meet the bloggers!


	Amanda lives in southern Vermont with her high-school sweetheart, four kids, and three cats. She spends her days unschooling with her boys (ages 8 and 9) and girls (ages almost-4 and 5). She can often be found enjoying the beautiful mountain view from her kitchen window while attempting the near-impossible task of producing healthy gluten-free, dairy-free, cane-sugar-free meals that are satisfying to both her picky family and her budget. She recently ended a continuous decade-long breastfeeding career and loves lending support to other nursing mothers. She recognizes that her family is on the small side of large, but hopes that sharing her experiences with having four kids in five years will be helpful even to those with much larger families. Angie has been perpetually pregnant since 1999. She has five children. True to form, she also has a baby on the way. Her sixth child had a severe birth injury, and died in April 2007. She loves writing songs and singing them with her children, writing and sharing stories with them, and hanging out with Curtis, her husband of 16 years. She blogs at her personal blog: graymattersonline, and at the soccer mom vote. Bonny makes her home in the Twin Cities with her husband and five kids. Her hobbies include reading, removing stains from white football pants, colorcoding each of her family member's entire existence on spreadsheets and blogging at Losing my Crackers. Carmen is mom to six kids, ages 15 to 3. She's a coffee addict and a huge fan of naps. When she's not scaling Mt. Laundry, cleaning, driving carpool, or cooking, she likes to read and run (sometimes both at once). She can be found hiding out from the kids at her blog, Mom To The Screaming Masses, or over at The Elff Diet, where she talks about her 80 pound weight loss and desire for healthy living. Heather is happily married to an overly driven type-A man, whom she is crazy about. When not occupied with him, she pours herself into mothering their four children and loves the life they live, with 2 cats and 1 very smart dog, in the Pacific Northwest. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with an emphasis in Family Studies and has a deep passion for encouraging the health of families. Heather believes that, “life is about the journey, it is not about being, but becoming." You can read more at her blog, http://becoming-becoming.blogspot.com/ Kristin currently serves as the Director of Domestic Operations at The Schell Cafe. She is happily married to the CEO and together they manage their brood of littles ages seven, six, four and a half, and six months. Despite the continual need for a budget increase and better vacation policy, Kristin has the job of her dreams and prays it’s a never ending gig. Under the nom de plume, Saucy Momma, you can find Kristin at www.theschellcafe.com where she serves daily anecdotes on life at the cafe. LaShawn lives in the Dallas, TX area with her husband and their four sons. She also plays mom to two dogs and two cats (who are evil). When she is not hiding from her kids and animals in the bathroom she enjoys reading, digital scrapbooking, cooking, all things caffeinated, and is always in search of a reason to take a nap. She considers herself the anti-Martha Stewart and can frequently be found doing “emergency laundry” late at night so that her kids and husband do not have to go naked the next day. LaShawn believes that making fun of herself should count as therapy. LaShawn also blogs at Frazzled LaShawn. Lylah is a full-time newspaper editor, part-time freelance writer, and mom and step mom to five kids, ages 1, 3, 9, 11 and 14. She writes about juggling work and parenthood at Workitmom.com and blogs about writing at WriteEditRepeat.blogspot.com . When she's not glued to the computer or solving a kid-related crisis, she's in the kitchen or, occasionally, asleep. Jennifer A. lives in Ohio with her husband and four children (1 daughter and 3 sons) ages 6 and under. When she decided that having four children in five years wasn’t going to keep her busy enough she started a career as a freelance writer. She spends her days cooking, cleaning and caring for little ones and her nights writing about pregnancy, parenting, and the quest for peace (as in peace and quiet-there is such a thing, right?). You can also find her at Managing the MotherLoad or www.jenniferapplin.com Jennifer M. is a writer, former social worker, and mother of four. She and her husband are raising their kids on a small farm in progress (if chickens and a dog and several acres of scantily producing fruit trees count as a farm). She wouldn't go back to her childless days for all the money in the world, but would love an assistant to help with all the driving. She loves to cook, volunteer and travel with her family. She pines for time alone to read and the answer to the elusive question: should she have a fifth child? Jillienne is a “young” SAHM of four wonderful children, 2 boys and 2 girls. She and her husband of eleven years, Brian, are in the process of breaking the tie by adding a child from Ethiopia. This will be her family's first adoption; her other kids are all homegrown. Jillienne is a procrastinating project junkie, likes Mountain Dew a little too much, and spends hours obsessively trying to organize the house, as well as a crazy amount of time driving to or watching her kids' sporting events. When she has five spare minutes, she can be found blogging at www.imminent-chaos.blogspot.com or hiding from the kids reading a trashy novel. Katie is a stay-at-home-mom of five (including identical twin girls) living in Maryland. She loves to fold laundry, knit, and sleep in her spare time. You can also find her at her other blog, "Ramblings of a SAHM," at http://www.katiefleck.com Karen lives in New England with her seven kids, and assorted pets. She used to be a computer programmer in a former life, but now she just desperately tries to keep up with her kids. She writes about her family on her blog, Our Deer Baby. Mary O. is the mom of 10 children ages 3 through 19, 6 of whom arrived via adoption. In random moments when she isn't cooking, homeschooling or arbitrating squabbles over the best spot on the couch, she blogs at Owlhaven and at her Ethiopia Adoption Blog. Mary M. is wife to Doug, a recruiter in the US Army. Her family is in a state of transition from small to large: Lydia (age 7, adopted from Nanjing, China in November 06) and Gwen (age 5, bio) will soon be joined by Sam (age 3, living in Changzhou, China) and Phoebe (bio, due 12/07). Currently Mary's days are spent sifting through piles of stuff the family has accumulated over the years, hoping to get things in order by the time new kiddos join the family. Mary blogs at www.oneblessedfamily.com/blog Meagan is a mom of four sons, ranging in age from almost-two to almost-ten. She's the founder of largerfamilies.com, a writer, mom's group coordinator and author of two books including Table for Eight: Raising a large family in a small-family world. Writing that book--and interviewing dozens of parents raising lots of kids--taught her more about parenting and running a household than the other 8,349 parenting books and magazines she's read combined. Meagan can be found at www.meaganfrancis.com. Nadara is a full-time stay at home mom to four girls, ages 6 years to 3 months. She lives with her husband and girls in Colorado where they enjoy camping, fishing, and a variety of seasonal activities. When she's not leading Daisy meetings, watching soccer practice, or changing diapers, Nadara can be found blogging about daily life at The Dauk is In. Natasha Clark is a happily married mom of one son and three daughters, all under the age of 8. She doesn't think four kids is "a lot" but she definitely thinks it's "enough"! Having mostly acclimated to the chaos of such a "big" family, in the spare time she's still able to find, she helps moms start and grow businesses online through PinkPowerSuit.com, a resource website and collection of tools, which she founded. Natasha loves design, art, literature, music, cooking, and zoning out on too much McDreamy television. (This much TV cannot be good for a person.) Her favourite colour is green, favourite movie is When Harry Met Sally, and she detests just about any casserole. WabiSabiMe.com, "musings from an imperfect, unconventional and beautiful life," is where solo parent "Me," blogs about technology (her profession) and adventures in mothering (her passion). By day, she is a mild-mannered mother of five. By night, she leads an ambitious and caffeinated band of parents seeking to end the battle for their time and restore balance to their families, once and for all. Why can't parents telecommute and job share? Why not use the whole world as a classroom and homeschool and travel with your children? In between loads of laundry and planning covert operations, "Me" enjoys napping and knitting, often doing both at the same time.	HOME

Amanda lives in southern Vermont with her high-school sweetheart, four
kids, and three cats. She spends her days unschooling with her boys (ages 8 and 9) and girls (ages almost-4 and 5). She can often be found enjoying the beautiful mountain view from her kitchen window while attempting the near-impossible task of producing healthy gluten-free, dairy-free, cane-sugar-free meals that are satisfying to both her picky family and her budget. She recently ended a continuous decade-long breastfeeding career and loves lending support to other nursing mothers. She recognizes that her family is on the small side of large, but hopes that sharing her experiences with having four kids in five years will be helpful even to those with much larger families.

Angie has been perpetually pregnant since 1999. She has five children. True to form, she also has a baby on the way. Her sixth child had a severe birth injury, and died in April 2007. She loves writing songs and singing them with her children, writing and sharing stories with them, and hanging out with Curtis, her husband of 16 years. She blogs at her personal blog: graymattersonline, and at the soccer mom vote.

Bonny makes her home in the Twin Cities with her husband and five kids. Her hobbies include reading, removing stains from white football pants, colorcoding each of her family member's entire existence on spreadsheets and blogging at Losing my Crackers.

Carmen is mom to six kids, ages 15 to 3. She's a coffee addict and a huge fan of naps. When she's not scaling Mt. Laundry, cleaning, driving carpool, or cooking, she likes to read and run (sometimes both at once). She can be found hiding out from the kids at her blog, Mom To The Screaming Masses, or over at The Elff Diet, where she talks about her 80 pound weight loss and desire for healthy living.

Heather is happily married to an overly driven type-A man, whom she is crazy about. When not occupied with him, she pours herself into mothering their four children and loves the life they live, with 2 cats and 1 very smart dog, in the Pacific Northwest. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with an emphasis in Family Studies and has a deep passion for encouraging the health of families. Heather believes that, “life is about the journey, it is not about being, but becoming." You can read more at her blog, http://becoming-becoming.blogspot.com/

Kristin currently serves as the Director of Domestic Operations at The Schell Cafe. She is happily married to the CEO and together they manage their brood of littles ages seven, six, four and a half, and six months. Despite the continual need for a budget increase and better vacation policy, Kristin has the job of her dreams and prays it’s a never ending gig.

Under the nom de plume, Saucy Momma, you can find Kristin at www.theschellcafe.com where she serves daily anecdotes on life at the cafe.

LaShawn lives in the Dallas, TX area with her husband and their four sons. She also plays mom to two dogs and two cats (who are evil). When she is not hiding from her kids and animals in the bathroom she enjoys reading, digital scrapbooking, cooking, all things caffeinated, and is always in search of a reason to take a nap. She considers herself the anti-Martha Stewart and can frequently be found doing “emergency laundry” late at night so that her kids and husband do not have to go naked the next day. LaShawn believes that making fun of herself should count as therapy. LaShawn also blogs at Frazzled LaShawn.

Lylah is a full-time newspaper editor, part-time freelance writer, and mom and step mom to five kids, ages 1, 3, 9, 11 and 14. She writes about juggling work and parenthood at Workitmom.com and blogs about writing at WriteEditRepeat.blogspot.com . When she's not glued to the computer or solving a kid-related crisis, she's in the kitchen or, occasionally, asleep.

Jennifer A. lives in Ohio with her husband and four children (1 daughter and 3 sons) ages 6 and under. When she decided that having four children in five years wasn’t going to keep her busy enough she started a career as a freelance writer. She spends her days cooking, cleaning and caring for little ones and her nights writing about pregnancy, parenting, and the quest for peace (as in peace and quiet-there is such a thing, right?). You can also find her at Managing the MotherLoad or www.jenniferapplin.com

Jennifer M. is a writer, former social worker, and mother of four. She and her husband are raising their kids on a small farm in progress (if chickens and a dog and several acres of scantily producing fruit trees count as a farm). She wouldn't go back to her childless days for all the money in the world, but would love an assistant to help with all the driving. She loves to cook, volunteer and travel with her family. She pines for time alone to read and the answer to the elusive question: should she have a fifth child?

Jillienne is a “young” SAHM of four wonderful children, 2 boys and 2 girls. She and her husband of eleven years, Brian, are in the process of breaking the tie by adding a child from Ethiopia. This will be her family's first adoption; her other kids are all homegrown. Jillienne is a procrastinating project junkie, likes Mountain Dew a little too much, and spends hours obsessively trying to organize the house, as well as a crazy amount of time driving to or watching her kids' sporting events. When she has five spare minutes, she can be found blogging at www.imminent-chaos.blogspot.com or hiding from the kids reading a trashy novel.

Katie is a stay-at-home-mom of five (including identical twin girls) living in Maryland. She loves to fold laundry, knit, and sleep in her spare time. You can also find her at her other blog, "Ramblings of a SAHM," at http://www.katiefleck.com

Karen lives in New England with her seven kids, and assorted pets. She used to be a computer programmer in a former life, but now she just desperately tries to keep up with her kids. She writes about her family on her blog, Our Deer Baby.

Mary O. is the mom of 10 children ages 3 through 19, 6 of whom arrived via adoption. In random moments when she isn't cooking, homeschooling or arbitrating squabbles over the best spot on the couch, she blogs at Owlhaven and at her Ethiopia Adoption Blog.

Mary M. is wife to Doug, a recruiter in the US Army. Her family is in a state of transition from small to large: Lydia (age 7, adopted from Nanjing, China in November 06) and Gwen (age 5, bio) will soon be joined by Sam (age 3, living in Changzhou, China) and Phoebe (bio, due 12/07).
Currently Mary's days are spent sifting through piles of stuff the family has accumulated over the years, hoping to get things in order by the time new kiddos join the family. Mary blogs at www.oneblessedfamily.com/blog

Meagan is a mom of four sons, ranging in age from almost-two to almost-ten. She's the founder of largerfamilies.com, a writer, mom's group coordinator and author of two books including Table for Eight: Raising a large family in a small-family world. Writing that book--and interviewing dozens of parents raising lots of kids--taught her more about parenting and running a household than the other 8,349 parenting books and magazines she's read combined. Meagan can be found at www.meaganfrancis.com.

Nadara is a full-time stay at home mom to four girls, ages 6 years to 3 months. She lives with her husband and girls in Colorado where they enjoy camping, fishing, and a variety of seasonal activities. When she's not leading Daisy meetings, watching soccer practice, or changing diapers, Nadara can be found blogging about daily life at The Dauk is In.

Natasha Clark is a happily married mom of one son and three daughters, all under the age of 8. She doesn't think four kids is "a lot" but she definitely thinks it's "enough"! Having mostly acclimated to the chaos of such a "big" family, in the spare time she's still able to find, she helps moms start and grow businesses online through PinkPowerSuit.com, a resource website and collection of tools, which she founded.

Natasha loves design, art, literature, music, cooking, and zoning out on too much McDreamy television. (This much TV cannot be good for a person.) Her favourite colour is green, favourite movie is When Harry Met Sally, and she detests just about any casserole.

WabiSabiMe.com, "musings from an imperfect, unconventional and beautiful life," is where solo parent "Me," blogs about technology (her profession) and adventures in mothering (her passion). By day, she is a mild-mannered mother of five. By night, she leads an ambitious and caffeinated band of parents seeking to end the battle for their time and restore balance to their families, once and for all. Why can't parents telecommute and job share? Why not use the whole world as a classroom and homeschool and travel with your children? In between loads of laundry and planning covert operations, "Me" enjoys napping and knitting, often doing both at the same time.

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