More than half of mothers admit to driving distracted.

I admit.  I’ve driven distracted, with my kids in the car.

I’ve started reminding myself that the two most precious things in the world to me are in the backseat whenever I feel the urge to do something while driving, and I’m doing much better.  Like me, though, it appears lots of moms don’t stop multitasking once they get behind the wheel.

Good Housekeeping partnered with Yahoo Shine! to find out whether moms are multitasking during driving and 55% said yes.  What’s distracting them?

• Listening to music
• Talking to another person in the car
• Eating or drinking
• Talking on a cell phone
• Sending or receiving text messages

One of the more common, and more dangerous, distractions cited was cell phone use.  I live in Georgia, where we can still use our phones and are not required to use hands-free devices, so I’m guilty of driving and chatting on the phone, as are most of the people I know. Continue reading »

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Stephanie Nielson reveals the amazing news on her blog that she's pregnant!

I became a reader of Stephanie Nielson’s beautiful blog The Nie Nie Dialogues since a fateful plane crash three years ago severely burned most of her body and scarred her husband Christian. Their friend and pilot of the plane was killed in the crash. Readers have watched her transform through the years and followed along her difficult journey of healing and living this new life after the crash. Today she announced on her blog that she is pregnant! Continue reading »

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Oprah Winfrey, the Queen of Daytime TV.

Farewell, Oprah!  America is singing your praises (literally) after 25 groundbreaking years on television.  No one could deny Oprah her visionary status, not with all the money she has to prove it.  Oprah Winfrey’s net worth is 2.7 billion dollars, she’s listed just below Lady Gaga at number 2 on the Forbes list of the World’s Most Powerful Celebrities and ranks 3rd on their list of the World’s Most Powerful Women.

The Oprah Winfrey Show started as a salacious gab fest back in 1986, when Phil Donohue and Sally Jesse Raphael were the reigning king and queen of trash TV.  Geraldo Rivera joined the talk show fray in 1987, followed by Maury Povich, Jerry Springer and Montel Williams in 1991.  Obviously, The Oprah Winfrey Show is the only daytime program to have risen like a phoenix from the ashes of smutty tabloid talk, thanks to the way Oprah revamped her show during the 10th anniversary season.  1996 saw the advent of Oprah’s Book Club, which gave the show some much-needed gravitas.  In 2002, she started airing her “Favorite Things” episodes annually, and in 2004, Oprah infamously gave everyone in her studio audience a BRAND NEW CAR!!!  (Taxes not included.)  But most importantly, in 2005, Tom Cruise’s visit to the show taught children everywhere just how very bad it is to jump on the couch.

Yes, Oprah Winfrey has been probably the singular most influential voice in mainstream American culture for the last 15 years, so it would come as no surprise to me to discover that groups of middle-aged gals are gushing and crying about how much they’ll miss Lady O after the final episode of her show airs this afternoon.  What does surprise me, though, is some of the things the group of 60 “Oprah Show Babies” said during yesterday’s two-part surprise farewell.  These young women and girls – all under age 25 – really seem to believe watching Oprah has transformed their lives. Continue reading »

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Nobody does it better than Oprah. No, really.

I have a little dish on a bookshelf in my bedroom that holds small but possibly critical pieces to various parts of my home. I have no idea from whence any of them came, but I know that in case I ever experience an emergency of any kind, I will immediately sort through the various screws, picture hooks, bolts and metal pieces to try and determine which will save the day. I have faith one of them just might.

I have come to think of The Oprah Winfrey Show as I do the contents of that little dish: I’m not exactly sure where it fits into my life exactly, but without it I fear I’ll be lost in the event of a crisis. I have always known she’ll come through for me when I need her most, but since she is essentially a talk-show host, I haven’t quite figured out what would qualify as the speaking catastrophe in which I might be required to pick up the Batphone and have her swoop in and save me from my own verbal self.

As I’ve watched the 25th season of her show faithfully since September (and off and on through the years) in anticipation of her saying good-bye forever (or at least until she announces one of what I’m sure will be many new shows in which she’ll star to boost ratings on her network, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network), I’ve tried to absorb as many lessons as possible. You know, just in case I need to bank a few more for after she’s gone for good (on network television, anyway) tomorrow.

Continue reading »

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Oprah's final bow.

The time has come.  This is bigger than the apocalypse y’all.  This is Opocalypse 2011!

As I tweeted earlier this week, I don’t think it’s any coincidence the end of the world and Oprah’s last show were scheduled for the same week.  In fact, now that May 21st has come and gone without a lightning bolt, for many, the true end is today.

How will we live without Oprah?

Now, I’ve done my fair share of mocking The Big O, especially when she went on a cross-country trip with Gail that one time and realized she no longer remembered how to pump gas.  That’s when I decided Oprah was no longer for me.  Howard Stern is my guy.  He asks better questions than Oprah, anyway.  Oprah’s just a little too buddy-buddy with celebs for my taste.

That said, I still wonder about a future in an Oprah-less society.  Continue reading »

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At least, I still have O Magazine.

I have watched Oprah since I was a child. Even then, I had a desire to learn why people did the things they did and how I could be better at what I did. When I grew into adulthood, Oprah’s shows took on a whole new meaning for me. When my first daughter was born, I’d watch everyday at 4pm. Back then, I had a VCR and would tape the episodes that I couldn’t catch live. Thank God for DVR. Now, I try to scan the week’s worth of shows and tape the important ones since I very rarely get the time to watch them at their regular time. Honestly, I can barely fathom not having Oprah on at 4pm weekdays. I know it’s coming. I know she has a network but it won’t be the same. She will not be hosting her show on her network; the show as we know it will be over for good.

I’m not gonna lie, I will mourn her absence.

Continue reading »

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David Arquette

Actor and dad David Arquette has been having some issues. David and wife Courteney Cox broke up, he went to rehab and now he’s having a heart-to-heart with Oprah about it all. And as many a tale of addiction and substance abuse story starts, the using started early.  39-year-old David Arquette admitted to Oprah that he started imbibing alcohol and smoking marijuana at a very, very young age.  He told Oprah: Continue reading »

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