by Eva Fannon (USA) | Mar 13, 2013 | 2012, Being Thankful, Death and Dying, Eva Fannon, Life Balance, Life Lesson, Motherhood, Tragedy, World Motherhood, Younger Children
It’s dark-thirty in the morning. The alarm goes off. It’s time to start the daily grind. I go into the bathroom, turn the faucet on, wet my toothbrush, spread some toothpaste on it and start brushing. I look up into the mirror. I look tired. I stare at the three white hairs that have started to grow along the part in my hair. All is quiet. Everyone is still sound asleep.
I start to wonder…what would be different if I were not here? It makes me sad to start thinking of not being around my girls and my husband. No more morning hellos with sleepy eyes peeking out from under disheveled bed head hair. No more bedtime stories and good-night snuggles. No more gentle kisses on warm sleeping heads as I watch my girls sleep before going to bed.
I get teary and have to stop thinking. I am thankful for this day. I will enjoy the day, be present in moments when I am interacting with those I care about, and at the end, reflect on the good things that have happened.
Why? Because life is fragile. We take it for granted. And the truth is we just never know when a lifetime will be cut short. (more…)
Eva Fannon is a working mom who lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her hubby and two girls. She was born and raised on the east coast and followed her husband out west when he got a job offer that he couldn't refuse. Eva has always been a planner, so it took her a while to accept that no matter how much you plan and prepare, being a mom means a new and different state of "normal".
Despite the craziness on most weekday mornings (getting a family of four out the door in time for work and school is no easy task!), she wouldn't trade being a mother for anything in the world. She and her husband are working on introducing the girls to the things they love - travel, the great outdoors, and enjoying time with family and friends. Eva can be found on Twitter @evafannon.
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by Jennifer Burden | Dec 22, 2012 | 2012, Uganda, World Moms Blog, World Motherhood
At World Moms Blog we’ve been so “Go! Go! Go!” that I haven’t had time to reflect on our year, and now that I have, it was really “WOW!!” Here are some amazing and memorable highlights!
World Moms Blog contributors and editors met up for the first time in Washington, DC in January, around the UN Foundation’s Volunteer Summit for Shot@Life. I was also invited to speak at the event on grass-roots fundraising and party planning for social good during the summit.
In March, our Indonesian contributors, Maureen and Shaula Bellour, also met for the first time ever in Jakarta for coffee. (more…)
Jennifer Burden is the Founder and CEO of World Moms Network, an award winning website on global motherhood, culture, human rights and social good. World Moms Network writes from over 30 countries, has over 70 contributors and was listed by Forbes as one of the “Best 100 Websites for Women”, named a “must read” by The New York Times, and was recommended by The Times of India.
She was also invited to Uganda to view UNICEF’s family health programs with Shot@Life and was previously named a “Global Influencer Fellow” and “Social Media Fellow” by the UN Foundation. Jennifer was invited to the White House twice, including as a nominated "Changemaker" for the State of the World Women Summit. She also participated in the One Campaign’s first AYA Summit on the topic of women and girl empowerment and organized and spoke on an international panel at the World Bank in Washington, DC on the importance of a universal education for all girls. Her writing has been featured by Baby Center, Huffington Post, ONE.org, the UN Foundation’s Shot@Life, and The Gates Foundation’s “Impatient Optimists.” She is currently a candidate in Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in the Executive Masters of Public Affairs program, where she hopes to further her study of global policies affecting women and girls.
Jennifer can be found on Twitter @JenniferBurden.
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by Courtney Cappallo (USA) | Dec 19, 2012 | 2012, Being Thankful, Childhood, Cooking, Culture, Family, Food, Girls, Holiday, Home, Kids, Motherhood, Music, Older Children, Parenting, USA, World Motherhood, Younger Children
Christmas is magical time. Children wait all year for the chance to wish for whatever they want. As parents we reconnect with our own childhood sense of hope. Now that I am a mother, preparing for the holidays continues to be a special time for me. There are many traditions I started with my children. I hope my daughters find comfort in these times and continue with these holiday celebrations throughout their lives.
I thought it would be fun to compile a list of some things I do to make Christmas, Christmas in our house! I’m not Martha Stewart, I am just a mom of two sweet little girls trying my best to make their Christmas dreams and wishes come true. I’d say I am want-to-be Martha Stewart with a bit of Clark W. Griswold mixed in. (more…)
Courtney Cappallo is a mom of two girls, ages 7 and 4-years-old. She is living her dream life by residing on Cape Cod and being able to stay at home with her two little beauties. Courtney is currently homeschooling both of her daughters for 2nd grade and preschool, respectively.
Courtney uses a mix of Classical Education and Montessori. She is a strong believer in teaching to the five senses. Courtney’s homeschooling efforts are unique, as she uses the latest technology of the Smartboard. She is also taking on the task of learning Spanish as a second language, as well as, teaching her two children and husband Spanish.
Prior to becoming a homeschooling teacher, Courtney was the Director of Marketing for Simon Property Group, which is the largest U.S. real estate company. Courtney was Simon’s Director of Marketing for the Burlington Mall, Arsenal Mall and Cape Cod Mall. Courtney is a graduate of Villanova University and is proud of her small town roots from growing up in Oxford, Pennsylvania, which only has two traffic lights! She can be found making homeschooling lessons and more at Table of Four !
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by Natalia Rankine-Galloway (Morocco) | Dec 3, 2012 | 2012, Child Care, Cultural Differences, Morocco, Parenting, Tunisia, Uncategorized, World Moms Blog, World Motherhood
Photo by Elizabeth Atalay
It was too hot for October as I pushed the baby’s stroller towards the busy intersection, nervous about navigating the after school traffic.
As I approached the T junction, I could see a woman striking her arms out wildly from the driver’s seat of her car, stopped at the red light. She looked as though she was battling someone in the passenger seat with all the strength the confined space would allow.
I had been reading and thinking a lot about women and women’s rights in Morocco since my arrival a couple of weeks prior and in the split second it took me to walk from the trunk to beside the window, I had concluded she was an abused wife, fighting back.
Prone as I am to flights of fancy, I had her whole heroic back story firm in my mind as I walked level to the front window and realized that she was in fact landing punches on a boy; about 12 or 13 and looking utterly deflated as he half-heartedly held his arms up against his mother’s blows. (more…)
Natalia was born a stone's throw from the Queen's racetrack in Ascot, UK and has been trying to get a ticket to the races and a fabulous hat to go with it ever since. She was born to a Peruvian mother and an Irish father who kept her on her toes, moving her to Spain, Ireland and back to the UK before settling her in New York for the length of middle and high school. She is still uncertain of what she did to deserve that.
She fled to Boston for college and then Washington, D.C. to marry her wonderful husband, who she met in her freshman year at college. As a military man, he was able to keep her in the migratory lifestyle to which she had become accustomed. Within 5 months of marriage, they were off to Japan where they stayed for a wonderful 2 and one half years before coming home to roost. Baby Xavier was born in New York in 2011 and has not slept since.
A joy and an inspiration, it was Xavier who moved Natalia to entrepreneurship and the launch of CultureBaby. She has loved forging her own path and is excited for the next step for her family and CultureBaby.
Natalia believes in the potential for peace that all children carry within them and the importance of raising them as global citizens. She loves language, history, art and culture as well as Vietnamese Pho, Argentinian Malbec, English winters, Spanish summers and Japanese department stores...and she still hopes one day to catch the number 9 race with Queen Liz.
You can find her personal blog, The Culture Mum Chronicles.
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by Elizabeth Atalay | Oct 9, 2012 | 2012, Africa, Culture, Ethiopia, Inspirational, International, Motherhood, Social Good, World Moms Blog, World Motherhood, World Voice
We are in Ethiopia this week, virtually following along with the ONEMoms team as they traverse the country gathering material to share with the world. “ONE.org is a non-partisan advocacy organization dedicated to the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. Backed by more than 3 million members, ONE .org works with government leaders to support proven and cost efficient solutions to save lives and help build sustainable futures.”-ONE.org
Photo Credit: Rana DiOrio
World Moms Blog is excited recently to have become a community partner of ONEMoms and we’d like to bring you along as we follow their trip of 12 ONE Moms traveling through Ethiopia from October 6th through October 13th.
The diverse group of ONEMoms includes a Supermodel/Activist, a Book Publisher, a Pig Farmer, Mom Bloggers, Food Writers, a Lawyer, a Scientist and a designer. Their goal is to meet up with Ethiopian women, agriculturalists and health care workers, and in doing so engage us in a global dialog on the important issues faced in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia is a fascinating country, and the only country in Africa that was never colonized. The Italian government’s long ago attempt to do so apparently left hints of Italian influence behind. It is the most populous land locked country in the world, and home to over 80 languages.
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Elizabeth Atalay is a Digital Media Producer, Managing Editor at World Moms Network, and a Social Media Manager. She was a 2015 United Nations Foundation Social Good Fellow, and traveled to Ethiopia as an International Reporting Project New Media Fellow to report on newborn health in 2014. On her personal blog, Documama.org, she uses digital media as a new medium for her background as a documentarian. After having worked on Feature Films and Television series for FOX, NBC, MGM, Columbia Pictures, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, and Castle Rock Pictures, she studied documentary filmmaking and anthropology earning a Masters degree in Media Studies from The New School in New York. Since becoming a Digital Media Producer she has worked on social media campaigns for non-profits such as Save The Children, WaterAid, ONE.org, UNICEF, United Nations Foundation, Edesia, World Pulse, American Heart Association, and The Gates Foundation. Her writing has also been featured on ONE.org, Johnson & Johnson’s BabyCenter.com, EnoughProject.org, GaviAlliance.org, and Worldmomsnetwork.com. Elizabeth has traveled to 70 countries around the world, most recently to Haiti with Artisan Business Network to visit artisans in partnership with Macy’s Heart of Haiti line, which provides sustainable income to Haitian artisans. Elizabeth lives in New England with her husband and four children.
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by Courtney Cappallo (USA) | Oct 3, 2012 | 2012, Childhood, Culture, Education, Entertainment, Family, Homeschooling, Kids, Older Children, Parenting, Preschool, USA, Younger Children
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” This is how I home-school my two children. The majority of children in the United States of America attend some form of organized schooling either at public school, private school or a charter school.
I graduated from a public school, my husband attended a private school. Both of our exposure to art came from the art classes our school provided. Neither sets of our parents enrolled us in an after school art program or exposed us to art on a personal level.
Too often I find that parents rely on the system to teach and inspire our children. I believe that as parents, we are responsible for exposing our children to the arts while adding meaning to these experiences. Art is an essential component of education. All children benefit from opportunities to create. During these difficult economic times, arts programs are the first to be sacrificed in public schools.
I desire for my girls to be cultured. I want them exposed to the arts at a young age. I believe the benefits of fostering a love and appreciation of the arts is immeasurable. Because my husband and I have chosen to home-school our children, we take full accountability and responsibility for our children’s education. I cannot sit back and hope that someone else will teach or expose my children to the arts. I take action and get the job done myself. (more…)
Courtney Cappallo is a mom of two girls, ages 7 and 4-years-old. She is living her dream life by residing on Cape Cod and being able to stay at home with her two little beauties. Courtney is currently homeschooling both of her daughters for 2nd grade and preschool, respectively.
Courtney uses a mix of Classical Education and Montessori. She is a strong believer in teaching to the five senses. Courtney’s homeschooling efforts are unique, as she uses the latest technology of the Smartboard. She is also taking on the task of learning Spanish as a second language, as well as, teaching her two children and husband Spanish.
Prior to becoming a homeschooling teacher, Courtney was the Director of Marketing for Simon Property Group, which is the largest U.S. real estate company. Courtney was Simon’s Director of Marketing for the Burlington Mall, Arsenal Mall and Cape Cod Mall. Courtney is a graduate of Villanova University and is proud of her small town roots from growing up in Oxford, Pennsylvania, which only has two traffic lights! She can be found making homeschooling lessons and more at Table of Four !
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