"Extreme self care" is just what it sounds like. Taking extremely good care of yourself. From Beth Dargis, a life coach, here is a self-care quiz below.  How do you rate on taking care of yourself? Give yourself a point for every Yes.

1.  Do you take time for yourself every day?

2.  Do you exercise 5 times a week for at least 30 minutes?

3.  Do you get 7-8 hours of sleep every night?

4.  Do you brush and floss your teeth twice a day?

5.  Do you have a haircut you love?

6.  Do you your nails look great?

7.  Do you get together with a friend at least once a month?

8.  Do you have a hobby you do at least twice a month?

9.  Do you have a spiritual discipline like prayer, meditation, or church?

10. Do you watch less than one hour of TV a day?

See below for the next 10:

I read about this on Daddy Dialectic: The New York City mayor's office and law enforcement officials across the state have set their sights on -- co-sleeping parents!

A staggering 20 percent of child fatalities reported to the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment were newborn babies who had been sleeping with their parents (most likely their young moms), according to the New York State Office of Children and Family Services.

Co-sleeping is risky. If an adult or child rolls over on a baby, the baby can be hurt or even suffocated. Sleeping with a child can be dangerous, especially if you drink, use drugs, are overweight, or sleep on a couch.  To keep your baby close, put his crib or bassinet near your bed...

Three-quarters of the children in co-sleeping incidents were newborn to three months old. Adult co-sleepers involved in these incidents were most likely to be the child’s mothers, age 18 to 24 years old. Nearly 40 percent of these co-sleeping incidents occurred on the weekend.

To prevent further fatalities, the State, local counties, and the City of New York are joining together to launch a “BABIES SLEEP SAFEST ALONE” statewide public education campaign, adapted from materials originally developed for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOUR BABY” child safety campaign.

Mothering magazine's Peggy O'Mara wrote a thoughtful piece about the campaign. While she felt it was important to get this information to the public, she did not see it as a condemnation of all co-sleeping families rather some irresponsible "bed-sharers."

When I first heard about this campaign, I was outraged. How dare the government encroach upon our personal lives like that? I was ready to hold a public event to protest the campaign, and immediately e-mailed pediatric anthropologist Meredith Small, and James McKenna, director of the Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame; McKenna suggested a cosleep-in in Central Park.

After some reflection, I realized that New York's campaign wasn't really directed at me. Like all public health campaigns, it targets everyone in order to reach the few who might actually need to hear the message. Instead of educating parents about the dangers of bed sharing when they're drunk, stoned, medicated, or exhausted, or cautioning against bed sharing with caregivers and siblings, it's easier simply to discourage the practice altogether. The recommendation, however, fails to differentiate between parents with limited resources who bed-share out of necessity, those who do so out of neglect, and those who intentionally bed-share in what they believe to be the best interests of their child.

Has the New York campaign changed your mind about bed-sharing?

Like Daddy Dialectic, I am an "accidental co-sleeper." It was easier for me to breastfeed my babies in bed, although I definitely preferred that they sleep in their own cribs. Now, onto my personal campaign to get my four-year-old to sleep in his own bed...

I'm feeling inadequate. Dara Torres is my age, 41, the mother of a two-year old, and just qualified for the U.S. Olympic swim team with a win in the 100-meter freestyle and a U.S.-record time in the 50-meter freestyle. This will be her fifth Olympics. In 2007, she won the 50-meter freestyle at the U.S. Nationals with another American record, only 15 months after having her daughter.

Some are questioning whether her accomplishments are possible without chemical assistance. Others note that she voluntarily enrolled in a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency pilot program and has had both her urine and blood tested 12 to 15 times since March. (Most Olympic athletes only undergo urinalysis.) She was clean each time.

I'm inclined to believe Torres has that lucky combination of genetics and drive that enable her to perform such feats. Martina Navratilova won her ninth Wimbledon title at age 38, not so far behind Torres, and was 47 when she competed as a member of the 2004 U.S. Olympic team in women's doubles. (She also won the U.S. Open mixed doubles finals in 2006; do the math.)

As for the effect of motherhood, NBC noted on its Olympic site that "Nineteen so-called "working moms" have made or are strong contenders to make the 2008 U.S. team." Ones that have made it include soccer players Kate Markgraf and Christie Rampone, as well as softball players Stacey Nuveman (in her third Olympics) and pitcher Jennie Finch (a gold medalist in 2004). Lisa Fernandez, a three-time gold medalist, was named an alternate.

Via BlogHer: This is disturbing. A federal judge just ordered Google to hand over the login names and IP addresses of every single user on YouTube, according to the New York Times.

The amount of data covered by the order is staggering, as it includes every video watched on YouTube since its founding in 2005. In April alone, 82 million people in the United States watched 4.1 billion clips there, according to comScore. Some experts say virtually every Internet user has visited YouTube.

Google and Viacom said they had had discussions about ways to further protect users’ anonymity, but as of Thursday evening the two companies had yet to agree on how to do that...

Viacom wants the viewing data in part to help it determine the extent to which YouTube’s success was built on the popularity of copyrighted clips that were illegally posted to the site. Outside experts say that without the data it would be virtually impossible to pin that down.

Judge Stanton agreed that the information could help Viacom make its case. “A markedly higher proportion of infringing-video watching may bear on plaintiff’s vicarious liability claim, and defendants’ substantial noninfringing use defense,” he wrote.

Wow, is this judge and Viacom totally clueless as to how YouTube works. Hey, maybe Google's best defense is to let Viacom sift through billions of clips and go bankrupt in legal fees.

Still, it is disturbing that either of these companies -- and now the courts -- have personal information like the online viewing habits of tens of millions of Americans. Not cool.

In the middle of a discussion on recycling my 5 year old piped up with, "bodies are recycled too - God takes the thinking part after you're dead and uses it to make new people!"  This is not the first time he's expressed a theology that doesn't come from us.  It's time for me to start dealing with this, and I don't know where to turn for help.

Cross posted at the Workin' Mom

My baby daughter (18 months) mostly sleeps through the night now. It’s rare that she wakes up crying anymore.

But last night, she did — screaming, like she’d had a bad dream or something, at about 2 a.m. I stumbled out of bed and into her room, and she wanted me to pick her up.

She acted like her belly hurt or something, thrashing all around and crying at the top of her lungs. So, I rocked her and sang to calm her down. It worked. So, I sang and sang and sang and sang, any old song I could think of. I sang Elvis, Gwen Stefani, 70s ballads, church music, the ABCs. Every time I would think she was asleep, I would stop and close my eyes, and she would startle and reach up for my face and say, “Mommy, pweeze.”

She wanted another song, bless her heart. So, I would sing again, and again, and again.

Cross-posted at MomsRising and Huffington Post. -Elisa

Soccer moms, security moms ..... How will the mothers’ vote be labeled this year?  Broke and burned out moms?

Possibly.  A new survey of 12,000 women by Working America/AFL-CIO (http://www.workingamerica.org/) finds mothers so strapped financially that half said they’d take a second job if they had more free time.  But they don’t have extra time; in fact, they have so little left after meeting the needs of employers and families, that nearly half of the women reported having either no time left or less than one hour a day.  

Do you know a mother like this?  She’s up early every day, getting herself and kids off to work or school (even babies and toddlers), cramming multiple tasks into each segment of the day, skipping lunch to get some mom duties done that cannot be done after bedtime, returning home to a “second shift” of cooking, cleaning, organizing, and high- to low-quality time with her family.  Ever notice she’s online late at night?  That’s an opportunity to get even more things done.  

Pardon my ignorance, folks. While we all know someone who denies the existence of global warming -- at least, I do -- I always assumed they were in the minority and further marginalized by Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.

As it turns out, public opinion was never swayed by the documentary, which is the fourth highest-grossing documentary in this country, according to environmental publication Terrain magazine. Its impact was on policy makers, (which is equally important).

Nonetheless, I was bummed by these stats recently released by Terrain:

According to the Web site Box Office Mojo, An Inconvenient Truth is the nation's fourth highest-grossing documentary, after Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins, and Sicko. Yet at the height of its popularity, a Pew study showed that the public ranked global warming sixteenth on a list of twenty important issues. Seven months later, in January 2007, after the lessons of An Inconvenient Truth had time to percolate, the importance of global warming declined to around twentieth.

Similarly, the authors of the essay "The Death of Environmentalism," Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, point out that according to a Gallup poll, in 1989 63 percent of Americans believed that global warming was on the rise and that the government should do something about it. Yet in March of 2007, eighteen years later, that number was only up two points, to 65 percent. (What they neglect to mention is that the 2007 figure was up eleven points from the low 2004 reading of 51 percent.) Though these figures are not associated with the movie, they do prove that we've been aware of global warming for some time. While An Inconvenient Truth didn't have a big impact on public opinion, it had influence where it counted, on the opinion of elites—policymakers, media makers, newspaper editors, investment bankers—people who have power to set a national agenda.

I will say that I was thrilled when my mother-in-law saw it in Spanish in El Salvador -- Una Verdad Inconveniente -- and her church was actively preaching to fight against global warming. I liked that the film's message was accessible to everyone all over the world.

But I really hope this issue does not fall by the wayside in this presidential campaign nor when the new president takes the oath of office in January.

What's up with our fellow beings in the blogosphere?

Batmom is undergoing chemotherapy and shared with her readers the costs of her medications, which some are fortunately covered by private health insurance. Each round of chemotherapy is $17,000 and her husband recently coughed up $723.00 for 18 anti-nausea pills, which last her 5.5 days. That's some health care system we have, huh?

Our Stacey wrote about Burger King's multimillion-dollar attempt to go healthy for the kids at her blog Fussbucket.

Fellow MotherTalker, Dana, covered the birth of a baby girl by transgender man Thomas Beatie and his wife Nancy on her blog Mombian. Congratulations to the parents and child who are all well!

I was jealous reading about Mara's ("mpg's") trip to a French amusement park at her blog The Mother of All Trips. Warning: There are lots of cute kid pics in this post!

Offsprung published some compelling evidence that the PUMAs, former Hillary Clinton voters who say they will vote for John McCain, are actually Republican operatives. PUMA, by the way, stands for "party unity my ass."

This is depressing: As our GiGi wrote on her blog, One Lazy Liberal, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in South Dakota ruled against Planned Parenthood, which means the state will have a ballot initiative in the fall (again) to ban abortion. Ugh.

Via Strollerderby: Tyra Banks recently had a lactation consultant on her show to teach her how to breastfeed. Nursing was not intuitive for me and I was grateful to see a lactation consultant with Eli. The demonstration on Banks's show provided a valuable free service for her many viewers. Note to Tyra: You go, girl!

UrbanBaby had yet another provocative post, this time a reader asserting there is a difference between "giftedness and high achievers" and that most excellent students were the latter. Can you tell the difference?

What else is in the news? What's up with you?

As a way to get young children hooked to the finest pleasures of life, a wine connoisseur and personal cheese consultant to the celebrities recently held a tasting for kids at the Beverly Hilton, according to Common Ground magazine. (Thanks Amy for the tip!)

The class welcomed eight children between seven and 12 to the aromatic, tactile pleasures of artisan goat cheese and refined sensory appreciation. (Barrie) Lynn directed the kids with basic instructions in looking, smelling and tasting, then set them loose to play with their food. They rolled logs of Montchevre fresh goat cheese from Wisconsin over a variety of toppings spread across the countertop, including Dutch chocolate sprinkles, crushed herbs, crumbled pistachios, chopped dried figs and powdered mild peppers. For accompaniment, Lynn provided several all-natural varietal grape juices served in long-stemmed glassware and introduced the children to a trick she terms “the cheese highway,” in which one sips wine — or, well, juice — over a tongue and palate paved with cheese. The sum experience of flavor fusion could positively affect them forever, says Lynn.

“I think it’s important kids learn to smell, touch and really taste their food. If all kids were conscious of what they were eating and how good it tastes, they wouldn’t just go shoving all sorts of things with no nutritional value into their mouths without thinking twice.”

The magazine did not say what this unique opportunity cost parents. But I laughed as I thought of my four-year-old's reaction. God, he is such a finicky eater. His fine dining is limited to organic frozen pizza.

MSN just compiled a deliciously guilty photo spread and list of celebrities endorsing and even campaigning with their presidential picks. I don't think these endorsements matter -- and may even hurt a candidate -- but I always want to know. :)

Here is a list of who is voting for whom:

Republican Nominee John McCain
Heidi Montag
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Angie Harmon
John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting
Sylvester Stallone
Rip Torn of the "The Larry Sanders Show"
B.J. Novak of "The Office" (Well, at least he posed with him.)
Dick Van Patten of "Eight Is Enough"
Judd Apatow? (Again, he posed with McCain, but has not publicly endorsed or campaigned for him.)
Jon Voight (Angelina Jolie's father)
Tom Selleck

Democratic Nominee Barack Obama
Usher
Maria Shriver
Ben Affleck
Jennifer Garner
Robert De Niro
Chris Rock
Win and William Butler of Arcade Fire
Oprah Winfrey
Stevie Wonder
will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas
Ed Kowalczyk of Live
Jessica Lange
Ne-Yo
Nick Cannon (actor now married to Mariah Carey)
Ben Harper

Who else has endorsed but is not on the list?

I LOVE to read. I read whatever I can get my hands on, from novels to fluff gossip magazines. Admittedly, I haven't read some of the classics, which I hope to change over the summer.

I'm not sure who compiled this list, but it names the following Ten Books To Read Before You Die:

1. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell

2. Lord of the Rings (the series), by J.R.R. Tolkien

3. Harry Potter (the series), by J.K. Rowling

4. The Stand, by Stephen King

5. The DaVinci Code, by Dan Brown

6. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

7. Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown

8. Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand

9. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

10. The Ultimate Hitchers Guid to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

Out of the 10 books listed, I've read...three, but have seen a few of the others in movie form. What about you? Have you read the books referenced in the list? Which was your favorite? And if you could amend the list, which would you add or take away?