The spokesmen are both funny and engaging while presenting their cheese in a confident manner. This pride is congruent with the company’s very nature – a farmer-owned cooperative that keeps it’s profits within the family of farmers who have invested their livelihood in Tillamook Cheese.

Farmer-owned and with a commitment to quality, it’s easy to see how Tillamook Cheese is the West coast’s most popular brand of natural cheese.

You can buy Tillamook’s cheese and other products like yogurt, sour cream, butter and ice cream at retail stores nationwide.

This week’s mommy interview is with Stephanie Fish of The Secret Sister Shop.

1. Did you always want to be a mom?

Yes!

2. How many children do you have?

Four living/2 in Heaven

3. Tell us about finding out you were pregnant for the first time.

I was a scared 16 yr old Sophomore who fell for the first guy that said he loved me…we’ve been married for almost 17 yrs now. My daughter is now 18 yrs old and about to graduate High School…and all I can say is “We’ve come a long way baby!!”

4. What was labor like for you? Difficult, easy, natural or c-section?

My first child: It was the longest 15 hours of my life! I did have an epidural, which blocked some of the pain but ended up giving me migraines and high blood pressure.

5. What challenges have you faced as a mother?

I’ve faced many challenges including a miscarriage, the death of my youngest child due to a virus that went undetected, and have 2 children with epilepsy. Being a mom has taught me more about the grace and mercy that God gives us on a daily basis and what it means to rely on Him and not others.

6. What do you find is the most rewarding thing about being a mom?

Lots of things! Getting a hug at the end of the day & having my kids tell me ‘thanks for being my mom’!

For more information on Stephanie visit her on the web at The Secret Sister Shop or Twitter at SecretSisShop

Last week’s interview with Tracy was all about blogging. I made an oopsie – the interviews are supposed to be about motherhood. So, let’s try this again. This week’s mom interview is with Tammy Munson.

1. Did you always want to be a mom?

Yes I always wanted to be a mom. When I was a kid , I wanted a big family with at least 4 children. After my younger daughter was born, I was pretty sure I was done.  I always thought I’d be a mom of boys — but so very happy with “my girls”

2. How many children do you have?

I have 2 daughters, Kiersten and Rebecca

3. Tell us about finding out you were pregnant for the first time.

It was sort of unexpected so at first I was thinking oh my what have we done .. it then quickly turned to We’re Having a Baby and absolute bliss.

4. What was labor like for you? Difficult, easy, natural or c-section?

Both of my children decided to come a bit earlier than normal. Labor with my oldest was very difficult.  There were lots of things going on medically with my daughter as well as myself. After laboring for 12+ hours, I ended up having a vaginal delivery but really should have had a c-section.

I went into labor with my youngest 7 weeks early so I was put on bed rest in the hospital for a week. Once the doctors allowed the contractions to start , labor was very easy but fast and furious! Rebecca’s actual labor time  was just  4 hours, start to finish.

5. What challenges have you faced as a mother?

My oldest daughter has special needs. Due to some of the medical needs (and bad decisions made by the medical team ) Kiersten received a brain injury during delivery. Her diagnosis did not come till about 5 months of age. It was extremely challenging to deal with regular new mom stuff plus all the medical/therapy things that needed to be done. Kiersten had her first emergency brain surgery at 6 months of age. She would end up having another at 8 months.

After Rebecca came along , we noticed she did everything early. When Rebecca started preschool and could read , the school had her evaluated and she was deemed gifted.

This was yet another challenge.

For each of my girls are on opposite ends of the learning spectrum. Kiersten is doing ok but will always need a bit more help in school than most her age. Rebecca , alternatively, barely needs any help and can usually teach us a thing or two.

6. What do you find is the most rewarding thing about being a mom?

I just simply love being a mom. I love seeing their unconditional love for me and when they need something, it is me that they look for. Last year’s deployment taught us a lot about each other. I’m so very proud and honored to be their mom.

These girls have taught me so very much in their lifetime. Kiersten taught me that everyday is an adventure — you need to embrace each day and not worry about what happened yesterday.  Rebecca taught me something very important too — that we should never stop learning and every activity should be considered a learning opportunity.

For more information on Tammy, visit her on the web or Twitter.

Although many think that Spring break is just for college kids, I believe that we as parents should have some kind of a plan for our kids this time of the year. Elementary, middle and high schools do get a week if not two weeks off from school too. This is an excellent time for parents to think of spending quality time with their kids – no matter what age their kids are.

During spring, family vacations become popular. Why? Simply because the weather is perfect – not too hot, not too cold. Some destinations are not as crowded as others during summer months. Sadly, not everyone can afford to travel. It can get expensive depending on where you are going and how you are getting there. So, families need to plan alternative ways to enjoy the spring break without spending too much money.

If your family cannot afford to go on vacation, find some activities you can do as a family. Check out your local area – are there places you can visit? You can go to the beach, the zoo, and a museum maybe. You can even start a family project at home. Whatever you decide on, note that this is a family thing – everyone gets to participate. You can ensure that the kids do not get bored during spring break and you as parents get to enjoy the spring break with them too.

This recipe is another popular dish in my household. It is my version of meatloaf. While, I do make the traditional meatloaf, this is one of my favorite dishes to prepare cause when I make it – there is always extras for another day and it’s a big hit especially during parties.

Ingredients:
2 lbs. Ground Pork
Small onion (chopped)
2 Carrots (chopped)
6 cloves garlic (chopped)
1 egg
3 tbsp. flour
Salt and Pepper to taste
4 hard boiled eggs peeled and cut into 4 (Lengthwise)

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients except for the hard boiled eggs (they will be used as a filling).
Divide mixture into 5 portions.
Place the sliced hard boiled eggs inside the meatloaf. You’ll have to watch the video to see how I do it.
Wrap each portion in aluminum foil. Watch the video above to see how I wrap it.
Steam wrapped meat loaf for 15-20 minutes.
Remove aluminum foil wrapper and pan fry the meatloaf in a pan with some oil – just enough to brown the outside.
Let fried meatloaf rest for 7-10 minutes before slicing.
Slice the meat into 1/2 inch pieces at an angle.
Serve with Sweet and Sour Sauce or Ketchup.

Tip: You can add raisins, cilantro and sausage in the meat mixture if you wish. If you are not serving them all in one meal, you can freeze the steamed meatloaf – just make sure it is completely cool before you freeze it. Do not remove the foil before you freeze. Thaw the frozen meatloaf before you pan fry.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave me your question in the comments.

For more recipes, visit Family Foodies.

This is how I make eggrolls at home. This is very popular in any asian home especially during parties and potlucks. It’s very addicting!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb. ground pork or ground chicken/turkey
2 carrots (chopped)
1 small onion (chopped)
1 egg
2 heaping tablespoons flour
Springroll Seasoning Mix (You can buy in asian market or asian section of your local grocery store) If you can’t find any … you can use salt and pepper for seasoning
Eggroll/Springroll Wrappers
1 small bowl filled with water (will be your glue to seal eggrolls)
2 teaspoons of flour (in a bowl)
Vegetable or canola oil to fry your eggrolls
Sweet and Sour Sauce for dipping (can be found in asian store or your local grocery store)

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl – this will be your filling.
Thaw your eggroll wrapper.
Separate your wrappers.
For each wrapper, use one tablespoon of filling.
Wrap your eggrolls – watch the video on how I wrap them up.
Cut eggrolls in half and dip cut end on flour and then deep fry. (this is to prevent filling from spilling out of eggroll)
Fry until golden brown.
Remove from oil and let them stand on one end on a paper towel lined container.
When cooked, you can dip in sweet and sour sauce – ENJOY!

Tips:
Make sure to make them rest standing up to drain oil to one end and into the paper towel. This will keep it crunchy.
To heat up eggrolls, you can stick in oven at 350 degrees for 5-10 minutes.

For more recipes, visit Family Foodies.

People blog for different reasons. Most bloggers do because they want to express their thoughts and opinions about certain things while some just want to tell their stories. Here are some reason why I blog:

- I use my blog as a means to stay connected with my friends and family who are far away.
- I like to share information or knowledge in a given topic.
- I blog to make money- I either get paid to write or through the ads that are on my blog page.
- I blog to promote my business, service or product.
- I blog to review products.
- I blog for fun.

Blogging allows us to practice the freedom of speech and gives us a platform to share our opinions without hesitation. We write on our blog, and we publish our posts and instantly, our thoughts are available for others to read – simple as that. There are so many things we can do with our blogs. We are not limited to only text. We can add and share photos, videos, audios, notes and more.

Here’s one benefit I can see with blogging – in today’s world, everyone gets so busy that we seldom have the chance to sit down and think about what is going on. Blogging allows us to reflect about our lives and the present. When we start to blog, we are forced to observe life from another perspective thus allowing us to appreciate what we have.

I love to blog and I subscribe to a lot of blogs – I have met so many people and have learned so much because of this. Which brings me to my question for you … do you blog? If you do – why? Join our meme and answer this question. Post your answer in your blog and link back to Mommy Community. And we can all visit each others’ blog to learn about the reasons behind our blogging.

You can copy our special graphic below and add it to your post –

Here is the html code to use.
<a href="http://mommycommunity.com/2009/02/07/why-blog/" target="_Blank"><img src="http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg230/mcowner/why-blog.jpg"/></a>

As always – I enjoy giving some link-love so add your link to your post answering the question “Why Blog?” on our “Mr. Linky” below. Oh, and don’t forget to leave me a comment too!

The First Odd Truth: Everyone Is Pretty Much Doing It Right. Can you imagine this as a headline in a parenting magazine? All we ever hear or read about are tips on how to do things better, and the Hollywood narrative in movies and television suggests that all we do as mothers is sit around and compare or criticize other mothers. But in the grand scheme of things, the fact that our species, homo sapiens, has been around for 200,000 years suggest we are doing things pretty well. World population doubled from 1959 to 1999 (6 billion). Crime rates are dropping (really). And while it is important to seek out new ways of doing and improving our lives and those of our children, the differences between mothers who use a sling more than a stroller, mothers who breastfeed or formula feed, mothers who give birth in a hospital or at home – those are small differences. Excepting those situations of abuse or mistreatment, most everyone is doing this motherhood thing well. Including you.

The Second Odd Truth: Motherhood Is Both Macro and Micro. What is hard about motherhood is that unlike almost any other job, it is extremely contradictory. You are the boss, and yet you are constantly challenged by your “subordinates” in ways that would get a person fired at work. You are bringing new people, new life!, into this world, and cleaning pureed peas off the floor. You are managing a large and complex budget, while digging for quarters in your purse to feed the parking meter next to the playground. There are few jobs that require you to be both CEO and janitor at the same time, and on both physical, mental, and emotional levels. This is part of why motherhood has such a strange history: it is often dismissed as not being a “real” profession while revered as an almost holy role and responsibility. Remembering that motherhood operates at the opposite ends of these two extremes helps keep a healthy perspective on both bad days and good ones.

The Third Odd Truth: Science Is Not As Much Help Here As We Might Like. We have become accustomed to how much science has answered difficult questions about our minds and our bodies. Consider what scientists know about DNA, depression, and allergies. So it is strange to become pregnant or have a young child and find medicine somewhat falling down on the job. The reality is that the gold standard for medical discovery – double blind, clinical trials on human beings – runs up against some serious ethical problems when you are talking about pregnant women and young children. An adult can consent to trying a radical new drug, but can an unborn baby or a 1 year old? Should their parents have the right to consent for them? This ethical and legal quagmire explains why medical science does not have as many answers about pregnancy and babies that we as mothers might like. Even determining the effects of cold medicine on a fetus is fraught with difficulty. And yet at no other time in our lives do we want – and need – medicine to give us answers to make our babies and ourselves as healthy as possible. One of the best ways of coping with this odd truth is to go into pregnancy and the first year of parenting knowing that you will rely more on your instincts as a mother during this period than during any other time of your life. Start listening to those instincts, taking notes early on of problems, and documenting your concerns. You will find that this vigilance pays off both in terms of peace of mind and, if something medically serious truly is wrong, a quick and accurate diagnosis.

What odd truths have you discovered about motherhood? Let us know! We want to hear and benefit from your lessons learned!

Amanda is a former diplomat who used to negotiate trade deals. Now she negotiates with javascript, web graphics, and her toddler while running the her company, Extra (Hour)dinary Parenting, and proving anew each day that international politics and parenting are different versions of the same profession.

Extra (Hour)dinary Parenting: We Specialize in the Business End of Parenting

It’s called “The X”! Next time you are at the grocery store, the mall, or out to dinner when your kids start acting up, get down on your child‘s level and calmly, simply state “If you don‘t start being a good boy/girl you will get an X!”. So what is “The X”? It is merely a pen in your purse. Use it just as you would a time-out, first give a warning, and if they don’t listen, get your pen out and make an X on their hand, when they receive the X that equals a time-out when you get home. If they continue to misbehave give them another X on the other hand and continue until they behave. If they get 3 X’s then they get 3 time outs. You could use any punishment you choose, such as if you “get an X then you won‘t play outside today“. The whole point is that it holds you and them accountable. Seeing the X will remind them to behave and it will also remind you to follow through. As long as you give the punishment when you get home your little X will hold great value! There is no yelling, no getting frustrated and upset with your kids. Once you implement this a few times your kids will be acting like little angels because you taught them how!

Article written by Shannon Lelli.