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The Mill Valley Children's Garden 20th Anniversary--Haunted Harvest Fall Festival is this Sunday

The Mill Valley Children's Garden Haunted Harvest Festival is happening this Sunday, November 7 (rain or shine), from noon to 4 pm. Entry is free. Come celebrate the 20th anniversary of the garden and enjoy food, music, prizes, and surprises for the whole family. Activities include pie eating and recycled sculpture contests, apple bobbing, potion making, a fishing game, and more! Look for the Pocket Wizard, a mysterious guest who will pass out crystals, candy, and surprises.

The festival takes place at the campus of Edna Maguire Elementary School, 80 Lomita Drive, in Mill Valley.

Book of the Week: Grumpy Bird

Grumpy Bird If you get grumpy occasionally (and hey, don't we all?), then this is the book for you. Jeremy Tankard's Grumpy Bird(32 pages, Scholastic, 2007) tells the story of Bird's case of the grumpies, which is so bad—he's too grumpy to play, eat, or fly—he can only go for a walk. Along the way he runs into his friends who tag along on his walk, oblivious to his grumpiness and sarcastic comments. Eventually, they overcome Bird's bad mood, and it all ends with a surprising twist.

Easy Pulled Pork for the World Series

This guest article is by my friend Nancy Grossi, author of the award-winning blog The Wife of a Dairyman. Nancy started her blog at the beginning of 2010, and offers a look into life on one of Marin's many dairy farms. One of her loves is cooking, and here's a yummy recipe for slow-cooker pulled pork—perfect for during the World Series, or any crisp fall or winter day!

Once again, we'll be watching our beloved S.F. Giants trying to get one step closer to their first World Series win. No extra time needs to be taken away from game time to cook dinner so once again the slow cooker is in use.  This time, pulled pork.  A perfectly easy and delicious game day dinner.  Slow cooker recipes are my 'go to' meals in the winter time.

Mountain Lion Sighting in San Anselmo

mountain lionThe Marin IJ reports that two mountain lions were sighted in San Anselmo yesterday. The animals were spotted by a garbageman at about 7:15 am Friday on Blackhawk Drive near Sorich Ranch Park. Do you know what to do if you or your children have a run in with one of these predators? The odds are against it, but it doesn't hurt to know.

Read more about mountain lions and what to do if you see one in our article that we wrote as part of our outdoor safety series. We've also provided some links for you to learn even more about what to do in the unlikely event of a mountain lion encounter.

Mompreneur: Erika Fish and the Car Mama Blog

Ford Flex interiorIt goes without saying that most publications that review new cars aren't geared toward moms and their particular concerns. Marin mom and automotive enthusiast Erika Fish aims to help this situation with her new blog Car Mama. A car nut since childhood who was voted "Most Likely to be Editor of Car & Driver" in high school, Erika drives and reviews a wide variety of vehicles with an eye toward the things that matter most to parents, zeroing in on things like family-friendly features, car seat attachment points, and cargo space.

We asked Erika to tell us a about herself and how she started a car review blog especially for moms. Visit Car Mama at mamascar.blogspot.com.

Please tell us a little about yourself. What's your background?

I'm a happily married mother of two grade-school aged children and one adorable Golden Retriever puppy. After college, I worked as a writer for a tech company and a creative marketing assistant for a textbook publisher in the Midwest. In 1996 my husband, dog and I moved to Sonoma to work for a small magazine publisher. I found a great job as the manager of technical writers at a Novato-based software company and got very good at breaking down developer's instructions so that "regular" people could understand them. It was difficult to resist the urge to pepper the instructions with jokes and sarcasm, but I channeled my inner bore and survived.

Book(s) of the Week: The World of Geronimo Stilton

Geronimo StiltonIf the phrase "Stilton, Geronimo Stilton" means anything to you, then most likely you're not a fan of stinky British cheeses, but rather you're the parent of a grade-school child who's discovered this series of books about the doings of anthropomorphized mice who live in the metropolis (or "mousetropolis" as the books might term it) of New Mouse City on Mouse Island. The titular Geronimo Stilton is the editor of the newspaper The Rodent's Gazette and purportedly the author of the 40-odd books in the series. While it's nice to believe that a talking mouse journalist did write them all, they're actually the product of a Milanese publishing company, Edizioni Piemme, and are produced for the American market by Scholastic.

Titles in the series range from The Curse of the Cheese Pyramidto the Halloween themed The Peculiar Pumpkin Thief. They're all "chapter books", designed for intermediate readers, and probably appropriate for children in third through sixth grade, although my son's been bringing them home since he was in first grade last year. The writing, adapted from the original Italian, isn't all that gripping for adults, but kids seem to love the series. My son has been bringing home a seemingly endless series of Geronimo Stilton books from the library and devouring them one after the other, sometimes reading an entire book in an afternoon.

Nurturing the Bond With Your Baby

Mom and new babyThis guest article is by Marin pediatric nurse practitioner, lactation consultant, and mom Annie St. John.

We all have it. It’s that inner wisdom. Our intuition. We sometimes just don’t know how to tap into it. Especially when it comes to parenting. We often feel too overwhelmed, scared, and exhausted, so we doubt that inner wisdom. Don’t doubt it. It is the key component when it comes to bonding with your baby. Your baby.

Just as we need that wisdom and intuition, we also need resources. “Resources” is defined as:

  • One’s personal attributes that sustains one in certain circumstances.
  • The ability to find avenues to overcome difficulties.
  • Assets that can be drawn on by a person in order to function effectively.

Once your baby is born, it all comes down to feeding your baby and getting to know your baby. During your daily routine of countless cycles of feeding, burping, calming, swaying, swaddling, changing, and sleeping, you, as the parent, start to gain confidence. Your confidence arises from realizing that you do have the resources (either within yourself, from your spouse or partner, or from an outside support person). From that realization you are able to nurture your relationship with your baby and build upon that bond.

Be Part of "Beauty and the Beast" in Mill Valley

Come join the theater! Take part in the production of Beauty and the Beast presented by Pied Piper Productions and Mill Valley Parks and Recreation. Kids ages 3 years and up can be part of one of Disney’s favorite movies for this spring performance. No audition is required, and rehearsals begin on Monday, October 18 from 3:30–4:15 pm at the Mill Valley Golf Course Clubhouse. Rehearsals will run through December 13 and will then resure on Monday, January 24 through March 7 at the San Rafael Community Center.

Performances will be at the San Rafael Community Center on the weekends of March 4, 11, and 18. You can sign up on at the Mill Valley Parks and Recreation website under course #20566; the fee is $229. For more info, go to their website. Don’t miss out on being part of this fun and exciting production.

Fun With Halloween Costumes, 2010 Edition

This year will be the year when at least one of the kids leaves the house on Halloween wearing an awesome, innovative, homemade costume. Faithful readers of this blog may recall that last year I planned one of the coolest costumes made by anyone anywhere ever in the history of cool Halloween costumes, only to be foiled at the last minute by the dark forces of the Target costume section.

When I asked my seven-year-old son what he wanted to be this year, he told me "A samurai". This is no doubt because he developed a sushi fixation some time in the past year, which is something apparently most little kids in Marin go through at some time. His concept of the samurai wasn't just a simple robe-and-sash affari, a la Toshiro Mifune in Yojimbo, but rather the version with armor and a helmet and all that. Much, much more complicated. Despite my suggestions to do something a little simpler (like my awesome Tintin costume idea), he remained steadfast in his determination to stick with his vision.

Premenstrual Syndrome: The Curse Within the Curse

In this guest article, Mill Valley naturopathic doctor Lisa Brent, ND, LAc offers some suggestions for treating PMS.

If you are a woman who suffers from premenstrual syndrome (PMS), it might be helpful to know that you are not alone. Of course, if you are a woman who is experiencing PMS as you are reading this, you probably don’t care at all that many other women have similar issues. You may just want to shout some expletives at your computer and then burst into tears. That’s usually how I behave right around the third week of every month. (Well, at other times, too, but I can’t blame that on my period.)

Just for the record, approximately 80% of women experience emotional or physical changes before their menses; among these women, about 20–40% have functional difficulties that have a negative impact on their work, relationships or home lives. More than 150 symptoms have been attributed to PMS. The most common are anxiousness, irritability and anger or mood swings among all three. Some women feel very sad; others feel tired and lethargic. Physical changes include bloating, breast tenderness, food cravings, headache and intestinal upset. There is also a group of women who experience positive changes before their period: enhanced creativity, heightened sexual desire, intellectual clarity and feelings of happiness. But we don’t need to talk bout them.

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