Attention all moms!!! A free and fun event is about to take place at Fleet Feet Sports Chicago! Come and meet the Active Moms Club where moms and trainers meet while experiencing a fitness fashion show featuring new apparel from BornFit prenatal and post natal clothing. I remember being in the "what can I possibly wear" quandary all too many times both while pregnant and shortly after giving birth. But now it seems like these days new moms have more options.

Fleet Feet Sports Chicago (1610 N. Wells, Chicago) will host it's first ever Moms Night Out on Thursday, February 11th at 7 p.m.

The event will feature food, fashion and a great chance to meet other moms and the founder of the Active Mom's Club Cassandra Hawkinson. I have a sneak peak of some of the fashions that will be featured in the fashion show below in the slide show.

Active Moms Club was born in October of 2008 offering stroller, prenatal, and post-natal classes. "Babies and kids are welcome, which sets us apart from other classes, our recovery class is specifically geared for mom to work on her pelvic floor, core and back" said Hawkinson who has six hard core moms who haven't missed a class in over a year. The classes meet twice a week for six weeks and are a great way to meet other moms and bring your child to meet and hang out with other kids. New classes form all the time so be sure to check out the Active Moms website for additional information or head out for the moms night out at Fleet Feet Sports to see what this group is all about. Be sure to RSVP by calling the store (312) 587-3338 or check out the Fleet Feet website for additional information. And meantime, you can look and feel great with comfortable fashions that will get you through your pregnancy and function while you work off that baby weight!

The much-discussed Tim Tebow ad, which cost Evangelical organization Focus on the Family a reported $2.5-$3 million to air during the Super Bowl on Sunday, was supposed to be a Big Deal. It was supposed to sum up everything that is amiss with extremist pro-life, anti-choice viewpoints in a YouTube-friendly 30 seconds.

Except that it didn't. 

Dear Readers,

 

Here is my February blogpost for Today's Chicago Woman. Written in mid-January, I wondered about the fate of the federal healthcare reform effort, wishing Ida B. Wells were here with us to lead us in this fight. Three weeks later, boy do we need her even more! 

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One of my favorite heroines of Chicago history--in fact, of all American history--is yesterday's-Chicago-woman, Ida B. Wells.

 (See:  http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=W041.)

 

Ida Barnett Wells was born and educated in post-Reconstruction Mississippi, in a time when, and in a place where, African Americans experienced the very worst of what post-slavery white America offered-up to post-slavery black America. Lynching was common, and, in Ida's Mississippi homeplace, as well as in Memphis, her home as a young adult, all forms of public life were strictly segregated. (See: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_people_wells.html.)

 

Ida was a young woman when the U.S. Supreme Court infamously decided that "separate [could be] equal (for blacks and whites)."

(See: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_plessy.html).

 

 

Many of us single folks generally feel about the month of February the same way we do about appointments at the dentist--something to be tolerated, but you're sure glad when they're over. That's because the shortest month of the year brings with it the dreaded Valentine's Day, and with THAT reminders of relationships that tanked and the promise of yet another dateless Feb. 14.

But that's what I think about when I'm at home. For some amazing reason, over the years my romantic fortunes always seem to perk up once I leave the confines of Chicago--and ESPECIALLY when I fly out of American air space. I hear this echoed by other single women, as well. Maybe we're subconsciously more free and laid-back and therefore more alluring when we're away from familiar surroundings, but there's something to be said for looking for--and experiencing--romance on the road.

When I was sixteen in 2002, Seventeen magazine, which I normally never read, ran something that caught my eye - an exclusive excerpt of an upcoming teen-focused novel called The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.    

In-between the likes of Harry Potter and the Twilight Series, Sebold's beautifully morose novel about a dead fourteen year old girl named Susie Salmon and how her fate affects those around her, was a hit with audiences of all ages and topped the best-seller list for many months. Both Susie's confident voice and Sebold's truthful depiction of teen lust, family trauma, and death acceptance also won me over in a major way. Looking back on it now, I can see that reading The Lovely Bones helped me come to terms with my own feelings about life and death after my failed suicide attempt the year before. Though Susie was the victim of rape and murder, she never paints herself as victimized and arrives at the "in-between" (the place between earth and heaven) as a fightin' rooster. I really needed a character like that in my life at the time and in the years that have passed since the book was published, I've often thought of Susie and wondered what happened to her, her friends, and the rest of the Salmon family.

Do you ever stop and think about how many calories you're consuming on a beer-drinking oriented day like Superbowl Sunday? I don't even want to start counting. Why not opt for lower calorie Chardonnay this year? Studies show that it's good for you, too.....

TCW singles Samantha Lurie, Fabrice Calmels and Lynne Bredfelt

We've all heard the commercials - "$300,000 Grant to Start a Coffee Shop." However, as the old adage goes, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Starting a business takes hard work, determination, and, in most cases, loan funds.

While there are government guaranteed loans and various federal, state, and local assistance programs, there are very few, if any, grants for individuals aspiring to start a business. Of course, you can always spend some time on grants.gov to be sure.

So, what's an aspiring entrepreneur to do?