This week at Blissfully Domestic, the website better than the latest People magazine, we are featuring all things baby as our fearless, pee in your pants funny founder Alli (aka Mrs. Fussypants) is about to have another baby boy. Her fifth I might add. I bow down to Alli and her amazing mommy skills. She also home schools her boys. Just typing that makes me nervous.

“I’m not worthy…I’m not worthy!”

The fabulously talented Karla organized the Blissfully Domestic baby shower. I promise, there will be no annoying games involving tasting baby food that looks like warmed over poop, but there will be tips and giveaways focusing on all things pregnancy and baby this week. While you’re out and about, visit the Mrs. Fussypants Baby Shower Blog and send good wishes to Alli as she and her family prepare to welcome another Southern gentleman to the fold!

My Monday morning working mom post at Blissfully Domestic is all about versatile maternity wear basics for the office. In the three short years since my pregnancy with Miss A, maternity wear has taken leaps and bounds in the realm of fashion, although I always get a little put out with the maternity models, since most of them look like they’ve gained two pounds and we all know that’s not reality. I think I gained two pounds in my right big toe when I was pregnant with Miss C.

Did you know Mondays are my Blissfully Domestic days? If not, you’re missing out on all my riveting working mom tales, such as the former co-worker who liked to go bra free at the office. And no, I wasn’t working at a strip club. She also sold her plasma, but that’s another story.

Today’s weekly working mom post is up and I’m sharing all those awkward moments when I first announced my pregnancy with Miss C to my co-workers after only being on the job for a few months. For some reason people seem to have no qualms about saying fairly idiotic things to pregnant women. On a more serious note, last week I wrote about the importance of networking.

So what are you waiting for? Go visit me at my other stomping grounds!

A month before I had Miss C I was in the last few weeks of serving as president for a local business professional organization. I had served on the board for years in various positions and while I enjoyed it, it took a lot of time. Of course when I joined the organization I was a recent college grad, hungry for networking, and the only person I had to get ready in the mornings was myself. My lunch break really was used to eat lunch, and not to run a million errands. Now I do my volunteer work at Miss C’s school. It’s a lot less pressure doing things like hanging up laminated shamrocks and drawing smiley faces on worksheets.

Becoming a parent to a kindergartener has meant I have the opportunity to volunteer for every school event known to man and enroll Miss C in various extracurricular activities, from after school Tae Kwon Do to Spanish lessons. I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid my only after school activities were riding my bike and getting to know the multi-faceted characters on Leave it to Beaver and The Munsters.

I’ve known moms I call mommy martyrs. They’re the ones who seem to get some sort of satisfaction over how thin they stretch themselves. When you run into them at the grocery they’ll greet you with “Joe and I went out to dinner the other night while a sitter watched the kids for two hours. We hadn’t eaten dinner out by ourselves in three and a half years!” or “Sally’s taking ice skating lessons, ballet, gymnastics, playing soccer and she’s a Girl Scout this year…it’s crazy but we love it!”

I am a people pleaser, so it’s tough for me to say no, but I’ve learned it’s one of the best ways to resist becoming a mommy martyr.

Visit me at Blissfully Domestic, where I’ve written about balancing home and work. I’d love to hear what you have to say.

I’m really excited to let ya’ll know I’ve joined the team of Domestic Divas at Blissfully Domestic, a wonderful website for everything you need to know to make family life easier. It was founded by the equally wonderful Alli (aka Fabulous Mommy Fusspants.) There many great bloggers hanging out there that you probably already read including Mrs. Flinger, The Nester, PHAT Mommy, Jennifer from Just Chicken Feed, Meredith, Karla (who designed the site), Amy from Mom Advice, and Domestic Chicky.

I’ll be writing about issues related to working moms. I’ve tried just about every type of schedule there is, although I am still waiting for that job that pays me to blog from the beach. I returned to the office full days when Miss C was just 13 weeks old, but after I had Miss A in 2005 I worked completely from home until she was 10 1/2 months old started to go stir crazy and talk to our two sole houseplants. Last year I adjusted my schedule once again because Miss C would be starting kindergarten and I knew in my heart I did not want to put her in after-school care. I now work 32 hours a week, but I split my time between the office in the mornings and home in the afternoons. This seems to be the perfect working mom schedule for me. Sometimes I feel like I don’t quite fit under the typical “working mom” umbrella though, because I have such a flexible work arrangement.

I would love to know what you working moms want to discuss. Per usual me, I have a ton of ideas bouncing around in my brain:

1. Why Moms Choose to Work (It’s Not All About Money)
2. Streamlining the Morning Routine
3. Challenges of Working from Home
4. What to do When Your Child is Sick, and You Have to Work
5. Summer Options for School-Age Kids
6. Setting up a Home Office
7. Flex Time
8. Working from Home Without Falling off Management’s Radar
9. Resources on the Web for Working Moms
10. Working Mom Fashion Mojo
11. Drinking on the Job (Just kidding…wanting to make sure you’re still reading.)

I’ll be posting once a week or so at Blissfully Domestic and I hope my posts will serve as a place to bounce ideas around, vent, and just share information. Let me know in the comments what you would like to read about. Are you a working mom? Do you work part-time or full-time? Do you telecommute? My first post is up and you won’t want to miss it if you’re in the process of choosing a daycare.

I don’t know about your household, but the family togetherness factor is spilling over into excess and Miss C does not go back to kindergarten until NEXT TUESDAY. Miss A’s daycare was open today and I dropped her off at 8:15 a.m. and headed to work for a few hours with Miss C.

I ran into a daycare mom the other afternoon at our local playground while out with the girls in an effort to get their ya yas out so that they might go to bed by 8:30. The other mom has three children and the youngest is a super yummy chunky four-month old boy. She was clearly having trouble keeping her toddler from escaping the confines of the large fenced-in playground area and simultaneously holding the baby (her 5-year-old was off with a buddy on the playground) so I offered to hold him. Ahhhh sweet new babies. It was all I could do to stop sniffing his perfect little bald head.

The mom and I were sharing the joy bitching about how the holiday break for the kids was starting to feel like a neverending journey and I asked if she’d gone back to work yet after having her newest baby. In true mommy confessional fashion she admitted, “Oh heck yeah. I’d kill myself if I was home all the time!”

Yesterday the hubby and I were both off work and we treated the girls to lunch at McDonalds and a drive in the country, followed by a trip to the mall play area with me. Then Miss C had a High School Musical karaoke extravaganza afternoon playdate with a 7-year-old buddy who scored a Wii from Santa.

I have to admit we’re all running a little ragged from lack of routine. Not to mention the holiday decorations are still not putting themselves away, despite my fervent prayers for telekenetic mommy super powers.

Vive la educational TV a la Sponge Bob, Moon Sand commercials, and Barbie Island Princess movie marathons! And I now know why stay-at-home moms need Mother’s Day Out programs and regularly scheduled playdates.

Sarah at the Organized Mom, a stay at home mom who co-founded the company that developed Daily Home Planner software, contacted me in September about trying out her software. Unfortunately this was when I was in the midst of royal freak out MolarGate 2007 and the last thing I was thinking about was getting organized. Oh no, I had bigger fish to fry at that time, like, what crazy secrets would I reveal to my oral surgeon and his staff while under the influence of anesthesia and pain medication and when could I eat solid foods?

Even though I tend to be an Internet addict and I’m married to a computer techie, I still love my paper planner/calendar and have resisted the movement to an electronic organizer or calendar. But lately I’ve noticed a disturbing trend and something’s got to give. Although I’m now spending less time at my office (just four mornings a week) and more time at home I find that I just fritter away that much more time unless I have a plan of action.

If I don’t have a plan for those precious few hours between arriving home from the office and leaving for school pick up at about 2:45, I’d find myself distracted by a dozen different unfinished tasks at the house, like dirty laundry and dishes, not to mention checking up on personal and blog e-mail, and then before you know it, it’s then time to head over to the school to pick up Miss C and my neighbor’s daughter. Basically I would feel like I had accomplished nothing of substance around the house and then after picking up Miss C, there is homework to do, dinner to get ready, etc.

The solution for me, someone who gets distracted way too easily, is to start having even more structure and more routine.

I’m trying out the Daily Home Planner software and I’m going to start using it to plan meals for the week (which I have found keeps our grocery bills down), keep an updated grocery and to do list (instead of having 25 scribbled upon Post It Notes randomly stuck in my office, car, and purse), and just try to stay on top of the girls’ busy social life, what with all the birthday parties, school field trips, and other pressing social matters. The great thing about the software is you can assign each family member, and even the family pets, a role and color so that your calendar is color coded.

I used to be organized, and then, I often joke, I had kids.

And boy am I not kidding.

You can download a free 30-day trial of the Daily Home Planner software or purchase it here.

Let me know in the comments if you struggle with time management as much as me. And, what you are doing about it! (If anything!)

Miss A was in a foul mood this morning when I dropped her off at “school.” Miss C had her Thanksgiving extravaganza at kindergarten and there was much pride and ooohing and aaaahing and laughter in the cafeteria because is there anything cuter than a bunch of 5-year-olds dressed up like turkeys, pilgrims, and Indians doing the Native American hand jive while their parents photograph, videotape, and otherwise document the moment for posterity?

I knew Miss A wanted to continue the festivities, but mama and daddy had to go to work and this mama actually ended up taking Miss C to the office with her for a few hours because the never ending cough from hell will not relinquish her from its phlegmy grip. Forty dollars in co-pays later, we have a negative diagnosis for strep and still no antibiotics. Somehow I feel ripped off when that happens, like perhaps we should get a refund for not being quite sick enough to require drugs.

But I digress. This evening when I asked Miss A’s daycare teacher how she was today she replied that she was in a bad mood and generally said “no” all day long.

We get a report card of sorts at pick up time and a circle was drawn around “fussy” for mood. I was thinking they really need to add “full of piss and vinegar” and “acted like a total little shit” categories, but then I suppose that wouldn’t pass state regulations.