Mother's State of the Union.

The year to engage.

Dearest Joy Warriors and Apron String Revolutionaries, Happy New Year and oh mamas, we're off to a good start with the highest number of actions taken in MAU history with January's MAU pledge, a promise to help bring security to the forefront of all conversations! Congratulations, and keep those pledges coming: sign if you haven't yet and/or invite your circles of friends to sign. See if your community can have the most signatures by February 15, and I'll send you a grab bag celebration package to share with your community of mamas. As Mothers Acting Up, we're serious about our celebrations, and celebrate our seriousness. To that end, my dears, after signing the pledge, I ask that you put your hearts toward what it is that makes YOU a MAU. We'll share your thoughts on this hot topic on the MAU national blog, and you can further expand your thinking by joining in spirited dialogue on the brand new list serv for MAUs nationwide. Come by and introduce yourself and start composing your list of the top ten ways to be a MAU. From the Mothership, to jumpstart the conversation, our top ten ways to be a MAU: Join MAU and receive monthly actions & newsletters. Participate in collective actions, strengthening the impact of what we all do TOGETHER. Buy the MAU Handbook for daily inspiration. And then buy one for a friend. Memorize the MAU principles and apply them in your discussions, visions, plans and actions. Make a cheat sheet and xerox it onto card stock to hand out! Contact your Members of Congress at least three times a year (bonus points if you show up with kids and share cookies or homegrown tomatoes with the staff; they will remember you!) Publicly Reclaim Mother's Day in your community, from radio shows to parades: Arise! Girlcott EVERY DAY: Use money to create social change! Write a letter to the editor and/or op-ed about one MAU action and get it published! Need encouragement? Give a yell. Participate in the annual MAU collective postcard action. Sign and send your own, then pass them out at library story-time and coffee house knitting parties! Get inspired by attending MAU Live! or by hosting a presenting MAU event. Spread the mighty Word of MAU to five friends — invite them to begin at #1! Click here for the MAU top 10 ten list with handy links to get started! We look forward to hearing from you, and encourage you to share this missive with your friends and family. It's time for all hands on deck, mamas. There's big work to be done, and we're just the ones to do it. The children say: YES! Yours for the Apron String Revolution, Paige, AKA Ms. Booty Homemaker, for the MAU Mavens Janna Vance of Longmont, CO is championing MAU as her charity of choice in Parade Magazine's America's Giving Challenge. Make a $10 donation to MAU via Janna's link and MAU has a chance win the challenge! If 1 in 4 MAUs gives and/or tells 3 friends, we'll win. Read Janna's appeal.

5 Questions to ask EVERY elected leader and candidate.

From Families Online Magazine.....

My vision is a world of compassion where caring for and empowering children and their families around the world is the first priority of nations. – Octavia Allis

From Mothers Acting Up

5 Questions to ask EVERY elected leader and candidate

Ask these questions whether you’re at a Town Meeting, a cookie drop off or on a Field Trip with fellow community members and a great raft of children. For more information: www.mothersactingup.org.

1. World leaders have committed themselves to the 8 Millennium Development Goals, the most universally agreed to framework for ending extreme poverty. Will you vote for full funding of our country’s promise to contribute .7 percent of our GNP to the Millennium Development Goals?

2. In order to address the growing threat of global warming, scientists tell us that we need to reduce global warming emissions by an average of 2 percent each year through the middle of the century – achieving 80 percent reductions by 2050. Do you have a plan to meet these or other targets? (source: www.heatison.org.)

....More here!