Letter from the Editor
There might be a designated "day" for Earth Day, but many places around the world now celebrate and honor this day with week-long activities. Check out our piece below that notes some of these celebrations, and also offers really cool ways you can honor Earth Day with your children. Teaching your child that preserving the planet should be an everyday affair is a first great step!
With Mother's Day just a few weeks away, we're wondering how you like to spend this special day. Write to me at editor@realsavvymoms.com and we'll share your thoughts in our newsletter that week.
Be well, Maureen Connolly
The Uninsured Crisis in America
 By Jill Wodnick, RSM Expert Doula and Pre Natal Yoga Instructor
The statistics are sad and frightening: Forty-seven million Americans currently have no health insurance, a figure that includes nine million children. Even more disheartening is the fact that more than eight out of every 10 uninsured are members of working families, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), a nonprofit organization based in Princeton, New Jersey.
To help call attention to the uninsured population, and to build support among the nation’s policy makers, RWJF, which is dedicated to improving the health and healthcare of Americans, has declared the week of April 27 through May 3, 2008, “Cover the Uninsured Week.” Events will take place all week long throughout the country, and will include health fairs, outreach events to raise awareness about low-cost insurance options, and gatherings with community leaders.
The alarming, and increasing, number of uninsured Americans is getting a lot of attention now, in part because this is an election year, but this is not a crisis that developed overnight. Since 2000, employer-sponsored health insurance premiums have risen by an average of 73 percent, according to Katherine Swartz of the Harvard School of Public Health. For small firms, they’ve more than doubled. This rapid run-up in costs, plus pressures from an increasingly globalized economy, is causing firms of all sizes to pull back from offering health benefits. In short, even for families who go to work, working no longer necessarily means having employer supported health insurance benefits.
The lack of health insurance and doctor care means many more families are forced to use hospital emergency rooms to get the care they need for themselves and their children. But when children don't receive necessary health care services such as immunizations and well-child visits, their overall health suffers, says the American Academy of Pediatrics.
For more information about “Cover the Uninsured Week,” or if you are in need of healthcare coverage, or you simply want to help raise awareness, go to http://covertheuninsured.org/stateguides/
Get Savvy About Car Seat and Tire Recalls
 By Emma Brown, TV Host of Real Moms, Real Stories, Real Savvy
Every day, millions of parents strap their children into their car seats, turn the key, glance into the rearview mirrors, and hit the highway. If there’s a car malfunction that we need to be alerted to— or if it’s time to change the oil or the air filter — one of the icons on the electronic dashboard will likely alert us.
But many parents probably don’t think about whether the car seat we’ve just buckled our precious cargo into, or if the tires that we’re depending on to get us safely to our destination, meet the latest safety standards. The reality is that even among the top brands of car seats and tires, hundreds are recalled each year, in many cases because the manufacturers learn that there’s faulty construction that could be putting you and your family at risk of serious injury.
To make matters worse, only one-third of affected consumers know about tire recalls, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). And astonishingly, car seat recall information only reaches about 50 percent of those that it should because many people don’t take the time to register the product with the manufacturer.
Thankfully, NHTSA and its consumer website, safercar.gov have come up with a 21st century solution for a 21st century problem. You can now register at safercar.gov to get instant email alerts on all brands of car seats and tires. (It’s still recommended that parents and caregivers register car seats directly with the manufacturer so that they can also contact you directly by mail and email.)
Do your family a favor and have your tires checked once a month. Under-inflated tires and overloaded vehicles are the leading causes of tire failure. Have a qualified mechanic check the overall condition of your tires, particularly the tread, sidewalls and pressure. Tire pressure needs to be measured with an accurate gauge when tires are “cold” — meaning they haven’t been driven on for at least three hours. The correct pressure for your tires is listed on your vehicle’s tire information label, typically on the driver’s door panel, or in your owner’s manual; don’t rely on the number printed on the tire itself.
Teach Your Kids to Love Their Mother (Earth, That is)
 By Dana Sullivan
Even though April 22nd was the 38th year that in the United States we celebrated the environmental “teach in” known as Earth Day, this year the event, which in many places is actually a week long, seems to have a new sense of urgency. Granted, when Earth Day began, rivers were so polluted that at least one – the Cuyahoga in Ohio -- caught fire, and some big cities were obscured under clouds of smog, so we have made some progress. But we still have a way to go if we want to preserve any sort of quality life for everything and everyone who lives on planet Earth.
It’s never too early to encourage kids to treat the planet with respect. Here are some fun way ways you can celebrate Earth Day together:
- Plant a tree. Trees help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, preserve soil and provide homes for all sorts of animals and insects. If you want to figure out how many trees would offset your family's carbon emissions, go to http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator.
- Sing or listen to "earth" songs. On the internet, on iTunes, for example, you can find songs by searching for words such as "endangered" or "planet earth." Talk with your children about what it means to respect the planet.
- Cook a meal using all locally grown produce. If you choose to cook meat or fish, try to buy products that are locally raised. Be sure to check the “Seafood Watch” guide for a list of fish that are safe to eat, from both environmental and health standpoints, at http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_factsheet.aspx
Most communities in the U.S. have Earth Day celebrations at regional parks, where families can participate in crafts, listen to music, and, of course, learn about conservation. (Just “google” the term “2008 Earth Day celebrations” along with the name of your town and see what pops up.) For something you can do right now: Visit http://ww2.earthday.net/ and go the “Get Active” area, and sign an on-line petition that will go to Congress, urging members to do things like cap greenhouse gas emissions, put a moratorium on the building of coal-fired power plants, and require that new buildings become “carbon neutral” by 2030. Even if you can’t make it out to one of the festivals, you can get your children involved in the conservation movement by encouraging them to “reduce, reuse, and recycle” every day at home.
Of course, if we all made every day Earth Day, the planet would be better off. Here are some other small ways you can help starting now:
- Encourage everyone in the house to turn off lights and appliances (such as the TV, the computer, radios, etc.) when they leave the room.
- Be a good role model and don’t let the water run when you brush your teeth – or your children's.
- Scrape your dishes, rather than rinse them, before putting them into the dishwasher.
- Have your children help you sort recycling – if your community has a recycling program, call and ask the waste management company to deliver bins so you can sort paper and cardboard, plastic containers, glass bottles. If not, purchase some inexpensive plastic bins and every week or two drop the contents at your local recycling center.
- Replace incandescent light bulbs with Energy-Star qualified compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).
- Start a compost pile to help reduce the amount of household trash you create. Check out www.howtocompost.org for tips on how to get started. At www.gardeners.com you can purchase a cute countertop composter for $30.
Me Time! Hair Color for Spring '08
 By Rita Ragone
Hello, again! Now that we are in full-blown spring mode here, I want to let you all in on a little secret – hair color for this spring is brighter and deeper than in seasons past. Blondes have honey-red in them, reds have violet and brown tones, browns have violet, red and gold effects.
Once again, we are influenced by beauty icons from the 1940’s and 50’s with a good measure of 60’s and 70’s added in. If you’re a blonde, think Marylyn platinum to Ursula Andress’ (from the Bond flick) beachy, golden-streaked hair. Redheads have never been more interesting— from orange-infused auburns to sexy violet reds. Brunettes have gold and auburn weaved in for light-catching iridescence, and black hair has a halo of blue or auburn. Interesting, soft hues with multi-dimensional color for the most natural-looking effects are in demand right now.
For those of you who do your hair at home, there are some good kits to choose from- L’Oreal and Clairol combine base color and highlights in two easy steps. (Follow the directions closely!)
Generally, the darker shade is on your under-layer and your lighter colors are on the top layers of your hair. Streaks or highlights that are spaced out one to two inches apart give a more natural effect. Unless a professional is doing your hair, keep the strands on the thin side until you get the hang of it; avoid chunky streaks, unless that’s the look you’re after. You can also buy professional color to use at home. Wella has some of the most delicious shades available right now. Their praline, caramel, and cinnamon shades look as yummy as the flavors they are named after. I have been using them a lot on my clients as well as on myself these days, in addition to highlights. Using more than one color adds dimension and depth to your hair. Remember to condition your hair with Pantene anti-breakage conditioner after each shampoo, and be gentle with your new locks!
‘Til next Time!
Political Blogger Kristine Breese on Bumper Stickers
 I may have mentioned before about my bumper sticker fetish. It started when I was a kid with the "No Uvas" stickers that proclaimed for all to see that the family in the beige station wagon was forsaking grapes in solidarity with Ceaser Chavez and the United Farm Workers. It went on from there to include rectangular proclamations of our support of a Nuclear Freeze Zone, pro-choice, the Equal Rights Amendment, Title IX and on and on. As an adult, I've continued this passion for adorning my car (and even my home) with signs and stickers that tell the world what I think.
I live in California, Los Angeles, to be exact, which is fertile ground for bumper stickers because we're always in our cars and we're usually inching along in traffic and there's plenty of time to read whatever anyone has pasted to their vehicle. The latest sticker craze, aside from all the candidate stickers, is one I particularly like. It's a purple sticker with the word "Coexist" written in white letters. Each letter represents the symbol of a different religion or philosophy (e.g, the "C" is the Muslim crescent, the "X" is the Star of David, and the "T" is the Christian cross). The sticker comes from www.peacemonger.org (along with many imitators) and while there appears to be some drama going on between the designer of the sticker and a company in Indiana called Coexist LLP, I am most interested in the powerful message it delivers.
The sticker exhorts us to get along with each other, and reminds us of the sad irony that most of the wars going on today (the ones with bombs and the ones with rhetoric) seem to have religion at their core. But unlike most bumper stickers, this one extends a hand more than points a finger ... which got me thinking about the rest of the stickers on my car. In addition to "Coexist," there's "Obama '08" and "End This War." While the latter two certainly express opinions held by many others, I can see more clearly now that there's an "us versus them" quality to even these. You're either for Obama or you're not, you're either for the war or you're not, and if you differ with me on any of these issues, the stickers suggest that you and I probably won’t get along.
A friend recently loaned me a copy of a fascinating book called, Lord, Save Me from Your Followers: Why is the Gospel of Love Dividing America. In it, author Dan Merchant, dons a white plastic suit, like those guys where who have to climb under your house when there’s a problem with the plumbing or ants coming in through a crack in the foundation, and covers it with bumper stickers of all stripes and persuasions. He juxtaposes their messages by placing them strategically on the costume (such as the “Jesus fish” right next to a Darwin one, etc.) and then walks around Times Square trying to “start a conversation” by getting people to choose their favorite.
The beauty of what he’s done, and perhaps what the Coexist sticker can do, is that it integrates, rather than segregates. It embraces rather than pushes people away. Author Merchant says in the book something about how bumper stickers are “one way communication,” which is clearly the antithesis of dialogue, and something I profess to desire. So, while I love it when someone drives by and gives me the thumbs up, there are also the times when someone drives by and holds up another finger. In neither case, have I sparked a conversation. And to bring this around to parenting, I know I want to teach my kids about having an open mind and learning about other people’s points of view … and I see now that it might need to start on the tailgate of our car.
The MOMologues - A Benefit Staged Reading
The original comedy about motherhood. Bring Mom to see The MOMologues for Mother's Day. see video
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