by Maman Aya (USA) | Dec 26, 2011 | Cooking, Family, Food, Health, Motherhood, USA, World Motherhood
I should preface this by saying I am not usually a baker. Don’t get me wrong, I love to cook almost everything, but I didn’t grow up in a home that always had baked goods, so I was just not accustomed to it.
Then, a few years ago, I decided to try to bake muffins as a rainy day activity for my 2-year old son and I. They were super easy, healthy and delicious. I found that most of the recipes were similar, just substituting different fruit from one to the other.
My son went apple picking with his class a few months ago. What a wonderful fun, fall activity and a great way to spend a day, but I found myself holding a rather large bag of apples.
“What do you want to do with all of these apples?” I asked. “You can only use them in my apple cinnamon oatmeal, Maman”. Somehow, we were supposed to manage to keep these apples from going bad, and only use one a day….that’s not what I had on my mind. So we made muffins 🙂 (more…)
Maman Aya is a full-time working mother of 2 beautiful children, a son who is 6 and a daughter who is two. She is raising her children in the high-pressure city of New York within a bilingual and multi-religious home.
Aya was born in Canada to a French mother who then swiftly whisked her away to NYC, where she grew up and spent most of her life. She was raised following Jewish traditions and married an Irish Catholic American who doesn’t speak any other language (which did not go over too well with her mother), but who is learning French through his children. Aya enjoys her job but feels “mommy guilt” while at work. She is lucky to have the flexibility to work from home on Thursdays and recently decided to change her schedule to have “mommy Fridays”, but still feels torn about her time away from her babies. Maman Aya is not a writer by any stretch of the imagination, but has been drawn in by the mothers who write for World Moms Blog. She looks forward to joining the team and trying her hand at writing!
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by Melanie Oda (Japan) | Dec 21, 2011 | Holiday, Japan, Motherhood, World Motherhood
Christmas in Japan is pretty much an unadulterated Gimmee Fest. Santa is everywhere, baby Jesus? って誰？Who’s that? I like to call it Christmas, Inc.
A good comparison would probably be the American version of Valentine’s Day. I mean, sure, there’s a religious tradition in there somewhere, but it’s been so warped that now it’s really just a chance for kids to exchange cards and yours truly to eat too much chocolate. (Valentine’s Day in Japan is totally backwards, but I’ll save that for February.)
Here most people celebrate Christmas on the evening of the 24th. They eat fried chicken and “Christmas Cake,” which is usually a strawberry and whipped cream topped vanilla sponge. Interestingly enough, Kentucky Fried Chicken (known in Japan simply as Kentucky) is strongly associated with Christmas. (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 Angela Y (USA) | Dec 19, 2011 | Holiday, Motherhood, USA, World Motherhood
Putting up the Christmas tree is more than just a holiday task for our family, it is a trip down memory lane. Collecting ornaments over the years remind us of family we love, major events in our lives, places we have been.
My husband and I put up our first tree together a few months after we started dating – that was 13 years ago. We had no ornaments! So being crafty (I am not artistic, but I am crafty), I decided we should “make” ornaments. So we opened some beers, bought some glitter, glue, and paint, and went to work. During our project, we got silly and put glitter on one of the empty beer cans – the glittery can still hangs on our tree every year.
Years later, as we hang the ornaments, I like to talk about how each ornament became part of our collection. It is like a game show – I say: “Remember this one?…” but only I seem to know the answer.
We have a memorable collection that gets a little bigger each year. Here are some of my favorites: (more…)
Angela Y. is in her mid-thirties and attempting to raise her two daughters (big girl, R, 3 years; little girl, M, 1 year) with her husband in San Francisco, CA. After spending ten years climbing the corporate ladder, she traded it all in to be a stay-at-home mom! Her perspective of raising a child in the city is definitely different from those who have been city dwellers all their lives, as she grew up in rural Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) surrounded by her extended family.
Angela Y. and her husband are on their own on the west coast of the United States — the only family help they receive is when someone comes for a visit. But, the lifestyle in San Francisco is like no other for them, so there, they stay! This exercise conscious mom is easily recognized, especially when she is riding around her husband-built bike with two seats on the back. And, when she’s not hanging out with the girls, you can find Angela Y. in the kitchen. She loves to cook for her family, especially dessert, and then eats some herself when no one is looking! Sneaky, mom!
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by World Moms Blog | Dec 17, 2011 | Cooking, Japan, Kids, Motherhood, Tara B., Third Eye Mom, World Motherhood
This week’s Saturday Sidebar Question comes from World Moms Blog writer Jennifer Prestholdt. She asked our writers,
“What do you typically feed your kid(s) for lunch?”
Check out what some of our World Moms had to say…
Mama B. of Saudi Arabia writes:
“We recently decided to go all healthy with their school lunches and meals in general. Go whole wheat all the way. For the kids it was a bit of a rude awakening, and we found out trying new things in their lunch before trying them at home left the kids hungry and their lunch untouched (like cheese and apple on whole wheat toast). (more…)
World Moms Blog is an award winning website which writes from over 30 countries on the topics of motherhood, culture, human rights and social good. Over 70 international contributors share their stories from around the globe, bonded by the common thread of motherhood and wanting a better world for their children.
World Moms Blog was listed by Forbes Woman as one of the "Best 100 Websites for Women 2012 & 2013" and also called a "must read" by the NY Times Motherlode in 2013. Our Senior Editor in India, Purnima Ramakrishnan, was awarded the BlogHer International Activist Award in 2013.
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by Kristen | Dec 16, 2011 | Cooking, Friendship, Inspirational, Life Lesson, Living Abroad, Miscarriage, Motherhood, Multicultural, Pregnancy, Switzerland, World Motherhood
I won’t lie, one of the biggest perks about Switzerland is the fabulous cheese, bread and chocolate. I have the extra pounds to prove that we have indeed enjoyed it! Our kids have no doubt developed a more cultured palate living here.
One of my goals while living here has been to learn to make the traditional “Bern bread” also known as Zopf bread. It is delicious twisted bread that can be enjoyed by tearing off part of the braid or slicing for sandwiches and soups. Any way you eat it, it’s wonderful. When my 2-year-old went on food strikes, zopf was his weakness!
I recently called a Swiss friend and asked if she would be interested in spending an afternoon teaching me how to make the bread. She gladly agreed and we set a date. My 4-year old teetered on a chair and got his (more…)
Kristen is a stay-at-home to two little boys, Jackson (4 yrs) and Owen (nearly 2 yrs). She was born in New York, but eventually made her way down to Texas. She and her husband, Seth, met in Dallas and were married in December 2005. Nine months into their marriage Seth received a call that he had landed his dream job, one catch, it involved world wide assignment. The adventure took them from Texas to Washington, D.C., on to Bogotá, Colombia and then back to Washington, D.C before bringing them to Bern, Switzerland! Kristen and her family have currently lived in Bern for more than 1 year, where her husband works for the US Department of State. Four moves and 2 children in nearly 6 years of marriage have made for quite the adventure in motherhood! Kristen finds motherhood to be one of the most humbling and character building things she has ever experienced. The responsibility of raising boys with integrity and respect at times feels daunting, but she couldn’t imagine doing anything else!
Kristen is a Speech Language Pathologist but has taken time away from working to focus on her family. Although she enjoys the travel and adventure involved in her husband’s career, she often finds herself feeling far from home and working to make the most of time abroad!
On her blog, Seasons Worth Savoring, Kristen writes about daily life with two little boys, including her experiences as she navigates a foreign culture and walks by faith. In her free time, or rather in her busy time with two boys attached to her legs, Kristen enjoys cooking, photography, antique and thrift store shopping, working on crafts, and blogging.
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by Carol (Canada) | Dec 14, 2011 | Canada, Economy, Motherhood, Working Mother, World Motherhood
People talk a lot about maintaining a sense of personal identity as a mother.
The needs and demands of a tiny human being who has no patience, no forbearance, and no consideration for the feelings of others can be an overwhelming experience.
Many women, especially in places like Canada where we get a whole year of maternity leave from work, find it difficult to maintain their sense of who they are.
Yanked out of board meetings and into a gliding rocker, and dealing with dirty diapers where they once dealt with memos and spreadsheets, new mothers often find themselves thinking “WHAT HAVE I DONE?” (more…)
Carol from If By Yes has lived in four different Canadian provinces as well as the Caribbean. Now she lives in Vancouver, working a full time job at a vet clinic, training dogs on the side, and raising her son and daughter to be good citizens of the world.
Carol is known for wearing inside-out underwear, microwaving yoghurt, killing house plants, over-thinking the mundane, and pointing out grammatical errors in "Twilight". When not trying to wrestle her son down for a nap, Carol loves to read and write.
Carol can also be found on her blog, If By Yes, and on Twitter @IfByYesTweets
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I should preface this by saying I am not usually a baker. Don’t get me wrong, I love to cook almost everything, but I didn’t grow up in a home that always had baked goods, so I was just not accustomed to it.
