I don't usually like to post about corporate campaigns, but I liked the idea of this one, so I'll bend the rules. Quaker Snack Bars has created Birthday Party with a Purpose Kits in partnership with Kids Care Clubs. Kids Care Clubs are a program of the HandsOn Network whose mission is to, "develop compassion and to inspire a spirit of volunteering in elementary and middle school age youth."

If one of the names you answer to is "mom," chances are good that you live a decent portion of your life feeling overwhelmed. As if the responsibility of caring for another person's (or people's) every need isn't enough, you most likely also have a house to maintain, bills to pay, perhaps a job to go to or a business to run, a blog (or two or three) to keep up, a partner to cheer on, organizations to volunteer for, classes, activities or meetings to attend or to shlep kids to, and the list goes on and on and on.

You probably know by now that BlogHer has joined the DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge for 2008.  To do my part for the cause and as a tribute to my love of handbags, I decided to have a handbag raffle.  For a $10 donation to any one of the very worthy projects on my Megan's Minute Handbag Raffle Giving Page you'll buy yourself an opportunity to win the stylish tote pictured below.  And more importantly, you'll be doing something to help public school students learn.

I use to be a child. Some say a curious child. No, that is understatement. I was a damn Class A question box. Most children pass through that intensive questioning stage of development. I was not one of them. That sucker attached itself to me and will not let me go without “the answer.”  It has been a blessing, a curse and a guaranteed path to adventure.

Tonight my family enjoyed bowling, tennis and boxing together... on our new Wii. It was great fun, and by the last knockout (my daughter took down some bearded fellow in under a minute; pent-up anger, much?) both kids were actually perspiring. Not bad for a video game system, I suppose. I can see now what all the hype has been about.

Sister Math is very different from regular run-of-the-mill math. It's sort of like string theory is to algebra--it just operates on a very different set of rules. For instance, in Sister Math, the amount of times your sibling has done something is directly proportional to how much trouble they will be in when caught. They may have only done it two times if no one is ever going to know but that number can swell well into the double digits if mum or dad notices. 2 + 2 really can equal "ten times today alone" if the transgression is something like raiding the liquor cabinet.

Earlier today, I participated in a panel discussion at BlogHer on Mommyblogging: Public Parenting and Privacy.  The other panelists were Chris Jordan, of Notes From the Trenches; Crystal, of Boobs, Injuries and Dr.

I never imagined myself with children. I was never one of those girls to which the younger children flocked. Yet, I never escape being pegged as a mother. Yes, I have children, but we all know of women who've borne children and have not a mothering bone in their bodies. And we know women who've never had biological children but nurture neighborhoods and perhaps nations. When I say I'm pegged as a mother, I mean I seem to be that person to whom other people come for answers to their problems, the one to whom they'll tell their troubles, or the person in front of whom they decide to break down.

Cate was yelling at me. Again. Every day it’s the same story. I pick Cate up from school and she happily shows me the new trick she can do on the peddle car; the stone she dug up in the sand pit; how many times she can hop the jump rope on one foot. We find Eden and start the ten minute walk home. By minute seven Cate is screaming about something. Anything.

What do you think of when someone mentions school lunches? The first word that comes to my mind is...Yuck.

It's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that nearly 10 million children worldwide die each year before the age of five, yet that is the reality according to a NY Times Op-Ed piece. We are fortunate that we aren't plagued with loss like that here in America, but in places like Sudan, where families are confronted with "every disease imaginable, from leprosy to malaria," it is estimated that approximately "one-quarter of children die by the age of five."

Unlike beauty, cute kids are rarely only in the eye of the beholder.  All kids, and I do mean all, are cute in some way, shape or form.  The chubby little cheeks, the soulful eyes, the trusting smiles, all are the elements of a cute kid. It used to be when those moments were captured on video, they were, for good or ill, screened only for family and friends.  Now, with the advent of YouTube and other online video sites like Veoh and Yahoo! Video all those videos, for good or ill, can be shared with the rest of us. I've spent the last few months scouring the online globe for the best, the brightest, the funniest, the cutest kids on the internet.  And you know what I discovered?  There's too many to count.  So here's a small sampling of what's online and I dare you not to smile after watching them. Let's start off with this talented little guy over at YouTube. His name is Hero and he's a big Beatles fan as you'll see. Thanks to Contributing Editor SJ Alexander for sending me his link.