At the beginning of May, SantaRosaMom.com began a contest looking for the cutest baby photo. The prize was a MacLaren Quest Sport Stroller from My Baby News on Santa Rosa Ave. There were a lot of really cute photos submitted. There were so many cute baby faces that we wondered if it was even possible to choose just one....

When we were kids, my mom swore by the product Zout (about $4.79). She kept a bottle of it on the washer in the garage and a bottle of it in the kitchen under the sink, making sure it was at her disposal whenever a stain crisis occurred. And with three active girls, you can imagine we went through those bottles quick. I always like the smell of Zout, it has a really pleasant odor. And as far as I could tell it got the stains out pretty good. But I didn't test it against other stain removers, so I really wasn't sure how well it worked.

The sun was just barely rising when I shook each kid awake. "Come on," I whispered in each of their ears. "It's time to go."

Today's challenge: OxiClean. Want to know the result? Read on....

It was suggested in my "Laundry" blog that I write about tips on removing stains. Being that I have none, I am conducting my own little experiment on stain removal.....

When you were younger, and your mother begins to teach you the ins and outs of laundry in preparation for adulthood, there are probably lots of things that she failed to mention, or that you might have missed in the translation.

For us to get out the door early would be short of a miracle. Lately we had been rushing like wild banshees in the morning, trying to get everything done in 45 minutes, and always managing to forget something in the process. So it seemed impossible that we could actually get everything done in a shorter amount of time than we already were failing at. But still, the least we could do was try....

I watched him as he took off with his friends, my little boy who likes to hold my hand occasionally when we go places was suddenly too independent to hang with me. Instead he was off, rough and tumbling with the other boys. And it's funny watching him with his friends. The whine that he saves for me is totally gone. In its place is a voice that's a little bit deeper and stronger. It's obvious that he's in charge out on the playing field, instead of letting me be the alpha dog when it's just the two of us.

You have a job, or you need a job and are having trouble finding one. Meanwhile, the PG & E is due, you are about to lose your home, food is scarce, and you have pulled every single trick out of your hat. What kind of help is available for a struggling single mother???

What of the single mother? Life happens, and it doesn’t always fit in a neat little box. Sometimes it’s just the mom. Sometimes the dad is gone before the baby is even born. And that baby is coming, no matter what the situation is. And those kids need. There is no real choice, there’s just the fight of survival. There has to be an income, and so a single mother must work. But the way daycare costs, well, it can wipe out a lot of low income salaries.