILL haven’t received.)

Here’s my second reason: when you shop at www.GoodForTheKids.com, you get a 10% discount by using an exclusive coupon code PLUS I earn a commission. Now I could’ve just covered up that little fact and just given you the coupon code but not only do I prefer full disclosure (its more honest, I think) but I wanted you to know that not only will you save money but I’ll make some. Everybody wins!!

So are you ready for the code? Its TENAPT. Just enter that when you check out to get your discount. And its not some super-secret code, you can share it with anyone you want and there’s no limit on it. Bookmark the page, write down that code (TENAPT) and forward this on to your friends. Heck, you can even blog about it too if you want!

Thanks a bunch and happy shopping!!

In other words…meh.

But then I watched the commercial. Its not just a misinformed but well-meaning nod to moms who carry their babies in slings or wraps. They pissed off a LOT of moms.

Here’s the link to the video if you haven’t seen it: https://www.motrin.com/index.jhtml

First of all, Motrin people, never ever refer to a parenting method as “in fashion”. Moms who use baby slings are maintaining a natural bond with our children through contact, not trying to squeeze our asses into skinny jeans. I carried my oldest child, who is now 18, in something that looked like a backpack. There was nothing fashionable about that thing. Yeah the slings and wraps are getting cuter but this isn’t a fashion trend.

Next, whats with the “supposedly its a bonding experience” stuff? You know who you sounded like, Motrin people? John McCain with his condescending air quotes around “health of the mother.” There’s no supposing about it. It is.

Here’s the part that just made me a lifelong Advil customer. (Actually, generic ibuprofen will do just as well.) “Plus it totally makes me look like an official mom.” Excuse me?? So if we’re not walking around with a baby strapped to our hip, we don’t look like an official mom? Get bent, Motrin.

I’d love to be a fly on the wall in some of these big corporate marketing department meetings. There’s gotta be at least 10, 15 people who are part of this process, right? And not one of them ever raised their hand and said “Um, excuse me, I think you’re going to totally alienate the entire demographic that you’re trying to win over with this.” Seriously, they insulted all moms with this thing, baby-wearers or not.

But what would I know. I’m just as “tired and crazy” as the rest of the unofficial moms out there.

I’m talking bright vampire red Manic Panic streaks in my black hair, something I’ve wanted to do for a while now even before my roller derby days.

I’m going to do it. I have to or Jason from Gorilla Sushi is going to hunt me down, Fight Club style. (You have to click that link to see what that means.)

I’ll post pics eventually soon.

She knows who John McCain and Barack Obama are (or “Arack Obama” as she calls him) and she knows what voting is. But last week she was at her dad’s on election day so I didn’t get a chance to talk to her about it.

When she came home yesterday, I had a book for her called Duck for President which, oddly enough, came free with a big box of Cheerios. We read the book together and I told her about how I voted that day and that Barack Obama won. I can’t even tell you how cute it was when she threw her arms up and yelled “Yay!” especially since that was pretty much the same reaction I had.

Photo by bgwilson89 via Flickr

Anyway, we were talking about it again this morning while we were in the car on the way to her school. I’m so impressed not only with how much she knows about it but how interested she is. When I was her age, I remember sitting on my dad’s shoulders in a crowd of people gathered to greet President Jimmy Carter. Since both of my parents grew up 15 miles away from Plains, Georgia this was a big deal. It turned out to be one of the most memorable events of my life because President Carter shook my hand.

I knew he was famous because he was the President but I don’t recall knowing or comprehending what that meant. But my Princess…she gets it. She can even tell you how old you have to be to vote and she’s decided that she wants to vote for Arack Obama when she’s 18.

Back to our conversation. We talked about how Obama and his family are moving into the White House in January. We talked about how his wife, Michelle, will be called First Lady. And we talked about how Obama promised his daughters a puppy. I explained to her that was his way of showing his girls how much he appreciated their patience and support during his campaign.

And thanks to Duck for President she thought a campaign was on a farm and she wondered if Obama and McCain got all dirty like Duck did. Oh it got a little dirty alright, but not quite the same kind of dirty. Even though there was some mud-slinging going on, it didn’t leave the candidates covered in hay and coffee beans.

I explained to her that the President can only have his job for 8 years so that means she will be 14 when he has to leave and we pick a new President. “But guess what”, I told her, “in the election after that you’ll be 18 and you can vote for whoever you want!”

She didn’t respond so I thought maybe she was getting bored with the political talk. While she sat quietly in the back seat, I started to change the radio station from NPR to something more fun for her.

“Turn it back” she said. “I wanna listen to it.”

That’s my girl!

Here’s where I’m at. As you know, I started my VA business back in July with the intention of putting my background in the legal field and my passion for setting up and writing blogs to good use. I wanted to help attorneys with both their administrative stuff and their marketing stuff. But its just not happening. It seems like all of the attorneys I come across either don’t want a VA, they want to set up their blogs by themselves, or they already have a VA.

Somehow most of my work ends up being projects, mainly WordPress installations and customizations or writing press releases which is fine because I like doing both of those. The only problem is once a project is done, its done. Then I find myself scrambling for another project, trying to keep the money coming. In order to do that, I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to market myself, get my name out there, get referrals, networking, etc.

Two days ago, someone who I really admire and whose opinion I value suggested that, by doing that, I’m doing myself more harm than good. By doing all of this stuff, it looks like I have too much going on and potential clients are going to think that I won’t have any time for them because I’m too busy doing “my” stuff.She suggested I get rid of NAVLA and all of my other blogs, even though they are just “hobby” blogs about things I am passionate about like mental health and custody issues. Oh and my theme on my VA website sucks too. Ah, Square One, we meet again, you sonofa#$%$*.

Well….that pretty much flushes everything I’ve learned so far right down the toilet. Everywhere else I’ve looked for help - blogs, forums, newsletters - says I need to be blogging, I need to be doing a newsletter, I need to let people know that I’m available and capable. So how do I do that without marketing myself? Apparently its done by getting referrals from existing clients or people who are familiar with my work. Ok, great, I’ve been doing that. But there’s that stupid Square One again. Its just random projects.

Classic chicken/egg stuff here. If I had clients, I wouldn’t need to spend time doing all of that networking/marketing stuff. But if I don’t do that stuff, I won’t have clients. Believe me, I would MUCH rather be spending time earning money than going around leaving comments on blogs and trying to think of newsletter topics.

I’m a single mom. I can’t live on random projects. If I had a full time j-o-b (yuck!) or a husband (double yuck!) and these projects were just additional income, it would be awesome. But this is my only source of income. Making $100 a week just doesn’t cut it. Making $100 a week gets my phone, heat, and electricity shut off. Making $100 a week barely covers gas and groceries. What about rent?

I had hoped to have retainer clients by now because not only would I be able to spend my days actually working, I’d have a consistent income. Consistent income = That Crazy Mom isn’t quite so crazy. Being broke is depressing and humiliating. I’m one of those people that, if I won the lottery, I would still work or volunteer or do something because, well, I need to be doing something!

But what kind of “something” am I going to do now? I even asked Lynn Terry during her webinar this morning “What do you do when what you really want to do isn’t where the money is? I’m tempted to throw away the VA business and personal blog and just do affiliate marketing since that’s where everyone seems to be making the most money.” (She said use my personal blog and my VA business as platforms for the affiliate marketing.)

Honestly I don’t know what to do and I don’t even like to talk about it anymore. I have well-meaning friends who will try to help by spreading my name on Twitter but that just makes me feel like a charity case. One person even used my situation as an example to start a series on one of my favorite blogs about teaching people how to fish instead of just throwing them a fish. That crushed me. How would anyone else feel about being made the poster child of Doing It Wrong? And it wasn’t even me that had done it. It was based on someone else writing a post about my situation which made it look like I was looking for sympathy and begging for clients. Thats not even close to the truth. Maybe it seemed like that to other people but, believe me, that’s not what I was doing. Venting my frustrations, yes. Begging for help? No. Not my style. I’m too stubborn and independent to rely on other people. My mother is the only one I will ask for help and even then I don’t like getting it.

Anyway, this post is getting too long and I’m running out of things to say without turning it into some crazy, rambling mess. Just please don’t go around sharing this with your friends with comments like “Oh that poor girl!” This is my blog. This is where I get my thoughts and feelings out. I even have a category called “This is My Therapy” because that’s all this is.

Then I got a chance to try out a Lexmark X3650. This printer offers all of the features I needed at a very affordable price of less than $100.

Lexmark has designed this printer with the home office or small office user and the busy mom in mind. Its very easy to use and it even has a convenient port on the front of the printer that makes it easy to hook up a laptop computer for quick printing.

Everyone in my family has used this printer and both my teenagers and my 6 year old were impressed with it. Bubba used it to scan some pages from one of his textbooks and make copies of an assignment. He had absolutely no problems at all setting it up. He even taught his little sister how to use it and in no time, Princess was printing off coloring book pages all by herself.

Making copies with the Lexmark X3650 All-In-One Printer is simple with just one push of a button. The scanner can easily handle thick books and reports with a screen resolution of up to 600×1200 dpi. Your photos can be printed directly from your camera, memory card, or USB flash drive. And with Precision Sense ™ technology, the Lexmark X3650 will detect the type of paper being used and then adjust the print settings automatically.

If you’re in the market for a new printer that’s affordable and easy to use but still offers all of the features you need, definitely get your hands on the Lexmark X3650 All-In-One Printer.