by Tara Bergman (USA) | Nov 14, 2012 | Childhood, Family, Home, Life Balance, Motherhood, Relocating, Tara B., World Motherhood
Tara B’s backyard bathed in unusual winter sunlight on Christmas Eve.
What is home? Everyone has different answers to this, but for me, home is tied to sensations. It’s a physical space that can conjure the feelings of nostalgia, warmth, comfort, and peace.When I think of the places I have truly called home, these feelings were always present.
In my life, I have traveled some but have lived in two states thus far: Pennsylvania and Washington. My parents still live in the house I grew up in in Northeastern Pennsylvania. And while I lived in Philadelphia before moving to Washington, my parents’ house will always be home. I spent 18 years there, creating memories good and bad, throughout my childhood. The furnishings may have changed, but the “home” is still there. I’m only able to visit my parents once a year right now, and it’s hard to describe the feeling I get just driving up the street to their house and walking through the door. The flood of memories and sensations is overwhelming. There, I connect to a part of me that I don’t connect with any place else. I am filled with nostalgia, warmth, comfort, and peace from a very specific time of my life. (more…)
Tara is a native Pennsylvanian who moved to the Seattle area in 1998 (sight unseen) with her husband to start their grand life adventure together. Despite the difficult fact that their family is a plane ride away, the couple fell in love with the Pacific Northwest and have put down roots. They have 2 super charged little boys and recently moved out of the Seattle suburbs further east into the country, trading in a Starbucks on every corner for coyotes in the backyard. Tara loves the outdoors (hiking, biking, camping). And, when her family isn't out in nature, they are hunkered down at home with friends, sharing a meal, playing games, and generally having fun. She loves being a stay-at-home mom and sharing her experiences on World Moms Network!
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by Meredith (USA) | Nov 8, 2012 | Africa, Being Thankful, Child Care, Childhood, Eye on Culture, Family, Motherhood, Nigeria, World Motherhood
Asking for help has always been a problem for me. Even when I knew I didn’t really know how to do something, I never wanted people to think I didn’t know something. I know I am not perfect but to let others see it was one of my worst fears.
Before I moved to Nigeria, I tried to be one of those super moms. My children were 3 and 15 months, and I felt like I could do it all: grocery shopping, house cleaning, taking care of our dogs, cooking, play time, mother, sister, wife, friend. And, I could do all of those things, but I was exhausted all the time. At the end of each day, I could barely read one page of a great book because my eyes just would not stay open no matter how much I willed them to do so!
When my husband told me about the possibility of moving to Nigeria, a flood of anxiety and fear swept over me: What would the medical care be like over there? What was the time difference? Would it be safe? Where would my son go to school? Would we die of malaria? It never occurred to me that there would be such a pleasant surprise in store for me amid all the negativity and fears I had of going there.
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Meredith finds it difficult to tell anyone where she is from exactly! She grew up in several states, but mainly Illinois. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana which is also where she met her husband. She taught kindergarten for seven years before she adopted her son from Guatemala and then gave birth to her daughter two years leter. She moved to Lagos, Nigeria with her husband and two children in July 2009 for her husband's work. She and her family moved back to the U.S.this summer(August 2012) and are adjusting to life back in the U.S. You can read more about her life in Lagos and her adjustment to being back on her blog: We Found Happiness.
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by Diana | Oct 15, 2012 | Childhood, Education, Homeschooling, Life Balance, Loss of Child, Motherhood, SAHM, Working Mother, World Motherhood, Younger Children
It was about a year and a half ago, when we decided to homeschool my daughter, now almost 3. At the time, we knew we’d start at preschool age and get in a few months to a year before adding to our family.
Life has completely tipped upside down since then, after losing our twin boys at 20 weeks into my pregnancy. We’re in the middle of an international adoption but even that is uncertain at the moment.
For now, Bella is an only child with no siblings in the near future. Although this wasn’t our plan, I’ve decided to work with it as best I can. Having her at home with me offers more time to bond and for me to share those little moments that go by so fast. We chose to homeschool since the preschools in our areas aren’t impressive, and we do it mostly by ourselves with no co-op near us. We do have friends that are homeschooling their children that we occasionally get together with, but for most days it’s simply Bella and I at home or out taking “field trips” to nearby farms, zoo’s museums, etc.
When we started homeschooling last month, there were the fears and worries I’ve read from almost every homeschool parent at some point: (more…)
Diana blogs on raising a toddler daughter, the loss of her twin boys, and their families' adoption in progress on the aptly named Hormonal Imbalances, as well as Babble, Oreck, World Moms Blog, and Attachment Parenting International. She's been syndicated on BlogHer and The Huffington Post. Smaller glimpses into her day are on Twitter and Facebook, and on <a href="http://pinterest.com/lifeasasahm"
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by Frelle (USA) | Oct 10, 2012 | Childhood, School, Uncategorized, Vacationing
I live in a suburb of Raleigh, North Carolina, and my children attend year-round school. I have one daughter in a year round middle school, and two daughters in a year round elementary school. This kind of school system has been an option for families here since the early 1990s. Wake County decided to operate any newly build elementary school on a year-round schedule starting in 2007.
In a year-round school, students are organized into four groups, called “tracks”. The schedules for each track are staggered so that at any one time, three tracks are in school and one track is out on break. This system is called a “45/15 Schedule”: students are in school for 45 days, then they’re off for 15, in different cycles throughout the year.
The new school year begins begins the first Monday in July for students on tracks 1, 2 and 3. Students on track 4 start school 15 school days later as students on track 3 “track out” for their first 15 day break. Year-round students get the same holidays off as students in “traditional calendar schools”, and all students are in school for 180 days each year. It’s quite a feat to accomplish that, I think. I’m grateful I don’t have to make the schedules! (more…)
Jenna grew up in the midwestern US, active in music and her church community from a young age. She developed a love of all things literary thanks to her mom, and a love of all things science fiction thanks to her dad. She left the midwest in her early twenties and has lived in the south ever since.
On her blog, she tries to write words that make a difference to people. Long before she attended college to major in Special Ed and Psychology, she became an advocate for special needs and invisible disabilities. She's always been perceptive of and encouraging to those who struggle to fit in. Having been through several dark seasons in her own life, she's found empowerment in being transparent and vulnerable about her emotions, making deep and lasting friendships, and finding courage to write from her heart. Her biggest wish is to raise her kids to be compassionate people who love well.
She's been online since 1993, with a total of 19 years of social media exposure. Having friends she doesn't know in real life has been normal for her since her junior year in college, and she's grateful every day for the ways technology helps her stay in touch with friends from all over the world.
Jenna lives in a suburb of Raleigh, North Carolina, and is a freelance writer and a stay at home single mom to 3 girls and a boy. She blogs at MadeMoreBeautiful.comMadeMoreBeautiful.com.
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by Melanie Oda (Japan) | Oct 5, 2012 | Childhood, Family, Japan, Kids, Life Lesson, Living Abroad, Motherhood, Parenting, Siblings, Sports, World Motherhood, Younger Children
Karate white belt. This is for beginners who have not yet achieved a rank.
Sometimes as a parent, you get so involved in the nitty-gritty everyday, that the big picture is lost in the pixels. Then a random moment sweeps over you, and you see things from the distance for the first time in a long time.
In those moments, you can see how far you’ve come, how you’ve gotten older and wiser, how your children have grown, and how all the nitty-gritty, messy, sticky everyday battles weren’t in vain. I had a moment like this recently. I wasn’t expecting it. It came out of the blue like a thunderstorm on a muggy summer afternoon.
My daughter has recently joined my son at his karate class. I bought a new dogi (karate uniform) for him. The old one was too small, and now Sister would need it.
Brother’s needed taking in. He tried it on and he seemed so big in the grown up, crisp, white uniform. (more…)
If you ask Melanie Oda where she is from, she will answer "Georgia." (Unless you ask her in Japanese. Then she will say "America.") It sounds nice, and it's a one-word answer, which is what most people expect. The truth is more complex. She moved around several small towns in the south growing up. Such is life when your father is a Southern Baptist preacher of the hellfire and brimstone variety.
She came to Japan in 2000 as an assistant language teacher, and has never managed to leave. She currently resides in Yokohama, on the outskirts of Tokyo (but please don't tell anyone she described it that way! Citizens of Yokohama have a lot of pride). No one is more surprised to find her here, married to a Japanese man and with two bilingual children (aged four and seven), than herself. And possibly her mother.
You can read more about her misadventures in Asia on her blog, HamakkoMommy.
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by Shaula Bellour (Indonesia) | Oct 4, 2012 | Being Thankful, Childhood, Culture, Eye on Culture, Family, Indonesia, Living Abroad, Motherhood, Moving, Relocating, Shaula Bellour, Traditions, Twins, World Motherhood, Younger Children
Our twins turn 5 years old today. It feels like a big milestone – one step closer to being full-fledged big kids, yet still with a foot in the little kid world.
I often find myself marveling at their suddenly long legs, new vocabulary and thoughtful commentary on the world around them. It’s bittersweet of course, but mostly it’s a delight to watch them grow more and more into themselves every day. It’s definitely something worth celebrating.
This year our kids were a lot more aware of the whole birthday thing and have been getting excited for their big day. We’ve already been to three whole-class birthday parties this month. Now it’s our turn…
Our last two birthday parties were low-key DIY affairs, held at our house in Dili, East Timor. With no party stores to speak of, I spent weeks sourcing supplies – procuring goody bag contents, decoration-making materials, cake ingredients, and creative birthday presents from every corner of the city.
I became a pro at finding hidden treasures in unexpected (and often dusty) places – from back corner display cases to tin-roofed roadside stalls. I stayed up late with my glue gun and got up early to bake. Armed with a great no-melt frosting recipe (essential in the tropics), I was ready to go. (more…)
Shaula Bellour grew up in Redmond, Washington. She now lives in Jakarta, Indonesia with her British husband and 9-year old boy/girl twins. She has degrees in International Relations and Gender and Development and works as a consultant for the UN and non-governmental organizations.
Shaula has lived and worked in the US, France, England, Kenya, Eritrea, Kosovo, Lebanon and Timor-Leste. She began writing for World Moms Network in 2010. She plans to eventually find her way back to the Pacific Northwest one day, but until then she’s enjoying living in the big wide world with her family.
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