They Don't Call Them Sweetmama For Nothing

The folks at Sweetmama.ca just said some very sweet things about me:

"Ann is the author behind the Mother of All series of parenting books and we follow her loyally around the interwebs. Not only does she have her own blog, but she has a column at the Toronto Star as well. She’s smart, she’s generous, and she doesn’t judge us for our parenting infractions."

It's a good thing I don't have my webcam activated right now or you would be able to see that I'm blushing.

Thank you for those very kind words, Sweetmama.ca. And for helping me find even more fabulous bloggers to add to my growing collection. (PS: I've been swapping picks with a few people over the past few days, so I'll be adding a lot more blogs over the next few days. Stay tuned.)

Using Social Media for Good -- The Canadian Red Cross Twitter Team

When I first went on Twitter, I honestly didn't understand what all the excitement was about. It wasn't until I noticed that some people were using Twitter to exchange valuable information and to create positive change that I really started to get excited.

You can imagine how thrilled I was, then, to be asked to be a founding member of the Canadian Red Cross's Twitter Team. The job, which is voluntary, is simple: when a disaster arises, members of the team will help to spread accurate news about what is happening via Twitter as quickly as possible. We'll also be calling upon members of our networks to help spread the message as well. (I hope I can count on you.)

Yesterday, we had our first opportunity to help. We started letting people know that the drought in Africa is now affecting 11 million people and that donations are urgently needed to support humanitarian efforts on the ground.

The good news is that the federal government just announced that it is matching each dollar that is donated by Canadians, so your donation is instantly doubled.

You can donate by visiting this page on the Canadian Red Cross website.

Please pass this information along to your friends as well.

Note: If you happen to notice any of my Red Cross tweets on Twitter (@anndouglas or @themotherofall), I would really appreciate it if you retweeted them so that more people can find out how they can help.

Thanks so much for your support. 

Canadian Family's List of Must-Read Mom Blogs, Plus A Few Picks of My Own

Canadian Family just did me a huge favour. They just published a list of 18 must-read blogs written by moms. Their picks include a mix of high profile and not-so-well known bloggers and some I hadn't heard of at all. 

As those of you who read my Facebook Page know, I am trying to add more pregnancy and parenting blogs to the blog list on this website and I've been asking people to recommend pregnancy and parenting blogs that they love. Thanks to Canadian Family, I've just found some fabulous new picks. And they've reminded me about some other blogs that should have been on my list all along.

I'm going to return the favour by highlighting a few other Canadian parenting blogs that are definitely worth checking out. (Yes, I've expanded the scope here a bit by including a dad blogger, too. That's because I can't imagine writing about parenting blogs without mentioning Curious Dad in Vancouver. His blog is one of the best parenting blogs anywhere.) 

Anyway, here goes (in no particular order) are 10 more blog Canadian parenting blog picks.

• Curious Dad
• Coffee and Commutes
• Julie Cole's Blog
• YoYo Diaries
• The Momoir Blog
• Where There's A Willer (or Four)
• Strocel.com
• Zoopolis
• LeftCoastMama
• Postcards from the Mothership

Note: Canadian Family was also kind enough to include an article I wrote for them a few years ago (about moms and blogging) in their moms and blogging article package. You can read it here.