I guess I am a hockey mom. My son plays competitive hockey and now my 7 year-old daughter is hockey obsessed. All they ever want to do is play mini-sticks or shinny and every morning they get on the computer and give us the lowdown on the previous night's NHL games. But me? I don't really watch hockey, aside from my kids'. It is not that I don't like it but more that there are other things I would rather be doing with my time. So, for someone who is not a lover of the game I sure spent a... More »

First of all I want to start this post by saying that I absolutely love what I do. I have run UrbanMoms for 5 years and it has been an amazing journey. I look back on it and can't believe how much I have learned. However, this post was inspired by my need to share the truth about being a mom entrepreneur. This entry is really inspired but all of you wonderfully optimistic, grass-is-always-greener folks who look at my life with longing. More than daily I have people telling me how lucky I am to work for myself, how awesome... More »

I love this photo. For one thing I think it is photographically really cool but also, it captures such a joyful moment. My son plays competitive hockey and on this particular occasion they had won the tournament they had entered. The weekend had been jam packed with fun, camaraderie, adventure and a whole bunch of hockey. A dream for my 10 year-old guy.But now, as any hockey parent knows, we are getting into the Season of the Unknown. This time of year is when it starts and it won't be over until tryouts are done and your child has... More »

OMG am I tired. Like up every 1/2 hour tired. Like sleeping with one ear open tired. Like rubbing the back of a puking, retching, heaving child for 36 hours tired. This is the kind of tired where you can't find words. You know they're in there but you can't access them or form a cohesive sentence. This is the kind of tired where you get record low scores on Bejeweled Blitz on facebook because you needed 5 minutes to do something simply mindless and it turns out Bejeweled Blitz actually requires a certain level of consciousness. This is newborn... More »

As soon as I saw you I knew I loved you. You are so cool. You are so easy to get along with and easily interact with others. I have had a crush on you for a while now. I was tied down before but now I'm free and we can be together. I know the excitement will wear off but I don't think my love and appreciation will ever dim. I am just starting to learn about you and all of the wonderful things you are capable of. You amaze me. We're so happy when we're together. Me and... More »

Oh my god. OMG. I am dying here. Hyperventilating. I THINK MY CLEANING LADY READS MY BLOG. Or at least someone she knows maybe does. Or maybe, hopefully I'm being paranoid. But listen to what happened...9:52am: The phone rings. I am distracted and answer with an impatient "hello". Silence. A hesitated "yes...Jen?". Who the...? Oh. Oh my. It is my cleaning lady. But my cleaning lady never calls me. She has never, ever once called me. Oh no. Oh crap. OK. Calm down. "Oh hi. How are you?" and all the other niceties. And then she says "I'm sorry. I... More »

As a work-from-home entrepreneur and mom my days are pretty crazy and the last thing in the world I want to spend my time doing when I get a few minutes away from my desk is cleaning. So, I have a cleaning lady. I like her. She does my laundry, changes the bedsheets and cleans the house. This is a choice we make in order to be able to spend the time we have together as a family. It is one less stress in an already kinda coo-coo existence. My cleaning lady does not have a huge zest for cleaning... More »

Ah, yes. Traveling to the beach over the holidays is such a treat. And it is, the majority of the trip was a joy. But when you have a spunky 7 year-old along for the trip you just never know where the fun may take you next. I know every mom can relate to the things we do for our kids kind of embarrassments like picking boogers out of their noses or wearing slime (or worse) on your shirt or apologizing to strangers for a "why is that guy so fat?" kinda comment. We've all been there. Motherhood is, after... More »

As I get older (and wiser, as the saying goes) I experience many changes. Yes, some are those kind of changes: the potbelly that won't budge, the Still Alice moments, the inability to sleep without at least one trip to the bathroom, and an ever-increasing need to prove my coolness to my children (fyi, watch out for this one as it usually backfires and actually tends to prove ones lack of coolness). But there are other things too. The truth is that things that used to get me riled up and motivated well, they just don't anymore.Like New Years Resolutions.... More »

My family and I just got back from Christmas on the beach. We spent a week along with another family in the Dominican Republic. Christmas was definitely different and in some ways it feels like it didn't happen at all but this year, with my mom being gone, it was the right thing to do. And sometimes vacationing with another family can be disastrous but not for us. Everyone got along really well which made it a lot more fun for the whole group.I will write more about the trip another time (including a travel review) but this post is... More »