Meet The Parents

Stephanie Stephanie Precourt, 5 Minutes For Parenting's managing editor, is a stay at home Mom and freelance writer. Growing up she had great plans to be on Broadway, in the movies, or directing children's theatre. Now she finds herself managing every type of drama, tragedy, and comedy within her little home in the Chicago suburbs. She has three small sons and a baby girl, so life is quite exciting and unpredictable- just without her name in lights. You can find Stephanie blogging about daily Mommy life at Adventures In Babywearing where journaling honest thoughts and words have helped guide her to being the best parent she can be. To appreciate the simple things, be open-minded yet passionate about what really matters, and be thankful for the many blessings that continue to pour into her life through children, friends, and the amazing journey of finding out just who she is becoming. Stephanie also writes the Real Reviews column for NWIparent Magazine and the NWIparent blog Close To Home and is a writer at Real Moms Guide.

Megan Megan is a Southern girl transplanted to the Chicago suburbs, loving her new life on the prairie. A stay-at-home Mom to her 3 year old daughter, Bean, and plump as a ripe summer melon with child number two, a boy, due in August 2008, Megan currently parents somewhere at the intersection of Ohmygranny, what on earth do I do now? and Well, desperate times call for desperate measures, where she spends a great deal of time laughing at the many, many things she once swore she'd never let any child of hers do that have since become vital components of Bean's daily routine. Megan plans to return to her previous impossible standards of motherhood just as soon as the new baby turns two, but until then she invites you to laugh along with her as she bumbles and stumbles sleepily through her transition from Mama of one to Mama of two, which she has heard will likely look something like what happens when you tie four cats together by the tails and set a mouse free in the room. Megan makes her bloggy home at Fried Okra, and she's a regular writer at Chic Critique and Blissfully Domestic.

Veronica Veronica Mitchell is a midwestern mother of three daughters with one more on the way. She has a couple of master's degrees, a love of grammar, and a temperament verging on curmudgeonly. Veronica regularly blogs at Toddled Dredge where she writes about her kids, her faith, her cantankerous opinions, and whatever else catches her fancy on any given day. She posts under a pseudonym in the hope that people will find her mysterious.

Kelly Kelly grew up in the midwest, but dreamed of moving to California, learning to surf, and throwing herself into a high-profile journalism career. She managed to live in San Diego for almost 10 years, earn an Emmy-nomination while working as a producer for NBC, and boogie board three times. But seeing as she’s easily pleased, two out of three works for her. These days, Kelly can be found in the suburbs of Minneapolis, raising her three children with her husband and playing the part of a stay-at-home Mom. She’s discovered being a Mom is tougher than producing a newscast during sweeps month and inexpressibly more rewarding. A perfect day for Kelly is one that involves cooking, laughter, donuts, blogging, sunshine, Trader Joe’s, kisses from her kids, nature, the lake, a backrub from her husband, Jamba Juice and Alton Brown’s “Good Eats.” Nearly perfect days are also acceptable. Kelly writes about her family, her faith and her daily foibles at her blog, Love Well.

Beck Beck used to think that she would be writing novels in a garret in Paris and instead she's the mother of three young kids in an old house in Northern Ontario. Other than that, things are going exactly as planned. Her kids - The Girl, The Boy and The Baby - are a going concern shared with her astonishingly patient husband. In between reading Goodnight Moon AGAIN and making supper, she manages to write daily on her blog, Frog and Toad Are Still Friends, and on Mondays at The Kitchen Party. (photo credit: Belle Photography)

Rachel

Rachel has lived her whole life in Birmingham, Alabama. She was homeschooled her entire school career (which started before it was technically legal to homeschool in Alabama, and so had adventures of having to "duck" when police passed by), and then took her first steps into a classroom in college, where she got her Accounting degree.

She married during that college career at the very-fun-age-to-be-married-at of 19, and went on to have a fun, busy, but short career in small business accounting while absolutely loving being a newlywed for as long as possible (oh wait - she still is).

After 6 years of amazing marriage and 2 years of infertility, she had her favorite miniature companion, Ali. Rachel still works from home (during naptimes) for two different companies in order to keep some objectivity for her own OCD well-being. She blogs about these adventures and more at Grasping for Objectivity in my Subjective Life.

Rachel hosts the 5 Minutes For Parenting weekly column called "A Dose of Humor" where various bloggers' funny posts about parenthood and children are featured.  To find out more information about being featured in this column, email Rachel at DoseOfHumor (at) gmail (dot) com.

Cassie

Cassie is brand new to the blog world. A single mother to her sweet little boy Aiden, she is just 21years old and lives in a very small town. She has an associates of Arts from Black Hawk East and is currently working on her bachelors in philosophy at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa.  Cassie commutes to school three days a week and works part time at a local bar.  She enjoys playing at the park, putting together train sets, and recently added tumbling to her list!  You can find Cassie writing at her brand new blog MessyFunMommyLife.

Michael Rosenbaum

Michael Rosenbaum, 5 Minutes for Parenting’s dad blogger, is a business consultant, playwright and author of Your Name Here: Guide to Life. He lives by the wisdom passed down from his friend that you can give your children too many things, but you can never love them “too much.”

Fatherhood has been an incredible journey for Michael, first as he watched his daughters discover the world around them and later as they educated him about life. He’s proud to say his daughters changed his mind about political and social issues as they challenged his thinking over family dinners.

Being a dad is the best job in the world, he says, because the rewards last a lifetime and, no matter what the economy looks like, nobody can fire you.

Michael blogs on life issues at Your Name Here Guide to Life and manages the Adult Conversation discussion group on Linked-In.

Gretchen

Gretchen White grew up dreaming of being a jet-setting orthodontist/fashion designer/Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Instead, a better life unfolded. She's the mother of six young children (and one on the way) living in beautiful Colorado and is married to her best friend and chess coach.

Gretchen owns a blog called Lifenut and writes for The Denver Post's Mile High Mamas blog.

Melodee

Melodee had no idea that motherhood would involve so much noise and laundry. Her three sons and one daughter wear their socks outside (without shoes), leave empty milk cartons in the fridge and bicker while playing Nintendo games. The days are sometimes long, but the years are short. Her blog, Actual Unretouched Photo, attempts to capture the fleeting moments.

Melodee and her husband of twenty-one years live in the Pacific Northwest with their four children and three mutant cats. Melodee cannot live without Diet Coke with Lime, a feather pillow or high-speed Internet. She loathes raw tomatoes, humidity and stepping into mysterious puddles in her stocking-feet.

Mary

Mary is the mom to ten rambunctious kids, at least a couple of whom are trying to drive her crazy on any given day. Despite the distraction– or maybe because of it– she's managed to streamline her parenting, frugal living, and household organization strategies.

Most evenings Mary stays up ridiculously late blogging all about it at Owlhaven.

DeeDee

DeeDee is the bedraggled mother of three. She balks at the word “older” and opts for the friendlier term, “well seasoned.” Her friends call her “a late bloomer.”

For sport, she homeschools her children, ages 8,6, and 3. That will continue as long as she can stay one day smarter than they are. And keep visits to the therapist to a minimum. So far, so good.

As a freelance writer, she embraces the blogging world with all ten typing fingers. Her blog, Fiddledeedee (formerly known as "It Coulda' Been Worse") has enabled her to find a large supportive group of blogging mommies. And it gives her great comfort to know that she is not sailing on a sinking ship all alone.