Welcome to the JustForMom newsletter!

It has been a very exciting year for Just For Mom and the Just For Mom Foundation! Although it has been a challenge wearing many hats throughout each day as a mom, wife, daughter, friend, and founder of the Just For Mom Foundation, it has been one of the most rewarding times in my life and will continue to get better. With just days away from my due date welcoming my new baby girl (#3) to our family, I face the same challenges as most moms which is why our #1 goal is to provide quality support and information that inspires, educates, and encourages moms!

We have lots of exciting happenings going on at JFM that I would like to share:

PBS’ SAVE READING RAINBOW CAMPAIGN

The Just For Mom Foundation’s new effort is to save a national literacy treasure, PBS’ Reading Rainbow, a hallmark of children’s literacy. This national treasure is at risk of being taken off the air due to funding constraints. Every week, over 4.3 million children, teachers, parents, and grandparents enjoy and learn from Reading Rainbow. In the 24 years since it began, the program has won 24 Emmy Awards and has helped to introduce millions of children to the joys of reading. Reading Rainbow is the #1-most-watched PBS program in the classroom. Librarians and booksellers report enormous increases in requests for books featured on the program. Reading Rainbow books quickly become "classics" in kids’ personal libraries.

The Just For Mom Foundation is working directly with Reading Rainbow’s Creator/Executive Producer, Dr. Twila Liggett and Host/Co-Executive Producer, LeVar Burton, to drive a major promotion called Save the Reading Rainbow^TM. The new website www.savereadingrainbow.org went live in October. Visitors can sign an online petition supporting Reading Rainbow, create a testimonial, or make a donation. The initial goal is to collect 10,000 signatures by the end of the 2005 year. So, please take a moment to visit our website, sign our petition,and forward to friends, family, and colleagues.

We appreciate your support and we are confident we will reach our goal!

THE MOM’S CHOICE AWARDS^TM

The Just For Mom Foundation is proud to sponsor and administer The Mom’s Choice Awards^TM, an awards program focused on identifying, rewarding, and promoting children’s and parenting books that are stellar and notable. As part of our second Award cycle, the Just for Mom Foundation is donating a percentage of every submission fee to the Save the Reading Rainbow^TM fund. We believe this is one of the most visible statements we can make about our commitment to saving this incredible literacy resource.

The Mom’s Choice Awards^TM honorary judges include Twila Liggett, Creator/Executive Producer of PBS’ Reading Rainbow, Julie Aigner-Clark, Creator of Baby Einstein and the Safe Side as well as many other qualified judges. Winners will be announced at the National Association for the Education of Young Children "NAEYC" in Washington DC on December 8, 2005.

JFM MAGAZINE

COMING SOON!

JFM Magazine will be a one-of-its-kind parenting resource that will provide a vast amount of diverse information unavailable in existing publications. Keep an eye out for future updates about this new and exciting upcoming publication.

In the meantime, the holidays are right around the corner. Enjoy your life, take care of your mind, body, and spirit to achieve balance so you have more to give to those you love.

Watch for next month’s newsletter as we announce more wonderful and exciting news!!!

Warmly,
Tara Paterson
Founder

Children love to hear stories about themselves even before they were born when they were hiccupping in Mommy's belly and how much they would kick and make us crave crazy foods.

Nine months pass so quickly and things we think we will remember later on are often lost. It's nice to be able to look back at our experiences during pregnancy and remember the exciting moments we shared with our family and friends.

Butterflies & Hiccups (www.pregnancyjournal.com) was conceived by Laurie J. Wing during her two pregnancies when she could not find a comprehensive journal for those who do not like to blank journal-keep.

Butterflies & Hiccups is a guided pregnancy journal that allows you to document everything you experience during your nine months of pregnancy. The questions are designed to elicit thought-provoking responses from the moment you find out you are pregnant up until you bring your baby home. This type of pregnancy journal is not just for the mom- and dad-to-be, but when your baby gets older, Butterflies & Hiccups makes for good story time reading. Kids love to hear stories about themselves, especially when they were hiccupping in their mommy's belly and how much they would kick and make their moms crave crazy foods.

The connection between Mom and Baby begins before a child is even born. How many pregnant women ask their own moms if they felt this way or that way during their pregnancy and how many moms actually remember the details of their pregnancies?

Click here to read the entire article.

Laurie J. Wing, award-winning author of Butterflies & Hiccups: A Guided Pregnancy Journal for the Mom-to-Be (www.pregnancyjournal.com), is the President/CEO of New Beginnings Production Company and a graduate of Nova Southeastern University. Laurie is a devoted mother of two wonderful children, Jamie and Christopher. Her pregnancy experiences motivated her to develop and create a guided pregnancy journal for other women to enjoy. Laurie resides in the New Jersey area with her family.

Let me remember that each life must follow its own course, and that what happens to other people has absolutely nothing to do with what happens to me.
-Marjorie Holmes

It's so easy, when we only focus on others' fortunes, to wonder "Why don't those kinds of good things happen to me?" For example, it's easy for a dedicated employee to wonder why a colleague who works without the same dedication earns more money. It's easy for a woman struggling with infertility to wonder why others achieve pregnancy with great ease.

It's important to take time to acknowledge those things that are unique blessings in our own lives—both clear and subtle. Sometimes, what end up being blessings because they teach us an important lesson initially appear as trials. We are each uniquely blessed with times of joy and times of trial that will assist us in understanding our own purpose here on Earth.

The challenge lies in being able to see how divinely our joys and trials are woven together to form our own unique experience.

Today, ask yourself "In what areas of my life do I feel blessed?" In all likelihood, the answers to that question are happy ones. Then ask yourself, "In what areas am I struggling? How can I view those struggles differently so that they might be turned to blessings?"

Enjoy the Journey!

Elizabeth Lyons
www.elizabethlyons.com
Author of Ready or Not...Here We Come! The REAL Experts' Cannot-Live-Without Guide to the First Year with Twins

Syndicated columnist

Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin pie doesn't have to weigh you down. Our lightened-up version is the perfect ending to your Thanksgiving meal.

• 4 serving cooking spray (5 one-second sprays per serving)
• 4 sheet phyllo dough
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1/8 tsp table salt
• 1 1/2 cup canned pumpkin, puree
• 1 1/2 cup fat-free evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup fat-free egg substitute
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly coat a 9-inch round pie pan with cooking spray.

Cut phyllo sheets in half. Place 1 sheet in prepared pan and lightly coat with cooking spray. Top with another sheet of phyllo, placing corners just to the right of the previous sheet’s corners. Repeat with remaining sheets to form a circle. Press layered phyllo into pan and roll in edges.

Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

Whisk together brown sugar, spices, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together pumpkin, evaporated milk, egg substitute, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Gradually whisk wet ingredients into dry ingredients.

Pour filling into crust. Bake until set, about 50 minutes. (Cover crust edges with foil during baking if they are becoming too brown.)

Cool completely before cutting into 8 pieces.

Hope

"What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life."   -Emil Bruner

Webster´s Dictionary Definition:
To desire with expectation of fulfillment.

Our Thought:
When I WANT to feel hopeful I-

>  Welcome
>  Butterflies & Hiccups
>  For the Soul
>  This Month’s Recipe
>  Moms Corner
>  Featured Mom Story
>  Children’s Corner
>  Contact Us
>  Coming in the Next Issue

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"Listen to the desires of your children. Encourage them and then give them the autonomy to make their own decision."
 -Denis Waitley

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JFM Enterprises, LLC
"Touching Each Mom’s Life, One Mom at a Time!"

www.justformom.com

35696 Williams Gap
Round Hill, VA 20141

Founder:
Tara Paterson:
tara@justformom.com

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~MOMs~~~
~CORNER~

This is the place where we like to thank the contributors of this newsletter. Without all of the moms out there who work hard to make a difference, we wouldn’t have this opportunity!

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FROM TIRED TO THANKFUL
by Christina Weigand

One would think that writing an article about Thanksgiving would be easy, considering the fact that I have so much to be thankful for, but sometimes I have trouble seeing why I should be thankful. Of course, that makes me sound like a spoiled, ungrateful witch (something I am not, by the way). But, some circumstances in my life have left me feeling tired, discouraged, and even angry.

I have a beautiful home, which I love and have even been able to carve out a spot where I can retreat (almost) to write. Because of two of my older children moving back home along with my granddaughter, I had become dissatisfied with my home.

(click here for full story)

T’was the Night Before Thanksgiving
by Dav Pilkey

T’was the Night Before Christmas has been adapted to a Thanksgiving story. A school bus full of children visit a Turkey farm the day before Thanksgiving. In the end, the children save turkeys from their Thanksgiving-day fate.

To read a review of this book, click here!

Arthur’s Cinnamon Sugar Snacks

For this recipe, Click here!

Cornucopia of Ideas

You can do many of these and use them as Place Cards at your Thanksgiving dinner or just a few for fun!

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• Children's Corner

• Mom's Choice Award's announcements

• Foundation News
  *Next issue December 14th

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