Surviving At Home

I love blog hopping to read about fellow moms and their experiences. In fact, this can get rather addicting time consuming, so I have to really limit my blog hopping time til AFTER my work is done. Since there’s always some last thing to do, my blog reader is always chock full!

New blogs that I discovered this week:

Chrysanthemoms: chock full of fun mom stuff, kids stuff, and some business stuff as well.

Weekly Beef: there’s just something about this writer’s style that makes me laugh.

Smart Mama: again, another funny mom who writes about all mom things, most of which only moms would find funny.

Five Under Five: I’m just in awe of any mother who has 5 children under the age of 5.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: not exactly a “new find” but one that I love. Wish I could hire her to be my personal chef.

Geesh…I’m one day past my birthday and I’ve got puffy and severely dry undereye skin and graying hair in need of a new cut and some dye-in-a-box. It’s tough getting older!

Too bad I didn’t notice the hair color before I hit my local drugstore and loaded up on moisturizers. My all-time favorite moisturizer is by Elizabeth Arden but that sells for $45 a jar…a small jar. It is wonderful, though! My skin tingles (in a good way) after I use it; makes me feel like the cream alone is tightening up all the crow’s feet and laugh lines around my eyes. But in my saving money mode, I just could not justify spending that kind of money right now. So instead I spent the same amount of money on face cream, eye cream, undereye concealer and…something else that I just can’t remember.

I don’t wallow in despair at the idea of getting older. I truly don’t think about it…much. There are definitely certain days where I feel more stiff or fall asleep on the couch early and I sometimes wish I had some fantastically original birthday bash idea but honestly, a nice, calm and quiet day putting up Christmas decorations with the girls was all I needed.

Many thanks to my sister-in-law who told me that “40 is the new 30, so you’re really turning 29!” Love ya, B! I must admit that I have turned 29 a few times but THAT is the silver lining I was looking for! My best friend and I have also decided to take a girls only weekend sometime next summer since we’re both turning 40 next year. Guess we better start planning so I can save up.

Any fun ideas of where we can go? Leave a comment below!

Most adult women know what a mammogram is and how important the test is in the early detection of breast cancer. Yet, even knowing the importance of a yearly mammogram after the age of 40, so many women put off having the test.

Some women are afraid of hearing devestating results that will change their lives and still others are afraid that it will hurt. Oprah jokes every year about getting her boobs squished and that’s honestly all it is…your boobs get squished for a couple of seconds.

I’m at that lucky age where my doctor recommended a baseline mammogram, which is taken in your late 30s to provide the doctors a general picture of the healthy breast tissue which they will use to compare future results. My appointment was on Tuesday and I survived it! Honestly, it’s not bad!

After arriving at the imaging center and filling out new patient paperwork, I was escorted by a very nice female technician to the exam room. I was literally done within 20 minutes. You put on a gown, the technician puts the film into the machine, and then she positions the breast onto the screen and you get squished. Truly, it didn’t hurt. You’re squished for only 5-10 seconds on each side, just long enough for the tech to go behind the protective screen and push the button.

For each breast they took 2 xrays, trying to fully get all the tissue around the breast. It may sound awful to be “squished” but there’s no pain, just some pressure which is relieved the second the machine releases its grip. If you’ve been through childbirth, this is nothing in comparison. And what’s a few seconds of discomfort if you can detect a problem early and improve your chances of fighting off cancer?

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Please take your good health into your own hands and schedule your own mammogram. It could very well save your life.

I can’t resist passing along great contests but you have to move fast to enter!

Erin is a WAHM and is giving away a pair of beautiful and unique, handmade earrings on Mom’s Morning Show TODAY, so go quickly to post a message on her blog for a chance to win! Then listen to Mom’s Morning Show TODAY at 10:30 eastern time to find out if you won!

Good luck!