If you’re reading this between the hours of 7:45 a.m. and 9 a.m., turn on your radio and join our radio chat on Magic 107.9 with hosts Guy Westmoland and Jennifer Irwin. Click on the graphic at right to listen to the radio live on your computer.

Today’s topic is all about Labor Day, which always reminds us of the other kind of “labor day” — you know the one when your feet were up in stirrups and another human being was passing through your body? Yep, that day. You never forget it. And even if your baby entered your life through adoption and not a labor and delivery room, those first moments together are forever burned into memory. So call in and tell us about your birth or adoption stories! We’ll share a few details from our own as well.

When we first launched nwaMotherlode.com more than two years ago, we asked moms to share their birth stories with us. We received some great stories and we published the winning essays (1 winner and three runners-up!) on the website. Click on each title below to read some great birth and adoption stories.

(Our thanks to baby and child photographer extraordinaire Melinda Worthington of MJW Photography for letting us use the beautiful baby photo shown at the top of this post. Click here or on the photo if you’d like to see more of her amazing baby photos.)

• Two Kids and a Happy Meal (the winning essay!)
• Raising Drew’s Baby
• The Story of Emily: “Our Very Own Miracle”
• Diary of a Birth: Just Like Any Other Day

If you’ve never seen the video of the amazing Bill Cosby talking about his wife’s natural childbirth, you MUST click on the play arrow below and watch this clip from YouTube. You will laugh until you cry. Hilarious.

Childrens’ names and ages: Weston-19 Months  Teddy (four-legged baby) 3.5 years

Where were you raised? Very southeastern tip of Arkansas in the small town of Hamburg.

How long have you lived in NWA and what led you to this area? Like a lot of people, I came to college here and fell in love with the area. After attending the U of A, going to UAMS in Little Rock for a few years, and living in Memphis for one year, my husband and I moved back here in the summer of 2006.

What has been your favorite thing to do in NWA this summer? Well it’s not actually an attraction or destination per se, but after dinnertime, my husband and I have made a habit of taking our boys for walks around the trail system in Siloam Springs (especially around JBU) and this has been a great way to enjoy the sunshine and have quality family time. We also enjoy taking them to the park to play Frisbee.

How long have you been married? Together for 6, married for 3 and a half.

How did you two meet? We were set up on a blind date by a mutual friend (Thanks Livi!) I was attending dental hygiene school in Little Rock while Scott finished dental school in Memphis. I was skeptical about a blind date, but I decided to give it a try. As it turned out, he was my perfect guy, and we’ve been together ever since.

Where do you work? I practiced dental hygiene for 4 years but decided to be a SAHM a little over a year ago.

How do you stay connected with your friends (besides Facebook)? We have a great group of friends that we stay connected with by doing a monthly supper club. At the beginning of the year, each couple picks a month to host it at their house. The hostess cooks the main course, while everyone else brings the appetizers, sides, and desserts. It is lots of fun for the adults and the kids and is a great way for everyone to set aside time for each other.

What’s your sure-fire way to relax? I can always clear my head when I’m running. Add an iPod and a great sunrise to the mix, and I am set for the day. 

What are a few of your favorite things? Photography, Running/Working Out, Coffee, my Google Reader full of new blog posts (of course I’m subscribed to NWA Motherlode), every show on Bravo TV (total addict and no, I’m not ashamed of it), vacations, cheese dip, camping.

What’s stressing you out the most right now? Fortunately, right now I would say I don’t have any stress in my life (knock on wood, don’t hate me) but I do always stress unnecessarily over things like something bad happening to my son/husband/mother/family/friends.

What’s your favorite part of being a mom? The simple things: hearing my son’s diaper swishing as he walks across the floor, hearing his laugh, all the “firsts.” In the last few months, he’s learned to give hugs and kisses and that just melts my heart.

What has surprised you the most about motherhood? That I’m actually good at it. I had never babysat even one day as a teenager, and my son’s diaper was the first diaper I had ever changed in my life, so needless to say, I had the least experience possible in being a mom. Another huge surprise for me was that I love being a SAHM. I was definitely in the “why-would–you-ever-want-to-do-that?” mindset before an issue at work caused me to suddenly decide to quit. Becoming a SAHM has BY FAR been the best thing to ever happen to me as a mother and a person. It totally changed how I view family dynamics. 

What is your favorite memory (so far) of your little one: My son is not the cuddly type at all. I can count on one hand the number of times has he lain his head on my chest and fallen asleep and those moments were so precious. Then he’d wake up and be going ninety to nothing again

One word to sum me up: Blessed

It’s ALIVE! We’re happy to announce that nwaMotherlode.com has spun off a new little sister website, and we’re calling her “Mom’s Choice Directory.com”. You can check it out by clicking HERE.

We want to thank you guys for giving us the idea for this new site. Many of the moms who read nwaMotherlode have sent us questions via e-mail over the past two years, and lots of those questions read like this: “I just moved here two months ago and now I need to find a bakery in Springdale that can make a birthday cake in the shape of a Transformer for my son’s 4th birthday party. HELP! Where do I go for that?”

We got so many different inquiries that we decided it might be helpful to build a directory that has a true mom-slant to it. We moms always ask other moms for recommendations, and that’s the foundation for this directory.

You may remember that last fall we asked for your recommendations on favorite businesses in various categories. (Click here to see that post.) Many of you commented or e-mailed us to let us know which businesses in Northwest Arkansas you frequent most often. We used a lot of that information to begin building a list of businesses throughout the area, and now it has become this new online directory. The cool thing about it is that it will let you search for a business by category (like appliances, music lessons, women’s clothing, etc.) and it will also let you search by individual city or you can choose “all cities” if you’re not sure.

If you remember part of a business’ name but not all of it, you can also search by partial name, too. For example, you might remember that a store has the word “Purple” in the name. So you type the word “purple” into the search bar, and then the website will give you a list of businesses that have that word in the name (like “Purple Armadillo”, which is a fun furniture/accessories store to visit in Bentonville.)

We wanted to make the directory as useful as possible to our fellow mamas, so we’ve included as many businesses as we could find in a given category. All the listings include business name, phone number and address. Some of them appear with a “Mom’s Choice” blue ribbon beside the name, and those are the ones that Shannon and I personally recommend because we’ve shopped there ourselves or have used that particular service.

If you see a pink purse icon beside the business’ name, click on it and it will give you a quote from a local  mom who has used that business before. If you see the word “info” beside the business’ name, that means that the business has chosen to expand their listing in the directory and provide more detail to local moms about what they do and sell.

If you see the “go” button beside the business name, that means you can click it and go directly to the company’s website.

PLEASE NOTE! If you see any error in the search results of this new directory, we’d really appreciate it if you’d shoot us a quick e-mail to let us know so we can correct it asap. As you can imagine, the amount of data in a directory like this is HUGE, so it will be an ongoing process to make sure all the info is absolutely correct and up to date.

If you happen to own or work at one of the businesses listed and want more info on the directory or how to expand your company’s listing, just send us an e-mail at mamas@nwaMotherlode.com and we’ll send you the details.

We hope you love and use the new Mom’s Choice Business Directory. We will keep adding new categories to the database, so let us know if there’s a particular area you’re interested in.

Stay tuned because next Monday we’re going to have an awesome giveaway tied to the new directory. More to come on that next week!

We hope you had happy birthdays, August b-day girls! Thanks again for sharing with us. September Birthday Girls, you’re up! E-mail us at mamas@nwaMotherlode.com (or comment below) and we’ll put you on the list for next month.

If you’re new to the Birthday Girls List, here’s how it works: During your birthday month — or wedding anniversary month — send us an email letting us know about it and we’ll throw your name in a special party hat. At the end of the month we’ll choose two winners at random and you’ll get a birthday or anniversary dinner on us, courtesy of NWARestaurants.com!

Winners will be announced on the first of every month. And we’ll also run a list of all the birthday girls celebrating out there!

The September birthday winner will receive a gift certificate to Bella Napoli in Bentonville. The anniversary couple will receive one from Outback Steakhouse.

NOW ON TO THE AUGUST WINNERS!

The birthday dinner winner for August is Stephanie McCratic, who celebrated last week on August 26th. Happy Birthday, Evolved Mommy! You win dinner to Fred’s Hickory Inn, courtesy of NWARestaurants.com!

We’d also like to congratulate Helen Urban and her husband who celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary on Aug. 5. They win the anniversary dinner to Crabby’s Seafood Bar & Grill, also courtesy of NWARestaurants.com. Congrats, Urbans!

About NWArestaurants.com: This website is the most comprehensive and accurate restaurant search engine anywhere in NWA. You can search for a single item (Mexican Food) or multiple items (Mexican Food, Open Sunday, Outdoor Patio) and get pinpoint results immediately. All restaurants have contact information, hours of operation, average price, and a list of all the amenities offered. “Featured Restaurants” also have menus, specials, interior images, and a verified map.

What makes NWArestaurants.com really unique is the way they support our community. Check out their 50% OFF gift certificates which range from $2 to $15 (something for every budget!) and all net proceeds go to local nonprofits. Restaurants are listed completely at random every month and you can follow them on Twitter (Here’s a link!) to get early announcements when new restaurants are about to be listed. Click here to check it out and bookmark the site for future reference, so you can check it out before your next dinner on the town or to see where you’d like your birthday or anniversary dinner!

We want to give a shout-out to the August birthday (and anniversary) girls.

Happy Birthday to these NWA moms:

Kristy Brown, Aug. 10

Ashdon, Aug. 16

Jen Simmons, Aug. 19

Stephanie McCratic, Aug. 26
Happy Anniversary to these moms and their husbands:

Helen Urban, Aug. 5 (15 years)

Laura Boysen, Aug. 7 (11 years)

Lesya Morrison, Aug. 8

Britney Schrag, Aug. 12 (10 years)

Kristy Brown (Aug. 16)

Diane Willits, Aug. 16 (40 years!)

Heidi Stephens, Aug. 17

Ashley, Aug. 30 (13 years)

Barbara Black, Aug. 30 (also 40 years!)

Brandy, Aug. 28 (12 years)

Don’t forget to send in your September birthdays and anniversaries for a chance to win dinner out to Bella Napoli or Outback!

By Lori Homstad, business owner and mother of two

Whether you love football season or not, it’s easy to love spending time outside now that the hot temperatures are fading into a comfortable fall. If you’re cooking on the stove or manning the barbecue grill, you can easily make both the kitchen and the patio area more stylish and functional. Here are some tips to make it happen:

For the kitchen, focus on convenience, comfort and control. Some window blinds are either hard-to-reach or large and heavy. When you’re choosing window treatments for the kitchen, consider some of the motorized varieties because they can be opened or closed with the touch of a button. This is especially helpful if you’ve got a hard-to-reach area over the sink. Motorization creates a cordless environment that’s safer for kids and pets, too.

The blinds can either be battery-powered and WireFree or can be wired or plugged in. You can control the movement from a wall switch, hand-held remote or an automatic timer, (all of which are backed by a five-year warranty.) Check out the demo in the YouTube video below. Your kids would appreciate the high-tech “cool factor” here.

If you or your husband like to barbeque this time of year, make sure the patio looks as good as the food! Often the patio is the most neglected area of the house when it comes to decorating and comfort. We do lots of free in-home consultations with clients who ask about outdoor solar shades for the patio, and they’re always surprised at how much style they add. (And yes, they’re affordable, too!)

Solar shades reduce glare and block UV rays which helps protect your furnishings from sun fading. They come in lots of rich colors and fabric styles. Regardless of whether your personal style is contemporary, traditional or elegant, there’s definitely an option that fits the look you want. I’ve seen these types of shades used in just about every type of home décor you can imagine. And these blinds do help lower your air-conditioning bill, so everybody wins.

Home design is so much more than furniture and accessories. Remember that the way you finish off your windows can pull the whole room together and take the room’s sense of style to a whole new level.

Related article listed below. Click on the title to read more:

• Create the Perfect Patio

The Home Design category is sponsored by Budget Blinds of Northwest Arkansas. (Click here to read more about this local company.) For a free in-house design consultation, call their office at 479-751-6655. They bring their mobile showroom to your home, which is SO much easier than trying to remember what your windows look like. Click here to visit their website.

Click the play arrow below to see a demo of motorized blinds.