Six Reasons to Cheer if You are Raising a Teenager
Category: featured, raising children, yourchicfamily
By: Michele Ranard, Contributing Writer for Chic Mom Magazine
I’m the first to admit having teens in the house can be challenging as a parent. It’s confusing. The experts tell us it’s dangerous and unhealthy to be their friend (“They have to see you as an authority!”), yet there are plenty of moments it feels natural to do so—to laugh, shop, share music, and learn new things together.
Instead of simply trying to “survive” this developmental chapter, it helps to become more intentional about savoring our teens. Savoring? Sure. Appreciating the goodness of this particular stage. Otherwise, we may see only the pitfalls and not the glory of raising these emerging adults.
Lady Gaga: The Fame – FULL Review
Category: art and culture, review, yourchicselfBy: Chris Newsom, Chic Mom Music Guru
Gwen Stefani decided to be a cheerleader and landed at #1 with “Hollaback Girl”. Katy Perry “Kissed A Girl” and landed at #1. Britney Spears’ comeback single “Womanizer” placed her at the penthouse. Pop-tarts seem to come and go, but always score a couple of hit singles, with at least one of those landing at the penthouse. For Lady Gaga, she’s had two #1 singles and third single that has landed in the top 5 that should probably have ended up at #1. Who is this “lady” who one of my friends called an “alien”, particularly after that bright pink, bubbly, nude Rolling Stone cover. Who is the real Stefani Germanotta that goes by this Lady Gaga persona and why do people care so much? Well, people care because Gaga seeks to change the face of pop music, as all pop starlets hope to do and it’s a feat that she has easily conquered.
Music Review: Lady Gaga – The Fame Monster
Category: art and culture, featured, review, yourchicselfBy: Chris Newsom, Chic Mom Music Guru. (Everybody needs a friend like Chris.)
Originally conceived of as a bonus disc for the re-release of The Fame, the eight-song The Fame Monster is now being released as a standalone EP as well. Gaga probably should have tacked on a few more tracks (and if YouTube is any indication, she’s got the material), titled the thing Monster, and released it sometime next year as her official sophomore effort. As it is, it’s not a huge leap forward for Gaga (several songs ape the sound of her first two chart-toppers, “Just Dance” and “Poker Face”), but songs like “Bad Romance” and “Dance in the Dark” are stacked with towering new-wave synths and seemingly endless hooks; if melodies could be time-stamped, these would have “’80s” branded on them..
A New Food Trend, Who Knew?
Category: cuisine, entertaining, featured, yourchichomeBy: The Twice Baked Twins, Judy Vig and Joy Paoletti
It is a year filled with new promises, dreams and the next phase in food trends! We are seeing different foods from other cultures popping up all over. One of the top food critics predicted that this years favorite cuisine would be Austrian. Another reported that Indian food was it!! The new dessert trend is the old fashioned comfort dishes like brown bettys, buckles, cobblers and crisps. These are the recipes our Nana passed down to us and we have been making for years. Who new it would be the “it” dessert for this wonderful new year! Let me tell you a little about each one. A brown betty is usually made with apples and bread or graham cracker crumbs with layers of each. A buckle is just a cake batter with the berries sprinkled in and when baked the top actually buckles over the fruit. The cobbler has a fruit filling with a very thick crust, and the crisp is just that, a fruit mixture on the bottom with a very crispy crumbly topping.
